Ikea Hack: Trofast Coffee Table

It's time, guys.  *Cue dramatic sigh*  Time to bid farewell to our trusty reclaimed bowling lane coffee table.  We've loved it and lugged it from home to home (It weighs about a gazillion pounds.) and we even hastily childproofed it when Rudy learned to crawl.  Nearly three years in our new/old house has taught us a valuable lesson though, and it's never to force our furniture to work in our space if it's just not happening.

One of the reasons I love our reclaimed, vintage and inexpensive furniture is that I rarely feel attached to it.  While we loved the coffee table that Corey built from a piece of an old bowling alley and some hairpin legs, it's just too bulky and heavy for our family room.  In a room that cries out for storage and furniture with dual functions, it just feels like an odd relic from our lives in the condo.

We've been learning over the past few months that just because something fits in your home, doesn't mean it works in your home.  The idea came to me one evening while I was searching online for an inexpensive coffee table with storage.  The problem was that after making over our family room (I'll post photos one day soon) any table that fit with our style seemed out of place in the room.  Anything I found that magically fit with our decor was inevitably too large for our space.  You see, on the other side of our coffee table is Rudy's play space.  A deeper table meant less space to play on the floor so we were ideally looking for a shallow coffee table... with some storage space... that wouldn't look silly in our white and rainbow polka dot family room.

I looked at Rudy's Ikea hacked storage desk and in the moment it seemed like the most obvious solution was to just make something ourselves.  Duh!

We began by checking out the Ikea website.  Since we were already using the Trofast storage system in the room, another Trofast hack would certainly coordinate nicely.  We wanted three horizontal compartments, which was only available in a wall mounted model.  This wasn't a big deal (We just wouldn't mount it.) but, as is often the case with wall units, it was shallow.  At just over eight inches deep, it was way too shallow to work as a coffee table.  We decided to buy two and affix them together.

The next problem we encountered was the height.  This unit was under a foot tall.  We have a low sofa in our family room but we'd still need a little more height.  In a moment of genius (If I do say so myself.) I told Corey we'd just add castors.  This would also allow us to easily move the coffee table to the side of the room if we ever needed the floor space for tent building or dance parties or Kung Fu!

In addition to the two Trofast units and the castors, Corey bought and cut to size two shelves to add support (and hide the seams) on the top and bottom of the unit, as well as some iron on finishing edging.

Since we know Rudy likes to climb, Corey added an extra set of castors along the seam between the two units for additional support.  Note: The additional piece of shelving on the bottom was added after this photo was taken.  

We finished it with a mix of bins in different sizes which I'm trying not to fill.  In my opinion, if Rudy accumulates enough toys to fill these bins, it's time to fill a big box for charity!  For now, this unit will make a good home for the tv remote and maybe a spare phone charger... For now.

Maybe it's not chic West Elm, but the wheels and storage make it perfect for our room.  I do like a coffee table that can double as a choo choo train!

An Early Christmas Gift for Rudy (DIY Learning Tower)

Since Rudy's first birthday, we've had some rough but exciting days.  In the past couple of weeks, Rudy has cut two new teeth, had a pretty extreme growth spurt, a couple of difficult nights and she's started talking!  Sure, she said a (very) few basic words before but now it's happening for real and we are so excited!

It's so crazy that it happened so quickly but she only said a few words by her birthday and in the past couple of days her vocabulary has sort of exploded.  She now says "Hi" to everyone and will even put it together with words that she knows to say "Hi doggies!" when she greets the boys.  The staff at daycare tell us that each person who enters their classroom is now greeted with a "Hi" and a wave.  Rudy also says "Santa" and "Buh Guh" (which means Bubble Guppies, and yes we are a little ashamed) "diaper" and "burp" all in the proper context.  She even waved and said "Bye diaper" as I was throwing her diaper away yesterday.  All of a sudden, she seems to understand that sounds are for communication and it is amazing!  

Along with this new language, Rudy just seems older this week somehow.  When I see her at the end of the day, a little girl greets me and I can't find many traces of my baby.  Of course, she wants to do everything we do and we decided that we weren't going to let the fact that she's small hold her back any longer.

We wanted her to become more involved in kitchen chores.  Corey and I love to cook and bake together and we want Rudy to share our hobby.  I'd read about a great Ikea Hacked learning tower and Corey said he'd make one for Christmas for Rudy.

We bought a Bekvam stool from Ikea and Corey picked up some lumber.  We used the photos and directions from this blog as well as this one.  Of course, it's not quite finished yet and we still need to fill some holes and sand it a bit.  We are going to think about whether we want to stain it or leave it raw and let Rudy paint it when she's a little older.  Just a couple of hints, if you're trying the same project: assemble the stool but don't secure the top step.  Instead, use that as the base for the top portion.  Also, it's a good idea to measure against your own counter to make sure it's the right height for your space.  This is an easy project and the height of the top portion is easily modified. 

The end result was a huge hit though.  The whole project only took Corey a few hours and Rudy came home from school to a learning tower just for her!

It allowed us to messily make some shortbread cookies (Nana pre-made the dough for us) and spend some time enjoying a new family activity.

Of course, baking with a toddler (even when successful) always falls into the disaster category.  I think there are still sprinkles between my toes.

Rudy almost made it down on her own too.  We ended up helping her because it was her first try and she's still pretty little...

The cookies look disgusting but they tasted great once they were baked.  When I offered Rudy a piece of cookie she examined it carefully and then laughed before shoving it in her mouth.

We're excited to have found a new way for Rudy to participate in our daily lives.  

Ikea Hack: Trofast Storage System + Sundvik Chair + Ribba Picture Ledge = Dream Desk

As you guys know, Corey and I like a good Ikea Hack!  We've used Ikea items throughout our house as the basis for projects because they're inexpensive and versatile.

Now that Rudy is almost walking, she needs a space to play outside of her bedroom.  I've never been a fan of clutter and (as my friends with older children warned me) good storage for her toys is the key to keeping our house relatively neat.  Since I love arts and crafts so much, there's a good chance Rudy will be the same and I've often wondered how on earth we could squeeze a little table and chair in our little house.  Living in a small house definitely calls for some creativity.  Then, I had an idea...

Corey and I purchased two Trofast Storage Systems and set them up leaving space for a chair in the middle.  Then, we purchased a shelf from the hardware store and Corey measured and cut it to join the two storage towers before screwing it together and nailing it to the wall.  He then ran a bead of silicone along the edges of the shelf to ensure there was no space for little crayons (or tiny fingers) to get stuck before affixing the shelves to the walls.  We chose a Sundvik Chair to complete the look and we added a Ribba Picture Ledge just above the desk for added storage.

I then purchased some colourful wall decals for the storage bins and the chair to make it look more fun and playful!  For the seat of the chair, I purchased some batting from the craft store and some colourful bird fabric (She loves birds!) to cover the seat with some extra cushion.  Normally, I'd use staples to secure the fabric but I didn't want to risk them coming out with a curious toddler picking at them so we secured the fabric with a (less ideal) plan B: hot glue!  Although tightening the fabric while using glue was a challenge, and the seat came out just a tiny bit lumpy, it felt like the safer choice!  Using clamps, we were able to screw the seat back on.

Our finished product is a space for toys, exploration and arts and crafts that any toddler would be excited about!

DIY Jewelry Organizer

With the upstairs washroom in a state of total chaos, it's been challenging to get excited about getting ready in the morning.  It seems like a struggle to even find my makeup most days, and it has been making everything feel a little haphazard.  In order to restore some order, I decided to add some organization to our closet in the form of a jewelry organizer.

I wanted something that would make it easy to keep my long necklaces from getting tangled and would make it easy for me to put them away.  I liked the idea of something with arms to make it easy for me to access each necklace.

I settled on Ikea's Enudden Towel Holder and Enudden Towel Rack because they were inexpensive, white and the perfect size.

Aside from the towel holder and towel rack, here's a list of the other materials and tools I used:

• Foam
• Styrofoam (Cardboard would work too.)
• Fabric
• Sea Glass (Rocks or Beads would also work.)
• Glue Gun
• Craft Knife
• Pen 
• Scissors

* Yes, I know our craft table is gross but it's in our disaster room, which currently houses all sorts of supplies, including our clawfoot tub and we're not worrying about the walls for now.  It's actually nice to have a room where we can be as messy as we like.  The craft table served as our buffet in the condo, but now it holds supplies.  I'll probably paint it in the future, but for now, we're leaving it covered in glue and paint.

The flat top of the towel rack looked like the perfect place to add some additional storage.  I grabbed some styrofoam and traced the top portion of the towel rack before cutting it out with a craft knife.

I then cut pieces of foam into roughly uniform rectangular pieces.  This foam was actually left over from when we made our tufted headboard, but it has discoloured considerably from being stored in a sunny room.

I folded each piece of foam and adhered it to my length of styrofoam with hot glue.

I then cut a length of fabric to cover the styrofoam with the foam attached.

I pulled the fabric over the foam and used hot glue to secure it.  I used a thin paintbrush to tuck it into the creases.

I glued the fabric to the back and snipped off any loose edges.

I then glued the piece of styrofoam to the top of the towel rack.

I glued a strip of fabric along the seam for a more finished look.

The towel holder required less work.  I simply glued pieces of sea glass to the tops of the arms.  Notice that I staggered them to avoid my necklaces getting tangled.

I love seeing all my necklaces so organized and accessible.

And the ring holder works nicely too.

What do you think?  I love the arms and I'm pretty happy with this little one hour project!

Don't forget to check out all the great projects on the East Coast Creative Link Party.

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Hiding Our Closet

I am really excited to finally be posting about our master bedroom closet.  This project has been in the planning stages for a while. 

When we moved in, we noticed that the closet space in our 87 year old house was decidedly unsatisfactory.  I've included the photos below (which also show some random knick knacks left by the previous owners) so that you could see our tiny master bedroom closet.  In this post, we added shelving and basically converted an entire wall into closet.  Then, we got lucky at the Ikea Midnight Madness Sale and scored some Pax sliding doors.

Unfortunately, the doors lived in our third bedroom for months, taking up most of the floor.  We decided that this was the last project to tackle before starting our bathroom reno and the main objective was to clear space.  We are essentially finished now and will save finishing touches for later this year.  Corey also decided to add some great closet lighting connected to a separate switch.  It was an awesome project and I'll cover it in a separate post.

To begin, here's what our closet looked like when we moved in.

Then, we built some shelving along the entire wall.

... And made a much larger closet.  All we needed were some sliding doors!

 

The Ikea doors we purchased on sale were made to mount onto the top of a wardrobe.  Since we planned to create a frame and mount the track on the front of it, we had to modify the track slightly.

 

We kept our clothes clean from construction dust by taping plastic to the ceiling. 

Corey built a frame for the doors along the ceiling, both walls and the floor.  It had to be reinforced to support the heavy doors.

Finally, it was time to assemble the doors.  The door with the branch design was supposed to be mounted farther out from the wall so that it could slide over the other door and always be visible.  We decided to mount it on the inside to allow ourselves an extra inch or so to open our bedroom door.

As you can see, a fully assembled door takes up most of the floor space in a room.

... But we still managed to walk it across the hall to the bedroom.

Corey mounted the doors on the tracks he had attached to his DIY frame.

And now we have awesome doors, which glide smoothly and conceal our closet mess!

We still need to patch the holes that Corey made in order to run lighting into the closet and I'd like to use drywall to create a bulkhead so that the track is hidden.... but I think those jobs will wait until after we finish the bathroom!

For now, we love our closet.  Even the branch silhouette is surprisingly realistic and it's been growing on me... so to speak!

The job felt really good to finish since we'd been procrastinating it for so long.  Have you tackled any big projects lately?

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