Archives for June 2017

The Secret to Organizing Home Projects & Repairs – Free Printables

June 29, 2017 by Eileen 48 Comments

While in the paint store the other day, a lady looked at my samples and said to me with a smile, “Choosing a paint color is more difficult than buying a car.”

I laughed, looking down at my dozens of shades of blues and greens.

I was sitting in the paint store with my toddler (who behaves perfectly when he gets to choose his own paint chip at the end) looking through samples of whites and greens, in an attempt to choose colors for my parents’ living and dining room.

Also in hand, I had a sample of the flooring we were putting in, and I was trying to envision the white chair rail running through the dining room. It was a little overwhelming!

You see, my sister decided to redo my parents living room and dining room while they were on vacation, so we were making all of the remodeling choices, leaving my desk looking like this:

Rather than dumping all the paint chips and floor samples in a drawer, I wanted to have everything organized for my parents – so they could see the exact paint colors and flooring sample we used, for their own reference. Thus, my DIY home improvement printables were born!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place to store your paint chips and room samples along with notes on the work you did or had done in your home? Heck yeah! And, I needed this organization for my own home too.

Keep Your Home Improvement Efforts Organized

I created these free DIY home improvement printables that I used for my parents house as well as my home – to store all of the home improvement updates in one, easy-to-access place.

Not only will the home improvement printables keep a reference of paint colors and floor samples, but it serves as a record for all of your house projects and repairs. I divided the worksheets into three categories – interior, exterior, and appliances.

You can keep a log of the home improvement work you or your contractor completed by room (including walls, floors, cabinets, countertops). This serves as your paint color reference too.

You can keep your exterior work organized (tree work, siding, roof, etc), and appliance maintenance (including when they were serviced/replaced and contractor information). The DIY home improvement printables keep all of these records organized in one place.

Also, you can download all of the worksheets in one download, or you can download just the pages you need, but these printables will have you organized in no time!

Simply hole punch them or put the printables in a sheet protector and place them in a binder, according to section. You can also keep contractor receipts and records, stored behind the log of the work done.

No more digging through file folders looking for the contractor that installed your fans. No more searching the garage for that leftover can of paint that may or may not exist.

And, the best part?

Down the road, when you go to put your house on the market, you can leave out the bound home improvement printables for your showings. It will show prospective buyers that you took great care of your home and are leaving them with information that goes above and beyond.

With all of the time you spend updating your home – choosing paint colors, installing new flooring, researching contractors, you owe it to yourself to keep all of this home improvement information in one easy-to-find place.

All of your home improvement updates, records, and files can be placed in this binder, in an organized, seamless fashion.

Easy DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms

June 10, 2017 by Eileen 120 Comments

This post is sponsored by My Wonderful Walls. All opinions are entirely my own.

Recently, Ash and I have been getting a toddler room ready for our sweet little son, which means new furniture, new color schemes, and of course, new wall decorations. His nursery decorations were random things that I put together before he was born. So it was time to decorate with something he really enjoys. With all of the adorable (and expensive!) artwork out there for kids’ rooms, I decided to venture out and make my own.

My goal was to create something special to hang on his walls that he would treasure – and that I wouldn’t grow tired of later. So, with just a few key materials, I was able to create these adorable DIY canvas wraps. They are so simple to make! .

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We love My Wonderful Walls products so much that we also have a 15% off coupon code for everyone. Just visit My Wonderful Walls and use JUNE15 at checkout (expiration June 30, 2017).

If you are the lucky winner of the giveaway, you can use the coupon code too. They have some awesome stickers, decals, and stencils 🙂

How to Make DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms

I had this vision to create something with little effort that would also save others time and money on room decorations.

This vision included using gallery wraps or wrapped canvases. I wanted to avoid the hassle of frames – it’s a lot of work to pick out frames, mats, and work out sizing. As an added bonus, wrapped canvases are super easy to find at craft stores, usually are on sale, and definitely save money- as frames and mats are much more expensive. Plus, I was happy to avoid having a bunch of glass frames hanging in my son’s room.

Next, I searched high and low looking for wall stickers or wall decals that I liked. Yet, rather than stick these directly to the walls to create a mural-like piece, my thinking was that I could easily stick these wall decals to the canvases. It would certainly make for a really simple but elegant project.

The problem? A lot of wall decals for kids look really cartoony. I wanted to find something that looked more authentic and artistic.

Then, I stumbled across My Wonderful Walls and LOVED the vehicle stickers they had. Their vehicle stickers have so many colors and details – they look almost textured. I fell in love with this rusty truck (pictured below). Isn’t it adorable?!

Also, their wall stickers were a really nice size and would definitely fill 9×12 and 8×10 canvases.

Materials for DIY Wall Art

Canvas Wraps – easily found at craft stores
Acrylic Paint – found at craft stores
Painter’s tape – only if painting stripes or chevron designs
Washi tape, if desired
Alphabet stickers, if desired – easy to find at craft stores
Vehicle Wall Stickers – from My Wonderful Walls (15% off using JUNE15 – exp. June 30, 2017)

Budget-Friendly Tip – When buying the canvases, paint, and other materials from the craft stores, check for sales and coupons before going. A lot of times the craft stores run 40%-60% off canvases. You could also use a coupon and buy a pack in bulk. Some craft stores even have surveys you can fill out that gives you a discount off of your next purchase.

In order to get the sizes right on the canvases, I waited to purchase the canvases until I received the stickers. Then, I took the vehicle decals to the craft store with me, so that I would get the canvas sizes right. The wall decals came in one long roll, so it was easy to bring to the store with me.

Because the vehicle stickers from My Wonderful Walls were a really nice size (and this was their mini kit), most of the canvases I bought were 9×12, 8×10, and a few 8x8s.

I also picked up a few little 4×6 canvases for the road signs. With all of the stickers and canvases, I definitely had enough to decorate a large room.

Making the Wall Decorations

After I had my materials together, I first cut out each wall sticker and placed it on the canvas that it would go on. I also arranged groups of canvases together to visualize how they would look on the wall.

Painting the Canvases

Time to paint! You could do this in a few different ways – you could just paint a solid background or you could create a design with painters tape – like stripes or chevron. You could even do polka dots, if you have adhesive circles! It’s up to you how creative you’d like to be.

I decided to opt for mostly solid backgrounds with a few striped canvases too. The solid background was easy to do. It took me two coats of acrylic paint. Be sure to paint the sides too – to give it the gallery wrap look.

Making the Perfect Stripes

Painting the stripes was a little more difficult, but I eventually got a perfect technique down. I would highly recommend using painter’s tape and nothing else, as you will get the strongest stick.

On my first attempt, I used painter’s tape and then painted the blue stripes – and I got a very imperfect line. After a bunch of experimenting (even tried gesso – which made no impact), this is how I got perfect stripes.

Place your painter’s tape on the canvas.
Next, use white acyrlic paint to seal the edges of the painters tape to the canvas. You are essentially creating a seal, so the intended color (blue in my case) doesn’t leak under the tape.
Wait a minute or two – but don’t let the white dry completely, and paint the stripe your intended color. Do a even stroke, going only one direction, so that your intended color doesn’t get underneath the tape.
Peel the tape off right away (after you are done with the top and bottom line). Once acrylic paint dries, it’s very plastery, so you want to remove the tape before the paint dries.

In the below picture, you can see the first stripe painted, with a perfectly straight line. Above that, you can see the white sealed edges along the green painter’s tape.

Now, some of my blue stripes were streaked with white from the seal I painted, but I much preferred going over the stripe again rather than having a jagged edge.

I also recommend having a practice canvas and painting short stripes, before attempting a good canvas. Once I had the routine down, each of my canvases came out perfect.

Decorating the Canvases

Now for the fun part! It was time to stick the vehicle wall decals to the canvases. The wall stickers were such great quality and so easy to work with. The stick was perfect – and they were easy to move when I changed my mind on placement.

Adding a Few Extras

One of the things I definitely wanted on the canvases was the name of the vehicle. My son is very visual and has taught himself lower case letters just from observation, so I figured if I passively have the names of the vehicles on the canvases, he will learn to spell.

So, I labeled as many vehicles as I could with the alphabet stickers I had. (This involved getting a little creative and “making” some letters).

Last, I felt that some of the canvases needed a little extra touch. I saw some cool washi tape at the craft store and added it to the canvases.

I’ve never used washi tape before, but I’ve seen so many cute creations with it that I thought I could use the washi tape to give the look of roads, construction signs, and railroads. It was the perfect touch!

Time & Cost

After collecting the materials, the DIY wall canvases took about one to two days to make, including dry time for the coats of paint. It was a super quick project.

The cost really depends on how many of the materials you need to purchase. If you have paint and alphabet stickers, then you’ll just need the canvases and stickers.

And, if you are interested in FREE wall decals, enter our giveaway – and you’ll be well on your way to making these adorable room decorations. Free wall decals plus the coupon code (JUNE15) will definitely save you money on the project 🙂

If you are looking for a simple tutorial to make DIY wall art for kids rooms, definitely consider this one. The materials were easy, the canvases were simple to put together, and they turned out great. You’ll definitely save money while creating something your children will adore.

How to Build Pull-Out Drawers & Custom Handles

June 1, 2017 by Ash 30 Comments

With my garage getting a little disorganized again, I’ve been working on building rolling worktables. As I was working on the custom-built drawers, and thought I would share my process. At some point as a DIYer, you might come across the need to make some drawers yourself – and it’s really rather simple.

If you are wondering how to make DIY drawers, there are many ways you can do it. In the end, it’s just a rectangular box with a floor and a handle. Among the many techniques out there to accomplish this, the three top methods that come to mind are dovetail joints, pocket holes and construction adhesive with nails.

How to Make DIY Drawers – Adhesive and Nail Method

The glue and nail technique has come to be my favorite. It’s super simple and very strong.

Basically, I cut the four box sides (usually ¾” boards), apply construction adhesive to the ends, and secure in place with finishing nails.

Then I use more glue and nails for a ¼” plywood bottom. I have actually built a number of generic boxes in the past with this method, but hung them on the wall with French cleats (see my project about finding hidden storage in your garage).

Turning one of these basic boxes into a drawer just requires a handle, and possibly some sliding hardware, depending on how you are going to use the drawer.

Some drawer designs also benefit from a decorative faceplate. The faceplate will additionally hide any visible joints made from the box design.

How to Make DIY Drawers – Video Walkthrough

I outline all of the steps that I took in this tutorial on how to make DIY drawers, but if you would like to see a video walkthrough, here is one which shows the whole DIY drawer-making process.

Speed Things Up with a Nail Gun

I happen to own a 16 gauge finishing nail gun, so drawer construction with glue and nails is extremely fast for me.

However, I started off with just nails and a hammer and got the job done just as well (albeit a little more time taken).

If you have the budget for a finishing nail gun though, you should seriously consider getting one for your DIY projects. Target the 16 gauge ones though. I think they are the most versatile.

Higher gauge ones are really only practical for applying trim. Lower gauge ones similarly also limit the scope of projects you can work on.

I find that 16 gauge strikes a fine balance between the two ends of the gauge spectrum. I use it to install most types of trim, while being able to quickly prototype ideas and fabricate projects.

So unless you’re a professional contractor who needs all the different gauge guns, as a DIYer you can compromise with a single 16 gauge gun.

Here’s a picture of my nail gun (with the 1.5″ finishing nails used for the drawers):

Materials for DIY Drawers

The current garage storage project requires me to make a lot of drawers. The key to getting it all done is efficiency. On my workspace, I just have the minimum amount of tools necessary to get the job completed. With my setup, I can bang out a drawer in under 10 minutes.

Here’s the list if item needed:

4 pieces of ¾” boards (for the drawer sides)
1 piece of ¼” plywood (for the drawer bottom)
1 drawer handle with screws
C clamp for installing handle
Long bar clamp for holding boards in place
Caulk gun loaded with construction adhesive
Square edge (for 90 degree joints)
Finishing nail gun (or a hammer and finishing nails)

Here’s a picture of my workspace, ready to build a drawer:

Assembling and Squaring the Sides

To explain how to make DIY drawers, I first placed the drawer boards roughly in position for speedy assembly. The next step is to apply construction adhesive to the board edges, as seen below:

The wood is then pressed together to form the box design. I use the square edge on the inside of the corners to make sure the angles are 90 degrees. Then I use the bar clamp to hold everything firmly in place.

It’s useful to keep some paper towels handy as the wood glue with squeeze out the sides of the joints and get messy. I also like wearing plastic disposable gloves so my hands don’t get covered in glue.

Here is the box clamped together and squared, ready for nailing:

Nailing the Boards Together

Here I am using the finishing nail gun to secure the pieces together:

My drawer height is about 3” for this particular project, so 3 nails at each joint would suffice. Deeper drawers will require more nails spaced out evenly.

You don’t need to go crazy with the nails though. Contrary to what you may think, a majority of this drawer strength comes from the construction adhesive and not the nails.

The nails do add some strength, but are mostly there to hold the drawer pieces tightly in place while the adhesive dries.

Here is the glued and nailed box design (with just the 16 gauge nails and construction adhesive, it’s already pretty sturdy):

Practice with your Nail Gun First

Here’s a word of caution if using the nail gun. If you’re relatively new to them, you may want to practice on some scrap wood first before shooting some nails into your drawers.

With ¾” drawer sides, you don’t have too much room for error and will need to fire the nails as straight as possible. This may just come with experience, so practice makes perfect.

Even I still fire some nails accidentally at a slight angle and the nail ends up protruding out the side. When this happens, it’s annoying because you will have to either break off the protruding end or pull it out completely. Then decide if you need to fire a replacement nail.

Note that if your wood is too hard, or if you’re firing into knots, your nails can still poke out the sides, regardless of how perfectly straight you fired it.

If this is the case, you can just use a hammer and nails (or reconsider the gauge of your nail gun).

Attaching the Drawer Floor

So the next step is to apply more glue in preparation for the drawer floor:

Be careful what side of the drawer you decide to install the floor on.

You want to use the side that’s perfectly flat so the floor is flush against the drawer. If your ¾” boards aren’t all exactly the same heights, then one side of the drawer will not be all flat.

Ensure you’re using the flattest side my flipping the drawer over and using the side that was resting against your flat workspace.

Once the glue is applied, press the plywood floor firmly against the box and use your fingers to align the edges. Then fire some nails to finish it off. I usually nail the corners first, and then put in some evenly spaced ones along the box perimeter.

If your nail gun has a depth setting, you will want to use a fairly low setting for the drawer floor. Since it’s only ¼” plywood, you risk firing the nail all the way through if using too deep of a nail depth.

Finally, try your best again to fire the nails as straight as possible (or else you’ll be pulling out those nails that poke out the sides).

Here I am nailing the floor on:

Save Money with Custom-Made Handles

Now for the handles. If you aren’t going to make that many drawers, you can just purchase them at the store. However, if you’re working on a large project requiring lots of drawers, you can pocket some nice savings by making your own handles.

There is a lot of handle design inspiration out there on the internet.

Personally, I prefer a super simple L shaped handle cut from 2x4s with my table saw. A single 8ft piece of 2×4 will yield around 30 six inch handles.

With the garage storage project I’m working on, I need 48 handles. My homemade handle costed around 15 cent to make. Considering handles in the store cost a couple dollars, that’s some significant savings!

Here’s a picture of one of my custom made handles:

How to Make DIY Drawer Handles

To make the handles, I rip a piece of 2×4 down the middle with the table saw, dividing it into roughly 2x2s. Then I set the cut length and depth to ¾” and again rip the 2x2s lengthwise. This cut a slot halfway into the wood.

Rotating the wood 90 degrees and ripping again made a perpendicular cut to the first slot.

The notched wood fell out leaving an L shaped piece. Then I just used a miter saw to quickly cut the 8ft piece into smaller 6 inch pieces.

The best part of using 2x4s for the handle is that the edges are already bevelled for you. No need for sanding or special routing to create smooth edges.

Attaching the DIY Drawer Handle

With the drawer box completed, you have some options as what to do next.

You could just leave the box as is and call it a day. After all, it’s a nice sturdy box with limitless potential. Depending on your project, you may want to install a faceplate on the front, and possibly some sliding hardware.

Then comes the final task of attaching a handle. For my current project, I didn’t need a fancy faceplate or even sliding hardware. So I jumped straight ahead to attaching the handle.

For handle installation, I measured and marked an offset so the handle would be perfectly centered. Then I used a C clamp to hold the handle firmly in place while I pre-drilled some holes and inserted two screws.

Here’s a picture showing handle installation:

I didn’t use wood glue for the handle. I definitely could have, but the screws already make a very sturdy connection.

Plus, I like to leave handles flexible in case I want to replace them in the future. Glue would make this difficult.

The Finished DIY Drawer with Homemade Handles

The drawer is now completed! Here is the final product:

Here’s a close-up showcasing the handle:

Finally, here’s a sneak peak of my awesome garage storage project (to be posted in the near future), showing the DIY drawers in action:

Time & Cost of Making DIY Drawers and Handles

With a nail gun, these drawers should take under 1o minutes to make. If you’re using nails and a hammer, then add on a few extra minutes.

These drawers are also very cheap to make. If you have some scrap wood, then they are free! If not, then I estimate around $2 per drawer (assuming you buy some wood in bulk to make a batch of drawers).

Also, if purchasing wood, I recommend maximizing the yield of drawer cuts as much as possible. This will give you be lowest prices per drawer. For example, I purchased some 4×8 sheets of 1/4″ plywood from Home Depot (to make the drawer bottoms).

To keep costs as low as possible, I calculated ahead of time how many drawer bottoms I could possibly fit on the 4×8 sheet. Then I factored in how I can get the 4×8 sheet cut at Home Depot to fit in my SUV (it was too large to transport whole sheet intact).

In the end, I was able to provide Home Depot with some simple cutting measurements and still maximize the yield of drawer bottoms from the 4×8 sheets.

If you have been thinking about how to make DIY drawers, just follow these easy tutorial and you’ll have your homemade drawers ready to go in no time.

I’m so pleased with the way the DIY drawers turned out. I also love how much money I saved on craftily creating my own handles. Check back soon for my garage storage project – which will show these DIY drawers in action.