Building Kitchen Ledge Shelves

A few months after making the floating shelves in our bathroom, I decided to make ledged shelves in our kitchen, so glass items would not fall and plummet to their doom (or mine).  This was when I found Ana White's $10 ledges for the first time, the same plan that inspired the 1x2-thin toddler book ledges I built for my daughter's room more recently.

 We store our glasses on the little shelf next to our refrigerator and our magnetic measurement organizers. I chose the 4 glasses, my daughter has the 4 stainless steel glasses, and my husband selected two deep blue handblown glasses and 2 crystal drink glasses.  The tile work is mostly done, except for the area that hugs around our window sills and the trim I need to install around the edges.  I also need to purchase and screw in the outlet cover behind our tea pot.

Building these shelves did not take long, although choosing the color that would go best did.  I painted them teal, like the inside of our cabinet frames.  I let the teal sit for a month or two, so they were teal when we moved upstairs.  The shadows were not very forgiving for the teal, so I tried silver spray paint on the underside with teal on the top.  Then our kitchen screamed "DINER!" somehow.

I caved in and painted them a black-indigo color called Napoleon, the same paint on our Canvas Floor Cloth, C End Table, and Reclaimed Top Media Console.  :)  I didn't seal the Napoleon in case we changed our mind again, and I've dinged it a few times, letting silvery distressed flecks shine through.  =D We'll keep it!

Living Room: $500 Furnishing Challenge

Furnishing a nearly empty room with $500

Remember the living room progress we've made?

In January 2013, I set a goal of furnishing our living room for $500, what was left of a $10,000 loan I took out in May 2012 to afford renovation materials for the bedrooms, our gutted bathroom, and our gutted kitchen (which took the bulk of the money).  We kept our electronics budget separate, thankfully, which includes the home theater, software, fans, air purifier, and various discs (CDs, DVDs, blu rays, Games). 

To honor my husband's 3-item dream home list, I knew I had to purchase a papasan chair first for the living room, which used nearly half our furniture budget.  We knew that if we wanted furniture, we needed to build our own.

It has been a 6 month furniture building journey, and I've loved every piece -- knowing we built and designed them, knowing building has saved us money, and knowing that we could custom create pieces we wanted. Using reclaimed wood, scrap pieces, and wood already in the garage, and using the same 3 paints for furniture and 1 container of stain has helped cut down costs, but also coordinate the looks in the living room.

We've kept a list of every piece of furniture we've purchased or made for our living room to help keep us on track with our $500 goal.

Our living room furniture budget (costs rounded up to the next dollar):

• Purchased Papasan chair:  $223 Purchase
• Hand-painted floor cloth:  $40 Project
• 2 - 120" curtain rods:  $32 Purchase
• 2 - Small end tables: $5 Project
• 3 - Hanging Wood Lanterns: $25 Project
• Wooden Lantern Tree: $4 Project
• Reclaimed Wood Coffee Table:  $5 Project
• Reclaimed 1x6 Topped Media Console: $29 Project
• 2x4 and Jalousie Rear Console: $10 Project
• C End Table: $1 Project

$126 left for repairing and slipcovering those sofas!  Then I can crunch numbers for a living room decor budget.  I have pillows to sew, plants to nurse, and second-hand decor for which to hunt.  =D  Admittedly, this is also the part for which I'll need the most help.  Here's to soon turning another new leaf, old living room.

C End Table, Papasan's Helper

My summer will end in a few weeks, but I'm not returning to 10 hour days on campus.  I made a decision to favor time at home with my family and will halve the pay I bring home.  My principal graciously allowed me to be a half-time teacher this upcoming school year, a position without a homeroom, which meant that while I moved in to our upstairs home in April, I was moving out at work in May.  Our upstairs home.  It's amazing that I can say that now.  :)

Back in April, my husband made his first furniture request.  He asked for an end table that could tuck into his papasan chair.  Here's what we came up with, complete with my daughter lounging in the chair:

I originally had photos of each part of the building process, including a few changes we made to make the height just right, but those photos were deleted when I had to format my SD card.  :(

Until I learn how to make 3-D models, here's a brief written overview of how I built this table:

1. Using 2x2s and pocket hole screws, I built the bottom rectangle first.  
2. Then, I attached 2x2 pieces for the height of the table.  
3. Next, I attached two 1x6s together to make the table top.  
4. I attached the table top to the height pieces of the 2x2s.  
5. Finally, since the papasan chair base touches the floor, we attached 2x2 squares to act as feet.  I simply drilled screws up through the middle until it attached to the base.

This chair was built using reclaimed 2x2s from Re-Use Hawai'i, my newest go-to building material source.  The 2x2s had paint on them already, so painting it Napoleon, instead of staining it, worked out well both for my husband and for me. :)

Link Party @ Mocking Bird Hill Cottage