Bench Sneak Peek

Hey guys! 

This is a little sneak peek.

Ray and I went garage sale-ing yesterday and actually didn't find anything! We didn't even find one garage sale! But on the way to the grocery store I happened to peek into the thrift store window and saw this little beauty! 

After talking the lady out of selling me the entire bedroom set I walked away with this headboard for $10!  Soon it will be on its way to becoming an awesome patio bench! Stay tuned for the how to!

The Evolution of the Closet

The closet...
For many women the most important room in the house.
A closet can sell a house.
A closet can be the basis of many arguments between a man and a woman.
A closet can be a stressful disorganized mess.

OR

A closet can be a place of peace, organization, and convenience...
If it takes up an entire room!

When Ray and I moved into a house together I gave up my 10 foot long closet at my parents house.  It was glorious.  It had customized shelves and four doors.  It had no trouble holding all of my clothes and shoes.
Our new house's closets are not that glorious. But it does have four bedrooms! So I thought, why not create a CLOSET ROOM!

It started by one trip to Home Depot to buy a 6 foot closet rod and hangers. I mounted this on one of the long walls.

In the actual closet of the room I added some shoe racks from target.  All of my shoes didn't fit so I attached a hanging shoe rack to the end of the closet rod.

On a small wall I mounted a mirror and framed it by two small shelves.  This is where I keep my make up and hair products.  This way I don't have to take up the bathroom in the morning. 

(This is the real reason I won over Ray with the closet room idea.)

I also had to add our guest bed in this room since we were doing some construction in one of the other bedrooms.  This room went through a couple more changes.  I eventually moved the bed into another room and replaced it with a pull out couch.  Then I decided to move then entire closet room to another room.  

Ray loves how much I re arrange our house... NOT!

The house we live in was Ray's Grandma's house.  In her elder years she was un able to go to the basement to do her laundry.  Ray's dad moved laundry hook ups upstairs into one of the bedrooms.  At first I thought this was odd and didn't like the hook ups in the middle of our wall but then one day it hit me...

WASHER AND DRYER IN THE CLOSET ROOM!

I have awesome parents and grandparents and they were able to get us a new washer and dryer for Christmas.  While waiting for the appliances to arrive I went to work on moving! 

After relocating the 6 foot closet rod and adding an additional 3 foot rod below I decided I didn't like that all of the furniture was mis matched. So I grabbed some purple spray paint and went to work. I also added a new armoire. See how I made it here.

I created a custom shoe rack for the closet to hold all of my shoes.  Check out the How-To here!

Here is the finished result: 

I also made a little spot for my cat, Muca. 

Entertainment Center to Armoire

Recently my parents were getting rid of their old entertainment center and I was in need of another dresser for my closet room. Since I am a big fan of FREE I worked on figuring out a way it could work.  

Here is the before picture of the very 90s entertainment center:

First I took off the doors and all of the hardware, except the rollers for the drawers because they were on the inside and I didn't plan on painting the inside. Then I lightly sanded all of the places I planned on painting. 

Next I went to town with some purple spray paint.  I used about 6 cans! 

I would suggest not to put your face too close to small spaces where you're shooting compressed air into. I definitely got a face full of purple paint! 

Here's what it looks like after paint!

I then found some cool chevron plastic tubs at WalMart to add to the pull out shelves.  I decided I liked the open look of the door so I didn't cover it with anything.  

On the side I mounted one of my mirrors with hooks for my hats and some hooks for belts. 

In the end, I was very pleased with the transformation.  It holds as much, or more than a normal size dresser and it keeps small things (like socks and undies) separated better than big dresser drawers! 

The best part? I only bought spray paint and plastic drawers! 

DVD Shelves

So the entertainment center still didn't have enough room for all of our DVDs.  For the past year or so they were piled high on a cheap-o WalMart shelf. After redoing the living room they really stuck out like a sore thumb.

So one Sunday Craft Day I decided to do something about it!

I swung by Home Depot and grabbed some 1x6 common board. 

First I cut it in 2 foot sections.  I also cut 6 inch sections then cut them diagonally to create triangles.  These will be the sides of the shelves.

To assemble one shelf I used one 2 foot section and two 6 inch triangles.

Here are a couple of tricks I use when using a drill.

1. I pre screw everything! It is so much easier to put two screws in something flat and then I don't have to worry about holding screws when I am attaching two pieces. 

2. I brace pieces up against the edge of my tool bench. I don't have a ton of strength behind a drill and I am not coordinated at all!  In this picture you can see how I brace the triangle piece in between the wall and the shelf. 

Below you can see how I put the shelf together.  I wanted to put the triangle sides on the shelf so the DVDs would not fall off. 

Now I could have stopped here... but I didn't.  I wanted to add a decorative trim piece on the front of the shelf.  I found these in the trim section by the crown molding.  I cut these in 2 foot sections and used Gorilla Wood Glue to attach them to the front of the shelves. 

Then I put an extra piece of wood that I had to hold the trim pieces down while the glue dried. 

Last but not least, a coat of blue paint. This is the same paint I used on the inside of the entertainment center. 

Here is the final product! 

Here is a close up of the super cute trim piece. 

And here is the before and after shot. You can see how much nicer the shelves look!

Entertainment Center

Ray and I had a massive TV.  It was one of the first HD TVs.  Standing about five foot tall, six foot wide, and three feet deep this massive piece of plastic crowded our tiny living room, but we dealt with it because it was free! 

One night we stopped by Best Buy to get a cord to hook my Mac up to our mammoth of a TV. Well our TV was too ancient and they didn't carry the cord.  Oh well we can order one off Amazon, right? We wandered into the TV section and ogled all of the brand new flat screens.  

Next thing you know...

Thirty minutes later we walk out of Best Buy with a brand new Smart TV in the trunk!

Now you're probably wondering why I'm telling you about our TV adventure.  Well this night inspired my $100 living room make over.  

First up, the entertainment center.

The next day Ray and I went thrifting to find the perfect entertainment center.  What a sweetie he was! I dragged him to at least a dozen different thrift stores! Finally I came across this diamond in the rough.

Now someone had already DIYed it and painted it this horribly, ugly black color.  The paint was bubbling and there were drips and runs all over the place! The knobs weren't even screwed on, they used paint as glue! 

So first things first I needed to get rid of the black paint so...

here comes the paint stripper.  

I used Klean Strip- contractor grade. 

I used a regular paint brush to brush a thick layer onto the top of the entertainment center.

It immediately bubbled up and the black paint scraped off came off pretty easily with two coats. If found out it was easiest to brush on one coat of stripper and let it sit for ten minutes and then brush on another layer and immediately scrape it off. I did this because the wind was drying the stripper before it had time to do its job! 

My original idea was to strip it down to bare wood and stain it. But...

I scraped... 

And scraped...

And scraped...

And I couldn't get down to bare wood! So I said 'screw it' and decided I would paint it! 

So after all the paint stripping and scraping was over this is what it looked like.  

It still had some leftover black paint in the groves. The easiest way I found to get the paint out was by using a dab of paint stripper, a tooth brush, and some steel wool. 

*Notice the latex gloves.  Paint stripper burns! I learned that the hard way!*

The paint stripper suggests to use water to wipe down the surface before sanding.  I'm not sure why but I didn't want the friction to set my hard work on fire so I did what it told me! 

Next up- sanding!  

I used 60 grit sand paper on my Black and Decker. I sanded all of the flat surfaces with the sander but I had to use a folded piece of sandpaper to sand the crevices by hand. Once I was done sanding, I wiped it down once more with a wet paper towel and let it dry. 

FINALLY I was ready for paint! 

I started with the blue center. 

Then I went on to the off white.  

I had to paint in stages.  To keep the drawers propped open I used paint sticks.  Once the drawers were dry I was able to close them and paint the trim.  Painting is super easy.  I grabbed my two inch paint brush and went to town! 

Last I added some cute little knobs and I was done! 

Here is the final product!

I was happy all of our electronics fit on the shelves and the extra cords and gaming remotes fit in the drawers. 

I wanted an entertainment center to fit all of our DVDs, too but I found a solution for that later. *More to come!

Total this cost me about $80.  That is more than I originally wanted to spend but with the the three cans of paint stripper at $10 a can I kind of went over budget.  If I would have decided sooner that I was going to paint it and not stain it I would have saved some money! 

Here is a break down of my expenses:

Cabinet- $25

Paint Stripper- $30

Knobs- $12

Paint- $20 

(I saved money on the paint by buying the sample size blue)

I hope this helps you in your future paint stripping and refinishing endeavors! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome and Sneak Peek!

Welcome to the first post to my new blog, Powertool Princess!

I love transforming old objects into something all my own and I also love building new things from scratch! Almost every Sunday I embark on a new crafting adventure- that's why I call Sundays 'Sunday Craft Day.'

The purpose of this blog is to share my ideas with others to help and inspire more crafting adventures!

Below are some pictures of some of my projects I hope to post in the weeks to come.  Enjoy this little sneak peek and stay tuned for more!