Don’t ever give up

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This was a different post when I wrote it in my head the first time on my drive home from work on Tuesday evening. By the time I turned into my driveway it was this post you see before you.

Work kicked my butt on Tuesday. I made a couple of really big mistakes on an important project I’m responsible for. I said some really bad swear words and came close to shedding a few tears. It was a low point.

Then on the way home, I stopped at Home Depot. I was getting a refund on a special order they hadn’t been able to find for me. The associate said, “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.”

Back on the road, there was a back up of cars and lots of flashing lights at the roundabout I drive through every day. As I came around the curve, I saw a bad accident with a dump truck.

And this is why my attitude had changed by the time I made it home. I had a bad day at work. That’s all it was. There were other good things that happened to me, and things could have been a lot worse.

I will still recite my mantra of “Be the duck. Be the duck.” (You know, feet paddling madly under the water but feathers smooth and unruffled above).

However, what started to play a little more loudly in my head was, “Don’t ever give up.” In fact, this mantra inspired me to dig into the boxes in my office and pull out this poster.

This hung in the office at my middle school. When I was in grade 8 I finally worked up the courage to ask one of the teachers to photocopy it for me. It’s hung on a bulletin over my various desks ever since then.

Obviously, it’s been packed away too long. It’s now back up on the bulletin board in my office here.

How was your week? Hopefully it was better than mine. Let’s all have a good weekend, okay?

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?

Office nook details

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments on the nook in my office. Today I’m going to go into more detail on the particulars of this little corner.

Starting at the top, there is the bulletin board. I’ve always been a bulletin board kind of girl. Whiteboards just don’t work as well for me. For this tiny nook, I needed something tall and narrow, which meant custom. I’ll share the details of how I made this bulletin board next week. It’s a simple wood frame that I spray painted gold, and the cork is covered in one of my favourite fabrics, Brissac Jewel by P Kaufmann Fabric. I’ve had this piece of fabric for close to five years. I’m really glad that I decided to use it here. Its beautiful colours make me happy.

Our calendar hangs beside the bulletin board. It’s just a freebie wall calendar hanging from a simple cup hook. It’s basic, but it’s so helpful to get things out of my head and organized on paper where both Matt and I can see them. (Ignore the unpatched screw hole and the two-tone paint).

Continuing our way down, we come to the top of the dresser. This was always meant to be a place to set my purse and keys when I come home from work. My dear friend made me a handy little tray that’s perfect for my keys. She took a picture frame, removed the back, added cork feet to the underside and put a pretty piece of sparkly paper inside. I love the blend of the slightly rustic wood frame with the sparkle of the paper.

I’ve had the little lamp for pretty much as long as I can remember. My grandpa rewired it when I was little, and it’s been with me ever since. Growing up in my childhood bedroom it had a pretty pink shade. This newest shade is a second hand burlap one that I picked up at Value Village. The burlap is a nice contrast with the glass base. I’ve gotten into the habit of turning on the lamp at night before we head down to the basement to watch TV. It casts such a nice glow in the hallway when I come back upstairs to go to bed. Definitely my favourite look for this nook.

The anchor of the nook is obviously the dresser. Since I was working with such specific dimensions in this spot, finding the right piece of furniture was a bit of a challenge. As usual, DIY is the best solution. I’ll be sharing the tutorial of how I made the dresser next week.

This piece is small but mighty. Four drawers give me lots of space to tuck away everything: pens, paper, tape, chargers, receipts waiting to be filed, coupons, bits of paper, even extra tools and flashlights. In the top drawer, a cutlery organizer that I picked up at Value Village fits perfectly. In the other three drawers, I used IHeart Organizing’s Cereal Box Drawer Organizers to keep everything neat and tidy. (Yes, even my hammer now lives in a box wrapped in flowered pink paper).

The elements of this nook have come together slowly over the past few months. With each new addition, I feel more organized. I’ve spent the time to think about what I need and what makes sense to include in this corner. Even better, it’s not just functional. It’s pretty too.

What makes you feel organized? Are you a fan of bulletin boards or white boards? How do you blend pretty and functional?

Office nook before and after

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

My office is a room of many issues, but there’s one corner that gets the award for most-improved.

It’s a wee tiny alcove just inside the door. The space measures 16 inches deep by 24 inches wide. When we moved in, and for the first year and a half of living here, this space was fitted with some ridiculous built in shelving. The fact that it started at about five feet in the air and went up to the ceiling made it basically unusable.

Not that you’d want to use it anyway. It was filthy.

Can I just ask why things in this house have to be both weird and gross? I mean, shelving that’s over your head out of reach isn’t enough? It also has to be disgusting?

One night, I snapped and decided that the shelving had to come down. Of course, it turned out it wasn’t that simple. The shelving had been installed all in one piece before the door casing was put on, and even once I unscrewed it from the wall, it wasn’t going anywhere. Smushing the shelving into a parallelogram allowed me to slide it past the casing and get it out of the nook. Then a set of Allen keys allowed me to take it apart into its composite melamine pieces. There were a few dings in the wall, but otherwise it was a victory. The nook was empty.

Painting the office will happen all at once sometime in the future. So for now I wasn’t worried about patching the drywall or dealing with the two tone paint that removing the shelf had uncovered. I did want to make the space more functional, though, and I didn’t want to wait.

The office is right off the kitchen, so I decided that this was a perfect spot to build a bit of a command centre. A place for the grocery list, a calendar, important numbers, even a spot to put my purse and keys when I come home at the end of the day.

I needed some storage, some display and lots of organization. Here’s what I came up with.

It may be a weird tiny space, but I’ve packed a lot of function into this little corner. In the next post, I’ll share the details of exactly what went into my organized nook.

Has anyone else transformed a very small area? Do you have a command centre at your house? What are your tips for dealing with a small space?

April report

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

It’s the last post of April, so time to report on my accomplishments for the month.

My plans for April consisted of a few leftovers from March and a theme of “green.” So how’d I do?

Finish the projects for my home and work offices

I just can’t seem to motivate myself to complete the last few details for prettying up my work office. But my home office is getting much more organized and looking much prettier.

~~Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers~~ – Done April 27
~~Make bulletin boards for my home~~ and work offices – One done April 20
Recover the shade from my work office desk lamp

Don’t spend any green (on the house)

I didn’t spend any money on the house (I had purchased all of the supplies for my office projects long ago). In fact, I didn’t spend much money at all… aside from a completely unnecessary parking ticket. Country girl goes to the city and forgets the side of the street you can park on depends on whether you’re in the first or second half of the month… argh.
We spent a whole lot of green on the solar panels. As much as it hurt to write the massive cheque, we were very happy that we were able to pay for them in full without borrowing any money.

Go with green projects

The solar panels are obviously about as green as we can get. Our hook-up was delayed by one day, but on Friday the inspector cleared us, and we were connected to the grid.
For my office projects, I was able to reuse some supplies I already had like spray paint, fabric and the boxes I made into dividers.

Start planning for a green (outdoor) project

At the start of the month, I said that I’d like to get a few quotes to see if it’s possible to get some help to clear the brush from the east shore of the pond. I’m not going to be hiring any help until our bank account recovers from the solar payment, so I’m back to DIYing it. Anyone have a bush hog I can borrow?
On the DIY front, two gardens have been weeded. Two more gardens have been de-edged of stones. Some of the grass has been raked. Brush has been cleared off of about half the vegetable garden area. And our free trees have been planted.

When I set my goals for April, I said that I was giving myself a bit of a break. Last Saturday afternoon, I actually crawled into bed and took a nap–unheard of for me. Even though I gave myself permission to take it a bit easier this month, I still feel I did a lot in April.

What did you do in April? Who else is getting organized? Going green? Saving money?

Office organization progress report

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Last week when I shared the progress I’ve made on my March projects, I was all about timelines and staying on schedule. This week, things ran off schedule a little bit… or the schedule got rescheduled.

I had two tasks left for the second half of the month: get my home office under control and pretty up my work office.

I made zero progress on my work office.

My excuse is that I made outstanding progress on my home office.

Remember this really embarrassing picture that I so reluctantly shared with you at the start of the month?

Well, I don’t mind sharing it with you this time because now the view from the doorway looks like this. (And the poor quality of this photo in no way reflects the warm feelings I now have for this room. I was losing light. What can I say?)

Here’s the order of how I originally planned to tackle the to-dos in my office:

Sort and file the mountain of paperwork that’s built up on top of the filing cabinet – By March 16
Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers – By March 22
Make a bulletin board – By March 22
Pull together all of the forms that we need for our taxes this year – By March 30
Figure out how to make better use (temporarily) of the closet – By March 30
Unpack a few boxes, repack some of the boxes, repile the boxes – By March 30

Last weekend, I found myself more enthused about the last two items on this list than I was with some of the items higher up, so I decided to be flexible and follow my motivation.

When we moved into the house, my office became the dumping ground for things that we didn’t have a place for. Since I didn’t have any furniture aside from a desk that was left by the past owners and a small bookshelf that Matt had from his childhood bedroom, everything was left in its packing boxes and piled against the wall. Even though it’s been two years since we moved in, everything was still piled.

After my organizing binge, I still have a pile of boxes, but it’s about half a dozen boxes less than it was before. That’s major progress for me.

There were two things that allowed me to unpack some of my boxes:

1. Matt gave me a small cabinet that used to be in his office. Filling that cabinet with craft supplies, sewing patterns and some sewing tools meant that I could use Matt’s childhood bookshelf as an actual bookshelf. Even though this shelf is small, it holds all of my knitting and sewing books, magazines and patterns. I even have room for a bunch of decorating magazines. It’s so nice to have these accessible again.

2. In the category of making better use of the closet, I finally filled some storage caddies that had been left behind by the past owners. This seems like a really obvious solution, and you’re probably asking why I didn’t do this long ago. The simple answer is that the caddies were disgusting. Really, really dirty.

It was easier to just tuck them away–empty–in the closet, rather than scrubbing them out. However, there comes a point when clutter is more annoying than cleaning, so I threw the caddies in the bathtub and scoured them inside and out. The result was 11 drawers for everything from yarn to fabric to wrapping supplies. Some of the drawers are still empty. Yay for room to grow!

I realize my office still isn’t pretty or even super functional. I have big plans to repaint, add more furniture, and style it into a really, really useful and really, really attractive space. However, there’s no timeline on when this is going to happen. In the meantime, I’m working with what I have and trying to make the space as organized and useable as I can.

The trick now is to avoid it turning back into a dumping ground.

Anyone have any tips to share on organizing a temporary space (one that you know you’re going to redo down the road)? What’s your “room of shame” (please tell me you have one)? How do you store craft supplies? Any recommendations for furniture I should look for when I redo my office?