Girls' closet customed!

I have wanted to "do" the girls' closet since the day we moved in. I think I have a pet peeve of wasted space, and this closet fit that to a T. 

After my dad helped me with the master closet during Thanksgiving break, I was confident I could do this. 

I sketched a layout on easyclosets.com and then fine tuned it from there. (By the way, easy closets would have cost me $375) for the same layout. 

 And, I am happy to report, I did it ALL. By. Myself! (Minus two cuts Dan made with the circular saw, since I was scared...but I got brave and did the rest of the cuts myself.) So invigorating! BRING on the projects! :)

Anyway....

This is what I started with:

B.O.R.I.N.G.

It took about 5-6 hours and cost me only about $50, since we had some leftover wood from the master closet. I reused the bar, the wood cleat, and the shelf from the original closet. I just chopped them up, and put them in different places.

Here is the closet finished. I have some major touch up work to do inside (as I had a few "learning experiences") but I LOVE how it turned out!

And here it is with all the "stuff" put back in. SEE all that EMPTY space?! YaY!

http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/

http://thriftydecorchick.com/

coffee table refinished

I check craigslist daily. 

Never really in the market for anything in particular. 

My garage still has my last craigslist find to refinish...

But, it would be a shame to miss a good deal.

Such as this coffee table.

$20. 

The 30 minute drive to get it, was totally worth it. 

(My daughter instantly loved her new climbing toy.)

It was more scratched than I had anticipated. 

But that just makes the "after" even better! :)

I stripped down the top.

Not once.

Not twice.

yup, third time's the charm!

It took me that many times to figure out how to "stain".

Let's just say I have a new appreciation for stained furniture.

What a pain.

And the After:

The top is stained a mix of mahogany and antique walnut jel stain. 

The bottom is rustoleum's Fossil spray paint.

I debated about buying new hardware and even filled the holes from these knobs so I could put a centered pull on each drawer. But, I decided to use what I had, and just spray painted the knobs oil-rubbed bronze.  You can still see the knicks in them, but they were free! :)

I'm very happy with the result! I put two coats of polyurethane on it...and determined I need lessons in that area. The coverage is NOT even, and might drive me batty, but, it's good enough.

For now.

 And my weekend project is finally finished.... one MONTH later.