DIY: Pallet Craft DVD Storage

We've all seen the increasingly popular pallet crafts that dominate Pinterest. And if you're like me, you admire them but think, "where am I supposed to find all these pallets??" Well, after getting six tons of stone delivered for my backyard patio, I suddenly found myself with an embarrassing excess of pallets and an itch to create something - anything - out of them.

Enter Chris Baughman, my crafty partner in crime. Together we brainstormed ideas - a coffee table! A work bench! Book shelves! Eh, let's just get started and see what happens!

We began by painstakingly removing the boards from the top and bottom of the pallets. I'm gonna be honest here, that part sucked. The wood was so dry and old that it split very easily, and removing the rusty nails was no easy feat. I began to realize why most of the pallet crafts I found online involved simply repainting pallets and adding feet or cushions. Those people are smarter than we are!

Once it was clear that we weren't going to get long lengths of useable wood, Chris and I decided to scale down our project to something a little more manageable. I had been toying with the idea of making some attractive DVD storage boxes for my new built ins (!), and this was the perfect opportunity!

I began by cutting the split ends off the planks of wood, and then cutting the useable pieces down to 18.5" long. 5 pieces total made up the two front pieces, two bottom pieces, and one back piece. I want the back to be shorter so that it will reveal the DVD spines. My handy helper, Chris, sanded the heck out of the splintery boards.

I then cut some little blocks out of some scrap wood and nailed the front and bottom planks to them at the joints. This will help make the box sturdy.

My shelf is only 8 inches deep, so I had to trim the bottom board to allow for a finished length of 7.5 inches. After attaching the back board with my nail gun, I measured both sides and cut two more boards to length, then nailed those on.

After a coat of wood conditioner and a lot of beeswax, my box was done!

I did also add felt footies though, so the box doesn't scratch my freshly painted shelves.

And here it is, filled with DVDs on my new shelves. I love that it just looks like an inconspicuous crate - you'd never guess it's hiding my very embarrassing movie collection!

Now I can't wait to make a bunch more just like it!

Before and After: Living Room Built-Ins!

Before I even bought my house, I dreamed of a Craftsman style home with built-ins surrounding the fireplace. So when I found my place, those immediately went on the to do list... after the bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, heating / air conditioning, electrical, backyard, etc etc etc. 

More than three years later, I FINALLY got my built-ins, thanks to my big brother Monty! Here is a little reminder of the "before" (this picture is pretty old, sorry):

And here is a picture of the pre-decorated "after":

Again, apologies for not cleaning up before taking the photo. I was just so excited!

Some people (not me, obviously) were concerned that the shelves would make the room seem smaller. But since they're only 8 inches deep, and painted the same color as the walls, they didn't seem to reduce the space at all. In fact, I think the horizontal lines make the room seem wider. And I definitely have a lot more storage! Everybody wins!

A huge thank you to my brother Monty, you're the best!

Vintage Chair Yeti-Over

Long-time readers may remember this vintage chair make over from way back in 2010. Sadly, when I moved into my house, the chair sat in the workshop for a while and someone left something metal on the seat, where it promptly rusted and left a big stain on the cream chenille. I tried cleaning it and only made it worse. It was a sad, sad day at the Rosenfeld Cottage.

Until! I saw this awesome chair on Apartment Therapy.

Not surprisingly, it's super difficult to find a gorgeous skin like that for an affordable price. But West Elm sells these Mongolian lamb's wool pillow covers for slightly less than a fortune (and I had a gift certificate that covered a big chunk of the cost).

I don't know how well these will hold up, so I didn't want to go through all the pain of actually reupholstering the chair - plus I didn't want to cut the pillows up. Who knows what would happen with all that fur? So I basically laid one pillow cover over the seat, and loosely basted it to the piping on the upholstery in the front and back. Then I looped the second cover over the back and did the same thing. 

Here is the before (without the tragic seat stain)...

And here is the after...

Maybe not quite as luxurious as the original inspiration, but it's definitely fun and adds a lot of texture to the living room. What do you think?

DIY: First Day of Fall Wreath!

Fall is officially here! I've been waiting for scarf and boots weather for MONTHS, and even though it's still 80 degrees outside, it has not deterred me one bit. In order to ring in the fall properly, I decided to make a new wreath for the front door, inspired by this one at Paper Source. But instead of paying $20, you can pretty much make this from scraps you make have lying around the house. 

Here's what you need:

1. Cardboard for creating the wreath ring and the leaf template

2. Fabric and/or paper scraps (I used a mix of fabric, paper, pleather and felt)

3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks

4. Scissors

5. A pen

Optional Supplies:

1. Iron and starch

2. Feathers 

3. Stalks of dried wheat

I started by tracing a dinner plate onto the cardboard, and then a dessert plate inside that circle. I then cut around the outer line and the inner line to give me my wreath form. Then I freehand drew the leaf template and cut that out too.

Then came the tedious part. I traced the leaf onto all the fabric and paper, and cut out millions of little leaves. Okay, it was more like 100, but it felt like millions.

It's not important to have an even number of colors, I wound up using about 12-16 of each (I had 7 different fabrics). You can always cut more if you run out! My fabric was a little wrinkled, so I starched and ironed the leaves, folded them in half longways, and then pressed them again. The crease makes them stand up a bit, and gives the wreath a little more body. 

Next, hot glue your leaves, round-side down, to the outer most part of your wreath form, overlapping the sides just a bit. I tried to use every color equally, without it being too perfect or deliberate. As I went around, I incorporated the feathers and wheat stalks.

You should end up with three rows of leaves on the cardboard ring. For the fourth and final row, glue the leaf onto the ring about halfway up the piece of fabric (instead of on the round bottom), and then fold the round part around to the back of the form and secure it with more glue. This way you'll hide the rough edge of the cardboard. 

When you're all done with that, secure a loop of ribbon or string to the back of your wreath for hanging. Because my wreath is going to end up on a glass door, I finished the back by gluing a ring of the pleather.

I also added a bow to the front, to polish things off. And there you go! A super snazzy new fall wreath! Paper Source, eat your heart out!

DIY: Back to School Book Covers!

Confession: I am not actually going back to school. But I do miss shopping for school supplies - the smell of new binders, a fresh ream of college ruled paper, testing all the different pens to find the ones with the smoothest action... ah the memories. And perhaps this was a harbinger of my later love of paper crafts, but I always enjoyed making paper book covers out of brown paper shopping bags. 

It occurred to me the other day that just because I don't have any textbooks lying around, doesn't mean I can't dress up all my old paper backs with a little splash of color! So I hightailed it over to Michaels, carefully selected seven coordinated sheets of scrapbooking paper (59 cents each), and set out on the easiest project ever.

In case you don't remember how to do this, it's pretty simple. Here are the materials you need:

1. decorative paper
2. pen (I am using a metallic gold artist's pen, but you can use whatever you like)
3. scissors
4. a book

And here is what you do:

1. Trim the paper to remove any barcodes or other elements you don't want on there
2. Center the book in the middle of the paper (paper should be pretty-side down)
3. Make creases in the paper that align with the bottom of the book and the top of the book, so you're basically folding the paper lengthwise into three sections
4. Wrap the paper around the book, folding under the excess paper on the ends 
5. Tuck the covers into those newly created flaps
6. Write the name and author of the book on the spine, so you know which one it is

And this is what it should look like when you're done!

Now my little book collection is super adorable! Much better than the dog-chewed paper backs that I was too embarrassed to display before!

Now I can't wait to make over all my old books! 

PS Aren't my bookends adorable? I got them at Home Goods!

A Bitter Beginning

My very first strawberry has ripened! I watched it very carefully, not wanting to wait too long to pick it, in case it rotted. My friend Chris gave me the very helpful tip of putting some burlap over the soil, so the strawberry didn't touch the dirt when it got so heavy that it touched the ground. I watched and waited, and poked and sniffed... and finally I decided the time was right for picking...

Just look at the color! So pretty! I couldn't wait to bite into it, thinking that this organic, homegrown strawberry MUST be better than that store-bought nonsense. I sunk my teeth in, and my first reaction was "hm, this is more bitter than I would have expected." As I chewed, the taste in my mouth got more and more unpleasant. Finally I started getting hints of sulphur, and had to spit it out! I threw the rest of the strawberry away, and had to rinse my mouth out! Pa-tooy!

What happened?? Yahoo Answers is not extremely helpful, but it's possible that it's been too hot, or perhaps the plant didn't get enough sun when it was still in the store (this strawberry was already in progress when I bought the plant).

I'm really hoping that the next couple of berries taste better. If not, I might tear the plant out and start over again with something less disappointing!

Disaster Watch 2013: Cutting Edge Controversy

As the time nears for some sort of ground cover in the World's Worst Backyard, I've found myself embroiled in some kind of lawn-based controversy. I call it a "contro-grassy." Just kidding, I never called it that until just now.

Anyway, I've been leaning toward just saying sod, because of the instant gratification of it all, and was only wondering whether I should install it myself or pay the sod suppliers to do it. But in the back of my mind I was tempted by the more inexpensive option - grass seed.

I've heard that grass seed is difficult to grow (and I have never successfully grown something from a seed - ever), but now that I have sprinklers on an automatic timer, I'm thinking how hard can it be? As long as I can keep Daisy off of it, isn't it worth a shot? We're talking 7 cents a square foot, instead of $1.50 for installed sod.

Which brings me to the contro-grassy (it's catching on!). I was watching TV last night, when an infomercial came on for a product called Cutting Edge. No, it's not the knives that cut through soda cans. It's a special variety of grass that puts down crazy long roots, and therefore is more drought tolerant, and hardy. It also only grows to 2-4" high, so you don't need to mow as often, if ever. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Actually yes, Garrett noticed that one of the images on the infomercial was photoshopped (and badly) but that doesn't mean it's fake right? Maybe they just didn't get a good picture? RIGHT??

I decided to do some research, and there are several types of grass seed out there that claim to grow drought resistant, no mow lawns. They have mixed reviews, no one can definitively say they are good or bad. So I signed up with a forum called The Helpful Gardener. They have a thread about Cutting Edge grass, and the webmaster is actually offering free samples to those who want to try it out for themselves. 

I'll let you all know how it turns out. After all, what's the worst that can happen?