Back when it was warm...

I did this spray paint project.

Because we all know you can't spray paint when it's under like 50 degrees.  And in Wisconsin, that's like 96% of the time.  Which only leaves 4% of the year available to spray paint every single project you want to get done.  It's impossible.  That's one of my biggest beefs with this state, actually.
Anyway.  I received a filing cabinet for free from my mom.  Not one to turn my nose up at storage options, I nabbed it up.  It was the typical beige of an office filing cabinet and unremarkable in every way.
It was, however, in really good shape, aside from being reeeeheeeeally dusty and kind of scuffed up.  So I decided that I would indeed use this filing cabinet on the main floor of my house and not in the basement as I had originally thought.  
See, though my "craft room" is in the dungeon, I often craft with my kids.  Or when my kids are drawing or doing homework.  Which means that I use the dining room table more often than my craft room.  So I needed some storage for those craft items I use all the time, kid craft items, decor items I use in photographs, and drawing stuff for the kids - all stuff that was kind of just floating around the house randomly with no home before.
Enter: filing cabinet storage.  I decided to use it as a set of drawers, a dresser, if you will, instead of for, well, filing.
Behold:

1. First things first, I took all the drawers out.

2. As I mentioned, it was a little dirty.  So step 2 was giving it a goof dusting and scrub down with clorox wipes.  Look!  I made some money doing this project!

3. No picture here, but I disassembled the front of the drawers.  I first had to take the plastic part on the back of the front piece off.  It was slightly tricky, but not bad.  Then I unscrewed the handles off and used a paint can opener to pop off the label frame thingies.  I managed to do it all without breaking anything, which was pretty stellar.

4. I spray painted the front of the drawers with Krylon's Ocean Breeze.

5. I spray painted the body of the cabinet with Krylon's Bright White.

I should mention that even though I didn't break apart the drawers, I did manage to mangle the lock.  Because I'm a little prone to doofus-ism, I accidentally locked the top drawer closed.  The filing cabinet did NOT come with a key, and I couldn't figure out a way to open the drawer without smashing the lock in.  Crap.  That's the one part of this project I'm not happy about.

After I painted it blue and white I thought I was done.  But as I looked at it, I realized it was boring.  And that didn't sit well.

I decided it needed stripes.  

I got some of the super low stick painters tape for delicate surfaces, since I was applying it to spray painted metal.

I taped two drawers with horizontal stripes and two drawers with vertical stripes.  Then I sprayed them white.
Upon peeling the tape up off of the drawers, it was super apparent that the low stick tape was still much too sticky - i.e. I pulled off bits of blue paint everywhere.

And then I got mad and let the project sit for a while.  When mr saw it he said, "Huh.  I usually don't like distressed furniture, but that looks pretty cool."
Um.  Yes.  Distressed.  I totally did that on purpose.  Mm-hm.
If mr. was on board, so was I.  So I gave the whole thing a quick once over with clear spray.  Then I sanded a bit here and there to really seal the deal that it WAS in fact DISTRESSED and not just a total fail.

I used a pencil to outline lightly where the label frames went, then painted rectangles of chalkboard paint on each drawer.  Then I put them all back together.

 Ta-da!

 We had just moved that big black shelf from the living room to the dining room - the distressed filing cabinet fit right in the corner.  Before you ask, the answer is no - I haven't actually staged the shelf yet.  Or even gotten enough crates and baskets for everything.  One thing at a time, people.

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One man's junk...

... can be bought for about a dollar at various locations and then turned into something really cool.  Yep.  Really cool.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted something like this in my bedroom:

via

Though this one's nice, too:

(just a little too glam for my bedroom design style)

But vanities, you may know, are not cheap.  Lots of moolah for a new, modern one.  Sometimes even MORE money for a vintage one in nice shape.  Even the vanities at the thrift store that I could fix up were MUCH more than I was willing to spend.  

Then I spied an old desk at a thrift store.  It was the perfect small size for my small master bedroom and I really liked the curvy shape.

And it was pretty much a hot mess.  BUT it was only 5 dollars.  I took a chance and bought it, though I had no idea if I'd ever find a vanity chair and mirror of the same vintage/style.

For months I checked thrift stores to no avail.  Until one day, I was at a rummage sale with my sister and encountered this:

Which most people (understandably) walked by without a second glance.  However, when I looked, the clouds parted and angels sang.  I ran to, scooped it up and slapped down my 2 bucks.

I still couldn't find a mirror, but I set about fixing up the desk and chair with faith that the right mirror was out there somewhere.

Here's the chair before:

I took it apart, cleaned it, used Krylon Bright White in Satin finish on the metal, got some upholstery fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby, used my staple gun and glue gun to get the upholstery on the cushions, and put it all back together.

And here's the finished chair:

The desk took some work.  Here it is in its glorious before:

I took the handles off (though, truthfully I really like them now... my taste has changed a bit).  I pulled out the drawer and took out the floral sticky paper.  This revealed holes in the drawer.  SO.  I washed everything down, used some wood filler to fill in one of the holes left from each handle (I was replacing them with knobs so I only needed one hole each), used spackle to fill in small holes and cracks, used some very thin balsa type wood and a staple gun to attach it over the existing drawer bottom, sprayed it all down with Krylon Bright White in Satin finish and put the new knobs in.  Phew.

And there it sat in my room, by the window, without a mirror.  Totally unfinished.  For EVER. Like two years.

When it became clear we were going to be moving a baby crib in the bedroom and I'd have to rearrange a bit, I decided it was time to kick the mirror search into high gear!
I checked thrift stores, rummage sales, consignment stores, places I never went... then, when re-checking my favorite thrift store, I found this gem:

It was $10, BUT, it was half price Monday!!  I got it for $5!  I cleaned it up really well, filled in the cracks around the frame with spackle, restrung a wire on the back and sprayed it - you guessed it - Krylon Bright White in Satin finish.  I wasn't completely sure I was sold on the big bow on top...

Then I hung it up.  And it all came together...

And THAT is how you create your own vanity from inexpensive pieces.

One desk - $5
One chair - $2
One mirror - $5
One mug rack turned necklace holder - $2
One candle holder turned bracelet holder - $1
(You can see the post about the jewelry organization here)

Ta-Da!

Step one in getting our bedroom ready to share with the baby... Now, to finish that task.  Even though he's already here.

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When I say "we" I mean "he".

Remember this picture from my Christmas summary post?

You know, the one where mini was less than enthused about the gift I bled, sweated and cried over for about a month before it was finished?  Yeah, that.

In her defense, she had the flu.  Now that she's better, she loves it.  (I swear.)

So this is the post where I show you what it looked like before I took a saw/hammer/drill/electric screwdriver/paint to it.  The post where I tell you how I took it from the $10 I spent at a garage sale:

To the beautiful, modern kitchen it is today:

Yes, that's right.  I'm doing it.  I'm showing you way too many pictures.  I'm giving you the whole before and after.  Why?  Because, doggone, I'm proud of this baby.  I don't work with power tools a ton.  And this required the whole shebang.  This is something I've been wanting to do since I pinned this bad boy:

                                                                            Source: martawrites.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

And I finally did it!  With COPIOUS amounts of help from my daddio.  Just throwing that in there.  So I think I'm entitled.  The good news is you won't have to scroll through a ton of "during" pics, because I was in a mad scramble to finish this for Christmas and didn't take any "during" pictures.  Just,

And  I also think it's unlikely you'll find a little cupboard EXACTLY like this one (definitely made in the 60's by the way) so why do a whole tutorial, right?

Instead, I figured I'd show you a bunch of "after" photos and explain how things came together, in case you're making a kitchen and need ideas/tricks.  Ready?

Phew!  Tiring just looking at it.  So let's take a little cake break, ok?

Much better.  Especially since I didn't make those, just bought them at the target dollar section.  Now, on with the show.

Let it be said, I am no power tool expert here.  And I had a lot of help.  Did I mention that?  Moving right along... The first thing we did was focus on the front of the kitchen.  I wanted the oven door to open like an oven door - makes sense, right?  So I removed the doors.  I would have reused them, but they weren't the right size for the opening when turned on their sides.  So we measured the space around the top shelf and cut a wood plank (I think it was a 4x4?) I had laying around in my garage.  We used very small flat hinges and attached three along the bottom (could have gotten away with two, but we played it safe).  We then used a screwdriver to reattach all the magnets/metal plates that were used in the original kitchen to keep the doors closed.  There is one on each side along the top edge.  We screwed in 4 small eyes and used a pliers to open them and attach the two chains.  Then we just cut a scrap piece of wood into a little strip and screwed it to the front for a handle.

I should note that when placing the eyes for the chain, you will need to indent them from the edges on the door piece - NOT line them up perfectly level with the eyes above.  This way, when you close the door, the chain will not get all bunched up and in the way - very frustrating for little hands. 

We left the bottom shelf as it was for open shelving.  The inside of the oven is currently storing food.  Maybe someday we'll build her a fridge, huh Dad?

At this point, I informed my dad that the kitchen absolutely MUST, and I mean MUST, have a window with a curtain.  I already knew what fabric from my stash to use.  I just had to figure out how to get a window in there.  Turned out, my suggestion of nailing on some boards and drilling some holes, then inserting a dowel was, actually, the right one.  Who would have thought?  So that's pretty much exactly what we did.  

Just make sure you remember to sand the whole kitchen first, then paint the whole kitchen before you put up the dowel with the curtain.  We actually measured and drilled the large holes, then screwed in the two side pieces and left it like that until we were ready to paint.  Then we painted and placed the curtain.  Luckily, we drilled our holes to the perfect size and didn't need to use screws OR wood glue.

Next, we focused on the top.  I sanded it and painted, the "backsplash" area too.  I used epoxy putty (specifically, this stuff:

) to glue down the paint can lids for the burners.  I probably could have fit four down, but #1, I kind of wanted some "counter space" and #2, two was all we could get for free.  So it's a European style stovetop.  Then we (and by we I definitely mean my dad at this point, since I'm still scared of saws.  Have to get over that sometime...) sawed the circle for the sink.  You should have seen us with the string and the pencil trying to draw a perfect circle with just the right diameter so the lip on the metal bowl I used would hit perfectly in place... we had to get mr out in the garage to help us with some math and in the end I just eyeballed it and hit it dead on.  Booyah!  Anyway, we used a jig saw for that.  We drilled the holes for the faucet while we were at it.  Then we inserted the faucet (which I got at the restore for three dollars and it might be my favorite part aside from the curtain).  Then we used the same epoxy putty as before around the lip of the metal bowl and pushed the sink in.

You can see in the 4th picture there, how the sink sits down into the oven, but not too far.  I bought no less than THREE metal bowls before I finally "gave up", then went to the thrift store and low and behold found the perfect size.  Sigh.

So now is when I did paint touch-ups, taped some things off and added a few paint details. I wish I'd thought to paint the dowel before inserting it, but at least it's generally covered.

I spray painted two of the four existing knobs silver and screwed them back in.  Then I screwed in a little silver handle where the other two knobs were below the sink for a hand towel to hang.  The last thing was to add a few hooks to the side for potholders and such.

Mini got a pots and pans set from Oma and Opa for Christmas and a little "kitchenaid" mixer from the mr and I - since the kitchenaid is my very favorite kitchen appliance.  Better than the fridge, I tell ya!  The potholders came with the sets, so I didn't make any of those.  BUT, when I am not frantically setting up space heaters so the paint will dry in time for me to throw a blanket over it so it can be "unwrapped" in an hour, I have plans to make some accessories.  You know, apron, oven mitt, dishtowel, etc.

I did whip these up quick with some crystal light containers and duct tape:

Easy shmeezy utensil holders!  I happen to think they're pretty great, which is cool since they took about 2 minutes to make, cost me ZERO dollars and have lids to keep everything tidy.

I also managed to whip up this little cookie kit for mini, which was another christmas present:

Tutorial to come!

So far she has some pizza from Aunt Al, some cupcakes and cake from tarjay, some felt cookies and some wooden cookies and wooden donuts from Aunt Al as well.  I think she has the main food groups covered, but I'll try to work on adding to the menu just for fun.

Also to come, hopefully shortly, a tutorial for this guy:

Don't know why it's a "guy" when it's pink and has a bow, but whatev.

Aren't you glad I'm done subjecting you to photos of this kitchen?

For now.

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Part Two of This Super Crazy Craft (it's a working title)

The minute my brain envisioned the Cork/Chalk Board Map Gallery Wall, I knew I HAD to make it - no matter what.

The thrifty side of me contested.  "But bulletin boards are so expensiiiiiiiive...." (whiny voice.)

The awesome side of me insisted.  "Does that really matter?  I think not!" (take charge voice.)

But really, the awesome side of me HAD to compromise with the thrifty side of me.  Mostly because of my husband's stipulations on my craft budget.  (booo!)

I already had two bulletin boards that were really put to good use - hahaha! Oh, man, I couldn't even keep a straight face TYPING that! - sitting around waiting for me to use them for the preschoolers preschooling.  And since that wasn't happening (using the board, I mean... I kind of TRY to teach my kids...) I knew I had two right there.

So, I put my thinking cap on.  I imagined up a map of the world.  I figured I needed at least two more kind of big bulletin boards for a total of four decent sized ones (you know, the four main continents...) and then three or four smaller ones to fill in the gaps.  The thrifty side of me laughed at the awesome side of me, knowing that even bulletin boards at Walmart at that size are at least 15 bucks and that's not taking into account all of the other materials I needed.  But the awesome side of me wasn't taking any of that crap.  This wall was meant to be, it shouted!

I went to buy some spray paint from Michael's - the chalkboard kind.  I thought that was the easiest way to go.  While I was there I came across this sale on big pieces of foam board.  I don't remember exactly what the sale was - it was like a 3fer sale and I wish I'd gotten like 600 because you can never have too much of this stuff right?  Anyway, I saw that sale and my awesome side totally put my thrifty side in its place.  It was all, "Ha!  I knew there was a way!"

So, enough of the back story.  You just want to know how to make your own bulletin board for cheaper than the $20 you'll pay at the store for a nice one, don't you?  The cool thing is (aside from the cheaper thing), all of these bulletin boards will be different, which totally adds to the awesome gallery wall feel.

You'll need:

Bad thrift store art in a decent size - really whatever size you need.  Mine were around 13x17 and 18x14.  Make sure the frames look cool.

Spray paint in your choice of color - I used Krylon "Banner Red" and Rustoleum "Lagoon".

Cork tiles

Sheet of cork

foam board

box cutter

spray adhesive

gorilla glue or other heavy duty adhesive

Chalkboard paint - spray or brush on, I actually ended up preferring the brush on.

Painter's tape

something to decorate a blank frame with (like little scrap pieces of wood).

First - lay out your cork.  If you are using some pre-made bulletin boards, lay them out, along with your sheet of cork and cork tiles.  Everything cork-y should be laying out.

(You will please excuse the disgusting state of my garage.  I am lucky to have a husband who doesn't mind crazy spray paint spots all over the place.)

After you lay it all out, you'll start with your chalkboard paint.  I did two coats of spray and 3 coats of brush on.  

A note about chalkboard paint:  I thought the spray would be easier, but I was wrong.  First, although it looked black in the picture on the can, it was green, which was totally WRONG. I used it anyway, because I figured the more coats of chalkboard paint the better and I knew I didn't have enough brush on stuff left to do a ton of coats.  After the spray paint dried, I went back and brushed on (rolled on in some cases) the black chalkboard paint.  The coverage was MUCH better.  It went on smooth.  It didn't soak into the cork as much.  In short, I preferred the roll on kind.

At the same time, you'll want to dismantle your bad thrift store artwork.  You can do whatever you want with the art - bonfire, let your kids scribble, make it into a scooter ramp, whatever.  It's just the cool frames we want.  Lay the frames out and spray them with the spray paint in your choice of color.  You'll want to let them dry between coats.  I gave my frames 4 or 5 coats, to really get into all the grooves.  

NOW.  This is when I tell you that this tutorial within a three-part tutorial is actually a three-part tutorial in itself.  I told you this was an insane craft.  I'm going to show you three ways to make yourself a chalk/cork board.

1.
Once everything is dry, we'll get out the foam board.  Lay your bad thrift store art's frame face down.  Place a piece of foam board in the frame, matching up one corner.
Mark where the frame ends on the other corners.  If you're ghetto smart like me, you won't even bother looking around for a pencil, you'll just mark it with the box cutter.
Then, use the box cutter to cut the foam board to the size of the frame.

Now, lay your foam board pieces on top of your sheet of cork.  Cut roughly around the foam board - it doesn't have to be perfect. 
(You will please excuse the state of the foam board on the right.  It had an accident.)
Flip the pieces of cork over and spray the back down with spray adhesive.  Wait a bit to make it tacky.
Place the foam board on the cork.  Press firmly down all over.
See how the cork kind of hangs over the edge of the foam board?  Trim it down.

Now, all you have to do is pop the chalkboard-paint-covered-cork-covered foam board into your thrift store frames - which you have already spray painted to a beautiful shade.  Secure the foam board into place either a) with the hardware stuff on the back of the frame or, b) with staples if all of the hardware suddenly goes missing as mine did.

2.
Get your chalkboard-paint-covered cork tile and lay it on your foam board.  Trace around it (since you've finally found the pencil...)
Using a ruler, draw a larger square around the one you traced.  Cut the squares out with your box cutter.
Pop out the middle square and clean up any rough spots.


Place your cork tile in the middle of the foam board frame.  It should fit tightly enough that you do not need anything to hold it in place, but if you DO need something, you can glue strips from the foam board over the back.
I used an old jenga game I got at the thrift store to make the frame.  I like that the wood tiles were used-looking.  Start in the corner of your foam board and use your Gorilla Glue to glue down one or two tiles.  Then glue another along the other edge, going perpendicular to what you just set down.  The pieces should be movable for a bit, so you have some time to make sure that they are overlapping the edges of the foam board evenly.
Continue gluing down pieces, putting glue on the bottom and sides of the pieces and fitting them snugly together.
When you're almost done, you'll probably run out of jenga pieces, so you'll have to raid the family jenga game for about 6 tiles or so.  It's alright.  It's not like anyone plays it anyway... that's why it was at the thrift store...

Then all you have to do is spray paint it - your choice.  "Lagoon" in my case.  Make sure you tape paper over the chalkboard part before you spray paint the frame.

3.
If you've got some pre-made bulletin boards, this is, of course, the easiest route.  After painting the cork with chalkboard paint and letting it dry, cover it with paper and use painter's tape to seal the edges.  Then spray the frames.  Voila!  Beautiful!
When you peel up the painter's tape from the bulletin board, you will likely have a few spots of chalkboard paint come up with the tape.  Just use a small paintbrush to do some touch ups.

So, let's do a quick breakdown, shall we?  We need four large bulletin boards and four small bulletin boards for our gallery wall.  That would be about $100 just in bulletin boards.  The whole project could run about $150 or so!  Even the awesome side of me balks at that.
BUT!
2 large bulletin boards - FREE (one I got a long time ago and the other I found on the curb)
2 bad arts - $2 each, so $4
4 pack of cork tiles - FREE (found in my mom's stash - thanks mom!)
2 cans of spray paint - $3 ish (the red I had already - I just bought the turquoise)
1 long sheet of cork - $8.20 ($12, but 40% off coupon)
foam board - 3 for something, I think it was $2 and something and I got 6 so we'll just say $6
1 Chalkboard Spray paint - about $3, but you could totally do without this.
Chalkboard paint, spray adhesive, painter's tape, Gorilla Glue, Jenga game pieces were all on hand - so FREE!

Total, I got about 150 dollars of project for around $24.20 ish.
AND they look awesome.

This pleases both my thrifty side AND my awesome side.  That's the best kind of project.

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