Nook Transformation

If you paid attention to the photos I posted of our house you may have noticed the large nook in the living room. I hated it so much because it seemed like a waste of space where nothing could really go. I wanted to make it a built-in bookcase but didn’t really know how to do it. So, of course, I turned to Pinterest. The tutorial that I found for a DIY bookcase on Pinterest can be found here.

Our nook was a little on the large size: 8 feet tall, 32 inches wide and 21 inches deep. The shelves were going to be large, perfect for displaying large items like the porcelain horse head! We decided to make 5 shelves which divided the space into four 1.5’ tall shelves (including the bottom space) and two 1’ spaces at the top. We went to Home Depot and purchased all the need supplies.

Supplies:

¾” Particle Board

Chair Rail Creations 8” white (2)

1x2x8 Furring Strips (4)

Wood Filler

10x2.5 Screws

2.5” Finishing Nails

An employee at Home Depot was extremely nice and cut our particle board into 6 pieces that measured 32” by 19.5”. We kept the depth of the shelves shorter than the 21” nook because we were going to add decorative chair rail to the front (which added another inch) and we didn’t want the shelves to protrude from the nook.

I had already painted the nook green awhile back when I was painting the whole house. Alex painted all the wood pieces white and was ready to get to work.

At this point I think it is safe to defer to my husband on how the shelves were built.

This is now Alex speaking, taking over from Silvey. I was also responsible for documenting the process, which is why a lot of important information might be missing. This first picture shows the nook before we began installation of the shelves.

The particle board shelves had been cut at Home Depot and were a very snug fit. I cut the furring strips to fit underneath the back and sides of each shelf, ensuring that they were long enough to reach two studs each. I used a stud finder to determine the location of the studs and made sure to screw the strips into those studs the shelf could have simply rested on these supports with no additional connection, but I decided to hammer a few small finishing nails through the shelf into the supports just to keep things feeling solid.

The following image compares a completed shelf with a shelf in progress. Notice how the chair rail really gives the shelf a nice finished look. I applied the chair rail with a small amount of Gorilla Glue and three finishing nails. I had to cut a small opening in the back of the bottom shelf to allow room for the electrical and cable outlet.  

Each shelf had a gap in the back of about half an inch. This enabled the depth of each shelf to be set exactly the same as the others. I used wood filler to fill in the gaps, which actually took quite a while. I don’t think the wood filler putty was meant for large applications like this…but it did work.

I also used wood putty to fill in the small gaps along each side of the shelves and along the edges of the chair rail. Once dried and sanded, the edges looked seamless.

Once all of the edges had been filled and sanded it was time to begin painting. I first taped off the edges of the shelves and painted the walls, shelf undersides, and support strips green. I used paper bags to keep paint from dripping onto the shelves.

Here is a view from underneath. Once the entire underside of each shelf had been pained to match the walls it really made the supports disappear. 

And there you have it. A fairly easy project that took a bit longer than anticipated (Silvey thought I could do it in a day!) Here is the final product…Silvey gets credit for the decorations.

Cost Break Down:

Furring Strip 4 at .75 = $3.00

Particle Board = $18.98

Chair Rail 2 at $8.49 = $16.98

Wood Filler = $2.98

Screws = $8.91

Finish Nails = $3.47

Paint (already had) = Free

Total: $54.32

Because the people at Home Depot are amazing supporters of the military after a 10% discount our final total was = $48.88 

Roman Shades

Curtains!!! Again? Absolutely. This time I made Roman shades for my eat-in-kitchen windows. Of course, the inspiration was a Pinterest post. Here’s how I decided on the fabric for the shades: I was at JoAnns Fabric store (when am I not?) and decided to take a stroll through the Home Décor fabrics. The minute I saw this fabric I was sold. Unfortunately they only had about 1 yard in stock at this particular location. So I had to order more fabric and wait a week for it to come in. I ordered about 8 yards because I wanted enough to make 4 shades even though I only have 3 windows…just in case I botched my first attempt.

Supplies:

Mini Blinds

Fabric

Heat and Bond 

Spray adhesive (or fabric glue)

I followed the instructions, from the blog 365 days to Simplicity, with the addition of a few little tweaks of my own. I could not use the existing blinds because they were yellowed with age and held together with tape. It was also very difficult to raise and lower these 20-year-old blinds. So, I bit the bullet and bought new mini blinds for each window. Maybe that’s an improper turn of phrase. They were only $4 each so it really wasn’t that bad.

Instructions

First measure your window. Mine was 70 inches by 23 inches. I wanted the edges to hang over a little.  I wanted enough fabric so that my final product would be 70 inches by 25 inches. So I cut 75 inches by 30 inches of fabric for my curtains to allow for hemming the sides. 

Now extend your mini blinds all the way out. Cut out the string in the blinds that looks like a ladder (Its the one I am holding in the below picture). Do not cut the thick pull cord that this is wrapped around.

Figure out how many folds you want in your shade. This also depends on how large you want the folds to be and the length of your shades. I read that a good fold length is between 6-9 inches. I chose to have a fold of 7 inches. This is because everything is easier when things can be easily divided. For instance my shade is 70 inches long and I want a 7 inch gap between folds. That means I will have 9 blinds plus the bottom bar so 10 in total. 7x10=70.

Take off the bottom bar. Simply pop out the plastic button and untie the cord. Remove all but your needed blinds. That means for me I was left with 9 blinds. Now remember I said I wanted my shade to be 70 inches. So measure your mini blinds to 70 inches and mark that on the pull cords. Slip the bottom bar back on and tie the string at your marking. Place the plastic button back on.

Back to the fabric. I wanted my fabric to hang so that it was 25 inches wide. I folded the fabric over and made a hem on each side so that I had perfect straight edges which wouldn’t fray with time and use. I made sure that my final product was 25 inches wide. I creased the fold by ironing it down. I then took the hemming Heat and Bond and slipped it between the fold and ironed that down. This just makes sure my fold stays glued down.

Ironing my fold down

Placing Heat and Bond in the Folded crease

Perfect edges and ready for the next steps

I then found the middle of my fabric and made a median line. Similarly, I marked the middle on the blinds and the support bar at the top. This way I could just match up the lines in the middle and everything would be centered.

Make sure the blind pull is flush with the fabric. Also make sure that you glue it so there is room to pull the fabric up and over the top so you won't see the support bar.

In this picture you can see that the blind pull is flush with the fabric

You can use whatever fabric glue that you like. Many people used Mod Podge. From other projects I have done I have come to love and trust spray adhesive Its simple and fast and I was able to hang my drapes in minutes compared to the long time that other glues require to dry.

The Finished Product! Blinds half up.  

Blinds Down

Like always here is a before picture for a comparison 

Cost Break Down

Mini blinds: $4/ blind so $12

Fabric: 11/yard + 40% off so $52 (lots of fabric left over) 

Heat and Bond: Variety pack $6 (I still have tons left over)

Total: $70 or $23 per blind. 

Just for a cost comparison if I only bought the needed 6 yards of fabric for the 3 blinds my total would have been $58 Which is $19.33 per blind.

Compare that to the Roman Shades at Lowe's. The cheapest Roman shade is a plain white fabric that sells for $17.97 per shade. The cheapest patterned Roman shade has stripes and that sells for $39.96 per shade.

Easy Pinterest Project!!

I am not a big fan of the long vertical blinds that hang over sliding glass doors, but they are very efficient to close and open with the long rod that hangs from one end. Since I couldn't think of an alternative covering for the sliding door that wouldn't interfere with easy exits, I decided that it would be better to deal with it and keep the blinds. Eventually, however, I came across a solution on Pinterest involving shear curtains. I couldn't believe that there was a simple and easy way to change my blinds to shear curtains and still maintain the smooth open and close push handle. I was all over that! I thought about it for about a whole day and then went out to purchase the supplies.


I found these simple curtain tabs that I could play with to fit the small openings from which the original blinds hung. It was so simple to pull of the circle and be left with the hook. I quickly hung the shear blinds and was in love with the difference it made 

Without the circle attachment. I kept the circle part you never know what your next project might call for. 

Here is a picture showing the hooks hanging from the original blinds tab. 

I then measured, drilled and hung (all by myself!!) these beautiful curtains from target. This project just took me one impulsive night to buy and hang everything. It probably would have taken even less time if I had a more powerful drill. The one I currently have needs to rest/charge after each hole was drilled.

Finished Product!!

I Love how drapes just make a place feel homier!! 

A sweet before picture of the blinds.

Cost Break Down:

Hooks: $4/bag so $8

Shear drapes:$4.99/shear so $10

Orange Drapes: 19.99/ drape so $40

Curtain Rod: $23

Total: $81 

"I Love Lamp!"

Wow time flies!! Alex and I are so excited to soon be together again. We haven’t seen each other for 3 months now. We know it’s not fun, but sometimes being a military couple means living apart for a while. He is graduating from AFIT with a MS in Aeronautical Engineering and will be headed down to FL before the end of the month. The rest of our household goods will follow him at the beginning of April. When all the furniture is in the house we will begin posting new pictures of the house so you can see the color scheme we are going with and what the place looks like with our furniture in it. 

I have been very busy painting and painting and painting! Besides that tedious task, I have been able to do at least one fun project that I am going to share with you. I’ve wanted to make these lampshades that I saw on Pinterest ever since I “pinned” the project months ago. I found the directions on Mama SaySew.

The Mama Says Sew inspiration 

 The original inspiration form Anthropologie

First I needed lamps, cheap lamps! Alex and I found the lamps pictured below at a thrift store for only $10 for the pair. I couldn’t believe it!

Unfortunately the lampshades were more expensive. It was not possible to find used lampshades in good condition for the size and shape I wanted. The cheapest new pair I could find was $15/shade.

The color I used to spray paint the lamps was satin golden maize. I thought it would go perfectly with that gray, black, white, and yellow theme we are pursuing for our bedroom.

 

I purchased 5 yards of burlap to cover the shades. I covered each lamp shade with burlap leaving excess material to fold into the inside of the lamp and secure with hot glue. I then started to cut strips of burlap. Mama Says Sew suggests these strips should be 1.5 times the length of the lamp shade. I used a factor of 2, which allowed me to have more squiggles on my lampshade. I also had a variety of widths of burlap strips which I felt gave the shade more dimension and character.

Once each strip of burlap was cut I folded it in half and ironed it to produce a straight edge. I then put hot glue on the folded edge and glued that to the lampshade. I played with the placement of each strip when gluing it to the shade. Yep, there is no rhyme or reason for the placement of the burlap strips J  

Cost Break Down

Lamps: $10

Shades: $30

Burlap: $14

Total: $54 or $27/lamp

Wow can you believe it! One shade, no lamp, at Anthropologie costs $88. I got a whole lamp set for $34 cheaper than a single shade. Ahhh, the gratification of DIY! The only downside was the minor glue gun burns I inflicted on myself while accomplishing this project.

Here is an “after” picture of the two lamps. We are going to put them in the master bedroom.

If you look at the wall behind the picture of this lamp you will get a sneak peak of our bedroom wall design. 

Military Moving

This is my first request post! As you all know my husband and I are both military and most of our friends are also young military couples. Since military families generally have to move every two or three years, it is important to understand how the system works and how to accomplish these moves with as little stress as possible. My husband and I both grew up in military families and have experienced many moves over the years, including two of our own as a married couple since 2010. We arranged those moves ourselves, known in the military as a Do-IT-Yourself move (DITY move).

There are a few different ways to do a DITY move. What you must know when doing a DITY move is that you take it upon yourself to move your belongings from point A to Point B. You also have to pay for all of it up front. Keep your receipts because once you’re done you turn them into TMO and get reimbursed.  

In our first DITY move we hired a professional moving company to come out, pack our stuff and move it in a truck to OH and then unload it. We ran into a lot of problems on that move. The movers arrived in the middle of the night instead of mid-afternoon on the packing day, so Alex and I had to do much of the packing ourselves to stay on schedule.  Our stuff was then loaded onto a truck that had household goods from several other families on board. You run a risk when loading your belongings onto a truck that moves more than one family. The risk being that if they had any bed bugs there is always a potential that your stuff could end up being infected by the time you get it. In addition, there is no guarantee that this will be the only truck your stuff rides in. They might transfer it to a second truck along the way if logistics demand it. Nobody will be watching the movers to ensure they are careful when transferring your belongings. Well, our stuff was loaded and driven to OH, where unbeknownst to us, it was unloaded and put into storage. Because of this we did not receive our household items until a week after we planned.  The only thing I love about this move was that someone else had to move all our furniture and boxes into our apartment up three flights of stairs, meaning less work for Alex and I. 

As you can see from the amazing diagram, there were a lot of transitions between points A and B, which meant more potential for things to break. 

We decided to give PODS a try for our second DITY move. This experience was significantly better than our first. They have a military discount and often work with military families so they know that you need the empty and full weight tickets. We basically packed up all our stuff put it in the POD and then did as the directions said and set off a bug bomb so that if there were any bugs that got into the POD they would be dead and not a problem when we got to our final destination. What we really liked is that our stuff stays in the POD till we ask for it to be delivered. It stayed in an air-conditioned storage warehouse in Pensacola until we asked for it to be dropped off at our new home. That way we could take our time with the home search and buying process without worrying about our household goods. The only downside is that they charge a flat rate for each month you have the POD in storage beyond the first month, and they don’t pro-rate so if you go over by one day you must pay for the whole month. 

One of the only challenges with this type of move is that you must pack the POD yourself. The alternative is to get a bunch of friends to help out and buy them all pizza and beer, or hire a labor company for a few hours. However, you can take as long as you want to load your POD, so Alex and I packed ours over a span of four days and were able to move all but two items by ourselves. The best part about PODS, at least in our experience, was that the service was excellent and everyone was easy to work with. Also, the only way any of your stuff will break is if you pack it poorly, and you never have to worry about anyone else handling your stuff. Nobody else has a key to the lock on your POD except you.

Here is a picture of our POD almost fully packed.

Just in-case you were wondering here is a list of everything we were able to fit into the POD. It was their standard large size.

Number	Item
1	Twin mattress
1	Large twin wood box frame with three drawers
1	Full size futon and frame
2	Decorative chairs
4	Kitchen Chairs
1	Kitchen Table
1	Coffee table
2	End tables
1	Side table
1	King size headboard and foot board (purchased the kings size mattress in FL)
1	Large Dresser (seen in pic)
1	TV stand
1	32” tv
1	Decorative trunk
1	Storage bench
1	Wingback couch
1	Large bookcase
1	Wingback chair (going to re-upholster soon)
4	Plastic boxes
2	Plastic drawer storage units
32	Small cardboard boxes
11	Medium cardboard boxes
7	Large cardboard boxes
1	45lb bar (the following are all components of our garage gym)
4	45lb plates
2	35lb plates
2	25lb plates
2	10lb plates
1	Plastic crate full of charger plates
2	Workout sleds
6	Sandbags
1	Bench press stand
2	Stall mats

We also filled every drawer with items too so there was no wasted space! For the military members who are thinking of doing a DITY move, consider PODS. It’s super easy and the reimbursement process is simple and fair. 

New Appliances

We are now one step closer to my dream kitchen! My least favorite thing about this house was the lack of a microwave and the outdated appliances. We went out after a day in the new house and started to look at appliances. I knew what I wanted from the minute I saw it. I wanted a double range gas top stove. It was beautiful and calling my name. The good news was I could get it, but the bad news was there was a sale that I had to wait a week for before I would purchase anything. The sale really cut the cost of our purchase. Not only were we able to get 10% off our whole purchase because of the sale we were also able to take an extra 10% off of that because Lowes is an awesome supporter of the military and offers a 10% discount on every purchase for military service members.

The most amazing purchase was our Whirpool Gold 30-inch 4-burner double oven gas range

Whirlpool Gold 23.875-inch built-in dishwasher

Samsung 1.8 Cu. Ft. over-the-range microwave. Because we wanted the gas stove we found we were limited in our choice of over-the-range microwaves due to the strong blower requirements for gas top stoves. We chose the cheaper of the two choices we were given. The microwave is the only appliance that is not a Whirpool but it still goes well with the stove and dishwasher.

Dishwasher "Before"

What was hiding under the dishwasher. The man installing the appliances let me have as much time as I wanted to scrub out this area. 

Dishwasher "After"

The Stove and hood "Before"

The stove and new microwave-hood "After"

You can also catch a glimpse of the color that I picked for the kitchen and the amazing flowers that my husband had sent to me for Valentines day.

                                                                                                                                              

Cost Break Down

Appliance	Price	10% Discount	10% Military Discount	Installation fee	Price paid
Oven	$1,549.00	$1,394.10	$1,254.19	$135	$1389.69
Dishwasher	$599	$539.10	$485.19	$105	$590.19
Microwave	$319	$287.1	$258.39	$169	$427.39
				Total	$2,407.47

    

The reason for the installation of the microwave being  greater than the other appliances was because we had to convert our hood into a microwave hood so there was more electrical work needed than for the other installations. Also Lowe's has free delivery and haul-away which made everything very simple on my end!