The Tale of Four Bookcases

What's happening on the Nate Berkus Show today you might wonder?  We are!!  Get your tv on!  And please pray we don't embarrass ourselves....

I'm a big fan of making a house work for the family that lives in it.  If there are rooms that aren't being utilized, turn them into functional spaces that you need! 

The house I'm living in now has a formal living room/dining room combo that just wasn't being enjoyed.  After living here for almost a year, I hatched a plan to turn the dining room space into my home office.

Problem number one:  It's one long, continuous room.

The solution?  Find a gigantic, former built-in wall unit at a thrift store, borrow a truck and trailer, and persuade your husband to drive over an hour to pick it up in a rain storm.  No biggie.

Skip the drama. We placed the big built-in behind the living room sofa as a divider, with the storage part facing toward my new office space.  One room divided into two, instantly!

Problem number two:  Her backside.  So unsightly.  Facing right into my formal living room.

I laid awake at night for months thinking of a way to cover it up. Wallpaper? Fabric? A board and batten treatment?  Nothing was convincing me into action.

Until the day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, {Little Green Notebook}, and saw Jenny's library.  Done.

After tirelessly searching Craigslist for the ideal thing for weeks, I came up with four,  perfectly sized  beauties.  This sweet couple was taking 12 of them out of the home they had just purchased.  I didn't have the heart to tell them they were crazy!  The units were big, brown, and kind of homely, but I could smell the potential, and I had just hit the jackpot.  They were $200 total.  I was swooning over the tongue and groove backs.

Fortunately for me, I was hosting {Club Project} that month, and I put Lettie and Cara right on painting them.  Not a word of complaining from these two warriors.  They just got 'er done.  Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl for the back, Valspar's Cincinatian Hotel Hannaford for the shelves.

Mia skillfully traced and cut the arches for the tops with a jigsaw.  Her entire body vibrated the rest of the day, but these are the kinds of things we do for each other.  And she was fine by bedtime.  Yes, that's one of my chickens in the pot behind her, laying her daily egg.

Jenny put together an excellent {tutorial} on how she added the arches to her Ikea Billy bookcases, which I followed ever so carefully.  What a brilliant way to make regular bookcases so custom.  Mia came over on another day to help me install the arches, because she's awesome like that.  The wood for the arches was $20.

I decided that because the bookcases were for my formal living room, I would dress them up just a touch with some very basic trim.  It was also a good way to hide the seams where the arches joined up with each other.  I found just what I needed at Lowes for $30,  and called in the big guns for some assistance. 

Caulking is your friend when you're working with wood.  It will make the BIGGEST difference in your finished work.
 

Be sure to cut your tip really small so you have maximum control when using it, and have a wet cloth handy.  There were lots of spaces like this in my bookcases because they were so old.

After caulking, you will never suspect the imperfections once it's painted.

After painting all the trim came the fun part.  Accessorizing!  99% of the items came from thrifting/flea markets/my backyard.  Even the $10 butterfly print, remember the one I hauled around NYC for 10 hours?  You better believe that thing was going to be front and center!

I found the sofa on CL for $40 a couple years ago.  I'm so sad I didn't take a before shot of it. I found 10 yards of striped linen at Goodwill for a total of $3.49 for the whole piece.  Can you believe that?!  One of my best girls, G, came over and  helped me reupholster it.  She's a keeper for sure.  I finished it off with some aged nail heads.  Lots of them.  I painted the wood a cream color, then rubbed a light gray all over it. I adore the detail on the arms and sanded a little bit of the finish off to highlight it.

Me and my mom made the three big pillows out of a couple curtain panels I found at Goodwill.  I love their feminine, pleated edge. 

And here is the highly anticipated final picture!  I'm so glad we finished it before the holidays. Total for the bookcases was $255.  If you add the couch in, the total goes up to $340.  And just for fun, let's throw the {coffee table} in there too, for a grand total of $355.  If you must know, the pair of chairs were a lucky CL find at $60 apiece.

Now, on to the curtains, which is the last task to check off for the completion of  this room.  I'm going to give myself an award when they are done.  Guess what?  I have had my own place for the last 20 years, and this is the first time I have done one thing to any formal living room.  I feel like such a big girl now!

We used to have to explain a lot when visitors came in the front door.  Like why there was the back of a huge, jacked-up piece of furniture behind the couch.  It's going to be so nice to welcome friends in, and not have them look at us like we're from outer space.

Don't forget to sign up for our {November Giveaway}.  It's a fun one!

we're getting a Nino!

After 7 months of being certified for foster care, we're getting a {Nino}!  We've been waiting to have a little boy in our home who needs some extra love, and we finally got the long awaited phone call.  We're not sure how long he'll be here, we're just going to to take it one day at a time and make the most of each moment.  For privacy purposes, we can't post pictures, but I can tell you he's six years old, has curly red hair, and a light sprinkling of freckles across his nose.  He loves swimming, animals, all kinds of food (yeah), and has the sweetest little raspy voice! 

Here's the dresser I recently finished for his little boy belongings.

I found it on CL and it was the perfect size for the room I've been working on upstairs.  I paid a bit more then I like to pay for a used dresser ($65), but I had been looking a long time for a specific size that would fit right under the window and this one was perfect.    

I liked the original stained wood but decided to change up the drawers and spray them black.  I used this brand of spray paint found at Home Depot.  It truly is twice the coverage and it goes on really evenly. 

Then I added some character to it with some paint splatter and I hit it a few times with a big, heavy chain to add a few dents.

I sanded it around the edges,

and took some small nails and pounded them in the corners of the drawers to look like worm holes.

I'm really diggin' the industrial look these days and I decided I wanted some cool, old casters for the feet to give it a little height, and to add another element.  Jilly just so happened to have these laying around in her back yard (for real) and she gave them to me.  I know.

My man and I spent some quality time in the garage fastening the casters on the bottom of the dresser,

and making blocks legs for the back of the dresser which I stained to match the wood.

I spent some time looking for the right pulls for this dresser and I finally decided to use jute, similar to the rope I used on the {anthro knock off }.   It's inexpensive and unexpected.

This rope is a little thicker and I tied the handles just a bit different. 

Simple and easy.  I didn't waste any time getting it upstairs and placed in the perfect spot.

Here are some other projects I've completed in the Nino's room lately.  I think we're ready! 

Click on the picture to see the DIY tutorial.

I made these roman shades with my friend Cindy who runs a professional work room.  I found the fabric at the "mother ship" Creative Home Fabrics in Phoenix for $3/yard.  It was imperative that these babies were blackout lined to give the nino a few more hours of slumber after the sun comes up:) 

P.S. There was no sewing involved in the making of these shades.  Not one stitch.  It's all done with double sided, professional sewing tape and scissors.  Who knew?   

I snapped a few pictures of us "working".  We had ridiculous fun chatting and catching up, and consequently, they took us entirely too long to finish.

But it was worth it. 

Cindy is a great friend with a laugh I could listen to all day.

It's AMAZING the things you can do with all the right tools and gadgets.  How am I ever going to go back to sewing on my kitchen table? 

We even used some potentially dangerous power tools without the assistance of a man.

On Wednesday afternoon, my family will be waiting anxiously at the door for the moment he arrives.  I have a feeling this will be a great learning experience for all of us.  I've got two crossed fingers and a prayer that it works out for the best.  So it's onto a new and exciting chapter in our lives:)

dream coffee table

I've never been a huge fan of Disneyland (no disrespect Captain EO), but let's just say I'm beginning to believe that dreams can come true. 

I've been trying to put the finishing touches on my family room for 6 years and in that time, I've been through 4 different coffee tables.  Finally I decided the perfect table would be round, with a marble top, and a wood base.

I also wanted it to be more stream lined since I currently have lots of French inspired pieces and curved lines in this room.  Naturally I started my quest looking at CL, thrift stores, and garage sales.  After about 5 weeks of searching, I hit the jackpot. 

 OK well, when I got it she looked more like this.

Please tell me why on earth you would spray a coffee table with thick, foam like, textured paint? 

Stripper to the rescue! 

Yes, you will find this at your local gentleman's establishment, but it's The Home Depot.

Apply it in small amounts, wait 15 minutes, and lightly scrape the paint right off.  It's magic.

In less than an hour I had stripped it down to it's natural, raw wood and it was everything I had hoped for, and more.  The residue from the spray paint actually left a crusty, white stain in the grooves that created the look of an old, worn patina. 

And the best part, it was $30.

I placed it in the center of the room and stared at it for the rest of the afternoon. 

Here's another "before and after" that currently resides in my family room.  I found this chair at a flea market in CA, and I bought it because I loved the lines and couldn't say no to the wood trim. 

Then I sent it over to a my favorite upholster, Jorge, for a makeover.  I made the white pillow out of an old grain sack and the peacock blue, ruffled pillow is right from Home Goods.

It sits next to this chair with curved arms and tufting on the seat and back.  A couple days ago I found part of a candy bar down in a tuft, a much needed pick me up.

Our family room and office nook.   

This room flows right into the kitchen where I have a long, farmhouse table from an old barn in Texas.  It comfortably seats 8 and somehow, it's always full. 

My next purchase is going to be different lighting over this table.  Anyone have an amazing fixture collecting dust in the garage?  I'm also kicking around the idea of a new window treatment.  I made this one 5 years ago and it's about time for an update. 

Our family room is not large and we always have a group over, so maximizing seating is important.  I bought this smaller scaled, low sofa (from Jilly) so it would seat three to four people and not take up a lot of visual space.  This pic was taken right after G painted the wood at {Club Project}. 

This couch was a must have.  It's dark, worn leather is durable and comfy with down filled cushions.  Very important for my man in case he has to sleep on it:)  



The leather couch sits next to this ten dollar, re-purposed patio table from CL.  I love the way natural elements soften spaces and invite the outdoors in.

So what is your latest and greatest find?  If it's as good as my new coffee table, we MUST hear about it.  Send your pics to us at meandjilly@gmail.com and we'll show them off in an upcoming post.