Scott and I picked up an unfinished dresser from Ikea for the nursery recently and decided to dress it up with a little paint and fabric. This project was pretty easy, taking just a few extra tools and materials to transform a plain piece of furniture into something more unique. Here's how we did it.
Upholstered Ikea Tarva Dresser
You'll Need:
1 Ikea Tarva Dresser (with hardware and necessary tools)
2 sample size tubs of paint (We had ours mixed at Lowes)
Water
Rags for whitewashing
About 3 yards of fabric
A staple gun (with plenty of heavy duty staples)
Fancy knobs (optional)
A few notes on the materials:
When you pick out a fabric, try to choose something fairly thin. The fabric we used was a little too heavy, which caused the drawers to stick together. Then again, you don't want to use fabric that is too flimsy, or it could rip and tear during use. I'd recommend a light canvas or thin upholstery fabric.
You can pick out almost any paint color you want at a home improvement store like Lowes or Home Depot, and order it in a sample size. One sample tub is enough to coat one three-drawer dresser, but it is good to have an extra tub on hand, just in case. You can always return it if you don't end up using it.
I think adding fancy knobs did a lot to enhance our dresser, but it was the most costly part of the addition for us. Knobs range from $3 to $10 a piece, so getting six can add up quickly. The original dresser comes with unfinished wooden knobs. If you are on a tight budget, I would recommend just painting those to match. By the way, we got our knobs at World Market for about $6 each (before a coupon).
Directions:
Lay out the pieces of the dresser on a large tarp or piece of cardboard. (We used the packaging from Ikea as a work surface.)
Mix one tub of paint with an equal amount of water, then use a rag to rub the color onto the bare wood. This technique is called white-washing, and you can learn more about it here. Paint all of the wooden parts of the dresser, then let them dry. To darken the color, repeat with a second or third coat of paint.
When the paint is completely dry, lay the fabric beneath one of the drawer fronts. Lay the fabric right-side down, and the drawer front inside-up. Use a pencil to trace the shape of the drawer front onto the back of the fabric, and mark the knob-holes with the pencil as well.
Set the drawer front aside, then cut the fabric about 3 inches outside of the lines traced from the drawer front. Repeat this with the rest of the fabric, cutting one panel for each drawer. Punch small holes into the fabric for each knob hole.
Set the drawer front back onto one of the panels of fabric, then use the staple gun to adhere the fabric onto the drawer. Fold the fabric under before stapling to avoid fraying. Be careful not to cover any of the grooves or holes in the drawer piece. You'll need those to be accessible during assembly.
Assemble the dresser according to the directions from Ikea. If you are using fancy knobs, simply install those instead of the wood ones when the time comes.
If you end up with drawers that are too thickly covered, they will stick. You can fix this, but it's kind of a pain in the butt. You'll need to remove the fabric from the bottom of each drawer front, then sand down the bottom edge of the drawer by 1/4 inch or more. Then, re-attach the fabric and try fitting them in again.
As our budget gets pulled tighter and tighter, and Babeleo's arrival creeps closer, I'm being forced to rethink a few things when it comes to decorating our nursery. I had a truly lovely list of gorgeous handmade decorations going on Etsy. Several months ago, purchasing those pretty things seemed totally reasonable. Now, however, reality has reared her obnoxious head, and is making me realize that we just can't afford to blow a bunch of money on prettying up a baby room.
I had a "waaaaaah" moment there, but soon remembered that I am a very crafty person. Why on Earth would I need (or even want) to buy those things from other artists when I could make similar versions myself? Most of the things I had my eye on were very simple, after all. Beautiful, no doubt, but also totally re-creatable.
The first thing I decided to tackle was prayer flags. I'd had my eye on these, and these. So pretty! But how would I add words or pictures to my flags? Screen printing? Hand painting? Fabric stamps? After a quick look through my crafting stash I discovered three sheets of printable fabric. Hallelujah! This stuff is PERFECT for this kind of a project.
I hopped on InDesign and whipped up six little flags to print out on the three sheets of paper. I "borrowed" some illustrations from the internet, then downloaded two pretty handwritten fonts from Dafont.com (I used Dawning of a New Day and Sunshine in My Soul.) If you are looking for a good resource of Buddhist artwork, check out the Buddhist eLibrary.
I combined each picture with one of my favorite Buddhist prayers and quotes from the Dalai Lama. You could easily customize this project to suit any kind of sentiment or spiritual belief you like though. Bible verses, song lyrics, or famous quotes would all work nicely on prayer flags.
Next, I rummaged through my fabric stash to find six small pieces that looked nice together. I picked a few different quilter's cottons, and one random green knit. I also used some satin ribbon, a handful of jingle bells, and a little bit of embroidery floss.
I started by printing out my fabric. I used InDesign to make printable PDFs, but you could use any kind of Word or document program that you are comfortable with. Just make sure your page is formatted in a landscape position so that you'll have enough room to make two flags on each sheet. You can download a copy of the PDF I used here: Download Prayer Flags
After you print the fabric, cut out each flag individually. Try to make sure each one is well centered on its little rectangle.
Now it's time to cut the fabric for the back of the flags. Each flag needs two layers of fabric. I cut each flag at about the same size, a few inches wider and longer than the flags I had printed. Give each flag an extra two inches on the top so that it can be folded over later. I cut each of my flags into 8" x 11" rectangles.
Use an iron to adhere the printable fabric to the top panel of your cut fabric (according to the instructions that come with your fabric). I used the cotton setting with no steam to attach my printed fabric. After they cool, run a zig-zag stitch around the printed fabric to make sure it's totally secure. Using a contrasting colored thread also makes the flags extra pretty.
Lay the top and bottom panels of fabric for each flag together, wrong sides in, right sides out. Use the zig-zag stitch (or a serger, if you are so lucky as to have one) to bind them together. Again, I like using a contrasting thread for this part. Stitch all the way around all of the outer edges.
Fold the top edge over by about an inch, with the folded fabric on the back of the flag, the straight stitch across the bottom edge of the fold, leaving a good sized hold for you to thread a ribbon or cord through the top.
Get yourself a nice long piece of ribbon or flat cord, then thread it through the top of the flags. Run an inch or so of straight stitch over where to ribbon sits inside each flag. This will help stop them from moving around on the ribbon. Leave at least few inches between each flag, and be careful not to let the ribbon twist.
It would be even prettier with more rustic bells. Of course, these were all I had in my craft stash at the time.
After all of the flags are attached, cut four six-inch lengths of embroidery thread. Use the thread to tie the jingle bells in the spaces between the flags.
Now hang your flags somewhere lovely! Here they are in Babeleo's room. (...which is coming along nicely. Don't you think?)
Our second bedroom has been used as my office and craft room since we moved in. About a year ago, we had a roomate move in to our third bedroom, so this room also started serving double-duty as a guest room. The room is changing purpose once again, and will soon become a nursery. I'm pretty excited about its current transformation, so I thought I'd share some of our plans and progress up to this point.
After our roomate moved out at the beginning of last month we started shuffling things up to make room for Babeleo. My office moved to the loft/den upstairs, and the guest room returned to its old home in the third bedroom. Moving all of this out and re-organizing it elsewhere was no small task, but we were fueled by nesting instincts and made pretty short work of it all.
How We Picked Our Flooring Material
We were left with a fairly bare room painted in grayish blue with a cream-colored carpet. The carpet had seen better days, and considering that this will be the child of two allergy-prone people, we thought swapping out the floor for wood would be a good idea. Which kind of wood flooring to use became quite the debate. Seeing as I knew pretty much nothing about flooring before this project, this was mostly a debate between my husband and himself, though I was often called in to mediate.
Having grown up in the Northeast, Scott and I both love wood floors. As pretty as they are, they can also be really expensive and somewhat difficult to install. Besides looks, another benefit of a real wood flooring is that you can refinish it in the future. When you consider the lifetime value of real wood, it might actually be a better investment longterm. However, if you are on a tight budget, like we are, that might not be an investment you are prepared to make!
After some serious deliberation, we went with a floating laminate. Specifically, we used Allen & Roth Laminate Flooring from Lowes. These are basically particle board slats topped with wood veneer. They lock together, and come pre-padded, which saved us a bundle on glue and padding, which we would have had to purchase with other kinds of laminate floors.
We waited around for a good amount of the stuff to go on clearance. Flooring gets returned pretty often, and it's frequently damaged. By seeking out damaged boxes we were able to save about 30-40% on the cost of the floor. Of course, we had to buy extra boxes of flooring to account for the damaged boards in each pack, but even with that cost in mind, the numbers landed in our favor.
Preparation
Once we had our flooring we were ready to get to work. The first thing we needed to do (after cleaning out the room) was to remove the old carpet. In some parts of the country you can pull up an old carpet and find original wood floors beneath. This doesn't happen very often in Texas, and certainly not in houses that are less than thirty years old. We weren't surprised to find a bare concrete floor beneath the carpet and padding. That being said, I highly recommend checking before running out to buy a bunch of laminate. You never know.
After removing the carpet, Scott Bobleo used a couple of huge levels to check the floor's shape. If your floor is too un-level, you may need to pour down a special base to even it out. Luckily, our floor was level enough to skip that step. One step we couldn't skip, however, was giving the flooring forty eight hours to acclimate to our home's humidity. It's a good thing that Scott knows what he's doing, because I never would have guessed that such a thing was necessary. Apparently, if you don't give the flooring time to expand or contract to your home's climate it can cause the floor to buckle, crack, and junk up after installation. That could be a very expensive mistake.
How We Did It
On Sunday we were finally ready to start laying the floor. Before I describe that process, here's a quick list of things you need when installing a laminate floor:
Enough flooring to cover the square footage of your room, plus an extra 10% for waste
Matching wood trim to cover the door jam
Primed trim for the walls (one piece for each wall, the length of each wall)
Matching paint for your wall trim (should match your existing wall trim)
A tablesaw (you might also need a special blade, depending on the type of flooring)
An undercut saw
Plastic sheeting (more than enough to cover the square footage of your room)
Masking tape
Spacers
A mallet
A pull bar and block
We started by sweeping out the room really well, making sure not to trap a ton of dust and lint under the flooring. Next, we rolled out a tarp of plastic sheeting to cover the concrete floor. This stops moisture from seeping out of the concrete and into the wood. Draping a huge piece of plastic across a floor sounds easy, but getting it flat, cut properly, and sized properly was no piece of cake. I highly recommend using masking tape to anchor the plastic in place as you spread it out. You'll want to push the plastic up the wall by at least an inch on every side. (You'll cut it down to fit behind the trim later.)
Once the plastic was down, Scott started in on the biggest part of the job, laying down the boards! He placed spacers against the wall, laid down a board, and then used the mallet, spacer bar and block to tap each board firmly into place. Leaving those spacers is another important step that may not be obvious. Wood expands and contracts with changes in humidity, so it's important to leave a small space around the edge of the floor to allow for those changes. The gap gets covered later by trim. Who knew!
Scott spent all day tapping in those boards. As he went along he had to cut boards down to size with his tablesaw to make sure everything fit just right. He also used his undercut saw to make extra room under the door jams and door trim, another step I didn't see coming! As Scott went along it occurred to me that laying a floor is a lot like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Only with a floor it isn't very easy to go back and fix your mistakes. It's important to think ahead and create a strategy for how you will cut and lay each board, especially around closets and doors.
Gracie made herself a nice bed out of the extra sheeting. Oh, simple dog, you're so easy to please.
With the boards all in place, Scott cut away the extra plastic sheeting, removed the spacers, and installed the trim. A quick coat of paint later, and the floor was finished!
How Much It Cost
All in all, this project cost us a little over $200 including materials, tools, and extras. If you are thinking about laminate flooring, there are less expensive and more expensive types out there, so be sure to shop around and find the kind that suits your home and budget best. There are even types of laminate that can be refinished!
What's Next?
We are actually getting pretty close to finishing this up. You can see in that last photo that I re-painted the wooden shelves using a white-washing technique. We've already collected most of the furniture we need. We scored a great big blue Ikea Dresser and a pretty white glider from Craigslist. Scott's sister gifted us a crib (thanks, Jenn!), we bought a small unfinished dresser new from Ikea to paint, and just this weekend we picked up a chindi rug for 50% off at World Market.
We still have a closet to hack into a changing station and some touch-up painting and patching to do on the walls, not to mention adding all the little decorations that will make the room more special. My Mom has offered to make us some curtains, and I have been racking my brain on the easiest way to create an ottaman for my nursing chair. (Ottamans are expensive, y'all!)
I shared some of my design plans and inspiration recently on my baby blog. You can check out that post if you are curious about where we'll be going with the room. I'll also be updating this blog with our progress as it all comes together. It's a good thing we have two more months before Babeleo arrives!
Whitewashing is a really easy painting technique that allows you to apply sheer color over bare wood. Before you get started on your project, make sure that the wood you are painting is as naked as possible. You may need to sand the wood down before you start painting.
Any water-based paint will work for whitewashing, but when it comes to furniture, I like to use latex paint with a satin finish. This is the same kind of paint you would use to paint the walls inside your house, and it comes in a rainbow of colors. I usually purchase sample sizes of paint from Lowes for these kinds of projects.
Which colors work with whitewashing?
While the traditional color to whitewash with is white, you can use this technique with pretty much any color of paint. Bright colors will give you a more sheer effect, while whites and pastels will provide a little more opacity. Dark colors need to be watered down very well in order to achieve the desired effect. Experiment with different colors on different projects to get a feel for how each color performs.
You'll need:
Water-based paint
Water
a container and stick to mix the paint with
a clean rag
Drop cloths or tarps to protect your work area
How to:
Make sure the surface that you are painting is totally naked (free of paint or stain) and clean (free of dust or dirt).
Start with a ratio of about half water and half paint. Mix this well, making sure to break up any clumps.
Paint a test piece of wood first, if you have one available. It's important to check out the color after it has been watered down. You may need to add more paint, or more water to achieve the right look.
Fold the rag over, smushing it into a little knob. Dip the knob into the paint, then brush it over the surface of the wood. For a more scattered look, brush small amounts of paint onto the wood, following the grain. For a well-covered look, brush a generous amount of paint onto the wood, painting in slow circles.
Let the first coat dry, then go back over the wood with a second coat if you'd like the color to be deeper or cover more thoroughly.
You can learn more about whitewashing, and learn about alternative techniques by checking out the following blog posts:
In my house, kitchen cupboard space is precious real estate. Zoning is strictly regulated in these areas. If an item wants to make it into a prime kitchen neighborhood it has to be a part of either my daily or weekly routine. Specialty appliances, my crockpot and ice cream maker for example, are banished to somewhere less conveniently located.
In my old apartment, that was usually the top of the fridge, or the bottom of my pantry. Now that we are living in a house, I've decided to send these two appliances all the way to the garage. The only problem with that plan is that the garage is a pretty dank and dusty place.
I didn't want these little kitchen machines to get all squinky out there, so I constructed some cozies out of a couple of old t-shirts. These are pretty rudimentary cozies, basically just drawstring sacks, but they do the job well. Making them is also super cheap and extremely quick, both "wins" in my book.
I stumbled upon these cute little house shaped knick knack shelves during a recent trip to Salvation Army. I love tiny things, and anything that shows off tiny things, so these little shelves were definitely coming home with me.
These pretty little handmade notebooks are made with collage paper, newsprint, embroidery floss, and greeting cards. You can use blank greeting cards or used cards to make your notebook covers, giving you a great way to re-use your latest pile of birthday or holiday greetings. First, take your greeting card and your collage paper and plot out how you'd like to arrange the paper. Try to cover every bit of the card. If you're using a used greeting card as your base, make sure that the paper you are using to cover the card is thick enough to hide any pictures or text. They will look fugly when they show through.
During a move a couple of years back I found myself packing up hundreds and hundreds of CD cases. The numbers were staggering, but their sheer volume, once in front of my face, was hard to handle. After I'd filled a box (or three) I started to doubt the sanity of packing and moving the insane collection into my new home. So, I decided to toss the cases. One by one, I packed my discs into humongous CD binders. In no time I had condensed the size of my music collection by 3/4. Though I was relieved to see my burden shrunk, I felt a pang of sadness at letting go of the cases for all of my favorite albums. How many countless hours had I spent pouring over each and every one of those liner notes? I knew and loved each one. How could I just chuck them into the garbage bin?
Being crafty, my mind fashioned a strange compromise. I pulled the liner notes from the CD cases and stashed them away in a plastic bag in anticipation for the day that I figured out how to make something creative with them. I used the stash as a sort of paper buffet for some time. I used the pictures and text inside the liner notes to make buttons, magnets, and collages, but it wasn't until much later that I came up with the greatest use for my old CD books ever, the Album Bouquet! One day I got my hands on a flower shaped paper punch, some beads, and a spool of floral wire and it all came together. Here's what I made:
Apparently, I can't get enough of Amy Butler crafting paper. After finishing off a tin of Green Tea the other day I got the bright idea to redecorate the can and give it a second life.
How To:
Find a canister you'd like to remodel. You can probably find some likely candidates in your pantry. Tea tins, tobacco canisters, coffee cans, and powdered drink containers are just a few examples.
Remove any problematic packaging from the container. If it has a paper label, you may want to leave it on. As long as it is smooth and well adhered, it will actually help to keep the decorative paper attached. Things you may want to remove include stickers, pamphlets, or oddly places labels. The best thing to use to remove them is a adhesive remover solution, but if you don't have one handy, you can try mayonnaise, hot water, nail polish remover, or even vegetable oil.
Carefully cut a piece of decorative paper to fit around the container. It is best to use thick papers like card stock or scrapbook paper, otherwise you may be able to see the original packaging underneath.
Using School Glue or Elmer's Glue, spread a thin layer of glue evenly across the wrong side of your paper. I like to spread thin circles instead of spreading it flat, but the choice is up to you.
Carefully attach your paper to the container and hold it firmly until it has dried enough to hold its own shape.
You can add a line of ribbon in a corresponding color to the paper's edges to give the container a more finished look. Just measure it out and attach it with a very thin coat of glue.
Your finished canisters can be used for about a million things. Try using them to hold any number of little doo-dads. Take the lids off and they can hold paint brushes, pencils & pens, silverware, or faux floral arrangements.
