IKEA STEP STOOL MAKEOVER

So today's post is mostly a show and tell. I'm here to show you this IKEA Bekvam stool that I recently made over and to tell you how excited I am about it now! I can't take any credit for this look though. I completely "borrowed" it from these adorable stools that I pinned awhile ago. It had my two favorite colors and the crisp clean look that I love. 

All it took was a can of Rustoleum Glossy White spray paint, Martha Stewart's craft paint in Surf, Miniwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane, some painter's tape and paper. (I would also recommend using a primer first. Since I didn't have any on hand, I skipped this step and later regretted it when I had some uneven white patches appear...)

Not bad for a $15 solid wood stool, huh? :) If you like the "dipped" look that's everywhere now, make sure to check out Michelle's version.  I love projects like this!

DIY ENVELOPE THROW PILLOW COVERS

One of you sweet readers requested for a tutorial on sewing these envelope pillow covers. As confusing as the instructions may appear (sorry!), these pillows are actually really easy and quick to make. Basically instead of stitching two of the same-sized fabrics together, you make the back piece 5 inches longer to create the flaps. 

 I actually first learned how to make these from The DIY Dish's website. Below is a quick step-by- step guide that I made for my 20" x 20" pillows, however I would encourage you all to watch The DIY Dish's video tutorial first. 

A = Front Piece 

B + C = Back Pieces

(For my 20" x 20" pillows, I used 3/4 yard of fabric.)

Step 1

Cut out two pieces of fabric, a front piece (A) and a back piece (B+C). You will add five inches to the length of the back piece. Cut the back piece in half to make the flaps of your "envelope" cover.  

Lay fabric B and C side by side, right side up.  One the edges where the two pieces meet, fold over 1/4" of the fabric and then 1/4" again and straight stitch all the way down. This will help create clean edges.

Step 2

Lay fabric A with the right side facing up. Place fabric B, right side facing down, on the left edge of fabric A.  With a 1/4" seam, straight stitch the edge to attach. 

Place fabric C, right side facing down, on the right edge of fabric A.  With a 1/4" seam, straight stitch the edge to attach.  

Step 3

Lay fabric C over B and straight stitch with a 1/4" seam the remaining edges to close the cover. Flip your cover right side out and you're done!   

I really love these covers, because I can wash them at any time and they make it easy for me to change out if I ever get tired of them. Hopefully these instructions weren't too confusing! Please let me know if you have any questions! :)

Have a happy Wednesday!

B&W FAMILY ROOM MAKEOVER + WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

So over the weekend, our family room went from this....

to this...

because of Jennifer @ A Merry Mishap...

who inspired me to make all these:

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Besides the small amount of fabric I bought for the pillows, everything else was re-purposed from something I already had. 

For my attempted bokeh art, I took down the old canvases, duct taped them together, wrapped 2 layers of batting over them (so I didn't have to paint over the originals) and then covered the entire thing with a large white fabric using a staple gun.  

Using Martha Stewart's foam pouncers, I stamped on multiple circles using black, gray, and a lighter gray acrylic paint (mixed with a fabric medium).  I then spayed a light coat of scotch guard for added protection.  

For the pillows, I found the fabrics at Joann's and made envelope covers (so that I'll be able to wash them later on).  The designs on the two white pillows were stenciled on using painter's tape and foam pouncers.  

Found out this weekend that I actually like plaid... black plaid specifically! 

I tried to make a replica of one of the pillows in A Merry Mishap's living room. Can you tell which one? ;)

There are still some small things I have left to work on, but for the most part I am pretty happy with the feeling the space creates already! 

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Finally... the winner of the second Martha Stewart Giveaway is: 

#64: Christine Cook for sharing this giveaway on Facebook!

Congratulations, Christine! I will be contacting you soon! :D

Thanks to all who participated! 

GUEST POSTING AT THE D.I.Y. DREAMER

Good morning friends!!! :) Today I am sharing my mini-closet makeover 

at The D.I.Y. Dreamer.  Hope you'll get a chance to stop by and 

also get to know the very sweet and talented Christine! :)

Happy Thursday!

Linking up with: Addicted2Decorating

[RE-PURPOSED] COSTCO BOXES

I've been needing wanting a tray for my nightstand but refused to spend money on one.  After looking around the house to see what I can re-purpose, I remembered this old Costco box that I had kept in my car.  It was sturdy and seemed like the perfect size. 



I had some fabric left over from our headboard project and thought it'd be a great way to tie the tray to our room.  With the help of some spray adhesive and hot glue, here's how the tray turned out:

Not bad huh? :D I loved it so much that I made one for my husband's side too. So what do you all think? Good way to reuse those Costco boxes? Have any of you ever tried re-purposing them too? I'd love to hear about it!

Linking up with: The D.I.Y. Dreamer, Addicted2Decorating

DIY MAGNETIC STRIPS + CORKBOARD MAKEOVER

Now that E's approaching two and understanding a lot more, my teacher instincts have been kicking back in. ;) He's already picked up a lot simply with us reading to him, but we've never really focused on anything specific. I wanted to create an interactive spot in our house where I can work with him on his letters, numbers and colors.

In our family room, we have this empty wall beneath our counters that seemed like the perfect spot. It was at his level and set apart from the rest of the dining room.

Now the problem was figuring out how to make this spot blend in with our family room. If this were a typical classroom, then I'd have no problem going all out and making it kiddie-ish and cute. But this was our family room and where we spent 90% of our time. This was where we held our bible studies, where we entertained, where we relaxed...


I wanted to keep this space simple, clean, but functional. I also wanted a surface that I could use magnets, thumbtacks, or even staples on it. Here's what I finally came up with:

Materials: corkboard, primer, spray paint, painters tape, fabric, 2 metal rulers, decorative paper or shelf-liners, newspapers, spray adhesive, and gorilla glue

Directions: Before spray-painting, tape down the corkboard area with painter's tape and newspapers. Prime the frame first and then spray-paint with your desired color. 

Use spray adhesive to adhere the fabric onto the board (make sure you protect the frame with painters tape first before spraying). Tuck the extra fabric under the frame with a ruler or butter knife. 

(By the way, do any of you recognize this fabric? It's the same one that I used for the linen wreath, the upholstered chair, and laundry curtains! )

Instead of buying metal strips, I found a cheaper solution by using metal rulers. They were light and the perfect length for my 2 x 3 board. I covered them with some adorable shelf-liner that I had found at Marshalls.  

I then attached the rulers using gorilla glue for a strong bond.

After the rulers bonded, I attached the board onto the wall using these AWESOME Command velcro strips. No need to put holes in the wall or worry about damage when I decide to take the board down.  Seriously, I love these strips!

And that's it! Easy wasn't it?! Currently I am using the top strip to hold E's "artworks." ;) This is how I'm keeping it for now, but I will update you all as I add on to it.

What do you all think? How do you all incorporate your kids' space into your adult space? I'd love to hear your tips!

Enjoy your last day of April!

DIY TEA STATION

My husband and I are both BIG tea drinkers. I make this tea latte (except with agave) for us every night after E goes to bed. Usually we keep our stash of teas in the pantry; however these days it's been getting too crowded in there and I wanted a more accessible place to keep all our teas. We had an empty spot on the counter a few feet away from the stove that I thought would be perfect for a small tea station. 

I had picked up this wooden shelf-looking thing from IKEA a few months ago for $2 in their clearance section. Originally my thought was to place it above our microwave to hold our fruits.  However it turned out to be a little too wide and looked awkward in that space. I kept it anyways... just in case an opportunity like this came up. ;)  

This project literally took me about 20 minutes from start to finish. There was no need to paint since the birch actually matched our kitchen cabinets.  I simply measured and cut out a section of the shelf-liner that I had leftover from my SNIGLAR changing table makeover and adhered it to the surface of the shelf.  I also used the liner to cover the outside of this KRUS container to help keep a more uniform look.  

Here's how it all turned out. What a simple way to give our beloved teas their very own home! It's now my new favorite spot in the kitchen. :D

Have any of you completed any simple DIYs lately that made a huge impact? I'd love to hear from you!

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

DOSE OF REALITY + {MINI-UPDATES} CANVASES

Yesterday I got my first dose of reality as a blogger.  For me this blog feels like my second baby and when you share something so personal to you with the rest of the world... be prepared for comments of all kinds - positive and some not so positive ones.

I was more than honored yesterday when Apartment Therapy featured my Sniglar makeover. Even though my makeover wasn't exactly a "home office," I was still absolutely THRILLED beyond words for the feature! :) Then I started reading some of the responses and my heart just sank.  There wasn't really that many comments nor were they exactly mean or rude... just natural responses I guess from the short synopsis Apartment Therapy provided.  I can understand where some of the confusion came from so I'm not really sure why they bothered me as much as they did.

It was a good lesson to learn though and kind of exposing to see how much I cared for others' good opinions. The Lord touched and shined on my heart a lot and I realized that His good opinion is what I should treasure most. :)

Okie doke, thanks so much for letting me ramble a little... now onto the mini-update! :)

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When we first moved into our house and started putting together our family room, we gravitated towards calm soothing colors like whites, grays, and blues. We eventually found our gray couches at West Elm, simple white curtains from Target, and an assortment of blue pillows from West Elm and Marshalls. I'm not sure if I picked the wrong shades but somehow the room ended up feeling dark and dreary.

In hopes of brightening up the room, I was inspired by Pinterest and other blogs to add some bright pops of yellow and so began my long chain of DIY projects. From making the cherry blossom canvases to reupholstering an ottoman that I found on Craigslist for $20, you’d think that I would be 100% satisfied with how the room turned out. Sadly I wasn't.

The room looked fine by itself but it didn't really fit in with the rest of the house. That shade of yellow and the design on the fabric seemed to clash with the rest of the decor. I should have planned better and considered our vision for our home as a whole instead of trying out random ideas and putting countless hours into these projects only to regret it later. DIY-er remorse is what I call it.

So last week, after being dissatisfied with the yellow canvases for the last 9 months, I finally decided to take a chance and change the color. Instead of making and paying for brand new canvases, I painted over the current ones with a light shade of blue. It's hard to tell due to the poor lighting (sorry!) but the canvases ended up looking so much better! It gave the whole room a completely different feel and motivated me to make more updates.

It's pretty amazing how a small color change could make such a big difference! Tomorrow I will be sharing with you another way I was able to incorporate this softer and lighter shade of blue into the room. Hope you stay tuned! :)

Much grace,

IKEA SNIGLAR CHANGING TABLE MAKEOVER

*Before you read on, please keep in mind that this is not my permanent desk... mainly just a space where I can do a quick 5 minute email check or a place to sit and relax at. :) And yes, I do realize that the table is higher than most tables. I plan to have the legs cut shorter or to get a higher chair in the future.

This past weekend my husband and I went to IKEA in search of a small storage shelf. I needed a space to hold the items that I would drop off when I came home (such as my keys and diaper bag). Our house lacks a mudroom or even an entry space so my diaper bag inevitably ended up taking a seat on our dining chair (our garage is connected to our informal dining room). My keys would end up on the dining table or in some other place I happen to leave it - which I would end up forgetting the next day. It was time to find a more permanent home to help lessen my frustration everyday.  

We considered getting a small Expedit shelf but the shelves weren't deep enough for my rather wide diaper bag. Then we saw a sofa table that would've worked a little better but we weren't fond of its $200 price tag.

We were ready to give up and head home when we came across the perfect storage solution in the children’s section. Long story short... we ended up coming home with the Sniglar's changing table for $30. My husband actually was the one who saw this and noticed that the two deep layers would work well. At first I thought he was joking and didn’t take it seriously.  However, the more I looked at it the more I liked the simplicity of it. The deep layers would definitely work and plus it would be a great DIY challenge! With some paint, cute shelf-liners, fabric storage containers, a shelf, and a few pieces of wood, I ended up transforming the changing table into a small workspace for our bedroom (complete with a spot for my diaper bag and keys)!

First I got the Sniglar ready for painting by I taping the areas that I needed to protect.

I then sanded down the wood to get a smooth clean surface.

I didn't have any primer on hand and so I had to skip this step. (For all you professional painters out there... pretend you didn't read that!)

I actually bought an alkyd (oil-based) paint by mistake and didn't realize it until I was halfway through painting. (A strong indication that I'm a complete novice in the painting department o.O) I found the paint to be a lot more sticky and streaky; it also took a whole day to dry. The worst part was the horrible stench it left - I'm convinced that my body's fully saturated with VOC by this point. Sigh. :(

Anyways! After the Sniglar was painted, I laid on a cute shelf-liner that I found at Marshall's months ago. At the time I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it - it was just too cute to pass up! Don't you agree?! ;)

To turn the top layer into a tabletop, I added an elevated surface that would be level with the edge around the changing table. I found an old shelf that my husband removed from our garage, took off the frames and laid the shelf-liner on top to match with the table.

To raise the surface high enough to lay level with the edge, I used two pieces of wood left over from my headboard project and wrapped them in a nonskid shelf-liner that I already had. I secured the liner onto the wood with a staple gun.  

There was no need to permanently attach the two pieces of wood to the shelf because the weight of the shelf and the nonskid liner were enough to keep the shelf from shifting.  

I added some fabric containers on the lower level that I already had and cut out the shelf-liner for the labels.  

The gap in the back held my small IKEA lamp and other accessories very nicely.  

Here's how it looks from the side. I think the elevated surface makes it extra cool! ;)  I will be keeping my keys in that spot next to the lamp - still need to find a cute shallow container for them! ;)

My diaper bag will go into one of these containers.  I'm thinking about putting my Ergo carrier in the other.  

When I finally brought in my chair to sit down, I noticed that the tabletop was slightly higher than normal.  I thought about getting the legs cut shorter eventually or maybe just getting a higher chair. Or... maybe just leaving it so it wouldn't encourage me to stay up too late at nights ;) The size of my chair wasn't exactly appropriate either... a stool may work better. But for now I am super happy with the transformation. What do you all think? :)

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Also I wanted to thank Lindsay @ Southern Lovely for featuring my headboard project yesterday! Her blog is full of so many cute ideas so make sure to check it out!

Happy Tuesday!

Linking up with Kampen Lane...