Nightstand Transformation

We have slowly been working on transforming the nursery into a big boy room for Little Lowell.  We were so happy when my mom gave us my old bedroom furniture to use. I love using old furniture for both sentimental reasons and because the furniture is usually a lot nicer than anything we could go out and buy.  The bedroom set came with two nightstands, an armoire, a dresser and a full bed frame.  The bedrooms in our house are a good size, but this was going to be way too much furniture for Little Lowell's room. We decided to split the set to make two rooms.  Little Lowell's room would be using the nightstand and the dresser, the remaining pieces are going to eventually go in the guest room.

The furniture was a blond stain on maple that was not going to work in a little boy's room so Lowell sanded the nightstand and prepped it for staining.

 After one coat of stain it was already looking great.

 Lowell ended up giving it two coats of stain to give it a slightly richer look.

 After the stain, a few coats of varnish were applied to give it a sheen and protect it from sticky toddler fingers.

 Lowell and I couldn't agree on new hardware to use so we decided to hold off and just use the original hardware until we could find something we both loved.  The original hardware was a satin nickel knob that was not going to work with the new stain.

 

I used some of the leftover ORB spray paint that we used for our front door handle and gave the knobs a few coats. I was in love with them even before the paint dried and Lowell was happy we weren't going to have to buy new hardware.

Here is the finished piece with the added hardware.  Although this was just a simple sanding and staining job it is a huge transformation.  I love the classic lines of this piece and I think that Little Lowell is really going to be able to grow up with this furniture.

Here is a close up of the hardware.

 The nightstand needs to air out for a few days before we move it upstairs.  Lowell finished up staining the dresser yesterday, but I haven't had time to take any pictures.

This weekend we hope to move the dresser and nightstand upstairs, hang the surfboard up on the racks as well as hang all of the surf art.  We hope to have pictures of all of this on Monday. Have a good weekend!

Vegetable Garden Update

Hey Everyone. So a few weeks ago we posted about the new vegetable garden we created on the side yard. Below is a picture of everything first planted.

So far all of the plants are still alive. To be honest the plants are thriving. You can see how much they have grown in just a short amount of time.

Below is a picture of some yellow crookneck squash we are growing in a whiskey barrel pot. My parents gave us this plant as leftover from the vegetable garden they've planted. I didn't have any room in the raised bed for it, since squash plants can become rather large. My dad actually created their raised garden out of landscape timber. We plan to share a post on that with everyone in the future. - Lowell

Front Door Red

Our front door had definitely seen better days (probably about 25 years ago) and was in dire need of help.  I wanted to paint it a bold color but I was a little nervous to take that leap.  I was leaning toward a red door and Lowell was also all for it, but I was having trouble finding that perfect red. Then one of my favorite blogs took on this very same project and found the perfect color for a red door. The color is Front Door Red which is an Allen and Roth color from Lowe's.  With the biggest hurdle out of the way I got to work painting the door this weekend.

Here is a close up of how much abuse this door has taken over the years.

The hardware wasn't much too look at either and was also going to get a little love in this makeover.

I put Lowell to work removing the hardware.  It looks like this door actually used to be more of a red wood color but someone stained it without removing the hardware (not a good idea)

Lowell sanded down the door in the rough patches to give me a smooth surface to paint on.

Here is the paint we used.  It dries so much nicer than what it looks like out of the can.

It was surprised at how much coverage it got after just one coat.

After three coats I was in love and wished we would have done this easy project years ago. The color is perfect and makes me want to smile every time I look at it.  Lowell loves it as well and I have even caught him opening the door just to get a glimpse of it.  Little Lowell is also a fan and yells "red door" whenever he sees it.

Another one of my favorite blogs inspired me to update the hardware with ORB spray paint.  I was a little nervous spraying the hardware, but it turned out great and look like we bought new handles.

I wasn't always crazy about the leaded glass, but I think that the red door now really compliments the glass and helps it stand out.

Here is the view I now get when I open the door.

Here is the view from the street.

A close up view.

Last, here is a view of the entire front entry. In case you can't tell we are a little obsessed with what seems like a new front door!

Now that it is warming up I am getting excited to work on our front patio and hope to share those projects in the next couple of weeks. I also worked on the inside of the door and will share pictures of those tomorrow.

Linked to : Bower Power, Young House Love, The Great Indoors, and Hi Sugar Plum!

DIY Surfboard Racks

When I lived on the Gulf Coast, I surfed frequently. I had a longboard that I used to take out. Now that I live in Arizona, I obviously can only bring it out to places like California. The surfboard lived in our garage for a few years, but it needed a permanent place to go in our home as it is 8'4" object in length. Lorraine figured out that we could incorporate it in to Little Lowell's surf-themed bedroom.

Lorraine found a wave design wall rack online. First I drew it out on paper to create a template for the racks.

 Next I found a decent board in our scrap pile in the garage. The wave was then traced from the template on to the wood.

I am using a Dremel here, which works well for cutting. You can also use a jigsaw or scroll saw. It is ultimately whatever you prefer or have handy.

 Drum sanding is a great way to smooth out any saw marks in curved surfaces.

After cutting out the waves, I made small rectangular pieces of wood that connect to the wooden wave and will hang from the wall.

 We were able to get a free quart of paint at Ace Hardware through an online promotion. Above we figured a deep blue would be perfect for the surf racks and other future projects. Lorraine's favorite part about this project was that it was free since we just used scrap wood along with the free paint.

We will update the blog once we have the surf racks on the wall. -Lowell

UPDATE:
Here is what the board looks like on the surf racks

You can check out the rest of Little Lowell's room at this post.
Linked to: Newlyweds on a Budget , Today's Creative Blog

Final Surf Art Piece

I hope everyone isn't getting sick of these knock off surf art pieces because I made one last one with some leftover wood I had.  I had a hard time trying to figure out how to hang the other four. Three were the same size and I couldn't decide where to hang the odd sized one (tiger shark).  Now with five paintings I think I have come up with a good arrangement. 

The original octopus art was a girl themed piece with pastel colors.  I used the same bright colors from the other knock off art pieces to have this match the other pieces.  My favorite part of the octopus was the green suction things (we are getting technical here) that I almost didn't add.  Little Lowell loves the octopus and walks around the house saying "apple-pus."

 I mentioned earlier that there were a couple of projects that we wanted to get done before these pieces were hung up. Lowell was hard at work all weekend on surf board racks and staining Little Lowell's nightstand and dresser.  I can't wait to share those pictures over the next couple of days.

Linked to: Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night