All Keyed Up

My Grandfather the engineer loved tools. At one point several years ago as he was getting older, my Grandmother was tidying up his extensive assortment of tools and gave me a box full of keys. This accidental collection of unusable or orphaned pieces seems to have grown over the course of many decades, as there were both shiny new keys, and older worn pieces ornate enough to be art.
I've moved several times since then, and had put the keys in a 'safe' place somewhere along the line......famous last words.
Naturally, I didn't see them for years until just recently when I opened a random box labeled 'office desk'. It was all keys and pens.
I blame the cats.

Name: Navy
Likes: long walks on the porch, snuggles, and grouping things together

She really is a bit of a hoarder and likes making piles of things. Mostly her toys and dolls. She only likes the ones she can mother, no jingles or non-soft cat toys for this little lady.

"Don't you touch my babies, mama!"
-As she sprung into the frame to keep an eye on me

New rug? Needs babies!
STAT.
Those are her two favorites.

As usual, I digress.
So, I love shadowboxes. Very much. We have a storied past, and bright future together; me and shadow boxes. I had gotten a large (~1.5'x3') one several years ago on sale for dirt cheap, earmarked for displaying Grandad's keys. It too was in a 'safe' place for a while.
When the keys resurfaced the other day, I went about getting them in said shadow box before I lost one or both of these key ingredients again.

Materials: Ruler.Chalk. Hot Glue Gun. Wine. Keys. Shadowbox.

I counted out the keys and got really lucky that they, along with two key rings, numbered such (36) that they would all space out neatly within the frame. Because no one deserved to be either left out or crammed in.
(Side note: here is a tumblr that will make all the OCD pieces of you happy)
Things were going well as I measured out a grid for the keys and made a chalk mark at each point where a key would sit.
I put all the keys on the board in a rough approximation of where they would go, and started to rearrange them in the most attractive order I could muster; distributing like items and putting the best ones towards the middle.
Then I realised that I had made 13 too many little chalk marks......and the chalk wouldn't come off. Whoopsies.
Cross that wine off the materials list I suppose?
Nah.
It turned out to be a happy accident in the end. I just scooted the keys in between each chalk mark, and hot glued them down. #wineforthewin

The little blue chalk marks add a lot of interest and charm to the piece. What a good mistake!

I showed it to my Mom (the daughter of my Grandfather), and she thought it was great. I did not have a suitably honorable place for it in my home; so it will be going to live on a prominent wall in her kitchen.

I'm so pleased with how it came out, and glad I finally was able to put it together, especially in time for Father's Day this year. Even though Grandad isn't with us anymore, he was a fantastic father to his small herd of girls (5!), and it makes me happy to have things of his displayed and enjoyed on a daily basis.
Here's looking at thinking of you, kid.
:)


-Lindsay

Updated 90's Medicine Cabinet

Another month passed??? Well $hit.
I've been doing little projects here and there when I have time, and helping my parents with an exciting undertaking; all the while neglecting The Cabindo. More to come on that undertaking soon, but in general: I'm back! And seeing as how I have little vengeance, I'll instead tell you about a recent project that will help me be ready for any potential incoming vengeance.

Enter: Lot of Misc. Construction Supplies and Various Items. Had you at 'Lot of Misc.', didn't it? Yeah, me too.

But soft! What stuff from yonder auction breaks? It is the east, and that First Aid Kit is the sun!

Arise, fair First Aid Kit, and kill the envious random-yellow-bin, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou, her erstwhile forgotten kinsman, art more fair than she.
On second thought, I'll keep the yellow bin for hardware.
You can take out Lord Sprinkler Head. I'll take an 'A' in High School English for $300, Alex.
BOOM.

Goodnight sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy dumpster.
Sorry bro; without a yard, it couldn't have ended well for us.

Anywhooooo.....I acquired an ugly yet functional first aid kit. It looks to be from the early 1990's (hellooooo stripey turquoise images!), is painted metal, came decently stocked, and has room for more stuff.
It has a handle on top and is clearly meant for wall mounting.
I have limited storage space for first aid stuff in my 2nd bathroom, so I figured with a little updating; it could attractively be ready to provide me band-aids come any vengence-related-injuries, and Advil when my head is about to explode and "dammit-I-can't-find-where-I-stashed-that-stupid-bottle" moments happen.

I took said First Aid Kit Box and wiped off a layer of grime. Yum. It had an emergency number taped to the front which was stubbornly holding on for dear life, but a little razor blade action removed what picking at/begging couldn't.

Time for a power tool!

What happens inside my head every time I get to use one.

All the turquoise graphics that were absolutely 'rad' in their time came off quickly with a little low number palm sanding. I wanted to just remove the graphics and leave the white base coat, but got a little overzealous and sanded bare some of the edges. This gave it a nice worn look, so I continued to over-zeal several more places.

Picture taken before the excess of zeal applied.

My bathroom is quirky and the walls are full of pretty random things, so I knew I needed to paint something on the front of the box to help it fit in with the other kids.
Several times I've seen Emily Henderson's use of a large Red Cross flag, and thought this would be an exceedingly appropriate place to use that sort of graphic punch and color scheme.

Style By Emily Henderson

I had some reddish/pinkish/coralish paint lying around that I'd gotten for $0.25 from the 'oops' paint bin at Home Depot, so decided to give it a coat and see how that looked.

Same paint used on the legs of this once-forest-green table.

Measuring very carefully first, of course.

After one coat it was spotty as heck but had potential, so I forged ahead with a glass of wine and gave it a few minutes to dry.
Several coats later, along with some razor blade edge touchups, the cross was finished.

Awesome kitchen lighting, I know

Because the sanded white surface was super porous picked up every spec of grime; the whole thing needed to be sealed. The next day when the cross was good and dry, I grabbed a can of semi-gloss poly-crylic spray from my paint bin and utilized the gloved-hand-on-porch method, with the accuracy and lung-protection properties that have made me famous smarter lazy.
I did 3 coats of the poly-crylic and let it dry outside for several days.

It has great little tab mounting brackets, so I was able to center and hang the thing faster than I can tie my shoes. Which is saying nothing, as I usually get distracted by a cat mid tie.

"Resistance is futile, you will rub my tummy."

-Beans the Snaggletooth

See how the First Aid Kit leans upon the wall. Oh, that I were a fastener upon that wall, so I might touch that First Aid Kit! Ay me!

Weird? Useful? Check and check.

But I can, and I have, and it is working great!




-Lindsay

(yeah, it's been a long month, thanks Shakespeare)

Quick Gallery Wall to Bring Together a Room

I've been taking a little time off project and post wise.
Work has been SUPER busy, along with a log jam of other commitments over the past couple weeks.

I love being busy, but I've needed to decompress when home rather than start new home projects, or even finish any of the 10+ ongoing ones. My place is cleaner than normal though, as I've been tidying up rather than building impressive and dynamic messes.
Buy mostly, I've been taking a stab at relaxing.

the closest I will come to being a Lil Wayne fan

Something I did do over the weekend was rehang a bunch of art in my living room to create a gallery wall. The pieces previously there were hung when the room arrangement was different.

Before at Thanksgiving.
With old furniture arrangement. And big bro.

Absolutely no piece of furniture is currently in the same place as above, and so the picture placement no longer made sense.

I gathered up all the art I wanted hung that was lying around in different rooms, and set it all out in front of the wall on which it would go.
I tried to evenly distribute the the art across the wall, by varying landscape vs. portrait orientation pieces, as well as picture content (naked peoples, landscapes, flowers, abstracts).
There are all sorts of tutorials about using paper or tape or toothpaste to measure out exacting measurements for gallery walls.

Pin

Breaking form, I used no precise method and continued to rely on those good ol' eyeballs.
Lots of picture hooks and hammer swings later: the room looks settled and sensical.

Yeah, I'll be working on doing better panoramas.
It just has not fit into lasagna time yet.

This room has had about 5 different furniture arrangements, and this one feels like home....finally.
The gallery seals the deal, as it's made up of favorite pieces of mine done in various mediums: pastel, water color, pencil, paint, and cut paper.

bottom shot taken post-wine

The gap in the middle on the bottom is for Mr.Beans the cat, who often looks artfully perched while enjoying a favorite view of his kingdom.

Another good free project, using what was already had.

-Lindsay

Wainscotting Makes Me Feel Fancy

The image in this pin really got my motor going:

pinterest. duh.

And this this one sealed the deal:

A plate shelf on top? SOLD.

I would be wainscotting/board n batten'ing/panelling. Whatever you want to call it.
It had to happen.
My ugly bathroom depended on it.
I had already put in a new floor, so was ready to tackle the walls.

My dad was excited to help me execute the wainscotting/board n batten/panel walls after I'd showed him a million pictures and gushed like a rabid school girl with a Beiber crush. He might have been simply excited for me to shut up. If that was the case: worked like a charm!
He already had a bunch of lumber lying around that we could use. It was new and matching, but thicker than the MDF most tutorials floating around the blogosphere are recommending. This installation had to content with moisture, so it was just as well to go a non-MDF direction. And 'free' always sways my decision to: "ummm.. yeah we're gonna go with that."

I figured out how the spacing of each vertical board would work in the room by guesstimating how much space one hanging towel would take to look nicely framed (ala the top picture), then measured out as many of those panels as would fit on the large wall.  Turns out the answer was 4 panels, so there would be 5 'batten' pieces for the large wall across from the toilet and vanity with about 14.75 inches between each. The other two walls would follow the same batten spacing.
The elements of the wall are as follows:

shelf board needs to straighten up and fly right

The height of the top shelf is just above my shoulder height while wearing heels, so I wont ever smack into it. Cuz I'm a thinker. And a consummate klutz.

Action time:
We cut all the wood Dad had available, ran to Home Depot for a little more, cut that too, and ended up after dark with a big pile in the driveway. All the boards were given a good edge sanding to smooth out any sharp corners and prevent clothing or towel snags.

I do my wooood cutting at night, so I can, so I can.....
watch the sawdust swirl past my eyes

It made me a bit nervous that this mass of wood was going to be put into my smallish bathroom. As it made its way onto the wall though, the pile (& anxiety level) quickly shrunk as the wainscotting began to take shape.

framed out large wall

All of the boards were held up in place first and given several small pilot holes. A big thanks to my Dad and the Bf for holding up the big horizontal header boards as I leveled and drilled! Each corresponding hole in the wall got an anchor, and the holes in the wood got countersinks.
I put up a frame of the header, footer, and outside vertical boards first, then repeated the process with the remaining vertical battens. These got attached to the wall in about a million points so that even with moisture in the picture, they would not warp.
The top moulding was screwed into the header board, and the 3.25" plate shelf (same width as the vertical boards) screwed into the wide supportive surface created by the tops of the moulding and header board.

Wood filler x a $#!+ ton of holes = a crazy long time

As you see above, all those holes got patched with wood filler. Every place where wood met the wall also got wood filler (ex. sides of the battens), as well as every place a piece of wood met another piece of wood (ex. batten to header board).
Sanding all of the wood filler spots, refilling, waiting, and re-sanding was by far the most tedious part of this project and dragged on for about a month because I was not a fan and kept avoiding it.
I learned afterwards that you can do the edges and joins with caulk.... :|
If I ever do wainscotting again: I will definately be doing that to minimize the sanding portion of the project.
Once I put my big girl pants on and finally finished the sanding, it was time to paint. Everything got a coat of white primer, followed by a slightly off-white semi-gloss to match the color of the tiles. This helped to unify the room and avoided making the tiles look dingy.

For the towel hooks: Ikea's BLECKA hooks had the modern look and inexpensive price I was going for. But what a terrible name!! Poor towel hooks, they are going to get a complex.

$5 for 2 - 2.75" hooks
$5 for 4 - 1..5" hooks

I used 4 of the large ones on the long wall for bath towels, 2 of the smaller ones on the toilet/vanity wall for hand towels, and 2 more of the smaller ones on the back of the door to replace the existing rusted hook.

Fancy, fancy!!

This project gave me a huge boost of confidence that I could see something I liked, and translate it to my space in a high quality and inexpensive way.

Price breakdown:

Wood - Free! (probably would have been about $80)

Hooks - $15

Paint - $20

   Hardware - $15  

Total - $50

(if not for Daddy-o's lumber: $130)

-Lindsay

Pretty Petite Pallet Plant ..... Thing

Sleeping out on the porch last night was glorious! The temps were in the high 60's/low 70's, and I did not get attacked by any manner of wildlife; bugs, overly affectionate cats, or otherwise.
When I woke up I let the monsters out with me, and noticed that Mr. Beans the curious did not have a spot on the plant stand upon which to sit and survey his kingdom.
My options were to move the plants onto the floor, ignore it and inevitably have him knock them over, or make alternate arrangements.  A couple of the pots had holes for hanging, but I did not want to put them straight on the wall because it is block, and a PAIN to drill into. I had one existing pre-drilled hole to work with, and a pile of (suprise suprise) pallet wood.

pile o stuff

I used some paint stirrers to bracket the pallet boards together, and added a sawtooth hanger on the back, since I had extra from the mirrors.

rawr

Taking into account the size of the plants in the pots, I awkwardly held up and guesstimated precisely measured where they would best hang, and added two sets of two screws to the front.

Using a hole in the wall that was already hard fought for made this little Saturday morning project niiiiice and easy. Thank goodness for previously expended efforts; all I had to do today was drive a screw in there.
Mounting hung on screw. Pots hung on mounting. Bing-Bang-Plants-on-the-Wall.

purdy petunias

Mr.Beans had lost interest in being on the porch by this time and cared not for his newly created spot on the plant bench. Oh well, it was a good little free n fast project anyway.

giant tomato plants. one little tomato.

-Lindsay