Dream On Until Your Dream Comes True

Every single time I do an Ikea run I come home with a couple random cabinet doors from the "As Is" department. I have about 8 of them sitting the basement collecting dust. Like seriously. They are covered in dust.

A couple days ago while at Hobby Lobby I found a metal dream sign that was on sale for 50% off. I snagged it up thinking it would work well in the guest bedroom.

Well once I came home and started browsing my cabinet door inventory I realized one door was practically the same exact color of the furniture in the master bedroom. Guess, the guest bedroom won't have a dream sign afterall.

So this....

Turned into this...

I used small dabs of Liquid Nails to adhere the dream sign to the cabinet door and attached some D-Ring Hangers to the back of the cabinet so I could hang it on the wall. 

And just because here's an action shot of the bricks, books, and Costco sized bottle of vegetable oil I piled on the sign to "clamp" it down while the liquid nails dried.

COST BREAKDOWN

 Cabinet Door = $1

Dream Sign = $7

Liquid Nails =  Already Had

2 - D-Ring Hangers = $2

TOTAL COST = $10

PARTY HARDY

Kitchen Pantry

So when we moved in to our brand spanking new house the pantry was pretty miserable. She was our very first project!

Two shelves were missing, and you can't really tell in this picture but none of the shelves were actually level.

We started by knocking out all the shelves, applying joint compound VERY liberally, sanding it down, and painting her bright white.

We headed to Lowe's and bought some shelves, brackets, and screws.

Then I bought some wire baskets from Ikea for a little extra storage. The depth of our pantry is about 12in, which for a pantry is nothing! The wire baskets were just over 12in so we had to take wire cutters and chop off the lip on the baskets so they would fit.

And this is my stocked and ridiculously crammed pantry.

Don't mind all the cereal and breakfast foods. My partner in crime for life swore Honey Nut Cherrios and Oatmeal were his favorite, but then we moved in together and I started buying my two favorites (Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch) in addition to his. Now he won't touch his Cherrios or Oatmeal, he just eats my cereal. And well, we just really like pancakes. No excuse for that one.

I wanted to give a cost breakdown for this little endeavor, but then I looked at the Lowe's receipt and realized I am wayyyyyy too embarrassed to divulge just how much we spent on this. I'm seriously ashamed. It definitely was not thrifty.

Drinking Wine & Killing Time

You might remember my post about the lovely chandelier that inhabited my dining room and my post about the chandelier I wish were hanging in my dining room. Well,worry no more! This past weekend that monstrosity from the 70's was replaced!

But first, a few before pictures of what came with our house.

In case anyone needs to borrow a bong, I have 5.

Please take notice of the blue paperclip holding the canopy plate in place. Very classy.

It isn't a classy chandelier without paint splashes everywhere.

I would have loved to buy a Chandelini (created by Touch Design Studios), but I don't think $1,995 was in our budget for a chandelier. Instead we opted to make our own.

I originally found this tutorial for a mason jar chandelier over at kara paslay designs and figured it shouldn't be that difficult to tweak her instructions to work for my wine glass idea.
 
We started brainstorming on the best way to execute our plan, with structural integrity being #1 on the list and aesthetics being #2. Let me tell you, we were almost divorced by the time we finished this little project AND we haven't even gotten married yet!

But here she is, our pride and joy, in all her glory!

Tah-Dah!!

Close up.

View from the bottom.

With the lights dimmed down.

Cost Breakdown

keyless sockets = $8 (Lowe's)

lamp wire = $3 (Home Depot)

lamp nipples =  $2 (Lowe's)

offset crossbar = $2 (Home Depot)

hex nuts = $2 (Home Depot)

machine screws = $2 (Home Depot)

fishing line = $3 (Wal-Mart)

candelabra light bulbs = $6

wire connectors = $2 (Home Depot)

glass drill bit = $17 (Lowe's)

pack of 12 wine glasses = $8 (w/ coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond)

12 glasses of varying sizes = $7 (Goodwill)

stemless wine glasses = $7 (Homegoods)

ceiling medallion = $20 (Home Depot)

steel ring = $2 (Home Depot)

crimp beads = $9 (Jo-Ann's)

crimp tool = $10 (w/ coupon at Jo-Ann's)

TOTAL COST = $102

Featured On:

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY

The full how-to can be found after the jump (sorry in advance for the lack of pictures).

Shake It...

....Shake it like a Polaroid picture! Long, long ago there was a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and Polaroids were all the rage.

I saw this post at Apartment Therapy a while ago and decided to dig up all my old Polaroids that were being held hostage lovingly stored at the bottom of the closet to do something similar in my office.

This is right as you enter my office/last resort guest bedroom.

Here's my little thumbless helper (read: useless helper).

I used some blue reusable adhesive putty to hang them up. You know, the stuff teachers use and kids like me would steal :) I opted to stick the putty on all at once and then stick them to the wall.

 And here's the final product!

This little project only cost me about $2, which was the cost for the Blue Stik putty (of which I have a TON left over).