The mermaid room

What was once a spare bedroom is now a mermaid themed room for a special little girl.  Our city does a clean up twice a year where you get to throw out some bigger items.  That's were I scored this lovely dresser.  It's just in need of a little TLC.

Getting started, I didn't get a whole lot of pictures during the process this time.  I did use a new brand of chalk paint which I think would be really good for a super distressed look, but for what I was going for it wasn't the best paint choice.  I used Rustoleum's chalked finish in blush pink.

I really wanted her to have a pink that was subtle and this shade was perfect!

I did have to sand a little bit because there were some rings on the dresser and around some of the old handles, Brock was a dear and helped me.

The drawers on the dresser were actually pretty cool, 3 of the drawers had circle cutouts on them.  They also had these round metal pieces that lined the inside.

I popped them out and spray painted them bronze.

Then I found these decorative pieces that go behind knobs, these actually came off another dresser I brought home a few years ago and I also spray painted them bronze.

These served a couple of purposes, not only are they neat to look at but the machine screws that came with the knobs I bought (I got them at Sutherlands) were too long.  So instead of the knobs sitting inside the hole, they now sit on the outside.  Talk about a win win!

Lastly, I put a clear coat on the dresser and nightstand.  I used a satin polycrylic.

The cute little nightstand that my neighbor gave to me.  There wasn't much to do on this one.  I painted it and also replaced the drawer pulls to match the dresser.

The before and afters...

In their new home.  Last thing I have to do in her room is put up some wall decorations.  That will be a fun project and I'm excited to get started and share a post about that, I already have something in mind.

Dog Gate

We had been using a baby gate for a bit after getting a new dog, she's a big girl and unfortunately likes to snuggle in everyone's beds upstairs.  The baby gate may not sound like a pain, but having to hike your leg over to get up and down got old really fast.

So we decided to make a new dog gate that matched the bifold window shutters that we put in the kitchen.  The shutters for the kitchen has more detailed explanation than what this post will have, feel free to check it out.

Here's the baby gate we used.  As you can see it was nothing fancy.

Originally we were going to build 2 of these gates but ended up only going with one (that would explain why there are so many boards down there, also due to another project going on in the kitchen).

We went through some trials and errors with the hinges, and had to add a board on the wall so that the gate could fold all the way against the wall.

Even Maggie approves.

Overall, much happier with the appearance and functionality of this gate.

View from the top of the stairs.

Under the sink

Picture this, going downstairs to do laundry and noticing up above your head on the ceiling is all wet...yep, that's what happened to me.  I had a huge leak in a pipe underneath of my kitchen sink.  I almost feel like it was my house's way of telling me that my ugly setup under the sink needed some TLC.

Here's a picture after already tearing some of the stuff out from under the sink.  That plywood piece was soaked to the bone, and so was the stuff on top of it!  Around the sink area, in my house, has always bothered me...mostly because of the trim.  It used to have this bowed outward piece of trim that your foot would kick each time you went to do the dishes.

A trip to Lowe's was all I needed for a little inspiration to get this project underway.  (Seriously, I need a truck)

After replacing the plywood, I used some 2x4s (they are installed incorrectly in this picture) for the braces that my wood planks were going to sit on.

I also thought I would get super fancy with it and put beadboard on the back and sides (turns out the sides were the only areas that received this treatment due to the pipes).  See that garbage disposal?  Remember it, it comes into the story later.

Here we go, the 2x4s are installed correctly in this picture...

Just another view...

Because every single thing got wet under the sink (it was a pretty big hole).  I had to tear out the insulation and sheetrock.  So here, you can see the new stuff going in.

Decided to go ahead and update the electrical outlet while I was down there.

One thing about dry wall, is it takes FOREVER!  So much waiting time for stuff to dry...and we all know how much I love sanding.

Okay remember that garbage disposal I was talking about earlier?  Here's where it comes into play.  While caring for my under the sink problems...I thought to myself...why not make the actual sink a bit prettier while I'm at it?  So I ordered some new flanges on Amazon, they arrived just a shiny as could be.

So here's one of the new flanges next to the old...after I removed the old one though...I noticed it had this extra piece attached to it.  It was a black plastic piece that had rivets in it that would allow the garbage disposal to be attached.  Odd thing was, the new one didn't have the same attachment part.  No problem, I'll just take that plastic piece off and attach it to the new one, right?  WRONG!  After I got it off the old flange (with a flat head screw driver and a hammer) it was too small to go on the new flange.  So, what did this mean for me?  A broken garbage disposal.  I feel like I took every reasonable approach to rectify the situation without buying a new disposal.  All the home improvement stores I went to did not have the piece I needed, nor did the internet or my trusted Amazon.  I even tried using my drimmel to sand the plastic down so that it could fit the new flange.  Nothing worked.  Needless to say, I ended up purchasing a new garbage disposal...which by the way, comes with a shiny new flange of it's own.

The stuff I ended up destroying...

I found some pretty helpful YouTube videos on how to use plumbers putty to install flanges.  I will say that my deep dish flange for the non-disposal side of the sink worked out perfect.  It even has this cute little strainer basket to catch food.  Here's a little comparison, the top pictures are the old flanges and the bottom are the newly installed.

The old disposal versus the new...

Here we catch a little sneak peek of an ongoing project, I'm painting the kitchen cabinets, adding some trim and in the picture below you get a glimpse of the furniture feet.  I used 2x6 boards for the planking to set on top of the 2x4s.  Had to cut out some holes in 1 of them due to the pipes that run through the floor.

Since the back could no longer be bead board, I decided to paint the back wall and the bead board the same white color.  Looking back I wish I would have just bought the white bead board.  At my local hardware store I usually go to, they were out of stock...turns out the Valspar paint peels off it pretty easily.

So 3 coats of paint later, and after staining and using polyurethane on the 2x6 boards...it was time to screw them down (I did drill pilot holes in everything, I used to think that was such a time waster...I can't go without doing it now).

This project stretched out way longer than it should have, but at last...she is finished!

The before and after

Country Hall Tree

My grandma requested a hall tree as a wedding gift for my cousins wedding.  With their interests in mind I decided to make a country themed hall tree.  All of the lumber was purchased at Lowe's.

I even had a handy helper by my side!  Isn't he great??

Staining time...

The original plan for the hall tree was to have two shelves and a piece of wood that was painted black that went behind the coat hooks.

The coat hooks just stood out more without the board behind it.  I decided to paint, stain, and polyurethane everything before assembling it.  Wouldn't you know it that some of my measurements were off.  It wouldn't be one of my projects without running in to a few mistakes.

The back has 3 braces that allow the 2x6's to be held together.

I wish I would have taken more pictures along the way, but you probably get the idea of how it went together.  I used a Kregg jig for the screw holes on the bench seat and the cubbies.

The metal brackets and coat hook were purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Not that great of lighting but maybe I'll receive a picture of it once it's in its new home.

These are a little better