Awesome toy storage

...that I built myself.

I love how it turned out.
LMS loves that she can actually find her toys
I love that it didn't cost an arm and a leg, like a storebought version would have
LMS loves that her dress up clothes are easy to find
I love that I was able to customize the design to fit our needs
LMS doesn't mind putting her toys away now that she knows where they all go
I love that it's easy to keep things organized

I found the plans on Ana White's site, the drawers were here and  here and the shelf unit was here.

I love her site! I found it a year ago, and when I did, I had a total epiphany. Instead of wasting money on shoddily built furniture, being unhappy with ugly furniture, or just doing without furniture (which is what we've been doing), I realized I could build it myself. And I could customize the dimensions, colors, and so on, to fit our needs and desires. Ana provides free plans to build furniture, and the directions are clear and easy to follow.

I built the drawers as the plans said, but I adjusted the shelf unit. It wasn't originally supposed to be used for toy storage. I flipped it on its side, shortened the length by two inches so it would be the same length as the drawers, moved one shelf up and eliminated another, added a backing, and and added hooks for dressup clothes. It was all relatively easy to do, though I didn't pay as close attention to some of the instructions as I should have, so the far right column of shelves is a bit narrower than the others. Not really a problem, other than it's too narrow for the metal framed baskets to fit in. For safety, I screwed 1x3's into the back, securing the drawers together and the shelf to the drawers. I definitely don't want the shelves tipping over when (not if) she tries climbing them.

It did take longer to build than I planned, but I really like how they turned out. I can't wait till we move to house with an actual workshop. I think I'll be able to get a lot more done if I'm not sweating like a pig or freezing  to death on the screened in back porch where I've been doing my woodworking.

My awesome new desk

...that I built all by myself.

My old workspace (on a different wall before I moved things around):

The rickety desk that we've had since we were newlyweds and that's been through a few too many moves. The oh-so-classy plastic folding table.

No storage, uneven heights, wobbly legs, big gaps on either end. Totally inefficient. (all the stuff under the table had found other homes, but it still didn't work for me)

My new computer station:

Storage and printer in the middle:

My sewing station:



Lots of room to store things when they're not being used.
Lots of room to work.
Nice level workspace.
Love it!

I found the plans on Ana White's site, here, here, and here. The original plans called for two bases, but I knew I wanted a longer desk, so I built 3 instead. I also eliminated the drawers and changed the shelves and dividers to fit my CPU base and my sewing machines. I had to use two desktops (from Lowes), so I altered her desktop plans a little to allow the desktops to be connected underneath, eliminating any movement that might occur. I love her plans- they're easy to follow and easy to build!

I do need to add more paint to the desktop, but it'll have to wait till spring. I only managed one coat before it got too cold and my paint froze. Just one hazard of not having a real workshop.

I know I need a better chair than our extra dining chair, but I need to build a kitchen and a desk for LMS first. Then we'll both get cute chairs and I'll get a rug for the room.

And I need some decorations for the wall, and the list goes on...  :)

My latest craigslist find

So, I bought this a month or two ago, but never managed to take a decent photo till this past week.

The craigslist photo didn't enlarge well:

An antique canopy bed

60+ years old

full size

$50  (!!!)

It's in great condition, and I love the curves and shape of it.
Eventually I'll either paint it white or strip it and stain it a lot darker, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

There's a ceiling fan in our guest room, so the canopy is up in the attic instead of on the bed.

Now I just need to find a mattress set for it, and we'll be ready to entertain guests in style (ie: not on the floor).

Coffee Table Re-do

The finished table, sitting on a recent craigslist find.

Like the cabinet, I lightly sanded the edges of the legs. It'll get kicked and scuffed up, so why not give it a head start?

I like the contrast of the painted base and the stained top. I've seen others do it, and I like the look.

What my $15 craigslist started out looking like:

What it looks like now:

I like the results!

Inside the cabinet

On the outside, it looks nice and neat.

But when you open it up, you can see all the stuff it's hiding:

What exactly is all of this stuff?

The unfortunate thing is that there's no room for fabric, so after I finish sorting it all (not quite done yet), I'll put baskets-full of fabric on top of the cabinet.

Want to see my quick and easy way to keep the door panels in place?

Those two red dots are red plastic push pins.

I put two in the top and two in the bottom,  and the panels aren't going anywhere.

It will be very easy to switch them out.

The cut edges of the fabric do show, but only when the doors are open  :)

My new craft cabinet is finally finished

We got back from our road trip a week and a half ago. After the usual unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping (our frig was completely empty), and trying to get back onto a schedule, I managed to finally finish my cabinet. 

After putting the top back on the base, I put all the doors and knobs back on. Then I lightly sanded all the edges and corners. Nothing super-noticeable, just enough to cover up any future dings. Because let's face it, I'm a klutz, and I will be banging things into the edges. The top coat of paint is a really light blue/gray- it looks almost white, but you can see the difference where the white primer peeks out. I like the two-tone (three-tone if you count the dark wood under the primer) look.

I then cut thin plywood (leftover from replacing the backing on the cabinet) to replace the glass that was originally in the doors. Since the cabinet is full of sewing and craft supplies I wanted the cabinet completely closed in- I'm not a fan of open cupboards. I prefer to close the doors and hide the mess. Not that there's a mess right now, it's all still organized, but things don't always stay that way.

Then I covered each panel with fabric I bought on sale at JoAnns. I just hot glued the fabric on the back, and it will be easy to switch it out. LMS actually wanted a different fabric and was disappointed that I went with this one- I like it though. 

 I liked the one on the left, but it's a little dark for the room, which really doesn't get very good light.

LMS liked the one on the right, but it's a little too bright for now. Come spring, though, I think it'll be a nice change.

A couple of the panels ended up a little crooked, but I'm ignoring it. (squash that OCD, squash that OCD)

I left the medallions in place on the base cabinet doors, and used the original knobs on all the doors. I didn't replace the original magnetic closures. The doors stay closed without them, and I was too lazy :)

I spray painted the knobs, but that was all I did to them before putting them back on. They were kind of brassy black before, now they're all black/brown.

Love the detail!

What my $50 craigslist find used to look like:

What it looks like now:

I'm happy!

Coffee Table Sneak Peak

The other project I had to finish up was my $15 (!) craigslist coffee table. This didn't take long at all, especially compared to how long the cabinet took. I'll let the paint and stain cure while we're gone and when we get back I'll distress the edges a bit, since they'll get distressed anyway.

Here's what it used to look like:

And here's what it looks like right now:

Cabinet Sneak Peak

There's nothing like a firm deadline to give me the extra push I need to finish up my projects. We're heading out on a roadtrip to visit family on Monday, so I had to get all my painting finished and the pieces brought inside. The paint will cure while we're gone, and I'll put it all back together when we ge back.

In the meantime, here's a reminder of what the cabinet used to look like:

And a sneak peak of what it looks like now:

How I find great deals on ebay and craigslist

I've found some great deals on ebay and craigslist and ebay, but it takes some patience and some know-how.

On ebay, I search for whatever it is I'm looking for, say a twin size chamois sheet from PBK. I don't want to be too broad, but I also don't want to be too narrow in my search. My search parameter in this case would be: (PBK, Pottery Barn) chamois sheet twin. When the results are returned, you have the option to "Save this search and alert me later". If you click on that and follow the instructions ebay will email you every day with any new items that match this search.

Every day I check my email to see if something has been listed that I'm looking for. Usually not, but every so often there will be one I want to keep an eye on, so I save it to my watch list. From there it's just a matter of keeping an eye on the auction (ie, not forgetting when it will end!) and deciding how much I want to spend and not spending more than that. I tend to place my bid in the last 30-45 seconds, which prevents me from upping my bid if my bid isn't high enough and usually prevents others from outbidding me.

On craigslist, I've been searching for various furniture items, so I have much broader search parameters: I search in 'furniture', leaving the search for box blank so everything will come through (people call things by so many different names, it's best to err on the side of too many results rather than too few), and  putting a price limit on it- minimum 0, maximum $60. Once the results come through, I copy the url and add it to my google reader feeds. Several times a day anything that's been posted that matches that criteria shows up in my reader, which is much easier than visiting craigslist multiple times a day. Once the posts pop up, it's just a matter of deciding if I want to call on anything that came up.

Have you found any great deals on ebay or craigslist?

edited to add:
If I won't be home, or am too busy too watch an ebay auction end, I use auctionstealer. It's a sniping program that allows 3 free snipes per week (the week starts on Sunday) and places your bid (up to the maximum you stated) in the last 10-12 seconds. If you pay a small monthly fee, you can use it more frequently and it will place your bid in the last 3-4 seconds. I don't use it that often, so I've never bothered with the expense. The program is easy to use, and I've never had any problems with it, and have won a number of auctions using it.

LMS's room: Decorated on a budget

(from doorway, looking to the left) 

 (from doorway, looking to the right)

  

This room has been a long time in the making. I first found the PBK quilt that I used as my inspiration (see further down) while Mr S was deployed two years ago. Ever since then I've been diligently looking for fabrics and accessories to use in LMS's room when we moved into our own place. A lot of the fabric I used is from the pottery barn reject store (aka Downeast Outfitters Outlet store), and are sheets, pillowcases, and a headboard cover that I got for a couple bucks each. Ebay and craigslist were the sources for several of the more pricey items. Because I collected things over such a long period of time, I don't know the total that I spent, but it wasn't a lot. And spreading out the purchases helped the budget.

I bought these cute prints on ebay and the frames are from wally world and I painted them to match the room better. (and yes, they're not hung quite straight. oh well.)

I found the log bed on craigslist about a year and a half ago. It was an awesome price, and the people actually lived only a mile away, so I bought it and we stored it till we moved here and had room to set it up.

We rent, so I couldn't paint, but I had promised LMS a 'purple room'. I used liquid starch and staples (the sheet was too heavy to stay up by itself while it dried) to adhere a sheet from the outlet store to the wall. The sheet dried to the wall, and it should come down without any problems when the time comes (that's what everyone says, anyway). I used the leftover fabric and some small white ric rac to make a ruffle to cover the uneven edges. Probably overkill, and it took quite a while to make 20 feet of ruffle, but I like the look.

(better view of the prints)

Embroidery hoop wall art: I bought a lot of 20 various-sized hoops for a ridiculously low price on ebay and the fabric is sheets and pillowcases from the outlet store, a sheer curtain with butterflies bought for super cheap on ebay, and leftover fabric from the ottoman.

I recently found a gently used light green PBK chamois sheet on ebay. LMS is really big on "snuggly" fabrics, so she really likes it. Pillows: the square one I found at the outlet store for a buck, the lavendar pillowcase behind that I made from a chamois stroller blanket I found at the outlet store for a buck, and I also found the gingham pillowcase behind it at the outlet store for a buck. The larger lavendar pillows were originally covers I made for cushions for our first bike trailer (it was hard plastic) but they work well on LMS's bed. She likes lots of pillows to prop up on and play with :)

The strip of lavendar on the right side of the bed is actually a bolster I made from a body pillow. There's a 6 inch space between the mattress and the wall, and I had crammed two body pillows in the space, but they didn't match and were really a bit big for the space. I used fabric from the headboard cover I found at the outlet store to make a rectangular bolster filled with the innards of one of the body pillows. It fits just right and looks much better than the old setup.

The dust ruffle I made from leftover fabric from the chair. The bed is quite high off the floor, so a store-bought dust ruffle wouldn't work. I sewed velcro to the top of the panels and stapled the other side of the velcro to the back side of the logs. Easy up, easy down.

There's a couple canvas bins in her room- a large green polka dot one for her stuffed animals and a large lavender polka dot one in the closet that we use for a dirty clothes hamper. I got them from the outlet store for $5-7 a piece I think. I did have to pick out some embroidery, but since it was only on one side it's not very noticeable.

The purple stepstool is an old one that I painted to match the room.

The ottoman I found for super cheap at the thrift store, I already had the foam and batting and I bought fabric on sale at JoAnns (details here).

I scored an awesome deal on ebay on the rug (it's a PBK rug). I really should have gotten a smaller one, but this was literally the cheapest one, and it works fine. Though I will say it was quite a workout to get in place, since it had to go under the dresser and the bed. I moved the dresser out of the way, but her bed weighs a ton, and I could only lift it half an inch or so. Try doing that while shoving a non-rigid rug under the leg of the bed with your foot. It would definitely have been easier with two people.

The whole room is based around this Pottery Barn Kids quilt that I first saw a couple years ago and loved. After much patience, I found the quilt and a pillow sham (seen on the reading chair) on ebay for a good price. LMS tosses and turns A LOT, and the side gate prevents a quilt from lying nicely on the bed, so she uses a purple fleece butterfly blanket that I made from fabric I found at wally world. When she gets older we'll move the quilt onto her bed. For now it just hangs on the footboard and looks pretty.

The reading chair that I reupholstered. I found it on craigslist for $20.

I bought the fabric for the curtains in the bargain basement of an upholstery fabric store. I lined it with a $3 black flat twin sheet from wally world. It blocks light remarkably well, even with the blinds open.

An easy tie holds the curtain back. I tie a cute bow, but LMS just ties it back with half a knot.

This is one of my depictions of Christ- we had it in our house when I was little. I found this print for a buck or two at a homeschool convention I went to in June, and the frame is another one from wally world that I painted.

View of the wall across from LMS's bed. We bought the dresser brand new at a naked furniture store before LMS was born. It was just the right height to be used as a changing table, and LMS is now tall enough to reach all the drawers.

The name banner is made from fabric from the headboard cover. I painted the backs of chipboard letters and stamped the fabric.

I built the bookshelf after I saw something similar in a catalog... for $70! And it was half the size of the one I built. I already had the wood and paint, so I only needed to buy the dowels and the fabric. My costs ended up being less than $20. I found the purple trash can in the dollar section at Target a year or so ago.

I found a butterfly mobile here, and loved the idea. All it took was some ribbon, some paper, a butterfly paper punch (found on ebay), a large embroidery hoop, and some fishing line. Kind of time consuming, but I love the result.

LMS's closet is behind the door, and it used to have bifold doors on it. However if the bifold doors were open, they always banged into the room door, and were annoying. They also didn't move very smoothly, and the hinge ended up breaking. So we put the doors in the attic, and a lot of aggravation has been avoided. LMS doesn't like having an open closet, though (it's scary, mommy), so I made a curtain for the closet door out of sheets from the outlet store. It's pretty, it covers the closet, and she's happy.

Final thoughts:

I love photoshop! LMS's room doesn't actually get direct sunshine, which is fine since it's just for sleeping in (if we kept toys in her room LMS would never sleep, it's bad enough having some of her books in her room), but it does make taking pics a little difficult. However, I was able to lighten most of them up using photoshop, and now you can actually see what her room looks like.

I love how her room turned out (and so does she). This is the first room that I've really gotten to decorate. I loved the creative process. After 10 years of feeling like crap and just getting by, I finally have the energy (mentally and physically) to do more. It was very fulfilling to try different things and sew and paint and put it all together. It took longer than I expected it would (all my projects seem to), but it all came together in the end, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg.