DIY Hall Tree from Old Door

We don't really have an entry way to our house, and it's kinda annoying.  Everyday when I leave for work, I have my fancy Coach purse, my lunch box, and a tote back with my gym clothes.  That's a lot for one person, not to mention a mom.  Add to that a diaper bag, a nap mat, milk, diapers, wipes.  Sheesh.  That's a lot of stuff.  When we come home every day, my purse goes on one of our extra dining room chairs (I have a strict rule that Coach NEVER goes on the floor-I work hard to spoil myself!) and the rest gets thrown on the floor.  It makes the room looked so cluttered and I never really know where anything is.  So I talked Justin into making me a hall tree. 

 

 

 

We repurposed a closet door that I bought from Restore for $10.  I have seen these pop up all over Pinterest and I fell in love with the idea. 

 

 

We bought MDF board (because it was cheap.  Normally we would have used a better wood) and cut it to create a box that would be attached to the door.

 

 

 

I didn't want my bags falling onto the floor, so we bought wood shelf brackets and attached them to each side.  We wanted the hall tree to have a simple look and feel to it, so we added trim to the front and sides of the MDF box to give it a nice touch. 

 

 

We used Valspar Signature paint in creme fraiche in a satin finish.  This is the perfect white.  Not too bright, but no hint of yellow.  The satin finish is sleek.  Just glossy enough to wipe normal wear and tear marks off, but not enough where it has a glean to it.

  

 

 You can see the trim detail here after it was painted and it gives it just the right look to keep in with my rustic décor. 

 

 

The legs we repurposed from Justin's old night stands.  We have converted the night stands to another project (that I haven't had a chance to write about) and we had 4 left. I think lifting the hall tree up off the floor makes it look so classy.

 

 

 I found the coat hooks and the door knob from Hobby Lobby.  We had already been using the key holder and decided to keep it. It was just screwed into the wall, so I think it will like it's new home. 

  

 

 The door knob is not actually a real knob, more like a décor piece that we placed to look like an old knob. It had a wall hanger on the back but we were able to use screws on each side to hold the knob in place.

 

 

 I really love how it turned out.  It was such a simple project and we were able to finish it up in just 2 afternoons (even with a 1 year old running around!)  They only thing I would have changed was maybe to add some kind of ring or something on the side to store umbrellas.  But that would be easy to add in later.  I might also add a shelf to the top, but I think it looks great without it.

 

 Total Price for the Project: $42

Door: $10 from Restore

MDF Board: $8

Wooden Brackets: $6

Trim: $3

Legs: Repurposed from nightstands

Paint: Left over from another project

Coat Hooks: $9

Key Holder: What we were currently using

Door Knob: $6



 

Now we have a place to put all of our things.  It's been so nice to have everything together in one place to grab to head out the door or to empty our arms when we get home.

Finally Finished This Chair

Remember this chair that I found at a garage sale 2 YEARS AGO?  Remember how I was going to recover it in that yellow fabric, and stain the wood a dark walnut color?  I got started on it and it never got finished.  I recovered the cushions (and learned a lot from doing it for the first time) and tried to stain the wood, but it turned out looking awful.  It ended up being thrown into the garage and the cushions on the floor of the guest bedroom.  Until last week...

When I finished that baby!  I had some white paint left over from another project and decided that white would look so much better against the yellow and really make it pop. 

 

We bought white blinds while I was on maternatiy leave and I swiched our green curtains out with light blue ones just after we bought our new brown couch to try to brighten up the room a bit.   I think the white, yellow and blue look really pretty together and really bring in some pops of color. 

  

I really like how this area of the living room is looking so I'm hoping to paint some of our dumpster dive/garage sale furniture that I've brought into the house over the past year and really tie the room together.   With Lillie getting bigger and happy hanging out with her toys in her play pen, I'm hoping to getting back to more of these projects!

Farmhouse Table Reveal

Did you forget that Justin built me a dining room table last year for Christmas? 

  

I never shared a sneak peek of the table, but I did show you these awesome cane back chairs I found on Craigs List. 

  

  

A lot of our home projects came to a halt when I got pregnant.  I just didn't have the motivation or energy to do much of anything.  But as soon as we got Lillie home, I've been back to my old self, hard at work on our home projects when I have a little spare time.

 

I busted my butt on this, but I finally got our dining room table and chairs finished!  Since both sides of our family are coming to our house this year to make it easier for us, I wanted it to be finished and looking nice for Christmas. 

 

 

 

I LOVE the way it turned out!

 

 

Doesn't our dining room and formal living look so elegant?  It looks like a real grown up house! Ha.

 

 

Those chairs were a beating to paint.  I didn't know it when I bought them, but painting cane is HARD.  But it was worth it.  Just look at those beauties.  I covered the green seats with burlap and really love how it looks against the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.

 

 

Earlier tonight, we had our first of our family Christmases and it was so nice to be able to sit around the table together.  The table is roomy enough for everyone to have room to eat, but still have all the food in the middle of the table.

 

 

 

Don't you think Justin did a fantastic job?!  It is so beautiful and I love it so much!  It will be a family gathering place for years to come and we just might fill up all those chairs with little ones before we know it!  Ok, ok, maybe not all of them, but hopefully half ;)

 

 

From all of us here at the Harmon House-Justin, Jordan, Lillie, Molly and Dexter-we wish y'all a Merry Christmas!  We hope tomorrow is filled with lots of love, happiness, friends and family!

 

Linking up:
  



 

Wire Basket Love

Don't you love wire baskets?

I do!

I've got several around the house.  One of them came from my daddy's shop and I'll probably blog about that one some day, but for now, here's a pretty wire basket I found at Walmart for just $5!

Does that table top look familiar?  It should.  It's the red buffet I revealed last week. 

Yeah, that's right.  There is a Kinky Friedman book in my wire basket.  It's sitting right on top of my book of daily prayers.  Should that tell me something?  Ha. 

 I filled this basket up with things that I had around the house, keeping with the rustic  theme of the room. 

 I added a little mason jar, the unity candles from our wedding, and an old youth hymnal that my mama gave me a while back. 

Did I ever tell you the theme of our dining room/formal living room area? Well, if not, I'm doing a family heirloom theme.  I'm using decorations given to us or made by our families or that have some kind of family meaning behind them.  This hymnal is very important.  It takes me back to one of those silly sister moments when we went through this hymnal just a few years ago and sang all the songs we knew.  And that's right, baby...this hymnal is now turned to "Victory in Jesus" my all time fave.  Em will be so proud. 

 You can see the rest of the dining room when we do the big reveal of our table (if I can ever get those dang chairs painted!).  Ooh, I can't wait to show y'all!  We moved the table into the house this past weekend and it looks amazing!!

Dresser Turned Buffet Reveal

Remember the free dresser that I found almost a year ago? 

The one that I was going to convert into a buffet for our dining room?

Well, I finally finished it!  Read on for the full reveal!

Valentine's Day Shelf Decor

 I finally finished up our Valentine's Day shelf! 

Fab Find: Dining Room Chairs

Justin has been hard at work building me a farmhouse style dining room table.  It was my Christmas present this year.  He's almost finished up and we'll share pictures as soon as it's ready, we promise!  But until then, drool over these cane back chairs that I found on Craigs List.

Look at that cane.  Isn't it gorgeous!  These are going to be our chairs for our table.  I can't wait to show you what I have in store for these babies!  They are going to look absolutely fabulous when I'm done with them.

I almost feel like we ripped the guy off this deal was soooo good.  We gave $150 for the 6 chairs and a 76" table with a leaf.  That's $25 a chair!  Do you know how expensive chairs are?  Cute ones at Walmart-Better Homes and Gardens Brand-are $40 a piece.  So what we paid for the entire dining set is still a HUGE savings!  I love a good find! 

I'll keep you posted on how these beauties are going to be transformed to work with our table.

By the way, we have the table for sale if you are in the market for one.  It's in good shape and really pretty.  Send me a message if you are interested!

Our New Nativity Scene

My first nativity scene was given to me by my grandma.  You can see it here.  I still have it and put it out on the coffee table again this year.  I also have a small nativity scene from Kirklands.  It's been really handy the last few years.  It looks a lot like my mama's, only on a tinier scale.  That's why I bought it.  The one my mama has was her grandma's so when I look at mine, it reminds me of Christmases back home.  It's perfect for a small apartment, but being in the house this year has really made me want a bigger nativity scene.  I wanted something special, like my mama's. I remember her getting it out every year and putting it on the back of the piano.  It just didn't really feel like Christmas until she got it down from the closet.  I was sort of feeling the same way this year.  I love the Willow Tree figurines and knew they made one so I thought I'd check it out.

 

Willow Tree actually has 2 different sets and they are both equally amazing.  

 

But they are EXPENSIVE.  So I was out of luck.  There was no way we could afford any of it.  Not one tiny piece. 

 And then I found this at Kohls.  And I was in love.  What was even better was the price-$30.  We could totally do $30.  So I brought it home.

 

 

 Ok, so I know the tree doesn't go with the nativity scene, but I needed something to go in that corner and it's cute!  It goes with the burlap nicely. 

 "We three kings of orient are..."

Love that song.

  One thing that this set has that Willow Tree does not are these inscriptions on all the dark parts of each figurine.  Can you tell what it is?

That's right...it's the lyrics to "Silent Night."

Get the free printable here

 And that makes me love it just that much more!

Witch Broom Door Hanger

 Halloween is next week so I've been busy getting the house spookified for our party!

Here's a little somthing I made for our front door to welcome all the ghouls and witches that will be coming to visit next Saturday. 

DIY Wall Plaque

I love vinyl wall art, but I don't like the price.


$35 Etsy

 Source: etsy.com via Jordan on Pinterest

There are lots of DIY tutorials, but I don't own and can't afford a Silhouette machine.

Redefining C

So I decided to make my own vinyl wall art and I L-O-V-E (no pun intended, ha)  the way it turned out!

Wanna make your own? It's so easy!

I painted the sides of the wooden plaque turning the ugly gold to dark brown.

Then I applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to the top of the plaque.  I wanted to cover up "Welcome to our Ranch."  Not so big on western decor...

So I covered the front of the plaque with the pretty scrapbook paper.

Because my paper was too short to cover the entire face at one time, I had to improvise.  I covered the front as much as I could, let it dry and then covered the other half.  The tricky part was lining up the design so that it would flow nicely and the pattern wasn't too terribly off.

Then I got my brown paint back out and roughly swiped it around the edges to give it a distressed rustic look. 

After the paint was dry, I put the Dollar Tree vinyl wall art on top and Mod Podged the entire think to make sure it was all sealed up and protected. 

Isn't it lovely?

  Do you love my birds?  ::Swoon::  I've loved birds for a long time (maybe cause my nickname is j-bird...ah, old softball days) so I've been trying to incorporate them in the house as much as Justin will let me.  He hasn't said no yet! ;)

 So what do you think?  It cost me less than $5 to make this because I found everything on sale or clearance.  I've got a few more of these babies that I'm going to make for different parts of the house.  When I have a chance to get them finished, I'll show y'all how they turned out!