diy: dining room light

After sharing an awesome DIY ikea hack the other day, I came across another great one that I thought was uber chic and worth sharing!

my DIY sense is tickling! I can't wait for the weather to get better so I can have some DIY fun :)

diy: ikea hack style

Check out this amazing DIY ikea hack from Me, you and a wiener, trust me this is jaw dropping!!

the before

and the after!

The shelves are up!

After a lot of measuring, leveling, and drilling the shelves are finally up! I am so pleased with how they turned out. I love that they give me more space to display some of my favourite artwork and knick knacks. Although at first I was going to stagger them... my wall in the desk nook (as I like to call it) is just too short, so lining them up equally made more sense visually.

What do you all think?

What I'd like to do...Shelves

I am seriously lacking space in my small teeny tiny bedroom, and while I've managed to cram tons of stuff in there ( bed, side table, reading nook, dresser, desk nook, ottoman) I feel as though my small dresser has become the dumping grounds for all of my everyday stuff. So, the pretty little "staged" dresser top quickly became the messy dresser top. In order to get the pretty back I knew there was only one answer. With no space to go out I knew I would have to go up!

That's when I did a little google searching and found this picture of a desk nook similar to mine that took advantage of upwards space. The shelves are Ikea...so off with my boyfriend Gerry I went until I came back with 2 of the same shelves + brackets. I really wanted 3 but I feel like I might make the ceiling appear short if I do, but the more I look at my inspiration photo the more I like it...I may just go back for an extra shelf and brackets. What do you think?

inspiration photo

my desk nook (the picture is cropped, do not worry the ceilings are actually taller)

I also plan on staggering the shelves, so they don't line up...I like this look better, plus I have to work around a light switch so this option will work out better for me.

Hope to post pictures soon, so stay tuned!

BY THE WAY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THIS MONTH'S GIVEAWAY here.

Teal

I have a few more pictures of my sis' room or more correctly her desk nook. We added some Ikea shelves, a Bombay desk, some vintage and antique accessories and lots of books. The corkboard is from Ikea as well. It was just plain so I printed out a picture that Stefanie over at Brooklyn Limestone put up on her site for free download and thought it would look cute on top of the cork; then I also trimmed the inner edges with some chocolate grosgrain ribbon... I love how it turned out. The room still needs a few personal touches, it's not quite done but I wanted to share what it looks like so far. Enjoy!

Kitchen island

So I was all happy and ready to begin making the kicthen island for my kitchen, I posted about it, got great feedback that I could attempt to make one myself and I was on my merry way.

I got to the Home Depot and went looking for the legs of the island, the ones I wanted were great, a little tall, but I was sure they could be cut down. Price tag $55 each leg! WTF! I thought by making my own island I was supposed to be saving $$$. So if you do the math that's $248 just for the legs, never mind the other materials like the wood and the table top. So I am afraid that this little project got axed.

Then G and I  (my man) went to Ikea for some fun, I hadn't been in a while and I came across the Utby island. I remember having had bookmarked it in my pictures folder a while back, just in case I could not find my ideal island...so I just decided to try it, what's the worst that could happen, I hate it and I return it. BTW a little known fact, I am notorious in my household for buying and trying things out like, carpets, blinds, etc, and then either returning or exchanging them until I find exactly what I want. G on the other hand thinks over all of his purchases, unlike G I am an impulse buyer! terrible for the pocket book, but I just feel like if I find something I love, I will make it work! ok I digress...

So I tried it, the utby table that is, and I loved it, it gives me way more room in the kitchen, and it doubles as extra counter space.

Now the issue was chairs, I really didn't like any at Ikea, and the ones I did like in general cost about $299 a chair, I couldn't in my right mind spend that much with Christmas just around the corner! so on a trip to Walmart the same day, to pick up household supplies, I came across some counter height stools, I hated hated hated the existing fabric on them, they were a taupe micro fibre, but I knew I had just the right fabric at home, so swipe and sold!

Without further adieu... here they are:

I will be buying 2 more stools without backs in a brown black wood colour so I can tuck them away under the island and have a better eye line. The backless stools will go on the right side and these will go on the left. I may also get backless stools that have a cushion which I was thinking of doing in a solid fabric...we'll see.

Next post: how I made my chalkboard frames...stay tuned.