Sunday, April 10, 2011

So, things have been busy here in our multi-named household. Last week was filled with loan officer and government shutdown drama (we both have the good fortune to be employed by the govt. in one fashion or another--normally that's not sarcasm) and after going to my best friend Sami/Darcy's (she recently changed her name and we haven't really changed with her. And BTW, when I say recently, I mean a year ago. Are we bad friends or what?) house warming party, we realized we close in 19 days. 19 DAYS! Time to get packing/cleaning/decluttering/crazy.

This is what the house looks like right now:



It's pretty bad. I don't think my living space has looked this bad since Freshmen year at UMass, and that's saying something. On top of packing, we're decluttering and having a yard sale next weekend, so all of those boxes in the foreground are boxes we're pulling from our super cluttered basement and Steven's sorting through lest I become emotional and sentimental about items.

In addition to just cleaning, packing, cleaning some more and packing, we completed a couple of DIY projects this past week.

#1: Steamer Trunk Table.



This was accomplished pretty easy. And here are the steps:

Step 1: Buy trunk. This beauty only cost $40! Since we bought it, I've seen mutltiple trunks, none of which are shiny and that big, for $175+. Apparently, overstocked, out of the way antique/junk/thrift shops are the way to go. And when I say, overstocked, I mean I could barely walk through the 1800+ sq foot space. I unfortunately left my camera home, so I couldn't capture the chaos, but next time we go (and there will be a next time), I'll take a picture.

Step 2: Buy Ikea legs for $10. One day, I'll rant about how much I've grown to dislike Ikea, but occasionally they still have things I want. Like, for instance, 10 dollar legs.

Step 3: Buy spray paint and spray paint the legs to match. I didn't do the best job of this. They match the handles, but not the metal on the front. I'll probably end up buying some gold Rustoleum (my new preferred spray paint of choice, for it's easy spray button. It's also supposed to reduce that drip effect you see in the pictures, but I'm bad at spray painting)



Step 4: Attach legs to trunk. We did this with four blocks cut out of a standard 2x4. And we had Lowes cut the four blocks for us, because we don't yet have a saw. The most terrifying part of this whole thing was watching the Lowes employ stick his hand down into the saw blade area to pull out the wood blocks. Apparently he's never heard of safety first!

Anyways, we took our four blocks, and put the legs on top of the block and marked where the holds should go. Like so:



Then we pre-drilled the holes into the blocks for ease of drilling. Steven then matched the holes on the inside the trunk and pre-drilled those holes as well. After that it was as easy as screwing in the screws. And voila! Trunk table. These things (usually without legs, but I wanted some height) run about $250. If you're Restoration Hardware, it's about $1000 (on sale). Ours cost $60 with trunk/legs/paint/blocks!

Yay DIY!

#2: Copper Towel Rack

For now, I'm going to just put up the pictures and do a "teaser", as they say in the biz. This was an incredibly frustrating project; it took about 3 hours of time, a really angry Steven and really specific tools. However, it looks amazing. Good job Steven! (I designed, he built. Isn't he the best?)







And we'll end with this over-exposed gem of a picture of Steven cursing the pipe gods.

1 comment:

  1. I've seen the modification for the steamer trunk coffee table before. Love it. I've also seen it with vintage suitcases. Such a good look, and you guys pull off that style very well.

    Did you reenforce the wall (now, the bottom) of the table at all? I'd be kind of concerned that it would weaken over time.

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