The feeding station

Hello from the tundra! It’s SO fun to wake up to icicles forming on the inside of your windows. Good times.

I’m planning to get a ton done on the mud room today – I don’t think I’ve ever progressed so fast on a room before. I know three months (so far) wouldn’t seem fast to most but it’s like light years for me.

When I added the bench in that room we lost space for something important in this house – the animal food. :) We have four animals and their food containers and bowls take up a lot of space. Originally I was planning on adding a feeding station in the mud room but there just wasn’t room.

So now I’m trying to figure out the perfect spot for all of it. We want it where we’ll see it all the time (to remember to keep them alive) but where we don’t have to step over it constantly.

For now we’ve moved the food and water next to this sofa table:

This is an old pic but you get the idea of where it is.

But because I’ve had an animal every day of my life and I don’t see that changing in the future, I LOVE the idea of something built in. I gathered a few fun food storage and feeding ideas to share with you today. Some of them are ideas for down the line when we redo our kitchen, others could be done sooner than later.

I found a ton of ideas with the food bowls built in to a kitchen island. I like this one with the jars handy for food and treats:

Big SWEETIE.

And THIS one, with the bowls and the drawers with the bone cut outs…I die:

I know with bigger dogs especially it’s important to have their food bowls up a bit higher to avoid bloat – I don’t know if it’s as big of an issue for little dogs but we have an elevated bowl for ours. I like how these are all built up a bit.

This one ties in the pretty design from over the oven:

Sorry for the small pic – by the way if you don’t see a source it’s because I couldn’t find one. If you know where these came from please let me know and I’ll add it!

I love this idea because it shows that you can make a small area super useful:

I love that these include some storage too – it would be great to have all the animal stuff in one spot, near the food.

This isn’t a feeding area but I loved it – I just wonder if the food would smell if you had it in a kitchen:

In a mud room or laundry room it would be perfect. And we’d need two, one for the dog food and one for cat food. :)

OK, this isn’t a feeding area either but I couldn't’ resist it:

Dog and people storage/comfort all in one! (By the way, do you see the sisal rugs at the bottom of the shoe cubbies? Brilliant.)

This one knocked my socks off. I do believe that is a WORKING sink under there people:

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Oh my goodness, our cats would be in HEAVEN.

This one combines two of my favorite things in one – a window seat and smart storage:

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I would just worry about having their water in there since we like them to have access to that all the time.

This one is just adorable and a lot less involved – no built ins needed:

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SO cute. Too tall for our cats and Peanut but perfect for a bigger dog.

So until I have my dream kitchen with the perfect spot, I thought this was pretty brilliant and I could totally install it myself:

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Anyone have one of these? It looks like the bowls can be pushed back up into the wall when not in use, yes? THIS is smart. Why don’t I think of these things?? They come in a few different colors too.

Do you have a great spot for the animal food? Any fun storage ideas? And where to put that cat litter…well that’s a whole other post. :)

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Spray painted door knobs – the result

Helloooooo. WHOOT for Friday! I’ve got a fun weekend planned and I’m stoked about it. The weather is supposed to stink so I’m crossing my fingers that everything goes as planned.

I wanted to do a quick update on the door knobs I spray painted a few months ago. I’m pretty sure I did this back in October – I shared how I did it here but the gist of it is that I primed the knobs with spray primer then did a couple coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint:

They looked great! This one was on the back door that we’ve since replaced, but I also did the knob on our mud room door and the result…well, it isn’t good. :)

Pretty much immediately we noticed the keyhole area was going to be an issue (which didn’t surprise me at all) and it went downhill fast:

But honestly most of the wear is just from our hands, which did surprise me. The area around the edge of the knob is totally worn:

OK, what’s interesting is I swear I primed both of these with black primer, at least I’m pretty sure I did? Maybe I did one with white? I don’t know because the worn parts are white. (Yes, I did start using white on one of them. The primer I love to hate.) So, if you do try this at home maybe use black primer only, that might help. 

The inside of the door where there’s no keyhole has faired a bit better – the edges aren’t as worn but the lock is:

This is after three months of use and honestly it started wearing off almost immediately – I’d say within a couple weeks. So, ultimately I didn’t have great success with it. This knob is staying till I want to spend on a new one because it’s functioning just fine.

Things that may help – sanding them down will help the spray paint adhesion. I didn’t try that cause I thought it would be a pain, but honestly just sanding the edges may help. Also, I didn’t do a clear coat to protect it when I was done. I’ve never done that on anything I’ve spray painted and it’s held up fine, but not much gets this kind of use. That may help (but I still think that would wear off after awhile too.)

So there are the results of my spray paint experiment. :) I know some of you have painted your door knobs – did it work for you? If so what did you do differently?

Have a GREAT weekend!!

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How to build a mud room bench

OK, so I’m super excited to share this progress with you today! Just know it’s not done yet so there won’t be any perfect after picture just yet – but I’m SO happy with how the bench in the mud room is coming together so I had to share the process so far.

I gathered my materials before this weather hit and spent most of Sunday working on it. I was in a zone and was having a blast. It’s been awhile since I’ve worked on something like this!

The only materials were two wall cabinets and a few 1 by 6’s. Oh, and some scrap wood, but more on that in a bit. Here are the cabinets I used:

These were from Lowe’s but you can find them anywhere – Menards, Home Depot, etc. We have a little “nook” where our washer and dryer used to sit where I am building the bench, so I measured that spot and determined two 30x15x12 cabinets would work.

I think the cabinets were $30-something? The Lowe’s website says $20 and I know I didn’t pay that little. Maybe they were more than $30, I honestly can’t remember. I’ll try to find my receipt and let you know for sure.

Anyway, this isn’t my first rodeo with the cabinets-as-built-ins. I’ll share more links at the bottom of the post, but for now let’s just say this is the fourth time I’ve done this type of thing. I give all credit to my Dad who showed me how to make this happen years ago. :)

I started by flipping the cabinets over and measuring the inside area underneath. I cut down my 1 x 6’s so they made a base:

Does that make sense? This gets the cabinets off the ground. I knew I wanted them about 20 inches off the floor so that’s why I used the 1 x 6 size and the 15 high cabinets. They have 12 inchers too.

I used my nail gun to secure the boards to the sides of the cabinet, all around, then used longer nails in my gun and nailed down the sides of each where they meet in the corners for extra stability. You can add braces in the corners if needed too, but when I was done they weren’t budging a bit so I called it done.

I did that for both cabinets and then started figuring out how to make the bench deeper. You could make it just 12 inches deep from the wall to make it really easy, but I wanted more room for the tushes. (Not that mine needs anymore room…ahem.)

I pulled them away from the wall and hung coats and bags behind me to figure out what was comfortable. I wanted to be able to sit without having the stuff behind me pushing me off. I sat on it and then had hubby do the same so I could figure out a good distance. I determined 20 inches out from the wall was best, so this is where the scrap wood came in:

I went around the wall with scrap wood that I measured at the same exact height as the benches. (I pushed them up against the wall and marked on the wood where to cut.)

I secured each one into studs in the wall. So now, when I get the butcher block that will be the top of the bench, it will rest right on top of those boards (with glue and nails to secure it, plus screws from inside the cabinets) and on the top of the benches as well. I hope that makes sense?

Now it was time to secure the cabinets to the walls. This is where I had to sit in front of all of it for a second and figure out what I was going to do. I knew I’d have about three inches of space left to fill between the cabinets. (Or 1.5 inches on either side if I placed them together in the middle.)

Because I wanted them really secure I went with the space in the middle of the cabinets, so I could install them into the walls. I used long drywall-like screws – these are my favorite with any woodworking project because they grab the wood so easily:

I think installing cabinets is hard. I’ve done it a few times and getting every angle level is a pain in the butt, really. Sometimes it happens fairly easily (our dining room built ins weren’t bad), sometimes it takes forever. I used shims to get these as level as I could and then secured them to the wall into studs:

So these will be used for our shoe storage, if you haven’t figured that out quite yet. ;) It’s not a TON of space so I’ll have to be selective with the shoes we keep down here. In the summer it will be easy with sandals and flip flops. In the winter we’ll have less room to work with with boots and all.

My plan all along has been to make the doors into drawers – I was going to build drawers and install them so we could just pull them out, but I realized I’d lose a lot of space by doing that, so I think we’ll just keep them as is and throw shoes in there:

So anyway, I had that area in the middle of the two cabinets to fill. It just so happened I had a piece of scrap wood that fit in exactly – YES! But I couldn’t figure out how to secure it in there. I couldn’t get my nail gun in between the cabinets to nail at an angle, and the wood had just a smidge of space on the sides so wood glue wasn’t going to hold it well enough. I could have used the long screws through the frames of the cabinets but didn’t want to risk splitting them.

So I sat and stared at it for awhile and came up with an idea. I cut more scrap wood that I nailed into the cabinets (there was a little lip I could nail into – I put arrows to show what I’m talking about) and then just placed my scrap filler piece on top of it:

To give the bench even more stability I added another scrap piece to the back of the bench as well, as you can see above.

THIS is my favorite part of a project like this. I love sitting there and trying to figure out a solution and using what I already have to make it happen. It’s like a puzzle for me and I’m so in my element when I’m doing something like this. Love it!

So this is what it looks like from the front – still a mess but when I’m done with it it will look much better:

If I can’t get it smooth with putty and sanding, I’ll just put some trim over it to hide it.

So that was it for the bench! When it was done I started on finishing up the beadboard around the nook area. I’ve finally found a fool-proof way to get a good cut around my outlets. I’ve always used a jigsaw and still do for some of it, but I can’t cut a straight line with that thing to save my life. So now, I trace around the outlet cover:

Then hold the beadboard up and mark where my cuts will be. like always:

You want the cuts to be under your outlet plate so they aren’t seen.

Then I used the jigsaw for the smaller cuts, but then hold up a straight edge and score the wood with a razor for the longer cut:

I usually do it on both sides of the wood, you don’t have to go that deep. Then I use my wrench to grab the wood and snap it off:

It works EVERY time and gives me a nice, clean cut. It doesn’t have to be perfect since it’s under the plate anyway, but this way is just easier in my opinion. It’s hard to get the jigsaw in there to cut angles.

Like I said, this is still not done, but there’s not really that much left to do (it just looks like it:

I need to get something to use baseboard across the front. What I got is too tall, so I need to either find something that fits or have it cut down. (I still don’t have a table saw so I’m really hoping I can find something.) I need to paint the bench of course, and then I’ll just need to get the butcher block I’m using as the bench seat. Of course the only place I know of to get that is IKEA, and that’s a two hour drive away. Not happening in all of this snow, but I’m hoping I can get over there later this week. I’m SO excited to get this done!

I need to paint the rest of the beadboard now too, but I’m trying to decide what I’ll do. The painted beadboard (instead of white) has given me a bit of a problem – do I do the wall of the bench in white? The bench will be white. Will it look weird having it all the deep color, then in white there? I don’t know what to do, I’ll have to think about it for a bit. That’s what I get for trying to be all different with a color on the beadboard. Hmmm…

Anyway, what looked like this on Saturday:

Looked like this as of Sunday:

Even though the bench is almost done there’s still a lot to do in the room – I need to put spacers in the outlets so they are flush with the beadboard, install the trim around the top of the beadboard, install the upper cabinets and then most likely shelves between them.

But having this part almost done makes me feel like I’m in the home stretch! So excited!

I’ll be sure to update you when I get the bench done. :) Have you attempted this type of project? I had grand plans for awhile but decided in the end but simpler would be better (and easier!).

To see how I’ve used kitchen cabinets to make built ins before, see our wall of bookcases in the dining room here, the ones we did in my son’s room here (a video of how we made them here) and a peek at the one in progress in the new laundry room here.

 

P.S. Go here to see the finished product!

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THIS is the year

Hey hey! I’m writing today from under six inches of snow – with absolutely FRIGID temps coming next week. We’re talking feels like negative 50 degrees in Indiana. What?? So serious question here – what do you do with a Chihuahua dog who hates the cold already in those kind of temps? I mean, that’s not safe for a person, let alone an animal. We’re trying to figure out what the heck we’ll do to take him out?

Anyway, other than the insanely cold temps, I actually quite LOVE this time of year. It’s one of my favorite times really – it’s a new year and everything feels fresh and new and full of possibility. And I fall in love with my house all over again right about now. I get giddy with all the plans in my head.

I can even stand the cooler temps for about another four weeks. I love being warm and cozy in our house…till about mid-February. Then I’m D.O.N.E.

It’s funny because we’ve been in this house almost ten years and I still have a list a mile long of things I’d like to do. A couple of them are dream projects that I would need help with, but most I can do on my own. And that’s why my head feels like it may explode in early January – my list is long. Let’s talk about future plans shall we?

THIS will be the year that I finish painting all the doors black in the house:

The basement doors are done (well, one more door to go to the storage room) and I LOVE THEM. It is a long process because I’ll have to prime every door, but the end result is worth it. (You can see my latest black door here.)

There are two rooms in our house that are a pain in my rear. I can’t figure out a good set up for either one – the loft/former playroom/craft room is one:

My plan for years now has been to build in storage and a window seat along that wall with the window. I keep saying “this is the year!” and it’s never the year…but maybe this one will be the year. We’ll see.

That room is HARD because it basically has one usable wall. The wall with the windows isn’t really functional, the other wall is a half wall and then it’s open on the other side. I want tons of craft storage but also want to make it a bit more of a lounge space again. We don’t really NEED another lounge space but we’d use it more if it was one. It drives me batty not to make good use of a space so I want to make this room more functional this year.

The other room that gives me fits is our living room. Again, with only one useable wall:

At least one of you noticed in the Christmas tree post that I took the drapes down. You’re good! I’m planning a big DIY project on those windows – I wanted to try and tackle it in the month of December and then got my brain function back and realized this year may be better. :)

A few months ago I made a decision about this space. I’ve hated the sofa for seven plus years and I decided I’m 38 years old dangit and if I hate it I’m not going to keep it. I find it hard to replace something that’s functional but not my favorite thing – I feel guilty, like I shouldn’t spend on something when we have something that technically works just fine, you know? But I think I’ve found a really inexpensive option for this room, I just need to go test it out first.

Of course I will continue my record of taking years to finish a space – this time in the mud room. It’s been half way done for two years now:

I shared the latest paint and floor updates to the room earlier this week. I was planning on taking a trip out to Lowe’s today to start the bench but it may not happen with the snow.

I’ve had BIG plans in mind for our kitchen for years now – and yes it involves painting the cabinets. I know there are so many that love wood cabinets and I do too – but ours have some major wear and tear and there’s nothing we can do to fix it, other than sanding them down and restaining. That’s not happening. So, I have little plans that turned into bigger plans and those bigger plans are what are holding be back from starting the whole thing:

But I think I can move ahead with most of it so I’m determined to make that happen this year. I can see it all in my head – it’s been sitting in there for a while now. ;)

The master bedroom redo will continue this year and when I say continue I hope I mean finish:

There’s only one wall painted (it’s been like that since the summer) and I need to get going on that. The bed will get new pillows (most likely a DIY if I can find the right fabric), the bed wall may get some kind of special treatment and sometime this year I’d like to get new floors in there. The carpet is DONE.

Another project I’ve almost started numerous times is painting the family room and kitchen:

Our current wall color is Sisal from Ralph Lauren (one of the top questions I get her on the blog) and we’ve had it up since the day we closed on the house. I came over with the brand new keys and paint and worked for hours on it. :) I’ve been planning something a bit lighter, but then I see a dark, cozy color and fall in love with that again. So we’ll see.

I’m also contemplating a large built in unit where our entertainment “dresser” currently sits:

I’m pretty sure I think I’m five people instead of one, cause I don’t know how this girl (who works like molasses) will be able to accomplish all of this in a year, but it’s fun to daydream, right? I’m hoping to get most of it done!

AND I told my husband the other day that THIS is the year our closet will become a spotless, organized, magical place where stars burst out of your eyes when you walk in. If you could see it you’d know why he laughed and laughed and…laughed some more at me. But it will happen. You can’t see the before pictures though – not until I clean it and even then you’ll be mortified. And when I say that I’m so not being all, oh it’s kind of messy and I’m acting like it’s horrible. NO. It’s horrible. So, there’s that to look forward to. ;)

So do you love this time of year as much as I do? Do you have any fun plans for your home, or at least ones you daydream in your head? Any organization projects you want to tackle? Do tell!

I’ll be back next week and back to a regular posting schedule! Have a great weekend and stay safe if you are getting this weather too!

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Christmas Party, 2013!

Well it’s a week away! And I’ve finally started my shopping. My wallet is begging me to stop already. ;)

As I mentioned yesterday, this is the sixth year I’ve hosted this holiday linky party – I’ve done it since the first Christmas I was blogging. Awww. Pretty cool, I must say.

We have a total of four trees in the house – technically. The fourth is a small one I put in our bedroom, with intentions of decorating with DIY ornaments every year. I always run out of time. So we just use it as a pretty nightlight. :)

The other three are decorated though. The biggie is the 12 footer in our living room. But first things first -- I’ve had quite a few of you ask how week keep our cats out of the trees. Well…

  

We don’t. :) It’s something I’ve long since given up on. They don’t chew on anything, they just like being in there and playing with the ornaments. You may notice that the bottom of each of our trees is sparsely decorated and that’s not because I have a toddler who takes them off, but three cats instead. I gave up on trying to put them all back on about 25 ornaments ago. I’ll be finding them till next summer.

When I took those pics of our kitten in the tree I scooted him out and started taking pictures again…only to see the tree still moving. I then found another cat SLEEPING in the bows of the tree. Seriously. Sleeping.

Anyway, no good advice here. :) (Although a reader mentioned a thing you can get at the pet store that shoots a puff of air out and deters them from going under the tree – may have to try that.)

Let’s talk about the pretty stuff now!

I’ve always used gold and red on this tree but wanted to try something a little different this year. I’ve been thinking of trying a more “natural” look – but with a 12 foot tree there’s no way I’ll be able change it all out all in one year. So I started by adding a new color this year to see if I liked it – brown:

My sis was all, “Ewww. Brown??” And I was all, “Trust.”

Honestly I wasn’t sure how it would look either. I got a container of brown bulbs at Hobby Lobby for 40 percent off and then used a few larger sparkly ones I’ve had for years.

I stood back after we added some and actually quite loved it. It adds a kind of deepness to the tree – it’s hard to explain. It’s actually really pretty:

While at Hob Lob I also picked up a few packages of that tulle stuff – it’s sparkly and it comes in really wide nine foot sections. But I’ve always cut them up so they go further: 

That way I get three nine foot sections out of each one instead of one. They are still really full and fluffy.

OK, funny story about this monster tree. We got it a few years ago at Lowe’s – they still have it, it’s just more expensive now. I really do love the tree, it’s great quality and easy to assemble.

Soooo, we got a 12-footer because my husband wanted to. The man could care less about everything else I do in this house, but he wanted a huge tree. HE LOVES IT. I love it too but I feel like I’m risking my life to decorate the top. So a couple years ago we’re putting it together and accidentally put the second from the bottom section of the tree on the stand first, and it still looked great. It just wasn’t quite as tall and full at the bottom.

And when I say not as tall, I’m talking a foot shorter. But he really wanted the whole thing up so we fixed it, even though you seriously couldn’t even even tell! Fast forward to this year – my sister is helping me put the tree up since he was out of town and we did the same thing again – using the wrong bottom piece (I need to label these things) and I was kind of over it so I said let’s leave it. It’s still beautiful and tall and he won’t even notice.

Husband gets home a couple days later, looks at the tree, goes on with his business, then later we’re heading to dinner and out of nowhere he says, “Why is the tree smaller this year?” HOW? Then my stepdaughter came over a few days later, looks at the tree and asks, “Why does the tree look smaller this year?”

People. It’s still almost 12 feet tall. They both noticed. I just couldn’t believe they both noticed. I can’t tell to save my life. Hilarious! The man and daughter love the tall tree!

You’ll notice my furry friend nemesis in this shot:

Like I said. I do love the tree, really I do. It’s huge, and it’s spectacular:

We always put the “kid” tree upstairs – we have a lot of his/family ornaments on the big one too, but this tree is just dedicated to pure fun. We get a Hallmark ornament every year in July the fall:

     

That last one is my favorite – we found it this year and it’s PERFECT, since we went to Disney this year (the first trip for both my son and I). The castle is my favorite part of the park and it lights up and the fireworks go off on the ornament. It’s wonderful. :)

I’ve had a real tree every year of my life up until we got the beast a few years ago. There’s pros and cons to each one, real and fake, but overall I do like the fake for ease of use. But goodness, I missed the real tree smell. So we decided to do a (small) real one for the kiddo’s tree every year from now on.

We always go with a Frasier Fir, my absolute favorite:

Since it’s smaller I’m hoping the mess won’t be too bad. We’ll see about that. :)

Finally, I purchased a green flocked tree for our newly finished basement last year:

I fill it with white, blue and green ornaments and I LOVE it. I’m super happy with it – the flock doesn’t fall off like crazy and it’s just a beautiful tree overall. I got it from WalMart and I noticed they had them again earlier this year. I say it’s my favorite but they’re all my favorites, depending on my mood. :)

OK, now it’s time to see your homes/trees/decor/whatever! Everything goes this year, not just trees! Have fun and please visit and comment on a few of those linked up if you have the time.

If you are new to linky parties and would like to add a link, you’ll just want to go to the title of your blog post and “copy” it by right clicking on the title – then paste that code into the box that asks for the url. You are welcome to use my button in your post, or a link back is always appreciated.

Have a great one and enjoy!

 

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