On A Roll...adding nailhead trim & Fall Already?

Today, (I should've been doing laundry) I added some nail head trim to  my storage bench, it needed a little something to spruce it up.  On my first shot at this, I bought the individual nail heads.  That turned out to be a disaster; they were crooked with uneven spacing.  So I opted for the trim on a roll, in other words, it's already hooked together, all you have to do is nail it in place every so often. 

 

It adds a little finishing touch.

I'm also up to my neck in Fall Decorations!  I'm usually of the mind that you have to wait to put up this stuff until October 1st.  I don't know why, it's just what I do. 

No Halloween stuff until 10/1,
No Christmas until 12/1. 

But I live with this child who is obsessed with Halloween,  (probably because the crap's been at stores since August)  and he begs me everyday to decorate. 

So I folded, and we have 4 giant bins and 2 huge boxes taking up space in every room downstairs.  I put up a few "Fallish" things, but I am just not ready for the scary stuff yet!  But I did find this guy out front the other day (thanks kids)!
Guess I'll just tackle the rest of the decorations today!

Hookin' Up a Landing Zone

I planned on sharing this project earlier this week, however, I had to take a little blogging hiatus, my husband had a battle with a kidney stone, and... let's just say... the stone won.

Anyway, with five children in one type of school or another, I decided to ward off the evil-backpack-spirit before it arrived.  For the past few years, I have tripped over 4 backpacks, 8 shoes, and two huge laptop bags.  I've had it. 


I knew I wanted a storage area in our study, because it's behind closed doors, and it's the first room next to the front door, so they can simply come in and hang up their things. 

 If you are standing in the foyer this is what it looks like, if I shut the doors, nobody can see it!

There are some great tutorials out there on how to revamp a bookcase into mudroom storage or playroom benches. Others get very creative and fancy, I, on the other hand, am all about function on this one.  Inexpensive function. I decided to go with the IKEA Expedit bookcase, because I needed five openings.

Source

So the week before school started, my sister and I took our first journey to Ikea, as in first. time. ever.  I know.  Firsties.  As if that's not bad enough, it took us all of 15 minutes to get there. Four hours, six Swedish meatballs, a plate of mac-n-cheese, and two glasses of some lovely pink tea-drink later, I came home with the Expedit Bookcase and the discount canvas bins that fit in it. (They have nice baskets available, but after a month here, they wouldn't be nice baskets anymore.) 

 

 

  I assembled the piece, (above) turned it onto it's side, and anchored it to the wall with the hardware it came with. (below)

I attached it to the baseboard, just in case I ever want to move it, I won't have to replace the trim, just fill in the holes. We also have a cable wire that has to run behind here, so it was a no-go on placing it flush against the wall. 

Anchor covers on

 

and here's the gap  

 

I had to use a 1 X 3 to cover the gap, but I also had to cut out a space for the outlet, this comes in handy when the older boys have to charge their school laptops each night.

I framed out the rectangle above the bookcase using 1X3's across the top and bottom, and 1X2's on the sides (only because I had these on hand)

Next, I framed out each of my five sections with the pre-primed 1 X 2's, and used Liquid Nails and real nails to keep them in place.

I let that dry for 24 hours.
The next day I caulked all of the gaps with painter's caulk.

Then I called in the painters...

I picked up these large file hooks at The Home Depot earlier this summer, for about $5.00 each.  They have a slot for personalizing and are big enough to hold backpack straps.

 

 

 

I plan on adding a ledge across the top for picture frames, but if I wait until that's done, I would never share! 

 

Thanks for looking

Faux Galvanized Letters

 

I've had these two huge cardboard letters from Joann Fabrics, forever. They're the initials of my little guys, but I couldn't decide on colors for them so they sat in the closet. I have another one, a "G" for our last name, that I bought ages ago and covered with moss (like every other blogger in the DIY world) and hung it in our dining room windows.

So when the spouse saw these other two in the closet, he panicked a little, I think he thought I was going to spell out the whole last name or something! 

 Anyway, the boys are getting a little older,(6 & almost 8)and they don't want anything else "little kiddish" added in their room.  I decided to try to create a metal look, and this turned out to be the easiest craft project, no really, it is. 

 

I had a can of this in the garage...

 

 

(no clue where it came from, but I have got to get more, for something else, just because.) Below you can see they started out cardboard. 

 I gave them a dusting, just a light spray.  I think this paint could be almost mirror-like if applied heavily, and that's not the look I was going for.  Turns out, the way the cardboard absorbed the paint, it looks galvanized. No added paint, or sponging on other colors needed.  So that's it for the paint. 

 

The letters also have areas where you can see it was pieced together, I think that's why I never painted them, I knew it would show.  Now, it looks like the "metal" is soldered together. 

To make it a bit more realistic, I went back, (5 min after I spray painted it-impatient) and pushed furniture nails into varied spots, concentrating on the "seams" just like industrial metal. Click these pics to see them larger, and the way it really does look like it's galvanized.

 

I used a dab of metallic silver craft paint to cover over each of the shiny nail heads, if you add them before spray painting you could skip this step.

 

 

To hang them up, I just hot glued craft wire to the back.  

 

 

The camera just can't capture how "metal-like" this turned out, but trust me it's great and the first step closer to big boyin' this little pirate room! 

 

Oh, and the ampersand or the "&" I bought once-upon-a-time at Target on clearance, because I knew I could use it someday.  

 

Thanks for looking!  



Style Spotters Guest Blogger & Coral Isle Table

  Today, yours' truly is the guest blogger over at Better Homes & Gardens Style Spotters, you can check out my post here   - it tells all about the "I Did It!" feature, the day they came to shoot, etc.  If you're visiting from BHG.com, thanks for looking!

I have a little update on the Bamboo Lovelies, I've only had time to finish one (I got a little side tracked with a much needed project for all of the backpacks and shoes, we'll talk about that later, I had to tackle that before school starts!)

Before: 
Bamboo Boring
(the bag on top is a nice touch too)

After:  Coral Cutie

Yeah I named her. And she's adorable.  But like any little lady, she was a bit "high maintenance", although, worth it in the end. I followed  a tutorial by Centsational Girl as a guide, and added a few tweaks along the way.

1. I sanded it her down with a block sander.

2. Dusted her off

3.  Spray painted with Krylon Coral Isle

4. Sanded off any drips, using a rough nail file for the small areas and curved legs, it worked great.

5. Dusted off the chalky stuff and sprayed her again, ...and again.  So three coats total.

4.  Now, the top was white laminate, I know it would be functional, but I didn't like it against the paint color.  I used Kilz, primer, two coats as directed on the can, and went back and spray painted the top.

5. Last step, and the longest, I used a high gloss polyurethane to keep it glossy.  It takes some time to dry between coats, overnight, and I applied three.  I used sponge applicators from the paint section.  Maybe I am learning to be more patient?

I don't have a single spot for Coral, so she may be up for adoption soon!

Thanks for looking!