Kilby Gets an Upgrade

So, I have a lot of stuff. I don't mean to acquire so many things as I do, it just happens! So many tiny things go into sewing, crafting & the like...it is difficult to be a crafter without things to craft with! As a result, I need a ton of storage. 

Two apartments ago S and I bought the Kilby from my favorite home store, IKEA. The Kilby has been very useful for storing things, but unlike its grown-up big brother, the Billy, the Kilby is not very pleasant to look at. The blonde wood is okay, not my favorite; but the nondescript grey backing is just so sad. I've been wanting to cover it up for some time now, but have been unable to commit to a pattern.

In case you were wondering why S and I bought the ugly bookshelf, it is because the Kilby costs decidedly much, much less than any of the comparable Billy products. In fact, I just bought my first Billy shelf this week!  

Last week S and I had a rare day off from work together. The whether was great so we hit the city, hanging out at all our favorite places. I decided that today was the day that we fix up the sad Kilby, so we went to Trohv, I picked out all  my favorite spring-weather papers, and we went home & got to work!  

Before!

See the grey + blonde bookcase on the right? Sad, huh.

 Before - All cleaned off. Notice we also took down the black wall shelf on the left?

Before

 We cleaned the Kilby from top to bottom to get rid of all the dust.

To test out the effectiveness of this adhesive we put a test strip of paper on the bottom. 

What pretty piece of test paper!
As expected, the adhesive worked great.

I laid out the paper rolls to measure. I wanted to cut as little as possible.  

We taped the edges of the shelf walls with painters tape to protect them from the spray adhesive.

We decided to cut the paper about an inch longer on each side so we could razor the edges for a nice, clean finish.

After!

I just love how it turned out! The sunroom is SO much more cheery now that the grey backing has been updated to bright dots & floral prints.

The project was quick & easy; with two people it took us less than two hours from start to finish. 

Thanks for checking out my bookcase makeover! I hope you have been inspired to update an old piece of your furniture into a piece that makes you smile.

Bottle Cap Mirror

It is no surprise, I love IKEA. Many items at IKEA have very simple & clean lines, just begging to be customized! IKEA has carried the MALMA mirror for years now. From the first time I saw it, I knew I had to use it to make something really neat. 

I work at a very fun restaurant. We carry over 200 different types of bottled beer, many of which have really interesting bottle caps. I knew that I could combine my love of beer, my access to many different types of bottle caps, & my love of IKEA to make an interesting mirror for my home.

I bought this plain, black mirror from IKEA

Used painters tape to mask off the mirror part

Primed the mirror with spray-on Zinsser primer. This primer is awesome, it sticks to everything. The finish on the mirror was smooth & shiny, so I knew I needed to use Zinsser in order to make my paint stick.

I used neon pink spray paint from Montana Gold to paint the mirror. This is the same paint I used for my Neon Kitchen Makeover. I just love bright colors. 

I used hot glue to adhere the bottle caps to the mirror. The dimensions of the mirror allowed for exactly nine caps to fit across & nine down. It was perfect!

Close-up!

I'm not finished yet! It is looking really cool so far thought, I wanted to show it to you. 
I love the contrast between the bright, neon paint & the bottle caps.

I hope you have been inspired to personalize a piece from IKEA for yourself!

As always, thanks for stopping by & reading. 

I made it onto Ikea Hackers!

I've reached a blog milestone! My Ikea Rast makeover was featured on Ikea Hackers!

I want to thank Jules, the owner & operator of Ikea Hackers, for her dedication towards the blog. It was so much fun to see my work featured on such a well-known blog; I'm sure everybody else that is featured on her blog feels the same way!

Check out my post here:

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/02/my-very-own-rast-hack.html

Hack-a-Rast!

I decided to jump the bandwagon and become the last person on the face of this earth to Hack-a-Rast! I'm so happy that I did. It was a fun, easy & inexpensive project, and now I have an awesome piece of functioning furniture that I can say I made it pretty all by myself! Now that my first one is finished and still looking awesome, I kind of want to make three more. 

Before

IKEA Rast Dresser (photo from Ikea)

During the Hack

S assembled it for me. As far as people go, he is amazing. 

First I took the tiny wooden drawer pulls off. Then I lightly sanded the entire surface.

I the drawers I was going to paint, so I applied primer first. I believe I used Kilz for this since the Rast is untreated, natural wood. (For treated, shiny, or laminate surfaces, Zissners is simply the only way to go.)

While the primer was drying I started staining the outside surfaces. I wanted a medium brown color with no red in it. 

I think I pretty much nailed it.

I did one coat of stain and followed the directions on the can. 

Here is the stain I used & my buffing rag!

Progress. 

On the right side is a primed magazine rack. You will see a post about that later!

While I DIY I like to listen to music. Today it was Nada Surf. 

One of my most favorite bands ever. S introduced me to their music & my life has not been the same. 

I used Montana Gold spray paint to paint my drawers. I wanted more of an electric blue color, but what I got was more bright blue. The can said "Shocking Blue", which is why I thought it would be more...well...shocking.

Its still a nice color, so all is well. Next time I'll try to pick a color with a little more uumph! 

I like Montana Gold because there are many, many colors to choose from, and the coverage seems to be very even. 

You have to be aware of the little plastic doughnut under the spray nozzle though! 

Before you can use the spray bottle you have to take the nozzle off, remove the plastic doughnut, and then put the nozzle back on. 

I didn't know this. 

I was SO excited when I bought my very first can of Montana Gold (For the neon pink step stool). When I went to go use it though, I couldn't make it spray! I gave the can to S, and he couldn't make it spray! 

I ended up taking it back to the store, and the kind girl who was manning (woman-ing?) the counter very nicely showed me how to make it work. 

Long story, short solution.

So, now you know - remove the doughnut!  

More progress!

I bought glass drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby. I went shopping while they were having a 50% off sale, so these six pulls cost me a whopping $19 total. Score!  

Awesome Glass Drawer Pulls with Vampire Weekend Vinyl

This is me being handy with my powder drill!
I had to make the screw holes a little bigger for my new drawer pulls.

Installed!
Look how sparkly!

My stash of DIY paints, stains & sealers!

After I let my Rast dry for a week, I sealed the entire thing with two coats of Polycrylic (which I let dry for 2 days in-between coats).

The Polycrylic is water-based, which makes cleaning up a breeze.

It is quite durable, which makes it my favorite sealer for almost everything!

After! 

I just love how it turned out.

This post was featured at Redoux!

Spice Storage in the Kitchen

I love to cook. Love it. Over the years I have collected an exorbitant amount of spices, so naturally I need loads of space in order to store all of them. In our old kitchen we had lots of cabinet space, and lots of wall space..enough space for wall mounted spice racks. We had three nice, white racks that S installed, and I stuffed! 

 In our new kitchen we have about 4% of the space we had in our old kitchen. And of course I have about 100% more little spice jars!

For the first couple months we lived here in the new apartment my giant spice collection lived in a cardboard box  buried at the bottom of S's closet. I had kept the salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne, hot peppers, oregano & thyme stuffed into our only dedicated food cabinet. Nearly every time we opened the cabinet door the spices would come tumbling down! 

We needed spice racks! 

Unfortunately, one of the white spice racks we had at our old place did not survive the move. So I did some research and found some nice, inexpensive racks at IKEA. 

We trekked to IKEA and bought a couple with the idea to paint them white and then we would have four spice racks for me to stuff up again.

So, of course those poor wooden spice racks sat on the floor next to our kitchen for weeks after we bought them. 

That is just how S and I roll.

Then one day S surprised me and while I was at work. He painted, installed, and filled my spice racks!

Before - No Storage!

Before - Unfinished IKEA spice rack

Check out the After pics after the break!

Neon Kitchen Re-Do

Our apartment backs up to an alley, which provides us with ample work space. Never again will we make the mistake of spray painting in the sunroom, even if all the windows are open and we are wearing masks!

Since our kitchen is so small, and there was this weird gap between the counter and the fridge, S and I made a trek to our favorite home improvement super-store: IKEA! 

We were on the hunt for two things: Some sort of shelving/storage for the gap area, and a step stool for me. We decided to store the pots & pans on top of the wall cabinets, which S can reach, no problem, but for which I need a little assistance. 

I had done my online IKEA research, so I knew exactly which step stool I wanted.

 Neither S, nor I knew exactly what we wanted for the gap area in the kitchen. We were on a hunt!

After some joyful browsing through the IKEA showroom, S caught sight of something he thought would be perfect, with a little work. 

After some plotting, I agreed, and we brought home the GORM and the BEKVAM. 

Check out the neon colors after the jump!

Unfortunately, we did not prime either piece of furniture. We did sand and clean, but no prime. In hindsight, we should have primed. Some of the knots are showing through on the turquoise piece, but overall, I give the both of us an A+ for our work.

Before - Unfinished wood pieces, ready to be painted!

During - Look at those awesome colors!

Check our some more pics of our neon kitchen re-do, after the break!