IKEA HACK (Expedit Shelving)

Our poor basement has been undergoing a serious case of neglect.  It's where things go to die.. literally.

For the most part, me and Shane live upstairs.  With the exception of laundry and working in the art studio, our basement isn't a place we use much.  Even the dog avoids it.  This has me convinced that we could live in one of those 10 x 12 homes in the middle of no-where.  Dream big small.  Until that day comes, if at all, we are continuing to work with the space we have, and apply inventive ways to make it better.

Take the Expedit shelving unit for example:

Certainly something that can be found in any 20-65 year old's home.  You may not believe me if I told you, but I have seen an organized Expedit shelving unit before, in the flesh.  Honest.  Our shelving unit has housed everything from books to game systems, to platters and dishes, none of which looked organized.  Being a bit OCD, this bothered me, and because of it, our shelving unit had almost got the ax a few times, however, for sentimental reasons (first piece of Ikea furniture with the Hubster) and functionality, it stuck around.

Before coming to the realization that it would be cost effective to just re-vamp the dang thing, I was checking out media cabinets at West Elm, Crate and Barrel, and CB2, you know, the kind-of-affordable, grown-up furniture options.  However, the price tag for these consoles were tough to swallow.  If there wasn't a million things I wanted to tackle with our home improvement budget, I'd welcome these handsome storage units into our piece of split, anytime.  All of them.

Credit: West Elm

Credit: West Elm

Credit: Crate and Barrel

Credit: CB2

Now that countless hours of wishing and pondering were well spent, I finally had an idea for our Expedit shelf.  The one thing that all of these media storage units had in common was how random and unique they were, from the wood grain to the mixed materials.  I also wanted our shelf to function well for it's intended purpose (i.e: video game station). You could guess that this piece of furniture is for the husband, and you would be correct, however, I too like to dabble in some SNES action.  

The first step was removing the metal legs (not pictured) and replacing them with casters.  The purpose of this would be to move the unit with ease (untangling cords in the back, etc.)

After some measuring, I went and purchased 2x3's to build two frames and secured the corners with L-brackets.

Next, I went wood diving in and outside of our home, grabbing any leftover wood that I could salvage for this project.  

Variety is good in my eyes.  This unit is not something that I wanted to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  I wanted it to be as off-beat as possible.  Winning.

I cut the wood down to size and secured the panels to the frame using a nail gun.  Once the wood was secure, I flipped it over and added a set of hinges.

One door complete, on to the next.  Because my hinges created gaps on the side of the Expedit shelving unit, I had to cut off about an inch of wood from my other frame.  If you come across a issue such as this, just go with the flow. **Tip: Make one door first before starting on the other.  Ikea measurements are a little off, so adjust your plan accordingly.

The doors are slightly different widths, but that is okay with me.  Off beat, remember?  I ended up using a lot of cedar and premium wood in this piece.  Really anything with a pretty wood grain on it.  I also added some pulls from Anthropologie I had laying around the house.  All that is left is for the man of the house to set up his vid systems.

There you have it, my "Ikea Hack" for the Expedit Shelving Unit.  Bonus, the cedar smells amazing.  For this project, I didn't use any stains or poly.  I'm all about natural wood in it's natural state... er, in this case, fixed on our media storage unit.  Super happy with the outcome.  I've already been downstairs fifteen separate times enjoying it's company.  Flawless Victory.

Replicas are Pretty Neat too

Got a surprise shipment of dining room chairs in the mail yesterday, and no, they totally weren't free.  A few months back I came across a wicked deal on Overstock for four "Eames" replica side chairs.  It would be awesome to have the real deal (someday), but we also want to be able to make our mortgage payments.  Apparently these chairs from Modway were on back order, so for weeks I religiously checked to see if they were shipped yet.  Spoiler alert: they weren't.  Then life got in the way and I totally forgot about them, until yesterday.  Christmas!

The chairs themselves were really easy to assemble.  It took me a half hour to put four together. They are sturdy, well-made, surprisingly comfortable and last but not least, wipe-able!  So yay.

Peek.  Gretzky is a pretty big fan of them also.  They are so clean looking, and really compact, which is a huge bonus for anyone living in a split level home.

All smiles on this side of the internet.  Shane's response?  "I'm happy you're happy."  Well, I am.

Happy Freakin' Friday.

Entry Ledge/Handrail Project (for Free)

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter.  More importantly, I hope your children got over their sugar high's successfully.

The Easter bunny (Shane) was very good to us this weekend.  He got us a new Honda mower.  It's got a mulch-er on it and something else that makes it a big deal.  Whatever makes it cool, I am just thankful that it has four wheels as opposed to our other mower we don't like to talk about much.

The Easter bunny also gifted me a new toilet seat, as I shattered the other one, a bag of Cheetos, and most importantly, a new fricken front door!  !!!  !!!!   Oh, but no worries, there is another typical-Jenna disaster story where I found myself, once again, jumping the gun on house projects.

We also continued to work on our front entry redesign journey.  Anything to make a tiny space feel bigger, right?  Bonus-- it was a FREE project!

Once a year, for the past four years, I've made it a mission of mine to paint our front door a new color.  Not because I want to, but because I think the color I did paint it was a bad idea, so I cover up the bad idea with an even worse idea.  Our front door has made it through all of the primary colors. Yellow was terrible, but it was by far my favorite.  Shane's favorite was blue.  The blue door was one of the few projects that Shane came home to and liked immediately... then I decide to cover it up. What a bone-headed move.

Yellow

Blue Door-- Thanks Google

                                     

Red-- the door I never cared to finish, or show off

On Saturday I was hell-bent on getting some project ideas off of paper and into my life.  This door was one of them, and it didn't have a chance.

The issues with this door was A. It melts/melted.  The glue behind the window-lite trim got so hot that it started oozing out from the cracks.  I thought that a replacement window would be about $50.00 or so bucks, and readily available at my home improvement store (wrong and wrong), so without much more thought, I took out the window, which literally disintegrated in my hands, and went to town on stripping three layers of paint off the door just so I could repaint it a "permanent" color.  Three hours later, the paint was off, and the old "wood" door was unveiled.  Now for that window.  A replacement single window-lite will run you around $138.00.  A new door will cost you around $192.00.  Unless you really love your door in it's current state, I'd say go for the new door.  Don't be like me and hang out with a broken door for three hours before doing your research.  It's.not.worth.it.  All that work and we didn't even keep the damn thing.  The silver-lining?  I found out which stripper I would recommend to anyone looking for a quick fix.  She's fast, smells o.k. and gets everything off.  

Just for the sake of science, I'll show you what this stripper can do--

This stuff ain't messin' around.  Wear some heavy duty rubber gloves whenever you are dealing with these kind of chemicals.

Here is a quick snap shot of the window we took out.  Like I said before, if you really love your door, but aren't a fan of your window, all you have to do is take the screws out and the window should come out with ease.  Make sure you measure the depth, as some replacement windows vary between 1/2-1 inch thickness.

Stop by for a decent post of our new door too.  Exciting things people, exciting things!

Project Round 2: Fight

The next project on my to-do list was fixing the aesthetics of our handrail and ledge in our entryway. Here is a before shot:

I sanded and stained the wood once before, but the bright oak color really isn't our thing.  We prefer the dark looking wood with white accents.  Please excuse our super gross looking entryway in this photo.  Fall in Minnesota is lovely but dang messy.  The issue I was having with the handrail and ledge were issues that only I would notice.  There was paint splashed up on the quarter rounds, and paint streaks hidden under the handrail.  Not all of it was my fault.  We are confident that the previous homeowners gave up and didn't see the potential in this house that we do.  Then again, we're I'm crazy.

We had lots of leftover material from our basement reno, so lucky for us, this project didn't cost us a cent.  It is such a good feeling utilizing leftovers, because then you know you are getting the most bang for your buck. 

At 8:00 in the morning I took of the handrail and began sanding it outside.  A mighty fine wake up call for our neighbors might I add.  After a little pounding inside, the ledge came off with ease.

I stained the handrail using Minwax in Ebony.  I didn't want the color to be super saturated, so I wiped off the excess using a clean rag.  Once the new ledge and quarter rounds were installed, I used a tube of vinyl magic to fill in any cracks.  This may seem like an unnecessary step, but it completes the project, and makes it look like the ledge and all of it's trimming are one single unit, giving off a much more rich appearance.  The reason for vinyl filler?  It doesn't crack with Minnesota's changing temperatures, and it's going with the flow attitude adapts itself as your home settles.  When the filler is still wet, run your finger along the thin strip to smooth it out.  Sand any abrasive surfaces for a smooth finish.

I really think this quick project certainly classed up our entryway, making it a bit more modern. There are certainly bigger projects (getting rid of the carpet and tile and replacing it with hardwood) that need to be done, but for the moment, I have really been enjoying the new look of our entryway ledge and handrail.  One small step at a time.

Because what is a post without a side by side comparison:

 

I am really starting to love this piece of split.  Thanks for stopping by! XO.

**UPDATE**

Just wanted to share an update on the looks of our front door--interior side.  The struggle has been real trying to figure out what to do with the trim and new door color.  If any of your bloggers/designers out there have any suggestions, please, we are all ears.  Until then, the white will do.