Tuesday, May 31, 2011

DIY Ikea Rast, DIY LACK Picture Ledges, DIY Everywhere

Happy Monday.....er Tuesday!

As I said on Friday, this weekend was full for me. With my husband and daughters out of town I had to get busy. The count down is here since the movers are scheduled for Friday (excuse me while I scream!!!!). We still have to paint and touch up the ceiling from any patch work, hang additional lights, seal the floors, convert a dresser into a bathroom vanity, grout and caulk the kitchen, caulk the floor boards, and paint some floor boards and patching on walls . Along with this are the MANY other less important projects but still high on the priority list such as order and hang blinds, cut and hang curtains, get our cabinet doors for the last missing cupboard, make my DIY drift wood mirror, and just simply get in there are start to put all the pieces together. Who's with me?!

Enough about my anxiety, let's talk about this weekend. I had to come in, roll up my sleeves and get down and dirty with the new crib. That meant literally getting on my hands and knees and giving it a MAJOR bath. I also spent time getting all the little details together such as hanging door knobs, changing the stock white bi-fold door knobs with upgraded nice brushed metal ones which required ab an hour and a half at Home Depot trying to get screws and washers to make them fit. Amazingly enough different screws only work for different knobs and I ran into one screw being too short and the 2" one being too long and the knobs wouldn't fasten so I had to then find metal washers to close the gap. Seem silly? Well all of these little projects take up tons of time. Here are a few pics from my holiday bliss:



Here are the knobs. Notice the one with the big green "X" well sometimes we have an oops moment. Mine came from trying to muscle a screw wrongly into a hole and the hole won. There's no way that thing is going in or out so I decided the only other fix is liquid nails. Please, please, please work because I'm pretty sure my husband won't like changing out the bi-fold doors all because I can't be patient enough to drill the hole properly. Patience is a virtue, yes it is.

Below are my DIY IKEA RAST Nightstands


They start by being a raw wood when you assemble them as shown above.



Next all the drawers get a shiny, high gloss coat of white paint. Let them dry, sand and reapply. I did this 3 times and I used a high gloss door trim paint. Really any will work, but keep in mind the wood soaks up the paint, and the sanding keeps the surface smooth. I used a small foam roller for an even coating.

Next, I gave the outside of the RASTs a light staining. There are so many wonderful stain colors out there. I wanted mine to be lighter, but you can really play around with this. I used a small sponge brush. You would apply more coats as needed, but the more stain you apply, the darker your wood.




When the stain had dried I applied 2 coats of lacquer to the stained parts of my night stands. I would not do this to the drawers because it can yellow the white, and will ruin the look (ask me how I know this!).




I did this project while sharing wine with a good friend.


I  ordered the knobs here knobs, and love them! You will need 12 knobs.

Here are my finished RAST night stands.



Here are some pictures of our kitchen in progress. We finally installed the stone back splash, Yaaay!





Here was a quick and easy DIY IKEA LACK shelf project that I completed.



 I took 3- 75" LACK shelves from Ikea and went to Home Depot. I bought 3 pre-made and pre-painted moldings for a  cost of under $4 ea and some liquid mails clear adhesive. I had the wood cut at Home Depot minus an inch at both ends and I simply glued them together. What I like about this idea is that once they go up my pictures can safely lean against the wall without sliding off, and there is also room to display things in front of the ledges which will give me some diversity in my display- score!


Here is the finished project.



And here is a quick sneak peek down our hall in to the bedrooms. Things are coming along.








Our house is coming along, but there's still so much to do!

1 comment:

  1. Whit-
    It was my pleasure. There's nothing like drinking wine out of plastic cups to get you motivated for a good DIY project!! Luckily, we finished the paint before the bottle.
    All your hard work has payed off, your house is coming together beautifully. Can't wait to see the end results. Love ya!

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