Between the Studs Storage Closet

During the month of September I got the honor to participate in the $100 Room Challenge started by Erin from Lemons, Lavender and Laundry.  There were about twenty-five people all participating and we had lots of fun.  I made over my laundry room and today I am going to share with you my between the studs storage closet.  If you missed any of my weeks of the $100 Room Challenge check it out below.

WEEK 1 / WEEK 2 / WEEK 3 / WEEK 4

If you decided to make a between the studs storage closet one thing I highly recommend you do is check the other side of the wall for outlets before you start cutting the sheetrock.  You want to make sure there isn’t any electrical running between the studs you are creating the closet in.  I would love to say we did this, but we didn’t.  So I am speaking from personal experience.  Now the one plus side is we have LOTS of outlets in our house and we determined that taking this outlet out would be ok.  So we went ahead with the storage closet.

The first thing we did was cut out the sheet rock for the opening of where we wanted the storage closet.  We made sure it was tall enough for our brooms and mops and of course it can only be as wide as the opening between the studs.

Once we did that we headed off to Lowe’s to pick up a piece of paneling wood.  One thing I love about Lowe’s is that they will cut the wood for you which makes it so much easier when you need an 8′ piece of wood cut a certain width.

We used some construction adhesive to attach the paneling wood to the back of the closet.

Then we used some 2×4 that we already had on hand to make the top and bottom of the closet.  I held them in place while my husband screwed into them through the sheetrock.  Once we had all of that in place he cut some more pieces of the paneling wood to cover the 2×4 and the studs on the sides.

We also used construction adhesive to attach them and then used some small tack nails to secure them.  Then we used some paintable caulk to seal where all the wood meets.

Once that was dry I used some darker turquoise paint that I had on hand to pain the inside of the storage closet.

Finally my husband cut the trim to go around the outside to frame the closet in.  I painted the trim before we attached it to the wall with trim nails and then we touch up painted it afterwards.

To finish off the closet I picked up some hooks from Wal-Mart.  These hooks mount with a foam type tape that is already attached to the back of them making it super easy to peel off the backing and stick them in the closet.

I absolutely love how my closet turned out!!  If you have any questions about how to make your own feel free to comment below and I would be more than glad to help you.

Making Over my Laundry Room for $51.30

I can’t believe we are at the end of the $100 Room Challenge, but I have sure enjoyed this month and getting to see what everyone has been doing on such a tight budget.  Going into this challenge my biggest decision was using as much of stuff that I have on hand as possible.  I spent a good bit of time on Pinterest looking at pictures of other people’s laundry room makeovers and every time I found something I liked I tried to think to myself “what all do I have on hand that I can use to make this”.

As I mentioned in week two, this room had become a dumping grounds of everything that didn’t have a spot since we moved into our house.  So I spent plenty of time decluttering the laundry room.

Then I moved on to painting the laundry room in week three, I knew I couldn’t really afford to spend $100 on paint (that was what happened in the school room makeover) for this project so I checked to see what I had on hand.  It didn’t go as I originally planned, but I am very pleased with the outcome of the colors!

So lets talk about the projects I completed in the laundry room.

Between the Stud Closet

I promise I will have a post all about this closet in a few days.  My family has been going through some stuff so I am a little behind on my blogging, but I will have it up in a few days.  I had seen this closet on Pinterest for years and I just loved it!!  I really wasn’t too sure about doing it.  But when I talked to Adam he was pretty sure we could make it happen.  I decided I didn’t want a door on it, because I knew my swiffer was shaped weird and I wasn’t sure the door would close with the swiffer in it.  For this project I had to purchase the inside panelling wood, the trim and the hooks.  We didn’t use much of the panelling wood, but I am excited to say I will be using the remainder of it for the RV repairs from the water damage.

• Panelling wood:  $13.96
• Trim:  $5.60
• Hooks:  $1.96
• Paint:  FREE (I had it on hand)

Floating Shelf

For years I have wanted a floating shelf in my laundry room.  We always talked about at the old house, but we moved before we ever made over the laundry room.  For the floating shelf we did it slightly different than how most tutorials show you online.  Instead of using the paneling wood around the edge we decided to putty the edge, sand it down well and then paint it.

• Wood:  FREE (some of the wood was scraps my husband had at his office and some of it was left over from the dog bed we made right after we moved)
• Paint:  FREE (I had it on hand)

Shelf Organization

During this project we changed the recipe for our laundry soap (once I know I love it, I’ll share it).  We use to make a liquid soap and my original plan was to put it in the drink dispenser.  But we changed to a powder so I had to find something else to put it in.  All the glassware was gathered from around the house.  The labels on the glassware were some labels I purchased years ago and had on hand.  I love to label everything so when I find a good deal on something I usually buy a good many of them.  The lent box was made from a pop tart box and some vinyl I had on hand (I am going to share more about it soon as well).

• Glassware:  FREE (gathered from around my house)
• Labels:  FREE (already had on hand)
• Lent Box:  FREE (made from recycled items and items on hand)

Laundry Sign

The one thing about taking out the wire shelf was where to hang the extra clothes hangers.  I had seen this laundry sign on Pinterest and I knew I wanted to make something like it.  I must say my son was a ton of help in making this.  My original plan was to use PVC pipe.  But I couldn’t find anything to use to attach the pipe to the wood.  Then Noah mentioned using a wooden dowel and from there we figured out how to make it.  The tall piece of wood was made from pieces leftover from when we had our privacy fence put up.  I picked up the dowel from Hobby Lobby and the end is also from Hobby Lobby, but I had it on hand from when I purchased it years ago for a project and only used one then.  I did the lettering with some vinyl I already had on hand.

• Wood:  FREE (leftover from privacy fence)
• Dowel:  $2.39
• End Cap:  FREE (already had on hand)
• Paint:  FREE (already had on hand)
• Vinyl:  FREE (already had on hand)

Art Work

The last thing I did was look for some art work for the room.  I debated on creating a wall art with vinyl, however, life got the best of me and I had to come up with another idea.  I had seen some cute FREE printables on Pinterest so I decided to go back and grab them for my art work and frame them.  The first printable I found was this adorable Laundry Symbol Guide from Shannon at Everyday Best.  I felt like it was fitting and I just loved the chalk look it had.  The next printables I found were these cute sayings from Haley at The Mountain View Cottage.  I didn’t use all of her printables, but I chose my favorite three to print and frame.  Now I tried to be really thrifty with my frames, but they were probably the one thing I kinda splurged on, but they were 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

• Printables:  FREE (make sure you check out the ladies blogs above if you are interested in printing your own)
• Frames:  $23.06

Finally I cleaned off the top of the refrigerator and gathered the remaining supplies that needed to stay in the laundry room and organized them in two fabric boxes I already had on hand.  I am super excited about how cute my room is and even more excited that I came in way below budget only spending $51.30!!!  A few things I didn’t note above that I spent money on was the cap for the gas line and the outlet cover and light switch cover.

If you missed any of the previous weeks make sure to check them out and don’t forget to click the link below and see everyone’s else reveals!!

WEEK 1 / WEEK 2 / WEEK 3

$100 Room Challenge ~ Laundry Room Week 3

Wow!!  I can not believe this challenge is almost over!!  In case you are just now joining us and have no clue what I am talking about, I am currently participating in the $100 Room Challenge that Erin from Lemons, Lavender and Laundry started about two years ago.  The purpose of this challenge is to make over a room (or area) in your house spending no more than $100 and and completing it within a month!!

I chose to make over my laundry room and I have been attempting to use as much stuff as possible that I already have.  You can check up on what I have done so far:

WEEK 1 / WEEK 2

This week I have focused on painting my laundry room.  When I first started this project I just “knew” I wanted to paint three walls light turquoise and an accept wall behind the washer and dryer a darker turquoise.  Then I went to the storage building to gather my paint I had on hand to find out “oops, I only have less than a quart of the light turquoise paint”.  One thing I am trying really hard to do is use up some of the paint I have on hand before I purchase more paint for this house.  So, what colors do I have on hand that will work…

PINK!!

Yes I totally said pink!!  I had almost a whole gallon of a light pink and about half gallon of a darker pink.  Alyssa’s room maybe next on my room make overs so I can use up some pink paint.  So I decided to paint three walls light pink and my accent wall light turquoise.

If you follow my Instastories then you saw lots of behind the scenes pictures and videos of my projects from this past weekend!!  If you don’t follow my Instastories you really should!

Along with painting my walls this weekend I wanted to remove the copper for the gas line that runs through the laundry room for a fire place/stove that we don’t use, do a good deep cleaning of the laundry room including cleaning my washer and dryer and replacing the dryer vent.  The dryer vent in the laundry room from the previous home owners had a rip in it and we had purchased a new one to replace it and never did it.  Also I wanted to clean the floors well since I had the washer, dryer and refrigerator out of the laundry room.  Also, I had two projects I was working on.

The first project is a between the studs broom closet.  That project has been rather interesting to complete and I am actually still working on it.  But you can see a work in progress picture of it below.  I can’t wait to have it finished and I plan to share a full tutorial on it Monday, so make sure you don’t miss that.  I still haven’t figure out how to make the urinal work so if anyone knows anything about it let me know.  I have tried using a screw driver to turn the little slotted thing and it doesn’t work.

My second project for this past weekend was a floating shelf above the washer and dryer.  The one thing we did differently than most of the tutorials online is we did not use paneling around the edge.  Instead we used pudding to fill in the holes and make everything smooth.  Then we sanded it well and I put a coat of white paint on it to match the baseboards.  Here is an in the process picture, we are not quiet done finishing it yet.  But I’ll show you finished next week during the reveal.

I have a few more projects I am working on finishing up this week and then I will be back next week for a grand reveal!!  Lets see how I am doing so far on my budget:

• Wood panel for between the stud closet:  $13.96
• Flare gas cap:  $3.39
• Light switch cover:  $0.47
• Outlet cover:  $0.47

TOTAL:  $18.29

Be sure to stay around a while and check out what everyone else has been working on by clicking the link below!!

Fall Hard for Fall Design Themes

Fall brings out the best in my design desires because, to me, it feels like a time of transition more than any other season.  Filled with options for color, theme, and expression, I love to bring out the feeling of the changing seasons with the fall decor options I choose.

Looking for fall decorating ideas on the internet is a great way to get started and sites like Shutterfly have resources to help you augment your own designs.

Some ways I like to bring fall decor to my door:

Nature’s Splendor on the Hearth

This starts with the feeling of bringing the season indoors. For the mantel, I like to use leaf garlands as a base for design along with decorative gourds in both classic pumpkin and other squash varieties. Then I top off the design with a fun photo or sign with an invitation to my guests to come in and stay a while.

Stylish Tablescapes

While the bounty of fall explodes in oranges and reds, it’s also nice to take a breath from what can be an overwhelming amount of color and create an elegant and clean table that highlights the season in style. Simple white gourds on a white tablecloth is a gorgeous way to be able to focus on what’s really important at your table: your food!

That being said, I also like to use cute place cards to make sure that everyone has all the feels at my Thanksgiving table.

Outdoor Fall Fun

Though summer is over there are wonderful ways to keep your outdoor spaces fully dressed for the season. Along with the jack-o-lanterns on my porch, I fill my planters with fall foliage. Try some straw and mini-gourds to accent the fall feeling.

The important thing is to have fun with your fall design, but also to give your design some room to breathe. With all the wonderful ways to prepare for fall, it’s easy to overdo.

My big suggestion is to make sure you have some places for the eye to rest and to focus on a few elements rather than let the cornucopia of fall tumble all around your house. Statement pieces will tell your best fall story. Have a glorious autumn!

$100 Room Challenge ~ Laundry Room Week 2

In case you missed it last week I am currently participating in the $100 Room Challenge with Erin from Lemons, Lavender and Laundry along with lots of other awesome ladies.  I decided to make over my laundry room and my goal is to use as much stuff that I already have on hand as possible.  If you missed it make sure you check out week 1.

This week I decided to declutter my laundry room.  Like I said this room has been a dumping ground for lots of stuff that just doesn’t belong.  Surprisingly after taking out all the trash and putting stuff away where it properly goes I did not have anything to sell or donate. I do actually have a good bit of stuff that needs to be organized, but that will have to wait till after the painting is done.

Here are some pictures of how it looks after taking all the extra stuff out of it.

Now that there isn’t anything behind the door it opens all the way and you can actually see the urinal.  It doesn’t currently work and we are hoping to be able to figure out what is wrong with it and how to fix it.  The girls really want to take it out, but surprisingly I don’t.  Having two sons with friends its kinda nice to have.  Especially since Noah’s bedroom is basically across the hall from the laundry room.

I do still have a good bit of stuff on the shelf above the washer and dryer.  But it will all be staying in the laundry room.

Make sure you come back next week so you can see how I decide to paint the laundry room.  My goal is to use paint I currently have on hand.  I have a good many different colors from all the projects I have done over the years and the accent wall colors the children have had.  So what color do you think I will use??

Decorating for Fall

I am so excited to be decorating our new house for fall today!!  One thing that has really helped the children with making our new house our home has been seeing our season decorations put up!!  I decided before we moved that once we moved in I was going to start decluttering my holiday decoration boxes.  Now I only have two boxes for fall!!  I am excited to say that I have used everything I had on hand.

Lets check it out!!

Coming up the front porch I have my fall color pots I made a few years ago.  I am so happy with how they have held up over the years with the weather.  I still need some mums to put in them and then I will put my “FALL” letter picks in them, but when we were at the store the other day the mums did not look too great.  Anyone who knows me knows I am not too good at keeping my mums alive so we decided we probably shouldn’t buy those.  Once I get some mums, I’ll share a picture of them on Instagram.

On my front door I have my mental pumpkin that I purchased at Hobby Lobby a year or two ago.

In my dining room my table is all decked out.  It has my red table cloth with my leaf table runner and the placemats I made a few years ago.  I have one for each child and their handprints are on them as a turkey from the year I made the placemats.  I told the children we are going to add another handprint to the placemats this year.  In the center I have my flower holder Adam and I made several years ago.  Its actually reclaimed wood from the privacy fence that blew down at our old house after a tornado.  In the flower holder I have some fall leaves with some glitter pumpkins and some blue berries to give it a pop of color!

Moving on into my office I have decorated the mantel above the fireplace.  I have a picture frame with a picture of the three big kids from the first Halloween Adam and I were together.  On either side of the picture frame I have some pumpkins that I made a few years ago.  They are just some little pumpkins that I picked up at either Dollar Tree or Hobby Lobby and then used stickers to put the children’s names on them.  Then I laid some of the lose blue berries between the pumpkins to tie in the color in my dining room.  I do want some fall color flowers to put in my vase Noah made me for my birthday.

I have some pumpkins I am going to spray paint and put on the fireplace.  Once I get that done I’ll share a picture of it on Instagram, so make sure you keep an eye out for it.

This year I have two tables to decorate, and I am so glad!!  In my kitchen I have my tan table cloth with my orange placemats.  Then across the back of the table I have my cornucopia with some veggies in it and glitter pumpkins on either side.  I have had most of this decor for years!!  I think the veggies may need a freshing up this year or next.  Maybe I will get a chance to do that this year and I will share it with you.

In my living room, I have my light up pumpkin sitting on the end table on a leaf placemat that matches the table runner in my dining room.  I have had this pumpkin since I was younger than the big kids.  I am so glad I still have it!!  I have not used it for several years, but this year I did!!

Finally under our TV we have this gas fireplace/stove (its for sale if you want it) and on it I have used some of the leaf placemats to cover the top.  Then I have a picture frame with a picture of all four children from a photo shot we did a few years ago with Sarah Pharris.  I have this metal pumpkin with light up tea candles in it and a glitter pumpkin sitting between the two.

I just love how our house looks for fall!!  Be sure to check by later this month or the first of October when I add in our Halloween decorations.  I like to put out my fall stuff in September and keep it out through Thanksgiving.  But for the month of October I like to add in my Halloween themed decorations.

$100 Room Challenge ~ Laundry Room Week 1

As you all know we moved earlier this year and to say this house has been a disaster would be a huge understatement.  Did you hear our roof is leaking in two place also??  Yeah, something else to add to the growing list of problems.  But I am still trying very hard to make this house into our home as you have seen from my list in my Thursday To Do series.  So when I met Erin from Lemons, Lavender and Laundry I was super excited to join her in the $100 Room Challenge.

This month I am working to make over our laundry room and the budget is no more than $100!!  I am actually hoping to spend far less than that and to utilize much of what I already have on hand.

As you can tell this room needs some major work.  I know you are thinking how can I possibly spend less than $100 to make this room look nice and inviting??  I am going to show you, I actually already have a plan for what I am going to work on each week this month to make this room look nice and inviting!!  I promise you will want to come to my house and do laundry afterwards or maybe use my urinal!!!

During this next week I plan to completely declutter this room.  Since we moved in this room has been a dumping grounds for lots of stuff that just doesn’t have a place.  So all of that extra stuff is coming out of the room this week.  I am going to start with a trash can for the trash, a donate/sell box and box for stuff that needs to go somewhere else.

If you aren’t familiar with the $100 Room Challenge check out Erin’s post sharing some of  her favorite reveals of the past $100 Room Challenge.  Make sure you check out everyone else’s work in the links below and come back next week to see what I plan on doing during the second week of making over my laundry room!!

RV Renovations ~ Before Tour

Earlier this year we were homeless for about a week between selling our previous house and closing on the purchase of our current house.  During that time we were struck with what to do.  Our family is rather large (four children, four dogs, one cat and a goldfish).  After some research we decided to purchase an RV.  Adam and I have wanted an RV for quiet some time so it wasn’t a total loss for us.  Originally we were suppose to be homeless for two weeks and finding a hotel large enough that would allow us to keep all of our pets was more costly than what we spent purchasing our RV.

We knew when we purchased it there was some stuff we wanted to do to it.  But after living in it for a week, there is even more we know that we want to do to it.

Here are some pictures of how it currently looks:

We have lots we want to do and I am sure as we get in there and get to work we will learn of more and more we want to do.

Some things to get started include:

1. Remove the sofa bed
2. Paint
3. Remove the carpet and put down new flooring
4. Redo the wall into the bedroom so its a complete wall and door
5. Take out everything gas
6. Redo all the kitchen
7. Recover the cushions for the dining table
8. Make curtains
9. Replace the awning
10. Repair the bathroom

Needless to say I have a lot of work on my plate.  But I am looking forward to moving it and getting everything done.

School Room Tour

I am SO excited to be sharing our school room/dining room tour with you today!!  Now yes this is also our dining room and we do eat dinner in this room, but we eat breakfast and lunch in the kitchen.  This room is mostly used for school and I must say I LOVE it!! I could just sit in this room all day long.

When we first started out we had a lot of work to do to this room.  You can see that full list here.  But as you can tell we ended up going with a totally different paint color than we originally looked at that day.  Last week I was actually talking about purchasing a rug for Bradley’s area, but I decided to wait because I am about to get rid of a piece of furniture in his room and when I do I am going to use the rug that is under it for his area.  So I do still have two minor changes to make to this room, but there is no telling how long it will be before I do those things:

1. Purchase Three New Outlet Covers (I don’t love these outlet covers and they are pricy)
2. Replace Light Fixture (I will probably replace a lot of light fixtures all at once)

So on to the tour!

This is the widest angle I can get to show as much of the room as possible, but I feel like it gives you a good feel for the room.  We do have a lot of natural light coming in which I absolutely love!!

On the big wall in our school room is where I have all our dry erase boards and a lot of our posters.  These posters include Math topics, History and Bible topics and Language Arts topic.  Each year I add to these posters and while I thought about taking some of them down the truth is we refer to them often and before long Bradley will be learning some of this stuff.

Also on this wall and the wall that backs up to our hall is Bradley’s corner and posters.  I try to keep all of his books and supplies we are using for that week all on this bookcase.  It really makes completing school work much easier when I don’t have to look for stuff.

Here is a close up of his bookcase.  I got the baskets on the top that hold the markers at Dollar Tree, the black and white boxes are from Hobby Lobby and the mesh baskets are from Target.  I got the Paw Patrol lap desk from Kohl’s from their Back to School goodies!!  I did receive this product for free.  Also the red basket on the floor next to the bookcase full of books came from Dollar Tree.

At the other end of our big wall is a bookcase Adam built about five years ago.  This bookcase has been used for so many different purposes.  First it was in the girls’ room, then Alyssa’s room, then the boys’ room and now the school room!!  It holds a lot of Bradley’s books that are not pulled for this week.  One shelf hold some of my supplies since I don’t have a desk.  On top of it I have two bins (puzzles and sensory bin), my laminator, paper binder and microscope.

On the opposite wall is our cube shelving.  This is where I store all the big kids’ curriculum that is not an ebook.  Each of them have a basket that sits on top of the shelving which holds all their binders, notebooks, Bibles, books, kindles and pencil pouches.  During school they just grab the baskets and sit them on the table so they can easily access everything.  I picked these baskets up from Dollar Tree.  Also you can see the pencil holder on the end.  It is 4 little baskets from the dollar aisle at Target.  I used hot glue to hold them together and filled them with pencils, pens, markers, color pencils and crayons so the big kids can easily access whatever they need without getting up.  I installed a hook on the end of this short wall for our library bag.  Under our library bag is a trash can I picked up from Wal-Mart and a basket from Dollar Tree for our literature books.

I used my silhouette to create the wording “Train up a child in the way he should go Proverbs 22:6” for above the window.  I will say decals is not my favorite thing to create, but I love the way this turned out.  Hopefully with a few more projects the transfer tape and I will get along better.  So if you have any tips about transfer tape let me know!!  Also you can see my valance I made for the window.  I used some fabric I had on hand from when Bradley was in kindermusik.  It is the alphabet and I thought just prefect for the school room.

If you have any questions about anything you see just let me know.  As you can see I like to shop at Dollar Tree and the Dollar Aisle at Target for baskets!!

House Tour BEFORE

Welcome to our new house!!  We have LOTS to do everywhere, but I wanted to go ahead and share the whole house with you and then as I get each room done I will share each room with you finish and with much more detail.  Now remember these are real life pictures.  We have not cleaned up and prepped our house for photos.  So don’t be surprised when some rooms are a mess and there is still stuff to put unpack in room.

This is our living room. See I told you, dark chocolate walls. Yuck!! We still have a bookcase to build, Adam’s desk to finish putting together and boxes to unpack.

But looking down the hall you can see our house is much larger than our previous house.

This is our master bedroom. Again painting! We want a new bed but that has to wait right now because of our being homeless for a week situation. Our loving dog ripped our bedspread one of the first weeks in our new house so we need a new bedspread too. I hung pictures up, but not totally sure where I want them I put LOTS of nail holes in the walls.

This is our master bath. It really is lovely. I just need to paint ((and we can’t agree on a color)) and do some decorating.

This is our laundry room, and it needs some major shelving and organizing.

And our pantry, at our old house we had a huge walk in pantry and at this house we had to make the closet across the hall from our laundry room our pantry.  Adam actually added this shelving since we moved in.  I still need to do some organizing and painting.

This is Noah’s room. This paint drives me more crazy than any room in the house. It’s like they did touch up painting with another color and there are a MILLION nail holes in his walls from them.

This is our dining room/school room. This color isn’t completely killing me, but the so many different colors all coming together in the foyer are and its a little too dark for my taste.

This is my office. I do love that I am right by the school room and basically in the middle of the house when I am working.

This is our kitchen. I have no clue what they were thinking with the two different colors. It reminds me of Christmas. The refrigerator won’t come out. We tried to pull it out the first week we were here and it’s stuck so…

This is Taylor’s room. Her room probably has the least issues.

This is the girls’ bathroom. We are going to get rid of the jetted tub and replace it with a tub shower combo because they need a shower and that won’t be as wide so it will give more room in the bathroom.

This is Bradley’s room. Yes he got the biggest room. He has the most stuff and the biggest bed.

This is the boys’ bathroom. It’s going to be completely gutted and redone.

This is Alyssa’s room. She has the room with the biggest set of blinds and they are broken.

That’s our new house!! Make sure to check back as I work on making each room into ours and share it with you here!!