finishing the laundry

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I last updated you on the laundry room progress. A couple weekends ago, we finally got the majority of the room complete. {I know it seems like we're taking our sweet time on this, but it's been hard for us to find time on weekends to get work complete!!}

After painting an already small room trying to maneuver around the washer and dryer, Kurt's dad helped us put in our new counter top. 

Although the counter was a huge improvement, we were still lacking any storage in the laundry room. We decided to add two cabinets to provide tons of storage. Cabinets seemed like the best idea because they will keep the counter clear {to fold} AND allow for 'organized' chaos behind closed doors!   

And so we began...

The laundry room is very deep. That was the problem with the shelf that was in there originally. If we attached the cabinets directly to the wall, it would be challenging for me to reach any of the shelves {since I'm a little shorty}! Kurt's dad used some wood that he had to build a frame. First, they attached the frame to the wall.

Then, they attached the two cabinets to the frame. {I'm making this sound so easy! It took them quite awhile and lots of work to get these puppies attached to the frame!}

After screwing the cabinet doors on, the major project of the room was complete! Take a look for yourself...

{I'm sorry these pictures are so bad. The room is so small it's hard to get a good shot of the entire room...}

I couldn't wait to get things put away {aka hidden!} and try to get things more organized. We did buy a few plastic bins from Target, but for the most part we've thrown things in. Hopefully, we'll find some time to organize them a bit more...

I know you probably don't believe me, but I promise to finish the last of the laundry room updates tomorrow!

Room Redo - Laundry Room

Remember this? Well, we finally got the painting done and even added one new 'accessory' to the room! The paint ended up looking much better with two coats...even though it's probably not my most favorite color in the world. But hey, it was free! So, here's what the laundry room looks like so far....

We started off with a room full of white and not much storage.

You can see part of the one shelf we had that was SO high I could barely reach it! :)

We love our washer and dryer - didn't want any paint on them!

 

I was having a little fun with our paint that quickly started looking orange....ahhh!

Kurt was in charge of the tall stuff while I was stuck behind the washer and dryer...

It's hard to tell in this light, but the walls actually turned out to be the same color as the kitchen. They still look orange in the pictures, but in person they are a burnt redish color.

Step one of adding a new counter top: put door railing around the edges to hold the counter top up.

Finally, Kurt and his dad lifted the counter top into place and glued on the side splashes.

We've added a ton of space to fold clothes {and right now a great place to set stuff...}!

{The ironing board and things are there to hold the side pieces on while the glue dried.}

After the first of the year, we have plans to finish off the laundry room. We'll make sure to show you the rest!

Thanksgiving Break - Night 2 {part 2}

In case you were wondering, our room is still orange....

But, our Christmas decorations downstairs make me happy! :) So, back to the DIY project for all those materials I showed you.

I broke our one hurricane that we brought from the apartment. I knew I wanted to get a couple more anyways so this was the time to buy them all! I also knew I wanted to use different 'decorations' inside of them for different seasons/holidays. So, in came the idea for jingle bells, snow, and cranberries. Wednesday night we wandered through Michael's and found everything we needed....sorta. Instead of cranberries {or fake ones} we found a very long strand of red beads that look just like cranberries. All we had to do was snip the string and we had our cranberries!!

At first, we thought we wanted to put snow at the bottom of all three hurricanes, but shortly after I did the first one, we decided that wasn't going to look right...

So, we finally decided on the biggest one having the jingle bells, the short one with cranberries, and the tall/skinny one with snow on the bottom and a mixture of bells and cranberries on top. We found a few things we already had and put them all on top of our TV stand. It's really hard to tell, but here is what it looks like all together.

Here are the pictures of what each side looks like close up...

Like it? We really love it!! And, it'll be easy enough to bag up all the things and switch to something new in January.

Oh, and remember that green 'bowl' I showed you? We wanted to jazz it up a bit for Christmas {and we plan on doing so for each season}. So, we went to my favorite store, Target {!}, picked up a tube of silver ornaments, and popped them in the bowl. Check it out...

Hope you like it!!

Have a great weekend!

failed doormat

In celebration of Meredith's birthday today {happy birthday, Mer!!}, I thought I'd share with you the failed DIY doormat I made for Meredith's birthday present. {She will clearly be receiving a different, non-DIY present for her birthday, since her first present did not turn out!}

Lately, I've been trying to become more crafty. I know that once Kurt and I move into our house, we're hoping to complete many DIY projects. Going along with the 'new homeowners' theme, I decided that it would be a great idea to try and make Meredith and Josh a doormat for their new home. So, let's get started....

Before I began, I made sure I had all of my supplies that I {*thought} were needed.

-Plain Coir Doormat
{nearly impossible to find--after 6 stores, I finally found it at Kohl's}

-Painters Tape
-Exacto Knife
-Cardstock Paper
-Monogram Letters
{I found a font I liked on dafont.com and printed the M, &, and J.}

-2 Colors of Spray Paint
-Newspaper

*I may re-try a project like this. If so, I'd do a few things differently that may change the ending results. {Use a ruler to make sure all lines are perfectly straight and measure letter spacing. Try and find a less textured doormat {could be impossible!}. And, buy more quality painters tape.}

After I had printed the letters, I cut them out. I then taped the paper letters to the cardstock. Using the exacto knife, I carefully cut the letters out on the more firm cardstock.

Then I began the taping process. {I should have taken more time on this step!} First I taped the letters on. {Because the mat was so textured, the edges of the letters did not stick down as much as I hoped.} Then I taped the uneven/'funky' border. After the border was on {and after many attempts of me sticking it down}, I cut out the pieces {with the exacto knife} of the border that overlapped.

Next, I covered up all the extra spaces with newspaper. Then it was time to paint! Kurt and I chose to paint the letters blue and the border gray.

This is what it looked like after everything was done and it was drying. At this point, I had a bad feeling that the paint found its way under the edges of the letters. And sure enough, I was {unfortunately} correct.

Here's the final product. Morri {Christopher's dog} wanted to jump in the picture taken on my parents patio. When viewed closer up, you can see how the blue paint seeped under the cardstock paper at certain parts. It's not horrible, but it doesn't have the wow factor I was hoping for.....

Any ideas/tips on my next try are welcome! If you have any good ideas for more DIY projects, I'd love to hear.