Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Shanty 2 Chic Floating Shelves


Back in 2013 when I first found Pinterest, I came across this amazing Pottery Barn inspired plan for this DIY Wall Art. I had just started dating my boyfriend and that was when he would still help me with my projects, even though he did mostly everything. He was so nice and cut all the wood for this project with no miter saw and it came out amazing. I think the only part I did was stain. Oh how things have changed, along with my picture taking abilities. Here is a picture of it in his home.

I then came across Shanty 2 Chic's floating shelves and fell in love. I just never had all the tools and confidence to build something like that on my own. I bought Ryobi's air compressor and nail gun kit when they had it on special at Home Depot around the holidays last winter in December 2014. If you are in the market for any of these tools, I would highly recommend waiting a few more months if you can to purchase this kit. I got the air compressor, brad nailer, finish nailer and crown stapler all for $150. The compressor alone is currently listed for $160. Then in 2015, I have slowly acquired a Kreg Jig and sliding compound miter saw.

With all these tools to finally build these shelves, I finally took it upon myself to do so. My condo came with a cheap chrome towel bar right across my toilet, that sits too low for it to be useful. So my plan was to build three shelves there. I brought the plans with me to Home Depot and they were nice enough to make most cuts in the wood that I needed. Next, I then brought everything home and finished cutting everything myself with the miter saw. It was very intimidating at first with how loud and big it is. But after the first cut, I felt invincible with it. As you can probably tell from this picture below:


This saw worked great and made all the cutting very easy to finish, especially with the ability to cut up to 12 inches with one of the boards to the top of the shelves being 10 inches in depth. With everything cut, I started to assemble the frame. I learned that I wouldn't be able to put the first shelf as low as I was hoping, so I could only put two shelves in my space. I was able to line up the frame and find the studs (after a few attempts) and drilled them in.



Then I used my brad nailer and air compressor and started assembling the rest of the shelves. The brad nailer and air compressor were intimidating as well after reading the instructions and seeing how loud both were. The noise and facts in the manual (about using the gun as a weapon and having the tank possibly blow up) are still scary, but I just went with it. I also had to patch up the holes from my chrome towel bar as well.

 

I then used my frog tape to tape off my walls. Sanding was the next step, I did this with both loose sand paper and a sanding block. Then next was the stain, I was debating between the Minwax Jacobean and the Minwax Dark Walnut . There were some extra pieces of wood leftover so I tested it out on both. Jacobean was the ultimate decision as I liked the color and how it brought the grain out in the wood. My bathroom is very light colored so I want to bring in some dark colors and I thought the Jacobean stain did this well. I made sure to cover all the area beneath the shelves with old towels and a drop cloth and started applying the stain with a lint free cloth and gloves.


The smell was fairly strong after applying the stain so I made sure to run my fan in my bathroom and keep my condo well ventilated for about a week. I think it finally went away or I am just used to the smell by now. Either way, I am very happy with how they turned out. I finally got them decorated last night with decor I found from Home Goods. Still looking to add a few more things as I find them.





Hope everyone is having a great week and thanks for reading!
Shayla


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Grey Cabinet



Meet my favorite little cabinet! I picked up this beauty from St Vincent De Paul in Milwaukee. When I saw it, I instantly fell in love with all the lines and detail on it, as well as how narrow it is. Then, I opened it and it has this amazing shelf inside. Here is a picture of it in the parking lot after I bought it. Love love love the cute little legs on it as well.



I have been having somewhat of a color block lately, or maybe just a block in general in life. I just feel like summer has been so busy with things other than furniture, that I lost my creative vision when I look at an old piece of furniture and what color I should go with. Of course my first vision was a wood top. So I sanded down the wood top and did one coat of dark walnut stain. I wasn't super thrilled with it and then I got the vision to just paint all of it and bring out the great detail.



I love to post pictures on my Instagram and I generally tag the company of products I use. General Finishes, creator of the beloved Java gel stain, has featured a few of my pieces on their IG page. Every time they do, I tend to get a few new followers, that I love. I posted this picture asking for some color advice and after a few followers gave me ideas, I decided to go grey with it.

One of my absolute favorite furniture pages on IG is nakhome out of California. She does absolutely beautiful work. She mixes a lot of custom colors for her furniture, so I decided to give this a try for this cabinet with some grey paint I have left over from Behr. I mixed 2 parts Flint Smoke and one part Orion Grey. Then I added Plaster of Paris and water to make it chalk paint.


For cabinets, I take the hinges off so I can fully paint everything. I also tried out Frog Tape for the bottom of the cabinet to get a straight line. It helped tremendously. 
This cabinet took about 2.5 coats of paint and then I sealed it in furniture wax. Once I had it completed and staged, I fell in love with it. Now I just have to find a good spot for it in my furniture loaded condo.



Now, as a little side note, other than just Instagram, I also love to look at and read other blogs to get some inspiration ideas as well. Since I have started blogging, it has been so fun to connect with other bloggers with similar interests. These are a few of my favorites that I would highly recommend you read as well.


Thanks for reading!
Shayla