OTTOMAN

On my personal FB page last week, I posted this photo and asked my friends to guess what I was going to make using these items - nobody guessed.

A few months ago, I had brought home two of these large wooden boxes, which are actually drawer boxes.  I work for a kitchen & bath design firm, and these drawers were a mis-order, so they were going in the trash.  I'm like... "I'LL TAKE THEM!"  I knew I could come up with something to do with them.  I was originally thinking maybe toy boxes for the boys room.  Then when I rearranged our furniture after taking down the Christmas Tree, our big club chair was in desperate need of an ottoman.  So for a few weeks, one of the boxes sat in front of the chair, upside down, with a pillow on top.  Then last week, while looking for something else, I found this huge bag of old macrame cording that my old neighbor had given me.  There was one skein that had never been opened.  It was navy blue and 300' long.  It got me thinking.  As my mind starting racing at 100mph, I remembered that we had kept the top and the shelf of an old coffee table that they boys had broken by constantly jumping on it.  Now my mind was really going, and I had to go to the big city the next day - I was definitely making a stop at Hobby Lobby.

At Hobby Lobby, I found this AWESOME navy wood grain print fabric, and while there, picked up some 3" thick foam.  Now my mission was to find something for feet - I headed to Home Depot.  I looked at the typical bun furniture feet, but thought it would end up making the overall height too high.  Then I spotted the wood rosettes.  They were only 3/4" thick and would make perfect little feet if installed upside down.

And so, on Saturday morning with a little help from the hubby, we cut the shelf down to create something for the box to be attached too.  We also created a top for the foam pad to be attached to.  After the box part was all assembled, including the cute little feet, I painted the edges of the shelf and the feet using some leftover trim paint.  Then he also helped me staple gun the fabric to the top.  We only used a piece of 1/4" luan plywood, so it was very unstable when you pushed down on it due to the thickness of the foam.  There was no way I could have done it by myself.

Then for the arduous part... attaching the cording...

SIX hours and 22 glue sticks later.... VOILA!!!!

My new Ottoman...

About 44 rows of 1/4" wide cording...

The cute little feet...

The BEST part... the lid lifts off and the boys can store the toys the play with in the living room in there.  YAY!  No more cluttered coffee table!  Yeah Right!  I can dream, right?

And now, I have a wonderful little reading spot!

Not too bad for just under $20, and a few minor burns from the blue gun!!

FURNITURE MAKEOVER...

For about a year now, I have been (not very hard) looking for a dresser that I could redo and put it to use as a console under our TV in the B.A.R. (Big Ass Room).  Then last month, I finally found one.  I was driving by a yard sale, caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye, slammed the brakes on (not really), and turned around to go check it out.  And how excited was I when it was only $30!!

Well this weekend, we finally finished it...

It was in pretty good shape but did need a little work.  This is the hubbs cutting out some material for a new shelf.

We added a new top (the old one was warped from water damage), added the shelf to replace the two top drawers, and then patched the holes in the drawer fronts where I removed the original American Colonial brass pull.

Everyone suggested I use Annie Sloan Chalk paint, but with all the work that I knew needed to be done, I didn't see the point in paying for a product that would save me two steps I would have to do anyway.  So I used Valspar Paint/Primer, Filoli Garden Pool in a Satin finish.  The color being inspired by the rug we have in the room.

The thing I had the hardest time finding, were the baskets for the new shelf.  I really wanted wicker, but since I had such a specific size that was needed, it was nearly impossible to find anything.  Then I got lucky one day at Target.  The baskets are plastic, but they are the EXACT size I wanted, and I think their woven pattern is interesting.

My absolute favorite part of the new transformation are the drawer boxes.  I saw this idea on Pinterest, and knew I wanted to execute it with this project.  I found this Amazing handmade wrapping paper at World Market - the colors and pattern were Perfect!  Just a little Mod Podge, and Voila - a little unexpected beauty.

I also painted the top edge of the drawer boxes in a coordinating chartreuse green - just that extra little detail makes all the difference.

I had originally thought I wanted a 6' dresser, but this one ended up being 5', and it fits perfect in the space.

Quite the transformation don't you think?

Now to figure out what to put in all the drawers and baskets.

IKEA

About 3-1/2 years ago, three weeks before our first child was conceived, my husband and I made some significant furniture purchases. We visited one of the Greatest stores EVER... Ikea. While there we bought the Ektorp sofa and chaise, which came with the standard White slipcovers. If at that time, we knew children would be arriving 7 months later, we probably would have spent a little bit more money and gone for a darker color for the slipcovers.
However, the White slipcovers served their time well.

This is our living room back then...

Yesterday, I made another trip to the Greatest store EVER... Ikea. While there, I picked up some new slip covers... NOT White.

Red for the sofa...

and Khaki for the chaise. The reason I had to buy two different colored slipcovers, is that Ikea no longer produces the one arm chaise, therefore, they had a very limited supply left of slipcovers for it. The great thing about that though, is that the slipcover for the chaise was only $19.00... so I bought two. So for the next 6-8 years, the chaise will be Khaki.

Whenever I go to the Greatest store EVER... Ikea, I always meander through the entire store - absorbing it all in and looking for inspiration, which isn't hard to find. Yesterday was no exception... the inspiration was overflowing.

The one thing that got me the most excited, was this...

a Modern Kids Kitchen. How freaking cute is this? I knew right away, this is something the boys will be getting for Christmas. I love that it's not "kiddie" looking, and it's on the small size, which works great for our small house. Being that I was a Kitchen Designer in my past Real Life, it really spoke to me.

I will be sad if we ever move somewhere where there is not an Ikea within a short driving distance... because I really love the Greatest store EVER!!