DIY Toothbrush Holder

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Hey y'all!  Hope you had a great 4th of July.  We celebrated with friends and family, put on an awesome fireworks show and watched an outdoor movie! We had so much fun!  So much fun, that we needed a little break!  We've been working on some projects, swimming in our new pool, and most importantly welcoming a new little baby into the world.  Remember Jen, my best friend?  She had her sweet baby boy on Saturday and I was lucky enough to be by her side.  It was an unforgettable experience and I'm so honored and blessed to have been a part of it.  A day I know I'll cherish forever.  :)

Alright, so I'm going to show y'all the last (I think?) DIY project from our bathroom remodel project!  We've talked about the big reveal, walked you through the 
plank wall, 
hand towel holder, 
barnwood vanity light, 
ladder towel storage, 
our faucet face-lift, 

and now finally, our DIY TOOTHBRUSH HOLDER!

This project was so simple, it barely requires instructions.  Seriously.  It's all about re-purposing the clutter in your house!!!  Sometimes I look around our house and just start picking things up.  I take them and move them to another space or another room as if I'm de-cluttering.  I'm really just cluttering up a new space! haha!  

In this case, we took something old which was really just taking us space and cluttering up an end table, and created a one-of-a-kind toothbrush holder!

Charlie used a hole saw bit and drilled out a few holes in the bottom of our country dreams box.  

Then, we sanded it down and painted it blue using the same paint from our plank wall.  After the blue paint dried, I lightly white washed it using a very small amount of white paint on the tip of a paint brush.  This is the same technique we used while painting the planks and the ladder storage.  

When we were finished, we had a toothbrush holder that matched the rest of our decor and colors perfectly! 

What do you think??? I love how it turned out and you know what I love even more???  This project was FREE as can be!!!  That's the best type of project!

We're hoping to finish up some patio updates and possibly show you Miss Paisley's room soon, so stay tuned!  

Follow along!

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DIY Ladder Towel Storage

Hey Y'all......Charlie here again.  We have been super busy the last couple weeks.  Who isn't though, when these summer days have been so nice.  I have been going to therapy to try getting my knee back into shape, and Emily has been busy planning a baby shower for her best friend.  We also took some of our homemade creations to a farmers market last week.  I think this week we are actually event -free and its going to be awesome.  Oh, and in case you didn't see Emily's post from the other day, I got my wish.....we got a pool.  Hopefully this weekend it will be up and running.

It's been awhile since I've talked "DIY".  So I figured I would show you how to build one of my favorite parts of the bathroom.  The number one problem I see with most bathrooms is not enough storage space.  While facing this problem ourselves, I knew we needed something where we could store all of our bath towels.  Here's what we came up with...

This shelf allowed us to store all of our bath towels and hand towels neatly and still fit with the  bathroom theme.  Some of you are thinking that it looks complicated....but I assure you, you can do it!

First off, I'll give you a list of cut measurements for your boards.  This will allow you to make all your cuts at one time and then all you'll need to do is assemble.  For the entire project I used 1x4 Pine for the legs and about half a sheet of 1/4 inch plywood for the shelf bottoms.

2 - 66 inches - Back Legs
2 - 61 inches - Front legs
1 - 19 1/4 inches - Top

8 - 18 inches - Front & Back of Shelves
2 - 8 inches - Sides to Top Shelf
2 - 12 inches - Sides to 2nd Shelf
4 - 16 inches - Sides to 3rd & 4th Shelf

1 - 1/4 inch plywood sheet or pine project panel - (to be cut after you build your boxes)
1 - Bottle of wood glue

Once you have all of your boards cut, I would recommend that you stain or paint them whatever color you choose. This will make your life much easier..... (Emily had the joy of staining ours walnut and then whitewashing it after it was assembled)

Once you have all of your boards cut, you can start assembling the shelves.  I used a brad nail gun to help speed this process along.  I think if you wanted to give this project more of a rustic feel, using nails and a hammer would give it more of an antique feel.  If you do use nails and a hammer be sure to pre-drill your holes so you will not split the wood.  

Place your 18 inch board in the front and then place your side board inside and build a box.  Place a line of wood glue at each joint.  Build all 4 shelves.

Now we need to put a bottom on our shelf.  To help get a perfect measurement for each shelf I recommend that you place the built shelf on top of your plywood and trace it with a pencil.  Once you have all four shelf bottoms cut put a line of wood glue along bottom edge of your shelf and put plywood in its place.  I again used brad nails to attach the plywood.

Ok, now I'm gonna blame lack of pictures on Emily.  

Grab your 2 back legs.  Measure down 6 inches and attach your top shelf to each of your back legs.  I used wood screws since I knew my wife would strength test each shelf with overloaded amount of towels.  Once the top shelf is attached to the back legs you can continue down attaching the remaining shelves.  I then placed each remaining shelf 14 inches down from the one above it.  This measurement would accommodate the amount of space we needed for the towels we had. 

Now that the back legs are attached to each shelf we need to attach the front legs.  Place the front leg so that the upper right corner is touching the back leg.  I placed one screw loosely into the front leg so that it would stay in place and allowed me to pivot it out to the front of the bottom shelf.  Your front leg should look like the above picture at the top shelf and should look like the below picture at the bottom shelf.  Cut the back corner of the front leg at an angle and this will bring your leg flat.

Now you can attach your top shelf board across the back legs.  

If you painted or stained your wood ahead of time you have a completed Ladder Shelf!!!!!

Or in our case, the real work began. 

Em used her favorite Walnut stain, let it dry, and then used a little white paint and white washed it to get our final look we were going for. 

Take our advice, stain and paint first, assemble second.  Got it?

Well now that our lives seem to be back on the "normal" schedule, you should be seeing a lot more of us.  We have a ton of projects started that we are excited to share with you so make sure you're following along!

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DIY Bathroom Light

Hey, Y'all Charlie here again.....It's been awhile, but I've been a little busy having surgery done.  Since I am planted on the couch for awhile, Emily thought it would be the perfect time for me to write some blog posts.  So, I figured I would show you guys how I made a homemade barnwood vanity light for our newly remodeled bathroom. 

This isn't any ordinary light you could buy at local hardware store; or is it? 

I started by using a simple vanity light that you can buy at any local hardware store.  We were fortunate to already have a light from the original bathroom that we were able to use. (Score one for us, no extra $ had to be spent).  It looked just like this...

(source)

When looking for a vanity light make sure it can be taken apart where only the wires and metal are exposed like this...

Take your light and remove the front cover, exposing the wiring and bulb sockets. Don't be alarmed, I hate electricity and if you can screw in a light bulb, you are an electrician on this project. 

Make sure that your barnwood is thick enough that the light sockets do not stick out too far and are exposed, or that they are too far down so that a bulb cannot be screwed in.  This piece of barnwood that we used is about 2 inches thick.

Ok, this is where the craftsman and not the blogger comes into affect....I jumped ahead of myself before I snapped some pictures. SIGHHHH....(from Emily). As you can see, I had already started to drill some holes, but you didn't miss anything important.  

I placed the metal light fixture on the board and got it centered.  Once I like where it was I traced a line with a pencil all the way around all of the light sockets. 

Lay this ↑

onto this ↓, socket side down so you can trace...

This is where I realized I didn't have a Spade-Blade drill bit that was large enough.  I had to call Emily to pick one up on her way home. (Score another tool for Charlie!!!) 

Once I had the bit I began drilling all of my marked holes for the light sockets.



After you have your holes drilled in your wood, place your light fixture on top of the wood, sockets into the holes, and push down so that the metal is touching the wood.

Now take a pencil and trace around the perimeter of the light fixture.

This time I have a valid excuse as to why I don't have a picture of the the next step. Not safe to take pictures while using power tools.  Once your line is traced you can use a circular saw and cut exactly on your line.  Make sure you set the depth of your saw as to not allow the blade cut through your board, but also make sure it as deep enough for the light fixture to sit into the wood.  

Now that your fixture is sitting flush, you can run some screws into the wood, being careful not to hit any of the wires. And, of course use short enough screws so that they don't go all the way through the barnwood.

Now screw in some light bulbs and you've got yourself a one of a kind vanity light!  

What do y'all think???  It was just the touch our bathroom remodel needed and it didn't cost us a thing!  FREE is always the best kind of project, right!?!?

Thanks for stopping by! 

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DIY Plank Wall

Hey guys!  So we're back with another one of our bathroom DIY projects.  Y'all have seen the bathroom remodel, right?  You can check it out HERE if you missed it.  

The biggest transformation was obviously the plank wall! Who isn't obsessed with a plank wall right now, anyways???  They're everywhere you look.  It's no surprise that we love working with barnwood and pallets, so a plank wall was destined to be in our future!  

First off, no good remodel takes place without some amazing inspiration (from Pinterest of course).  Before we take you through each step of our version of the plank wall, check out our inspiration...

Creative Little Daisy

Simplicity in the South

East Coast Creative

Then we came across this blog...

Life, Crafts & Whatever

and we decided a multi-colored wall was most definitely happening.  

We took all of those sites and all of our inspiration and decided on the best plan for our space, and more importantly, our BUDGET!  Let me start by saying, we aren't new to the whole pallet thing.  Our laundry room is an awesome pallet wall work of art (thanks, Charlie).  It was also his least favorite project.  Have you ever taken apart pallets?  One pallet - not so bad.  A zillion pallets in order to cover the bottom half of a good sized laundry room?  Not fun.  Especially not fun in the heat of the summer.  It's safe to say that using the most budget friendly option, pallets, was out of the question!

We also couldn't afford to use actual wood planks for this project.  And, we also knew we wanted our wood to look old, knotty, imperfect and rustic.  So, we went with Jen's idea from Life, Crafts & Whatever and we used 4' x 8',  1/2" thick sheets of plywood.  

Here's my plans....

You got that?

HAHA!  Charlie laughed in my face when I showed him my plans!  They may not make sense to anyone but me, but I highly recommend jotting down the crazy numbers and plans that you run through your head!  Even if they only make sense to YOU!

So anyways....

Start by measuring your space.  We knew that 3 sheets would be enough for us.  That's 12 foot wide.  Our wall is 14 foot wide, but we have the bathtub up against that wall and we didn't use planks behind the vanity which left enough for the extra width of our wall. 

We cut our plywood sheets into 4" wide strips.  

We sanded down the edges just a bit to take off the rough splinters.  We didn't mind the red lines.  We wanted the knotty, distressed, reclaimed look. 

There's four different paint treatments going on here.  We painted first, cut our different lengths second.

We went with a walnut stain, natural/burned, white-wash, and blue-washed (is that a thing?).  

For the walnut, we applied it straight onto the planks using an old rag.

For the white-wash planks, we applied the walnut stain, same as above.  Then, used a watered down white primer and dry brushed it on.  Meaning barely put any paint on your brush (scrape most of it off on the side of the paint can) and lightly and quickly brush it on unevenly!

For the blue planks, we used the same method as the white wash, except first, we painted the board solid white.  Then dry brushed on the blue paint.  

The natural planks were the easiest! We just cut them to size and used a map gas torch to burn the wood and add a little dimension.  

Here's a look at all of our different treatments.

We chose to pick a few lengths we were happy with and cut several board to those sizes, then use the off-cuts to fill in the holes.  We left several at 48" inches long, cut some at 36" and some at 30" long.  Then we cut our scraps to fit in the empty spaces.  

Start in the top corner and work your way across.  Use a level every once in awhile and make sure you aren't way off.  No house is totally square and chances are your ceiling isn't really the best leveling device.  You may have to cheat a board up or down a bit, just to make it level.  

We used our nail gun to attach our planks. Mark your studs as you go so you can attempt to attach each piece into a stud.  

Before you know it, you've got a plank wall! Woop Woop!!!!

Before

After

Holy transformation, right!?

Click on the picture above, for the full bathroom post and lots more pictures of this transformed space! 

Are you ready to work on your plank wall yet????

This was a very budget friendly, fairly easy, way to completely transform the look of this room!  We love it and are very happy with how it turned out!

Hope y'all have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

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Faucet Face Lift - Spray Paint to the Rescue

Hey there! Happy Wednesday!  We're slowly getting back in the swing of things after our amazing, relaxing trip to the beach!

We're back with more bathroom DIY projects!  Woo Hoo!  Raise your hand if you're excited!!! (me, me, me!!!....I'm still excited and in love with my new bathroom.  you can't tell, right?)

How about a little faucet face lift to brighten up your day???

Take a look at this BEFORE pic...

It's just your basic cheap-o faucet.  You know, the kind you buy for like 25 bucks because you spend your house budget elsewhere, and all the cute, pretty, fancy ones stare at you as you grab the plain, tacky, shiny one.  Ya, that's the one.  

This is what happens to the cheap-o's...  (at least in my house)

So, since we were giving our bathroom a major makeover ON A BUDGET, I needed to come up with a cheap way to fix this nastiness.  

Enter -----------> Spray Paint

What doesn't spray paint fix anyways!?!?

We lightly sanded the surface of the faucet with our grinder equipped with a wire wheel.  Then, gave it a quick coat of primer  (all we had was tractor enamel? You work with what you got when you live on a farm.)

Did you check out that hint???

Then, we used our favorite Rust-Oleum Metallic spray paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze and gave it two coats, letting it fully dry in between.

HELLLLOOOO!!! Lookin' better already, right???

So, this transformation was enough for me to jump up and down...twice!

Plus, we already had the spray paint and the primer.  That means this face lift was FREE!

How about a before and after...?

This is my first time spray painting a faucet.  That means I'm not sure how long this is going to last.  For all I know, my rust will sneak back to the surface after awhile.  But until then, I'm going to enjoy my FREE faucet face lift for as long as it lasts.  I'll take FREE any day!

It's been a little over a month and it's still looks great!  I'll keep you posted...

Thanks for stopping by today!  See you Friday for Finally Friday!  Have a great day!

Check out the entire bathroom transformation HERE! 

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DIY Towel Rack

Hey Y'all.......Charlie here.  It"s been awhile since I've had the chance to give you guys some step by step instructions on our latest DIY project.  As most of you have seen, we have been really busy lately.  We spent a couple days working in the bathroom while the Spring weather has been nasty. If you haven't had a chance to see our Bathroom Remodel (on a budget) take a second to check it out.  I'm just going out on a limb here but I'm pretty sure Emily is extremely happy, as am I, with how it turned out.  After we finished the wall we went shopping trying to find a hand towel holder that would fit with the theme of our bathroom.  We looked everywhere......but only found the same old boring circle holder.  This is when I get voted by Emily to figure out a way to make our own.  So seeing how I got the computer for a little bit today, I will walk you through how to build your own custom towel rack like the one we installed.

First off, I used my favorite building material Barnwood.  If you happen to have some old barnwood laying around, Great!!! If not no big deal.  After building ours, I decided to go to our local lumber yard to see what they had for materials (to help the not so fortunate ones with no barnwood).  If you are wanting that barnwood look, get yourself:

1) 2x6 Cedar Board       Measurements for sides    2x6x4
1) 1x6 Ceder Board       Measurements for top      1x6x20
1) 3/4 Wood Dowel       Measurements for rack    11 inches
1) Kreg Mini Tool Kit 

The cedar wood looks awesome when stained and will hold up well in the wet/humid area of your bathroom.    Purchasing the Kreg Tool will help you attach the rack to the wall with ease, but is not a must have.  When your all said and done your materials will cost you less then $20.  Not to bad when an average ring rack costs the same.  Okay enough rambling, lets get to building.....

To start, we need to get our two sides for the rack,  Do this by cutting your 2x6 at 4 inches two times.  Next, find the center of your board and using a 3/4 paddle drill bit, drill a hole 1/2 deep.  Do this on both boards.  Also, cut your wooden dowel to 11 inches.

***I measured a hand towel as if it would be folded on the towel rack.  It measured 6 inches wide.  If your towels are larger or you are wanting to make this as a bath towel rack, measure accordingly.  I figured the dowel to measure 10 inches to allow for room on both sides of the towel.  Cutting the dowel at 11 inches allows for 1/2 inch of the dowel to go into each hole you drilled in your sides.*******

Now we can attach our 2 sides and dowel to the wall.  This is where the Kreg tool comes into play.  If you have been keeping up with our blog you have seen me use this tool before.  If not, check out our DIY Photo Frame .  If you do not own a Kreg tool you can get away with pre-drilling your sides and toe-nailing a screw through the top.  Now, attach one of your sides.

Place your dowel into the hole in the side attached to the wall and then slide into your remaining side.  Now with the use of a level, attach your other side. (But wait I'm not using a level..... If you have a plank wall like ours you can use the plank behind to make both sides level) I used my Kreg tool to drill out both the top and bottom of my sides.

We decided that we liked the look of an overhang for our shelf.  With the hand towel rack being 10 inches, we determined that 20 inches worked the best for us.  I used a smaller width board for our top to give it some dimension.  This is where your 1x6 board is used.  I then centered the board with equal space on each side and with the use of a air-nailer and 1 1/2 brad nails I secured the shelf board.   

So what do ya think?  Pretty simple and it adds a bunch more to your bathroom then those old boring towel rings.  Plus, you get a shelf to display your family photos or even a cool vintage fan (that I surprised Emily with).  Make sure you guys stay tuned, I'm going to have a lot of DIY tips & tutorials coming up! 

Thanks for stopping by!

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