Extra door turns into a headboard

We have some doors lying around in our basement. They live in what I call the 

"treasure pile". 

Treasure pile with 3 doors and 1 door frame

Treasure pile #2
3 more doors :)

Half of Treasure pile #3....couldn't fit the rest into the photo!
Not pictured -
one more door in its own Treasure pile #4

Most folks would call it a garbage pile. If they were being generous they might call it a scrap pile. To me- TREASURE! There are all sorts of projects just waiting to be done with our old doors, windows & pieces of wood. They all hold bits of our home's history - which is probably why I want to hold on to them. Or maybe because I am my father's daughter & I hate to throw anything away......could be a combination of the two!

This post (which I found on Pinterest; no one is shocked by that) sparked my interest since we have a glut of cool old doors. I love when I find tutorials for DIY projects that seem do-able. Projects that don't require a shit ton of tools or equipment that I don't have, or have a bazillion steps so I know I'll never motivate to complete them. This project seemed like a pretty good fit for my low level skills! Having my Dad participate was incredibly helpful too - working on projects with my Dad is like sleeping with my baby blanket & teddy bear (who is named Teddy): I don't NEED to do have those things to sleep, but having them makes sleep SO much easier. Same goes for any DIY project I've tackled thus far. I don't bite off too terribly much - so I am fairly confident I could do them on my own; but having Dad come to help makes the entire process not just more enjoyable but quicker & easier too.

I started by washing the door with what I imagine to be a horribly toxic substance called TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate). 

See the difference the TSP made on the sunporch walls?

Happily scrubbing away.....

It was recommended to me by a woman who does a lot of home painting projects for her interior decorating clients; so I knew I could trust that it would work. If you caught me washing our sunporch walls you would've noticed I was using the same product for that job. It cuts through grease/grim/dirt/smoke with ease. Between the door & the sunporch walls I had all 4 of those nasty substances!

I forgot to take a "before" washing photo - hence showing the
power of TSP above!

Next I had a pretty good time making a "custom" paint color. By custom I mean I dumped a whole bunch of leftover samples of blue paint into my tray & mixed well. We spent a stupid amount of money on paint samples for the house; so I figured I may as well get some mileage out of them!!

Mix mix mix!

I like how the colors swirled together

I taped the plate on the door so I wouldn't paint over it. I think it is pretty & reinforces the fact that we recycled a door into a headboard in our 2nd guest bedroom!

Then I painted the door; two coats to make sure the color was as rich as possible - but I didn't bother to paint or wash (as I sadly discovered when we put the headboard on the frame) the back of the door. I figured no one would see it which is true- though I could've washed it for God's sake. Its pretty gnarly back there.

Dad & I had some purchasing issues for the bolts that would connect the door to the 2x6s that hold the door up (they also connect the metal bed frame to the 2x6s). Dad went to the hardware store once & I went no less than 3 times before we finally had the right bolts. Oops. What a giant waste of time!!

Once we had the materials we finished the project really quickly- probably only an hour or so to get everything measured (to be sure we had the door centered) and connected!

Using our TV box to protect the mattress,
Dad is lining up the 2nd 2x6 support. We
bolted both supports to the metal frame
near the floor before moving up and bolting
the headboard to the 2x6s

No yet secured - notice the scrap wood between the door
and the TV box? We're making progress though!

We love the new bed! I still need to touch up the paint near the plate & also paint the
 2x6 where it is visible; but that will happen another day :)

Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did! We are really quite pleased with the final product! We have also had our first overnight guests (my sister & niece) so the bed was tested & worked! Special shout out to my Mom who gave us the pretty coral pillows and my sister who gave us the Euro sham cases!  It takes a village to decorate a guest room!

Update February, 2017:
Dad helped put the finishing touches on this project this week! I am so thankful that Dad has a bazillion tools & knows how to use them & is willing to teach me!

I have wanted to add lights mounted on the door headboard since we started the project.....but the lights, cords, switches, etc sat in boxes under my desk (which lives in this guest bedroom) for 7 months before I admitted defeat and finally asked Dad if he could spearhead this part of the project. I bought wall mounted fixtures that are intended to be hardwired into building power; but I wanted to add switches & cords so the lights can function like a reading light/bedside lamp.

I didn't take any photos during the project, but here is the final result:

Yipee! Lights are on the headboard!

I am THRILLED! Finished just in time to have friends visit for President's Day Weekend!!

Breathing new life into an old dresser

If you have never tried chalk or chalked paint, I highly encourage it! It is NOT chalkboard paint; it is regular paint that can be slathered onto any surface with little or no preparation! This dresser is destined for use in our bedroom closet (it came out of my parents' old basement; but by the time Chris & I snagged it, it was my brother & sister in law's basement!) so the chalk paint look was perfect.
It is matte finish, it is NOT perfect - I didn't feel like doing a 2nd coat!
It is quite forgiving and can mask blemishes on the surface you plan to paint.
Give it a whirl - you won't regret it! I bought this can at Home Depot.

Before Paint (but after power sanding)

Before paint

After paint

Drawers before paint

Drawers after paint

Old drawer pulls

New drawer pulls - basket weave design

Final product! We use it inside our closet under our short hanging clothes.

I would love to hear about any painting projects you are tackling! Tell me about them in the comments!

Oh carpet, you seem endless

And you are time consuming to rip out. 

But, as I type this, 100% of the carpet that was in our house when we bought it, is now in the garbage. Please note- I hate adding huge amounts of trash to landfills - but the carpet really had to go. It was in such rough shape I didn't think anyone would want to use it for anything.

Here are the things I suspect some previous owner of our home thought when installing this carpet:

-Its durable!

-Its easy to clean!

-It is cozy!

-It masks construction quirks after the back room was added to the first floor!

Here are the things I think about the carpet:

-It is durable!

-It is impossible to make look clean!

-It looks a bit like it fell out of the ugly tree & managed to hit most of the branches on the way down.

So, feast your eyes on some before & afters :)

 In progress- 1st Floor - 1st Bedroom

 In progress- 1st Floor - 1st Bedroom - very serious business for Chris

In progress - 1st Floor - 1st Bedroom

Before- 1st Floor - 2nd Bedroom

After -1st Floor - 2nd Bedroom

After - 1st Floor - 2nd Bedroom

Before - 1st Floor - 3rd Bedroom (yes its off the kitchen & no it won't remain a bedroom in our plans!)

Before - 1st Floor - 3rd Bedroom - like the berber? Looks good, right?

In progress - 1st Floor - 3rd Bedroom - always looks worse before it looks better ;)

Almost done - 1st floor - 3rd bedroom - we love how pretty the wood is!

Almost done - 1st floor - 3rd bedroom - don't mind the mismatched wood, the badly patched wall, or the giant post. That's what our general contractor is for!

After- 1st Floor - Foyer - who knew the bottom step would be the worst carpet removal in the whole house?!?

After - 1st Floor Foyer - hard to tell....but under the green tile & black adhesive stuff is wood flooring....the big question is; is is salvageable??

Sometimes you need to break stuff

Chris on a mission

Practicing crowbar safety

And this was one of those times!

We have 8-10+ foot ceilings throughout the house (of course, not all the rooms have the same ceiling height....why would they?) but in 2 areas, someone thought it was a good idea to install "drop" ceilings. The 2 levels of the house currently have almost identical floor plans, including the drop ceilings :( They are located just outside the 2 bathrooms, the 4 rooms off of these little alcoves all have significantly higher ceilings; which makes the whole thing feel strangely cave like.

Plaster cracks & exposed wiring - nice touches

Admiring my mess er work

We had spent this particular Sunday afternoon ripping up carpet (again) on the first floor and were eager for a change. So we took out the hammer & crowbar and began to break apart the drop ceiling. Not shockingly, it was incredibly fun. The face masks & goggles were a must - we created quite a mess in our mini demolition project!

Chris is a great demo partner!

As with many quirks of our house, we suspect the drop ceiling was a shortcut/easy way out. The plaster above the drop was cracking and had electrical runs that were not hidden inside the walls/ceiling. Maybe it was easier to drop the ceiling than to properly install new electrical runs? Who knows. Once the contractors come in; all of our electric will be replaced so in some ways it doesn't matter, but these peeks into the house's history are interesting if nothing else.

Au Revoir Upper Cabinets

This was an easy one! 

Not that difficult!

Chris working on the 2nd cabinet

Screwdrivers were really the only tools we needed to get these upper cabinets off the second floor kitchen walls.

I love when things go smoothly!

After - no more cabinet!

We also had our first fail....a stripped screw in just the wrong place made this greasy shelf impossible to take down on the first try.

1st DIY fail - the stripped screw really screwed us

Good thing I have some of the world's greatest friends who are willing to help me with my crazy DIY renovation projects! Thanks to Laura we got that nasty shelf off the wall & into the garbage (where it belonged!). It involved a hacksaw blade & some brute force....I wouldn't recommend our method!

After- no more cabinet & no more greasy shelf! Thanks Laura!

Also, thanks to our friend Mark, we now know our sweet exhaust fan in the 2nd floor kitchen is fully functional! All it took was pulling the chain (which we hadn't done :) Nice to know it works, particularly given the stubborn smell of natural gas in the 2nd floor kitchen. Airflow is good if there might be a gas leak. Next on the list, call the gas company........