DIY
How to Fix a Sagging Wood Bench
So you have a sagging wood bench and want to know how to fix it? You’ve come to the right place. If there’s one thing we can help you avoid in life it’s the potential emotional and physical trauma that would come from sitting on a sagging wood bench and having it break. No one wants that to happen to them. But if it was caught on camera and you were okay…Alright, not even then. Now on to the tutorial! First of all, I’m going to assume that the wood that is sagging on your bench is not rotten. You need to double-check that. If it is rotten and you…
Check Out Our Newly Painted Carriage House
Cue the celebratory dancing because I am beyond excited to be able to share our newly painted Carriage House on the blog today! I’m still pinching myself because the transformation, thanks to paint, was so dramatic. I hate to use the cliched phrase “the power of paint,” but I haven’t come up with a better alternative phrase! The power of paint is next level on this project. But first! What is a Carriage House? It sounds so fancy, doesn’t it? Trust me – ours is not at all fancy. Originally, a carriage house would have been a building to store a horse-drawn carriage and the related horse tack. It could…
8 Fresh Ways to Repurpose a Piano
As a pianist, it pains me to say this, but it can be hard and expensive to get rid of an old piano and you might need fresh ways to repurpose a piano. I truly wish everyone had the space for a piano and wanted to learn to play, but I also understand why this instrument can be a burden to move, maintain, and learn to play. We own a baby grand piano that I hope to pass down to my kids one day, but we unexpectedly became the owners of an old upright piano too. When we purchased our current home, the previous owners left their piano in the…
DIY Kitchen Cabinet Feet from Scrap Wood
One of the easiest ways to make basic kitchen cabinets look custom is by adding feet to the base cabinets. Here’s how we made DIY Kitchen Cabinet Feet from scrap wood. This is probably the best use of scrap wood we’ve come up with yet! Lumber is especially expensive right now, so not only do we not want to waste any of it, but we want to make it count when we do use it. Our old (Seriously, they are really old!) kitchen cabinets were just screaming for the upgrade and added detail that cabinet feet could provide. There is really no limit on the style of kitchen cabinet feet…
DIY Charging Bench for Electronic Devices
If charging all the electronic devices in your home has become a chaotic nightmare of jumbled cords, let me introduce you to my DIY charging bench for electronic devices. It’s a way to hide all of your charging cables and devices in plain sight. It’s my answer to the kitchen charging drawer because I’ve always wanted one of those, but we’ve never had a spare kitchen drawer with outlets in the back. I won’t promise this charging bench will eliminate all the cord chaos, but it can help you hide it. That’s half the battle! A charging bench can be made from any bench that has a hidden storage compartment. The…
How to Paint Metal Pool Coping with Marine Paint
This post is for a super small percentage of the population who have a really old pool with metal coping and are wondering if they can paint that metal pool coping. Yes! You can! (Editor’s Note: I wrote a blog post with an honest assessment about how the paint is holding up after 2 years. You can read that here. To find out how we painted the coping and the paint we used, continue reading this blog post.) If you aren’t familiar with the term, pool coping is what caps the edge of a pool. Modern pools are built with pool coping made out of concrete or stone, but some…
In Praise of the Mansard Roof
Do you follow the Mansard Monday hashtag on Instagram? It’s a good one if you are as smitten with Mansard roofs as I am. What’s a Mansard roof? Glad you asked. Even if you don’t recognize the name, I know you’ve seen the style. Remember, I’m a fan girl, not an architect, but here’s my amateur explanation. A Mansard roof is a 4-sided gambrel-style hip roof. Woo! That’s a mouthful. What’s a gambrel? Think of a classic barn roof like that Fisher Price barn toy your kid had growing up. It has two symmetrical sides and each side has two slopes. What about a hip roof? With a hip roof,…
DIY Cabinet Door Tray
I am so happy to share a DIY Cabinet Door Tray project with you today because it’s not mine! No work was involved on my part. I just get to look at fun pictures, be inspired, and share them with you. It’s a good feeling. There’s even a twist in this project that I didn’t see coming. I love a good twist. Today’s DIY Cabinet Door Tray project comes from someone I affectionately refer to as The Junk Whisperer. Seeing what she’s created out of actual junk over the years has inspired me to take a second look at everyday objects and reimagine them in a new light. Ready to…
Shed Makeover and Tip for Picking Black Paint
I have the most satisfying shed makeover to share with you today. It is satisfying because nothing fancy happened. All we did was finish someone else’s project (it happens) and address the neglect that had occurred over time. The makeover occurred on the little shed that houses our pool pump and equipment. It’s tiny. We can’t even stand up fully inside of it. We aren’t sure when the shed was built, but the back side of it and the cupola were missing the cedar shake siding. Our best guess is the previous owner ran out of supplies and never finished the project. The last 5% of any project is the…
How to Add a Console Sink to a Vanity
Is it possible to add a console sink to a vanity? Yes it is! By doing so you get the style of a console sink or other wall-mounted sink without sacrificing storage. Whether you build a custom vanity like we did or retrofit an existing vanity, we will show you how to attach a console sink to a vanity so that it looks good. Spoiler: It’s all in the transition from sink to vanity. Add a Console Sink to a Vanity Step #1: Figure out what you are working with. Carefully flip the console sink or wall-mounted sink over so you can see the underside of the sink. We set…
