Collections

I like things.  I don't like random things though.  I like to look at things in my home and know exactly where they came from and that they have meaning to me! Now it may be too much stuff and sometimes I do want to just get rid of everything- but your home should make you happy. period.  Forget trends- forget resale value (unless you are gonna paint the whole house black) and just go with what you love!
I have started a new Pinterest Board for displaying collections because it is such a fine line between clutter and collection- ya gotta be careful there cause that Hoarders show is serious business!
Exhibit #1... This would be a no no...

Follow along on Pinterest for fun inspiration and if you follow me on Instagram you will see lots of sneak peaks at upcoming projects! Later this week I will be showing you a gorgeous painted dresser using a new paint! Shocking, I know!


Follow Bee Mottl's board Collections on Pinterest.

Knock off Bookshelves

You gotta work with what ya got, right?  Well there is a pretty big lack of storage in our house.  But it is what it is and I needed to start utilizing the space we do have!
I had these bookcases in my office on either side of the french doors~

 I really did like them and they were nice- but they weren't maximizing the space, and clearly I was starting to just pile stuff all around them.  I wanted to display items but also have functional storage for all of my craft/ paint/ tons-o-crap stuff!
In a search for new bookshelves, I came across these from West Elm and just loved the clean look of them!

Now at $900... this was not happening!  So I took my cute pink pencil and got to measuring and drawing what I needed! Now I knew exactly what I wanted to do... but with a pretty minuscule idea of how to accomplish it.  This is a pretty common occurrence in our house so I let it marinade for awhile and finally did what I could to force myself into it- I bought the wood and then let it sit in my front hallway for two weeks until I couldn't stand it anymore!
I thought about cutting the notches with just a hand saw and then decided not to.  I asked my sweet contractor neighbor what his thoughts on it were and we both agreed that a jigsaw might work... I don't have a jigsaw.  And then finally I dug through my Power Tools kit that I won from Ryobi and settled on the reciprocating saw- grabbed some clamps- and the instruction guide and went to town!
I admit I was terrified and made sure my children were ready to call 911- but what do you know?! It was easy and awesome!!! I want to cut everything now!
Ok- enough with my endless chatter.  You will find a tutorial at the end of my braggy pictures;)

One on each side and I tried to make them a mix of memorabilia and also storage- all of the boxes are from Ikea and I LOVE them! They hold my paints that I can't leave in my garage because of the heat and all of my crafting goodies.

 Loving my craft paints stored in a little terrarium.

And some of my regular paint brushes in an antique milk glass jar.

I am in love with my knock off and it is giving me a ton more storage! I will be showing you even more of my office make- over soon!

Tutorial:
1.After measuring the space I had them in, I determined the length and width of the new inset boards I needed and had them cut at Home Depot
2. I dismantled the old shelves and spray painted the black iron sides white- first a flat primer, then a glossy white on top
3. I lightly sanded, then stained all of the pine boards with Minwax- Weathered Gray
4. Using the old wood inserts, I traced where the cut outs needed to be on the ends of each board
5. I cut out those notches with my Ryobi Reciprocating saw while the boards were clamped down to my ultra nice backyard table;)
6. Screwed the top board and bottom board into the now white metal sides
7. Stood them in place and slid in the remaining shelves
8. Stand back and ooohhh and ahhhh over your amazingness!

xoxo,

B

Linking to:
East Coast Creative

Featured At:
Knock Off Decor

Faux Card Catalog

I think we have discussed that I have the patience of an ant... yes? Well I have watched, dreamed, hoped, prayed to find an old library card catalog for about 20yrs.  Ok, not 20, but it feels like Furevvahhh!!
You see, I had a stint as a middle school librarian post babies and fell in love with all things books.  We can revisit my librarian career at a later time as you are probably now picturing me with a bun, glasses and hunch back.  I don't have a hunch back!!
Anyhoo... the only card catalogs I have found have been super duper expensive and y'all know my CFO is not having that.  So what is a girl to do? Duh! Make my own!  Now if you want to get all technical, it is not a working card catalog- but it has at least stopped my shakes for having my very own.
We have owned this Ikea Hemnes Shoe holder for about 5 years now and it was a bit beat down as we mainly used it for diapers and baby gear and such in our front hall.  I love it because it is so slim and doesn't take up too much space- but it definitely needed a make-over so it was the perfect piece to give this idea of mine a try.
Here is the before:

And here is the after! yay!

And my little extra dash of cuteness will have to be added...

I am a huge fan of mixing metals and also the old with the new- so here is a fun pic of it paired up with my more modern Target rug- lots of fun ways to style this little lady!

The tutorial is fairly simple- I removed the drawers and gave them a light sanding.   I had bought 4  12x12 thin wood scraps from Hobby Lobby ($12) that I cut into 4 6x6's.  I then used liquid nails to glue them to each drawer front.  I then did a mixture of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints- primarily Paris Grey, with a bit of French Linen and Louis Blue.  I'd love to tell you what percents exactly but I just did it until I liked it- as I was going for a grey with a ting of blue color that would play well with gold hardware.  And I was not going for perfection- just a messy paint job!
One quick coat- then another and then a coat of polyacrylic.  I used it instead of wax for time reasons and because it gets a lot of traffic and I wanted to be able to wipe it down easily.

The hardware is where my cost became challenging.  It is not cheap to get the finger pull/label holder like the antiques had.  The best I was finding was about $5 for just one- and needing 16- that wasn't gonna happen.  So after some ridiculously long searching, I found some small craft (like scrap book) ones that were $6 for 20 so I ordered those from Amazon.  But they were super small- so I found the larger label hardware at Staples and then proceeded to combine the two.  I did Gold Rub n Buff on them both and then hot glued the small one under the large one.
End Scene.

I am just gonna say it... I love it.  I am going to be entering this in the Creating With the Stars Contest so I'm keeping my fingers crossed- but if you would care to hop over and click on it there starting March 3rd- it would be awesome!

Hope you are all having an amazing day!
xoxo
B

Linking To:

East Coast Creative- Creating With the Stars!
DIY Showoff