Dinning Room

A few weeks ago I noticed this in our kitchen/laundry entry way. A crack across two or more of the ceramic tiles.  Not cool.  A closer look.... First let me say that I've never liked the tiles.  They would have been easier to deal with if they had not been grouted with white grout.  Not our decision.  White grout on a kitchen floor??  It is the bane of my existance.  But, I'm not that irritated about the cracks in the floor because now I can get creative about a replacement.  Here's some inspiration pics for what I've got up my sleeve. via Love the herringbone design but I would really like to do something that would be consistent with the rest of the house. via via I seem to be drawn to this design. via Reclaimed wood is definitely the way I'm going to go, mainly because of the cost, which will hopefully be close to free.  :) via I can't wait to get started!  Stay tuned..... Diana

Hey there!  I've received a number of emails lately asking how I built my dining room table or how I attached the top to the dining room table I already had.  So I decided to do a tutorial for all those who asked.  I didn't take any pictures when I did it so I took pictures of the under side of the table, which many of you have asked for, and will do my best to explain each step. As I mentioned in that post, I used pine 2 x 8's.  After I distressed the boards, process discussed here , I laid them together evenly and attached wood brackets to keep them all together. As mentioned, I already had a dining room table, I just didn't like the top, so I removed it and was left with the base.  Now, the previous table was also built by me using the table legs that my dad turned himself before he died.  I created the apron (sides) with pine 1 x 5's and attached them to the legs with "L" brackets, as pointed out with arrows.  To make them a little more stable, I als

I finally figured out what I wanted to do with one of the big window frames we came across and finished it up yesterday.  Let me tell ya, this sucker is heavy.  Because of that, the only way we could figure out to hang it was from the ceiling joists.  So, that's what we did.  And it was quite a job getting those screwed in and getting that window up there.  We used 2 large screw hooks for the joists, 2 large screw eyes for the window,  and connected the two with galvanized chain. We couldn't be happier with the results. I decided to take down the ledge I built and use it in another room.  It had been there almost since we moved in and I was ready for a change in this little entry area.  This was really the most logical place for the window.  A lot of you suggested using it for a room divider, which I would have loved to do, however, our home is made up of lots of smallish rooms (except the dining room), not an open floor plan, so, there wasn't a room that needed to be divi

Every evening my hubby, our youngest and I go for a bike ride.  It's one of our favorite things to do just before sunset.  On our ride we always pass a house that had these wonderful HUGE old wood windows leaned up against their back garage, not being used for years.  To me, they were lovely and I couldn't believe they had been so easily discarded.  I finally persuaded hubby to go ask the owners about them.  Turns out, they didn't want them any longer so we happily took them off their hands.  Just goes to show, it certainly pays to ask, right?   Here's one of them before I did anything to it. There were 4 windows total, each of them 6 feet tall, two of them 4 feet wide and two of them 2 feet wide.  Several of the panes were broken out of a couple of them, but after looking at the windows more closely, I figure they can be easily replaced.  And hopefully, inexpensively. I'm hoping to do something unique with one of the larger windows and  so I spent the weekend prepp

Happy Father's Day to the love of my life and the best dad in the world to our kiddos.   You are our strength....we love you! Wishing my dad was here to celebrate this day, too.... Happy Fathers Day to all you great dads out there!

While out and about a couple of weeks ago doing our garage sale thing, we found this sofa table-coffee table-not sure what kind of table, for only 5 bucks.  Well, we sure couldn't pass that up and turns out it was perfect timing.   I've been gathering pieces here and there to start redoing our oldest son's room.  My first born is 19 soon to be 20, going to college and working and I thought it was about time to give him a more adult room.  His room is the last on our bedroom design agenda, so, I'm pretty excited about getting started on it.  It has looked the exact same for the last 6 years and I know he is ready for a change.   One of the things I needed to find for him was a bedside table and so I thought, why not turn this table into one.  The top of the table is just awful.  Paint, oil, gunk, and a thick lacquer type top coat.  Here's a couple of shots of the table when we brought it home. It's very retro and cool.  And here is a close up of the nasty top. Wh

Hey there all!  I wanted to share with you some photos of a vintage ammo box that hubby found the other day in a storage building he won in a silent auction.   I really liked the stencil on the box, as well as, the wood and the rope handles.  It had a somewhat beachy look to it so I put it in our living room on our white desk turned console table that I built. The inside said something about cannons so I'm assuming it contained cannon balls at one time.  I really like the shape of the box and it doubles for storage, too.   It would be perfect for TV remotes, if we had a TV in there.  :) Plus, I'm loving the wood accents with the white colors I have in the room.    Aren't the rope handles pretty cool? This is another similar box we have that belonged to my dad.   I love the pale blue color, the chipped paint and the dovetail corners.  I also think it's pretty cool that it has my birth month and day on it, May 20.  I was not born in 1940 though. :) I also like the metal

Hey there!  I know a lot of you have been wondering what's up with our shop , as I've received tons of emails asking what the heck was going on.  To be honest, we didn't know either.  We became unhappy with the little white house we were planning to use to open our new shop.  There wasn't enough space and because the layout wasn't right inside at all, it was just going to require too much work.  Those things just kinda derailed our motivation and we almost gave up.  Well, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise .  While we were stalling, trying to figure out what to do or even if we should just give up, an AMAZING old building on our historical main street became available.  It's right smack in the middle of our quaint little town, along with some other wonderful shops and has fantastic architectural features.  It is truly gorgeous.  There is so much history behind these buildings.  Best thing is that it is move in ready,  except for a coat of paint and som