Under-A-Table Pull-Out Trash Cabinet
With limited kitchen cabinet space and nowhere to conceal the trash and recycling cans, we got creative and made a pull-out trash cabinet to go under a table. Yes, a table! We have a partially unfitted kitchen, meaning not everything is fixed in place. We use furniture to supplement our lack of kitchen cabinets and counter space. In particular, we have a rustic table pushed against one wall that serves as a counter, coffee station, and eating area. That’s where we decided to tuck our pull-out trash cabinet. Here’s that rustic table before we started this project. And, ahem, here’s how that table has looked on any given weekday with…
Happy List: #378
Hello! Happy Valentine’s Day. I LOVE that you’re here for this week’s Happy List. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself with the love reference.) This week on the blog was a fun one! I shared the mini makeover I gave the desks in our office. It felt good to clean those things up and even add a little shine to them. I also shared the hilarious way I have been saved forever on the internet. Ah, good times! The Happy List is one of the ways I try to focus on the beautiful and inspirational things in the world. It’s better for my mental health than doomscrolling. Funny how that works!…
Caught On Google Street View
Have you ever been caught on Google Street View? Turns out I have! What a way to be immortalized. Hahahahahaha. It really captured me in my element too. I was doing what I pretty much do every day – try to save this house from ruin. The jury is still out if I’ll be successful. The forces of nature are a strong foe, but I am a determined woman. Being caught unaware aside, I am a big fan of Google Street View because you can access the archive of every year Google has photographed your home. Have you tried it? In the top left corner of Street View, there’s a…
Copper Toe Kick For Built-In Desks
Allow me to acquaint you with the most amazing thing – a copper toe kick with an adhesive backing. If copper isn’t your color, don’t write this idea off. Brass and nickel toe kicks are a thing too. Sure, toe kicks or kick plates are not a new invention. They’ve been around since women started complaining about people and pets damaging their gorgeous front doors or so I assume. Seems like something that would drive me nuts. However, we’re not getting distracted by assumptive history today. We’re focusing on what drives me nuts creative problem-solving with gorgeous materials. I most often see a toe kick or kick plate on the…
Happy List: #377
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am honored that you are here. This week on the blog I shared the new table legs we made for our kitchen table. That project was long overdue. I also wrote a little tribute to our wedding anniversary. I love love, don’t you? As always, I am so thankful you chose to spend a few minutes here. I enjoy sharing what creatively inspires me and I love connecting with you and hearing what you’re up to. If you want to reach out, you can always comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or…
26
We are celebrating 26 years of marriage this month. I know you can probably believe it, since why would I make that up? The wrinkles don’t lie. Ha! But I can hardly believe it because didn’t we just get married…a few years ago? Surely we’re not past the silver anniversary? I crunched the math multiple times. I even did a little counting on my fingers, the serious mathematician that I am. 1999, 2000, 2001… The one time my math isn’t wrong. Now, don’t mistake my disbelief for a complaint – there are no complaints here. It’s more a reckoning of the direct correlation between the years we’ve been married and…
DIY Mission-Style Table Legs from 4x4s
We recently upgraded the legs on our kitchen table with DIY Mission-style table legs that we made from 4×4 posts of all things. It’s amazing what you can do with a humble 4×4. Here’s how our table started. It’s a rustic farmhouse table that we built ten years ago. The rustic part occurred naturally because it was our outdoor dining table for a few years. The legs were made from basic 2x4s. They were perfectly fine and sturdy enough that you could dance on that table. I assume. However, the table legs lacked pizazz. Plus, I’d thought for years that they were a little small in relation to the rest…
Happy List: #376
Hello! Welcome to the Happy List. I’m glad you are here. Congratulations are in order. We made it to the end of January, the seemingly longest month of the year. Go us! We may or may not be crushing 2025, but we’re still here! HOUSE KEEPING NOTE: If you tried to comment on the blog this week and received a recaptcha error, I apologize. It should be fixed now. (crosses fingers) In fact, if you want to try to comment on this post to help me out, that would be great. Thank you to the person who reached out to me on social media to let me know. It takes…
Reclaimed Copper Tile Tray
I have a DIY reclaimed copper tile tray to share with you today that has the coolest backstory. First, did you know copper tiles were a thing? Actual metal tiles. I did not until I found them hidden under some drywall in our kitchen! We could see a sliver of them and their glorious copper sheen when we replaced some trim. For many reasons, we did not demo the wall to see how many copper tiles were hiding back there or what condition they were in. Yes, this was disappointing in the short term, but now I know there’s something to look forward to – besides the extra work –…
What We Found In Our Kitchen Wall – Copper Tiles
While repairing the trim in our kitchen we found 4-inch copper tiles behind the drywall. Surprise, surprise. It’s not exactly the hidden treasure I’ve been looking for in this old house of ours. I was thinking more along the lines of a stash of gold coins or Prohibition-era liquor, but copper tiles are pretty cool. The internet is curiously vague on the subject of metal wall tiles. There is plenty of information about metal ceiling tiles or tin ceilings as they were called. Fun fact, they weren’t made from tin for very long, but the name stuck. They were made from sheet metal. Tin ceilings gained popularity in the United…
