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10 Functional & Cost-Effective DIY Projects for Your Home

February 26, 2019 by Eileen Leave a Comment

Whether your just starting out in DIY or you’re an avid DIYer, you can make some pretty cool things.

If there’s an old piece of furniture that you can’t stand, you can fix it up in a few hours. If it’s storage you need, there’s so much amazing storage you can create with as little as some 2x4s.

Not to mention, when you DIY, you can create something custom – the exact measurements, color, and size you want.

Truly the possibilities are endless when it comes to doing it yourself.

10 Standout DIY Projects

From refinishing furniture to building a shed, here are 10 standout DIY projects that are functional, cost-effective, and creative. They will definitely get your creative wheels spinning.

Redoing an Old Dresser

Using milk paint, this decades old dresser was redone in a beautiful blue-gray finish. It's amazing how much a few coats of paint (and modern knobs!) can do for an old piece! If you have an old piece of furniture around the house or see one curbside, definitely try your hand at redoing it. You'll love the results! It's so easy to take an old piece into this decade with paint and hardware.

Building a Screen Door

Tired of opening and closing a heavy door every time you unpack your groceries? Make your own screen door. You can customize it and save money by making it yourself. If you have scrap wood laying around, you can make the entire door using scrap wood. Check out all the details on how to make this easy DIY yourself.

Constructing a Folding Workbench with Storage

If you're short for space in your workshop but need more space to work, make a folding workbench. It's functional and space-saving! It's perfect for work areas that double as garages because you can still get your car and have plenty of room to work. It's perfect for any garage or workspace where you are tight on space.

Easy Swing Out Wall Shelves from Scrap Wood

These swinging wall shelves are a favorite of mine! They hold so much because there's extra storage on the part of the shelves that swing. Not only are these shelves great for craft supplies, such as paints, but it could also be used in the garage or even in the kitchen as a DIY spice rack. You'll love all the space you'll get with these. And, the swinging shelf design keeps everything organized and visible!

Making a Picnic Table in One Day

If you love spending time outdoors, you'll love this DIY picnic table! It's perfect for parties, family dinners outside, and just enjoying nature. Check out the full post to see what the tabletop is made out of - it's the perfect material for a long-lasting picnic table. And, you can build it in just ONE day! Pretty awesome, right?!

Building a Storage Shed from Scratch

This project was a little more involved than others, but it goes to show what you can make with your DIY skills! An entire shed from the ground up. Pretty cool, right?! This shed took a few months to build - but it was cost-effective, extremely functional, and we got to customize everything just the way we wanted. My favorite part is the door design, made from trim. My hubby build this himself, and at times he questioned whether he could do it, but voila! It's perfect (and still is 4 years later). Read the full posts to get all of the nitty gritty details.

Installing a Shade Sail for the Patio

This is a simple DIY that anyone can do! It just requires inserting some posts and attaching hardware. If you are looking for more shade in your yard this summer, we can't recommend shade sails enough! They are so thrifty and perfectly functional - taking a sunny space and making it much more enjoyable. We love it so much that we are looking to see where we can another shade sail.

Creating an Entryway Piece for the Mudroom

This was truly a labor of love - and we are still loving every inch of storage this mudroom makeover brought us. We created the built-in based on the space we had in the mudroom and the storage space we needed. This decked out, built-in hall tree has cubby shelves, storage drawers, and plenty of hooks. Definitely check out the before pictures on this one! They will totally amaze you - and show you that you can make your vision a reality.

Building a Wooden Walkway for the Backyard

If you are looking to spruce up your backyard or if you have a hill that isn't so conducive for little kids, check out this wooden walkway you can DIY in a weekend. We had an awkward little hill and built-in this boardwalk for our kids and dog to easily get to the yard. It's been holding up great and we love how pretty it looks. It's also gives off beachy vibes, which I love.

Constructing Sliding Shelves Storage for the Garage

This sliding shelf tower is a gem of space in our garage. It doesn't take up much room horizontally, but the stacked storage up to the ceiling is a huge gain! This is the perfect example of using vertical space wisely. This is an easy build and will bring plenty of added storage to your garage. We are able to store all of our holiday decorations on the top two shelves - and I have quite a few trees 🙂

Hopefully these projects inspired you. They are all functional, cost-effective, and creative.

My favorite thing about making things myself is that you get to add your own creative spin to things. Instead of building just regular shelves, we usually make them slide. Instead of building an ordinary cabinet, we usually add storage to the door.

It’s so fun to make your own things because you can make them exactly how you want!

Not only is there a certain sense of pride you get when you DIY, but working on the projects is so satisfying too!

I hope we inspired you to start building, making, or creating.

Easy Swing Out Wall Shelves from Scrap Wood

February 15, 2019 by Eileen 53 Comments

This post will show you how to make these easy wall shelves that swing out, providing ample wood storage for small spaces.

In an effort to share more creative DIY ideas and generate fresh content, my friend Megan from Two Feet First and I have co-organized a group of fun DIY challenges.

For every month, there is a theme, and almost 40 talented DIY bloggers will be participating and sharing their how to projects focused on that theme. The themes are really fun, such as building a whole project with a 2×4 or building a piece of furniture cheaper than buying it – you can find more here – At Home DIY.

This month’s theme is to Build to Organize, and my hubby put together these DIY swing out wall shelves for my craft room. Be sure to scroll to the end of this post to check out everyone’s “Build to Organize” projects. There are some awesome organization DIYs!

DIY Swing Out Wall Shelves

I love a good storage solution – a creative way to store something, a hidden pull-out cabinet, furniture that folds out from the wall.

In fact, the tiny house shows are my favorite. I am always oogling at all the ideas to create more storage.

I have a little craft corner in sitting room off our bedroom, where I thought I had completely maximized my wall storage space. However, I found a seven-inch area on the end of a cubby shelf we built, where I could add more storage.

When thinking about organizational ideas, I was thinking of making just a simple shelf to hold some of my acrylic paints, and then my hubs comes along and turned my design into a swing-out shelf, that would hold three times the paint bottles.

Who can say no to that?!

After all that, it looked just a little too plain, so I added the colorful background.

The best part of this design is that you can build just the simple shelf, or you can build both pieces, making this easy DIY swing out wall shelf. The simple shelf holds one row of paints, and the second piece holds two rows of paints. If you build the whole thing, like we did, you’ll have three rows of shelving.

Here our my hubby’s instructions on how he built these swing out shelf cabinet.

Design for Swing Out Shelves

Here is the design for the swing out wall shelves that I sketched on my computer:

The swing out shelf was going to attach to the end of a cubby shelf I had built. We love to maximize all the space everywhere.

The project consisted of two vertical boxes of shelves. Either one could work as a stand alone shelf, but we like to kick things up a notch. So I planned on hinging the shelves together for maximum storage efficiency. The left box would swing freely, and the right box would be affixed to the wall.

For the freely swinging box, I had to put small ledges to prevent items from sliding off the shelves while opening or closing the unit. I also had plans for a small magnetic catch to keep the shelves closed when not in use.

Tools and Materials

Material for the Shelf

3/4″ plywood OR board for frame
Strips of 3/8″ plywood for individual shelves
Small hinges
Construction adhesive
Finishing nails
White Paint

Tools for Building the Shelf

Table saw / miter saw for cutting the wood
Drill for the hinge screw holes
12″ Bar clamp to hold the frame together while nailing

Making the Colorful Background

Mod Podge
Card stock – Here is the patterned paper I used
Foam brushes

Instructions for Building Swing Out Shelves

To start this project, I used my table saw and cut out a piece of 3/4″ thick plywood, about 30″ x 12″. This piece would be used to construct the frames for the two shelving units. I actually wanted to use boards for these shelves, but I didn’t have any lying around the garage.

So plywood would have to do.

The disadvantage of the plywood was that I would have to glue on some trim to hide the exposed plywood edges. Also, plywood doesn’t have as smooth a surface as boards. However, I love a good scrap wood project, and this route worked well.

Cutting Grooves for the Shelves

With my plywood cut, I used a pencil and ruler to mark the positions of slots where the individual shelves would go. I planned on cutting grooves to insert 3/8″ thick plywood sheets for the shelves.

Here’s a picture of the marked up plywood with shelving grooves outlined:

I used my table saw to cut out the shelving grooves. Since the table saw blade was only 1/8″ wide, I had to make 3 separate cuts to get each 3/8″ wide groove required for the shelves.

After each cut, I slide the plywood over by 1/8″ until I achieved my desired groove thickness.

Here’s a close-up of one of the grooves being cut by the table saw:

Times like this I wished I had some dado blades. I would be able to stack multiple blades together to make a 3/8″ cutting surface, and cut out the grooves in one pass, instead of three.

Here’s a picture showing all the shelving grooves cut out:

Cutting the Strips for a Swing Out Wall Shelf Frame

Next, I used the table saw again to cut the plywood into strips to be used to construct the shelving boxes:

Constructing a Frame for the Swing Out Wall Shelves

To join the plywood pieces together to form a frame, I used construction adhesive, a bar clamp, and my finishing nail gun.

Here you can see I clamped together some plywood strips to get ready for nailing:

Here’s a close-up of the finishing nailgun in action:

Once I joined four pieces of plywood to make a frame, I nailed on a backing strip of 3/8″ plywood:

To build the second shelving box, I repeated the same steps for the first box. However, I omitted the the 3/8″ plywood backing sheet, as it was not needed for the second box.

Here are both shelving boxes assembled:

Cutting and Inserting the Plywood Shelves

Next it was time to cut 7.5″ long strips of 3/8″ thick plywood for the individual shelves. Theses were going to be inserted into the grooves I cut earlier.

I used the miter saw to quickly cut the strips:

Here I am inserting the 3/8″ plywood shelves into the boxes:

Here is the completed pair of shelves:

Trimming and Painting the Swing Out Wall Shelves

Next I used the table saw to cut strips of 3/8″ plywood trim for the shelves:

I used constructive adhesive to attach the trim to the plywood boxes:

Here are the completed shelving boxes with trim:

Now it was time for a paint job:

Decorating the Swing Out Wall Shelves with Patterned Paper

After the paint dried, I wanted to the give the inside shelving box a colorful look. So I planned on cutting out rectangular sheets of patterned paper and adhering it to the back of the shelves with Mod Podge:

Here’s some of the card stock paper I used for this step:

The inside shelving box was completed. It looked awesome with the patterned paper:

Now it was finally time to connect the two shelving boxes with a hinge. Here I have placed a hinge on the two boxes, and marked the center holes to pre-drill for screws:

Mounting the Swing Out Wall Shelves

With the hinges attached, I needed a way to mount the shelves on some custom built cubbies I made recently. Instead of just screwing the shelves to the cubbies, I opted to mount the top and bottom with some metal plates, as seen below:

Finally, it was time to mount the shelves! I positioned them in between the metal plates attached to the cubbies, and screwed them into the plates.

The metal mounting plates (also called mending plates) worked out great because I didn’t have to see screw heads holding the shelves on.

Also, I didn’t have to put any visible screw holes into the cubbies in case I wanted to move the shelves somewhere else in the future.

However, if you’re doing a similar project, you may not have a mounting area with the same height as your shelves.

So it’s just as easy to mount the shelves to a wall. I would suggest using screws with washers to fasten the plywood backing of the inner shelving box to the wall. The washers would help prevent the plywood from ripping through the screw heads and falling to the ground under load.

Swing Out Wall Shelves in Action

Here are some pictures of the awesome mounted shelves. Here is the shelf mounted and empty. You can easily see that the swinging part can hold two rows of acrylic paint.

Here is the closed swing out shelf. It’s actually three rows deep – the first two rows of paint are on the swinging door.

And, here is the swinging shelf open:

I used all scrap wood for these swinging wall shelves, so the budget was very low – under $15 for the hinges. Even if I had to purchase the wood though, I can’t image it being more than $35 in total to make this project.

Let me know if you try it out!

Be sure to check out all of the below Build to Organize Projects. Enjoy all the inspiration!

How to Build an Entryway Bench with Hooks and Storage

January 30, 2019 by Ash 4 Comments

How to Build a Entryway Bench with Hooks and Storage Post Preview: This article will show you how to easily make this hallway bench with hooks and storage, perfect for mudrooms or entryways.

This post is sponsored by Old Fashioned Milk Paint. All opinions are entirely my own.

Do you ever have a busy room that’s an absolute mess? A room where there’s absolutely no efficiency?

This was our previous mudroom (see before picture below).

It was a disaster.

Shoes and coats were always just tossed everywhere. Backpacks, diaper bags with no place to go.

When you have a room that drives you crazy like this, you have to rethink it. My wife came up with this great plan of installing a hall tree – with an L-shaped bench and locker-style cubby shelves.

Upper cubbies would be loaded with hooks for hanging things like coats and kids backpacks. Lower cubbies would hold shoes. We even planned to add drawers to parts of the lower cubby shelves for additional storage.

My wife’s favorite part of the plan, aside from the organization, was that we were using completely natural milk paint and Tung Oil, provided by Old Fashioned Milk Paint. Their milk paint is a gem – completely natural ingredients and it was a dream to work with.

In addition to the built-ins that we were making, my wife Eileen also planned to stencil the wall and add some shiplap.

With these grand visions, the mudroom had know idea what was coming. Check out the before and after mudroom pictures:

How to Build an Entryway Bench with Hooks and Storage

Below are the instructions, tools, and materials for how to build this decked out entryway hall tree yourself 🙂

Tools and Materials

4 sheets of 4×8 birch plywood 3/4″ thick (primary building material)
1 sheet of 4×4 plywood 1/4″ thick (for drawer bottoms)
Pocket hole screws, plugs and jig
Construction adhesive
Milk Paint – We used Old Fashioned Milk Paint in snow white
Pure tung oil
Wet/dry sandpaper 300+ grit
Deck screws (1.5″ and 3.5″)
Finishing nails
Table saw and miter saw
90 degree wood clamp
Coat hooks
Drawer sliding hardware
Drawer knobs

Entryway Cubby Bench Design Ideas

So, Eileen came up with her vision and sketched it out. Before our kids could color over it, I put her vision into place using a 3d design on my computer.

The entire structure was to be made mostly out of ¾” birch plywood, cut into strips.

Several hidden areas were going to be reinforced with 2x4s.

Finally, since plywood was being used, I had to cover all the exposed edges with trim.

I planned to make my own trim by cutting thin ¾” strips of pine board.

To join all the pieces together, I was going to use a combination of construction adhesive, deck screws (1.5” and 3.5”), pocket hole screws and finishing nails.

The mudroom hall tree shelves consisted of three segments – two lower cubbies for drawers and shoes (and to also serve as a bench), and the upper cubbies – think locker-style – for hanging things in.

So logistically, this meant I could work on different parts of the cubbies as was convenient for me, and have them come together in the mudroom.

Building the Lower Cubbies for the Entryway Bench

I started with the two lower cubbies first. Here is what a finished cubby looked like (minus any drawers):

I used my table saw and miter saw to make the below wood cuts:

Each lower cubby consisted of three vertical (16.25” x 19”) and two horizontal (16.25” x 17”) pieces of plywood.

The horizontal pieces attached to the vertical ones.

The structure was further reinforced with some 2x4s in the rear, and some plywood in the front.

The rear 2x4s also would serve as anchor points to bolt the cubbies to wall studs in the mudroom.

Joining the Cubby Shelf Pieces

To join most of the pieces together, I drilled a number of pocket holes using my Kreg Pocket Hole Jig, as shown below:

The pocket holes were ideal for joining inside pieces of wood, like the piece in the center.

Here is what a pocket hole joined section looked like:

I used some deck screws to join the end pieces (with the help of a 3ft bar clamp to keep everything tight during the joining process):

Sneak Preview of the Entryway Cubby Shelves

When the two lower cubbies were done, I placed them inside the mudroom to get a feel for how they would look:

I also bolted some 2x4s to wall studs in the corner provide support for the entryway bench over there.

Not wanting to sacrifice some electrical outlets in the room, I also cut out some notches in the cubby shelves, so the outlets could still be accessed.

Painting the Lower Cubbies

After I was happy with the look of the cubbies inside the mudroom, I brought them back outside for painting:

We used Old-Fashioned Milk Paint, which we absolutely love. It’s completely natural and has zero VOCs. It’s made from just milk casein, lime, and earth pigments. There’s no smell and it goes on beautifully. To see how to use milk paint on raw wood, check out this post.

Building Drawers for the Entryway Cubby Bench

With the lower cubbies complete, I moved onto the drawers.

They were a simple box drawers made from 4 pieces of ¾” plywood for the sides, and a thin ¼” plywood sheet for the bottom. I attached the sides together with construction adhesive and screws to form a square.

Then, I used more glue and finishing nails to secure the plywood sheet to the bottom.

Here were the drawers so far:

If you want to learn more about making custom drawers, check out my post on building pull-out drawers. I give all the details on these DIY shaker-style drawers on that post.

Next, I mounted the drawers in the cubbies with some drawer hardware (at this point, the cubbies were back inside after being painted and bolted to wall studs):

I would later revisit the drawers to add a nice custom shaker-style drawer fronts and handles.

Building the Bench Top to the Cubbies

Now it was time to cut the wood for the bench tops that would attach to the lower cubbies. I used two pieces of ¾” plywood and cut them to size.

Attaching the Bench to the Cubbies

I secured the two plywood benches to the cubbies with construction adhesive, and inserted screws from underneath.

Here are the cubbies prepped with construction adhesive for one of the benches:

Here the benches have been secured in place with the constructive adhesive and screws:

Installing Trim Around the Benchtop

Once the benchtop was in place, I covered all the exposed plywood edges with some custom cut trim:

I used my miter saw to cut the corners of the trim at 45 degrees, so all the pieces would fit seamlessly together.

Then, I attached the trim to the plywood benchtop with construction adhesive and finishing nails (with the help of my finishing nailer to speed things up).

Afterwards, I gave the trim edges a light sanding by hand to bevel and smooth them.

Here’s another picture of the trim showing an inside corner:

Neat Trick: Making Colored Wood Putty

Here’s a neat little trick I did to fill in some gaps and holes after the benchtop trim was installed.

Normally I would use wood putty to fill in these spaces, but I had planned on staining the wood and did not want the putty to stand out very discolored (especially since I was planning on using a light, very transparent tung oil stain). So I made my own wood filler.

I took sawdust produced from cutting the trim and mixed it with Elmer’s glue. I mixed a little glue at a time, sometimes adding more sawdust, until the mixture was putty like.

Then I filled in any gaps and holes with my custom made wood putty.

After it dried, I sanded it down.

The end result was great. My custom made wood putty produced a near perfect color match filler.

I did originally make the mistake of mixing the sawdust with wood glue on my first attempt. It was a bad idea. The mixture dried so hard that it was nearly impossible to sand off. So make sure to use Elmer’s glue if you’re using the trick on one of your own projects.

Here’s a picture showing the custom made wood putty drying (looks messy now, but after a good sanding, it produces great results):

Staining the Benchtop with Tung Oil

Next I started the process of applying Tung Oil to the benchtop. I opted to use pure Tung Oil for this project.

It was going to be a little more work and time, but I didn’t want to use any chemical-based stains.

This meant also staying away from any Tung Oil marketed as “fast drying”. Those meant the Tung Oil was mixed with a chemical to hasten the drying period.

Pure Tung Oil takes several coats spread over a long period to achieve good results.

So I rubbed on some pure Tung Oil to the wood with some lint free rags, then gently rubbed off any excess oil sitting on the surface. I was pretty liberal with the amount of Tung Oil, as it was the first coat.

Then I let it dry for about 24 hours (or until the surface wasn’t so tacky anymore).

The room did have a fairly strong odor of Tung Oil, but at least it wasn’t a strong chemical odor. It was akin to the smell of cooking oil. I made sure the window was open during the day with a large fan. I kept the fan running all night too to help with the drying.

After the first coat was dry, I started the process of applying more coats, about 24 hours apart. I did about 4 more coats in total until I was happy with the color.

The more coats you do, the darker the stain gets.

On these subsequent coats, I did not use rags though. I wet sanded them.

This means I lightly rubbed on the Tung Oil stain with very high grit sandpaper specially made for wet sanding (the paper wouldn’t fall apart if sanding while wet). Using high grit sandpaper to apply the Tung Oil resulted in better penetration of the oil into the wood.

Here is the picture of the Tung Oil applied to the bench top:

Building the Upper Cubbies for the Entryway Bench

The lower cubbies were done for the time being. It was time to move onto the upper cubbies. I had to give the Tung Oil stain a few more days of drying anyway before I could work near to the benchtop.

Cutting the Pieces for the Cubbies

Here I am trimming the long 8 ft pieces of plywood for the upper cubbies (I’ve got an assembly line flow going on):

These strips of plywood were going to be the five vertical segments of the cubbies (10.5” x 69.5”), and the header piece (10.5” x 71.25”).

Also, I needed four smaller pieces (10.5” x 17.25”) for some shelves at the top of the cubbies.

Joining the Pieces for the Upper Cubbies

After the pieces were cut, I pre-drilled screw holes to attach the five vertical pieces to the header piece:

To attach the vertical pieces, I found it super convenient to use a 90 degree wood clamp.

After applying some construction adhesive, the clamp help hold the pieces in place while I inserted some screws from underneath (in the holes I pre-drilled earlier):

The upper cubbies are starting to come together now. Here they are with the five vertical pieces attached (note that the whole thing is upside down at the moment):

Reinforcing the Cubbies

To reinforce the vertical pieces and make the structure more rigid, I added some extra plywood in between each section at the header (fastened with pocket hole screws, as you can probably tell by the holes):

It was time to flip the vertical cubbies over (I had constructed them upside down for convenience):

Next, I added some more pieces in between the sections. These additional pieces served two purposes.

First, they reinforced the cubbies even more.

Second, they were going to hold hooks for the cubbies. I wanted strong mounting points for the hooks so they wouldn’t fall out, and attaching the hooks directly to the cubby structure made the most sense.

Here’s a picture showing the back of the vertical cubbies with the reinforcing pieces attached (I used a lot of pocket holes to attach them):

Painting the Cubbies with Milk Paint

I got some help from Eileen to paint the upper cubbies. She put on several layers of milk paint and was happy with the look:

BTW, check out Eileen’s awesome post on using achieving great results with milk paint and raw wood!

Installing the Locker-Style Cubbies in the Entryway

The cubbies were now painted and ready for the mudroom installation. I lifted them onto the benchtop and started securing it to wall studs (I used 3.5” deck screws for this task).

Here’s Eileen hard at work helping to attach the cubbies:

To secure the upper cubbies to the bench and prevent the vertical pieces from moving around, I used some pocket hole screws to lock them in place:

I would later fill these pocket holes (using special pocket hole plugs), sand and repaint to hide them.

Attaching Trim to the Cubbies

Next I spent some time installing trim to hide the unfinished plywood edges. Here’s a close-up of some of the trim (you can see some plugged pocket holes waiting to be painted):

Just a few remaining tasks for the entryway bench and cubbies

With both the lower and upper cubbies installed, the mudroom project was nearing completion:

I had already installed most of the shiplap (post coming soon), and Eileen did a wonderful job of stenciling the wall.

See Eileen’s great post about stenciling walls!

At some point in every project, you are left scratching your head trying to solve a problem. Here I am in one of those moments (I forget what my issue was at that time, but clearly I figured it out to complete the project!):

Making Custom Drawer Fronts

At this point in the project, I went back to the drawers to finish them. I custom made some shaker-style faceplates.

The result was some amazing looking drawers:

Make sure you read up on my post about making custom drawer fronts for full details.

Installing Shiplap Between the Cubbies

In this picture, I have already installed shiplap in between the upper cubbies for a uniform look in the room:

The structural pieces of the vertical cubbies were starting to blend into the shiplap.

They only stand out now because they are sanded and unpainted.

Notice how I also taped off the benchtop. The Tung Oil was still a bit tacky and I did not want sawdust, paint and other debris falling on it as I worked with the upper cubbies.

Adding Hooks

We ordered some simple hooks from Amazon – we used 8 of them on this built-in hall tree. I added them directly into the cubby structure – not into the shiplap.

The shiplap wouldn’t have been strong enough to hold the hooks, as the shiplap in between the cubby shelf was only secured to the wall with construction adhesive because of their size.

We also have been using 3M command hooks for extra spots on the sides of the locker cubbies.

That is an added bonus of putting dividers between each of the cubbies – you get more storage.

It’s perfect because it gives more space for coats and hats. And boy, you can pack a lot of stuff into this built-in entryway storage bench.

Entryway Storage is finished!

Shortly afterwards, the project was completed! The Tung Oil technically needed some more time to cure, so I put up “Wet” signs to let people know not to sit on the bench.

I gave the Tung Oil about two more weeks to cure before the bench was available for use.

Here are the finished mudroom cubbies:

Amazing isn’t it! Eileen and I love our new mudroom cubbies. Everything has its place. All the shoes are tucked away and coats and bags hung neatly on the abundant hooks.

Time and Cost of the Hallway Bench with Hooks and Storage

It took about 3 weekends (not full days) to build this decked out entryway storage bench with locker-style cubbies. I did also work a little bit during the week to apply Tung Oil here and there. The cost was $250. Not bad for a huge piece of furniture?

How to Build Simple Wall Shelves

January 15, 2019 by Ash Leave a Comment

How to Build Simple Wall Shelves Post Preview: In this post, you’ll find out how to build easy DIY wall shelves. You can customize the measurements to your needs. These shelves perfectly fit 8 fabric storage bins.

As part of our craft room organization, we turned a haphazard corner of space into a truly organized craft corner. Previously we installed the pegboard and built and mounted a cubby shelf. Last, we are added two simple shelves to go above the pegboard.

One of the things we love about doing DIY projects is that you can customize what you are making to be perfect for your needs. Just like how we made the cubbies to fit tons of scrap book paper, we were making these to fit four fabric storage bins per shelf. These easy DIY wall shelves are perfect for holding bins. You create customized storage out of just a little wall space and wood.

Here’s a before picture of the entire craft corner organization project.

And here’s the after of the beautifully organized craft corner:

Here’s how we made the final part of the project – the simple DIY wall shelves.

How to Build Easy DIY Wall Shelves

The first step in making these simple storage shelves was figuring out my supplies. First, I needed to find shelf brackets. Eileen wanted to use decorative wooden shelf brackets. The only one I could find in stock at Home Depot was decorative but had a max weight capacity of 10 lbs.

I knew Eileen would be putting more than 10 pounds of weight on shelves.

However, the wood itself felt pretty sturdy.

The low load capacity stemmed from the cheap keyhole hangers on the back. The shelves were going to be secured to the wall with lag bolts, so I could ditch those keyhole hangers and just reinforce the brackets.

Here’s a picture of the wooden bracket (also called a corbel):

There are lots of ways to put a simple shelf on the wall.

Depending on the design and load bearing capacity of the shelf, you can either attach directly to drywall (with toggle bolts or other drywall fasteners), attach to wall studs (with lag bolts), or a combination of the two.

My homemade wall shelves needed to be able to hold a lot of weight, so pure drywall attachment was out of the question.

I had initially planned on bolting the wooden brackets directly to wall studs. However, the placement of the wall studs was not practical for the look of the shelves. Either the brackets would be really close together, or one side of the shelf would extend very oddly past one bracket. I could attach one bracket to a stud and the other to drywall, but I wanted a more sturdier design.

A Shelf Design that Worked

So I came up with an elegant alternative for the craft room shelves. I would bolt a 2×4 directly to the wall studs, spanning the length of the shelf. This would hold most of the load. Then I could position the wooden brackets however I liked, as they would rest directly on the drywall (regardless of stud position).

This design was essentially replacing the cheap keyhole hangers (that came with the brackets) with a beam bolted to wall studs.

Here’s a picture showing the final design of one of the shelf mounts (it’s upside down right now):

Once turned right side up, the surfaces currently facing you would be pressed flatly against the wall, and lag bolts would secure the 2×4 to wall studs.

See how the vertical surface attached to the wooden bracket wasn’t flush with the 2×4?

It’s because this shelf mount was going to rest directly on the pegboard. So even though the 2×4 would be bolted to the wall, the wooden brackets would sit on the pegboard.

Eileen requested this design as it looked really good visually. So I had to offset the brackets for this mount to account for the depth of the pegboard. This wasn’t an issue with the second shelf mount, as it would rest entirely against the wall.

Assembling the Shelves

For the construction of the mount, I used construction adhesive and deck screws. It was critical to pre-drill all the screw holes with a countersinking bit.

Here’s the shelf mount turned right side up (you can see the shelf behind it waiting to be attached):

I attached the shelf to the mount with more construction adhesive and deck screws:

Here are the two shelves primed and painted (again I used the enamel based cabinet paint for the shelf surface):

I had used a ¾” Forstner bit to make a hole for the lag bolts. This would prevent the lag bolt heads from sticking out past the surface of the wood. For an even more aesthetic touch, I planned on covering the holes with some mushroom head screw hole plugs.

In no time, the last construction part of the craft room storage and organization project was completed with these homemade wall shelves.

Mounting the Shelves to the Wall

These simple storage shelves were very easy to attach. I rested the lower shelf directly on the pegboard and inserted the lag bolts. Since the pegboard was already level, I didn’t have to worry about this shelf being uneven.

Once in place, I used some 12” spacer 2x4s to hold the above shelf in place while I attached that one as well:

Shelf Organization Tips

I purposely built the DIY shelves so that four storage bins could fit on each shelf. Below is how Eileen utilized these shelves.

She picked up eight fabric storage bins from the dollar store! The storage bins aren’t super sturdy but they were perfect otherwise and could easily be reinforced. She ended up only using six, but each bin has a purpose – kids crafts, sewing accessories, holiday crafts, felt scraps, and extra office supplies.

Eileen was in awe at just how much these bins held and how organized – and easily accessible her materials now were. Marie Konmari would be proud 🙂

A Finished Craft Corner

The pegboard, wall shelving, and cubby storage all came together really nicely, providing a plethora of DIY storage space in Eileen’s craft corner. What used to be otherwise wasted space was now turned into a massively organized craft corner – just with wall space!

And here, my friends, is the end result of all of this new craft room organization and storage:

Eileen emptied out tons of plastic storage containers and even a dresser, using this three-part craft room organization. The pegboard held a ton of desk and craft supplies. The fabric storage bins held many things that were previously stuffed in desk drawers and the closet. The cubby shelves emptied a craft cart. Here are all the things that were emptied onto the craft room organization pieces:

And, here are a few pictures of the finished craft room corner:

Don’t forget to get our free plans so you can fix up your craft space as well! If you are looking for more organization, this quick easy DIY shelves are simple to make and hold tons of storage. You can use these simple shelves anywhere you have wall space, not just in a craft room or office.

How to Build Wall-Mounted DIY Cubby Shelves

January 10, 2019 by Ash Leave a Comment

How to Build Wall-Mounted DIY Cubby Shelves Post Preview: You will see how you can build your own DIY cubby shelves and mount them to the wall.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in all of our DIY endeavors it’s that you can do a lot with a little bit of space.

Using just one corner of a room, I’ve been revamping my wife’s craft corner with three things: pegboard, wall-mounted cubby shelf, and some simple wall shelves.

In our previous post, I shared how we mounted the pegboard, and in this post, I’ll be sharing how I built the cubby shelves. Afterward, I’ll share how I built the simple shelves (which are a gem as they hold 8 fabric storage bins!).

How to Build Homemade Cubby Shelves

My wife was really excited about the cubbies, knowing they would bring a lot of organization and storage to her craft room.

She had so many paints and other crafts that would fit perfectly onto cubby shelves. With cubbies being open, it makes things easy to find and quickly grab. Since everything is on display, it’s natural to keep it organized.

So, I did some research and came across two popular designs for cubby shelving. The first design used pocket hole screws to hold the cubby shelves in place.

The second design used routed dados for the shelves. I went back and forth about which design I wanted to use.

The pocket hole method was the fastest and easiest to do. I am also a huge fan of pocket holes.

However, I felt that these cubbies needed a bit more craftsmanship. After all, they were going to be in the same room as our recent window seat bookshelf project. So I opted for the routed dado design.

As for the wood, I normally just use the common pine boards sold at Home Depot for most of my projects.

However, the cubby shelves needed an upgrade. Common pine boards are full of surface imperfection and knots. So I opted for their “select” pine boards. It was twice the price of the standard boards, but there was a huge difference in the quality.

I was excited to work with wood of this quality. It was a rare treat for me.

Cutting the Dados for the Cubby Shelves

Now on to the construction of the cubby storage shelves. First, I had to calibrate my router to the correct depth setting. I used a scrap piece of wood and made repeated cuts with varying depths until I got the 3/16” depth required for my dados:

Next, I outlined the dados with a pencil and ruler, and clamped down a piece of scrap wood for a router guide.

Now let the routing begin:

I was a little disappointed with my first dado. I’ve done many dado cuts in the past, but for some reason, this one was slightly wavy. The edges were not perfectly straight like I was accustomed to.

I started to worry that something was wrong with the router. Then after closer inspection, I realized that my scrap wood guide fence had small imperfections along the surface.

Thinking this might be the root of my problem, I swapped out the wooden guide fence with a metal ruler, as seen below:

I re-ran the router through the cut and success! The wavy edges went away.

I guess scrap wood isn’t the solution to everything.

I had to be careful using my ruler as a fence for the rest of the cuts though. It provided a very small surface for the router to move along. The router risked slipping over the edge of the ruler and ruining the boards.

So very carefully, I cut all the boards and produced the following:

Here’s a top-down view showing how I cut dados on both sides of some of the boards:

The boards with dados on both sides were going to sit vertical inside the cubby shelf. Then square shelves would be inserted into the dados to form the cubes.

Adjusting the Cubby Design

At this point, I took a look back at my design, and suddenly remembered something that I had forgotten.

Eileen wanted some of the individual cubbies to be long enough to hold standard printer sized sheets (8.5×11) for her large card stock collection.

I had intentionally gotten 10” wide boards for the cubbies to account for this. However, I forgot to factor this requirement into the rest of the design.

The dados were all cut to allow perfectly square cubbies, approximately 8”x9”x9.25”. This would result in the 8.5×11 sheets hanging off the edge slightly.

I didn’t want this to happen, so I needed to make an adjustment to the design. With the dados already cut, I really didn’t want to waste any wood. So I thought really hard and came up with the adjusted design below:

Two of the vertical boards could be cut right where the bottom dado groove was made. Then a longer horizontal shelf could be inserted spanning two cubbies.

This would result in the two end cubbies at the bottom being long enough to hold the 8.5×11 sheets easily.

It also added a nice aesthetic touch to the design, breaking up the repeating squares. Both Eileen and I were very happy about the design modification.

Assembling the Cubby Storage Shelves

With that little hiccup out of the way, I proceeded to assemble the shelves. I used deck screws, construction adhesive and 90 degree wood clamps. Also, I used a countersinking bit with my drill for the deck screws. I didn’t want to risk the wood splitting.

Here is a picture showing the wood clamps in action:

Construction adhesive was essential to a sturdy design that wouldn’t wobble over time:

Here I have the 4 main vertical boards secured in place:

The cubby shelves are starting to take form here:

I used construction adhesive for all the inside shelves too, I didn’t want them moving in the dado grooves over time. I also used some deck screws where possible too (like on the end pieces).

Here is some more progress made on the cubbies (see how I also had to use some bar clamps to pull the inside shelves tightly into the dados):

Using Ratchet Straps

When all the inside shelves were placed into the dados, I saw that the top measurement of the cubby shelf didn’t match the bottom. Little gaps here and there in the dados were adding up and making the top of the cubby wider than the bottom by about an inch.

When I squeezed in one pair of dados with a bar clamp to eliminate a gap, another gap would open up slightly somewhere else. It was getting a little frustrating.

Then inspiration hit me. Maybe I could use some ratchet straps to pull in all the shelves tightly at the same time. It seemed a little silly at the time to use ratchet straps for this project, but I gave it a shot:

Guess what? The ratchet straps worked.

As I tightened each ratchet, I could hear the satisfying creak of the dados squeezing together tightly.

I checked the upper measurement of the shelf and it was finally in agreement with the bottom.

I secured the final top board and attached some strategically placed boards in the rear to help mount the cubbies to wall studs. The cubby build was pretty much complete.

Here is the cubby shelf so far. It looked so nice – and Eileen loved it. It was the perfect answer to her craft room organization and storage problem.

All that remained now was to wood putty the screw holes and paint.

I used one coat of primer and one coat of cabinet enamel paint. I had some enamel paint left over from previous projects, and thought it would be perfect for the cubbies.

Since I didn’t want items sticking to regular paint over time, the enamel based paint would eliminate this concern.

Here is the painted cubby storage shelf eagerly awaiting installation:

Installing the Cubbies

With the pegboard already mounted to the wall. I next needed to hang the cubby storage.

Unfortunately, the size and weight of the cubbies was too much for me to just hold it against the wall while I attached it. Eileen was pregnant at the time, so she couldn’t help me out.

So I got creative and I attached a temporary 2×4 to the wall studs for me to rest the cubby on. This would allow me to position it perfectly without breaking my back. It would result in some small screw holes in the drywall after removal, but I could easily patch that up with drywall compound.

Here’s a picture with the temporary brace in place (I made sure it was perfectly level):

Here is the cubby storage shelf mounted to the wall:

Cubby Organization Tips

Here is the completed shelf – including Eileen’s organization.

She used the cubby shelf for card stock, construction paper, and felt organization. That emptied an entire cart worth of messy piles. She used little bins and mason jars to organize things like paper clips, tacks, paint brushes, pom-poms, kids scissors, and popsicle sticks.

She does a ton of kids crafts with our son, including lots of card-making and letter-writing. With this cubby organization, she can easily access his collection of stickers which are grouped in a bin as well as card stock and envelopes.

Craft Corner Organization Pictures

Here are some final pictures of the craft room organization. The project was comprised of three parts: the pegboard, the cubby shelf, and the simple wall shelves.

And most impressively…

With the amount of new storage created with these three things, Eileen was able to empty out tons of storage containers. She emptied three storage towers, one cart, and one dresser. She completed underestimated the amount of space all of the new craft room storage gave her.

Here’s the impressive ensemble of containers she emptied with this project:

I was sure happy to see that black dresser emptied out. I tossed it to the curb that very day. It had been in closets for the past eight years and before that was my old college furniture.

Don’t forget to download our free plans for this craft room organization and storage project.

How to Build Drawer Fronts for Cabinets and Furniture

October 21, 2018 by Eileen Leave a Comment

How to Make Quick and Easy Shaker Style Drawer Fronts Post Preview: You’ll find out how to build simple drawer fronts that can be used on cabinets and furniture. These simple raised panel drawer fronts are easy to make and truly look professional.

One of the things I love about DIYing is that you can make anything.

The possibilities are endless.

A few years back, I undertook a large bookshelf project with a window seat. For the cabinet under the window seat, I bought premade cabinet doors. They look awesome, and the whole project turned out really nice.

My most recent project was building an entryway piece with cubby shelves and hooks – which is a similar project. At the last minute, we decided we would add in some custom drawers to hold more things.

This time around, I made the drawers and the drawer fronts, and I couldn’t believe how simple it was. And, my wife was blown away at just how amazing they look.

Just as beautiful and professional as the store-bought cabinet doors from the bookshelf project – and it couldn’t have been easier.

Today, I’m sharing exactly how I made these DIY shaker-style drawer fronts for our entryway cubby shelf storage project.

Here’s a picture of the end result of these basic drawer fronts. While very simple in design and easy construct, you can see that they look elegant, especially with the shiplap paneling and the card catalog drawer pulls.

Looks very professional, don’t they? You too can make these faceplates yourself in very little time.

In case you need some help making a drawer, check out my drawer post here.

Materials Needed for Drawer Fronts

3/4″ thick pine board strips, 2 1/4″ wide
3/8″ thick plywood
1 1/4″ pocket hole screws
Finishing nails
Construction Adhesive
Paint
Drawer Handle

Tools Needed for Drawer Fronts

Miter saw
Table saw (or circular saw with edge guide)
Coarse sand paper
Finishing nail gun (optional, you could use some screws instead)
Drill
Kreg pocket hole jig
Rubber mallet
12″ bar clamp
Face clamp (optional, but helps)

1. Measuring & Making the Cuts for the Drawer Fronts

To determine the size of the drawer front, look at the hole that your drawer will go in. You want your drawer front to be at least a ¼” bigger on each side than the hole or opening that the drawer will go in.

So if the drawer hole/opening is 8 inches wide, then you want your drawer front to be at least 8 ½ inches.

So my faceplate drawer design consists of 5 pieces of wood. I used a combination of pine boards and plywood because that is what I had on hand. Four ¾” thick pieces form a border (2 ¼” thick), wrapping a rectangular piece of plywood in the middle.

I liked the thickness of 2 ¼ for the border – it made for a really elegant-looking, shake-style piece.

Pictured below are the cuts I made for the homemade drawer fronts:

Did you notice in the picture (above) that the four perimeter pieces of the drawer front have a groove in them?

That groove is to hold the center plywood piece in place. I cut the groove with my table saw with the blade set to a very shallow depth of ¼ inch. If you don’t have a table saw, you could accomplish the same cut with a circular saw and edge guide.

Using my table saw, I cut the grooves into 2 ¼” wide strips of pine boards (the strips were originally cut from my table saw as well). I did have to make the groove cut with three passes on the saw.

The saw blade was a standard ⅛” thick blade, but the groove needed to be at least ⅜”’wide to fit the plywood.

So after each pass on my table saw, I nudged my guide fence ever so slightly for the next cut. Next I used my miter saw to divvy up the strips for all my drawer fronts.

Here’s a closer shot of the grooves on the bordering pieces:

Here are the pieces I made for the drawer front, along with an assembled one in the back (below).

2. Drilling Pocket Holes for the Drawer Fronts

After the pieces for the DIY drawer fronts have been cut, I drilled pocket holes into the bordering pieces (the two long pieces – see pic below) to secure them to each other.

Here’s my Kreg pocket hole jig in action for this task:

Here are all the pocket holes required for a solid DIY drawer front:

Don’t worry about the holes in the final drawer front. These pocket holes were drilled into the rear facing side of the drawer front, so they will not be visible once attached to the drawer.

4. Assembling the Drawer Front Pieces

With the pocket holes drilled, assembly of the single panel drawer front pieces could begin. I started to knock the pieces together with a mallet.

Here’s the fully assembled Amish-style drawer front. Next, I had to insert the pocket hole screws.

5. Locking the Pieces in Place

Here I am putting in the pocket hole screws. I used a bar clamp (left) and a face clamp (right) to help keep the pieces in place while I put the screws in.

6. Attaching Drawer Fronts to Drawers

Here’s a helpful tip on attaching the DIY drawer fronts to drawers. To get the drawer fronts, lined up perfectly with the drawers, I found it easiest to attach them while the drawers were already in place:

So I put the drawers in place (see above pic), I liberally used construction adhesive on the drawer itself.

Then, I pressed the drawer front to the drawer, adjusting it as necessary to make sure it was perfectly placed.

Once I was satisfied with the positioning, I locked it in place with a few finishing nails around the perimeter. I used about three nails on the left and three nails on the right. This strongly secured the shaker-style drawer fronts to my drawers.

If you don’t have a finishing nailer, you could just insert some screws from inside the drawers to fasten the drawer fronts.

To finish the drawers off, I lightly sanded the edges to make them smooth.

7. Attaching the Handles to the Drawer Fronts

I did run into a small hiccup attaching some handles. My wife picked out these card catalog-style drawer pulls. The problem was that the screws that came with the drawer pull were not long enough to pass through both my drawer and the drawer front.

So I used a Forstner bit on my drill to cut away some of the wood inside the drawer to accommodate the screws. This worked perfectly.

After a paint job (we loved using milk paint) and some drawer pulls, the drawers with awesome-looking drawer fronts are ready for action!

For the mudroom makeover, we did numerous things to makeover the space – painted the room, stenciled the wall, installed shiplap, built cubby shelves, added almost 20 hooks for organization, and everyone’s favorite part is always the homemade drawers.

Not only is making things fun, but it feels wonderful to make things that make you feel productive and that others adore.

6 Easy Things You Can Do to Love Your Home

October 10, 2018 by Eileen Leave a Comment

6 Easy Things You Can Do to Love Your Home Post Preview: You’ll learn six things that you can do to bring you more happiness in your home, emulating that Christmas morning feeling.

You know the feeling you get when your home looks ready?

Everything is in its place, it’s clean and sparkling, and you are surrounded by things that bring you happiness.

This is usually the feeling I get around Christmas when I walk down the steps and see the Christmas tree lighting up the room – I absolutely the holidays.

Since we can’t have Christmas all the time, and we deserve to love our homes year round, I’ve put together 6 easy things you can do to bring you more happiness in your home. (If you need a little more help with your home, check out our room makeover workbook!)

1. A place for everything

One of the biggest issues in our home was stuff. So much stuff. Everywhere.

Declutter

If you are feeling like there’s always toys without a home, or piles of papers laying around, or boxes of pictures that you haven’t hung up, it’s time to find a better way.

Decluttering is one of the best ways to keep your house in check. Grab a box or a garbage bag and start collecting things to donate or trash.

If you are holding onto things that you really don’t need or that you don’t like but keep because of obligation, start rethinking that.

While thinning out your belongings, you can make more space, so everything else has a place.

Make space

If you’re thinking there’s no way that I can thin out my book collection or my spouse is a kind of a hoarder (ahemmm my husband), then declutter what you can – but make a spot for everything.

You can buy under-the-bed boxes to toss extra shoes in, you can buy more storage baskets or bins for toys (heck, you can even make these from cardboard boxes and contact paper), or you can hang shelves on the walls that can store fabric containers. Vertical space is amazing.

Little problem areas

You might just have a few areas in your home that are little problem areas. For us, the top of our washer and dryer becomes a dumping ground for mail and school papers.

It was making me so crazy because things would get lost. So, we are attaching hanging inserts to the side of our entryway piece with eight slots for paper organization (tutorial coming).

So, think about those messy areas of your home that seem to add stress or affect your productivity. Rethink how you have it organized – if it’s something as simple as adding some organizational boxes, you’ll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

2. Rearrange for a fresh look

When I’m getting tired of a room, one of the first things that I do is rearrange it. In fact, I’m thinking about rearranging my office furniture as I’m typing this. I would love my desk to face the window 🙂

My love for rearranging runs deep. When I was a kid, I always shared a room with one of my sisters. I used to make little floor plans of our room and figure out how I could rearrange my furniture without having to move it more than once.

Rearranging this space made me love this room again

Last spring, the family room in our home was driving me crazy. When we moved to the house, the furniture all got placed, and it just stayed that way for years.

We had the TV mounted low on the wall, above the television table, and I arranged a gallery around the TV. Even though it looked nice (and we always got compliments on it), I just didn’t love it.

So, we remounted the TV high in the corner of the room, moved the TV table up to my son’s room for a toy table, moved a couch over to the wall where the TV was, and did a smaller gallery wall.

And, I just love it.

It brought a fresh look to the room.

Plus, there are all these other advantages – like I can now see the TV from the kitchen. Also, with the television mounted so high, the kids can play anywhere in the room without being too close to it.

If a room is driving you crazy, think about how you could rearrange it to make more functional or more enjoyable for you.

2. Do easy DIYs

Did you know that anyone can do simple DIYs? You don’t have to be really awesome with wood or really talented with designing a room. Anyone can watch a youtube video and learn a new skill.

Simple DIYs like updating old drawer pulls or old door handles (goodbye brass knobs) can make a huge difference.

Loving these card catalog drawer pulls with space for labels

Painting a room can be absolutely huge. When we moved to our house, the entire house was painted stark white. In a few of the rooms, we painted a softer grayish white.

While we knew it wouldn’t be a drastic difference, it feels like one because the entire room feels warmer and more welcoming than that harsh white. Color can make a huge difference.

There are tons of other easy DIYs too – stenciling a wall, using peel and stick tiles, and refinishing furniture with milk or chalk paint (no prep work).

If you aren’t sure where to start, pick one DIY project you are excited about or one space in your home to hone in on.

3. Bring in things you love

I can’t emphasize this one enough – bring in things that you love, things that make you happy.

It’s way too easy to get caught up in the trends. Don’t just buy things or decorate with things because they are popular. Go with the items that make you happy.

If you just adore a print you find or a patterned chair, go with those things! Leave the trendy stuff behind. Unless, you love the trendy things, then by all means, go for it.

Treasure-Hunting

Go to thrift stores for new finds. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve found at thrift stores that I just adore! And the price and the fun of the find makes me love these things even more.

Sentimental Things

Decorate with sentimental things. My grandpop was a woodcarver, and we have many of his wooden animals and Santa Claus figures around the house. I love them because they remind me of him. My son recently asked if he can keep the wooden dog in his room 🙂 He’s learning young to surround yourself with what makes you happy.

Photographs

Photographs are also awesome – print a couple pictures that you love and put them in some picture frames that are on sale at Michaels. The pictures could be family photos, photos of your kids, your engagement photos, some awesome candids, or pictures of your travels. Or even some original artwork.

Love these DIY photo ledges – they make it so easy to display tons of photos

Things that you adore

Last, if there are any special items that you love, decorate with those. I totally have a thing for pillows. What can I say?! They make me happy 🙂

4. Get rid of things that you don’t love

If you don’t like something anymore, then why keep it?! Lots of times we keep things out of obligation, just to collect dust in the basement or on the shelves.

Or, sometimes your style changes and you are no longer into the same things.

I used to have a huge collection of gold frames that I really am not so crazy about anymore. Yet, I got tired of the space they occupied in hallway closet boxes, so I went through them. I spray painted a few and donated the rest. I do have to say, it felt really freeing.

I also just got rid of a box of beach-related things that were former bathroom decorations in our old house. I never was really into beach-themed but I wasn’t sure how else to decorate a bathroom.

That box went straight to the thrift store, and I’m sure someone who loves beach decor was excited to find new treasures. (What’s in my bathroom now? Just a simple vase with flowers and a few simple pictures).

Big ticket items

If it’s something big that you don’t like, such as a couch, think about how you can change it.

Could you get a slipcover that would fit? Could you use throw blankets and accent pillows to spruce it up? Could you swap the couch with one from another room? Or, would you rather save up for a new one?

If you don’t like something, think about how you can change it so you do.

But, if you really don’t like something and it’s not a necessary item, don’t keep things around just to keep them around.

5. Find ways to bring more light

You know the feeling you get after a few days of rain and sunshine finally comes out? That long-missed sunshine always makes me smile.

An easy way to bring that happiness into your home is more light!

You can do this by taking down cumbersome old blinds and valances and replacing them with honeycomb blinds or long, flowy curtains, which will allow more light in.

For kids rooms, room darkening shades are great because they work perfectly to block the light for naps and early bedtimes, but they are easy to open to let the light back in.

Bulbs & Fixtures

Another way to bring more light in is through replacing dim bulbs or changing out your light fixtures, for a lighter, more modern look. And, the benefit on this is twofold – more light and a prettier fixture.

6. Work on the areas that need a little love

If there’s a particular room or space in your home that you feel needs a ton of work, you can easily pick a project or two and start chipping away at it.

We had a horrible mudroom, and it’s on our list to do a full renovation to one side of the room (tearing down a closet and replacing with countertops and cabinets).

However, as it was, that room made me crazy. It doubles as our entryway and our laundry room, so you can imagine how much time I spent in there.

Finally, I started chipping away at some projects I could do, independent of our grandiose future plans, and the change is insane.

Mudroom makeover – you won’t believe the “before”

We painted the room, stenciled a wall, added shiplap, added an entryway piece, and switched out a light fixture. Now this room is my happy place. Seriously, it’s the nicest room in the house 🙂

And to think, I almost didn’t touch it because of the future closet-to-countertop plan.

It just goes along with everything I’m saying – create spaces in your home that make you happy.

Don’t wait. You deserve it 🙂

Looking to makeover a room right away? Get our room makeover workbook that will guide you through making over a space in your home.

How to Get Astonishing Results with Milk Paint & Raw Wood

September 29, 2018 by Eileen 8 Comments

How to Use Milk Paint on Raw Wood Post Preview: You will find out how to use milk paint on raw wood to create beautifully-finished furniture with a non-toxic, zero VOC paint.

This post is sponsored by Old Fashioned Milk Paint. All opinions are entirely my own.

We have been on a mission lately at the grocery stores, when online shopping, and even at the home improvement stores.

We’ve been choosing products that have the healthiest ingredients. Ones with basic ingredients, instead of long lists that we can’t pronounce. Ingredients that aren’t detrimental to our health.

If you’ve ever read the ingredients or warning signs on a regular can of paint, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

After a ton of research on paints with the best ingredients, I stumbled upon milk paint.

Milk paint is a non-toxic, water-based paint. It has been around for thousands of years – before adding solvents, toxins, and chemicals into paints was a thing.

I’ve painted tons of furniture before, and I was worried that milk paint would be hard to work with or not give me the results I wanted.

Well, my worries were met with a beautiful, easy-to-work with milk paint and that delivered the same results that a high-quality furniture paint would, without all the chemicals.

How to Milk Paint Unfinished Furniture

My husband and I were in the middle of a mudroom makeover when we started our quest for natural paint. We had built a wooden entryway bench with locker-style cubbies. It would hold backpacks, coats, hats, diaper bags, mail, shoes and more.

In our search, we were ecstatic to find Old Fashioned Milk Paint, made from just milk casein, lime, and earth pigments. The milk paint worked exactly as a high-quality furniture paint without solvents, toxins, and other chemicals that have since been added to paints. Old Fashioned Milk Paint has absolutely zero VOCs, it’s bio-degradable, and non-toxic.

Most times when you see milk paint used on Pinterest and blogs, it’s usually used to refinish an already-painted piece of furniture.

However, milk paint can also be used very easily on raw wood. And, it looks beautiful.

Milk Paint Materials

Milk Paint – We used Old Fashioned Milk Paint in snow white
Angled paint brushes
Mixing container
Mixer or drill with paint mixer attachment
Extra bond
Safe Coat Sealer

Materials for mixing milk paint

How to Mix Milk Paint

First, milk paint comes in a powder form. You simply mix it with water and then it’s ready to go.

While this is an extra step, it’s totally worth it to be painting with zero VOCs. There are also advantages to mixing your own paint. For example, you can easily create your own colors, the paint dries quickly, and it can be cleaned with simply soap and water.

To mix your Old Fashioned Milk Paint, follow these instructions.

1. Measure your ingredients.

First measure out equal parts of the milk paint powder and water. Dump these into a bucket or mixing container.

2. Add in bonding agent, if necessary.

You’ll want to figure out if you need a bonding agent mixed in your first coat. A bonding agent helps the paint to stick. It does make the first coat more watery but subsequent coats will be thicker.

Typically, if you’re using raw wood, you typically don’t need to use a bonding agent. We used the bonding agent for the first coat because we used birch to build our entryway piece. Birch is a close-grained hardwood, so we needed the bonding agent to get good coverage.

If you aren’t sure if you need a bonding agent, Old Fashioned Milk Paint has tons of information on types of wood and whether the bonding agent is needed.

3. Combine ingredients with a mixer.

To mix milk paint, we found that the paint mixer attachment on the drill worked perfectly. You can also use a regular kitchen mixer.

I’ve also used milk paint without use of a drill or electric mixer and I haven’t had as much luck, especially when mixing colors.

So you just dump your ingredients into the container and mix it very slowly for 2-3 minutes.

After your done mixing, let it sit still for 10 minutes. Then give it a good stir with the paint brush, and you are ready to start painting your wood with milk paint.

Mixing milk paint with a drill attachment

How to Paint Raw Wood with Milk Paint

Now that your paint is mixed well, it’s time to start painting that wood.

1. Make sure your wood is clean of any sawdust or dirt.

Wipe down your wood to make sure it’s ready for painting.

Unfinished wood bench ready for painting

2. Use an angled brush to put on your first coat.

We found that an angled brush works really well with furniture because you can easily get all of the nooks and crannies.

We also preferred a brush to a roller because we could control the paint better and watch for drips more easily.

If you have the bonding agent in your first coat, it will be more watery and thin. So you want to be careful of paint drips. Definitely start at the top of your furniture and work your way down. This way if you do have drips, you are painting downward and can even them out more easily.

The first coat is more about coverage than anything else. So a thin coat is fine as long as you are covering the area well. The first coat won’t look beautiful and that’s okay.

Let the coat dry and then you’ll be ready to move on.

After one coat of milk paint (with extra bond) on wooden cubby shelf

3. Stirring frequently, apply your second coat, making sure to use even paint strokes.

While the first coat was about coverage, when painting the second coat, you want to make sure that you are evenly coating your brush and evenly spreading the paint on. Take time to go over your brush strokes to make sure the paint looks smooth.

As with the first coat, start at the top of the wooden piece and work your way down. If your paint is extra drippy, use less at a time or apply a thinner coat.

If your milk paint mixture is too thick, you can add a little water at a time and mix well. The paint shouldn’t be difficult to apply or difficult to spread. You could also wet your brush a little to help.

Getting a second coat on the cubbies

4. Apply additional coats as you see fit.

Depending upon how thick or thin your paint coats were, you might need three or four coats. Or, you could need three coats and a touch-up coat. Decide what you’re comfortable with. You might put an extra coat in areas that are more visible.

Homemade bench drawers with three coats of milk paint

Remember if your paint is too thick, add a little water and stir. The paint shouldn’t be hard to apply.

Here’s a useful tip for you. Keep some sand paper handy while applying milk paint. After some coats have dried, you may notice some hardened drips you missed. Just lightly sand them down with 150 grit sand paper and cover up with the next coat. Also, when your last coat of milk paint has dried, the surface may feel a little rough as you run your hand across it. A very light sanding of 300 grit sand paper yields a super smooth finish.

Here is the finished cubby piece installed in our mudroom. The cubbies and the drawers were all painted in Snow White from Old Fashioned Milk Paint.

Finished locker-style cubbies and bench drawers painted with milk paint

Here’s a close-up of the drawers. The paint looks so professional. Out of all of the various furniture paints I have used, I’ve never been more pleased than I have been with milk paint.

Not only is it non-toxic and absolutely zero VOCs, but it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Homemade face plates (and drawers) with snow white milk paint

How to Seal Milk Paint

Milk paint doesn’t always need a sealer, but if the furniture is prone to spills or moisture, then sealing is a good idea. We sealed our entryway piece because the kids would be sitting in there taking their shoes on and off, hanging up their wet coats and hats, spilling their water bottles, etc.

To maximize the longevity of the milk paint, we opted to seal the finish with an acrylic type glaze. The dried milk paint already seemed pretty sturdy, but we didn’t want to risk early wear on the milk paint. We used SafeCoat AcriGlaze because of the extremely low VOC content. Applying it was very easy. We used a good quality bristle brush, and applied just two coats of the sealer, about 2 hours apart. We were very happy with the product. True to its word, it had a very low odor which dissipated quickly with a fan. The glaze dried clear. You could not tell it was even there unless you ran your finger across the wood. It was well protected.

All in all, we couldn’t be more thrilled with our milk painted entryway cubbies. The milk paint was extremely easy to use, proved itself as a high-quality furniture paint, and most importantly, it’s a safe, natural alternative to the chemical-laden paints that are out there.

Thank you Old Fashioned Milk Paint for offering a safe alternative so that we DIYers can build and create without compromising our health.

If you are looking for an easy to work with paint with zero VOCs, definitely check out Old Fashioned Milk Paint. You will love it 🙂

And as for the building of the cubby shelves, that tutorial is on its way to you next!

Want to see what our mudroom looked like BEFORE the makeover?

It’s almost unbelievable – but all of the pictures are here –>

How to Transform an Ugly Space into a Completely Functional Room

How to Stencil an Accent Wall You’ll Absolutely Love

September 24, 2018 by Eileen 6 Comments

How to Stencil an Accent Wall Post Preview: You will find out how to paint a stenciled accent wall, along with stenciling tips and tricks.

This post is sponsored by Stencil Revolution. All opinions are entirely my own.

Everyone has a spot in their house that drives them crazy, am I right!? For me, it was our mudroom.

It was boring, barely functional, and beyond a mess.

So, we embarked on a mudroom makeover and starting building an entryway bench with locker cubbies. In the meantime, I wanted to add a little character to the walls.

With its beige walls and grayish tiled floors, the mudroom room was just so plain.

So, I had a plan to DIY my own “wallpaper” aka stencil an accent wall.

Can I just say that stencils are amazing?! I’ve used stencils before on a world map wall art project, but never on a wall. I couldn’t get over how much the stencil completely changed the look of the room. The previously boring space became completely modernized with the stenciled accent wall.

The best part?

With wall stencils, you get to choose your own colors, rather than be stuck with premade wallpaper. And, you can save money by doing the work yourself – perfect for DIYing on a tight budget.

If you’re thinking about stenciling a focal wall in your home, it’s super easy – it’s definitely a DIY project that anyone can do.

Today, I’m sharing all my tips and tricks for how to paint a stencil on an accent wall.

How to Stencil an Accent Wall

First, I’m going to take you back a minute and show you a crazy before and after. It’s a little embarrassing, but seriously, this is what the room looked like prior to the mudroom makeover.

And here is what the mudroom looks like after its makeover.

And here’s another angle – I continued the stencil across the adjacent wall too.

So let’s get started! To stencil an accent wall, you’ll need a good chunk of time, and the following items.

Materials for Stenciling a Wall

Paint
Stencil – We used the Freya tile stencil
Rounded brush – This is a great brush set for stenciling
Paper towels
Optional – level (not needed if you use registration marks on the stencil), paint stirrers, plastic cup for small amount of paint, baby wipes (to quickly wipe mistakes)

Check out our wall stenciling video to see me in action, stenciling the wall.

Step 1 – Choose your stencil and paint colors

First, you’ll want to choose your stencil. Stencils are awesome because you can create a wallpaper effect for a really inexpensive price. We love the stencils from Stencil Revolution – you’ll definitely be oogling over their new tile line. The stencil we used is the Freya stencil and it’s part of their new line. We loved the colors they used with the stencil, so we mimicked those.

These stencils are especially easy to work with because they have registration marks, where you can easily line up each stencil with the one before. Because of these registration marks, you can get by without needing a ruler or a level.

After you have chosen your stencil, you’ll want to start thinking about paint colors for your stencil and, if necessary, the wall. Stencils don’t have to be the mono-colored. You can use two or three colors. Additionally, consider painting the wall or room, if it’s not the right background color.

We painted over our beige mudroom with white paint, as we wanted the background of our stencil to be white.

Then we chose two colors for the stencil – tan and charcoal. When you’re deciding on colors for your stencil, try them out with the stencil in a test area. I had a few different versions of tan before I settled on my favorite. You can try the wall stencil on an area of your wall that will be covered (I tried mine where the shiplap was going) or you can use a foam board.

Paint Tip: When choosing paint for the stencil, it doesn’t need to be wall paint. You can use acrylic paint from the craft store. Using the small acrylic containers from the craft store make it really easy to test colors too.

Step 2 – Prepare the wall

Next, you want to prepare your wall. If you are painting the wall first, you’ll want to do that now.

If you want to wipe down your wall or the baseboards or tape off any area, you’ll want to prepare that before starting to stencil.

Side note – If you’re painting your wall white over a darker color like we did, it can take extra coats to get back to white. Keep that in mind when you’re thinking about your project timeline.

Step 3 – Decide where you want your stencil to start

Choose an ideal starting point for your wall stencil. Ideally, this is the spot where you’ll want your wall stencil to look the best. The most visible part of the room is always a good choice.

Keep in mind that at the opposite end of the wall, depending upon the length of your wall and the size of the stencil, the last stencil could cut off. When you’re making your starting decision, factor in the opposite end or ends of the wall.

Depending upon your stencil’s design, you could nudge your starting point just a little bit to help the opposite end terminate at a better point.

Or if you get really lucky, the stencil might fit perfectly across the whole wall.

I started the stencil right next to the window, as this part of the wall was the most visible when walking into the room. The stencil cut off at the opposite end of the wall, but I started the first stencil a half an inch inward, so the last stencil would cut off exactly halfway. I was okay with it cutting off there because that end was in a more hidden corner of the room.

Note – The starting point for the stencil doesn’t necessarily need to be where you first start painting. It’s just where the stencil pattern starts. You could begin painting in a less visible area, such as toward the ceiling, so that any early mistakes are made high up, where people won’t be able to see.

Step 4 – Secure stencil to the wall

Next, you’ll want to attach the stencil to the wall. To do so, I just used four pieces of painter’s tape. It was super simple. When you’re done, you just peel the stencil and tape off and move to the next spot.

Some people like to use a spray adhesive, but I found that unnecessary. The tape was very simple.

Step 5 – Use a small rounded brush to start dabbing on the paint.

Now the fun part! To stencil the accent wall, you’ll want to use a rounded, stiff brush to stencil your wall. If the brush is too soft, it will bend. The best brushes are rounded that come to a point.

With your rounded brush, you are just going to dab the end of your brush in the paint. Do this as evenly as you can, and then blot the extra paint. This is important because if your paint is too thick, it will slip under the stencil and cause unclean lines. A little paint goes a long way.

As soon as your paintbrush is ready, gently dab it onto the wall. When you’re painting the wall, don’t use brush strokes, just stipple it onto the wall.

Now it won’t be perfect. But with a small amount of paint and a small rounded brush, it will be pretty close.

If your stencil isn’t flush against the wall, you can use your marker or pencil to hold the stencil flush against the wall with one hand, while you paint with another. I used a drill bit, rather than a marker, because it was the first thing I found 🙂

Brush Tip: As for brush size, keep in mind that a smaller brush will get you more accuracy and a bigger brush will get the job done faster. You could use a bigger brush in higher areas, where people won’t be able to see up close (because it goes faster) and a smaller rounded brush in lower areas.

Step 6 – Remove stencil and repeat

Simply peel back the stencil and remove. If there are any stray marks, you could always wipe with a paper towel or a baby wipe before it dries.

Then, line the stencil up with the registration marks (see above) and work on your next stencil.

It will be slow going at first, but like anything, it gets quicker as you get used to it.

A Few More Wall Stenciling Tips

For our mudroom wall, I only stenciled the top third of the wall. On the lower part, I attached shiplap, which made for a really cool look.

I also ended up stenciling more than I thought. My plan was to just stencil the wall around the window, but I kept going around the doorway of the laundry room. If you are undecided on whether to continue the stencil on a neighboring wall, you can start with the wall that you are sure about. Then, go from there.

Stencil Cut-Off Tip: If you are doing a lot of stenciling and your wall stencil cuts off at the corner or around a window, you could do a couple of things. You could simple bend the stencil and tape it. I would use a lot of tape so it doesn’t slide when you are painting. It’s a little tricky to do but that’s what I did (see picture above).

Or, you could order more than one stencil, and cut the stencil so that you have a flush fit when stenciling around windows and near corners.

Here’s a close up of the finished wall, with the stencil at the top third, and the shiplap at the bottom.

Next, we put shiplap on the lower portion of wall, and we have a full tutorial coming on this! It was super simple 🙂

Here’s a few more pictures of the other side of the room, including the portion above the laundry room nook.

And, I just adore these hooks! They look perfect with the stencil and the shiplap. I think there’s about 16 of them in the mudroom now 🙂 They’ll be no excuses for bags and coats not hung up.

Go for it!

If you’re debating whether or not to stencil a wall, definitely go for it. Stenciling a wall is an easy, budget-friendly DIY. With a little bit of work, you can completely transform the look of a room.

If you love the way the shiplap looks on our accent wall, that post is coming next, and our whole mudroom makeover will soon follow.

So, there we have it! A completely transformed room with something as simple as a wall stencil. If you are looking for a thrifty way to redo an old space, definitely consider stenciling an accent wall.

How to Transform an Ugly Space to an Insanely Functional Room

September 8, 2018 by Eileen 15 Comments

Every time I walked into the house, I cringed.

Every time I did laundry, every time I went to grab my coat, every time I went to get the mail.

I couldn’t stand our mudroom, and I was constantly in and out of it.

It was a tight space with a bench blocking the window. The bench filled up quickly with backpacks, hoodies, and amazon boxes. There wasn’t any place to put anything down and then of course a third of the room was a huge closet.

It was beige-y, boring, and not functional for our family.

We had big plans to knock out the closet and put in countertops and cabinets. However, we didn’t have the time or budget to take that on this summer.

We thought that we were stuck with this room as it was.

However, we changed a few things here and there – and it started with painting an accent wall and building cubbies. Before we knew it, we had a whole new room even with the old closet.

So, here are our 4 proven steps to transforming a room in your home.

If you love these, check out our room makeover workbook and you’ll be on your way to making over a room in your home too!

1. List the things that drive you crazy.

The first thing we did was think about what we didn’t like about the room. Figuring out what we didn’t like (other than just saying “ugh I can’t stand this room!”) helped us see what we could and couldn’t fix.

Here’s our list of things we didn’t like about our current mudroom.

There was nowhere to store coats, shoes, and backpacks – and therefore was always a mess.
There was not enough light.
It was a boring space – beige paint, beige and brown floors.
And, there was the huge walk-in closet, taking up a huge chunk of the room.

2. Brainstorm fixes for each item on your list.

Next, we jotted down a fix for each thing that drove us crazy.

Nowhere to store outdoor gear –> Build locker-style cubbies with bench and plenty of space for drawers or baskets
Not enough light –> Move bench away from window, switch out the light fixture for a brighter (more modern) one
Boring space –> Paint, stencil an accent wall, install shiplap?
Huge closet –> Tackle this stage of the project at a later date

By simply listing out the problems and fixes, we had ourselves a blueprint of what our mudroom makeover would look like. Now, we weren’t planning on tackling the closet/countertop fix this time. However, that’s okay!

With all of the other changes, I was certain our mudroom would get its much needed makeover. Here’s an after picture – what do you think?!

3. Make a master list – break large goals into smaller action items.

In order to get our mudroom from the before picture to the after picture, we took our list of fixes (above), and then we turned it into our master list. We had four main items to work on.

Stencil the wall
Install shiplap
Build an entryway piece with bench and cubbies
Replace light fixture

And then, within those large items, we broke it down into smaller tasks. For example, the stencil task looked like this:

Stencil the wall

Choose paint colors for wall and stencil
Paint entire room
Review stenciling techniques
Do a practice stencil
Stencil wall

Breaking large items into smaller ones make them more manageable and it gives you direction on what you need to do next. Also, action items keep you from getting overwhelmed or wasting time.

4. Set goals to complete action items each day or week.

Now that we had a master list with manageable action items, we set goals each week to complete certain action items. Each day, we chipped away at our action items, crossing things off the list here and there.

It took us a month – but we had an incredible mudroom makeover. The process of listing out the problems with the room, then determining solutions worked so well for us.

All of the years that we’ve lived in this house that I spent frustrated with the mudroom or complaining about it, could have been channeled productively through creating solutions and chipping away at the projects.

I mean, you can’t tell that it was the same room!

5. Check out 33 Days To a Space You’ll Love

Looking to transform a space in your home? Tired of the room or space driving you nuts?

Check out our Room Makeover Workbook to guide you through transforming a room in your home in just 33 days! We will take you step-by-step through the process of making over your space.

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Build

Redoing an Old Dresser

Building a Screen Door

Constructing a Folding Workbench with Storage

Easy Swing Out Wall Shelves from Scrap Wood

Making a Picnic Table in One Day

Building a Storage Shed from Scratch

Installing a Shade Sail for the Patio

Creating an Entryway Piece for the Mudroom

Building a Wooden Walkway for the Backyard

Constructing Sliding Shelves Storage for the Garage

DIY Swing Out Wall Shelves

Design for Swing Out Shelves

Tools and Materials

Instructions for Building Swing Out Shelves

Cutting Grooves for the Shelves

Cutting the Strips for a Swing Out Wall Shelf Frame

Constructing a Frame for the Swing Out Wall Shelves

Cutting and Inserting the Plywood Shelves

Trimming and Painting the Swing Out Wall Shelves

Decorating the Swing Out Wall Shelves with Patterned Paper

Mounting the Swing Out Wall Shelves

Swing Out Wall Shelves in Action

How to Build an Entryway Bench with Hooks and Storage

Tools and Materials

Entryway Cubby Bench Design Ideas

Building the Lower Cubbies for the Entryway Bench

Joining the Cubby Shelf Pieces

Sneak Preview of the Entryway Cubby Shelves

Painting the Lower Cubbies

Building Drawers for the Entryway Cubby Bench

Building the Bench Top to the Cubbies

Attaching the Bench to the Cubbies

Installing Trim Around the Benchtop

Neat Trick: Making Colored Wood Putty

Staining the Benchtop with Tung Oil

Building the Upper Cubbies for the Entryway Bench

Cutting the Pieces for the Cubbies

Joining the Pieces for the Upper Cubbies

Reinforcing the Cubbies

Painting the Cubbies with Milk Paint

Installing the Locker-Style Cubbies in the Entryway

Attaching Trim to the Cubbies

Just a few remaining tasks for the entryway bench and cubbies

Making Custom Drawer Fronts

Installing Shiplap Between the Cubbies

Adding Hooks

Entryway Storage is finished!

Time and Cost of the Hallway Bench with Hooks and Storage

How to Build Easy DIY Wall Shelves

A Shelf Design that Worked

Assembling the Shelves

Mounting the Shelves to the Wall

Shelf Organization Tips

A Finished Craft Corner

How to Build Homemade Cubby Shelves

Cutting the Dados for the Cubby Shelves

Adjusting the Cubby Design

Assembling the Cubby Storage Shelves

Using Ratchet Straps

Installing the Cubbies

Cubby Organization Tips

Craft Corner Organization Pictures

Materials Needed for Drawer Fronts

Tools Needed for Drawer Fronts

1. Measuring & Making the Cuts for the Drawer Fronts

2. Drilling Pocket Holes for the Drawer Fronts

4. Assembling the Drawer Front Pieces

5. Locking the Pieces in Place

6. Attaching Drawer Fronts to Drawers

7. Attaching the Handles to the Drawer Fronts

1. A place for everything

Declutter

Make space

Little problem areas

2. Rearrange for a fresh look

2. Do easy DIYs

3. Bring in things you love