Pottery Barn Knock Off: Wooden Shelf

So I told you we'd finished a few projects for the living room and I'm finally ready to introduce my favorite...our big beautiful wooden shelf. I'm so excited to have this hanging over the TV so I can stare at it while David watches boring fishing shows or playoff hockey. Nobody cares about hockey Boomer.

Here's the inspiration from Pottery Barn, which I've admired for a while:

Pottery Barn Shelf $399

But there are two issues with Pottery Barn's version. 1) It's four hundred dollars, so no. 2) It's just a little too much for me...height-wise. I like the style but I only wanted two levels, so David and I designed our own version using crown and base molding.

The bottom part is a simple piece of upside-down baseboard from Home Depot, but for the top we needed a large piece of crown and neither Home Depot nor Lowe's carry any that are big enough. We ended up finding this one at Ring's End Lumber....a local lumber shop David frequents for work.

He cut and backed both with supporting pieces of just scrap wood, all of course while I wasn't there to photograph it. Then he put a piece of wood on top of the crown and this what it looked like at the corners:

We attached a 2x4 to the wall to screw the shelf into from the top and put it up there to make sure we liked the position and size.

And there it sat. And sat. And sat....as I debated what to do with it....

Originally I planned to make it look just like the Pottery Barn version, which meant staining it, covering it with a layer of paint, and then sanding it down to essentially shabby-chic it up, like I did with our nightstand trays.

But that project taught me that shabby-chic is not really my style. I do enjoy these trays, but I don't have big plans for shabby-chic-ing again. So then I thought about priming and painting the shelf white, but the idea wasn't thrilling me for some reason. A little too boring I think. That would also make it very matchy-matchy with the crown molding above and the TV stand below.

Then the inspiration came, and I'm so glad I waited. One of my favorite bloggers, Katie Bower, posted a tutorial about whitewashing. It immediately hit me that that's what I wanted for the shelf. I was thrilled. It was perfect timing and the simplest tutorial ever. And the best part? I already had everything I needed for the project....water (check), white paint (check), a paint brush (check) and paper towels (check check check). So thank you Katie for the most perfectly timed inspiration and for being so freaking fabulous.

So I sanded the shelf down until it was completely smooth and then followed Katie's simple tutorial for whitewashing the shelf.

I made my paint by mixing equal parts water and white paint (the same color we use on all our trim - Valspar's Snowcap White) and stirring it very well. (Nice basement/painting area rug huh?)

Then I coated the whole thing in my white-wash and David helped by continuing to stir it as I painted. Here it is after one coat.

We decided there wasn't quite as much coverage as we wanted, but it dries very quickly so we gave it an hour or so and did another coat.

Here's what it looks like up close and personal after the two coats. Oh my goodness it's gorgeous with the wood grain showing through.

Then we hung her up...

...and added some summertime decor.

There's the Made With Love and Oats version of Pottery Barn's Decorative Ledge. And the living room redesign slowly progresses....

An Update

I have about ten unfinished blog posts right now. And a thousand unfinished projects (although that's nothing new). I had grand plans to finish several in the last week. So I suppose I should let you know what's been going on and why my mind is elsewhere. Our sweet puppy has been sick. For a good couple months now...on and off. We've been back and forth to the vet multiple times, but haven't gotten any answers. They don't know what's wrong with her.

It's been frustrating, draining, stressful...there's a thousand adjectives. None of them matter because we just want her to get better. She keeps getting an upset stomach...where she throws up frequently and wretches the rest of the time. When that happens, we put her on a "bland diet" of chicken and rice, then slowly transition her back to dog food. We were feeding her Nature's Recipe...high quality food. Once she transitioned back, she got sick. So we went back to bland diet and then transitioned her to Science Diet Sensitive Stomach, then to Blue Buffalo, which is also for dogs with food sensitivities and is literally the best quality (and therefore the most expensive) dog food on the market. We have been unsuccessful with all of them.

Throughout this process she also developed a mass in her throat, which they believe to have been nothing more than a reaction to an airborne bacteria, which could have been from anywhere. Now she is back to her stomach issues, in addition to a new constant itching. It's all or nothing I guess.

Therefore, she is going back to the vet. We were trying to hold out in hopes that changing her food would solve the problem, but it's not. We are at a loss. And tired, and sad, for our little bear who just can't seem to break this, whatever it is. We will soon be starting her on a homemade food diet, so I'll give updates on how that's going.

Right now, we're trying to take it easy and keep her relaxed so she can feel better.

Most projects are on hold for now. And our bedroom is half painted. It looks awful. She (and we) spends her days watching Animal Planet....reading get well cards....

...sleeping and snuggling. She does better when she's calm, so we're trying to keep her that way.

So that's our update.We'd be very grateful for all your prayers that Miss Oats gets better soon, and that we can figure out what's causing the problem so we can correct it. And eventually I'll paint the bedroom. And the rest of the house.

The Bedroom Has Begun

I described for you the progress we've made so far in our living room, but since we're not ready to finish that project yet, I got a jump start on another room I'm extremely excited about....our master bedroom. I made a mood board a while back but it's taken us a while to get started. This room will probably be a slow moving process but we're going to blog about our updates as we go. Call it the first real-time blog reno from the Wright's. Aren't you excited?

Here's the "before" photo so you know what we're working with here.

I started prepping the room by taking down the window cornices and sanding the areas where they were because they left marks on the wall and window trim.

There were indents in the walls from the cornices so I spackled them of course.

(I have a spackle obsession)

After the spackle dried, I sanded, primed, and then sanded again in those spots until they were nice and smooth. I also sanded the window trim to prep for my paint. Then I frog-taped the room and got my paint on.

This is what we were looking at....you can see the color of the door versus the fresh coat of white paint on the trim. The door color is what all the trim looked like....bleghh. What an amazing difference. Now I just need a painting date with that door.

While the trim paint dried in the bedroom, David had helped me remove the radiator cover and bring it into the basement to get a coat of paint as well, since it looked about as bad as that door. Don't you love my array of stuff to paint on? A dropcloth, 2 cardboard boxes, newspapers and flyers. Classy.

I also painted the part that was attached to the wall.

I just used the same paint as the trim, in case you're wondering. I know there are special "high heat" and special radiator paints, but I didn't bother with it for a few reasons. 1) The previous owners just used trim paint on these covers and didn't have a problem, 2) I used trim paint on the ones in the living room and they've been fine for a year now, 3) they aren't really "high heat" (like a grill would be) and I've read several places that regular paint is fine for the radiator covers.

So the trim is done! Next up....walls and doors.

Look Into My Eye

This is me...all the time. If you substitute the children for a dog. Although picture Oats in a shopping cart - I'd never be allowed in the store again.

If you've ever stepped foot in Target you understand.

Yesterday I went in just to buy shaving cream. Literally...just shaving cream. It's that time of year, ya know? With a coupon, the shaving cream cost me 99 cents, but is that all I spent? Of course not. I love Target....probably too much. So here's some of my sweet recent finds from the best store ever.

End tables: $44 each on clearance. I'm still working on ideas for painting them, but I love the style and they are the perfect size for our small room.

Lamp shades/bases - bought a couple styles to see which I like best....but that decision took 5 seconds. Look how well that shade on the right matches our walls = easiest.decision.ever. Just need to either change out or spray paint the base. Hmmm too many ideas :)

Adorbs shaker which I'm going to use for cinnamon-sugar. Galvanized + chalkboard = ME. And the best $4 I've spent in a while.

This cute cheese dome and little honey jar....obsessed.

And an outdoor candle holder for our new patio table. Looks like Pottery Barn....cost under $20. Sold.

That's all I can remember right now, but aren't those great?!? Anyone else have any cute finds from Target lately? If not, head over to your nearest one and see what goodies you can find on the cheap. Hope you're as lucky as me :)

This Blog Needs a Room Reno

I mean, that was the whole point of starting this blog, really. We want to show our family and friends our little house and how much fun we're having (most of the time!) making it a home, and document it all for our own memories.

We've been working on our living room renovation for over a year now. I know. that's.too.long. I can't say we're not making progress, but it's been sloooooow. Here's what we started with. Super blah. Those cornices and curtains were from the previous owners. I hate them. And can we talk about that electrical wiring? Eeek.

And here's where we are now. Big improvement, but far from done.

 

Here's what we've done so far, sans photos because I suck and forgot to take them in the process. This stuff was done pre-blog so I wasn't thinking of photographing all the steps :(

·         Rewired all the electrical outlets (that was allll David and his dad so don’t ask me anything about it)

·         Patched up the ugly holes left from random outlets in the middle of the walls

·         Painted the walls and trim (with my dad’s help since this was my first ever room painting experience)

·         Painted the radiator covers

·         Installed crown molding

·         Installed new baseboard and shoe molding (quarter round)

·         Replaced the old doorbell box with a more subtle one

·         Replaced the window cornices with homemade curtains

·         Built, painted and installed the built-ins

·         Added a rug

·         Added a TV stand

The built-ins were our major project, although they still need a lot of touching up as well as some cabinet doors on the left side (those are missing in case you didn't notice). This winter we did a couple additional projects for this room that I'll be posting about soon. We do love how the room's slowly coming together, but I don't think we'll have an "after" photo to post any time soon. The main reason for that....the sofas. We have a great, old but good quality sofa set from David's parents. And we love them. They fit perfectly in our space and are so comfortable. But they're not the most appealing to the eye, and they're a little to matchy-matchy to the wall color. The wall color, by the way, is Valspar's Skinny Latte, and these photos don't do it justice. I love it. It was my first time ever choosing a paint color for a room. Nailed it.

Buying a new sofa set is out of the question financially right now, and we've looked into getting these slipcovered but it's almost as expensive as buying new ones. Maybe I'll try my amateur sewing skills at it...maybe....but not right now. Here is what I dream of:

Source: Pottery Barn

Ahhhh someday.....

So you won't be seeing our "after" living room photos quite yet. We'll try to keep up with some "progress" ones in the meantime.

Serve It Up

This was a relatively easy project that we put together recently to spruce up our bedroom a little while we prepare to fully renovate it. Everything takes a thousand years in our house.

I bought these small pieces of wood in the "craft wood bin" at Home Depot and they are so cheap it's ridiculous. Evidently this bin is only around during the holidays, but the rest of the year they still have a scrap bin that's 50 cents per piece. I used some of the narrower boards pictured below. They are made from poplar and they are 1/2" by 1-1/2" and come in 2' lengths, which was perfect for this project.

While I was at Home Depot I picked up 4 pieces of hardware...two girly and two manly as I'm calling them.

I measured my nightstands to see how big I wanted the trays and settled on an even foot long for each, with a width of 3 planks. I'm real scientific. It worked out perfectly that I chose 12" because the craft boards are  2' long, so I just measured the halfway point and used the miter saw to cut my three boards.

 

Those six pieces became the bottom pieces for my two trays. When I went to do the sides, the width of the board was a tad too high for what I was going for....

So we ripped them lengthwise in half with the table saw....

 

Then cut two of those boards in half at the 12" mark to make the longer sides, and then cut two at just under 6.5" for the ends (since I made two trays I needed four of each size).

Once all my pieces were cut I sanded them down a lot and roughed up the edges...so they don't look so manufactured. It's nice doing projects where the purpose is not to make things perfect. Much different than sewing.

 

 Then I stained all the pieces before putting them together. Stain can get drippy so I thought this would work easier and I'm glad I did it.

Then we used clamps to hold them in place and a brad nailer to piece together the frame first and then the bottom pieces.

 

 

 

Then I painted them with the same paint I used for the nightstands....Valspar's Antique White in Matte Finish.

You can see the stain coming through and the rough wood look.

I did two coats of paint to completely cover the stain. I don't know why, I just thought it would look better once I sanded it.

Then I took the electric sander to every surface of them until I liked the amount of stain that was coming through.

Then David helped me attach the hardware...different on each tray to make them really "his and hers." Can you tell which one's which? haha.

And there's the tale of our little rustic bedside trays. They help hold some of the items we had on our nightstands but now gives it a neater look.