harmonizing bedroom dressers and night stands

Part of the fun/charm of moving in with a partner for the first time is the combing of your worldly possessions that, often, don’t match.  Between the 2 of us, we managed to have 2 night stands and 2 dressers.  Every one of them had its own style & color.  I’ve wanted to do something about it for a long while now.

Finally, I decided to pickup 2 shades of blue paint in the same family so they will look cohesive, without being overly matchy.

BUDGET:

• $24 for  paint
  

• $3 for sand paper
  

• $0 for old dressers and night stands
  

TIME:

• small night stands took about 1.5-2 hours EACH!  sanding really took a while.

• dressers took about 2-4 hours each with all the sanding, prepping, and painting.

Home-made Glühwein (German mulled wine) packets

Mulled wine, variations of which are popular around the world, is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. (quoted from Wikipedia)

I was first introduced to glühwein when studying abroad in Germany in a fall.  As the holiday season approached, I started going to craft/gift fairs and many were held outdoor.  The aroma of cinnamon, orange, wine, and the warmth of a hot drink in hand was a great companion to browse through the stands in the cold.

This holiday season, I wanted to introduce some of my L.A. friends to this drink.

BUDGET:

• $4 for 60 tea packets
  

• $10 for all spices purchased

• $0 for twine, business card papers already had.
  

TIME:

• about 2 hours for 15 packets.  Faster once mastered the work flow

Step 1: lining up the raw materials.

The packets were sold originally to contain loose tea leaves so that drinkers can make their own tea bags without having to deal with the mess of loose leaves in the mug.

The spices I wanted to include were: whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and dried orange peels.

Step 2:  I used AVERY Business Cards 8376 that I would print instructions on.

I found this really cute printable tag from Ez of Creature Comfort blog.  I used one side for the gift recipient and the other for the instructions on how to use this packet.

Then I cut out each tag to shape and drilled a hole on top to tied one end of the twine.  I then attached another end to the packet.

Step 3:  Stuff all spices into the packets.

To use it, you basically will steep this packet in inexpensive red wine, water, and sugar on low heat for a while.  For extra flavor, add fresh orange slices+juice, and splash or brandy.

Lastly, I gathered few packets into 1 colored mesh bag to be given away as presents.

Toilet Paper Rolls turned wall art

I saw this post on Design *Sponge of this quick project from Tali and thought I can use some home made art to decorate my wall space

BUDGET:

• $0 for toilet paper rolls.  This wasn’t hard but just time consuming to gather all the rolls
  

• $0 for scissors, pen, ruler, paint, glue, staple that I already had

TIME:

• 2 hour

Step 1: Collect your rolls and take off the remaining toilet paper pieces

Step 2:  cut each roll to roughly 5 equal parts

Step 3:  arrange the pieces in different patterns.

I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, so I just started to play around.

Step 4:  painting the rolls with different colors.

I glued some of the mini rolls together first before I started painting.  That wasn’t too smart.  I would’ve been better off with my paint job if I had painted the rolls first, cut them, then arrange into the pattern I want, then glue them.

Step 5:  After glue and paint had dried, I used thumb tags to arrange the rolls on the wall.

A month later…

Hanging Wine Labels

Yay for another post, finally!

Since the wine collection slowly expands in our apartment, I realized there was no good way to know much about the wine by just looking at the bottle.  Most likely, there isn’t any information on the bottle itself, and sometimes the bottles would come with a nice write-up that’s on another sheet of paper.  With storing our wine in boxes stashed inside of our wall closet to keep them cool,  locating the bottle itself AND the write-up paper can often be very laborious.  I always thought there has to be an easier way to do it and finally I had the ‘ah-ha’ moment.  This is a fun, quick weekend project.

BUDGET:

• $0 for old, unused hanging folders & shipping stickers
  

• $0 for screwdriver, needle, strings

TIME:

• 1.5 hour

I found some old hanging folders in my overly crowded stationary box and old UPS shipping stickers.

STEP 1: Creating custom size labels using MS Word.

Using the Envelope & Label function, you can create new labels, specifying the size you want.  I went with 2″W x 3″H.  After setting the label size template, I searched for the fonts & icons I want.  Fonts are such fun things to browse through

I also wanted simple, clean wine glasses icons on my label so I can tell if it’s a red or white wine without pulling the bottles all the way out from the storage boxes.  Then type in the information.  I used the write-up that already came with the bottles, and/or information I found online.  Mostly, I wanted to know about “what it will taste like”, “drink it now or open it when I turn 40?”

STEP 2:  Print labels, attach onto old folders, and cut out the individual labels

This is a pretty straight forward step.  Use your imagination.

STEP 3:  Drill 2 holes for the string to go through

I used a small screwdriver for this.

STEP 4:  Use a needle to thread the string through.  Tie knots on the back of the holes

Insert from the back side of the label to the front.  Tie the first knot on the back side.  Then go back through the 2nd hole.  Adjusting to the desired length, then tie the 2nd knot.  Cut off excess.

STEP 5:  Put the label on the bottle.

Ta-da!

Plant shelf

BUDGET:

• $0 for shelf  (already had)
  

• $0 for paint (left-over )

TIME:

• 1 hour

The shelf I had painted previous was actually only 1/2 of the original shelf.

The other half had been sitting on the side of our dining room, looking quite confused without a purpose.  We had used it to just pile on stuff that didn’t have a home and hide all the homeless stuff in the big closet before guests would come.  Finally, an ah-ha moment came.

I am going to put my herb plants on it.  The plants have been sitting on the cabinet in the kitchen, toward the side that’s hard to reach and getting too much direct sun.

I painted the middle shelves the same brown color as the dining chair.  Then, I tried using the blue paint I had for the side panels.  The blue I have is really too light and looked weird on a wood shelf in the dining room.  I then performed custom blending that I’m so *good* at… NOT!

Fortunately, gradually adding the darker paint into the lighter paint was the key to control the color change.  It also created better blending.  I’m quite happy with the shade of blue it ended up…. matches with the new blue carpet we got for the living room.  maybe some day I will do a post of apartment tour.

Until then… our newly trimmed herb plants are sitting quite nicely on the painted shelf.  The biggest pot is the newest addition — Tomato plant!  I can’t wait to start harvesting.

Small table/shelf for the Water Closet

BUDGET:

• $3 or $0… part of a large chunk of stuff I got from a guy in a moving sale
  

• $0 for paint (left-over )

TIME:

• <1 hour

A new feature in this apartment that I never had in any previous apartments was the separate bathroom (with tub and sink) and water closet (just the toilet).  I was told it is a very “San Francisco” and “charming” characteristics.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I bring reading materials when I “do my business”.  There’s got to be a place to set down the materials when you need to.  However, with our small space, it needs to be something with small foot print.

SO, I’ve been on a search for that perfect little table.  Finally, over the past weekend, I found it in a moving sale!

It was used outdoor with planters on top of it.  There was quite a bit of rust, especially on the tray.

After cleaning & painting, ta-da!

I left the pole section the original color to provide a little contrast.  Now we have  a little “table” in the water closet!

Small Chalk board in the kitchen

BUDGET:

• $0 for plywood board (picked up at a winery somewhere)
  

• $0 for paint (left-over + generous donation from friend)

• $0.25 for wood to make holder (guy at store felt that he couldn’t just give it to me for free)

TIME:

• <1 hours

I’ve been wanting a chalk board since I’ve read various blog posts about other people’s.  My friend, M, made a huge one in her own dining room and had some left over paint.  She was nice to offer it to me.

Then, I wanted a place to hold the chalks.  I kind of envisioned a pretty simple thing, so I got a simple piece of wood from a store that I won’t list its name.  I thought I had paid too much for the amount of wood I got, and it was basically part of their scrap pile.

In any case, I wiped the plywood board clean first.  One of the sides was fairly smooth, so I didn’t bother sanding it.  However, I did have to cut it to fit in a panel that in the kitchen. 

Then, I began to paint 2 coats of chalk paint on the board.  I waited until the 1st coat dried before applying the 2nd.  Quite pleased with the result.

The scrap wood was too wide/long for the width of the board, so more sawing.  The saw was not very easy to use.  It vibrated quite a bit, and I couldn’t hold on to the wood too well.  The cut line could’ve been much smoother, but I guess it has a more ‘rustic’ look to it.  Then I painted it with left over light blue paint.

Lastly, I painted on some “vine & leaves” on the top of the plywood board where there was a small crack.  I looked REALLY HARD for a stencil pattern online but couldn’t find any.  After debating for a long while between making my own stencil board first vs. free hand the design, I decided to go free hand.  Well, in all honesty, the result is pretty… from afar’.  I hope no one examine it too closely when they look at it.  Rather, I hope people will just be impressed by the fact that I MADE a chalkboard. :p

Attached the “chalk holder” to the bottom of the board, and nailed the board to the wall.  Here we have a chalk board in the kitchen!

and a zoomed-out look:

Updating bookshelf + arranging books by colors

BUDGET:

• $0 for bookshelf (inherited from an old roommate)
  

• $0 for paint (left-over)

TIME:

• 2.5 hours

Our apartment was painted with a lot of cream wall colors & white trims through out.  It’s nice and  serene and makes white furniture disappear.

I have inherited a large white bookshelf from an old roommate years back.  It’s a nice size and decently built  but definitely showing its age. While brainstorming what color to paint it with by using what I already have, nice boyfriend suggested “grey”!  Perfect.  I have black, and I have light blue and white.  Isn’t grey just black mixed with a lighter color?

So the great mixing process began.  Hand mixing paint colors reminded me of mixing baking batter without recipe.  You have your base of whatever already in the bowl.  Then, you slowly pour in the additional ingredient.  Too much, your cake won’t rise.  Too little, you cake tastes funny.  My mixing bowl looked like this: 

Oh, forgot to mention that before any paint job, you need to prep your surface.  That means sanding, wiping with damp towel, and taping the edges so you don’t paint over the area that you don’t want to paint.  This is also my least favorite part of the painting.  It’s time consuming, and I’m much more interested in taking my paint brush to the object.

I decided to go with grey on the exterior to the bookshelf while leaving the interior white so the color wheel that I am going to organize the books by will stand out.  To be clear, I didn’t invent this method.  I saw it on a HGTV show sometime and have been wanting to try it.  Here is my top 3 reasons why I think it’s a good idea:

1. Visually Appealing: organized colors make the space look more thought out, instead of just piling books on your shelf.  Would’ve been even cooler if I had a horizontal shelf.




2. Discovering new books: sure, organizing books by subject makes perfect sense.  I had been doing that for as far as I can remember.  It’s great for finding a book that you already know you’re looking for.  But what happens to the other less-favored ones?  When will they ever get read if you don’t pick it up?  This way or organization throws you in an unfamiliar order and forces you to pick up more books.




3. Why not?  I’m not operating a bookstore or a library here:  It’s really not like I have seas of books that I need to reference to all the time.  Besides, it’s in my own space.  As long as the 2 people living here are happy with the arrangement, it’s all good.

Adding a small detail to make it more interesting, I also painted the very bottom black.  It kind of reminds me of the ‘exposed legs’ of couches/sofa/loveseat.

After painting, I left the shelf to dry for hours.  I touched up some of the backing with white paint I had because there were scratch marks.  The colors weren’t really a match.  Oh well… the books will color them.

Shelf finally dried.  I sanded it with super fine steel wool for the finished look.  Then the great arranging began.  I arranged the books by colors first.  Then within the piles of the same color, I divided them by shades.  Having a color wheel image near by was pretty helpful.

Here is the finished look!

Making a Basic Upholstered Head Board

BUDGET:

• $12 for 1/4″ plywood

• $20 for fabric

• $27 for extra loft batting

TIME:

• about 30 min for putting it together.

• probably an hour of shopping

there's quite a bit of ranting & rambling in this post.  be warned.

Our bed recently got upgraded from sitting on the floor to having pallets underneath.  Yep, pallets.  Why pallets, you ask?  Well, the basic metal bed frame squeaks & I always have a fear of falling through the middle.  So, I prefer to have my bed sitting on a solid foundation, i.e. the floor, or platform.  Since our bedroom is large but not quite big enough for a platform bed, we kept brainstorming.

I initially grabbed the first pallet when we went wine tasting. My grand vision was to make a headboard out of 2 pallets.  Wouldn’t that be really rustic and creative?  1 pallet grew to 2 (thanks to a willing and helpful bf).  Unfortunately, the 2 did not match!!! oh darn!  1 pallet was just too narrow standing behind the bed by itself.

After more pallet hunting & brainstorming later, I decided to make a upholstered headboard instead.

Trekking out to Colma from SF (I know, such a LONG 8 mile drive!), I was happily browsing away in Jo-Ann.  I had decided that I needed 72″ of fabric.  Not bad.  However, I somehow thought the prices I saw was per foot, instead of per yard (yes, quite silly, but that just showed how inexperienced I am at buying fabric… and also made me miss being in a metric-based country, where calculation was simply moving the decimal point!).

Anyhoo…, foam also turned out to be quite expensive (well, expensive in the sense that I was still in my false yardage calculation state of mind).  I took the advice of a store staff to go with the extra-loft/thick batting and get the thickness by using a super large sheet and fold it a few times.

Finally I got all my components home. 

The assembly process was surprisingly quick.

STEP 1: wipe down the plywood.  It was pre-cut at Home Depot when I bought it.  They will do the first 2 cuts for free if you need it.

STEP 2: iron the fabric.  ahhh, pretty coral pattern.  I think it’s not too girl-y.

STEP 3: fold the batting as many times as I could to cover the board & staple it.  I did this process quicker than I expected and had too much fun to take pictures.

STEP 4: staple the fabric all over it.  Try to make the fabric as smooth as I could.  Ta-da!  I got a headboard.

First try on decoupage

BUDGET:

• $5 for mod podge
  

• $0 for paint, wrapping paper, and drawers/shelf (left over)

TIME:

• about 30 min.

I originally got this item from a neighbor who was packing up after their garage sale.  They didn’t want to carry it home, and I thought I could do something interesting with it.

First, I followed the instructions found on the internet.  I wiped the chest(?) down, applied mod podge on top. Then I put some at the back side of my wrapping paper and carefully applied it.  I thought this was going to be a very straight forward simple project.  However, the paper started to bubble up quickly no matter how much I tried to smooth out the surface.   I tried pushing with my fingers, ruler, and credit card.  It was no use.  The surface still looked quite blochy. Like this ->

Oh yuck.  That was ugly.

So I removed it and contemplated what to do.  Luckily, on the same day, Whimsygirl gave me a roll of “wall paper” from Target.  I figured I’d try decoupage again with thicker paper.

That stuck better. 

Then I painted the front of the drawers brown with left over brown paint.