Category: Small Projects

Small, but noticeable ways to improve your home.

Bathroom Business

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

Not that kind of business, though.  We’ve managed to cross another item off our to do list.  You’ve seen our new cabinet doors and my office drawers.  The office drawers took a little longer to install than planned, so we put off finishing the bathroom and laundry room.  Last weekend, I prodded Ben until he gave in we found some time to finish the bathroom.

Before I share the ‘after’ pictures, I want to give a little explanation on how we install drawer fronts.  First, we measure the width and height to find the center.  Then, either make a template or mark the drawer pulls on the drawer front.  Drill holes in your drawer front, but not the drawer.  Use screws to attach the front to the drawer.

If you’re working on a drawer stack, this allows you to attach everything from the front, make sure all faces are level and spacing between drawers is even.  We use nickels as spacing guides for our drawer fronts.  Start from the bottom drawer to stack the remaining drawers on top.  This way, as long as your drawers are even and square, your stack will be level.  Once you like the arrangement, screw the front in place from inside the drawer.  Remove the screws from the front and drill through the rest of the drawer to install the handles.

Now, we’re ready for the main event.

Remember the before?   Yes, those openings bugged the crap out of me for the past year.

The center is a false front and the ends are functioning drawers.

We chose oil rubbed bronze drawer pulls to tie the faucet finishes together.

Towels and extra toilet paper are stored below on the open shelving, giving the perfect balance of large and small storage.

Yep, lookin’ good, if you ignore the pile o’ tile and a saw in the corner.

What is your favorite type of bathroom storage?  Drawers and cabinets?  All drawers?  Drawers and shelving?  Maybe your have a medicine cabinet for small items and don’t need drawers?  Is your bathroom filled with products?

Magazines by Month

Published on by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

I have subscribed to Martha Stewart Living for three and a half years with no sign of stopping.  When we finished my office bookshelf, I started storing the glossies vertically, arranged January through December of each year.  Adding newer issues to the group was a pain, because I had a bookend holding the group tightly together.  If I dragged that bookend, my shelf got scuffed and scratched.  When I wanted to flip through old issues, I had to search through to find the month and pull each out (and put it back).  You see the bottom left side?  All magazines.

Tightly grouped with no breathing room.

I don’t know about you, but when I look back at magazines, I’m usually searching for inspiration for a particular month, season or holiday.  Then, I figured out a way to solve my problem.  And yes, it’s extremely technical, life changing and I’m the first person to have thought of this, said dripping with sarcasm.

Why not store magazines in a magazine file?  Huh, crazy thought.  But wait, there’s more.  Order now to double your offer!  I decided to devote one magazine file to each month, for a total of twelve.  Not only does this system save me time searching for, removing and putting away each magazine, but I have room to grow.

I plan for wiggle room when possible, either in shelving or my pant size.  Hah.

How do you store/sort your magazines?  Maybe you had a brilliant storage solution for another area of your home?  How many subscriptions do you have?  What’s your favorite read?

Cool in the Shade

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

Have you found a great lamp base with an ugly shade at a thrift store?  I did, for ten bucks.  The base is great, but the shade has seen better days.

One support was broken, leaving the shade lopsided.  The bright teal, stained pleated fabric shade wasn’t doing it for me either.

So, I took the shade, er, matters into my own hands.  We had a small scrap of canvas left over from sewing a drop cloth curtain for our laundry room.  It was perfect.  Neutral and free!  I set to work on transforming the lampshade.  While my iron was heating up, I ripped all the teal fabric off.

I measured the circumference and height of my shade and cut a piece of canvas slighty larger, keeping one finished edge of the dropcloth.  Using iron on tape, I hemmed the edges to fit.

I clipped the extra fabric from the corners to cut bulk.

Now I was ready to start on the shade.  To cover the shade, first I taped my unfinished edge in place.

Wrap the fabric around the shade, smoothing out along the way.  Tape the finished end in place and in a few other places, just to prevent movement.  Hot glue the unfinished edge to the shade. 

Run a thin bead of hot glue between the edge of the lampshade and the fabric.  Press down to secure.

When you reach the finished edge, hot glue in place.  I was almost finished with my shade.  I still had to fix the broken support.  I dug a bamboo skewer out of the drawer and cut it to fit in the shade.  Then, I added a dollop of hot glue to the shade to secure the skewer.  Worked like a charm!

I popped the shade on the base and it looked like a million bucks.  And we finally have a lamp for the basement bedroom.

Of course, there are tons of options to update a lampshade, like dye, ribbon or coffee filters, to name a few.  Have you updated an old shade?  Maybe you’ve transformed a thrift store lamp or two?  We’d love to see your ideas, so share a link, too.

P.S.  I turn a quarter of a century old today, maybe I’ll have some b-day goodies to share with you…

In the Works

Published on by Our Humble Abode22 Comments

Gallery walls are all the rage right now.  We already have one in our main level hallway.  I’ve been scouring Etsy lately to find the perfect art to fill a gallery wall in our basement.  I’ve finally found enough art to fill the wall.  Now, I’m fiddling with the arrangement.  Something asymmetrical containing all my bird, feather and tree art.  To find the perfect arrangement, I started moving the frames around on the floor in front of the wall.  One layout I liked, the other I loved.

Option number one:

Option number 2 is the winner!

With the layout decided, I traced each frame on newspaper and marked where to nail.  Seriously, this saves so. much. time.  After determining the center of the arrangement and the center of the wall, I taped my templates up. 

My frame arrangement as well as my drawing were close by for reference. 

Stay tuned for the final reveal.  In the mean time, I’m wondering how many of you have or would like to have a gallery wall?  Where do you have it?  Sprucing up a hall?  Meandering down the stairs?  What fills those frames?  Family photos?  Travel mementos?  Etsy art?

No Longer Homeless

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

Not me, but the cute little deer hooks I bought back in December.  Originally, I thought they would live in our entry.  Unfortunately, they were too deep and the door would have crashed into them.  Sadly, the little guys sat in the closet for months.  Finally, a light bulb went off.  We need towel hooks in the basement bathroom!  Now, the dudes have a home.  One lives by the bathtub.

He looks happy, no?

He’ll be happier if/when I get around to painting the screws to match.  His brother lives by the shower.  Well, where a shower will eventually be.

So, our friends are back, to stay.  A nice manly touch to the man cave bathroom.  Still have to find hooks for the entry.  Have you seen cute hooks lately?  Just pretty?  Animals?  Share your secrets.