Simple Headboard

We wanted a simple headboard for our son's room.  He's away at college, so only uses the room during school breaks, but we still wanted the room to look finished.  (We moved into this house after he was in college.)

To match the style of the other furniture in the room, we used a piece of hardboard from Home Depot.  The sides are 3 1/2" MDF pieces.  The center dividers and the top rail are 2 1/2" pieces of MDF.  All were glued then tacked with a nail gun.  The nail holes were spackled and sanded and the piece was sprayed with Rust-Oleum semi-gloss black.

The bed is full size, which is 54" wide.  The finished headboard is 57" wide by 54" tall.  Right now it is resting on the floor.  We plan to attach it directly to the wall with this "Picture Hanging System" that we purchased at Lowe's.  It'll hold up to 200 pounds, which is more than enough for this headboard.

The entire project cost around $60. 

The nightstand is from Ikea.  I found it in the "As Is" room for $7.99!  A little cleaning and a black sharpie to a nick in it and it looks great!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Pam

Rotate it, Rebuild it and a Roomy Kitchen is Created!

We had a lovely island, but it was too crowded in our kitchen!  The island was pushed into the kitchen too far for my taste.  I'm guessing it's because the prior owners wanted a big table in this area too.  We have a dining room, so didn't need another big table in here.   If the refrigerator door or dishwasher door was open, there was no way anyone was getting by them!  I've been told that a good distance between counters is 39".  Well, the before distance was about 28"--unacceptable! 

Over the holidays when our son was home from college, he and my husband picked up the island and rotated it 90 degrees.  OMG, it was so much better already!  I finally had room to walk around it in the kitchen!  So even though we were just 'trying it out' and my husband had every intention of rotating it back to where it was until he could build a new one, I was having none of that!  Yes, when I had to get in the drawers, they were on the opposite side of the dishwasher, but that extra room was heavenly and it was only for a couple of weeks.  Here is a picture of the old island turned the new way.

A couple of weeks ago my husband built a new base.  We decided to try our best to re-use the granite top as granite tops can get expen$ive!  Luckily it all worked out!  He also re-used a lot of the beadboard and the feet.  We now have gained an extra drawer and a pull out for the recycle bin.  We also have an area for stools.  By rotating it, we gained 14" on each side of the island!

We also added some new pendant lights, so now it's a great place to read my morning paper.

We were very lucky that the floors were finished under everything, so we didn't have to worry about refinishing them again.

Thanks for visiting!

Pam

I am linking to :

 Debbiedoo's Newbie Party

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday Party

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Pink Postcard's Transformations and Treasures Party

Easy to make Coasters

I made these coasters after seeing the directions for them on The Graphic Fairy's blog.  They were so easy to make and so different than anything I've seen in any stores.

I found the tiles at Lowe's for 34 cents each.  I bought adhesive backed cork for the bottoms and the Omni-Gel at Michaels.  I applied the Omni-Gel with a 1" foam brush (also from Michaels).  I printed the birdcage graphic from her site and just used my regular printer.  (My printer is not an inkjet, apparently inkjet printers do not work for this project.)  I sprayed them with clear enamel when I was done so wet glasses don't stick to them.  

She has thousands of graphics that are available on her website. 

Here's the link to the directions. 
 "Coaster Link"

Thanks for visiting!

Pam

Birdhouse Terrarium

My husband built this birdhouse/terrarium for me for Christmas.  I had seen them in some catalogs and at a florist here in town and admired them.  Because I love birdhouses and plants, it was a perfect gift! He made it out of cedar, used a walnut stain, then a black stain over that.  He put copper in the bottom of it to catch any drips.  I have been keeping the lid open and the plants are doing pretty well. 

I am linking to:  Marty's Tabletop Tuesday

Thanks Marty @ A Stroll Thru Life

Out with the OLD, In with the NEW

When we moved into this house, we loved just about everything about it, except the front door!  I just couldn't get used to having a full glass panel for people to see everything (nothing very exciting, but everything nonetheless) that we were up to!  Besides people being able to look into our house, our dog was a wreck seeing everything that happened outside our house!  Every car, bike, person got him wound up!  So we replaced the old door with a new one and are much happier!

With my good friend, Ali's help @ Just Me , I applied the vinyl address numbers like I saw on Karla's blog:  http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/

I purchased the wreath from The Barn House Boys barnhousebh.com

I am linking to Susan's Between Naps on the Porch Met Monday party.  Between Naps on the Porch

My New Blog!

I have been reading blogs for years and have never taken the leap of faith to create my own blog, but a good friend finally talked me into it!  So here I will try to blog about our home improvement escapades, my love of gardening, collecting antiques and organizing my home.  Thanks so much for coming to visit!

Pam