One Room Challenge Week 4

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’re heading into week 4 on the One Room Challenge. I feel like the laundry room has turned the corner. By that I mean, I’m seeing some serious progress.

The transformation isn’t limited to the laundry room, either. In the spare bedroom (aka the painting area), I folded up all the drop cloths, put the paint cans away and swept the floor. It’s almost ready to go back to being a bedroom. In the basement, I broke out of the laundry room and vacuumed the carpet. This may seem like a more regular chore, but it represent serious progress because vacuuming has been on hold (as if I need an excuse) until the “messy” stuff in the laundry room is all done.

In the laundry room itself, the walls are all painted and the machines are back in place. Shall we sing praises to the power of paint? There’s no decoration or accessories, but I already feel like things are starting to come together.

Let’s take a minute and talk about laundry pedestals, okay? When we bought our new machines and chose front loaders, I knew I wanted pedestals. I hate bending over to just a few inches above the floor to do laundry. The pedestals solve that problem easily.

They do remove the ability to put a counter over the top of the machines (unless I was 10 feet tall, which I’m definitely not). I didn’t need more counter space, though, so it wasn’t a big sacrifice. The pedestals also give a lot of storage in the drawers (although to be honest I haven’t used that either).

I probably could have simply built a platform and saved us the expense of the pedestals (and they were expensive for what they are). However, I do like that we have the option of using the drawers if we want to, and I also like that they match our machines.

You might recall that I mentioned in my update two weeks ago that the washer vibrates crazily (and noisily) when it goes into the spin cycle. While we had it pulled out of the way for painting, I took the opportunity to check it over. It turns out that the bolts holding the pedestal to the machine were all loose. A few quick turns with the socket wrench tightened everything up. Now that the washer’s back in place, it’s operating much smoother and quieter. Task #11 done.

Here’s the rest of the updated to-do list. In total I was able to cross three things off this week. Let’s hear it for progress!

~~Add shaker style trim to the cabinets~~
~~Paint the cabinets~~
~~Install doors and drawers~~
~~Remove ceiling rack – By Oct. 3~~
~~Patch ceiling and walls – By Oct. 3~~
~~Paint ceiling – By Oct. 10~~
~~Paint and install baseboard and paint window trim – By Oct. 10~~ Done Oct. 13
Deep clean (sink, counter, floor, machines) – ~~Oct. 13~~ Rescheduled to Oct. 19 26
~~Paint walls – By Oct. 17~~ Done Oct. 18
~~Replace ivory washer outlet with white one – By Oct. 19~~ Done Oct. 18
~~Level washing machine – By Oct. 19~~ Done Oct. 18
Build and install ceiling rack – By Oct. 24
Build and install towel bar – By Oct. 24
Install cabinet hardware – ~~By Oct. 24~~ Rescheduled to Nov. 11
Build and install light fixture – By Oct. 26
Remove non-working sprayer from the sink and plug the hole – By Oct. 26
Decorate – By Oct. 31

Still on tap for this week? Paint touch-ups, some minor electrical work, and starting on the ceiling rack, towel bar and light fixture.

I like the small projects stage of the makeover. Hopefully they go smoothly and progress happens quickly.

If you’re curious to see the progress that other ORC participants have made, make sure to head over to Calling it Home.

How do you feel about laundry pedestals? Do you have a front loader or a top loader? What’s your favourite stage of a project? Painting? Small bits? Electrical?

Hand-knit felted slippers

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A sure sign it’s fall for me is the return of slippers.

A sure sign I need new slippers is this picture. Shameful!

My friends had tried to convince me to throw these out more than a year ago. Honestly, I completely agreed with them. The problem was I had nothing to replace my raggedy slippers.

All of this is to explain how I found myself spending time this summer sitting on a beach with knitting needles in my hands.

Et voilà!

Confused? Check them out after a few turns in the washing machine.

Still confused?

These are French Press Felted Slippers. It’s my fifth time making these slippers. The idea is that you knit over-sized slippers out of real wool and then throw them in the washing machine in super hot water. They shrink down to the size they’re supposed to be and the material becomes stiff and fabricy.

Felting is a pretty neat process. The final product is very solid. You can even cut it and it won’t unravel like regular knitting.

However, I’m not relying on my slipper’s natural density to avoid having another holey situation. I had some leftover fake leather, so I cut some soles out of that and stitched it onto the bottom of the slippers.

Let’s try this picture again.

Much cozier without the holes.

Are there any other knitters out there? Have you ever felted anything? How about anyone else with holes in their slippers… or even your socks?

Challenges in the One Room Challenge

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The recommended theme for today’s One Room Challenge update is setbacks. It turns out that this is actually a fitting topic for this point in the laundry room makeover.

Setback 1: The times in between

I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but this one’s a common challenge for me in DIYing. In between each stage of a project, I sometimes find it hard to change gears.

I finished painting the cabinets, but then the idea of getting the ceiling ready for painting–never mind actually painting it–was extremely challenging.

A great thing about the One Room Challenge is it helps keep me moving.

Baseboards installed. Yay!

As I posted on Friday, work kicked my butt last week. I fought back, putting in extra time and staying late at the office. Of course, this meant that I had less time at home to work on the laundry room. Which meant that I finally started painting the ceiling at 9pm the night before my scheduled deadline.

I’m sure time will be a common challenge among ORC participants. Heck, finding time is a common challenge of DIYers everywhere, I think.

However, I am very pleased to report that I’m nearly on schedule. Here’s the original plan with adjusted deadlines and a few new tasks.

~~Add shaker style trim to the cabinets~~
~~Paint the cabinets~~
~~Install doors and drawers~~
~~Remove ceiling rack – By Oct. 3~~
~~Patch ceiling and walls – By Oct. 3~~
Prime walls (pshaw, who needs prime?) and ~~paint ceiling – By Oct. 10~~
~~Paint and install baseboard and paint window trim – By Oct. 10~~ I was a bit behind schedule on install, but it’s done as of Oct. 13
Deep clean (sink, counter, floor, machines) – ~~Oct. 13 (Happy Thanksgiving Monday!)~~ Rescheduled to Oct.19
Paint walls (first coat is on, one more to go) – By Oct. 17
New Replace ivory washer outlet with white one – By Oct. 19
Level washing machine – By Oct. 19
Build and install ceiling rack – By Oct. 24
Build and install towel bar – By Oct. 24
Install cabinet hardware – ~~By Oct. 24~~ Rescheduled to Nov. 11 due to setback #3 (see below)
Build and install light fixture – By Oct. 26
New Remove non-working sprayer from the sink and plug the hole – By Oct. 26
Decorate – By Oct. 31

So it might be a problem that I keep remembering new tasks to add to the list. It seems like I’m adding things as fast as I’m crossing them off. However, the progress is continuing despite a couple more setbacks.

Setback 2: Paint

The second setback isn’t really serious enough to be classified as a setback. It’s more of a lesson learned.

When it comes to painting ceilings, I just use white primer. We had a bit of primer left in the giant pail that we used for the rest of the basement reno. To make sure the colour was absolutely consistent, I wanted to use this primer. Well, it turns out that this paint has been sitting a little too long. There were all kinds of hardened bits in it. It made painting the laundry room ceiling incredibly frustrating. I got a mostly smooth finish, but I only did one coat. I think it looks good enough. If I have to, I will strain the paint and go again.

The other lesson learned (or confirmed) when it comes to paint is that BM Wrought Iron definitely has blue undertones. I first used Wrought Iron in Matt’s windowless bathroom. There it looks pretty pure, super dark grey. In the laundry room, where there’s lots of natural light from the window, the cabinets look a bit navy blue sometimes.

For the wall colour, we walked up the paint strip and chose a much lighter tone of grey from the same slip as Wrought Iron. It’s close to Bunny Gray (read the story of our Frankencolour). We already knew that this one was slightly blue as we used it on all of the other walls throughout the basement. I had intended that the walls and the cabinets would be a purer grey, but I don’t care enough to repaint.

Plus, anything’s better than that yellow. Sing it with me people in the tune of Elton John, “Goodbye yellow gross paint.”

Setback 3: The hardware

The final setback I’ve had is the cabinet hardware. I wanted cup pulls for the drawers. I wanted them to be pretty simple without a flange or other details, and I wanted a chrome finish. I had ordered these pulls from Home Depot.

A week or so after I placed the order, I got a call from HD that they couldn’t get anyone at the manufacturer to answer email or the phone.

I looked at other big box stores and couldn’t find what I was looking for. HD had offered me a refund, but it took me awhile to make it into the store. By the time I was standing in front of the customer service desk, the associate let me know they’d started receiving orders again from the company. If you read my post on Friday, this is when I heard, “I’ll give you the refund, but let’s try and place the order again. I won’t charge you even if it goes through.”

How awesome is that?

A few days later I came home to a message from HD. My order went through (yay!), but the pulls are on back order (boo!). They should be here by Nov. 10. That’s just nearing the end of the One Room Challenge. I think I should be able to get them on in time for the final reveal.

The moral of the story

So, setbacks aside, the challenge rolls on. The best thing about this challenge is how encouraging everyone is. It’s been amazing to connect with other bloggers and have so many new people stop by my blog and offer their comments. Seeing everyone else’s projects is also super inspiring.

Make sure you get a chance to visit Calling it Home and see all of the works in progress.

Summer project report

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Take a journey with me back to February, would you?

Don’t worry. You don’t have to actually go back to the time of snow and cold and dark.

Just remember back in February when we painted the foyer, kitchen and hallway.

Now let’s go back a little bit further to January when I posted my 2014 Home Goals, and I said I wasn’t going to paint the living room this year.

Well, I lied… kind of.

The kitchen, hall, foyer and living room all run together, so I planned to paint them all the same colour. Knowing that I wanted to set up my bookshelves this year, back in February Matt and I painted one wall of the living room–the wall I planned to put the bookshelves on. I figured once my shelves were set up and full of books, I wouldn’t want to take everything down again to paint behind them.

So the living room has looked a little bit like this for the past six months. Stylish, I know.

Well, the thing is, when I started the bookshelf makeover this month, I realized that if I put the shelves where I originally planned, we wouldn’t have room to walk around the couch and into the dining room. I decided to put them on the opposite wall. A wall which was unpainted. Whoopsie-doodle.

So my August project report goes something like this.

~~Put the bookshelves that had gotten damaged in the move back together.~~
~~Took the big fat bookshelf apart, cut it in half and rebuilt two new sets of shelves.~~
~~Added iron-on edging to the new shelves where I needed to.~~
~~Stripped the paint off the TV stand.~~
~~Raised the TV stand by half an inch and added trim around the bottom.~~
~~Painted the TV stand.~~
~~Realized I was going to have to paint the living room.~~

Here’s some evidence that I did actually do some work on the bookshelves.

Despite my progress, the bookshelves are kind of on hold right now. They’re all set up in the guest room ready to be painted. However, I’ve shifted my attention to the living room.

The prep process is exactly the same as what we had to go through for the hallway:

~~Pull out nails where pictures were hung.~~
~~Take off cover plates.~~
~~Sand the incredibly rough walls.~~
~~Patch holes and divots.~~
~~Wipe down the trim.~~
Paint the trim.
Prime the walls.
Paint (two coats).

The living room is both simple and complicated to paint. Complicated because it’s a vaulted ceiling that requires a big ladder to reach the top of the wall. Simple because on the two walls I’m painting, there is an archway on one and a patio door on the other. The actual wall space is minimal.

And yes, you read that correctly. I am painting only two walls. Of the four walls in the living room one is already painted (as you saw) and the other contains the fireplace. I am not painting around the fireplace until we’re done whatever we do with the fireplace.

So my August project is another bit of a fail. I did manage to get the TV stand completely finished though. I’ve put it in place, even though we’ll likely have to move it when we paint. I had to finish something this month.

What did you accomplish this month? Have you ever gotten mid-way through a project and only to find your to-do list has grown?

Taking paint off melamine

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The question of the day was can I strip paint off of melamine? The answer was kind of.

This is not my favourite piece of furniture. (Not the TV. I love my TV. My problem’s with the TV stand.)

I attempted to build it when we lived at our old house. We had gotten a new TV. We needed a TV stand. I had some white melamine left over. So I sliced it up and went to work.

Cutting went fine.

Assembling not so much.

I didn’t have the right tools or fasteners and as my rocky, shaky shelf collapsed for about the fifth time, I called my Dad.

My Dad and I knocked it together in no time, but when I painted it I ran into trouble again.

My roller was disintegrating as I painted, and I ended up with all kinds of bits stuck to my shelf. It didn’t improve with time. The dark brown paint showed dust really easily, and when I tried to wipe it down, the dust just got caught in the flecks and it looked even worse. Believe it or not, this is the bottom shelf after I’d wiped it down.

I decided to include the TV stand as part of my bookshelf makeover this month. I’m not planning to strip the paint off of all the bookshelves, but the finish on the TV stand was just too awful. I needed a fresh start.

I went with my usual chemical stripper, and it worked pretty well. The stripper made quick work of the paint, even though it’s a heavy-duty oil-based enamel. The stripper also took off the white coating on the melamine. I’m not too worried because I’m going to be repainting, but the finish was a little bit rough. I went over it with my sander to smooth everything out. It may not look great, but I think it’s going to be okay.

This week my Dad and I are tackling the rest of the shelves. We’ll be cutting down, putting back together and adding trim. Painting will come soon after. The TV stand should be looking much better the next time you see it. Maybe I’ll even like it by that point.

Have you ever tried to take paint off of melamine? Have you ever painted melamine in the first place? It’s not that hard to do… as long as your equipment is half decent. Has anyone else run into problems with disintegrating rollers? Do you have a piece of furniture that you don’t love?

Popcorn ceiling and barn doors

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So July’s project was my biggest failure yet. Remember that dirty bumpy stippled ceiling in the guest room/soon-to-be master bedroom?

Yeah. It’s still there.

The week that I was planning to start operation popcorn, Kate posted about removing the stipple ceiling in the flip she and her husband are working on. She mentioned doing an asbestos test before she started. Our house is built the era where asbestos might have been used, so I thought a test sounded like a good idea.

However, finding a test kit was harder than expected. It seems home tests are an American thing. I ended up finding one online. So the extent of my progress this month is a credit card charge and my Dad’s drywall sander sitting in a corner of the guest room. 😦 (Please note as well the light switches behind the door. Really convenient.)

Wanna see some actual progress? Let’s look at some other doors instead.

Hello basement barn doors.

Here’s the before picture just for reference.

Yes, redoing the doors was June’s project, but the painting was left until July. It must have been something about this month because, like with the stippled ceiling, the final stages of painting and hanging the doors didn’t go smoothly.

For painting, I planned to use my Dad’s sprayer… or rather I planned to have Matt use my Dad’s sprayer. Well, the air compressor conked out, so spraying was a no go. So much for all of the time we spent tarping the driveshed.

Our mechanical difficulties are totally on me. I was the one who set up the air compressor. Earlier the same day I’d killed the push mower, so I obviously had a hex working when it came to mechanical objects.

Painting became a team effort as Matt rolled and I brushed. Soooooo sloooooow.

Installing the doors turned out to be another headache. Only five out of the nine doors that we made over fit smoothly back in place. Somehow, two doors grew so that they were too fat for their openings. The closet door that we’d accidentally put the trim on the wrong side wouldn’t close because the trim hit the doorstop (I don’t know why I didn’t realize this would be a problem). The best one was discovering another door where I’d put the Z on the backside. No idea how I missed this. My mistake left the completely flat slab door facing out into the room–exactly the situation I was trying to correct.

Ugh. I was very frustrated.

It took a few hours of work spread over a few days to fix my mess ups, including repainting. Double ugh.

Matt was very patient, installing and removing the doors multiple times as I tested the fit.

Finally, all of the doors fit, swung smoothly and closed properly.

I installed the old hardware that I’d ORBed, and I called this one done.

The Z detail is subtle–the strips are only about an eighth of an inch thick–but I think it’s a really nice touch. Our barn doors are absolutely a lot more interesting than the flat slab doors. Plus they fit really well in our farm setting.

Issues aside, this is a pretty easy update–and much, much more affordable than buying nine new doors. It would have been even cheaper if I hadn’t bought all new hinges. All in, this makeover cost less than $200 (although I did use glue and nails that I already had):

Panels (two sheets of hardboard cut into 6-inch strips): $18.53
Hinges (Stanley Home Designs in Egyptian bronze-I couldn’t find the exact version online, but this one is close although a little more expense): $96.39
Paint (Benjamin Moore Cloud White in the pearl finish): $59.67
Spray paint (Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze): $11.28
Total: $185.87 (just over $20 per door)

Our master bedroom makeover may not have started, but our basement makeover came a lot closer to finally being finished.

Let’s just not discuss that the basement was summer 2012’s project.

Raised dog food stand

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Special occasions should be marked by presents. So for Baxter’s Gotcha Day, I made him a dinner table all his own.

I took inspiration from the DIY Pet Food Station that Kim and Scott made for their Jack over at Yellow Brick Home. As much as I coveted the hairpin legs that they used (love the industrial-rustic mix), I didn’t find any at a price I was willing to pay. So I went to the bench I made for the mudroom and adjusted it to be doggie size.

Like with the bench, I dug into my beat-up antique lumber stash in the barn. People, these planks are absolutely amazing. Sure they weigh 3 tonnes and are covered in poop and who knows what, but they’re phenomenal. The plank I chose was too big and heavy for me to move on my own, so I lopped off a 4 foot piece with my circular saw and got to building.

I think the details on the construction are pretty self-explanatory, especially if you reference my bench plans. I used my Kreg jig to attach the legs with three screws each. In terms of finished measurements, the stand is 10 inches high, 24 inches long, and 10 inches deep. The legs are at about a 15 degree angle and are 8 1/4 inches end to end. The bowls are 7 1/2 inches in diameter.

Cutting the circles for the bowls was the hardest part. I drew my circles using the bowls for a template. Then I drilled a hole so that I had a spot to insert my jigsaw blade, and I cut along the line. I think I figured out why this wood is so darn heavy. It is super duper dense. My jigsaw blade broke before it was even halfway around the first cutout. Initially the cutting was so slow that I thought my blade was dull. But when I installed the new blade after my first one snapped, it still took a significant amount of force to push the jigsaw along the line ever, ever so slowly. And I had to do it twice! Darn dog needing water as well as food.

To seal and protect my dense, hard, beat-up beautiful wood, I turned to Waterlox, the same solution we used on our DIY kitchen counter. It’s food safe for humans, so it’s an appropriate finish to use on a stand whose sole purpose is to hold (dog) food. Nothing’s too good for my puppy.

From my past experience with the bench when it turned black because it sucked up so much stain, I knew that the wood would be thirsty, and boy was I right. It took about three coats before the finish started to build up and look shiny on the wood. Even then, there were some sections (the ones with the most worm holes) that just sucked the Waterlox right in. All in all, I did a total of 6 coats of finish.

After that, it was simply about putting the bowls in the stand and filling them up! Tip: kibble on its own isn’t very appetizing. Sweet potatoes make it much more palatable. (That is, if you’re Julia. If you’re Matt you give in to the sad eyes and put ketchup on it. Yeah, my husband and the dog are totally related.)

Bon appetit, Baxter. Or as Matt says, “Mangey, mangey”–as in French “mange” with an “ee” ending. (He and the dog share their own language as well as the same taste buds.)

Do your pets get presents? How do you handle pet food at your house? What’s your pet’s favourite food?

Operation popcorn

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You know those things that you have to do, want to do, but don’t really want to do? That’s this month’s project.

The plan is to start our master bedroom makeover. Step one is remove the popcorn ceiling (the fan’s on the list too).

I’ve been saving this project until I could open the windows, as there is likely to be a bit of dust and mess.

What are you up to this July? Do you have any tips for removing stippled ceilings? In the basement, I scraped some and sanded others. Sanding’s way messier, but I got a nice smooth finish and had to do less patching.

How to make a fabric-covered bulletin board

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

While the dresser may be the workhorse of my new office nook, the beauty queen is definitely the fabric-covered bulletin board that hangs above it.

Since I was working with such specific measurements in this tiny space, I decided that my best option was to make my own bulletin board.

Home Depot sells prefab cork panels that are 48 inches by 24 inches, very close to the dimensions I needed, so I started with that. Then I found a piece of decorative molding to build my frame. I considered some of the very fancy crown moldings, but a lot of those are very wide. Given that I only had about 20 inches total to work with, I didn’t want to take up too much space just with the frame. I wanted as much pin-up space as possible.

For the back of the frame, I bought some 5/8 inch by 2 inch strips. After ripping them in half, they were about half an inch narrower than my molding. By attaching them to the back of the molding with some glue and little nails, I was able to make a recessed area for the cork to sit.

I used my mitre saw to cut each side of the frame to the right length at a perfect forty-five degree angle. Tip: When you’re cutting pieces on an angle, mark your desired length as you usually would at 90 degrees. Add a tick mark to the left or right to remind yourself which way you’ll need to angle your cut your.

Each corner got a few dabs of glue, and then I nailed them together with my Dad’s nail gun. Tip: To check that your frame is square, measure diagonally from corner to corner. The dimensions should be the same between each diagonal pair. Twist your frame a bit to the left or right until your measurements match exactly.

Once my frame was perfectly square, I caulked all of the nail holes and corner joints. Tip: Keep a damp sponge on hand as you’re caulking. Wetting your finger before smoothing out the caulk gives a nice even finish. Plus the sponge gives you a spot to wipe any excess caulk off your hands before you get it all over yourself. Not that I’m speaking from past experience, or anything. Oh, and make sure you choose paintable caulk.

I let everything dry and then it was time for paint. I knew I wanted a bit of glitz, so I decided to go with gold. A few light coats of spray paint did the job.

With the frame done, I moved on to the cork. The prefab piece was close, but just a bit too wide. It cut easily with a knife, and then a quick rub with fine sandpaper smoothed any ragged edges. Tip: Cut the the cork about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch smaller than the frame. A little bit too loose is better than too tight. Plus any gap will be hidden by the recessed channel behind the frame.

Covering the cork in fabric was no more complicated than wrapping a present. I cut the fabric about 6 to 7 inches bigger than the cork panel, so that I had plenty to wrap around the back. I pulled it taunt and stapled it in place. The corners got a bit of extra pleating and a few extra staples.

I slipped the cork into the frame. To hold it in place, I tacked staples part way into the frame at four different points around the back side of the frame. I can easily pull these out if I ever want to change the fabric.

I flipped it over and was dazzled. Pretty! Pink! Flowers! Colour! Gold!

I was so dazzled that I didn’t spend too much time coming up with a technical solution to hang it on the wall. I just wanted it up. My solution was two finishing nails hammered into the drywall on the same level. Their small heads fit easily between the edge of the frame and the cork, and the board is light enough that that’s all the support it needs.

Anchoring securely might be more important if you have small children or other things you don’t want bulletin boards falling on, although we’ve had no issue with the board shifting or falling since I installed it.

Fabric covered bulletin boards are a pretty easy and popular DIY. Have you ever made one? How do you bring beauty to functional pieces like bulletin boards? Are you a floral sparkle fan?

How to make a tall narrow dresser

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

When I reorganized the tiny nook in my office, I knew that I had to add some kind of storage. A dresser was the ideal solution. Drawers would allow me to tuck things away, and the surface would give me a spot to write notes and set my purse and keys.

So I had some pretty specific requirements: drawers, about counter top height, oh, and it had to fit in the nook, which was 16 inches deep by 24 inches wide. Of course, it also had to be cheap.

Well, I had no luck finding a piece of furniture that met those standards. However, I soon realized that nightstands often have drawers and are usually small enough to fit this little space. While nightstands are much shorter than countertop height, they usually come in pairs. Couldn’t I just stack them one on top of another?

It turns out, yep, I can.

Here’s what I started with. Two little nightstands I found at the Salvation Army thrift store for $12 each.

First step of any furniture makeover: remove the drawers and the hardware. It turned out that one of the drawers contained a plastic hardhat, so I got distracted by that for a little while. Consider this your PSA to always wear safety equipment (hardhat, safety glasses and ear protection) while DIYing.

Anyways, back to work. I started taking apart the dressers. I popped the backs off of each of them. Then I took the top off one and the bottom off another. The nightstands came apart really easily. The backs were just stapled in place. The top was attached to corner blocks that were screwed in place. The decorative trim at the bottom was tacked with some little nails. I needed a few different tools, and I was thankful for my stubby screwdrivers that fit in some of the tighter nooks and crannies, but dismantling these pieces of furniture was not a taxing task.

Once they were apart, it was time for something that was a little more taxing: cutting. The nightstand that was going on the bottom had to be trimmed along the top, and the one that was becoming the top half had to be cut down along the bottom. Clear? I measured the spacing between the drawers to figure out exactly where to make my cut and marked the line with painters tape.

Four quick slices with my circular saw, and the dressers were the right height. I set them on top of each other and was super excited. It was looking like I envisioned.

Now I just had to figure out how to actually attach the two halves. When I’d taken apart the dressers, I’d removed some side braces. I was able to reuse those pieces on the inside of the dresser. I ran them half on the bottom and half on the top and screwed right through the side into the brace. My dresser was now all one piece and it was solid, but it was ugly. No amount of wood filler was going to fix that joint.

The solution was overlaying a very thin panel along the whole side. I had 1/8 inch MDF, which I cut down to the exact dimensions of the side of the dresser. I tacked it in place with small finishing nails, and it covered up the gap completely.

A bit of wood filler camouflaged the joint on the front of the dresser. While I had the wood filler out, I filled the holes on the drawers where the original pulls had been and a few other spots on the dresser where the veneer was chipped.

After a light sanding all over, I primed the dresser and drawers, and then they all got a coat of creamy white paint–Cloud White in Benjamin Moore’s Advance formula. This was my first time using Advance, and I really like it. The finish is nice and smooth (I used a foam roller), it has none of the stickiness that you sometimes get with latex after it dries, and it has been very durable. In the past, I’ve used heavy duty oil paints on furniture or cabinets. The clean up is a pain and the stench is noxious. None of that is an issue with Advance, and in my opinion it’s held up just as well as an oil finish.

The finishing touch for the dresser was new crystal (plastic) nobs. This is one area where I got a bit neurotic. The nobs that I chose had a metal post that went through the middle. The posts were brushed nickel. I’m not a fan. Plus, I already had oil-rubbed bronze and gold/brass elsewhere in the office. I’m not good with mixing metals, so I spray painted all of the metal pins with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. It was easy, but probably not entirely necessary.

As you saw last week, the dresser fits perfectly in the nook. It ended up being the exact right height, and I’m loving having all of the drawers to keep me organized.

What second hand furniture have you made over? Have you ever made two pieces into one? How do you handle hard-to-furnish spots with specific dimensions?