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Doors to Storage. (Literally.)

September 28, 2011 By Laura 34 Comments

We are so excited to show you a couple of major storage solutions we came up with for our home, that has made a huge help to us!
Not only do we feel much more organized, but these are unique projects where we re-purposed old doors.

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We’re guessing many of you love to see little home transformations, and creative spaces, as we do, and that’s just what we hope to share with you today.  The photos we share will likely explain what we have done. But if you have just a bit of time, grab a drink of choice, and let us amuse you with a little more about the birth of this project.

We’ve heard some people try to ‘ keep up with the Jones’. But that’s not our style.  I’m sure they’re really nice peeps, and all. But they don’t run in our circles, and even if they did, I doubt we’d want or care what they have, even if we could  afford a thing.  No, our wants and needs are really quite simple. If not a little off-beat sometimes, I suppose.

What we would love to keep up with, is ourselves, and our own plans and ideas.  Michael and I enjoy walking around our home and yard, chat, brainstorm, and hatch a plan, that continues to make the best of our little piece of the world. Our ideas always have a purpose, whether they are to create a sense of decor, efficiency, organization, to save money, or simply to amuse ourselves because we think it’s cool. Many times, it’s all of the above. One thing is for sure; 100’s of plans have been laid out between us, in detail, and never come to fruition, whether it was intended to be done right away or not. Time and/or funds usually hold up the process a bit, until we’ve forgotten we even had the plan!  Sometimes, new plans and ideas have been made over the old ones we forgot, or remember we had.  And we always have more, than we could ever realistically get to, anyway.  It’s craziness, actually. So priority is the key, and some things just need to be dealt with once and for all.

 

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Case in point is this hot mess, known as our shoes issue.  First, you should know, “I” am the kind of person, that really prefers one take off their shoes, before walking around the house.  Not because we have any fancy home, or carpet that mustn’t get dirty for appearances sake.  But, because of the things I notice in the world around me, the things I think of, and the things I know dang well those shoes have walked through.

Take for example, (just to make the most of my point), those teenage/adolescent boys you see walking through parking lots from point A to B, when you suddenly see and hear them do a big collecting sniff of sorts, hack it up, and just let it fly out onto the parking lot ground.  It turns-my-stomach. I’ve seen/heard it hundreds of times, and I have told my boys every time, “Don’t you EVAH, in your life time, do that.  I don’t care if you are 36. That is absolutely dis-gust-ting, rude and UNacceptable.” To which they reply, “We know Mama. You tell us that every time.”  So along with 100 other examples I could give (I’ll spare you), I simply know it’s a small sample of what is on the bottom of anyone’s shoes, and I really do not want to know such disgust is all over the floors of my home.

I’ll take earth-dirty-feet over that kind of what-nots, any day of the week.

So that helps explain all of the shoes, along the walls of our sun room, right inside our front door.  Keep in mind, this is also the room with our wood stove, and one of our family tables where we often eat and school, half the time. We originally imagined it as a cozier room for reading and such, possibly with a chaise lounge chair or 2, and an area rug under the table. Not the feel we had going here. Using the table for eating and schooling the other half of the time, it is the room we enter when we come home, and through which guests come as well. With only our shoes for that season out, with 6 of us, it’s too many. Any, is too many, for me.  It’s actually worse then you see. At the time of this photo, some had just been put away, and 5 other pairs were busy walking around in the world of what-not.  The bottom line is this:  the sight of these shoes always puts me in a bad mood. It looks terrible, and we are always tripping over them.  So, for a couple of years now, our plan was to build a storage bench along the wall you see. We had designed it right down to the details, and frankly, the shoes could never let us forget that plan.  It’s just been on a list of many things we’re been trying to get to.  But we finally did, with a whole new spin, and we’re about to show you.

But completely related, you need to see this…..

002_antique-typewriter This is in (in part) our school room. If I ever took photos of these floor cabinets Michael built for our school room 4-5 years ago, I cannot find them.  So this photo and the one below, will have to give you an idea.  There are 3 of them along the 1/2 wall adjoining the kitchen.

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If you can possibly look past one of our adorable boy when he was starting 1st grade, you will better see the size of these cabinets.  Michael did an great job, and they served us well in this room for 5 years.  But as of late I decided they are really (way) more specious inside, than we actually need, for our school books and materials. Very roomy.  And we probably did not need so much table-top space either.  As a whole, they take up a lot of space in this room, where there is also another long table and chairs, and where we also tend to gather to eat and school.

Since the sun room was meant to be cozier and lounge-ier than it is, we thought a good first step, is to not let it be the door we come inside the house through, for one.  The back door would probably be better for that.  More like a mud room. But there was still the countless shoes issue! We still needed somewhere to sit down and take our shoes off, and somewhere to store all of those shoes. What we did not need, was quite so much storage space, for all of our schooling materials.   I forget now exactly when, but the 2 matters collided at some point in my head, and ideas started rapidly coming together.  It was likely in the shower, which tends to be my most productive think-tank, but if that is TMI for you, disregard.

The gist of it all was….get rid of the big spacious cabinets in the school room, build some kind of more shallow shelving instead, and move this whole storage bench idea to the school room, where we should really enter the house from now on. A-hA!!  Then we can do better with the sun room! But that would be getting ahead of ourselves here.

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I also had an idea of how/where else we could use the big cabinets, but that too is for another time. In a nutshell, they were moved elsewhere, and it occurred to me that it would probably come out pretty cool, and save us big-time in material costs, to build our storage bench and shelves, out of old doors.

In a matter of days, we had found 4 doors on ebay offered for dirt cheap, just a hop, skip, and maybe 2 jumps, from us. Michael arranged to meet the guy to take a look, and he brought them home. (2 of them from this photo were already moved to the school room.) The doors were dirty, and somewhat mismatched, but that was all workable.

Show and tell will go fast from here I think.All 4 doors were re-purposed in this project(s).

005_old-door I loved the features on these old doors, and I knew I’d probably rough things up some more, from here.

006 First Michael relocated the huge cabinets to other locations. The floor space we gained just doing that, was unreal. Then, put up some leftover bead-board we had, as the back wall.

Then a bit of measuring and taking a moment to think things through, and we started to build.

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The doors were sawed into half the long ways, as well as proper sized-pieces, for various parts, and we were able to start putting it together.   We wanted it a good height to sit on, and have as much room on the inside, to store/hide the abundance of shoes.

 

008_shoes-storage-bench As you can see, the bench unit, using the doors, was built 3 sided, simply using the back wall as the back of the unit.   And all of our shoes fit in there perfectly.

009_storage-bench Without all of the shoes inside yet, here is what the bottom looks like.  These removable racks are a feature we came up with, even when the plans was to build traditional storage benches in the front sun room:   The shoes we take off when we come indoors are not only dirty/sandy, but often times wet too.  I know what a mess the elements from the shoes made on the floor, so I had thought of that in terms of the inside of the bench, and what a pain it would be again, to move each pair of shoes, to vacuum up the sand and dirt.

010_storage-bench So we built these shoe racks out out of strapping and chicken wire, so that a whole rack with shoes on it, could be lifted out, and we could vacuum underneath.  They would also keep the shoe off the floor of the bench, so they could dry easier.

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At the same time, we were not only building the storage bench with our old doors, but wall shelves beside it, for all of our school books and materials.

 

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I know it’s quirky, but I really love this part of the door-shelves.  I knew the doorknob would serve purpose, aside from looking cool. The sharpener simply needed to be relocated from elsewhere, as it ended up being located in such a way they we could no longer use it, without moving it, and this was the best place for it.

As you can see, a lot of the doors were beat-up, and the dark wood of the original door showed through. I liked that.  But a few parts of the structures were also necessarily built with new wood.

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Such as the shelving itself, built with new wood.  So there was still some distressing and aging to do anyway, on new wood and not, which I did with course sand paper, and dark wax, to properly stain and age the new wood, with the old.

 

016_doorknob-hangers Here is the lid to the storage unit open, pre-distressed. Obviously a door, but this side was painted by the original owner more recently, it appeared.  To add interest, and of course organization and function, we added a collection of old and mismatched doorknobs along the wall above it.

017_storage-doors-bench Here’s a better look as you step back and look at it as a whole. Again, we obviously used doors, and we intended for it to remain obvious, keeping every lock , doorknob and door feature we could.

Coming into the house using the back door, we come in and sit down on the bench to take off our shoes, and put them inside.  I should add, we will be putting down a mud runner, from the backdoor to along the front of this bench.  The little kids can hang their jackets and hats on the doorknobs, which is much easier for them as they cannot reach well in the coat closet that is in the room.  Yes, some coats will be too long to hang completely, leaving the bottom of the coats to sit on the bench, but that’s fine.  Scarves, bags and all kinds of accessories can be hung on the knobs too.

018_old-doorknob-repurposing

019_old-door-shelves The top shelves are for what you can see, as well as some of our music books.  I have many more of my teacher and resource school books that I plan to move from other shelves in the house to these upper ones, for my own use. But the depth we made the door shelves was just right for our needs.

020_old-door-storage The lower shelves are for the kid’s school books, and more of my every day teacher books.  As you can see, we found immediate use for this original doorknob, as well.

020_old-door-storage The kids hang their recorder instruments there. Perfect!

022_old-doors-bench I forgot to take photos of the bench with the lid closed, before we embellished it just a little bit.  But in closing this post, I wanted to give you a better look at the finished bench and shelves.

023_old-doors-bench

In an upcoming post, we will share with you the embellishments details you see, and how exactly we did it, with a surprise inside as well! But that’s pretty much the finished project as a whole.

We have found the entire project to serve us much better. It’s all so much more convenient, functional, and we think, has a cool factor.  I would think it’s the kind of thing that one would either love, or hate.  And I wonder, would features such as these, have a negative 0r positive impact on the ability to sell a house, should the time arise?  What do you think? We personally love the uniqueness and interesting features of people’s homes, and this fits right in with why we love ours. Everyone’s tastes vary, and so our feelings could never be hurt. But we’re curious to know what you think of this idea?  Is it cool, creative, or downright crazy?

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Filed Under: Budget, Furniture Refinishing, Home Decor, Home Improvement, Home Projects, Organization, Re-Purposing, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: antique-door-knobs, bench-seats, best-repurposing-ideas, custom-built-storage-benches, home, Home Improvement, home-organization-ideas, old-door-shelfs-shelving, organization, repurposing-old-doorknobs, repurposing-old-doors, shelving, shoes-storage-solutions, storage-benches, unique-shelving

My First Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Project / Before & After

August 31, 2011 By Laura 21 Comments

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I have been SO ridiculously excited about this post. And you all know what happens when I get excited! I babble! But I’m going to make great effort in not doing that, this time. (Deep breath. I can do it! I know I can!).  I’ve just had to focus on getting our current $100 Gift Card Give Away together (located in The Big Picture ; ).

So, we’re talking Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  If you visit many creative-type blogs, surely you have heard of it by now. It’s ‘all the rage’ right now, as they say. And frankly, I was believing it.  So we ordered 5 cans of paint, and both the clear and dark waxes.   Now, I’m not going to get into exactly what colors we ordered right now because, we have a very long list of refinishing projects we plan on doing with this paint, and I feel like each one will be more of an exciting surprise for you all as we blog those ‘Before and After’ projects, if you don’t even know the colors we have to work with.  Am I right? I even went so far, as to digitally cover the paint colors, the day our order came in, and I was so excited I had to share a photo on our Facebook Page.  I know.  The lengths that I will go to.

But anyhoo, that’s the preliminary chat!

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I have never worked with chalk paint before, or waxes.  So because I expected this to be a whole new experience than any I’d had before when painting, I wanted to start with a small project.  You know, something fun, but o.k. to experiment with, so I could get a real feel for how this paint worked, and practice waxing, etc.  I know that sounds wise.  ; )  But in other words, I was scared to just jump in with this stuff, and re-do some important family furniture piece for our home when, frankly, I wasn’t sure I’d know exactly what the heck I was doing.

Now, as a little related side-story, there is an elderly couple who are very dear friends of ours, and almost a couple of months ago, {A} helped their daughter move them to a more suitable and helpful place for folks their age. Not a rest home. It’s a lovely community. But in the process of packing up one place to move to the next, they were down-sizing and getting rid of a whole  lot of great stuff.  They were bringing it all to a consignment place, but before they did, they gave us dibs to go through it all, and take whatever we wanted.  We didn’t take a whole lot, but what we did take is pretty cool stuff.

One of those things, was this bird house.

The daughter believed it was really an indoor home-decor piece. But I told her, “That’s o.k. I’m still putting it outside.” Because I new just where I wanted to put it. Under the apple tree, near our gardens.  And I have to tell you, every time I have caught glance of it over there, it has made me smile, and bubbles up joy inside me. I just love to see it standing there. It’s charming, isn’t it?

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But I also new, it was the perfect kind of piece, to take the wrath of my experimental Annie Sloan endeavors. I couldn’t imagine I could possibly ruin it, really.  Could I?  My challenge was, what color should I paint it? Because  I actually really liked the color it was, already. And I knew A.S. (Annie Sloan) had a color called Versailles, that is like a tannish-green, of sorts? Pretty similar to this. But if I was going to paint it, I wanted it to be look different enough in the end, to be worth the work!  So as much as I loved the color it was, I was going to veer in another direction.

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I can’t tell you how pleased I was to learn, that every little piece of window framework, and even the door, came off!  Gosh, how could I possibly screw this up, right? The way I saw it, I’d hardly even need any brush control, now.  This was going to be a breeze.

 

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Because I had intentions of seriously sanding and distressing the piece when I was done, to make it look somewhat old and weathered,  I felt like I needed to paint a new color, under the top new color. So I painted the entire house Paris Grey first.

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As well as the entire stand.

Then it was time, to really get down to the fun parts.  And because of that, I completely got lost in my own world. Completely. If you know me, you know, that once I get into my creative projects, I’m in a zone of my own. Time FA-LIES.  I feel so much joy inside as I work, being creative, and frankly, I’m oblivious to much else going on around me, or what else I should be doing.

Like….taking photos as I go.  I mean, the project was over the course of a few days, because I have lots of responsibilities and priorities, with my family, that need tending to. But I was right back to my project, every-chance-I-got.  Like…”Let me back at it!”.  I was also pretty much a mess while I was doing it too, so touching my camera was really not in the forefront of my mind. Still, I will tell you all about my process to the final piece.

Ready to see a little transformation?

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For the body of the house, I went with the Annie Sloan paint color Province, which I think is so beautiful. Even in the can. I was a little concerned that it would clash with the greens of the outdoors. And yet, I wanted it to stand out too. In the the end, I was just dying to paint with this color. So it’s what I went with.  All of the window trims, house trim, and roof, was painted in Annie’s Old White.  As was the stand.  I did use 2 coats, because I knew I’d be sanding like the dickens, and I really wanted some contrast there. So once it was all painted and dry (it dries super fast, which is a good thing for impatient me), I waxed the whole thing with the Clear Wax, doing the little pieces individually, and put it all back together. The wax took some getting used to, to work with. There’s a ‘good time’ to wipe it down, after applying, when it’s no longer wet, and not too dry either. But just touching it, I got a feel for it quickly. After the clear wax coating, I sanded the dickens out of it with 100 grit sandpaper, really attacking the edges of pieces, and even the downward strokes on the roof and house walls.

Then, I applied the dark wax, and when ready, rubbed it in or off where I wanted. The dark wax is messy stuff. But FUN!!

Waxing and sanding, is not a glamorous job. I was a HOT MESS, while working at this point. It was hot and humid out anyway, so I was sweating, putting out such physical labors. The sanding of this piece was a messy job, that I decided needed to be done on the deck, from the paint dust.  The wax has a wicked strong odor too, as some mediums do, but I did that in my sunroom where the whole project was, with all of the (surround) windows open.  So imagine me: trickling sweat, hair stuck to my head, paint dust stuck to me everywhere, hands and nails a wreck with paint and wax, and possibly stinkin’.  But having the freakin’ time of my life!!

0071 This is what I love, about creativity.  It’s contagious!!  Just look at the hot mess on this table, that looked just like this for days. But I’m NOT the only one who made it!!  The ‘other’ kids helped! Once one in our family starts getting creative doing one thing or another, someone else gets a hankering to do something of their own too, and so another does, and so on. We had coloring, painting, and even wood burning going on here in this room! Thank goodness we have other places to eat dinner together in the house. Because this was the sight in this one for a good 3 days.

But the birdhouse was not done. Did you notice the pink paint around in a couple of photos up?  ; )  All along, if I was going to paint my house Province, I envisioned tiny painted pink roses, and little green vines and leaves on it. I’d use acrylic paints for this part. Not Annie Sloan.  The problem was, I had never painted little flowers in this kind of paint before. I’ve been more of a watercolorist.

But….there is always my very best friend to turn to:  GOOGLE!  I was sure I could search up some quick how-to videos and get myself a quick lesson or 2. And so I did.  Then I squirted some pinks, greens and white plops of paint on a coated paper plate, got out some brushes, practiced a few roses on the plate, and then just winged it!!   With a pencil, I lightly traced the door and attic window on the house (for placement) and then removed them (to put back on after painting the roses & vinery), and then….I went ahead and painted the roses and vinery right on the house.  (This is huge for me, People! I don’t spontaneously wing things like this, with no real experience. Because I’m a serious perfectionist! Normally, I would want 100% confidence first because, this wasn’t going to come off the chalk paint!  But, because I am also working on this need-for-perfectionism-part of me, I challenged myself to do it anyway. Fearing….I came so far with loving my birdhouse, only to possible ruin it in a moment. Yikes! But that’s the assignment, you know? Looking fear dead in the eyes, and saying,

“You won’t take me down!! I won’t LET you!”

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And there she was.  All done.
I felt like I won.

Once the acrylic dried, I did rub some clear wax over the flowers and vines, just for protection.

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I really, really, really loved the original door. Especially that rusty nail door knob!  So I really did not want to mess with it much. All I did with it, was give it an Old White wash (part water), let it dry, clear waxed it, distressed it good, and then used some dark wax on it too.

In the end, I distessed it so much that in parts, I went right down to the original wood.  So again, the whole process was:

1) Undercoat of paint. 2) Painting of top coat. 3) Clear wax application and rubbing in or off. 4) Distressing. 5) Dark wax.

And for this project, the added steps of the acrylic floral painting and clear waxing.

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I could not wait, to put her outside, back under the apple tree.

 

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I love the whole piece. But the door is still my favorite feature.

Do you forget what it used to look like?

With any kind of refinishing projects, I personally just love to see the side-by-side “Before & Afters”, so I’ve got one for you, with this project….

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I loved it before. And thankfully, I still love it.

What do YOU think?  Would you have left it alone? Or do you like my refinish?  I’d love to know your preference. You won’t hurt my feelings much. ; )

The important thing is two-fold:

1) I got a really good feel for this paint, and waxes, and a certain new (healthy!) addiction.

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And 2) I have to tell you, every time I have caught glance of it over there, it has still made me smile, and bubble up joy inside me.

I just love to see it standing there. It’s charming, isn’t it?

I’m telling you. If some little birds don’t move in to this sweet little pad, I just might!

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Home Decor, Re-Purposing, Refinishing, The Homestead Tagged With: annie-sloan-chalk-paint, annie-sloan-chalk-paint-projects, before-and-after-refinishes, before-nd-after-Annie-Sloan-projects, bird-house-make-over, bird-houses, home-and-garden, refinishes, refinishing, refinishing-bird-houses

Rustic Makeshift Potting Bench | Gardening Solution

June 15, 2011 By Laura 7 Comments

potting bench

When you need a potting bench, and you don’t have one, you just have to make do. And that’s how this rustic makeshift potting bench came to be.

We’ve been blessed time and time again, with wood to burn in our wood stove through the cold seasons of the year.  Having a cozy fire going in our home, is definitely our preferred source of heat, and we’ve hardly had to invest much in keeping it going.  Oak pallets are dropped and stacked beside our driveway regularly through the winter, by Michael’s supply company, who is always looking to get rid of them.  They burn nice, hot & slow.

potting bench This load of tree wood is from the guy a few houses down, who was clearing off his lot behind his home. He had no need for it, so we took it.  Naturally, I knew we could burn a lot of it. It needs to be split & stacked still, of course, but there’s plenty of time for that.  There was some nice logs in there, and I had another idea for some of it. Explaining what I wanted to Michael, was the biggest trip.  Eventually, I had to just direct him through the process, because he was not getting ‘my visual’ so to speak.

 

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What I wanted, was a potting bench put together, using cut logs, and a pallet.   A rustic makeshift table of sorts, near our gardens, to re-pot plants on, work at, or place our fresh picked produce as we went along.

He got the visual, about the time it got done.

potting bench
Of course nothing looks like much of anything, without a little touch of decor pretty. I had a few things I had picked up here and there for next to nothing, that looked perfect on the table top.  Added a few of my smaller potted flowers, and I loved it. Just what I had pictured.  Even Michael loved it.

 

potting bench The bench has proven handy, indeed.   I use it all of the time.

 

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Country-ish, charming, and functional.

What’s not to love?

makeshift-potting-bench-6 I know the decor will change and evolve, over and over again. Because it’s just a great place to put the interesting little things we find, on our walks along the seashore, and stuff like that.  That rock you see in the back corner of the shelf, is like a perfect round ball. So cool.

 

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So what do YOU think of this set-up? 
We live on a dead-end road, with very few neighbors.

But if you were driving by, would you see it and think….“WHAT the HECK?”

potting bench Because I don’t know….I just love seeing it there.
Call us rednecks.

Maybe because it’s so simple.

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It’s really just the simple little details in life, that make me so happy inside.
Thanks or coming to check it out. Happy Gardening!


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Filed Under: Gardening, Home Decor, Re-Purposing, The Homestead Tagged With: diy, Gardening, makeshift-potting-bench-ideas, pallet-projects, pallet-recycling, potting-benches, repurposing

Mailbox Tub Garden

June 4, 2011 By Laura 4 Comments

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We are still very much working on our long-term front garden-yard plans, and we’re far from completion.  A little each year, as we need to roll, but we’ve enjoyed the planning and the progress along the way.  We always wish we were further ahead than behind, but that’s the way it goes.

creative-mailbox-planter-ideas

Our mailbox out front by the street, has really been looking like it needs some sprucing up, for some time.  Last year, we just planted some flowers around the post, in what sandy and rocky sloped dirt was there.  But because our front yards are our garden, and the general landscape plan is not completed yet, it didn’t look so nice.  The crabgrass that grows in the sandy dirt, spread into flower bed, and it just didn’t look clean. So this year, I had a new plan.

To have a little tub garden, around the mailbox post. I figured, filled with loam, it would keep the crabgrass from spreading into the garden bed.

creative-mailbox-planter-ideas-1

I picked up this aluminum tub for cheap, at my favorite antique/junk stop. I had passingly mentioned to Michael, that I had wanted to put the mailbox further to one side, than the other. But I didn’t make a point of it yet, because in my mind, I imagined he planned to just cut out the entire bottom of the tub. But next thing I knew, I had found this done.  A square cut out smack-dab in the middle, with drilled drain holes here & there.  Of course, I went through my typical reaction to these things:  “MI-CHAAAAAEL!”….and reminded him that I had mentioned to him, I wanted the post to the left.

He thought it would “look fiiiiine”, and proceeded to put the mailbox through the tub, and into the new hole he dug. (We were moving the mailbox over as well, closer to our driveway.

This situation is such a symbolic picture of US, by the way.  Michael and I, I mean.  He is all about liking things symmetrical, and I prefer asymmetrical.  He’s a ruler follower, and I’m a rule breaker. He likes new and perfect, I like things old and full of character.  He’s conservative in style, and I am SO not.  He’s even, and I’m odd.

Oh…wait.  🙄 Well anyway…

It was not yet filled with dirt, but I got the visual, and it just wasn’t right to me. So ….. boring, and non-creative, in my eyes.  So I proceeded to tell him, that it looked ridiculous, as I knew it would, in the center.  It was no big deal to cut the existing hole another square bigger, to the left, so we could move the whole tub over (thus appearing that the post had moved over, lol), and that’s just what he did.  If only to shut-me-up. : )   (We nag because it works, right? And because…..they don’t do what we say the first time!)

Kidding. I respect my husband.  I just have a little more flare, and fight, in me.  Or, a lot. Maybe.

creative-mailbox-planter-ideas-2 MUCH better!  Right?

(I mean….I couldn’t take a photo of it center. I just couldn’t.  But can’t you imagine?)

creative-mailbox-planter-ideas-4 He loaded it with the loam, and I planted my flowers.

Calibrachoa and Snap Dragons, to be exact.

creative-mailbox-planter-ideas-5 Crabgrass can’t touch this!

So what was your vote?  Center, or off-center?  How would you have done it?



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Filed Under: Gardening, Home Improvement, Re-Purposing, The Homestead Tagged With: creative-mailbox-planter-ideas, Gardening, ideas-for-old-metal-tubs, mailbox-planters

Have a Coke, & Some Petunias, & a Smile!

May 24, 2011 By Laura 23 Comments

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Gardening season is upon us, and we’ve been doing a few creative home-front (literally, in front of our home) projects I am excited to share with you, one after the other, here on the blog
Our garden beds are all ready for planting next weekend as well, with the soil all screened and fertilized.  (So exciting!) Aside from that, I’ve been getting creative & efficient around the garden beds, and this post is one of the little cute projects I’ve been wanting to share.

The week prior to Mother’s day, {A} and I found ourselves scouting a few antique stores, and I spotted this Coke crate among the goods, in the items on the sidewalk outside of the door of one of the stores.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening I was so drawn to it, and I had an immediate re-purposing vision for it, too.  As I walked around the store, I got to ‘thinking too much’.  As cheap as I am sure it was, there was a reason I didn’t want to get it, too.  As I hemmed & hawed about whether to get it or not, {A} wanted to know what was holding me back.  When I told her, she thought it was a ridiculous reason. But you know…I think differently than a lot of people, I think. Everything seems to have some psychological puzzle to it, to complicate things for me. It keeps my brain busy, I guess.  But the bottom line is, ultimately, we got in the car and drove home.  Yes, leaving the awesome, vintage, well-worn, old & rustic, Coke bottle crate behind.

It soooo bugged me all week.  I had wished I got it, and I said so out loud a 1/2 dozen times.  Michael asked me why I didn’t get it then, if I wanted it so bad, and {A} was happy to fill him in, with an amused chuckle at the end. (Imagine my appreciation of that. <eye roll>,)

I might tell you at some point in this post, my reasoning for not getting the crate in the first place.  If I am feeling up to being laughed at some more.  But for now, I’ll tell you now that on Mother’s Day, we went back and got that crate!  I was prayin’ it would still be there, and thankfully, it was.  $10.   That’s the price the guy gave me, and it was the most I was willing to pay.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-1 I loved it more than I even remembered.  It had a little stink to it, and some cobwebs, that I wasn’t aware of before, because I hadn’t handled it or got that close.  But still…..it was sweet.  I especially love the printing on the wood on the inside-back.  I don’t know why. I just think the whole dang thing is cool, and I was wicked excited about my plans for it.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-2

1970.  Get-Out!

O.K….it’s not really that old. ; )  But it’s still cool, and it’s got a really old feel.

So I gathered the other things I needed for my project, and put my little vision together…..

.

.

.

.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-3 ….And it looked even better in real life!

Initially, I was just planning on using a mix of white & red Petunias.  But my little girl really loved these candy cane striped ones, and I love to make my kiddos happy. I threw in a few Snap Dragons for good measure.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-5 I just love how it looks, sitting on the edge of any of the garden beds.  Or anywhere we put it out there.   And my hesitancy for getting it, has bothered me less and less, now that it makes me so happy, every time I catch sight of it.   So I guess I’ll tell you what my issue was.

See, the thing is, I just don’t condone drinking soda. (I’ll give you a moment, to say….”Oh brother!”, too.)


I mean….I am not wicked ANTI-soda, but my kids don’t drink it, and I never have it in the house.  They have all tried it, and hate it.  They don’t like the carbonation.  Which is great, because I wouldn’t let the little ones have it on any regular basis, anyway. My husband used to drink it sometimes, but I think he has come around to my way of thinking about it.  It’s just so BAD for you.  Your body, your teeth, yourSELF.

Ok, maybe I am wicked anti-soda.

Listen, I know you must think it’s ridiculous, too. But like lots of things one has strong feelings about, this goes back to my childhood.  Without naming names, when I was a kid, I knew some other kids who were having some serious stomach problems.  As it turns out, all of the soda they drank was eating their stomach. (And their teeth too, as far as I could see.)  So you see….that really disturbed me as a little kid.  I know. You need to drink a lot of it, and regularly, to have such issues.  But the point is……I’d rather encourage drinking lots of water.  And milk for the kids. And green tea, I heard, has all kinds of benefits. Liquids that are good for you! And I really did not want to send the false message to the world, in my own front yard, that I condone Coke-drinking as a life-style.  Because clearly, I do not.

But, you know….now that I see how cute my soda bottles crate is, with that really great Coke logo…..(I have to admit, and so do you, that it’s a great logo!)…..I am letting the possibility of this misconception, go.

I’m almost over it, already.

No really!

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-6

There’s a little story behind the bottles that ended up in this cute-gardening-repurposing-project, too.   While out at other antique stores on Mother’s Day, I found the perfect Coke bottles, to use for this. They were old and circa-I-forget.  But suffice it to say, they were original Coke bottles, with the embossed Coke logo in the glass.  All transparent, greenish glass.  Original Coke bottles, like I said.  $5 each, and I only wanted 3.  But Michael convinced me that he could get the exact same thing at Stop & Shop.  “Really Michael?” I asked. “Are you sure they are exactly like this.”.  “Yes”, he said. “I can’t see buying antique ones just to sit in our front yard, at $5 each, when I can get them for a buck-something.  Who is going to know the difference?”  “ME!” I said.  “I don’t do any of these things for anyone else!  I do them because they make ME happy. It’s part of the way I make my home for my family!”

(Men so don’t get these things.  Right?  Is it just my man?)

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-8 So I left those antique Coke bottles there in the store, over my husband’s antics about it. Because he was going to get me some just like them.  And only I would know, they were not really antiques.  Uh-huh.

(Now I had 2 things I would have to keep pushing out of my mind. Right?  That’s what I was thinking.)

These bottles you see in the photos, are what he brought home to me, from Stop & Shop.  I was like, “Michael!  These are not the same!!”  “Sure they are, why not?” he asked.  “BeCAUSE….”, I had to explain, “These have this red & white screen printed logo thing on them.  The others did not have that! The logo was embossed on the glass. These aren’t the same.  It’s not the real thing, Michael!!“

And then I busted out laughing hysterically, realizing the pun I just made by accident.  Which of course, lightened my heart, and I forgave him.

But I’m back to mad again, I think. I mean, I kind of would have liked the real vintage Coke bottles.  You know? On the other hand, the red & white logos do look nice among the flowers, with the red & white crate and all.

coke-bottles-crate-repurposing-creative-gardening-4 So that’s my great long story, of this little garden project.  I hope you love it, and it inspires you to get creative with your own flowers and plantings in your garden areas.  But please do not let it encourage you to drink Coke! Just pour out the contents down the drain, like I did.  Promise?  Soda in general, is just not good for you.  It’s high in sugar. It’s bad for your teeth.  I heard it eats stomachs! So disturbing.

This has been a public service announcement, and a creative gardening inspiration project, all in one!  What a bargain, huh?  Aren’t you glad you stopped by?

Here, have a water, and a smile.

: )


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Filed Under: Gardening, Re-Purposing, The Homestead Tagged With: Coke-bottle-crate-ideas, creative-garden-planters, creative-gardening-ideas, Gardening, repurposing-soda-bottle-crates, using-vintage-pieces-in-your-gardens

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