diy – simplify the chaos

Getting Back into DIY Mode with 3 Simple Home Updates

It finally feels like spring is here. Trees are blooming, weather is warming, and I feel like I am coming out of a hibernation of sorts. Lately I’ve been feeling the urge to get back into DIY projects around the house – my inspiration to create is coming back! There was a time where I was cranking out project after project, room after room. It wasn’t a sustainable pace, and my desire to tackle projects around our house dipped. I chose to focus on other things within our family and with other commitments in our school, church, and community and now I feel like I have a good balance and am ready to add projects back into the mix.

I decided to jump back into things with three quick and easy projects. A couple of them are so quick and easy that project may even be too big a term. Call them updates, call them tasks – whatever they are, they’re simple to do yet make a big impact and were the perfect things to get my momentum rolling back into DIY around the house so today I’m going to share them with you.

A Sweet and Simple Vanity

My five year old daughter loves to dress up. She loves doing her hair and putting on simple make-up (which at this point is basically just lip balm) and she loves to accessorize. She had created her own little “vanity” area using a chair and a jewelry box with a mirror but it was spilling out and taking over a ton of floor space. Since she shares the room with her older brother, we really needed to find a better solution. I wanted low-budget and small footprint because this is a shared space and relatively short-term; she will eventually be moving into her own room, currently the nursery, and the boys will eventually share this room.

I grabbed a 2 x 4, approximately 27.5 inches long, from our stash of scrap wood to create a little vanity shelf. It was already stained, so I could eliminate that step. I also pulled out two L-brackets and some screws (we already had all these on hand, but they’re all simple, inexpensive supplies to pick up at a home-improvement store). I didn’t want to mess with using anchors, so I used our stud finder to locate the studs and screwed the brackets directly into them.

I shopped my house and collected a small mirror (originally thrifted for $1!) to hang with command strips and a few little trays and containers to see what would fit on the shelf. I tinkered around a bit until I settled on a combination that felt cute, functional, and easy for a five-year-old to maintain.

This was the perfect little project to jump back into DIY: quick, simple, and thanks to using all supplies we had on hand, zero dollars!

My daughter LOVES her new little vanity and uses it every day to get ready!

Faux Plants + Brass Planters

When I hung this collection of vintage brass wall planters in my son’s nursery, I attempted to plant a few live plants. And it looked great . . . at first.

I tried to pick low-maintenance plants with a tolerance for low light, but the reality is the room is dim. It’s nearly impossible to photograph accurately in natural light. It’s north-facing, there’s a ton of trees in our backyard, there’s only one window, and it just doesn’t bring in enough light for plants. After cycling through a few different plant attempts and all of them dying, I finally gave up and decided to go all faux.

I was able to shop my house for 4 different faux plants, but was stuck on the largest planter. I didn’t have anything that worked for it but also didn’t want to buy something brand new. I’m really trying to have a more conscious, smaller consumer footprint when I can and so I wanted to thrift and give new, well, life to a discarded faux plant. It took a couple months on my thrift list before I finally came across a plant that would work, but it was worth the wait (and staring at the dead plant for months, ha!)

Bonus: I was able to snip a few branches off to use in my planter and it didn’t impact the overall look of the original plant so I was able to re-donate it and hopefully someone else will also find use for it!

Picture Grid in the Hallway

We had our foyer and hallway painted in December 2023 and ever since, I have wanted to get some family photos up in the hallway. I often do a mixed-material gallery wall but this time I wanted to do a black and white grid of frames.

And so began a 16+ month “project” that really could’ve been done in one day. I had been brainstorming since December 2023, used painters tape to tape off grid ideas in February 2024, then in April 2024 I cut packaging paper into squares and hung up different configurations of sizes and number of frames to visualize.

These papers hung in my hallway for four months until I finally bought frames in August 2024, and those frames sat propped against the wall in my hallway until April 2025. I’m glad I took the time to really think and plan what I wanted rather than just throwing something up on the walls – this was a good reminder that sometimes it takes time to figure out exactly what you want and that’s okay. But also…once I figured it out and bought the supplies, I definitely procrastinated. I was intimidated to hang a grid knowing the precision needed is different than my normal method, and also it took me a while to choose the pictures I wanted to use.

I finally made myself carve out the time to do the last few steps and surprise surprise, it didn’t actually take that long to install. I used a laser level and that was such a game changer. This is key: I did not align the laser level with the top of the frame! Instead I held the frame where I wanted it, then brought one side away from the wall to see where the sawtooth hangers were and aligned the laser level line with them.

It did take me a while to measure and mark out where every single nail hole was going to go, but it was well worth the effort to check and double-check measurements. It then took no time at all to actually hammer in the nails and hang the frames and thanks to all that measuring, they aligned perfectly!

I’m so glad this task is checked off my list and I love seeing the frames in the hallway! Maybe this can be your sign that the thing you’re putting off might not actually be that bad or take that long, so just do it! 😉

Each of these three projects is pretty small on their own, but they make a big impact in their individual spaces. And bonus – they are all basically next to one another in the house so the overall impact of seeing the three together packs a big punch!

It’s just what I needed to get back into the swing of things and now I’m looking forward to some bigger projects.

Coming Up in May…

A few of the projects I’m going to tackle this month:

1 – Last year we did a huge patio renovation and this month we’re going to continue to upgrade the space.

2 – Finish the living room. This is another space that has been a long time coming and I finally have the inspiration and motivation to finish it up!

3 – Start our biggest renovation to date. This has been years in the making. It’s multi-room. It’s a full gut job. We’re hiring out a lot of the work because of the scope of the job. It’s so exciting for Justin and I and is going to hugely improve functionality for our family. I’m keeping it a tiny bit secretive for now but a hint for long-time followers is it involves a couple rooms that I did surface-level updates to several years ago (one in the very early days of my DIY home projects) to tide us over until full renovations could occur. Plans are almost finalized and I can’t wait to share, but until then I’d love to hear your guesses 🙂

A DIY Birthday Pinata for LJ

Last night, we celebrated LJ’s sixth birthday! This was the first year we did a big party with friends and he invited six buddies to come celebrate with him. There were many fun parts of the evening, but one of the highlights was this last-minute pinata!

I don’t typically lean hard into a themed birthday party and prefer to get decorations and supplies I can reuse over and over again in future years, but I do usually have a themed dessert based on the child’s interests. This year, LJ surprised my by requesting a monster truck ice cream cake. Even he admitted he’s not typically interested in monster trucks, but that’s what he wanted on his cake so we rolled with it. Then the night before the party, I was picking up a few last minute supplies and I stumbled across this.

I immediately thought how fun a pinata would be at the party, and that it’d be fun to surprise LJ with a monster truck one. I did not love the $20 price tag of this one though, so I got a burst of inspiration to try making my own DIY version of a pinata. It turned out great so I thought I’d share the tutorial today – I had most of the supplies on hand so it ended up costing me just over $5 and took about an hour of active work time.

Supplies

-thick cardboard (I used a diaper box)

-thin cardboard (I used a cereal box)

-painter’s tape (masking tape would work too)

-tissue paper

-scissors

-pen

-glue stick

-candy to fill it!

I decided to keep the shape simple so I used a round fruit bowl to trace two circles onto the diaper box cardboard. The edges weren’t perfectly smooth after cutting but I knew tape would be going over top so I didn’t worry about it.

I cut the two narrow sides off the Cheerios box, and when I realized that wouldn’t quite be enough to go all around the large circles I used one as a template to cut one more strip off the box.

I used painter’s tape to attach the Cheerios strip to one large round circle, then the other. I left one little flap un-taped so there would be a slot to add candy.

Once the structure was finished, it was time for the tissue paper. I stacked a few sheets of tissue paper and cut them into roughly two inch strips.

I stacked the strips and then cut the fringe about halfway into the strip. I didn’t worry about perfection – the strips and fringe were all a little different!

I swiped a glue stick in a line across the bottom and stuck the first piece of tissue paper on. Right above the top of the tissue paper, I swiped another line of glue and stuck another piece on. I repeated this process from the bottom to the top and then cut the excess tissue paper around the edge of the pinata.

I flipped the pinata over and repeated the process on the other large round side, then did the same thing on the narrow side. There was a little adjusting here and there as I glued the edges and trimmed off excess. I did put tissue paper over the candy flap, but did not close it yet.

Just one quick note: The fringe was irregular, but since the tissue paper was all one color it didn’t matter to me. If I was doing a multicolored pinata I would probably have wanted to keep things a little more consistent so the stripes would look more cohesive.

For hanging the pinata, I took a piece of black pipe cleaner and poked two small holes in the top. It was too hard to document this, but I stuck my hand through the candy slot to twist the ends together inside, then I used painter’s tape to stick the twisted ends to the top of the pinata. This felt sturdy enough to withstand a beating from six year old boys!

Lastly, I filled it with candy, and carefully stuck painter’s tape inside the candy slot, adhesive side sticking to the sides and covering the hole as best I could, so that I could press down the flap onto the tape. (In hindsight, I should have taped the flap from the outside and then covered it up again with fringe to give better durability).

I bought a monster truck digital download on Etsy and had it printed at my local FedEx on cardstock. I cut a circle around the truck, glued it to the front, and voila! A monster truck pinata for a total of $5.18.

We used rope to hang it from a broomstick, which Justin held. It was a hit with the boys and lasted about 12 solid hits before bursting open, which was good enough for me (but it burst from the candy flap side and I think if I had taped that closed just a little bit better it would’ve lasted a little longer). LJ loved it and told me I was “the best maker birthday mom ever” which I will take! 😉

Plans for the Kids’ Closet

I’m gearing up for my next home project and it might not be the most glamorous space, but I’m very excited for adding storage in the kids’ closet!

The previous owners had created their own system with a DIY shelving unit and a couple hanging rods. The setup was okay and hopefully worked well for their needs, but wasn’t a very efficient system for our needs. It felt like there was a lot of underutilized space and with two kids using this room, we need to maximize every inch.

When we replaced the carpet last June, we discovered the shelving unit was actually bolted to the floor underneath the carpet. They had cut a notch in the old carpet to accommodate it and we didn’t want to do that with our new carpet, so we decided to dismantle the whole thing. We’ve been living without the shelves ever since, and while I wasn’t sad to see the old system go, I have definitely felt the loss of storage. Right now all the kids’ clothes are either hanging or stuffed into their dresser and I have bins with hand-me-down clothes in future sizes underneath the hanging storage (and a garbage bag full of clothes a friend passed along that I haven’t had a chance to sort through yet). It’s been working okay, but I’m ready for more efficiency!

One of the challenges in thinking about a new closet design was having to think about what we need now, when we have a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl sharing a room, and what we’ll need in the future, when we have two teenaged boys sharing this room (eventually, Ollie and Vi will switch places). There’s also a small door to an attic space that we need to keep accessible, and the longest side wall isn’t deep enough to accommodate hangars.

All those challenges had me feeling a little out of my depth. We debated coming up with our own solution using Ikea storage and some DIY hacks, but it was going to require a lot of finagling with the attic access to maximize like we wanted to. My friend recommended The Container Store and their free closet planning service so we decided to check them out before jumping into an Ikea project.

We were totally blown away by the options at The Container Store and the fact that their planning service is totally free. (I want to emphasize that this is in no way sponsored by them, we paid for everything and this was just our honest experience!) We didn’t need to make an appointment and were just able to talk with a consultant about our needs. He took all the dimensions we brought and in just a couple hours was able to create a plan using their Elfa system that perfectly fit our space and our needs. Their rendering even included a 3D view which was so helpful to visualize what it will look like!

It was the simplest planning we’ve ever done and he ordered all the necessary pieces for us – bonus for us that they were having a 25% off sale! It ended up costing a little less than double what our makeshift Ikea hack was going to cost, but with a lot less work and a LOT more storage and function so it felt worth it to us. The system arrives this week so I need to prep the closet for install now.

Before the system arrives, I need to:

– remove all the remaining shelves and hanging rods

– patch and paint all the walls

– re-install baseboards (these got ripped out when we updated the carpet and were never added back in)

I would also really like to replace the light fixture and possibly add a small mirror. I know that’s not the biggest deal in the closet, but I think it would be fun to add some of those touches.

If you want to see updates in real time, be sure to follow along this week on Instagram!

A DIY Backpack Compromise

We’re gearing up for a big milestone around here: LJ is about to start kindergarten!

A few weeks ago we were in Target getting school supplies and had an unexpected meltdown in the backpack aisle. I wanted to buy a backpack that would last all the way through elementary school at a minimum, but LJ saw a Sonic backpack and immediately decided no other backpacks would do.

LJ loves Sonic . . . for now. But what about next year? I wanted to prioritize sustainability and I just know that in a year or two (if not even sooner!) he might be tired of Sonic and want something else. But according to his impassioned pleas as he literally laid his body down in the middle of the aisle in protest, he will always love Sonic forever and pleasemommyIonlywantthisbackpackIpromiseI’llnevergettiredofit. We were at an impasse.

It is important to me that he likes his backpack and feels some level of autonomy in these decisions, so I wanted to try and come up with a solution that worked for us both. And then I had an idea – a DIY idea!

I researched various backpack options and landed on Terra Thread. Their backpacks are high quality, fair trade certified, and sustainably made so that made me happy. I got this backpack in Tidal Blue, which is the color of Sonic, and that made LJ happy. And then, for the final touch . . .

. . . I bought a Sonic iron-on patch! LJ gets Sonic on his backpack, I get well-made, long-lasting quality, and the best part is whenever he does get tired of Sonic, it’s easy to remove. Win, win, win!

I had never used an iron-on patch before and it took just a bit of trial and error, but overall was an easy little project to complete. Here’s what I did:

I initially thought I wanted Sonic in the very center, but ultimately landed on having him stand on top of the logo. I think it seems unexpected and fun there!

Once the patch was exactly where I wanted it, I covered it with a tea towel.

The directions said to use a tea towel and high heat, but I wasn’t exactly sure how high to go so I started on the cotton setting (medium-high) since the backpack is cotton canvas. That was not hot enough and the patch easily peeled off. I truly needed HIGH heat to fully activate the glue and have it adhere properly. I turned it all the way up and placed the iron on top of the tea towel over the patch and pressed firmly for a full 60 seconds.

I also opened up the bookbag and firmly pressed the iron onto the patch from the other side of the fabric for another 60 seconds.

Lastly, I firmly pressed the edges of the patch for 2-3 seconds at a time. This wasn’t in the directions but I think it helped ensure the edges were firmly adhered. My mom suggested throwing in a few stitches (she did live through the 80’s so she’s a patch expert! 😉 ) and I might do that if I notice the edges coming up over time but for now it doesn’t seem necessary.

Voila! A Sonic backpack that will actually grow with LJ. This truly was the best compromise for both of us and he is SO happy with it. He’s already talking about adding other patches like Tails and Mario and honestly, I’m fine with that! He can personalize this with as many patches as he wants and I’m looking forward to how the look will evolve over the years.

Now on to kindergarten!

Upgrading Our Spiral Staircase Wall with Thrifted Frames

Back in 2021 I created a little gallery wall in the corner wall above our spiral staircase. It felt like the perfect place to do something a little unique so I curated a collection of mixed metal frames showcasing casual family memories. I always had the plan to update and add to the gallery as time went on and our family grew and this week I finally made the time to do it!

I love seeing different phases of our life reflected in this wall – we’ve got special mementos mixed with black and white photos of newborns and great-grandparents and every stage of life in between! I love seeing of a baby picture of LJ near another picture of him riding his bike as a 4 year old, and glimpsing special moments like the kids meeting Ollie for the first time or Vi exploring the beach with her cousin always has me reliving those sweet memories as I walk up and down these stairs.

My favorite part of this update (aside from seeing more memories on our walls) is that every single frame I used in this update was thrifted – it gives such an eclectic, collected vibe to the wall!

It’s no secret around here that I love thrifting and finding secondhand items to use in my home. Thrifting is good for my wallet and good for the planet, plus it helps me find unique items for my home. Win, win, win!

Of all the things I enjoy hunting for, thrifted frames are up there at the top of the list. I have thrifted dozens of frames over the years and love using them throughout my home. The other day, I thrifted 22 new frames in one shopping trip – the cashier was definitely curious at checkout, ha! But 22 frames for $28 total was an absolute no-brainer in my mind. As I sifted through options at the thrift store, I was elated to find so many unique small frames. I knew they’d be perfect for this project!

I love mixing metals so I’m always on the hunt for good metal frames that I can use as is, but in many cases, the frames are the size or shape I want, but not a color that works for the space. As long as the frame is solid quality, I still buy it knowing I have some options for making it work.

Today I thought I’d share the techniques I use for upgrading thrift store frames, both for this gallery wall project and other spaces in my home. When I shop with these ideas in mind, it really opens up the amount of possibilities for frames that might otherwise get passed over in the thrift store.

Spray Paint

My tried and true option is spray paint. A couple coats can completely change the look! The key is to keep the coats light so the paint doesn’t run or bubble up – a nice smooth finish will really elevate the frame. My go-to spray paints are this black one and this gold one.

Latex Paint

Occasionally I want a colorful frame and for that I turn to latex paint. I could buy colorful spray paint, but I have so many little sample jars of paint from various projects in the past that I like to use what I already have on hand. I recently snagged a couple jars from my stash to paint two wooden frames for our playroom wall and painted them Chatroom and Homberg Gray, both Sherwin Williams. I have found that it’s easiest to stick to simple frames (no ornate designs) and use a small angled brush to paint multiple thin coats.

Rub n Buff

I’ve struggled with Rub n Buff in the past and was on the verge of giving up on it, but I recently received some advice on how to apply it better. Now that I’m getting the hang of it, I’m liking it more and more! Rub n Buff can be used on a variety of surfaces but I think it works best on wood and metal. To apply, make sure you’re wearing gloves and dab just a tiny amount onto your finger. Lightly rub it all over the surface of your object, then use a clean soft cloth and buff the surface in small circular motions.

Sand + Stain

This option is the most labor-intensive of my options, but sometimes I want a wooden frame to retain the wood look. So many wood frames in thrift stores have an orangey colored stain that feels very 90s, but if the frame is a fairly simple design, an option is to sand it down and re-stain it a desirable color. For this frame in the kids room, I sanded off the old stain and just gave it a coat of polyurethane to keep a lighter wood look. If I wanted a darker look, I could have used a dark colored stain or even a gel stain. I only recently used gel stain for the first time (on my kids’ bedroom dresser) but I was instantly a fan so I might try that out on a frame in the future.

Next time you see an, ehem, ugly frame for sale at a yard sale or secondhand store, I hope this inspires you to not just pass over it but to think if there’s a way to make it work for your space! It might just be a perfect option 🙂

Easy, Functional Lego Storage

About six weeks or so ago, Justin and I completed a DIY Lego table for our kids. It has been a big hit with our children, particularly LJ, and has already gotten a ton of use. I knew when we completed the table that I needed to also address the storage for all the excess Legos and the past six weeks have made that even more evident. I finally took some time yesterday afternoon to organize our stash and I can’t believe the huge difference it made!

We had been working with a hodgepodge of storage bins: bright blue divided bins from when Justin was a kid, random clear bins from around our house, and white narrow bins I originally bought for the Legos. I totally blanked on taking a before picture, but I took a video of my organizing process and grabbed this screenshot from the beginning to give you an idea of the chaotic storage situation.

It took me a long time to find bins that would work for my purposes. I wanted lidded, stackable bins that were somewhat cute since they will always be out and visible. Size-wise, I didn’t want them to be too tall, since we don’t want a deep pile of Legos inside, but they needed to be tall enough to fit some type of divider. I also did NOT want them to be clear, which ended up being the hardest requirement! A lot of bins fit all my other parameters but were clear; I specifically did not want clear because when the Legos are put away, I want them to be somewhat discreet. The whole purpose of the Lego table was to corral Lego creations and keep tiny pieces up off the floor, away from little ones. By having opaque bins, I figured they’d be less enticing for curious little hands. Whenever babies or toddlers are in the basement, there is always adult supervision but I figured any extra help to keep them uninterested in the Lego space is going to be beneficial.

I thought I had hit the jackpot with these cute white bins, but I didn’t factor in the inset lids and bottoms – these plastic dividers fit inside but were slightly too tall to allow the bins to stack with the inset. I kept searching and finally landed on these Ikea bins – they were a little taller than I would have liked but they fit all other requirements so I decided to go for it. I chose the Kuggis in 10.25″ x 13.75″ x 6″ size.

I wanted adjustable dividers to customize sections based on the amount of Legos in that category. These plastic dividers were perfect! The length fit perfectly inside the Ikea bin; to adjust the size to fit the width of the bin, I just bent the divider back and forth at whatever length I needed. Sometimes it broke just with bending, other times the bend helped weaken the plastic and I could cut it with a scissors easily. I also used the scissors to trim off any sharp edge of plastic to keep edges smooth and safe for the kids.

I have no grand illusions of this staying perfectly organized, so I didn’t stress out too much over categories. I just tried to divide things in a general way that would make pieces easier to find. LJ’s exact words were “Mom, this looks so much better!”

My kids can’t read yet so I kept bin labels simple. I used cardstock, markers, and a few cutouts from an old Lego instruction book to remind them what was in each bin.

LJ could tell right away what each picture meant, so mission accomplished! Justin and I did decide on two catch-all bins of all the “weird” pieces that don’t really fit any category and we divided them into a big piece bin and a small piece bin; the former teacher in me loves the chance for them to start to recognize those simple words as they play!

I’m super happy with the result of this quick organization. It was such an easy way to *ahem* . . . simplify the chaos. 😉 And honestly, even if the divided categories don’t end up lasting and all the Legos end up in piles in the bins, I’m satisfied knowing the storage bins will continue to hold up and keep things discreetly contained for years to come.

Next Up: Changes Coming to the Guest Suite!

This mid-afternoon blog post is brought to you by Daylight Savings Time, which I am blaming for being sleep-deprived this morning and not hitting “publish” like I thought I had. So Happy Monday afternoon!

The longer we have lived in this house, the more I feel like I’ve honed in on a specific vision for it. I’m so glad we didn’t do major renovations when we first moved in; living here has shown me how we actually need certain spaces to function and that has completely changed my mind on some ideas I had when we first bought the home. As I’ve spent nearly four years tackling smaller renovations room by room, I’ve cultivated spaces that feel right for our family and it’s been really gratifying to see those spaces now work together throughout the house like pieces to puzzle.

That being said, I have been feeling like some of my earliest projects don’t quite fit that puzzle very well. These renovations happened so early on that I didn’t necessarily have the “whole house vision” in mind and now that I do, I’m wanting to go back in and re-address some things. There’s one space in particular I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and feel ready to tackle: our guest suite!

When we first moved into our house, the guest suite immediately rose to the top of the project list. Technically, it couldn’t be considered a bedroom at the time because there was no window, but I immediately saw the potential. We hired a contractor to put in a window, strip the wallpaper, and demo the en suite bathroom – you can catch up on the initial renovation in previous posts (click here for the bedroom and here for the bathroom).

We initially finished the guest suite in early 2020 – just in time for a global pandemic and a very long pause on hosting guests. Ha! Eventually, I decided I wanted to add a bit of interest to the plain white walls and started a botanical wallpaper look using paint and a stencil. It was fairly labor intensive and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go all the way around the room so I paused after two walls. Along the way I also updated the bed and bedding and swapped out the nightstands for the ones from Justin and my bedroom (I still love all those changes!)

I recently had some inspiration for the guest suite that I think is going to make it make so much more sense with the rest of the house – it gave me that excited, adrenaline feeling in my gut that made me know this is the right direction to take the room! Here’s what I am going to be addressing:

1. Finishing the Faux Wallpaper. I do want to complete the wallpaper look all the way around the room and I’m going for it. I know that it will be time consuming, but I truly believe it will be worth it!

2. Paint the trim + doors + built-ins dark. Initially, I chose white walls and a light greige contrast trim because I thought it would help brighten the fairly dark room (the window is partially shaded by our back deck and with that + the angle of the house compared to the path of the sun, it never receives direct, bright sunlight). Now I have more confidence in leaning into the natural shadowiness of the bedroom and I want to go dark green on the trim. The goal is a cozy, moody retreat!

3. Finally update the ceiling light! The last remining boob light (if you know, you know) in our home has numbered days and I cannot wait to see it go.

4. Repaint the en suite bathroom. With the wallpaper going on every wall in the bedroom and the trim going dark green, I think I’ll need to change the guest bathroom color. I am currently leaning towards a pink and again, it’s giving me that adrenaline feeling of being nervous for a dramatic change but also excited because I think it’s the right call.

5. Replace the carpet. We are finally ready to get new carpet in the works throughout the whole basement. The current carpet is very worn, stained, pulling up in places, and just very much in need of being replaced. I do want to replace with another carpet because a) our basement gets very cold and carpet is such an easy way to keep it warm and cozy and b) this is a big rec space/entertaining space for kids and carpet makes more sense to me for kids to play on.

I’m starting this week on the wallpaper stencil – you can follow along on Instagram for the play-by-play!

Restoring a Thrifted Dresser (+ the finished Kids Room!)

Over the past week, I’ve been working to remove the paint from the kids’ shared dresser and restore it to a natural wood finish. It all came together yesterday and to say I’m in love is putting it mildly!

Before

After

Somewhere between 7-8 years ago, Justin and I bought this vintage midcentury dresser on Facebook Marketplace for $30. It had signs of wear and tear and the easiest solution at the time was to paint it, so I chose a mid-tone blue and gave it a little upgrade. It has lived happily as a kid dresser for the past 5.5 years (even serving as a changing table when LJ was younger) and is still one of my favorite thrifted finds to date.

I recently completed the mountain mural accent wall in the kids’ shared bedroom, and when I got everything back in place, things didn’t feel quite right. It seemed like a lot of painted surfaces: painted walls, painted trim, painted door, painted dresser. It also felt really heavily blue! I knew I needed to bring in some natural elements and decided to try to strip the paint off of the dresser. I had never attempted this before but figured worst case scenario would be I could just repaint it in a different color if stripping didn’t work.

After doing a bit of research online, I bought a product called Citristrip to try. First things first, I removed the drawers and hardware and placed the drawers face up on a drop cloth (I save old bedsheets for this purpose!) I wore a double layer of latex-free gloves and assembled things in my basement where there is a big open space and plenty of circulating air – Citristrip is safe to use indoors but I still wanted lots of ventilation.

I poured it out directly onto the dresser and used an old paintbrush to roughly apply it everywhere. After some trial and error I learned that thicker is better – you want a pretty thick layer on top of the paint!

I stashed the brush in a ziploc baggie and let the Citristrip soak in, quickly learning that leaving it on longer produces better results. You don’t want it to dry out, but you do want to give it time to work. And when it works, it looks wild!

My mind was blown! I kept thinking the paint looked like really elaborate frosting and couldn’t believe how much it bubbled up. The first round, where I did a light layer and only left it on 30 minutes, left a lot of residue but the second round, where I poured it on thick and left it on 2 hours, took nearly everything off!

I used a plastic scraper to remove the paint; sometimes I needed to do a bit of extra scraping to get it all off but it did not require a lot of muscle or effort to do the vast majority!

The main frame of the dresser took an extra round of Citristrip because the paint layer was thicker, but once I got everything stripped it was time to clean off the reside. I used mineral spirits (again, you want ventilation and gloves!) and a clean cloth to wipe down the surfaces; it works best to give the mineral spirits plenty of time to fully dry before sanding.

The dresser had a very thin layer of wood veneer on almost everything (more on that in a bit) and sanded well for me. I used an orbital sander, first with 80-grit sandpaper, then 120-grit, then 220-grit to get the surfaces down to raw wood. At this point, I started to feel optimistic that this was actually going to turn out well, because things were looking so much better!

I wiped everything down with a tack cloth and then it was time for gel stain – I chose this dark walnut color.

I have never used a gel stain before but it’s super easy to apply: I painted the stain on using a brush, first going in the direction against the grain, then immediately going over it with the brush again (without adding more stain), this time with the grain.

I let it set 2-3 minutes and then wiped it off with an old pillowcase (I’m telling you, save your old bedding for projects!) Here’s a look at two drawers in the process, one with the stain wiped off and one with it still soaking:

One unusual thing I hadn’t remembered about the dresser was that the top is actually laminate. Hmmm. The paint stripped off it fine and I used 220-grit sandpaper to get the remaining residue off, but it’s hard to tell how much of the gel stain it took. The walnut color I chose pretty closely matched the original color and I was afraid of blotchiness so I did the whole top at one time; it looks great with the rest of the dresser and definitely did darken, so it at least took some of the gel stain. It worked out and I’m happy with the result!

The legs did not take the stain well, although that’s probably because I didn’t want to sand them, so I decided to pivot and use Rub n Buff. My goal was to try to match the patina of the original brass drawer pulls. I removed the legs and used just a tiny bit of product, rubbing it in with an old cloth. I was pleasantly surprised to see the legs really did look similar to the drawer pulls!

After everything had a chance to dry, I put it all back together in my kids room and WOWZA, this was exactly what the space needed!

I LOVE the richness of the warm walnut color. It is seriously stunning, and the patina on the brass hardware + faux patina on the legs brings so much character!

This is still a $30 thrifted dresser, so it’s far from perfect, but I just think she’s a showstopper now. I am so so happy with how this dresser now ties in with the other wood tones throughout and completes the room . . . even though I don’t really ever think a room is totally finished. Our needs and tastes are constantly evolving and I like to make little tweaks to our rooms here and there along the way. Plus this room will likely need an overhaul of sorts down the room when there are two teenage boys sharing it (!!!) That being said, the kids’ room feels like it’s in a really good place for their current stage of life so for now…it’s done. 🙂

Sources:

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Eider White and Nordic Bleu

Bedframes: Vintage

Dresser: Vintage

Striped Throw Blanket

Round Mirror

How We Made our DIY Lego Table

I just love a good DIY date. Last week, I shared plans and inspiration for making a Lego table for our kids and over the weekend Justin and I worked together to create our own. It was so fun to work on this together and I love how it turned out!

We decided to keep things simple with a basic table that could corral tons of Legos and provide a big workspace for creations. I also wanted it to have a top that would not only act as a lid for keeping all the Legos stored away but would create a regular table for other activities when needed. Today I’m sharing exactly what we did, including a few mistakes we made along the way, in case you’re interested in making one too.

Materials

-large piece of pine plywood for the table base (we got pre-sanded)

-large piece of oak plywood for the table top (we got pre-sanded)

-pine 1×6 (we needed two)

-oak board (we ripped down a scrap piece, similar in size to a 1×2)

-wood glue

-1 3/4″ wood screws

-wood stain (we used this one)

-black stain (we used this one)

-polyurethane

-foam brushes, latex gloves, and fabric rags for stain application

-220-grit sandpaper

-tools used: tape measure, clamps, miter saw, drill, impact driver, circular saw, nail gun, orbital sander, table saw (only used to rip down our repurposed wood)

The first thing we did was determine the size of the table. I wanted the table to comfortably fit Lego baseplates so we chose dimensions based on how many baseplates we wanted to be in use. (Note: I made two mistakes here. I measured the baseplates quickly and said “oh, they’re 10x10s!” and went off that, when they are in fact 10 1/32″. I was close, but learned the hard way that being a tiny bit off can cause issues. Also, I did not realize that when you actually click Legos in across baseplates, it separates the plates a teeny bit. Nothing too significant, but again, enough to make a difference in measurement. Make sure to take this into account when determining size! More on these mistakes later.)

We measured and marked the desired length and width onto the pine plywood. We accounted for 1/8″ wiggle room and Justin used clamps and a long piece of scrap pine to serve as a guide to keep the cut straight. He used his circular saw to cut both sides; the saw will cause a bit of splinting on whatever side is facing up, so have the nicer side facing down! I lightly sanded the edges with a piece of 220-grit sandpaper to remove the splints.

We determined the height we wanted based on a combination of factors – we wanted it a little higher than our train table but a little lower than our play kitchen. We determined 19 1/4″ for the legs (so with the 3/4″ plywood on top, we’d be at a 20″ table height) and I used the miter saw to cut them all to size.

We installed the legs using two 1 3/4″ inch wood screws from the plywood down into each leg. We highly recommend drilling pilot holes first!

Also, make sure you’re thinking about how you’re going to be installing the table sides and place the screws going down away from where you’re going to need to screw in from the side.

To create sides, we used pine 1x6s. I started with the short ends first and measured the precise lengths of the plywood (measure each side individually in case they’re not perfectly the same). I cut the 1×6 down to size using the miter saw. We played around a bit with the placement to determine how high of a “fence” we wanted around the table. We wanted something tall enough to corral all Legos and allow for creations to remain in place once the lid was on, but something short enough for little arms to reach over and access the middle of the table easily.

We settled on a placement that created a 3 1/4″ fence around the table. Justin came up with the idea to clamp a level to use as a guide to rest the 1×6 on to make sure the wood was installed straight (we did not use the level itself to determine “levelness” since the floor might not be level, but instead measured from the plywood down on both sides to make sure placement was consistent).

We ran a bead of wood glue across the edge of the plywood and used a wood screw on each end to drill into the legs (this is where it was important before to make sure to space out the screws going down into the legs!) We also ran a wood screw into the plywood in between the two legs for extra security.

The hardest side to install was the second short side – it needed to be exactly the same placement on the table as the opposite side but wasn’t being installed flush against an existing side, so we had to measure very carefully to ensure we placed it at the correct height. Double and triple check this before installing!

We followed the same process for the long sides, making sure to line up placement with the short sides. On these sides, we used four wood screws per side – one in each leg and two spaced out in between. We also used a nail gun to attach the long side edges into the short side ends.

At this point, the base was complete! I filled the nail holes with wood putty and gave all surfaces a light sand with 220-grit sandpaper before staining. (Note: We specifically chose pre-sanded wood to give ourselves a break on sanding, but I still recommend going over everything at least once to ensure no splinters!) I chose this black stain color and gave the table two coats of coverage. I chose to leave the inside base of the table natural since it would be covered by baseplates.

For the top, we measured the dimensions of the installed table sides and cut down the oak plywood to size using the circular saw and guide again, adding on a half each each way for some wiggle room. I went ahead and stained the bottom side of the table in this stain color.

For the lip of the table, we repurposed an oak board we had removed from our guest room during that renovation. Justin planed it down to remove the old stain and ripped it into strips of 2″ width. I used a miter saw to cut the sides to length, once again starting on the short sides, and I stained the “inner” side before installing.

We installed the tabletop sides similarly to how we installed the table base sides: we ran a bead of wood glue along the plywood edge and then used a nail gun to add a few nails along the side for extra stability. We did the short sides first, long sides second. We let everything dry, I filled in the nail holes with wood filler, and then Justin used his orbital sander with 220-grit paper to smooth all the sides and edges.

I gave the top a layer of the same stain and let everything dry, then added a coat of polyurethane to the tabletop.

This *should* have been it, but remember how I warned you to make sure your Lego baseplate measurements are exact? Well…mine weren’t and we ran into this issue when installing them. We had left enough wiggle room for the baseplates to fit across the shorter side, but for the longer side, the 1/32″ addition compounded over 6 baseplates meant that despite the built in wiggle room, the last piece didn’t fit!

Our solution was to take a scrap piece of pine (it was an odd size scrap piece – I think like 1/2″ x 2 3/4″ dimensions) and create a fence inside the table. We cut the board to fit side to side in the table, traced both sides of the board, and drilled pilot holes in the exact center between those lines.

Then we held the board back in place, and used wood screws to drill up into the pilot holes from the bottom up.

This created the perfect size surface for baseplates to fit and gave us a little area for loose Legos to be kept in. It wasn’t what we planned but it was a good solution for our dilemma! We chose not to attach the baseplates directly to the tabletop so they can be swapped out for whatever the kids are making.

The Lego table was complete and let me tell you, it has been a HIT with both of my big kids!

I love the option of having the tabletop on to cover all the Legos – I’m imagining this will get used many times over the years for crafts, activities, birthday parties, and overflow seating when we entertain. We already put it to use during our Super Bowl party on Sunday and it worked perfectly as a table for kids to eat at!

I also like that we can cover up the Legos if we have younger children over for a playdate. That being said, most of the time, the table will be uncovered. When that happens, the kids can actually use the lid upside down for additional Lego creation space!

Seeing this table in use at the Super Bowl party got me to thinking . . . we might want to make some small benches to fit under the table, right? They would be perfect for sitting around the table to eat, craft, or, of course, play with Legos! I’m guilty of “if you give a mouse a cookie…” syndrome and well, that just might be another project to add to the list. 🙂

Inspiration for a DIY Lego Table

After a bit of a project hiatus, I’m ready to jump back into some DIY. First up is a time-sensitive project for my kids that is going to stretch my creative muscles a bit and be pretty FUN at the same time because it all revolves around: play time!

Our playroom has gone through many changes over the years and has evolved as our kids have grown. LJ and Vi are only 21 months apart in age, so their toys have always been pretty interchangeable and have leveled-up at roughly the same time.

As they have both grown, we have slowly added more developmentally-appropriate toys.

I never worried about Vi choking on a small piece of LJ’s toy, because it simply didn’t exist in our home. What was safe for Vi was also safe for LJ and vice-versa and we were very intentional about that.

We’re in a different stage of life now. They are 5 and 3 and each have toys with small parts and tiny pieces that are fine for them, but definitely not for Ollie. Since Ollie is (quickly!) approaching the stage of crawling and will likely also be putting things he encounters into his mouth, it’s time to adjust the playroom setup once again and move all the toys with tiny pieces out.

The most urgent thing we needed to address was the LEGOS. Oh my word, Legos have completely invaded our lives. LJ is obsessed with building little farms and houses created all these little setups around the playroom. It was adorable and chaotic and also, no longer safe around Ollie. Last week we finally moved all the Legos into the basement, but they’re currently just everywhere down there and don’t really have any central workspace or storage anymore.

We had previously been using the train table for Lego storage in the playroom and it worked really well at first – it provided a nice flat tabletop to work and Legos could be stored underneath. Plus, LJ’s growing love of Legos coincided with his fading interest in trains so it was nice to use this table for multiple phases of life. Now, the Lego collection has outgrown what can fit on and in the table (plus, I imagine that Ollie might have an interest in trains in a year or two, so I’d like the train table to be available for the train/truck/car stage if he wants) so it’s time to come up with a different solution.

I’ve been scouring Pinterest for inspiration and am starting to hone in on a vision for our Lego storage. I’m leaning towards a freestanding table to allow multiple kids to work and move around the space. I love the idea of including shelves for storage, like this Ikea hack from If Only April:

I also love the idea of something totally custom and built to a size that exactly fits the flat baseplates with a rim around the edge to keep tiny pieces from falling off. Maybe something like a larger version of this DIY Lego Table from Love Create Celebrate?

This table will be in our basement, which is an easy way to keep things separate from Ollie in our daily life; however, the basement is still our main area for entertaining. We often have other families over and so Ollie will still occasionally be down there (not to mention other little ones) and even though that will always be supervised, I still want to make sure whatever solution we come up with has the option to tuck away all the Legos safely.

The reason this project is time-sensitive is because the Legos are already in the basement and we’re hosting a big Super Bowl party on Sunday. Yes, this Sunday. Six days from now Sunday. Can we get this finished in time? I sure hope so! I’ll be posting real-time progress this week on Instagram so if you want to see how we’re doing on this goal, you can follow along there!