Spring Into Action: Week 3

This is the final week of the Spring Into Action challenge, where a group of bloggers committed to finishing a project that we've been dragging our feet on.

I chose to build shelves in my TV nook in my living room.  Here's how this area has evolved over the past year:

Bland and Boring

My first and last attempt at abstract art.

Leftover Christmas decor.

This is what it looked like three weeks ago when the challenge began.

Stencil Madness.



I scavenged my house to find things to fill the shelves.  Here's what it looks like now:

Next, I decided to try adding a gallery wall behind the TV using some art that I found at an estate sale.

This was starting to look a little too busy for me:

Styling is definitely NOT my strong point.  Where's Emily Henderson when I need her???  By the way, did you see that she just redid her office in navy.  It looks amazing.

I took some things out:

Added them back in and moved some things around:

Just as a reminder, here's how it started:


What do you think?  Do you prefer the really full look or the more spare look?  I'm definitely not a stylist, so I truly appreciate all of your comments, suggestions and feedback. 

Thanks to Linda of My Crafty Home Life for putting this challenge together and giving us a kick to finish our projects!

Check out the other challengers completed projects here:
Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life

Spring Into Action: Week 2

I made it to the second week of the Spring Into Action Challenge!  Last week we all revealed our projects.  I chose to finally finish building shelves in this niche and to do something with the stencil.  Click here to see Week 1 if you missed it.

This week I painted over the stencil.  I used Benjamin Moore's Stunning, which is a deep navy blue.  I love it!

Once the paint was up, I worked on building the shelves.  First I measured the space and how big the pieces of wood needed to be.  I ran over to Home Depot, where my favorite employee, Dennis, cut a sheet of plywood into all of the little pieces I needed.  He also cut pieces of trim for the edges of the shelves too.   I LOVE how they will cut the wood for you.  After my little incident with the hedge trimmers and stitches, I don't want to touch a saw ever again!

I brought my pieces of wood home and painted everything glossy white.  Then I fit the pieces together in the niche.  Everything fit together so snugly, no supports were needed to hold up the shelf.

The hardest part was trying to get everything square.  It took mutiple trips up the ladder, banging the pieces into place with a mallet, climbing down to eyeball it, and then climbing back up to hammer some more.

Yes, I am a total dork.
Once I got the pieces in place, I used wood glue to glue on the trim.

I used caulk around all of the edges, painted the trim, and touched up the navy.

I still have to paint the upper wall.  I'm going to need to join another challenge to get that done!
Now, I have the most difficult part left...styling those bad boys!  Come back next week for the big reveal.

I won't be getting any work done for the next few days because we're celebrating Big K's birthday in Vegas.  Today is his actual birthday.   Happy Birthday to the best husband and father EVER! 

This was last weekend when he took us on a hike to see wild ponies.  We ended up seeing 8 wild mustangs.  It was so cool!!!

See you next week!

Check out what my fellow Spring Into Action challengers have been up to this week.
Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life

Challenge: Spring Into Action!

I might be crazy, but I'm participating in another challenge.  I love these challenges because they give me motivation to finish projects that I have lingering around the house.

As you might remember, I have a project from March that didn't go quite as planned.

I tried to stencil this area and build a shelf.  This is as far as I got.

For my Spring Into Action project, I intend to repaint this niche, finish building the shelves, and maybe even do a few DIY projects to style the shelves.

Back in March, I contacted a friend who is a handyman to see how much he would charge to build the shelving.  He quoted us $400, but as soon as he said "You can totally do this yourself," I politely ushered him out the door and pulled out my measuring tape. 

I found this tutorial from Vintage Revivals that doesn't look too tricky and that I actually started on in the photo above.

courtesy of Vintage Revivals

Best of all, the shelving pictured only cost $30 to build!

I like the look of bookshelves with a colored back, similar to these:

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Hmmm, that navy might fit in nicely with the Color My World Challenge (the other challenge I'm participating in right now)!

Source: simpledwellings.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

This series will run for the next two Thursdays.  Next week we will be sharing progress on our projects.  The week after that will be the big reveal of the (hopefully) completed project.

This little challenge was dreamed up by the creative Linda of My Crafty Home Life.  There are lots of other great bloggers participating in the challenge.  I'm looking forward to checking out their blogs to see what projects they are tackling over the next few weeks. 

Here are the participants:

Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life