Cleaning & Organizing – A Diamond in the Stuff

Laundry Room Board and Batten

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:00:35 +0000

I have shared glimpses of my laundry room on the blog several times. You can see posts HERE, HERE, and HERE. I was wanting to upgrade the laundry room a bit and maybe even provide some more organizational options. Also, I was wanting to tackle something new. For some time I had kept my eye on DIY board and batten projects and really loved the look. This was the time to take the plunge and give it a try.

My supplies were:

6in x 1in pine board/s

3in x 1in pine boards

White caulking

Nails/nail gun

Paint

Hooks (optional)

To an extent, the amount of supplies you will need will depend on how big of an area you will be putting up your board and batten. The wall that I was putting mine on was a fairly small area so I didn’t need a lot of lumber, paint, etc. Also, some of the decisions we made were purely opinion on our part. We decided to have the whole thing stand 55in from the ground. This is just what looked good to us, I’ve seen them taller and shorter. This also applies to how far apart we decided to put the vertical boards. Our wall studs were 16in apart so we made our lives easier and nailed a 3×1 board on every stud, making sure that they were evenly spaced. We have a nail gun so that was our best option to attach the boards to the walls. If you don’t have a nail gun, a good ole hammer and nails or glue would work as well.

Once all the boards were attached to the walls, it was time to tackle the imperfections. We didn’t choose the highest quality boards (nor did we pick the roughest either) and no matter what there will be gaps and holes. I wanted the end result to look polished and professional. I grabbed some white EASY CAULKING and following the directions, I applied it to any gaps and holes I saw. Where the boards come together and where the boards attach to the wall there may be gaps. Where the nail gun shot nails into the wood there are holes. Things like wood filler work too, but I can say that this stuff was so so easy to work with and it did a great job!!! {not a paid advertisement, just my personal experience}

Once I was happy with my caulking job and it had dried, it was time to paint. We had some paint left over from a home improvement project that matched our trim, so I decided to use that. This way it would match with the baseboards underneath the board and batten. I did a few coats of it for good coverage and went back and did some touch ups when needed. I had really wanted to create more organization with this project, not just have it look pretty. So I bought some black hooks that just so happen to match the hooks on the other side of our laundry room! How that happened, I’ll never know!

*side not: forgive me, these are not the best photos as there is absolutely no natural light in this room. Unless I open the garage and the connecting door. But y’all get the point.*

So here it is all done! I absolutely love it and it has even brightened up the room, which it needed. The board and batten really upgrade the room and add something special.

To add even more organizational power, I added some nice hooks behind the door into the laundry room. When we moved in the previous owners had a simple nondescript broom holder, which served it’s purpose fine but I wanted something that looked nicer. I don’t have a closet to stuff all my brooms and such away, so behind the door it is. At least now it looks tidier and cleaner.

Here’s a shot from our garage. My sweet little puppy decided to make an appearance in this shot! I’m still loving my Crib Spring Drying Rack and my Washer and Dryer Pedestal! All this organization in one room makes my heart flutter!

It’s so pretty!

If you’re wanting to try a big project or a new idea, a small room like a laundry room or bathroom might just be the perfect place to start! Also, doing big eye catching features come across great in smaller rooms so that they are not overwhelming in scale! I think this Laundry Room Board and Batten turned out just perfectly for my room! What do you think?

Linking up with THESE great parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some Laundry Room Organizing Ideas to get that crazy room whipped into shape…..

DIY Barnwood Coat Rack

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 14:00:32 +0000

I am still on my New Years organizing kick. No end in sight. I’m not only organizing but I’m giving a few areas a bit of a face lift. Since we move so often, if I am in one house for too long I get the itch to change things up. It’s the next best thing to a totally blank canvas. So this time around I am tackling an area in my laundry room. This area is located under my Crib Spring Drying Rack and it once housed my “wash” wall decor. That is now gone and in it’s place is my new DIY Barnwood Coat Rack.

I was really in need of another coat rack, mostly because this house has no coat closet. Read that. No coat closet. I mean, we are in the south so I get it I guess. But it still gets cold here in the winter! We have a little mud porch area on the opposite wall in our laundry room that has a few hooks. However with a family of 4 and kids with a silly number of coats, we needed more!

Luckily I have a little stash of old wood so all I needed were some hooks. Hobby Lobby is pretty much my first stop when I’m looking for cute knobs and hooks. I picked up 6 big beautiful hooks for my coat rack. This was a pretty easy project! Step 1: cut wood to length I want. Step 2: Attach hooks to the wood. Step 3: Add hooks to the back of the coat rack. Step 4: Hand it on the wall.

Boom! Done!

What’s better than an easy and beautiful project? Nothing that’s what! How fantastic does it look there above this little bench I moved in there?

It looks so pretty right now but let’s face it, in about 5 minutes it will probably be covered in backpacks and jackets! So let’s just sit back and enjoy it while we can, ok?

So what do you think about my new DIY Barnwood Coat Rack?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have another salvaged wood project to share with you. Pop over and check out this beautiful Round Pallet Coffee Table…..

How To Fix Scratches In Wood {quickly and easily}

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:00:55 +0000

We have been living in our current home for over two years now. It was a bit of a mess when we moved in. We have put some love into it, but we have also put some wear and tear into it. We know that our time here is probably a year and a half left at the most, then it is off to wherever the Air Force decides to send us next. So in the back of my head I’m starting to make a mental list of all the fix-it’s that we will need to do before we are ready to sell. One very glaring issue were these lovely scratch marks left on my front door by my adorable dog. {she’s lucky she’s cute}

It finally started bothering me enough that I started to wonder if there was a quick and easy way to get rid of scratches in wood. I really didn’t want to strip, sand, stain! So I started experimenting and I totally stumbled upon DIY gold! Do you see all those scratches up there? I hated HATED them! So let’s do something about them…..

The first thing I did was clean the door with some Murphy’s Oil Soap. Which was good. Then I used the Old English scratch cover (for dark woods). Which was awesome. I literally just rubbed both of these on and wiped them off and the end result was amazing.

LOOK AT THAT DOOR! Doesn’t it look brand new?

Let’s compare just so we can reeeeeeally see the transformation! This took me all of 10 minutes to go over the whole door and little effort. So I immediately started trying it out on my kitchen cabinets and the result is just as awesome! You know all those little nicks and scuffs from vacuuming and you know, kids! Gone. I kinda can’t wait to tackle all of the wood work in the house now!

So what do you think of this quick and easy “How To Fix Scratches in Wood” idea? Have to tackled scratches in your wood before? What did you use and did it work?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While you’re here, check out this beautiful Family Rules Window…..

DIY Shutter Rolling Cart

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 13:00:24 +0000

Whenever I am in need of some inspiration, I just take a lap around my very full garage. At any given moment it is filled with projects, odds, and ends. These shutters were scooped up several weeks ago for super cheap and they became my next victim. I have done a few different things with shutters and I really wanted to shake it up a bit. So I decided that these dingy old shutter were going to become a DIY Shutter Rolling Cart.

The shutter were pretty tall and pretty shabby. The curve at the top posed a problem for the project right off the bat. Nothing a little saw action can’t fix! We just sawed the curvy part right off so that it was straight across the top.

Then it was time to build the base of the cart. I wanted there to be a nice storage part at the base of it, so that required us to build out a box.

We used a 1×12 as the very bottom of the cart because it was almost the width of the shutters. Then we added some 1×8’s to the sides of the “box” base. The shutters make up the end caps of the box.

For the top we used two pieces of 1×8’s. I also ended up adding a shelf on the cart that was made from a 1×12. The top and the shelf were all stained Dark Walnut by Minwax. I painted the shutters and the base of the cart an off white color. It all got a polycrylic protective coat to finish things off.

And there she is! What was once some dingy old shutters is now this beautiful rolling cart!

As you can see, this DIY Shutter Rolling Cart makes THE perfect coffee station.

I did add some locking caster wheels to the bottom. They made this cart portable so it could offer extra work space as needed. Awesome right?

The bottom offers great extra storage I wanted it to have. For extra storage in the kitchen I could see pots and pans, alcohol storage for a beverage cart, or extra table linens. It’s pretty perfect.

Overall I think the transformation has been perfect! I love how the DIY Shutter Rolling Cart turned out. So my question to you is? What would you use the rolling cart for?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While you’re visiting I’d love to share my last project with you! Check out my DIY Salvage Sofa Table…..

DIY Aqua Storage Cabinet

Courtney Carmean — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:00:29 +0000

Every few years we move. Every move we have a new home with a new configuration. Our last home had two great hall closets and this house has zero. Zero hall closets. So we’ve had to get creative. There was a spot at the end of our hallway that was the perfect spot for a DIY Aqua Storage Cabinet. So we got our build on.

Ok so I’m not going to pretend to be amazing at whipping up some awesome plans for this build. The inspiration for this project came from Ana White and you can find her plans HERE. What I can do is show you how we built ours.

So here we go…..

We started with some 1×12’s to create a large rectangle box. Then used some 1×10’s to create shelves. Some 1/4in plywood made up the back of the cabinet. We attached the plywood to the 1×12 frame and the 1×10 shelves for extra stability.

To make the cabinet look more finished we created some faux crown moulding with some 1×2’s and 1×4.

Now for the doors. We used 3/4in plywood for the doors and cut 1/4in plywood into strips to add some more character to the doors.

Check out these cute little legs! I just couldn’t resist adding a little leg and curve to this project.

The doors were attached with 3 hinges each, they are pretty tall doors. We added some magnetic clasps to the cabinet and doors to help them stay shut. Lookin pretty good right? Time for paint!!!

Is it really any surprise that it was painted aqua? I mean really? I decided to whip up some home made chalk paint and tackled this huge beast. I think it turned out beautifully.

It is providing a great amount of storage for us and I have to say, it sure brightens up this hallway.

The doors on this project ended up proving to be more difficult than they sounded. Somehow adding doors to a project and expecting them to match up, hang right, and fit suddenly become too much to ask. However, I LOVE to be able to shove stuff somewhere and hide it away. So we could of kept it a glorified bookcase….but these doors make my inner OCD happy!

The top of the cabinet looked pretty bare and boring so I shopped the house. I decided to put my little birdcage collection up top. These cages were around the house but together I think they made a bigger impact.

Don’t you think those little legs add just the perfect amount of….something? So cute!

I’m so happy with how the DIY Aqua Storage Cabinet turned out and I have to admit….I’m glad it’s done! It was a big project. How do you think we did?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for another fun build? Don’t worry this one is much smaller…..

Need a place for all those blankets? How about this DIY Salvage Blanket Ladder?

DIY Washer & Dryer Pedestal

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 30 May 2014 10:00:02 +0000

I always knew that when I finally got a front loading washer and dryer I would want a pedestal for them. Well when we moved into our new home we also got that front loading washer and dryer. It took a few months to get around to the pedestal part though. Then one day my hubby and I decided it was time and before I knew it he had it built. I was inspired by the washer and dryer pedestal from Ana White. However we did need to alter ours to fit our laundry room.

We have built in cabinets in our laundry room, which are awesome for storage. This meant that we couldn’t make the pedestal too high, so we decided to forgo the bottom shelf. We just had the legs go straight to the floor instead of attaching to another shelf.

Another change we made to the original plans was the position of the legs. We decided to have the 4×4 posts go all the way to the top of the shelf instead of just being attached by a bracket. With the bottom shelf gone we figured that this would make the whole pedestal more stable. The legs are a little more pushed back in ours but almost unnoticeable.

Other than having the door opening at the perfect height now, the main reason I wanted a pedestal was to have a home for the laundry baskets. We were always sticking empty laundry baskets in corners to get them out of the way with no real place to keep them. Not to mention the dirty towels, sheets, and random clothes that my kids shed throughout the house. Now everything has a home! The baskets and now I have spots for those random items awaiting laundering. I added some vinyl (cut with my silhouette) to the front of the pedestal to make it easier on everyone. But let’s be honest….I’ll still find piles just outside the baskets.

I absolutely love the washer and dryer pedestal and a HUGE thank you to my hubby for helping with the build. It’s been a home improvement dream come true. What can I say? This is the way to a DIY girl’s heart!!!

Looking for some more awesome laundry room ideas? Check the rest of my laundry room….

Laundry Room Organization

Crib Spring Drying Rack

DIY Laundry Detergent

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

Have a great weekend y’all!!!