Well hello!! I got a fun little project accomplished yesterday that I absolutely LOVE. :)

It started with some house envy, believe it or not. :) Yes, even I see beautiful homes in blogland and sometimes that little green monster starts rearing it’s head. You all know I LOVE our house, so it’s not a big monster, mind you -- just a little one.

I just love little corners, niches, interesting spots in homes, and I adore how some people use awkward spots to their full potential. Like hallways – I just love a long hallway with hardwood floors, a beautiful runner and woodwork as far as the eye can see. Add a gallery of family photos and I’m swooning.

I have a recurring dream about a house we buy and are fixing up, and in each dream I find a new little nook or a tiny room I didn’t know was there before. I LOVE that dream. :)

But alas, we have no nooks, no niches. Not even a hallway. Not one hallway in our entire house. That’s the new open concept for ya – plenty of open spaces (which we love), but sometimes I do crave a little nook.

About a month ago or so, I realized we a needed a storage solution for our son’s dress up stuff. Now, not dress up like princess dresses. Manly dress up like policemen, train conductors and firemen.

(Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunt here.)

So I thunk and I thunk, and I thought of the closest thing to a hallway we have – the half wall in our playroom/loft:

And the idea hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

First step was to paint the wall out in semi-gloss white:

Didn’t he do a great job?:

I kid! I kid! No child labor here folks.

Mostly because he wasn’t doing it right.

I kid! Not really.

OK, onward! You’ll notice I didn’t even paint the edges of the wall. I didn’t need to because it was going to be covered up with my next step. I took primed mdf from Lowe’s and started installing my vision:

I took some video to give some more detail, but it’s so straightforward – boards across the top, bottom and sides. Then I did some measuring to figure out the spacing between the rest of the boards.

The math went like this – the space between the two outside boards was almost exactly six feet. So I took:

6 feet x 12 (for inches) = 72 inches

The boards were 3.5 inches wide, so I figured out how many sections I wanted (five) and knew that would take four additional pieces of mdf:

3.5 (mdf boards) x 4 = 14 inches

Take the 72 inches minus 14 and you get 58 inches.

Divide 58 inches by the five sections I wanted, and you get 11.6 sections between each vertical board.

Does that make sense? Math and I are not friends, and I swear it’s easy. Once you do it one time, it’ll make more sense for the next time. :) I use that method for any spot where I’m adding molding to a specific amount of space (and I want it to look uniform.)

I took a quick video to show you a couple of my other tricks:

 

Sooo…anyhoo, after a couple more coats of paint on the mdf, some caulk (remember, it’s your BFF folks!), and hooks – I got this:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I mean, really. I want it all. over. my. house. ALL OVER. It’s just classic and pretty and yummy.

I can’t believe how happy woodwork makes me. It’s just ridiculous.

Now we have a spot for all of the make believe outfits:

I almost hated to cover it all up, but it’s for the sake of my sanity. Those hats have been laying around here and there for months because I haven’t found a good spot for them.

I especially love how it ties into the mdf I added to the staircase last year:

And you smarties will notice that NO, I have not painted that railing yet. Only the bottom section is done:

That is how I roll. :)

I just love how it turned out! I took an empty wall that wasn’t doing anything:

And made it functional and pretty:

Gotta love that!

The wood was el cheapo – I think I spent $15 on the mdf. I got the ORB hooks at Lowe’s as well. Love, love, LOVE!

Now I’m so pumped to get moving on the board and batten in the office! My plan is to get started on that this weekend.

Have a GREAT one!

I should have known better to attack this project. I have learned over the past year or so that laminate is my nemesis. He hate me. (Check my first post to understand.)

I know how to paint stuff. I do. I even knew/know how to paint laminate. It just doesn't like me much, and from now on, I think we're gonna keep our distance. Hater.

It started with the TV cabinet in the playroom/loft:
I kept looking for something new (like, Goodwill-new) for the space. It had to had storage like this one, it had to have the open shelving like this one, it had to be this size. And it had to be black. Hmmmmm...ummmkay. Why don't I just paint this one? I know, you are quicker than me...

So I just painted it. It is laminate, through and through. I went to meet Paint Guy at Lowe's. (We're on a first-name basis. His name is Paint. Guy.) I asked him for the best, most fantastic primer he could ever think of for painting laminate. He said B.I.N. primer by Zinsser was the best one. AND it dries in 45 minutes!!

I skipped out of the store, I was so excited! I could actually get this done in Sarah-time! That would be asfastaspossiblegetitdoneNOWIhatewaitingforpainttodry time.

Well...I don't know what this stuff is but it is waaaay weird. It destroyed my rollers and foam brushes. Super weird. Like, they were melting off the handles weird.

It did dry fast though...so I was OK. Over the next few days, I did three coats of black (even though I used tinted primer), a couple coats of poly, later added some cute red knobs from Hob Lob:

Put the TV and components back on and this started happening:
That's a huge chip with the laminate showing through, covered by black Sharpie, in case you couldn't tell. (Most of the time, black or brown Sharpie is great to cover up scratches, by the way.)

Then, it chipped under the TV. In like, three places. I could have cried. Really. Told you. Laminate is out to get me.

BUT...I spent $10 on primer, a few bucks on new rollers, and only a few hours of my time. Even if it looks good for another six months or so, in the end, I feel like it was worth it. I loooove how it turned out...a new black cabinet would have been at least $250.

That's what I keep telling myself anyway. :)

Before:
After:

Worth it?

P.S. Yes, I sanded it. No, not a really really good sanding. :)
Yes, I let it cure between coats (as long as directed). No, probably not as long as I really should have. (I know better!)
Yes, I was super anxious and tired of the electronic crap all over the room and probably put everything on too fast -- should have waited at least a whole day. NO. I didn't follow my own advice. (Have I mentioned how very little patience I have when it comes to painting lately??)

Hangs head in shame...

Here I go again! I tell you what, if you really look through the Ballard Designs catalog, you can find so many items you can make on your own, for a fraction of the price!

To see my other Ballard inspiration project, go here.