Stone Carriage House Gym Expansion Part 1
Last year, we made over one room in our stone Carriage House and turned it into a home gym. It took us at least six weeks of continual work to make that happen, partly because it’s a long, laborious process and partly because there are only two of us. The DIY experience is one constant reminder that you are limited by the amount of time in a day and the number of hands you possess. You’d think evolution would have fixed one of those problems by now. The Carriage House is a separate building on our property and it is divided into three parts. The entire top floor is a…
The Case for a Hidden Bookcase Door
Hear me out. Our house *needs* a hidden bookcase door. Do you know what I’m referring to? A wall that looks like it has a gorgeous bookcase, but you pull a secret lever and the bookcase opens to reveal a hidden room behind it. How cool is that? No question about it. We DEFINITELY need a hidden bookcase door. I just have to convince Handy Husband that it wouldn’t be a colossal pain in the patootie to build one. Just the normal amount of pain. For instance, we don’t need to have a curved arch over the hidden bookcase door. I could compromise and let that idea go. See how…
Bedroom Peg Rail – One Entire Wall of Storage
By adding a peg rail to one entire wall of our bedroom, we gained 15 feet of storage and organization space and an unlimited amount of glee over this addition. Is there a Guinness Book of World Records category for the world’s longest peg rail? If so, I’d like to submit our bedroom peg rail as an entry. You’ll have to use your imagination a little because it was hard for me to get a decent photograph of one gigantic wall broken up by a door. That’s why I’m showing the two sides of the peg rail in different photos in this blog post. The hardship, I know. Thank you…
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…
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…
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…
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…
7 Heart Crafts To Make Out of Wood That Aren’t Cheesy
We are rapidly approaching February, the month of love. But why wait? You can start spreading love around now with these 7 heart crafts made out of wood. These heart crafts will give you all the mushy feelings, but these are not cheesy crafts for kids. They are fun, festive, and a few might even be a bit refined. I think you’ll love them. Here we go… Heart Planters Instead of gifting over-priced cut flowers that will die in a week, gift a plant in a heart-shaped planter that should last longer than a week…as long as someone remembers to water it. I created a free template to use for…
Building In Our Fridge: The Reveal
It’s reveal day! We’ve been working on building in our fridge and customizing it to make it look panel-ready(ish) and now I get to show you how it looks. It does make me a little insecure to release these photos into the wild because I know this is just one step in a multi-step process of making over our kitchen. There is still more to come as time and budgets allow. I hope you enjoy seeing a transformation over time because that’s what happening here. Here’s the original before photo of the refrigerator. Try to contain your jealousy. Fast forward a few years and we removed some wallpaper, painted, and…
