House happenings

Two weekends ago we finally got around to using that old door that I posted a couple months ago. We found it in the back room of a thrift store down the street. I bought it with the intention of making a headboard so I bought a door that was at least 60" wide (for our queen) and that had the panels space such that I could cut it around 60" and it would be symmetrical.

We scraped and sanded the old paint which came off pretty easy along the edge, but on the panels it stuck pretty well so we just left it.  Then we gave it a good sand again and then started building.

I didn't a little research online, put a few of those together with the tools available and this is what we came up with.

Originally I thought to use a 4x4 for the posts but without a table saw it was too difficult to make notches. We decided to do 2 1x4s on each end a 1x6 on top and a little trim underneath. We found an old 2x2 in the yard and put that at the bottom to reinforce the 1x4s. I filled all the holes and a few gaps in the trip piece with wood putty, sanded again and primed and painted it!

I used the leftover paint from the china cabinet in the bathroom so it is Benjamin Moore impervo paint in white dove.We attached it to the bed frame with 3 1/2" bolts with a few nuts and washers.

Hopefully the pictures explain a little more clearly. I make the plan and Glenn does most of the executing. I think we did pretty well. What do you think?

 The door cost us $30 and the wood pieces cost about $30 and the putty and paint were leftovers. A lot cheaper than the $500 headboards I was looking at online! I told Glenn that now I want a matching foot board, but I think I'll wait a few months before I ask him to make me something else.

Shelves

When I made the trip to IKEA a few months ago, I bought a pair of these white shelves and silver brackets for the upstairs bathroom, but I quickly realized that we don't need them up there so they have sat in the spare bedroom for awhile. I decided a few weeks ago that they would be better downstairs. I love the extra color that the accessories add. I've since added another picture to the empty frame from my trip last summer to Miyajima. The red torii gate looks perfect!

I found the red wire basket at a thrift for down the street for $1. It holds the extra towels perfectly and the boxes contain Qtips and floss and other extras. They were a gift from a friend in Japan.

The white shelves were actually about 6" longer, but Glenn took the jig saw to one end and cut it down to fit. The brackets for these shelves are great because they cover the entire end so you can't see the crooked cut at all! Now I just need to find a new mirror and we will have one room finished! One!

The other pair of IKEA shelves went in the dining room. When we unpacked the kitchen, I realized a bit, just how much Japanese pottery I purchased. My kitchen cabinets couldn't hold it all. Plus, it's all so pretty, I wanted to enjoy it!

The two shelves were centered above the bar and between the windows. I went with black because most of the frames on the opposite wall are black as well.

It has since been rearranged and added to about 10 times, but I like that they are accessible and I can change the color or decor out with each season. I found the plate stands in the Target dollar section. Yes!

The orange bento box on the bar contains our foam coozys and barware. I wish I had hung the bottom shelf a bit lower, but considering the massive holes that had to go in to the wall for the anchors, that shelf won't be moving! I love seeing the dishes mostly because they remind me of Japan and all the fun I had buying them. I think 80% were purchased with my friend, Kristy. Miss you, friend!

Glenn had a few friends over last weekend while I was out enjoying a ladies night and one of the guys even commented how much he liked me knickknacks. I think that is definitely a compliment!

Jewelry organizer

I've been wanting to do this for awhile after seeing similar ideas on many blogs. Actually, I wanted to do something that was framed and would be easier to move, but large corkboards are not something that is easy to find around here. So I used cork board tiles instead.

They are hidden behind my bedroom door so 90% of the time it is out of sight, but when I'm looking for something, it is easy to find! Like my two new headbands that I bought with a Christmas giftcard (Thanks Adam & Laura!).

I wore the one with the yellow flower today with my blue scarf and go lots of compliments! Thanks Sunshine and Carousels!

Sorry for the slow posting this week. I'm still licking my wounds from a nasty comment I got over the weekend (don't bother looking, it's been deleted). I'm contemplating taking my blog private because of it. We'll see. I guess that is what happens when you put yourself out there with a blog, but people have to remember, that it is just my thoughts. I'm not writing a book, I'm not publishing things on paper. I'm just documenting my life and thoughts as they come to me. Just me.

All Ready for Christmas

Just in case you can't tell. Glenn is hanging a pickle on the tree. I was attempting to tell him about the pickle ornament my family has, but he thought it was a crazy made up tradition that I made up so he hung a real pickle on the tree. You hide the pickle ornament on the tree and whoever finds it gets to open the first present. That's how we do it at least.

Then he googled it and realized that it is a real German tradition. Ha! Our tree is all ready, now Glenn just needs to come home. We put the tree up so that Glenn could help me before he left. We broke all of Glenn's rules and put it up before Thanksgiving even! The travesty!

Balinese Souvenirs

I am super duper excited about one particular souvenir I purchased in Bali. Too bad it won't arrive for 6 weeks in a giant crate.

Remember this post? And then this post? I thought I was either going to have the table of my dreams or be a poor lady. Turns out you only have to fly to Bali to buy the table of your dreams!

Bali had amazing antique, custom, "antique" and hand made furniture for dirt cheap negotiable prices. I got my table for a fraction of what I would have paid from a company in the states. Half the fun of buying it was climbing through all the wood shops to find just the right piece of wood. We spent about a day and a half of our trip in places like this:

There were stacks of "slices" of trees that I looked through and measured til I found one the right size.

I finally found this piece that was the right size and shape!

It is wet here so I could see what the finished piece will look like once it is sealed. This piece is also 3 meters long and my table will be about 82 inches (210 cm) so the curved part on the top won't be included. I can't wait for it to arrive! It should look similar to this when finished:

I can't wait for it to get here!!

I'm a hacker!

I submitted my tray post to IKEA Hacker and they posted it over the weekend!

Here is the link to my Skala tray hack!

Tray Hack

I bought the Skala tray from IKEA when I went there a few weeks ago. I thought IKEA would be the perfect pick-me-up after Glenn left again on deployment. Who doesn't love IKEA? Just me? That's fine. I love wandering the room setups and imagining the house that Glenn and I hope to own someday. So many options and at prices I can actually afford unlike most Japanese home stores.

I liked the design of the tray, but I thought it was a little boring and I didn't think the finish was very durable. I often eat at the coffee table especially when Glenn is gone so I thought a tray would be useful for carrying my bowl of cereal dinner and glass of wine.

We have an entire drawer full of travel brochures, maps, tickets stubs and all sorts of Japanese memorabilia. I thought it would be fun to use all of this to dress up the plain tray.

Here is the entire tray and an up close shot. 

I used Modge Podge to glue down the paper scraps and then 5 coats of the Podge on top. Waiting for it to dry between each layer. I had high gloss Modge Podge so it has a glossy finish. I hope we have it for a long time and it reminds us of our time here.

Home Improvements

I was suppose to go to on a tour this weekend, but it was rescheduled for Monday because of the typhoon. I was a little bummed I didn't get to go to the Great Lion Festival, but decided to be productive and paint the spare bedroom/office like I have been planning to since we moved in.

Over the last month it has taken me 5 trips to the hardware store to get paint mixed. The first 3 the machine was broken, the 4th no one at the store knew how to use the machine and finally the 5th trip was successful! This is when I really wish I had options like a Home Depot or Walmart or Lowe's or one of a million places in the states where I could get paint mixed. The majority of homes in Japan are wallpapered so they thinking painting your house is kinda crazy- expecially since they only wallpaper about once every 10 years.

Here's the ugly off-white BEFORE:The new blue-grey color AFTER:I suppose it's kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but trust me, it's way better. It's strange how the color of a room can just make you feel different. Stella tried to help too, but she was not so good with a roller. I'm holding her like this because I was trying to get her to not sit on the couch with paint on her butt. And so I could take a picture. :)

I'm famous!

Not really, but kinda fun that I'm on Ikea hacker!

:)
K

Guest Room Update

There was a furniture bazaar at Camp Zama army base this weekend and wow is it hard to go in there and not buy any furniture! The furniture fills a room the size of a football field and is stacked 3 high in some places. Then outside there is more furniture as well as a few tents full of fun knick-knacks. I managed to only purchase birthday, Christmas and father's day presents with the exception of some fabric to make a curtain for the kitchen window.

I promised myself I would only buy a piece of furniture if it was exactly what I wanted which I didn't find so instead, one of the furniture makers is going to make a piece for me. I gave him the Potterbarn catalog page, some modifications and dimensions and he said he would have it for me in September! I can't wait!

Ever since our trip to Ikea on Tuesday I have been thinking about this headboard. I really liked it and even better it was marked down to $30 from $150. Yes, $30! So I drove back last night and bought it. It's suppose to be mounted to a bed frame, but that didn't really work with our frame so I just set it on the floor. I also brought the patio table that has been sitting out on the balcony since we moved in and added it to the guest room. I think this room is finally coming together. Just in time for Glenn to see it for a few days!
Note: The orange pillow case is because that is Stella's favorite place to lay in the house and the white pillow case was becoming less and less white. I promise I'll put a clean one on if you come visit though. :)

So I don't need to be a millionaire...

But I still don't think I'll be getting this table.

Here is the quote I received from Uhuru:

Kelly-

For a dining table that seats 8 you are looking in the 7-8 ft length and about 36-42 inches in width. Pricing for an Elm table that size with the 3x3 base would be $6800. The bubinga table in the same style would run $8600. All of our items are handmade in Brooklyn NY and build to order. Lead times are 6-8 weeks. Please let me know if you need additional information.

Boo. I think it maybe be many many more years til I get my table. Or maybe never. Oh well, I can always dream!

If I had a millions dollars

I've been living with a dining room table that is half garage-sale-find and half dumpster-diving-find that my parents helped me refinish in an ebony stain. That was almost 3 years ago and it is starting to show it's age now.Some day I would love love love to own a table like this. Although perhaps not 12 feet long.
I found this company on one of the other design blogs I read. I've been telling Glenn that I want a reclaimed slab table for awhile now, but it's so hard to spend that much money on a table and not know if it will fit in our next house, but we can only furnish our house with IKEA for so long. (Although I am going again on Tuesday to purchase this) The Uhuru website doesn't even list prices on the website, but I emailed them for a quote. We'll see what they say! Here's to hoping they have a military discount- yeah right!

My new coffee table!!

Back in February I ordered a coffee table from Plexi-Craft in Long Island, NY. Long story short, they wouldn't ship the table to an FPO address (it was too big) so instead I had them ship it to my friend Laura in Norfolk, VA. The table went with her household goods (HHG) shipment and finally arrived on Monday! The table is perfect and just what I wanted.

Plexi-Craft makes all sorts of acrylic furniture and other tables like the one I ordered, but they were not the right size so I had one custom made to my specifications. Now I know you think that sounds expensive, but compared to other companies that make these tables, it was pretty reasonable. Plus, if it makes me this happy, who cares how much it costs, right Glenn? Love you.

I think I like the table so much because our place is not that big and it doesn't take up an visual space. I still need to do some accessorizing. I'm thinking a box to store the remotes, coasters, etc. Still working on that though.This picture makes the table look really thick, but it is only 3/4" but probably weighs about 100 lbs. I won't be standing on it, but it's really sturdy. I'm so excited!

What to do when you drop and break an $18 candle

I bought a Macintosh Yankee candle today and the proceeded to drop it on my hard linoleum floors and have broken glass every where. I was annoyed that it was broken but more annoyed that I spend $17.99 on a candle that was now useless so I was determined to make it work.

1. Break the rest of the glass off of the candle. I put the candle in a plastic bag and hit it with hammer.

2. Find a suitable glass container. In this case, I had a rectangular IKEA vase. So I had to trim the round candle to fit in a square hole.
2. Put the trimmings in the glass vase and microwave until mostly melted.4. Once the candle is mostly melted, put the trimmed candle down in to the melted wax so that the liquid fills the spaces between the candle and the vase.5. Ta da! New candle! It looks better as it melts down a little because it fills in the spaces.
I actually think I like it better now because yankee candles always come with that stupid lid and don't really match my decor. Glenn would call this a prime example of me being cheap. Hello?! I just saved you $18. Frugal people, never cheap.