Oops...

Ok I am not the best carpenter in the world, and maybe next time I shouldn't be rushing around making secret beds before my husband gets home from work. My pretty bed started to get a little not so pretty after two nights of sleeping on it. My flush joints started to become un-flush as the weight of our super heavy tempurpedic and boxes pushed the bottoms of the 2x6s out of the soft pine legs. Woops.

But never fear, I have a new plan! I learned some things while putting this bed together. Things like, I need a very long drill bit for drilling pilot holes through the pocket holes. And that I might need a new phillips drill bit, that is also longer because my current one keeps stripping all my screws. Or maybe it's just me. 

Anyway, I came across a blogpost yesterday where someone else built a super cute bed, and said they would be posting a very detailed how-to the next day (today). What a coincidence! It must be fate, I tell you because I love this bed frame and it looks so nice and simple! So here is my new plan. It looks much more sturdy than my original plan. I am so mad at the guy from Lowes who talked me into getting only 5 1x4s for the slats. Those things are so weak! I had gone in asking for 7 2x4s, and he was all "oh no, that's overkill, just use these, and you probably only need like four." I will definitely be getting 2x4s, and lots more of them this time around.

I don't know when I will get started yet, but sometime this week I'm sure. Patrick's work is really going to slow down starting today so I am hoping to get my friend Lindsey's curtains finished then get to work on this bed frame! 

A Bed Tutorial

I should probably say this is less like a tutorial, and more like a "here's what I did, copy at your own risk" sort of thing.

I knew I wanted something very simple with clean lines. I'm picturing 1x6 sides, flush with the top of 14" square or tapered square legs. I buy my stuff, and even spring for the spendy oak furniture grade 1x6 because they were so pretty! I had everything cut to size at Lowes. Here is what I got:

2 1x6x77" oak boards
2 1x6x81" oak boards
5 1x4x77" pine boards (for slates across the bed)
2 1x2x77" pine boards to run along the sides and hold up the planks
2 2x2x28in oak table legs

First I busted out the Kreg Jig to test drive it. Then I drove two holes into each side of the 1x6 boards. I didn't take a picture, but the holes turn out to look something like this:

(photo from centsational girl)

Next I tried to screw the boards into the side of the legs. Note the use of the word "tried." It didn't work so well, even when I drilled pilot holes. So I devise a genius plan to use the pine 1x2's as legs because they are softer. Works like a charm, screws go right in. Here is a photo of my laundry hamper supporting one side so it doesn't fall over while I was working on something else:

The joints are strong enough, but not as strong as I was hoping for. They would be stonger it I had been able to use the more substantial oak legs I think, but I just could not get the screws to go in all the way. This is kind of a theme in my life. Whenever I try to build something, or work with power tools in any way, something inevitably goes wrong, even if it is just a simple, straightforward project. I run into stupid road blocks, like not being able to screw the screws in all the way and stripping out the screw head in the process. Sigh. Nothing can ever be easy!

After lots of craziness, balancing acts, and careful maneuvering, I ended up with this:

The hardest part was screwing the legs to the boards without my upright boards falling over! Hence the laundry hamper support above. Anyway, you can see in this picture the small 1x2s running along the side. Because I improvised the legs, it added a little width to the bed, making my 77in slats too short to be supported by the 1x2. Womp womp. I had some remnants of the 1x4s so I decided to cut 3/4in pieces and screw them into the ends of each slat to elongate them. Worked ok, but will not be a permanent solution! Then I screwed 2x4 pieces to each slat, perpendicular to the floor to support the middle of our bed. The man at Lowes said the 1x4s would be fine and 2x4s would be overkill. I think he was wrong. Our bed is HEAVY. And my husband sleeps like he is being stung by a bunch of bees, flopping all over the place. A solid 230lb man throwing his weight around in his sleep is serious business for a bed frame to handle. 

So that set up will be temporary. I have plans for a platform made out of 2x4s and plywood to just set inside this frame, and be covered with a bed skirt. I also have some sanding to do where my joints didn't stay exactly flush. :-( But overall, I am happy with it. It is much more my style, and the room already feels bigger without our big giant bed. I can't wait to get the headboard up!!

A New Bed!

Patrick built our bed a few months ago, right before T Patrick was born. It was a good first attempt, but it was a little sloppy, albiet the sturdiest bed you have ever seen! It was all 2x4s and 2x6s screwed together with huge screws and 3in bolts...heavy stuff. We had made panels to go around three sides, with big plans to make hinges on the top so they could be lifted for storage under the bed. They might be visible in the pictures in the "House Tour" page. Anyway, they were just leaning up against the bed for the last 6 months, pretending to be attached. And they were magnets for stubbing toes, knocking them over, exposing the particle board on the other side, just kind of a pain in general. One we hadn't been able to come up with a solution for. Also the sides of the headboard were unfinished, and our plan for finishing them wasn't making much progress and I didn't really have a lot of confidence that it would do the trick. So after six months, I decided we needed a change. Something lighter, sleeker, less of a big deal.

Here is what I ended up with after a few hours last night:

I love how it looks, even though it's still raw wood. I couldn't decide on a finish so I just made it and I can do something to it later. It definitely needs some more support too. But for now it's ok. And at least it's pretty! Up next is a headboard in this fabric:

I saw this on younghouselove and fell in LOVE with it. It is SO pretty! And incorporates both of the colors I have going on in my bedroom so nicely! I can't wait til it gets here! 

Abigail is waking up so this is going to be a quick post. I did take some photos of the bed-making process and will post more later!

Gallery Wall, Take Two

I LOVE gallery walls. The only reason I had a big wedding, and had babies is so I could have tons of lovely photos to fill up gallery walls all over my house! Ok, that is not the only reason, but it is a happy by-product of those life events! Anyway, I thought the wall about my sofa in the the living room would be a great place for a gallery wall. Original, I know. I really liked the idea of this project from Iheart Organizing:

I like how the clips add some interest, and allow you to change the artwork/photos on a whim, without the work of picking those little tabs and taking out the old photos, getting the frame back in the right spot, etc. 

Then there is this cute wall, from younghouselove:

And also from younghouselove, the ultimate gallery wall, it's like picture frame wallpaper! 

Now that I've shared with you my inspiration, let me show you my first attempt at a gallery wall:

Not very pretty, is it? I bought a bunch of these frames from Ikea a long time ago in anticipation of some great family photos after Tee Patrick was born. (That's cajun for Little Patrick, and it's what we decided to call him after nobody in either of our families was thrilled about calling him PJ.) Oh, and there used to be a vertical white 8x10 frame hanging in that blank spot, but I stole it for some art in Abigail's room because this wall was stupid anyway. 

I used that photo hanging thing, I forget what it's called, but it has an infomercial, it's like a little thumbtack gun you hit with a hammer and it puts an angled tack into the wall...anyway, not worth it, if you are considering getting one, don't waste your time! The other big problems with this wall are, in no particular order: the black thing that makes the frame able to stand on a table skews the frame and makes them all look wonky and slanted, I do not exactly have the most artistic eye when it comes to making "random" arrangements like this, and I didn't measure. Woops. However, I did at least lay them out on my kitchen table in an arrangement I was fairly happy with. I guess something got lost in translation from the table to the wall! 

All that to say, I have new plans for a different arrangement with different frames. I am going to get some flat white frames from Ikea soon and use those. I think I will still keep my eye out at our local ReStore (habitat for humanity) for some plain cabinet doors for a future project though! 

I don't have an after photo yet, but I did get my prints in the mail, and I think this is the arrangement I have settled on:

What do you all think? Yay or nay? Also, does anyone know of a REALLY GOOD photo printing site? I have been really unhappy with Riteaid lately, and ordered these prints from snapfish.com, and they are very grainy. Anyone have any better luck with another company? Please let me know! thanks :-)

Abigail is TWO!

My little baby turned 2 years old on June 27th! This post is a little late, but nowadays everything I do is a little late. Anywho. Her actual birthday was not all that exciting, since most of her friends have moved away, so no party. (Such is the life of an "Army Brat" right?) Her birthday was on a Wednesday, but we waited til Friday to celebrate since Patrick was off work. He surprised Abigail (and me!) by coming home from the store with a Dora cake! (Just so everyone knows, I had planned on getting her a small cake too, he just beat me to it!) That afternoon we went to Jumpin' Jacks which is an indoor play place with a bunch of bouncy houses. She had a lot of fun, and really held her own bouncing with the bigger kids. She had a blast on this HUGE slide thing, and climbed up the super tall ladder all by herself! Her favorite thing to do though was pretend to drive the car video game. 

{Almost} Finished Backsplashes!

I am really excited to have ALMOST completed my very first tile installation! I was feeling motivated this morning, and demo'd the tile backsplash around the sinks in our bathroom before I dropped Abigail off at daycare. I hadn't originally planned on doing that part this soon because I thought I would have to take the mirror down in order to knock of the tile, but I figured out a way to do it without taking off the mirror. I knocked the tiles from each side off easy peasy, but the back wall was tricky because there was wall on one side. and mirror on top, so my options were limited in terms of crow-bar placement. (I was hammering a crow bar between the tiles and the wall to pry them off.) Then I got the bright idea to take off the outlet cover and start there where I had some space and an exposed edge of tile to work with. Well I grabbed the outlet to pull it out of the way a little after removing the cover, and it turns out those screws on the top with copper wire around them have electricity running through them. Yep, I sure did electrocute myself, y'all. It wasn't terrible though, my arm started tingling and I was like "huh that's weird...Oh! I think I'm being electrocuted..." So, moral of the story: don't touch the screws on the top of the outlet.

Moving on...backsplash demo'd. Filled in some holes with caulk so they could dry while I ran errands. Sadly, another daycare session not spent working on Lindsey's curtains. But hey, we needed pork from the commissary. Gotta eat to make curtains! (I can only sew when Abigail is at daycare because currently her bedroom is the only place I can sew in our house.) Sidetracked again...Anyway, I picked Abigail up from daycare at 12:15 and went to Home Depot to rent a wet saw. (I had already tried the Lowes right down the street, but they don't rent tools. Darn.) Fast forward an entire afternoon and here is where I ended up:

(Bonus: a nice view in the mirror of the pile of socks that need to be matched and put away on the dresser!) 

Can I just say that cutting little pieces of glass mosaic on a big saw is not very easy? Because it's not. It's actually pretty hard. But I did a good enough job I think, and it should look pretty darn good once it's grouted! 

I will post a more detailed post on how I did all this very soon, as well as a post about Abigail's birthday and some 4th of July photos! But for now it's late and I need to get some sleep!

Some Quick Storage

Our bathroom is quickly running out of storage space. We have the space underneath the two sinks, plus 4 drawers in between. There is a closet in the bathroom, but I turned it into our shoe closet quite a while ago since there wasn't room in our walk-in closet for shoes. So, no linen closet means towels must go under the sink, along with cleaning supplies, various medicines, toilet brush (can't have that out in the open with toddlers running around!), my make-up, hair dryer, brushes, straightener, you get the idea. We have a lot of stuff that needs a home. Enter these babies from Home Depot:

I got two of the 36" shelves for now. I will probably add a third on top in a couple pay-days. (How will I reach it, you ask? Fun fact: closed toilet doubles as a step stool! Genius, I know.) I could make my own shelves for cheaper probably, but the fact that I installed both of these in about 5 minutes makes the price tag worth it. Sometimes time is a precious commodity when you have two babies running around! (Or one running around, and one scooching backwards all over the floor...) Anyway, I didn't take a before picture, but just imagine that area with a blank wall and no shelves. That vertical space was definitely some valuable storage real estate that I can't believe I am just now getting around to using! I already plopped my make-up bag in that basket ($3 from goodwill) and my favorite earrings live in that turquoise ceramic egg crate on the top shelf. I need to add more to decorate, and once it's finished I will try to get a better picture. But for now, I am excited to have that egg crate off the counter and an almost empty drawer!

And, just because I love this guy so much, here is a photo of my squishy trying to eat my purse while I was packing for our trip to Louisiana:

Pardon my crappy picture taking, I was having trouble getting it to focus. Must keep practicing!