Baby Changing Station (or almost biting off more than I can chew)

I picked up this little cutie for $20 online and jumped on the opportunity to give it a make-over. It’s such a cute piece with lots of storage potential so into the back of my minivan it went. Once I got it home and inspected it closer and found that most of the pieces appeared to be wood but there was a good many pieces that are laminate over particle board. Yuck.  

the bottom shelf is included but not attached- light repair work!

that black thing inside the drawer is my cat :)

its cute!

My game plan was to take it apart, sand it and paint it with a spray paint/ primer combo. Off to Lowes I went and picked out a nice flat white spray paint with the cutest green to use as an accent. I also picked up a glossy top coat. 

Later that day I took it apart and started sanding it. That's when the sense of "what have I done?" started to sink in. There were a lot of pieces and a lot more than I had been prepared for were crappy laminate. Thank goodness the people I bought it from were nice enough to include the instruction booklet that came with it. Well, I already started so onward I go!

On the next sunny day I headed outside with a few sanded pieces to test paint. How silly of me to think a painter with primer built in would be good enough! It was clear right away that this was going to need to be separately primed first so I dug out a can of primer I had laying around from an former project from a couple of years ago and started painting. I'll spare you the frazzling details but lets just say this stage of the project involved a crying 22 month old and the goopy old primer running out before the areas needing priming did.

I started with the underside of the piece that the changing pad goes on top of, just in case!

looks like crap so far!

you can really see every brush and roller stroke with the first primer coat

yet again my cat thinks she needs to be involved

 I was not happy with the prime coat I got so off the Lowes I went again. This time I bought a primer recommended by more than one DIY-happy blogger I found on Pintrest and some fancy foam rollers. Plus some more sanding supplies. And 2 more cans of flat white spray paint.

Luckily the new Primer and foam rollers did the trick beautifully. I got a much smoother prime coat without all the nappy texture I got with the other roller I used. Sigh of relief! I primed all 9 gillion pieces and coated all of them with a single coat of the spray paint which took all three cans I had already bought! Oh man, that "what have I gotten myself into?" thoughts are getting louder. I also painted the pieces I *thought* were the correct accent bits with the green paint. A special thanks goes out to the landscapers that came in with the leaf blower and got dirt all over my drying pieces. Good thing spray paint dries fast!

Later that night I poured myself a big glass of wine and reassembled the unit. That's when I discovered my accent pieces error. Oops.

This adorable shade of green is in the very back of the deep cubby on the side where no one will see it

its not done yet but its reassembled and sturdier than before I took it apart

 Next I took a break. You know when you start a relationship and you spend way too much time with them and you just NEED some time off? Yeah, well, that was me.

After a couple days off I went back to Lowes to buy MORE PAINT. Yes, MORE. 2 MORE cans of spray paint! For those of you counting at home that's 5 cans of white paint for this one project. I thought spray paint was supposed to be the cost effective option here people! Luckily my kids were rock stars in the store because I brought both by myself and expected to be able to make decisions on what paint samples to buy for another project Im doing sometime after this bad boy is finished. They were richly rewarded with Happy Meals and frozen yogurt :)

Back outside I went with the assembled table and emptied yet another can of spray paint on it. Once inside again I found a few areas I missed so I pulled a can of white paint I had laying around and my new foam brush and did the touch ups that way. The sheen of the paints are different but luckily the areas I used it on are separated enough from the spray painting pieces to not be noticeable. I also did the accent painting and subsequently necessary touch up on the laundry hamper. I'm really quite happy with how it came out.  

accent painting done but despite taping before painting there was some leakage

nice and tidy!

lookin' good!

It was finally time to wrap this project up. I finished the accent paint on the groove at the bottom of each leg and then did some clean up painting because of course there was leakage around the painters tape. Then I top coated it a couple times over in the areas that would get the most contact. I also painted a metal finish on the handle on the hamper. IT'S DONE!!!

So as usual my eyes for DIY projects were bigger than my stomach so to speak but all in all I'm happy with how it came out, if not with how much time, effort and money required to achieve said outcome.  Here's the break down:

Lesson Learned #1: Use a good quality primer! I started with an old goopy dried out primer I had on hand and it cost me time. Once I primed with Zinsser High Hide Oil Based Cover Base things started moving along.

Lesson Learned #2: Use FOAM rollers and brushes! If its got bristles, forget about it. Bristles= visible paint strokes= UGLY.

Lesson Learned #3: Spray paint is best reserved for smaller, less complicated projects. I would use spray paint again on small end tables or other smaller pieces that don't require dismantling first. I plan on using regular paint and rolling it on next time. I anticipate using a half gallon would easily cover a piece this size with 2 coats instead of going back and forth to the home improvement store repeatedly to buy MORE spray paint.  I'll do an blog entry comparing the pros and cons of each once I've tried it out.

This particular project was a learning experience for sure. I'm already mentally onto my next project (my end table in the living room) but feel like Ive learned what products I should be using and how I should be using them. Hopefully I can find someone to appreciate and get use out of this changing station now that its FINALLY done!

How not to glitterize your flip flops

You know what's boring? Those plain plastic flip flops we all have. You know what's not boring? Glitter! You know what happens when you're impatient to make things pretty? You'll see...

I know, I know, this has been done a MILLION times before on everything from phone cases to heels but I haven't done it yet and Ive been wanting to try it out. I have a pair of plain black flip flops that got pretty faded last summer and they are just begging for a little somethin' somethin'.

These babies were just begging for a make over!

It looked pretty simple. All the directions I found online mixed the glitter into the Mod Podge and then painted the glittery goop directly onto the desired object. I thought I had this in the bag so I stopped reading there. I'm guessing some of these crafty bloggers Ive seen so many times on Pintrest probably give advice on how much glitter to add to your Mod Podge and I would have been smart to take the time to read their helpful advice. Well, lesson learned.

I chose a white diamond dust glitter with lots of blue undertones which made it difficult to tell how much was suspended in the glue. Clearly, I added a bit too much to my Mod Podge which resulted in a goop with the consistency of ricotta cheese. The other thing I probably missed when I stopped reading was the advice to paint thin layers to build the desired glitter level. There's no such thing as a thin layer when your glittery glue is as thick as mud.

just one coat. Yikes!

 I waited as long as possible for it to dry before gooping another layer on there.

the flop on the right has two coats- its hard to see detail but the whiteness sure comes across!

 After the 2nd coat was on I let them dry over night hoping that the white I was seeing would go away. Turns out what I thought was the whiteness of the glue turned gooey was mostly the overload of white glitter I had added.

Here's the finished product; not what I was hoping for but still wearable around the house.

they don't actually look that bad in this picture

you can see where I started to try and pick off the stiff, now-dried glue (on the center of the left flip flop) to see if I could peel it off like you can with Elmers and start over.

 What I learned:

1). add just a little glitter to your Mod Podge to start. You can always add more to the 2nd coating (but you cant take it out!)

2). apply in THIN layers. With a textured surface like mine it may take more thin layers to achieve the glitter affect you are looking to achieve but you should end up with some really nice dimension which was what I was hoping for and didn't get due to the gooey thick nature of the over-loaded glue.

3). its probably a good idea to start out with something you don't care if you ruin for your first try at this. Luckily these flip flops are super cheap and therefore very replaceable but I wish I had started on an older pair first.

I will try this again! Stay tuned for Part 2!

DIY Roman Shades from Mini blinds

Spring is coming and the day was particularly nice so I decided to open up the windows and air my condo out. With the blinds and windows open I realized in horror that my windows were filthy and still covered in paper snowflakes from Christmas. I busted out my widow cleaner and moved from widow to widow which in turn made me notice for the first time in months my horribly UGLY vertical blinds. I wasn't planning to take on a DIY project that day but what the heck, I had the time and supplies available to redo my small back door window so I went for it!

While trolling Pintrest a week or so earlier I had come across a blog with step-by-step instructions on how to convert el cheapo mini blinds into roman shades with no sewing (pureoffaith.blogspot.com) so when a friend asked me if I wanted to join her on an impromptu trip to the fabric store I tried not to shout "YES" and off we went. It was clearly meant to be :)

Since I already had old mini blinds on my back door I figured they'd be perfect to dismantle for this project. If I didn't use them I'd just be throwing them out anyway so if I royally screwed this up it wouldn't be a big deal. I pulled them down and set to fixing the ugly.

I followed the directions (here) and took the bottom piece off, cut the ladder string and took off the extra slats I didn't need. The window is small so I decided on 4 folds. I also took the opportunity to clean it before putting it back together. The whole thing was easier than I thought. Just pop off the little plastic plugs on the bottom with a screw driver to access the thick strings that hold it all together, untie the knot and pull off the bottom. The hardest part was finding the little plug under my couch after my cat thought it would make a fun toy.

I popped the cap off with a screwdriver. Easy Peasy.

the infamous "ladder string"

the ladder string cut

 Cutting the ladder string was nerve wracking because the whole time I was worried if I was cutting the right string. The blogger I was following said she only has to make 3 cuts to get the ladder string off but I had to cut each and every horizontal line to get them off. In the end it looked like hers and the pull up mechanism still worked so I obviously did the right thing.

 

what it looks like with both ladder strings cut and removed

lets get rid of all that extra stuff we don't need

I just re-threaded the string back through the bottom piece and tied a new knot

Unfortunately when I got my new any improved blinds re-assembled I hit a wall as I realized my new fabric was in my son's room who was napping at the time. Face slap. So much for starting a new project off prepared. Next I did what anyone in my shoes would do: I made some coffee and got on Pintrest.

A few days later when more free time found its way into my day I picked up where I left off and started measuring and ironing my fabric. When measuring your blinds it is REALLY important to make sure your blind is pulled all the way out BEFORE cutting your fabric. Good thing a yard left me with some extra :) Next it was time to get my pattern on my fabric. I couldn't find a nice chevron like I was looking for at the store so I bought a light neutral linen and decided to paint my own. I know, I know, Im already doing something Ive never attempted before so why not add another previously untried project to the mix. Overachiever :)

The details of how to paint a chevron pattern yourself are here. I am not the most patient person and this part required some serious patience. It took a couple tries and what felt like forever but eventually I got my fabric taped up. Turns out there is a considerable difference in reading about how to do something like this and actually doing it. The measuring part was straight forward enough but its hard to explain in type the idea of WHERE to place your tape. You have to be very aware of which stripes you are planning on painting and make sure that you tape outside of those areas. That explains why in the blog's tutorial above some of the stripes look wider than others.

My first attempt= horrible. Notice how uneven all the spaces are

Success! The squiggley lines indicate the areas to be painted. Notice that the spaces inside the areas to be painted are still equal to the areas inside the stripes to be left alone but the tape makes it look like some stripes are skinnier than others. This means you've done it right!

clean up time! The craft knife turned out to be too scary for fear of cutting the fabric so I started to rip the tape off using the straight edge of my awesome ruler (I got this is 6th grade and I still have it!).

 I wanted to use the craft paint I had on hand but it turned out the white I was going to use as my base was a dried up mess so I improvised and used some interior white paint I had left over from a furniture project. I was able to achieve the light grey I was looking for by tinting with the craft paint. I would not attempt this on anything that you plan to wash though as I have no idea about the long term compatibility of these two kinds of paints. The type of fabric and paint you use as well as the overall look you're after will determine whether you will need one or two coats. I used linen so the paint distributed somewhat unevenly but I decided that I really like the effect. You cant see any unevenness when viewed without a light source behind it but hung in the window the light shows the thin spots and I got a somewhat distressed look.

all cleaned up and painting!

Ta Da!

 Once my paint was dry I set to trying to figure out how in the heck I was going to get it onto my mini blinds. I folded over my "hem" along the sides and secured with fabric glue before gluing down to the front of the slats. I felt it looked a little cleaner from the back than folding over and gluing onto the back of the slat.

"hemmed" and ready to glue to the mini blind

ready to glue!

 From there I used my trusty glue gun to glue the top of my fabric all along the top of the blind assembly and onto the back as well so that no raw edge would be visible. Then I spaced my slats about 5 inches apart and glued the front (convex) side of each slat to the fabric. At the bottom I secured my "hem" first and then hot glued it to the bottom piece. At first I glued it just to the front side of the bottom piece but found that when hung the heavy bottom piece hung down below the fabric and looked terrible so I glued the top part to the fabric too (before you hurt yourself trying to figure out what the heck I just said just check out the pic below).

extreme close-up!

all glued down and ready to hang!

 My next great adventure was trying to figure out how I was going to attach it to the door. The fabric prevented the top piece from fitting back into the end caps that secured them previously to the door (plus one side was missing a piece and it would fall off on you when you pulled the cord) so I needed to start over. I took the existing assembly down and sanded and touched up the paint on the door before mounting my new and improved shade directly to the door. It was surprisingly easy to drill holes in the top piece of the blind and then I just screwed it in using the holes that were already in the door.

I just screwed it directly into the door

Finished!

I just love how they came out!

For my first project I think this came out great and Im really happy with it. The chevrons came out nice and sharp and the shade works as intended. So much better than that horrible ugly mini blind that was in the window before! Hmmm.... I wonder what else I can add chevrons to? :)

Please feel free to share, comment, question and try at home!

 







  

Welcome!

Work it girl!

About a year ago I quit my soul-sucking, high paying office job to stay at home to raise my kids leaving my husband to bring home the bacon on his own. That decision meant that we'd have to stay in our tiny 1000 sq ft condo and put on hold our dreams of buying a new home. The challenge presented itself right away: how to make our small space more enjoyable and functional for the long haul without spending a boatload of money. No fabulous, pintrest-worthy closet makeovers for me. Oh no, I'd have to do this on the cheap. This was part of the deal when I quit my job so I put my big girl pants on and decided to put my love for repurposing outdated and unloved items into something better to work for me. Writing this blog will help me share my journey and keep me accountable to my goal. 

Unfortunately its still winter here in New Hampshire so new painting projects will need to wait for better painting weather. In the meantime I will post older projects that Ive completed with annotations on lessons learned along the way.

Feel free to leave comments, ask questions and try it at home!