Home Improvement

How to Fix Up an Old Lawn Mower

April 24, 2016 by Ash 12 Comments

As the days warmed up and the grass started growing again, it wasn’t too long afterward when it was time to awaken my riding mower from its slumber. When a nice sunny day came, I went out back to the shed, hopped on the mower and turned the key.

Nothing happened. I turned the key again, and again. It was just making a whirring sound. I couldn’t even try applying the choke because the engine was not even trying to turn over.

After trying a few more times, I was dismayed.

I knew I would have some trouble starting up the mower after the winter break, but not like this. It was clear that today was not the day for mowing. It was time to do some investigation and perform some mower maintenance.

I bought the used riding mower on Craigslist last summer. I got a great deal because it was 20 years old and was showing a lot of cosmetic wear. However, the previous owner kept up with the maintenance, and it ran pretty well for its age.

I was also not too of how to fix a riding lawn mower because I had confidence in my repair skills (having brought some old push mowers back to life at my previous home with some replacement parts).

How to Fix an Old Riding Lawn Mower

To prep for my maintenance project, I tracked down the mower manual online, located the consumer replaceable parts and ordered them online.

Then I put together Ash’s grand maintenance plan for reviving your riding mower, as outlined below.

1. Spark plugs and battery
2. Oil filter and oil change
3. Air filter and precleaner
4. Fuel filter
5. Clean out mower deck
6. Replace mower drive belt
7. Lubricate
8. Check tire pressure

Here’s a picture of the left and right side of my mower engine, with some of the areas above outlined:

1. Spark Plugs and Battery

The first thing I did was check for activity in the spark plugs.

Using a special spark plug socket, I pulled one of them out, still connected to the battery, and turned the key. There was no spark. I tried another spark plug that I knew was working (from my push mower), and still no spark.

This led me to believe the battery was low on juice. I had a 12 volt car battery charger, so I was going to try recharging it. It made sense that the battery would be low as the mower had not been run for a few months.

Before I recharged, I wanted to rule out a bad battery (incapable of being recharged). I tested the battery with a volt meter and got 12.4 volts which was actually normal. Any lower readings (especially in the 11 volt range) would have suggested a bad battery.

So I hooked up the battery to the recharger, setting it to 10 amps with an automatic shutdown on full charge. An hour later, the recharger said the battery was ready. I hooked it back up to the mower and tried starting the engine. Still no luck.

So Eileen picked up a new mower battery for me at Lowes (they seemed to have a better selection than Home Depot). I got a 275amp battery (suggested for mowers up to 21hp) making sure that the positive terminal was on the same side as the old battery (or else the wire hook ups would not reach). Here’s a picture of the new battery installed:

Here’s a picture of the exposed spark plug (which I was able to remove using a special socket):

We did bring in my old battery to Lowes for recycling. They give you a small discount (which covered a core charge fee for a new battery purchase).

We also picked up two new spark plugs. I installed the new battery and spark plugs and tried starting the engine…

Success!

The starter motor did not hesitate at all. The flywheel immediately began spinning, trying to start the engine. It did take a few tries to get the engine running, but eventually got it going. That leads me to the next maintenance steps.

2. Oil Filter & Oil Change

Now it was time to change the oil and oil filter.

I located the oil drain plug and setup a funnel and plastic container to collect the old oil. I then removed the oil dipstick from above, loosened the drain plug and out came the oil – pouring out slowly.

When the oil stopped coming, I screwed back in the plug and went to work on the filter. I put a rag under the existing filter to catch any oil that would spill. I twisted the filter and pulled it out of the mower.

Good thing I had the rag in place because a lot of oil came out of the filter. I grabbed the new oil filter, put a little oil on the gasket and screwed it into the mower.

Now it was time to pour in new oil. I poured nearly two quarts of 5W30 oil (picked up at the nearby gas station) down the oil dipstick hole, pausing every now and then to take a measurement with the dipstick to make sure I didn’t overfill.

Here’s a picture of the new oil filter and drain plug:

3. Air Filter and Pre-cleaner

Next up was the air filter and pre-cleaner.

It’s important to have a steady flow of filtered air entering your engine. Disruptions to this flow can lead to lack of power, excessive fuel consumption or problems starting up.

You can normally clean out the old filter, but I had no idea how long the existing one was in there. Therefore, I disposed of the old one and replaced with a new one.

Accessing the filter was easy. I just removed a wing nut and the metal housing. The air filter itself is just a cylinder with wire mesh and a paper filter.

The pre-cleaner is a piece of sponge wrapped around the filter. I unpacked the new pre-cleaner, and following the installation instructions. I moistened it with some motor oil and wrapped it around the new filter. Then, I replaced the old one on the mower engine.

Here’s a picture of the new air filter and pre-cleaner installed (without the metal housing so you can see it):

4. Fuel Filter

Now for the fuel filter. It’s recommended that you change the fuel filter on your mower once every season.

There can be lots of impurities in your gas tank (think about all the times you opened the tank lid for a refueling with grass still settling from the blades), so a season of mowing can clog up your filter.

Using the mower manual, I located the filter on the engine. If you’re having trouble finding yours, just follow the fuel line from the gas tank to the engine. The fuel filter is along that line.

To remove the filter, I first clamped the fuel line in between the filter and the tank. I didn’t want fuel dumping out of the tank once I removed the filter. I also put a container beneath the filter to catch any excess gas stuck in the line and filter.

Then I removed the hose clamps holding the filter in place and pulled off the fuel line. Luckily no fuel leaked out. The tank must have been nearly empty. I then attached the new filter, making sure the arrow indicating direction of fuel pointed towards the engine.

With the fuel lines clamped back onto the filter, I removed the temporary clamp pinching the line and installation was complete.

Here’s a picture of the new fuel filter installed:

At this point, the engine was now ready for the upcoming season. I turned the ignition key and the engine fired up without hesitation.

I didn’t even have to apply the choke. Then, I let the engine idle for 10 minutes to make sure it ran okay and didn’t have any fuel or oil leaks. After, I took it for a test drive, and it drove like a champ.

5. Clean out mower belt

Now onto the mower deck, which was giving me some trouble. While mowing the front lawn, I noticed a lot of squealing noises coming from the belts in the deck. Also, the collection bags were barely filling with grass. It got so bad that I actually had to disconnect the automatic bagger because the tubes were getting clogged with grass.

I switched to side discharge for the grass, which meant I spent a lot of time raking up the grass when done. Finally, a few times the engine actually died with the blades engaged.

After inspecting the mower deck, I concluded that the three problems I had stemmed from a worn mower belt and debris wedging against the belts. The debris particularly was causing a lot of friction with the belt and putting strain on the mower, causing the engine to stall out sometimes.

This also impacted the bagger because the blades could not spin at full speed and expel the grass fast enough. The belt also had clear evidence of being worn down. There were lots of cracks, and I was surprised the belt hadn’t broke already.

Removing and Cleaning the Mower Deck

To address my mower deck issues, I first removed the deck from the mower. It was not that difficult.

Following directions in the manual, I located and removed some retainer springs holding the deck pinned into the mower chassis. Then I slid the deck out from under the mower.

Here is a picture of the deck removed from the mower.

Technically I didn’t have to remove the mower deck to replace the belt. However the debris was really hard to reach and was easier to remove this way. I also wanted to take the opportunity to inspect the blades and underneath the deck.

Once I opened the deck, I removed all the debris with ease. There was a lot of it too, from packed dirt to wads of dried leaves. I could see why the belts were making so much noise. I’m sure it was a fire hazard too, with friction from the belts heating up the dried leaves and possibly igniting them.

Soon the deck was looking very clean. I flipped it over and inspected underneath. It wasn’t too bad under there. I just used a flat screwdriver to scrape off some grass patches that have been building up over time.

Sharpening the Mower Blades

When I checked out the blades, they were extremely dull. The sharp part was actually round and smooth. All this time mowing the lawn, I could have just whacked the grass with a baseball bat.

So I removed the 3 blades with a socket spanner, clamped each one in place and sharpened with my Dremel and a grinding stone bit.

After I sharpened both ends of the blade, I stuck a bolt in the blade to see if it was properly balanced. If either side of the blade dipped, it meant the blade was imbalanced and would cause a lot of vibration when spinning. Luckily, I did the job evenly when sharpening and the blades were balanced well.

Here is a picture of a blade clamped down right after I finished sharpening it (see how the sharpened part gleams):

Here I am reattaching the sharpened blades (I made sure to wear gloves so I didn’t cut myself):

Here’s a close-up of the mower deck showing some of the debris that I had to remove (it was a lot worse before):

6. Replacing the belt

Now to address the worn out belt. I took a picture of the belt route with my phone and then removed it. I installed the new belt matching the route from my picture.

Mower deck maintenance was now complete. I slid it back under the mower and reattached the retainer springs to secure it to the chassis. I started up the motor and engaged the blades. Nothing happened. Oh no, what happened? The blades did not spin.

I looked underneath the mower and discovered the belt had too much slack. I compared the new belt to the old one and saw that the new one was slightly bigger. Unfortunately, this model mower did not allow you to adjust the tension in the belts, so the new belt was unusable for me.

I ordered the correct part number online, but it was a third party belt. I should have spent the extra money for a factory replacement instead. Disappointed, I put back in the old belt, so I could at least use the mower and ordered a factory belt in the meantime. I’d install it in a few days when it arrives.

Let that be a lesson, be wary of third party replacements especially when the price looks too good to pass up.

7. Lubricant

I had almost completed my maintenance plan. Then, I applied all-purpose grease to a few key areas on the mower.

I used the mower manual to identify these areas, and applied grease where needed. A few areas also required silicone lubricant, which I was lucky enough to have a spray can of (I use it to keep my foosball table rods spinning like new).

I broke in the new lubricated parts with a drive around the yard, making sure to turn the steering wheel a lot. The neighbors must have worried what state I was in zigzagging the mower across the yard!

8. Tire Pressure

The final step was to check the tire pressure. I grabbed a pressure gauge from my car’s glove compartment box and compared the mower tire pressure to recommended specs in the manual.

They were a little low, so I used a bicycle pump to bring them back up to the correct PSI. Low tire pressure will cause excess drag when driving, and consume more fuel, so it’s important to keep your tires properly inflated.

Finally, the mower was in proper working condition for the new season. I documented what parts I replaced along with the date. This way I would remember for next season the parts I replaced.

Not everything in my maintenance plan needs to be done every season. I just wanted to hit all my bases this one time, since I had no way of knowing what the previous owner did.

If you are in a similar position, wondering how to fix your old riding lawn mower, then go through the above checklist. It’s been tried and proven.

Look out tall grass, I’m ready for you this season!

How to Sell Your Home in Less Than a Week

April 18, 2016 by Eileen 101 Comments

In the weeks leading up to putting our house on the market, Ash and I worked tirelessly getting our home ready.

As parents of a little one, we did not want our house sitting for the market for weeks, let alone months. Therefore, we did a great deal of packing, updating, cleaning, and staging in order to sell our home quickly.

Once ready, our home sold four days after it went on the market (after a weekend of showings).

It was an amazing moment knowing that our hard work got us exactly what we wanted. Our goal was to sell our home in five days or even a week, so we were thrilled after it sold in four days.

How to Sell Your Home Quickly

These five tried and proven tips are amazing and helped to sell our home in no time. These ways to sell your home quickly will definitely have you on your way to signing papers 🙂 Here’s exactly what we did that working amazing for us.

1. Pack, Pack, Pack

If you are looking to sell your home quickly, our number one recommendation is to pack up two-thirds of your things. It sounds like a lot – but you will be packing up anyway, and I assure you that your home will sell more quickly.

With our home, we had a lot of things. Our walls were covered with pictures, there was furniture everywhere, closets were stuffed to the brim, not to mention all of the baby things.

We needed to empty out to make our home look more spacious, to depersonalize, and to properly stage it in order to sell our home quickly.

Packing can be really overwhelming, so read on to see exactly how we packed up our home, in order to get it ready to quickly sell.

Start with the Pictures

First, I worked on the walls. I took down most of the pictures, leaving a few here and there to stage it. I probably had about 15 picture frames up in the living room. With these, I took them all down and then rehung up 3 simple pictures symmetrically above the couch.

I did, however, really like the gallery that I had in the kitchen – it looked modern and cool (see below), so I left that as it was, just swapping out the personal photos for scenery photos.

Simplify Furniture

Next, I removed clunky furniture – extra chairs in the corners, extra dressers in the bedroom, and any other kind of filler furniture. For example, I took everything out of my dining room except for the dining set and the hutch (see below pictures – don’t mind our pets).

The rooms looked more spacious, less “lived in,” and people could walk around more easily. Emptying out some of the superfluous furniture definitely helps sell your home quickly.

Declutter Cabinets and Shelves

The next step of project “sell our home quickly” was to start packing up dishes, knick knacks, extra kitchen gadgets, and smaller picture frames. For instance, our bay window was filled with personal picture frames. So, I packed them all up and put a plant there instead.

Also, I wanted our cabinets and bookshelves not to look stuffed. When people look at houses, they open cabinets, closets – everything. It all needed to look organized and roomy. You don’t want prospective buyers to see a cabinet full of shoved, mismatched Tupperware.

This was around Christmas time, and we ordered a lot from Amazon and Kohls (great Black Friday sales!) , so every time we got a delivery, I would empty the box of my new purchase and then repack it up with the above items.

It was really efficient for me to pack this way because with a baby that wasn’t sleeping that well, I didn’t have a lot of time other than a few minutes here and there.

Also, packing can seem like a lot of work, but it’s work you have to do anyway. So packing ahead of time gives you a jump start on the work you would have had after you sold your house.

Empty Closets

Next up was our closets, and they were maxed out. We definitely need to pack and organize them to get our house ready to sell. So, I packed most of the things and organized the rest.

For our clothes, I packed up things that were out of season. It was winter, so I packed all of my dresses and summer things.

Our walk-in closet still looked terrible, so I organized all of Ash’s and my clothes in rainbow order. It’s amazing how much neater and less chaotic this small change made our walk-in look. I love the way things look arranged in rainbow order, and it definitely put us on the path of organizing our chaos to sell our home quickly.

Baby Basics

As far as the baby things, they were everywhere. With our plan of wanting to sell quickly, we put as much away as we could. We didn’t use the pack n’ play very often, so we folded that up and put it away. Because our son was using his bouncer a lot, we found a place for it in the downstairs closet, where we could easily take it in and out without overstuffing the closet.

Basically, all of the baby things would be put away for showings, other than what was in the upstairs nursery.

Luckily, we had a huge attic and nearby parents to help with the storage. We also had a few places where we could still put things: we had two couches with storage underneath that held a lot of last minute things that were laying around. You could always rent a storage unit too – but packing up beforehand is a critical step in selling your home quickly.

With our house looking less lived in and 2/3 of our stuff packed up, we were definitely on the right path to selling our home quickly. Read on for more ways to sell your home in less than 5 days.

2. Make Easy, Manageable Updates

In the midst of packing up, we also made manageable aesthetic updates in order to sell our home quickly.

You don’t have to be a DIYer to make upgrades, but fixing little things here and there definitely will help you sell your home quickly.

These updates can be little things that you have been meaning to fix before selling your house. Or, they can be quick swaps that make a huge difference.

Replace Simple Items

In wanting to sell our home, we tried to replace simple things around our home that looked dated. For example, we replaced old rusty air vents that were very visible. We replaced beat up switch covers for shiny new ones.

We also purchased some items to make our home look more modern. We bought a few old light fixtures that were more modern and replaced these.

Additionally, we bought a kitchen table that worked with the space better than the clunky one we had before. We knew could take this with us when we moved.

We also repainted some areas. Our kitchen was blue overload, so we did a more gray shade.

These aren’t great pictures – but it shows the changed light fixture, new table, and lighter paint color in the kitchen nook – all small things which made a big difference.

Our realtor even commented how perfect that table was for the small space, without even knowing we had just bought it.

So, take a look around your home and see what simple changes you are comfortable making in order to sell your home quickly.

Freshen Paint

Prospective buyers have troubling imagining themselves living in a home that needs work, so we wanted to make it look as perfect as possible. If you have any crazy colors – like a bright red wall that stands out, it might be a good idea to paint it a neutral color.

In our house, I gave the rooms that needed it a fresh coat of paint. I also did a fresh coat on our front door and back door. Of course, I got a little carried away and repainted baseboard and chair rails in our downstairs too to make them brighter and fresher.

Easy Maintenance

I had taken so many pictures off the wall that there were an abundance of nail holes. Fixing these is not only a nice thing to do for the future home owners but it makes the walls look so much nicer. So, I filled all of the old nail holes and then painted.

Then, I filled the gaps between the old crown molding pieces that the previous owners had done. I caulked and painted these. We also fixed up old grout in the bathroom that wasn’t visually pleasing with a little recaulking.

These were all simple things to do – they didn’t cost anything, but it definitely made our home look really nice. All these things definitely helped to sell our home quickly.

Pantry Upgrade

Additionally, Ash put up the French door pantry in the kitchen, which was a quick weekend project. It previously had dingy curtains and looked awful.

I can’t believe we didn’t think of the French doors sooner. They turned a little nook of shelves into a modern-looking pantry.

You can make yourself go crazy doing all of these things.

Remember you can’t do everything, so be reasonable about the small upgrades that you can make without making yourself go nuts. Any small updates will definitely help.

3. Stage Your Home

As our updates were nearing completion, we started to stage our home in order to sell the house quickly. This is such an important step in the whole process of selling your home. You want the prospective home buyers to feel like they could live in your space. And, all of the packing you already did will help you stage because there will be so much less to stage.

Brightening Dim Spaces

In order to make our home shine, we wanted to let as much natural light in as possible. First, we took down the dark curtains from both our bay windows to let a lot of light in. We left the curtain rods up, but it definitely brightened up the whole downstairs. Natural light is the best.

We put some brighter bulbs in dark spaces, like in our laundry room and kitchen. We apparently had dim lighting in both areas and hadn’t realized. Our realtor pointed this out (keep reading for more on this), and it made a huge difference.

Arranging & Rearranging

Part of staging your home is arranging furniture. We rearranged our living room and our bedroom to allow easy flow of people. When selling your home, you don’t want prospective home buyers to feel cornered or stuck or trip on a piece of furniture. You want your living areas to feel open. We also added a few plants to windowsills. Beautiful greens definitely add a lot to a home.

In selling our home, we arranged all of the shelves neatly. Already having personal photos removed, there was less to work with. Therefore, in the nursery – for example, we got creative and printed some Pooh sketches from google and used color-coordinated children’s books to replace some of the personal photos that we took out.

Setting Up the Outdoors for Staging

Remember, in selling your home the outside is important to stage too. We put down fresh mulch in our backyard and cleaned up the flower gardens. Then, we set the chairs up on our deck to look inviting. We had the porch cleanly swept.

In the front yard, we put new solar garden lights for nighttime showings and cleaned up the flower beds too.

And, we put down a colorful carpet and brightly colored pillows in our dingy, old sunroom. New pillows are a great way to stage any room, as you can bring in new colors or accentuate the colors you have.

What about the dog?

We hid all evidence of our dog – the dog bed, toy bones, crate – everything! He’s a very clean dog that doesn’t shed, but we wanted to make a good first impression on prospective buyers.

We know this information would be disclosed, but we didn’t want anyone put off from our home during first impressions.

The Best Scent for Staging a Home

Prior to showing, we opened the windows and let the fresh air in. We didn’t bother with any candles or scents or cinnamon in the microwave – just some lemon cleaning products and fresh air.

4. Clean Until Your Home Shines

To sell your home quickly, make everything sparkle. In our home, we wiped down the windows, furniture, counters, the bathrooms, so that it all looked shiny and fresh.

I remember we went to see one house and there were bagel crumbs all over the counter from someone’s breakfast. Instead of noticing their kitchen cabinets or view from the window, I was fixated on those bagel crumbs. It just looked sloppy! Making everything neat and clean is the way to go.

Before the few showings we had, I would get everyone into the car – Ash, our son, and our dog. And, then I would run back in to do a quick look at how we left everything.

In the below picture, you can see the natural light coming in, the spacious areas to walk around, the few pictures on the wall, and the clean, shiny surfaces. (In hindsight, I would have painted that window trim white!)

5. Use a Great Realtor

Last, we found a great realtor, who most importantly helped us price our house right in order to sell our home quickly. We spent time with him looking at the competition and the prices they had or were looking for. We also went into a few open houses that were in our own neighborhood, seeing our competition.

Then, we came up with a price that we were comfortable with from the start. We didn’t overprice our home; if a house is overpriced (even with the intent to drop it later), it can deter buyers.

Additionally, before our house went on the market, our realtor suggested some things to make the house more appealing: the rug in our bedroom needed to be stretched, the roof needed a cleaning, and a few other smaller things – like the rusty vents and brighter lighting that I mentioned above. These feedback from the realtor helped us to decide what upgrades were needed prior to showing.

Make a Home Binder for Your Showings

When we moved we left all of the gallons of paint that went with the rooms in the house, labeling the cans with the room that it belonged in.

We also made a binder that had all of the work that we had done at the house with the company’s name. For example, we replaced our kitchen counters with quartz, so we left all of the paperwork (marking out our personal information). If the new owners wanted to add on to the kitchen, they would have the company that we got the quartz from.

We gave this to the new owners on closing, but in hindsight, I wished I had left a binder with all of this information (including paint chips) on the kitchen table for prospective home buyers. I think it shows that you really took care of your house well – which is something that every home buyer wants when they are buying a home.

Download our home improvement binder for free printables below.

Four Days Later…

With all of our hard work, we got great feedback on our house. We heard it was easy to show and that other realtors wished some of the homes they were selling were staged like this. Yet most importantly, we had an offer after only one weekend of showing! (And, if we waited one more day before accepting, we would have had another offer too.)

Anyway, as a final piece of advice when selling your home, you just have to believe that your hard work will pay off. There are so many houses on the market that are cluttered, in need of upgrades, and not easy to show.

By following these steps, you can easily set your home apart and know exactly how to sell your home quickly – just like we did!

How to Transform Thrift Store Chairs

April 1, 2016 by Eileen 67 Comments

Every time I go to a flea market, a thrift store, even Home Goods, I come home with chairs.

I just love chairs. They can dress a space up, accentuate certain colors, bring back a classic look – they just bring so much personality to a room.

And, I love how easily you can redo them. With a little spray paint and new fabric, you can easily bring a chair new life.

When we were planning to move out of our old house, we had accumulated so many things that Ash told me I wasn’t allowed to bring home any more chairs (or books but that’s a different story).

He was right, as we had enough seats in our house for a Sunday mass.

Before chairs were off limits, I cleaned up a few flea market finds that are now household favorites.

Here’s Ash and I at one of our favorite rummage sales, sitting on the two chairs I later fixed up.

Each of these chairs cost less than $10, which was a steal!

Below is a better picture of the two chairs. The one on the left is an ice cream chair with a wooden seat. Although white, the chipping paint revealed that it had previously been red.

My thinking was to bring back the red with a cranberry color. My grandma had ice cream chairs in that color, and I love little reminders of her.

The one on the right was a purple-ish tan with an old, dingy cushion.

My plan was to make this more modern looking, as I wanted to use this chair for my make-up vanity. I was thinking a dark bronze color.

Preparing for Painting

I decided on spray painting the chairs. It would be easy and spray paint comes in so many colors.

First, I took the seats out of the chairs pretty easily by unscrewing some bolts.

Then, I put the chairs back together without the seats, in order to spray the whole chair.

When painting, I threw down an old shower curtain.

Spray Painting Chairs

After preparing, I applied one thick coat of spray paint on each chair.

The vanity chair looks darker than actuality in these pictures. It’s more of a deep bronze than a black color.

While the paint was drying, I went to work on the seats. The ice cream chair seat was an ugly and uncomfortable wooden circular disk. Here’s a reminder of the what the “seat” looked like:

Choosing New Fabrics

For the ice cream chair, I chose two fabrics that I loved from Joann Fabric.

They were very different patterns because I wasn’t sure which would look better. (I’m very visual and need to see how things would look. It probably would be weird if I carried the chairs through the store holding fabrics up to it – so I just bought my two favorites.

So, I decided at home that the navy blue paisley pattern on an off-white background was the winner.

I loved how the cranberry color contrasted with the navy in the pattern on the finished product.

Here’s a close-up:

Replacing the Old Fabric

To attach the new fabric, I put the current seat on top of the fabric and cut a large square around it.

When cutting, I gave myself about three extra inches around the seat.

Then, I wrapped the seat loosely with the fabric and added stuffing – the white fluffy cushion material (pictured on the floor below).

Next, I pulled the fabric over the underside of the disk and used my staple gun to give it a tight wrap. After screwing the bolts back in, I had a brand new looking seat!

Here’s a before and after of the ice cream chair. I was so pleased with it! My grandma would have been too 🙂

As for the vanity chair, I chose a turquoise and ivory pattern that worked well with the dark bronze spray paint.

This chair already had a cushion, so that saved some time.

In putting this chair back together, I simply wrapped the fabric tightly around the existing seat, used the staple gun to secure the fabric, and then screwed the seat back in.

The chair was looking good – and it worked perfectly with my make-up vanity.

Here’s a before and after of the vanity chair.

Time and Cost of the Chair Makeover

The total cost of making over both chairs was less than $30, including the chairs, stuffing, and fabric.

The time spent working was less than two hours. The longest part was the dry time.

I love how both of the chairs turned out – especially the ice cream chair.

It’s a piece of furniture I will definitely chair-ish 🙂

A Space-Saving Kitchen Spice Rack

March 29, 2016 by Ash 42 Comments

I love to cook, and I use a lot of spices – from sweet Hungarian paprika to spicy Jamaican jerk seasoning.

You name it, I most likely have it.

Eileen, on the other hand, loves to bake – so on any given day, we have all the ingredients to make anything chocolate chip bundt cake to spicy Bahamian chicken.

Unfortunately, with such a large spice and baking collection, it was getting very difficult to find something when we needed it.

We were storing all the spices in a corner cabinet, and they took up the entire cabinet. We tried everything for organization – a spinning rack, a mini spice organizer – nothing seemed to save us space or time.

When making a meal, I would have to dig through everything to find what I needed. And Eileen wasn’t happy when she was looking for cinnamon or baking powder, and it was shoved behind the seven spices I used the night before for taco seasoning.

Planning the Spice Rack

Shortly thereafter, we were having dinner at a friend’s house and saw their spice solution.

They were utilizing a 6-inch gap between their fridge and the wall to fit a movable spice shelf, mounted on wheels.

I thought it was such a brilliant idea. I googled the idea later that night and saw it was a very popular spice storage solution.

There were lots of incarnations on Pinterest. I was set on incorporating a similar design into my kitchen, but I wanted to take it up a notch.

I didn’t like the wheeled shelf design. It would limit you to one massive shelf. Also, without some type of track system, I thought the shelf would be wobbly.

After some thought, I settled on 2 independent spice shelves mounted to the wall on drawer slides.

Aside from the drawer slides, I had enough scrap wood in the garage to build my design.

I didn’t really plan this project out much (aside from basic measurements of available space), mostly winging it as I went along. Nonetheless, the sliding spice rack turned out well.

How to Build a Sliding Spice Rack

I started off building one of the shelves. First, I fabricated a box with ¾” thick boards and nailed a hardboard composite backing. I then made some compartments for organization.

I averaged the sizes of my spice jars to determine a good depth and height for the shelves.

Here’s an early picture of the shelf unit:

Determined to re-use scraps from the garage, I attached some wood trim to serve as fences to prevent the spices from falling out.

Also, I couldn’t just attach the drawer slides to back of the shelf structure in the picture above.

I had limited space between the wall and the fridge, and fitting the spices with a drawer slide behind exceeded my available width.

So my solution was to mount the drawer slides above and below the shelf, being almost flush with the shelf backing.

I attached a piece of 2×4 to the top and bottom of the shelf to serve as a mount for the slide.

I then attached some plywood to the front of the shelf and screwed on a handle.

Then I mounted the two drawer slides to the wall, and attached the shelf. The slides were attached directly to wall studs.

I also had to make sure that both slides were equally level. Any discrepancies in the slide angles would most likely result in a jamming drawer.

Here is a close-up picture of the mounted shelf with some spices in it (notice the repurposed wood trim):

Here is a picture from the back, showing how I attached the drawer slides to the DIY spice rack:

I built the second shelf much like the first. However, I increased the height to make the most of the available space.

After mounting this shelf, I painted the front facing plywood, blending in to match the color of the kitchen (see pictures below of the completed spice rack).

Using the DIY Spice Rack

The sliding spice rack turned out great. We adapted the top shelf for our most frequently used spices, while the lesser used ones ended up in the bottom shelf.

Whenever we needed a spice, I just pulled out the appropriate drawer and located it instantly – very different from before!

I should mention too that the corner cabinet that previously held all of our spices was now completely empty, giving us more space for all those pesky tupperware containers.

Anyone have a good storage solution for those?!

Time & Cost

Building the spice rack took about one weekend, and the total cost was less than $50 because of all the scrap wood I used (my estimate is about $70 if you are buying all the wood from the store).

The spice rack became the hit of many parties.

Our friends were always asking about those mysterious handles next to the fridge, and were amazed when the handles revealed a plethora of spices.

Our next door neighbors noticed the spice rack when we were moving out of the house and were fascinated with it, saying, “Forget all those updates you did, this is what sold the house!”

(As an aside, we replaced that dingy pantry curtain with French doors before we moved, check it out here).

If you are looking for a solution to your spices, building a sliding spice rack could be the answer 🙂

Making Sliding Storage Shelves in One Weekend

March 20, 2016 by Ash 74 Comments

My garage was getting a little out of control. Bulky tools from home improvements projects, boxes upon boxes of holiday decorations, gardening tools, piles of landscaping bags – nothing seemed to have a place.

It was hard to get work done efficiently – not to mention, find something when I was looking for it.

It was time to get smart about garage organization and storage.

Determining a Space for the Sliding Storage Shelves

I already had several prefabricated metal garage shelves doing a decent job of garage storage, but they had their shortcomings.

I had been eyeing this corner space next to our garage fridge. The space was 3 feet deep and about 6 feet wide, and it was currently underutilized.

There were just piles of boxes, gardening tools, and other things that had accumulated.

Corner spaces in the garage often become dumping grounds, as ours had become. I decided to capitalize on the vertical square footage, transforming this messy corner into garage storage shelving.

So, after a few days of pondering over garage storage shelving ideas and messing around in TinkerCad (an awesome 3D designing website), I came up with the idea below for garage storage shelves:

Garage Storage Shelf Requirements

I had 3 requirements for the sliding storage shelves project for my garage. My first requirement was deep storage shelves. The area had a lot of depth, and I wanted to make the most of the space.

I went with 3 ft deep shelves; this was twice as deep as the prefab shelves, so twice the garage storage space.

The second requirement (which is not evident in the TinkerCad drawing above) was sliding garage shelves.

Although 3 ft deep garage shelves would hold a lot, trying to reach something at the back seemed very burdensome. You would have to move things out of the way to get back there, which wasn’t very efficient, especially for vertical space.

Therefore, I wanted some of the deep garage shelves to be on drawer slides.

My last requirement was enough clearance at the bottom of the garage shelves to fit some of my taller tools (like my shopvac), and for them to just roll out (without having to drop off a shelf).

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Preparing Space for the Garage Storage Shelves

To start the sliding storage shelves, I first cleared out and cleaned the designated area for the garage shelves.

Then I located the studs in the wall (using my trusty stud finder), and used green painters tape preserve their locations.

The garage shelving unit was going to be bolted to the studs to make it stable.

Here’s the wall with the studs marked:

Building the Shelf Supports

The actual construction of the garage shelves was fairly straight forward. I just followed the design I created to construct the sliding storage shelves.

The whole garage shelf was made of 2 x 4 wood that was cut to different lengths.

Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the construction (it was a pretty fun project to work on), I forgot to take many pictures. Therefore, I’m just going to provide some visuals.

First, I made 3 vertical support structures for the garage shelves. I would install these on the ends and middle.

These supports looked like a 3 ft wide ladder – see pic below:

Next, I used 6 ft cuts of 2 x 4s to connect the 3 vertical supports, and to form a basis for each garage shelf.

I also added 2 extra 6 ft pieces at the back of the structure to bolt into the wall studs.

Adjusting for Sliding Garage Shelves

Before considering sliding storage shelves, I thought about making all of the shelves look like the very top one. However, that was going to be too simple, and I like to make things a little challenging.

Hence, the modifications for the garage sliding shelves.

The shelf slides were going to bear the load of the garage shelves, so it was not necessary to run as many 6 ft planks as the top shelf (which was just a static shelf with no slides). Three connecting pieces per row was sufficient.

Next, I needed structures to attach the slides to. I came up with the design below:

Building Sliding Garage Storage Shelves Notice the 4 slide supports on each row (one on each end and two in the middle). In between each pair of slide supports was going to be the actual sliding shelves.

At this point in the project, it was time to secure the structure to the garage wall. If I proceeded any further with construction, the DIY shelving unit would be too heavy for me to carry (not that it wasn’t already really heavy).

Also, there was just enough room for me to squeeze in between the 2 x 4s to get to back to bolt the structure to the wall studs.

Next, I wedged myself in the middle of garage shelving unit, picked it up like superman, and inched my way over to the wall. I used some lag bolts to secure the shelves to the studs.

Constructing the Storage Shelves

After that, I had to build the actual sliding storage shelves. Here is my design for each sliding shelf:

Building Garage Storage Shelves that Slide

During construction of the garage shelves, I did add an elevated piece to the back of each shelf. I didn’t want items falling off the back as I pulled the shelf forward.

First, I installed the slides on each slide support. Then, using ¼” scrap wood as shims, I elevated each shelf and secured them to the slides.

With the sliding shelves installed, the garage shelf project was pretty much complete. Last, I just had to install some gate handles for each shelf to be able to pull them out easily.

How to Build Storage Shelves for the Garage in One Weekend

Although, I did make a last-minute design decision though – I omitted the bottom row of sliding shelves and replaced it with a static shelf (like the very top one).

I realized that some of my tools (like my miter saw) didn’t have enough clearance to fit on the DIY sliding shelf.

Consequently, I settled for just 2 rows of sliding shelves, which was still plenty of awesomeness.

I took the pictures below of the completed DIY garage storage shelves:

Here you will notice the shelves’ height in comparison to the fridge.

There is also enough space to pull a car into the garage too – with about a foot to spare.

However, I was a little worried about bumping into the garage shelf with the car, so I got a cheap parking sensor to help (it turns from green to yellow to red as you get within a foot of the sensor).

Bonus Storage Shelving

After I finished the garage shelves, I had an extra 2 x 4 leftover. Still in a shelf-frenzy mood, I turned those into some normal shelves on the wall.

To the left of the sliding shelf structure was a hideous area begging for some DIY garage organization, and a prime target for a storage solution:

Creating More Garage Storage - Sliding and Floating Shelves Using some shelf brackets, I bought a while ago, I threw together a simple shelf for the garage with the leftovers from the main project.

Below is what I turned the above disaster into – see shelf at the top of the picture.

Using the Sliding Storage Shelves

The sliding storage shelves truly transformed a disorganized corner. We gained a ton of lost space through building the shelf tower.

Storage-wise, the garage shelves hold more than we could have imagined – most of the boxes of holiday decorations (Eileen loves that she can easily access these), tool boxes, and large tools such as the miter saw.

Underneath the storage shelves, I store the shop vac, jaw horse, and snow blower. It’s the perfect height.

Pleased with the outcome of my DIY garage organization, I found building the shelving unit one of the most fun and creative projects I’ve worked on recently.

I also completely impressed Eileen with doing the whole project in one weekend – that was the best part. She was also thrilled that the cost was less than $200.

If your garage is getting out of control and you have underutilized space, you should definitely think about building these sliding garage storage shelves.

The design worked beautifully, and you can’t beat the turnaround time and low-cost..

With phase 1 of “Project DIY Garage Organization” was now complete. Phase 2 of the garage construction is coming this summer – a dream workbench with fancy storage solutions.

How to Make a Built-In Bookshelf

March 10, 2016 by Ash Leave a Comment

To put it simply, Eileen has more books than anyone I’ve ever known – books from her childhood, books from college, books of poetry – some she’s read and some she just likes to collect.

But long story short, she was running out of room storing them on a wobbly old shelf – in double rows, and then there were the boxes in the closet.

Eileen kept telling me that she had the perfect spot for a built-in shelf, so I pulled out a Post-It note and sketched out a basic design with measurements.

Planning the DIY Bookshelf

First, I planned out all the cuts I needed for the DIY bookshelf and put together shopping list for Home Depot.

I wanted to make a very sturdy bookshelf with minimal visible hardware. So I opted for dado joints and a center support column. Also, I decided to use pine for the lumber.

I did lack the proper tools for making dado joints, so I added a plunge router to the shopping list.

This was going to be my first router project, and I was looking forward to it very much.

Constructing the Bookshelf

After cutting all the wood planks to pre-measured lengths, the next step was to mark all the grooves for the dados.

Dado joints are the simplest joints there are but are very strong and perfect for bookshelves.

They are just grooves cut into the vertical support planks on both ends of the bookshelf, where the horizontal shelves slide right into and rest.

My pine lumber was ¾” thick. So, I needed to use a router bit of the same thickness for the grooves.

After the grooves were outlined on the two vertical support planks, I secured the planks side-by-side to prepare for the routing.

The grooves on the two support planks needed to be in perfect alignment. Therefore, I screwed the planks together from underneath with some strips of scrap wood.

It was important to keep the planks firmly in place to prevent shifting as I cut the grooves.

Routing the Dados

Finally it was time to use my plunge router.

I did a few practice cuts on scrap wood to get the feel for it and was now ready for the real thing.

For each groove, I affixed a straight piece of wood to act as a jig for the plunger. Without this guide, it would have been impossible to cut a straight line.

Below is a picture of the plunge router and some grooves already cut.

You can also see the outlines I made for the uncut grooves, as well as the strip of wood I used for a guide:

Here’s a close-up view of the dado groove. You can see how smooth the cut was.

The router bit went through the soft pine like butter, making a very professional cut:

Assembling the Pieces

With all the dados cut, assembly of the shelves could begin.

With the help of a rubber mallet, I inserted each shelf into its corresponding dado joint and secured each connection with two screws on the outside.

Here you can see how perfectly each shelf fit into the dado:Assembly of the shelves was almost done at this point.

Next came the center support column.

As you can see in the background, I did my work in my man cave. We didn’t have a garage to work in – hence the chaotic background and poor lighting.

Finishing with Wood Putty & Stain

Construction of the DIY bookshelf was completed at this point. All that was left was to fill the screw holes with wood putty and apply a wood stain.

Eileen stained the wood with two coats of a dark MinWax stain.

Securing the Shelf

The final step was to secure the bookshelf to the wall in the office.

I used some metal L brackets to attach a few shelves to studs in the wall. I strategically placing them so they would be hidden from view.

Also, I had to remove some of the wall baseboard trim so that the shelf could fit flush against the wall.

Below are pictures of bookshelf bolted securely to the wall.

I wasn’t too happy about the electrical outlet at the bottom left being partially blocked by a shelf. However, it was too late to do much about it now. The outlet wouldn’t be visible anyway because of the books.

Here is the completed bookshelf with actual books. We later replaced that old wooden door to the room with a white six-paneled one – but we don’t have any pictures of that.

There was no sagging at all with the weight of the books.

Eileen finally had her library organized on this built-in DIY bookshelf. I use the word ‘library’ because who else has enough books to make an Irish Classics section?!

Years later, the shelves remained perfectly straight, thanks to the dado joints and center support column.

Fast forward a few years, in our new house, I made another DIY bookshelf – a bookshelf with a window seat, using the background I had from designing this shelf.

It’s Eileen’s absolute favorite.

A Little Summer To-Do List Inspiration

March 1, 2016 by Eileen Leave a Comment

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Ash and I spend most of our spare time on our home projects. We always are talking about what is next on the list or what we can get done in the windows of time we have while our son is sleeping.

My mom jokes that little elves come and work at night because she can’t believe all of the things we get done.

However, last month Ash and I had the rare opportunity to attend the Philly Home Show.

It was a nice change of pace from our usual weekends of crossing as much as we can off our to-do list, and it provided us with some nice inspiration for summer projects.

Attending the Philly Home Show

We enjoyed walking through the show, but our dream list has definitely grown! From planter boxes to infrared saunas to contests and freebies, we definitely had a fun day.

A Little Inspiration

I loved this daybed swing, and one day when I find the perfect spot for one, I’m sure Ash will build it. Maybe after he builds our dream wraparound porch 🙂

Below Ash is looking at shingles, reminiscing over the roof work he did on the shed – he really enjoyed that part of the project.

And, I’m about to step into an infrared sauna. I LOVED with it. It is, for sure, going on my dream list! Apparently infrared saunas provide a lot of healing benefits too.

I just love a brightly colored door, but the challenging part is choosing a color that works with the home’s exterior.

Yet, I don’t know if a vibrant door would work with our home’s color palette. I have to keep thinking on that one – but I loved these colors!

One of the highlights of the show was looking at the outdoor setups, like this one centered around a stone fire pit.

Maybe one day we’ll incorporate an area like this into our backyard.

We came across these gardening planters of various shapes and sizes, which align perfectly with my goal to have a garden this summer.

We’ve been eating a lot healthier and opting for organic, and it gets expensive!

Having a garden will give us easier, cheaper access to healthy foods, and it will be a good summer project for my son and me. I’m sure Ash will build me an awesome structure.

Update: Check out the wooden planter box that Ash built for our first garden 🙂

Along the way, we entered some contests (we’re hoping to win the tractor!) and picked up some fun freebies – like this plastic hard hat that Ash is posing with here.

All in all, we enjoyed the day and the new inspirations.

Thrifty Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

February 21, 2016 by Eileen 48 Comments

After redoing the kitchen in our first house, we were hoping that our new house would have an old kitchen.

Then, we could just gut it and start fresh. Plus, an old kitchen would save us some money on the asking price.

However, that was not the case with the house we bought. The house itself was amazing, but the kitchen had somewhat modern granite countertops with old, dated cabinets.

I spent so much time in the kitchen, from trying to get my one-year old to eat to upholding my title as family baker, and this kitchen begged for an aesthetic update.

DIY Kitchen Decisions

Currently, it had brown countertops, black appliances, oak cabinets with gold pulls, and there was red stone backsplash just behind the oven.

Even though brown granite would not have been our first choice, we didn’t want to gut the kitchen and waste the stone.

My thinking was to come up with a plan that worked around the granite.

I made some subtle changes first – I painted the walls a lighter color, which was the same color I had painted the open family room.This gave the downstairs a seamless feel and the lighter kitchen worked with the brown granite more than the tan did.

Ash also replaced the ’70s vinyl baseboard with freshly painted white wooden baseboard.

We had also planned to switch out our old black appliances with stainless steel ones. The oven and fridge didn’t keep their temperatures properly – Ash was constantly microwaving his ice cream because it was too frozen and my cookies were constantly burning even though the middles were cooked through.

We had been waiting for Black Friday to get the best deals, and we did pretty well!

Next, I had to make a decision about the cabinets. I wanted to gel stain them like I did with the bathroom vanity, yet I was nervous about it. It was a huge undertaking!

When I did the bathroom vanity, it was one cabinet.

This was 22 cabinets!

I came up with some other options, like staining just the frames and then replacing all the doors and drawer fronts; however, even those costs added up, and there was no guarantee that the colors would match.

I hemmed and hawed over it, until I saw the forecast for the upcoming weekend.

It was mid-November and the forecasters were calling for the 50s on Saturday and Sunday! Mild weather meant I could easily air out the kitchen from the gel stain.

I decided it was now, or let the kitchen continue to drive me crazy until Spring.

So, now it was 🙂

Gel Staining Kitchen Cabinets

I used the same General Finishes Antique Walnut Gel Stain that I used for the bathroom vanity.

I needed about 3 quarts in total for both projects and 2 quarts of the General Finishes Polyurethane. (To read about how I used this gel stain on the bathroom vanity, including the tutorial and gel stain tips, click here.)

I did three coats total (plus a little touching up here and there); in hindsight, I wished I had done four.

My primary focus was getting the cabinet frames finished and the kitchen properly aired out.

My secondary focus was the doors and drawer fronts because I could do those in the garage in batches.

Preparing the Kitchen

Prior to starting, we emptied the cabinets completely, and then covered the countertops very thoroughly, placing old bedsheets on the counters and then wrapping it all in plastic.

We covered the appliances and the floor with plastic too.

Working on the Cabinet Frames

After two coats of stain, the cabinet frames were looking good!

As you can see, we ventilated the room really well, strategically placing the fans so the fumes could exhaust efficiently.

After three coats of stain, the cabinet frames were looking awesome! The dark brown was a big improvement.

I should also mention this was the point in the project where I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

It happens to me with every project. After I put in a lot of work, but I can’t yet see the final result, I start thinking, “Oh no, what did I start?!”

Rest assured, once the cabinet doors and drawers were back, the new appliances came, and the backsplash was installed, I knew all the hard work paid off.

Sidenote: On the left of the above photo, you can see the difference in the kitchen wall paint colors since I didn’t bother to paint above the countertops due to the upcoming backsplash. Therefore, you can see the old tan compared to the light ivory. The lighter color made the room appear bigger and was less matchy-matchy with the countertops. Sometimes when you try to match too much, the end result isn’t the best.

Gel Staining Kitchen Cabinet Doors and Drawers

After I was finished staining the kitchen cabinet frames, the instructions called for 5 days of dry time before the polyurethane.

During this time, I started on the doors and drawers out in the garage. The weather was still pretty mild, which was great for drying.

I worked on the doors and drawers in batches of six – which took me about 45 min per session.

As soon as I got the last coat of stain completely on one batch, I moved onto the next batch.

This way while one batch was amidst its drying cycle, I was able to keep the project moving forward.

The below structure is something Ash made so that I could stain both sides of the doors during the same session.

He used two sawhorses and two 2 x 6s to make this makeshift staining station, threading wire through the hinge holes to let them hang dry.

Gel Staining Kitchen Cabinet Doors - Garage Setup I did most of the staining with the doors flipped up on the wood, and then I got to the hard-to-reach places while it was hanging.

Updating Hardware and Hinges

Here’s Ash putting the doors back on with their new hardware and hinges.

He doesn’t look too thrilled, but trust me, he was!

We were over the moon to have a functional kitchen again.

Time & Cost of Gel Staining the Kitchen

From start to finish, our kitchen was down for about 6 weeks; however, it was functional after 8 days – there just weren’t any drawers or doors yet 🙂

Coincidentally, I decided to stop eating gluten around the time we undertook this project – so instead of ordering pizza night after night (which we definitely would have done otherwise), we saved a bunch of money chomping on fruits, veggies, and frozen meals that we made ahead of time.

As far as cost, we spent about $150 on the gel stain and polyurethane and about another $20 on foam brushes and chemical-resistant gloves.

The kitchen cabinet pulls worked out to be around $200, making the total cost just under $400.

Now, it was a big time commitment, but if you dislike your kitchen cabinets that much, it’s 100% worth it!

Here is an after picture – with the refaced cabinets, new appliances, and the tile backsplash Ash did right after we put the cabinet doors and drawers back.

How I Redid My Kitchen with $400 Here is another look at before and after and the difference that gel staining kitchen cabinets made.

Updating My Kitchen for Less than $400 We also replaced the gold chandelier with this modern one from Overstock.

How to Gel Stain Our Kitchen Cabinets for Less Than $400 While our kitchen looked 10 years younger, it was far from complete. Next on the list was:

Painting the window trim
Updated lighting
Six panel door for the pantry
Updated pantry – more space!
Crown molding on top of the cabinets
Finish converting desk area to cabinet
Replace baseboard on cabinet base

Look for future posts regarding the rest of the list! Thanks for reading!

Sisters and Stripes in the Nursery

February 15, 2016 by Eileen 22 Comments

After finding out we were having a boy, we had to start turning a room into a nursery. The obvious choice was our guestroom. I spent countless hours going through Pinterest boards and googling pictures of DIY nursery ideas, deciding how I wanted to decorate our little one’s room.

The room was currently yellow – a color I had chosen years before. The yellow was bright and sunshiney, but it was ready for a change.

The furniture was ready for a change as well. It was odds and ends from flea markets and leftovers from our college days.

It was certainly time to makeover the guestroom, converting it to a beautiful baby nursery.

Making Plans for the Nursery

The carpet was already turquoise, so the plan needed to revolve around that. I love a pretty carpet, but when they are bold colors, you have to go neutral with the walls.

After much consideration, I decided to paint the walls gray. I know that sounds crazy – who paints their nursery gray?! But, I had a vision.

My DIY nursery ideas included painting the fourth wall, the longest one, striped with a lighter/whitish gray. This wall was opposite the mirrored closet doors, so the reflection of the stripes in the doors would make the small room appear larger.

The furniture would be all white, and I would work in more turquoise in other areas – pillows, blankets, and baskets.

Here’s a side-by-side before (from quite a few years prior) and after:

Two of my sisters offered to paint the room since I was pregnant. And, it gave me time to work on more DIY nursery ideas.

My sisters had made a bet on whether we were having a boy or a girl. PK put her money on a boy, due to the fact that everyone’s first-born in our family had been boys, and Bridget said a girl to go along with the bet. Whoever lost the bet bought the paint 🙂

Ash was thrilled with this hands-off project because he had more time for other things – like putting together all that nursery furniture!

Just to give a little background…

PK, my fact-loving, detail-oriented sister had never painted a room before – let alone done any house project other than some light dusting.

Bridget, on the other hand, designs movie sets for a living and can pretty much do everything. She is a hard-worker, a great delegator, and very goal-oriented.

Accordingly, she gave PK the responsibility of planning out the stripes, putting PK’s meticulous nature to good use, while she got started on the rest of the room.

Painting the Stripes – DIY Nursery Ideas

We planned to do nine, thick alternating stripes, aiming for the stripes to start and end in the base color – the darker gray.

PK started with the laser level and masking tape with the plan to do two rounds of masking tape, painting the darker stripes first.

After that dried, she did another round of masking tape for the lighter stripes. It was more time-consuming this way, but paint wasn’t wasted.

The laser level made putting on the masking tape rather simple. It hooked onto the wall very easily, so there was no ruler, pencils, or any other contraptions involved – just a little patience 🙂

Here’s the initial tape job, leaving everything outside the boxes to be painted with the base color.

Painting the Window Trim

After the room was painted with the base color, the wooden window trim stood out like a sore thumb. It screamed to be painted white.

This is a prime example of how one project can turn into another; however, the end result made it worth all the effort they put in!

Below the window trim is now painted white, the second round of masking tape is on the striped wall, and the lighter stripes are now painted.

After looking through so many DIY nursery ideas, the room was coming together nicely.

Sisters & Stripes in the Nursery

I forgot to mention one thing about my sisters – they love Frozen…. and they were painting the nursery right around the time when the soundtrack came out.

Yes, they are in their 20s, but they love that movie – the funny sidekicks, the catchy songs, and of course the fact that it’s about sisters.

As they were painting, they blasted the soundtrack over and over… and over again. This was probably the point where Ash wished he painted the room himself – just kidding…

I, on the other hand, was actually disappointed I couldn’t help. However, I did enjoy the extra time to catch up on the Real Housewives with my buddy Zeus.

Here’s PK and her awesome stripes. Not bad for her first time painting!

Other than cleanup, the room was done. The accent wall looked perfect!

Looks like all that singing, I mean painting, paid off.

My sisters were thrilled to be able to help out with the nursery, PK received some real world lessons, Ash and I got something checked off our growing to do list without lifting a finger, and our little one was about to get a beautiful nursery.

We loved the grays of the nursery. If you are looking at turning a room into a nursery, definitely consider neutral colors. They are easy to work with and can be easily accentuated.

Furnishing the Nursery

For every piece of furniture, we carefully read reviews – especially for the changing table and the crib. The crib and glider chair were from Babies R Us. We used coupons that came in the mail.

The changing table was from Wayfair, and the lamp was a Target find.

I made the pillows with leftover fabric from the curtains. I also made the storage bins for under the changing table. The storage bins were made from contact paper and cardboard boxes.

The nursery was such a sweet little room – perfectly made over. After we moved, the new owners fell in love with the room as well, using it for their nursery too 🙂

If you are looking for DIY nursery ideas, the gray striped accent wall looked gorgeous – and it was an easy DIY.

From Rags to Riches: French Doors on the Pantry

February 12, 2016 by Eileen 57 Comments

Simply stated, our pantry was an eyesore.

It was a little nook of shelves with old curtains pulled to each side.

We were going to put our house on the market soon, and in looking at the competition, we kept seeing very similar houses with beautiful kitchens.

We looked at our old countertops, painted cabinets, and raggedy pantry….and sighed.

Then, I got an idea – installing double French doors on the pantry.

Who doesn’t love French doors? They add a certain style and class – and it should be an easy, relatively cheap upgrade to a tired kitchen.

Planning for the French Door Installation

I tend to be very particular when it comes to what I want. Installing any old French doors wasn’t going to cut it.

I searched and searched and finally came across a set of French doors on Overstock. Overstock has some great options when you aren’t finding what you want at the typical stores. (I also found my oddly-sized bathroom mirror there!)

French doors can be expensive but a 10% coupon code, which is pretty easy to find with Overstock, helped with the price.

The before picture (below) is so zoomed that I thought I would include the below pictures too. These are unfortunately the best pictures I could find.

The first is a picture of two of my sisters and me, standing in front of the pantry. You can see the old curtains and the tiebacks. It was pretty awkward having the curtained pantry in the middle of our kitchen.

The second is my sister PK, acting like Vanna White, and it shows the curtain rod and the pantry shelves. It needed an upgrade, didn’t it?!

The doors I found were sold as bi-fold doors, but the conversion to French doors was simple, especially because we had an existing opening. This made for a much easier door installation.

Also, the doors were cheaper to buy unfinished – which wasn’t a problem because I don’t mind painting. Amazon also has a lot of French Doors too if you are looking for more options.

How to Install Interior Double French Doors

To install the double French doors in an existing opening, Ash removed the six small hinges that connected the door panels together. These hinges were light duty and were meant to be used in a bi-fold setup with little load.

He purchased six heavy duty door hinges, figuring that due to the glass, 3 hinges per door would be needed to handle the weight. (Aside from that, no additional extra hardware was needed.

If we wanted to keep the doors as bi-folds, we would have needed to purchase a bi-fold track to mount in the door frame.)

The actual door came in several different sizes, so we bought the one that most closely fit the pantry opening. It wasn’t perfect because the door height was just a little short.

So Ash filled the gap at the top with a piece of 2 x 4 wood painted white (as you can see in the picture).

He also had to trim the baseboard at the bottom so that he could have a flush edge for the French doors.

To mount the French doors, he installed the hinges on the doors first. Then he took one door panel and placed it in the ‘open’ position in the pantry, with the hinges open 90 degrees. He used some scrap wood (about ¼” thick) to elevate the door off of the floor.

With the door in position, he used heavy duty screws to secure the hinges to the wall. He then removed the scrap wood supports on the floor and verified that the door swung open and closed easily.

Then, he repeated this procedure with the other door panel. Installing French doors was pretty simple, and although unpainted, the double French doors already looked so much better than before 🙂

How to Paint French Doors

With the double French doors mounted, the next step was painting. I chose a white semi-gloss paint to match the baseboard and chair rails that I just refreshed.

It went on pretty easily with just one coat needed. There was no need to use any masking tape for the glass panels.

This particular door came with a protective plastic film on each glass panel, so it was easy to paint the double doors without prep work.

Unfortunately, as easy as this made the painting process, removing the film was actually very time-consuming. However, we knew this going into the project because we always thoroughly read the online reviews 🙂

How to Attach the Door Installation Hardware

After screwing on the door handles, the last step of the door installation was to attach some magnetic catches at the top to keep the doors closed and to also serve as a stop to prevent the doors from swinging inwards.

A simple task, but the first try was a no go.

The magnets Ash used were way too strong, as they were making a loud, clanging noise as they connected. Also, when we opened the doors, the panels shuddered from the magnetic tension release, which wasn’t good for the glass.

Ash simply replaced them with less powerful magnets that were just as effective.

As you can see, this weekend project of installing French doors turned out great.

Our raggedy old curtains were now beautiful double French doors. A simple swap made a drastic difference.

Here’s another look at the before and after of installing the double French doors. It really updated our kitchen without touching the countertops or cabinets.

Now that we are in a new house, I miss those interior French doors; however, I have a plan to work them into our new house too!

Maybe in my office – they would go with our new built-in bookshelf with a window seat. I’m sure Ash won’t mind installing French doors again. Stay tuned 🙂