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Craft/ Guest Room Update

January 5, 2016

Karen collecting, Country living, Country Style, crafting, Decorating with mirrors, DIY, home decorating, Map, Ranch House Overhaul , , 6 Comments

Over the holidays we got a little done on the craft/ guest room.  We aren’t finished with the room, but I am excited with how it is turning out.  I love that this room really will have two functions.

The Guest Room

It is a guest room when the Murphy Bed is down and the Expando-Matic is closed.



See my zinc mirror?  It found a great home after I changed offices and lost space at work.

I am planning an accent wall inside the Murphy Bed.


The quilt 0n top was made by my great grandmother.  I just picked up the turquoise suitcase for fifty cents at a resale shop.  I had to show it off.


The shelves that hold my globes collected over the years are made from left over plywood from the Murphy Bed build and brackets from Lowe’s.  The yellow clock has a story.  My dad was getting rid of the clock frame so I snagged it.   The shutter was out of my stash.  It got a coat of paint and will be my idea board.

The Craft Room

When the Murphy Bed is up and the Expando-Matic is pulled out I have six glorious feet of craft space.  The most unfinished function of the room is the craft part.  I need the leaves for the epansion built, some things installed, and the closet redesigned.

It is going to be awesome.





I am a lucky girl.

Here are some closer shots of the walls.  The Texas map was rescued from the trash.  Someone used permanent marker on it, the frame was broken and the bottom was messed up.  It was perfect for me.  I got the market off with hairspray in case you didn’t know that trick.


  
  
The room is coming together.

Thanks for following our journey to make our ranch into our forever home.

Blessings,

Karen

Murphy Bed

December 15, 2015

Karen Coldspring, crafting, DIY, JJ Lane, Ranch House Overhaul , 5 Comments

You know that Lowe’s commercial where the announcer says “How to install a washer and dryer with one finger” then the lady points her finger and says to the installer…” A little to the left please”? According to Mr. Math, that is how our next, if there is a next, Murphy Bed will be installed.

We are better than average woodworkers, who aren’t afraid to take on a project, but this particular project was a challenge.  It took a lot of work, a couple of “do-overs”, and challenged our following written directions skills.  Our first clue was when the instructions came in THREE separate booklets.

Mr. Math started on the project one weekend, worked on it every night for at least an hour, then finished it on Sunday afternoon of the second weekend.  All together I would guess he had about 15 hours of work involved and another two hours of watching the included video and reading the manuals.

  There was a lot of gluing and clamping then waiting involved.
    He brought everything to our week day house so he could work then moved it all back to assemble.  Everything had to have blue tape with what it was in order to get it assembled correctly.
  

The kit we ordered included all metal hardware. 
  

The plywood base for the bed was too flimsy for Mr. Math.  We ripped it out and are putting in a more rigid base.

          

Here is the cabinet assembled and the wall board ready to go.  This flat board is attached to the studs.

    

A stud using a stud finder. 😀

  

Open without hydrolic rods installed.

  

Closed.  We still need to install the handles so Me. Math installed a string that allows us to pull it down.

Down with hydrolics installed and mattress in place. 

Am I sorry we did this ourselves? No.  It is quality construction that will last us a lifetime.  We now have a room that can serve more that one use. It cost us more that I anticipated (all in it was about $600.)  This is not a project for beginners. It required some skill and lots of tools.

   
   
Next step will be painting the room, painting the cabinet. installing the rest of the floor, decorating, and gettin leaves done for the expand-o- matic.  This will end up being my favorite room in the house.  

After Christmas we will get busy on the details.

Thanks for following along on our journey.

Blessings,

Karen

Quick Home Office Makeover

July 21, 2015

Karen crafting, Real Life, recycled furniture, repurposed frame, the office, the suburban home 5 Comments

The one room that has been totally neglected since we moved in to our suburban home is my office.  It has been our dumping ground, a storage space, and an all around under used space in our home. 

   
   
I know what you are thinking, and you are right.  What a mess!

When I changed jobs recently the need for a home office became critical.  I am currently sharing a really small office at work and I need a quiet place to get some of my tasks done.  

As the closing on our property has been slow Mr. Math and I  came up with a plan to deal with one of the things that have piled up in the office,  paint.   I just can’t pass up samples of paint in the oops bin.  I also love spray paint and sometimes forget I have a color so I buy more.   We decided to use a 6 1/2 inch space behind the door to Store all of the spray paints and samples that I have.  I think that having them all in one place may stop me from buying more than I need…I hope anyway.

Mr. Math installed white brackets from Home Depot that were under $2.00 each and bought the plastic coated shelving.  He did have to notch around the door trim.

I am getting a ton of storage out of unused space here.

   
   
While the shelving unit went up, I sorted though my closet and made it more organized.  I donated a few loose items, and cleared the trash.    Believe me folks, this is organized in my world. 

  
A new rolling cart from Aldi will be where I keep the things currently. Getting worked on.  Check out the Wednesday ads for Aldi, folks.  They have some cool things that randomly pop up.   My vinyl cutter also now has a home that makes sense. 

  
The best part about the makeover were the curtains.  $29.99 for a pair of 96 inch long lined curtains from Homegoods.  I had to buy two sets but for $60.00 total they pack a punch.  

   
   
Everything else in the room came from around the house.

I added in some of my favorite sayings and an old drop leaf pine table tat can will be pulled out for projects and I rearranged.  All in this quick makeover was just over $100.00.  

  
   
I have more “S’s” but this weekend I couldn’t seem to put my finger on them.  They will be added to the wall as they turn up. 

 
A friend made this awesome sign doing a particularly tough time this last year and I love that I can see it when I walk in from the laundry room.

  
I hope you had a productive weekend.

Blessings,

Karen

Making a Bottled Drink Holder

June 25, 2015

Karen Charlotte NC, Country Style, crafting, Fun with friends, Rubbish Rescue, rustic, the Southern Belle , , , 1 Comment

Want a quick and easy gift to take when you are an invited guest this summer that even the dudes will like? I have just the project thanks to Rogue Engineer.  I love his detailed directions.  Check him out.

Here is the link to his very detailed plans including how to cut and assemble.

Beer Carrier

DIY Beer Tote | Free Plans | Rogue Engineer

Source: Rogue Engineer

Mr. Math cut four of these puppies out in less than an hour.  We used reclaimed scrap wood so we probably had to work a little harder than necessary sanding, and adjusting for the wonky wood sizes but the wood was F-R-E-E.  They were totally out of scrap wood left over from the media console.

reclaimed wood media console

The carrier works great for small bottles of soda as well as for beer and would be a fun host/ hostess gift for outdoor summer parties.

The total cost of the project for us was for the handle (check out ReStore if you have one close by) I paid two dollars fifty cents for my handles only because my hardware is all locked up in storage right now and our nearest Restore is thirty minutes away.

Bottle opener from Hobby Lobby ($1.49 right now.). They are 50% off  at least once a month.

Brown Cast Iron Pop Bottle Opener

The first one is going to the sweet lady who called me to let me know she had cedar siding that she was getting rid of and wanted to know if I needed it.  The wood for the project came off her house.  She will enjoy seeing what we did with it.  I left a lot of the green paint from her lake house on the cedar.

   

We added a lot of poly to the knot hole so that it won’t fall out.   I love that piece of wood best.

          The other three are headed to Charlotte, NC.

I can tell we will be making a few of these in the near future.

Mr. Math has already figured out the dimensions for a four bottle wine holder.  I know I will have some takers on that, too.

I think the wine holders may be made from our red cedar hanging out in storage.

Oh how I long to have our shop up and running again!   July is coming.  Woo Hoo.

July 10 we close on our new spot.

Reclaimed Wood Signs

May 14, 2015

Karen Coldspring, collecting, Country Style, crafting, Curbside rescue , , , Leave a comment

I love the look of reclaimed wood and I have been smitten with reclaimed wood signs for a while.  This week it was my turn to do the craft project for our ladies craft night so of course I planned a reclaimed wood sign project.  We picked up  a ton of cedar fence pickets off the side of the road a while back and have been putting them to good use.  We have used them to cover my office wall, our bedroom wall at the lake, and I covered the top and drawers of a dresser with the wood.

reclaimed fencing washed

This week we cut the wood to length for 8 signs and I glued and nailed two thin strips of scrap to the back of each set in order to make a canvas for our signs.

I used the vinyl cutter to cut out some sayings, brought a set of stencils, paints, painter’s tape, brushes, sanding block, sander, and anything else I thought we might use.

Each lady chose a canvas and set off on their project.

First, several of us whitewashed our boards.

The steps are easy.  Remove the letters from the vinyl and keep the part that you removed the letters from.  Lay the vinyl on the wood, make sure to press it all down really well.

     

 Lightly apply paint  to the spaces.

   
     

Allow the paint to set for a little bit the gently peel off the vinyl. You will end up with a picture or saying.

   
          

One of our friends decided to paint a picture on her canvas.  Wow! 

   

 

It was a fun, rainy night.  You will see my “Kiss me” picture in our new place.  It still needs some work to be done,

It was a fun night.

Saginaw Furniture Company Expand-O-Matic

April 26, 2015

Karen Apartment living, Building a Home, Chair, crafting, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, resale finds, The bedroom , , 13 Comments

I am always amazed at what I find at garage sales.  At the time I was at my latest garage sale, our house was being inspected so I wasn’t sure if the house would pass.  I had already told myself we were killing time, not buying.  I did pretty well… except for two milk glass mugs and a wooden bowl until I spied something I had never seen before.  It looked like a desk, and I could tell it was old, but what  clinched it for me was the fact that it expanded to become a six foot long table.  What in the world?  The leaves were missing but I had to have it for my long hoped for my craft/ Murphy bed room I am planning at our new spot.  When the bed is set up the table can collapse to be a bench.  

   
  

   

  

  

The price on the desk thing was $25.00, and I couldn’t resist. 

When I got home I started checking online to see what I had.  It took some searching but I finally found it.  Saginaw Furniture Company Expand-O-Matic.  It was probably from the late 40’s or early 50’s. They changed the name to Expandway later but I love the older name.

They were made for New York apartments and were sold up until the 60’s.  The top drawer is lined  and divided to hold silverware.  Apparently the morning mini home market has made these cool again and these puppies are selling for $600.00 complete.

  
Mine is going to get stainable leaves.  The top and leaves will be dark walnut..  The base is going to be painted teal.  I already have the perfect chair for it when it is a desk.

  
Here are some shots from Etsy.  All I could find were sold. 

   
I wish I had those leaves but we should be able to do something that looks nice.

  

  

Mine only expands 6 feet.

 

I also am changing jobs so the suitcase wall will be moving into the craft room along with the sewing cabinet.  As soon as the leaves are done and the Murphy bed built, the room will be done.  This may be the easiest room to put together at the house.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Karen

Trash to Serving Tray

February 11, 2015

Karen Behr Paint with Primer, crafting, reclaimed wood 1 Comment

I am going to apologize that the finished tray picture is not as awesome as the finished tray is.  It was a mad rush to get finished Sunday.  I will add a better photo after this weekend.

Every week until I get the Garagemahal cleared I am going to be doing a quick project that only uses items in my stash of bits, parts, and scrap wood I call “the hoard”. Most of the things there are items my husband would love to throw away.

Today the project uses a plywood scrap, a 1X2 scrap, and some hardware I have collected over the years from either projects that I repurposed, were given to me, or I bought at garage sales and thrift stores.

I love the look of trays on coffee tables and we use a ton for carrying things from the kitchen to the deck.

A quick search of Pinterest had a bunch of good ideas for making trays like:

Using a frame

frame tray

A drawer

drawer tray

Here are a lot of ideas in one spot.

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The steps for this crafty project at super simple.  Take a piece of plywood, a cabinet door, or even a wide board and cut it to a length you like for a tray.

IMG_0445

Attach 1X2 around the edge. I attached it with glue and the air nailer.

Sand it all down so that it is smooth and fill any holes ( like where the nails went in) and I even used a thin coat of wood filler along the edge of the plywood to make it more smooth.  a quick sand made it feel better along the edges.

Prime and paint.  This tray is a gift and I knew my friend wanted it to be my favorite creamy white, Behr Sea Salt.

I had this vintage brass hardware that was given to me.  My friend loved it when she saw it a while back so I am happy to pass it along.

My husband told me about these amazing things.  They allow you to screw knobs directly into wood.  They are now a staple in my tool kit.

IMG_0465

I attached four brass knobs to the bottom as feet. I like the way they raise the tray and make it feel a little lighter.

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Here is the finished project.

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I really like the look. I like it so much that i am making myself one, too. Mine is going to be Behr Red, Red Wine. It is going to to have some of my favorite 1970’s drawer pulls. I need knobs for feet and longer bolts so I can finish mine.

This is a cheap, easy way to get a tray that matches your personal style.

The hoard is thinning out and I am enjoying stretching myself.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate you more than I say.

Blessings,

Karen

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