Projects Around The House

After a very dry winter here in the Bay Area, we were finally rewarded with a week's worth of non-stop rain. I just put a bunch of plants in the ground recently, so the rain is good for them. Grow little plants, grow!

I have this problem of starting new projects around the house but taking forever to finish them. And I keep telling myself that I will blog once they are done, that's why I wait so long between each blog post. Anyhoo, I am a fan of IKEA that's no secret. Our whole house was practically built with IKEA products; cabinets, floors, bathroom vanities, you name it. Recently, I purchased a couple of IKEA shelves simply because I love the way they looked (and one can always use more shelves). Getting a project started is never as easy as it sounds. First I have to decide which wall these shelves are going to go on, then whether to paint or stain, then find the time to paint, wait for the paint to dry and last, the little window of opportunity when there's someone to look after little D while we get the work done. 

Just such an opportunity presented itself this weekend. Justin and I struggled to put up the shelves while my dad watched the D man. I am very happy with the result and can't wait to put up the next set of shelves in another month or so!

I bought the Ekby Osten/Ekby Oxie wall shelf for the side panels. The laminate shelving was sold separately and would have cost $50 in addition to the panels. I needed deeper shelves and wanted to paint them. I opted to get some unfinished Pine shelves from Home Depot and had them cut the wood to size (and saved money!)

Ekby Östen/Ekby Öxie wall shelf

 I used some leftover paint but changed my mind about the color. The great thing about paint is it's easy to change. 

I bought a bottle of black spray paint hoping to avoid brush marks. It was not easy getting good coverage because our back yard is kind of windy. I felt like half of the paint coming out of the bottle was blown away on the grass. This was what it looked like after one coat. I put on three coats and couple coats of matte clear sealant which actually gave it an eggshell finish. 

This photo was taken after I realized there was no "before" picture but I was too lazy to take it down for a real before photo. You get the idea.  

We didn't have to use wall anchors because this wall is covered in wood siding behind the sheetrock. This wall used to be an exterior wall. I like the black and white combo and we already have lots of black scattered around the living room. 

My first attempt at filling up the shelves.  

All the books used to sit on top of the credenza. Lately, little D has been able to stand on his tippy toes and pull all the books down. I figure it was time to relocate them to a place he can't reach. Ha!

Rearranged and added the plant that also used to reside on top of the credenza. But little D loved to pull on the plant, so I had to find a new home for it too. This plant had to be easily reachable so I could water it regularly.

Another view of the new shelves!

I was on a painting binge for a bit there and painted one of the two tables/stools we've had for fives years. Guess what? They were from IKEA too! But, have since been discontinued. 

After a quick sanding, I sprayed one thin coat of primer on because that was the only primer I had around. 

I decided to experiment with color blocking.

I think this turned out okay, but it might not stay this way for long. I painted a coat of oil based polyurethane and it turned a little yellow after it dried. I should have used water based, lesson learned.