Fall is by far my absolute favorite season. I live in Michigan and the colors here are insanely beautiful. Below is a photo taken by the university I go to, and I think it really captures the beauty we have here during the season.
With the outdoors looking so beautiful, it just makes sense to me to bring these colors inside too. I’ve slowly been building my fall collection every year, and I’m going to look for some great deals on fall/Halloween stuff after the season is over. Here are a few pics of how I decorate for the season/holiday. Hope you enjoy!
Autumn
Halloween
“There’s something spooky out tonight, and I think it’s YOU!!” – Creepy talking skeleton
“Enter if you dare” appropriate for a bathroom door 😉
Pumpkins carved by my best friend, me, and my boyfriend (respectively).
This is a masking tape silhouette of me that my boyfriend and I created for our Halloween party. And no I was not making that face, lol.
We also hung up two black vinyl tablecloths in our stairway entry and cut them into strips to create a spooky entrance. We changed the regular light bulb out for a red light, and black lights in the living room.
So, what do you think? My fall decorations are definitely minor compared to the Halloween decorations, but I think that’s because we throw a Halloween party every year.
Do you decorate for the holiday? What’s your favorite season? Do you tend to wait until seasonal items go on sale, or do you splurge right away?
I have been gawking over beautiful china cabinets recently, but new china cabinets are outrageously expensive and my house has limited options of where I can even put one. I did some searching on Pinterest and came up with a list of 5 creative china cabinet ideas.
Buy a Thrifted Cabinet
The most common approach I have seen is finding a cabinet on Craigslist, at yard sales, or Goodwill/Salvation army. This is a great approach because you can find a typical cabinet, and upgrade it to your needs. Some people restore the hutch to its original glory or even restyle it to something completely different.
Here is an example using General Finishes Java Gel Stain. General Finishes is a really popular brand right now that I have seen a lot of people use for furniture makeovers. This technique changes the look completely while still keeping the beauty of the wood.
This is one of my absolute favorite painted hutch makeovers. I also really love the details of the hutch itself. The transformation from before is crazy!
Upcycle a Bookshelf
I would love to restyle a thrifted hutch, but I am just having a hard time finding a cabinet that’s the right style and price. Soon I might try following this idea of taking a plain bookshelf and adding molding and legs to it. It might even be simple enough to add glass doors to it too.
I’m sure it would be way easier to get my hands on an old bookshelf, not to mention how much easier it would be to transport. This would also be a good fit since I don’t have a ton of space in my house for a huge cabinet.
Use Picture Shelves
This is another great option if you have limited floor space, but need some more decorations up on the wall. This would be great above my table in the “dining room”.
This would also be a great option because if you upgrade to a hutch the shelves can easily be used for something else… Maybe as a picture display? 😉
Wood Crates
Another particularly unique idea I came across was hanging wood crates and displaying dishes in them.
I love the rustic vibe this gives off, and I think the possibilities are endless. You could paint the crates, stain them different colors and arrange them in different ways to get a different look. These crates could also be reused if you upgrade to something different.
Old Windows
This last idea is particularly creative. Use old windows and reclaimed wood to make a cabinet for your dishes.
This idea is really customizable too. The picture is linked to a post on how to use old windows, and it didn’t have a link to the original project for this. This cabinet could also be made in different sizes depending on the old windows you can find.
Would you try any of these ideas? If so, which ones? Can you think of any other creative china cabinet ideas?
If you’re interested in learning more about the specific projects all the photos are linked to the source where I found them.
See You Around!
Lauren <3
P.S. if you liked this post, or thought it was helpful, don’t forget to share it! 🙂
My bathroom is pretty small, and seriously lacking in the storage department along with the rest of my house. I’m a total storage and organization nerd, and I would spend SO much money on storage if I could. But since I can’t, I’m always looking for thrifty ways to get the same effect. The other day Chris and I were at Goodwill, and he spotted this 3 piece bathroom organizer for only $10!! Thrifty bathroom storage for the win!
I found the exact same thing in the $30 range online!! For some reason I couldn’t find this exact thing on Wal-Mart’s website. Maybe they don’t sell it anymore? In that case this piece is a collector’s item 😉 I was a little nervous to buy it at first because I thought maybe some of the pieces were missing. The box was taped really well, but I was able to peek inside and see that the pieces were still in the plastic bags. So, we decided to take a chance on it.
When I got all the pieces out I found half of the directions and got scared until I found the other half. Nothing a little tape can’t fix!
After I fixed the directions I pulled all the pieces and was making sure they were all there. And then I came across this…
You can’t really see it on the paper, but this is supposed to be one piece. I don’t know what happened but there are two of these parts, and both of them were broken. I put the rest of the shelf together while I figured out how to fix these pieces. They went on top so they weren’t necessary, but it would be better if they could be used.
Finally I remembered some sort of welding stuff that came in a tube. I had seen it on Pinterest before but couldn’t remember exactly what it was. When Chris came home from work he told me it was called JB Weld and he already had some! 😀
It comes in two tubes. One labeled hardener and one labeled steel. He just mixed a fair amount together (equal amounts of both) on a piece of cardboard and applied it to each broken piece. We let it sit over night and it was all fixed!
Not the prettiest repair job, but it’s fixed and it’s not very noticeable when the shelf is all put together.
I’ll have to figure out what all I want to store on here, and how to style it but for now I’m just happy to at least have a place to set things 🙂 I want to store towels on it, but most of the ones we have are stained and ugly. That’s another thing I need to invest in.
Have you ever ran into a thrift store disaster, or had a close call? What was your favorite thrift store find?
The cabinet painting is still basically at a halt. The landlords still say no. However, I still have hope and the next plan is to get an extra box of flooring that we will be using in the bathroom, and then we’ll have enough to do the kitchen too. But, we’ll tell the landlords we can’t do it unless we paint the cabinets. Yellow cabinets do not look good with beautiful gray barn wood looking floors. Hopefully this last resort tactic works. I might just have to paint them anyway, but I rather not.
Since I can’t paint the outside of the cabinets I’ve started painting the insides since they desperately need it too.
This is a different cabinet than I painted, but I had already peeled too much paint off for you to see how dirty it was to start with. I cleaned the shelves really well and they’re still too dingy to be left alone.
You can see here how the paint is peeling. The peeling is worse in some of the other cabinets.
The worst part about the cabinets is that they trapped the smell of food horribly. Even after I cleaned the cabinets and let them air out without food for a while, I could smell it again shortly after I put everything back.
Here is the cabinet I painted with most of the paint peeled off the bottom, and quite a bit off the walls. I peeled as much off as I could before sanding it down and wiping up the dust.
Above is the cabinet with a coat of primer. When I painted the wall trim I didn’t put a coat of primer on it, and I wish I did because it might have helped it from getting dinged up again. I absolutely hate dealing with the peeling paint, so I hope that this primer will cut down on that.
The cabinet with a coat of paint and all dry.
Here are comparison photos of a painted shelf and a non painted shelf. The bottom shelf in both pictures is painted, and the top one is not.
The cabinet is put back together, now I just need to find a better way to organize the spices. I’ll slowly work on painting a shelf or two at a time and hopefully that will keep my mind off wanting to paint the outsides.
I should make decent progress if I don’t get too irritated with having to peel all the paint off. I might, however, get a little grossed out with doing some of the lower cabinets by the sink that are exposed to the pipes inside the wall. Maybe I’ll come up with another project entirely to make them look more finished.
What’s your worst home improvement nightmare? Do you have any tips for organizing spices?
I’m one of those people who likes to rearrange. Furniture, decor, organization, anything. When I get a new piece of furniture I rearrange to make it fit right in with everything else. When the seasons change I add different decorations. Sometimes I just get bored with the arrangement of a room, so I switch it up. My living room is probably the most versatile room to move around the furniture. After cleaning the carpets I figured it was time for a change in the living room.
Above is how the living room was set up beforehand. I liked the couch set up because it made a more social space for when we had company. We could comfortably chat with each other or watch television. On the other hand I felt like the set up made our living room feel much smaller than it actually is.
Here is a panorama of the new living room set up.
A closer up of the couch set up.
Here’s the fireplace and T.V. You will notice a T.V to the left and the wall mount behind the T.V. on the fireplace. The wall mount T.V. is waiting to be repaired, so the T.V. we are currently using is from the bedroom. I’d like to rearrange the fireplace once the T.V. is fixed so it looks more even. The left side looks really cluttered because of books and DVD’s, whereas on the right the PlayStation and internet router almost blend in.
For now I put my trunk table underneath this painting. I could put it on the other end of the couch as an end table, but for now I think putting it here shows off it’s charm a little more. When we decorated the living room I didn’t even realize it, but the colors in our throw pillows and blanket go perfectly with the blues and browns in the painting.
I have two of these penny vases that I DIY’d over on our movie cases. Typically I put them on the fireplace, but right now that space is taken up. I got two almost identical vases at goodwill, (they were the same shape just a different shade of green and one was slightly heavier) and I spray painted them black and hot glued pennies to them. Such an easy decor item and you can hardly tell they’re pennies from far away!
Another simple update to the living room was changing out the plain white rods and nasty curtains for nice oil rubbed bronze rods and long curtain panels. We left the original hardware and kept the old curtains so we can put them back when we move out.
Project Plans
My goal for winter break is to repaint all the window trim. As you can tell in these photos the paint is peeling (just like the rest of the trim in the house was), and it is yellowy underneath. The biggest reason the window trim started majorly peeling was we used plastic over the windows throughout the winter to seal the heat in. When we pulled the plastic off in the spring the paint peeled with it. On the windows that the locks are broken we also have wood pieces to keep the windows “locked”. All the boards are plain wood and I want to paint them white so they blend in. The next best thing would be replacing all the locks, but that costs money.
I want to paint the ceiling trim too as I noticed it is quite nasty in comparison to the baseboard trim that I repainted (you can really notice it in the third picture from the top). I also need to go back and sand down some spackle spots that the boyfriend forgot to sand before we painted. There are also some spots that look a little streaky that we will go over again.
A few other small projects include cleaning the electrical outlet covers, sprucing up the fireplace mantle, and hiding the cable cord and internet routers.
Which set up did you like better: up close and social, or the wide open spaces?
See You Around!
Lauren <3
P.S. If you missed the bathroom tour – check it out here
I am slowly working on creating a home tour which will include before and after pictures of my house as well as explanations of what I plan to do to the house in the future. This page will be “living” so to speak and will constantly be changing as the house changes. Throughout this process I will try to post reveals of rooms that have had a significant amount of change to them along the way.
Today I am going to share my bathroom with you! The bathroom is one of my favorite rooms in the house because at a glance it looks crisp and clean. On the other hand there are still some issues with the bathroom that need to be worked out.
Here is the view of the bathroom before you walk in. I know what your first impression is: mmmm carpet in the bathroom! Yes, it is horrifying and it should be gone soon! Chris and I have flooring to replace the carpet. We just need the gusto to get it done and a few more supplies. Read more about that here if you so choose (and haven’t done so already) 🙂
The main things that changed in the bathroom since we’ve lived here are painting the walls and getting rid of the old sink. Those projects were pre-blog days, and sadly I don’t have before pictures of the sink. However, I did find a picture of the walls while we were in the process of painting!
Holy ew, right?! I don’t think the walls were painted a light yellow because the rest of the house was painted plain white. The color of the walls basically blended in with the plastic on the shower, and now it is a stark contrast as you’ll notice in the photos further down.
The sink was about from the wall on the left to halfway through where the plastic drawers are now. It was retro like my kitchen counters, and the shelf inside the cabinet was rotting out. We lost the storage in the bathroom (which wasn’t useful because of the rot) but we gained a lot more space in the tiny bathroom. I would like to add some shelving to the bathroom above the toilet to gain some of the storage back. We bought the pedestal sink unused at a thrift store for $60 which the landlord reimbursed us for.
In this angle you can see the mirror which has a small medicine cabinet as well as the light above it.
I actually like the light and I think it looks vintage (in a cool way), but it needs a good cleaning and the hardware needs a coat of spray paint.
Oil rubbed bronze anyone? 😀 I spray painted the vent in flat black because it was rusty and nasty looking. The little sea horse is from TJ Maxx – gotta love that place <3 I want to add a hook below the sea horse for a hand towel
Here are what I call the toilet accessories. The q tip holder is a reused candle jar, and the jar with cotton balls is an old spaghetti sauce jar that I painted with chalkboard paint and added a ribbon. The candle is called coastal woods by Mainstays and it smells fantastic by the way 😉
Now for the not so pretty parts. The tub surround is made of plastic sheets and they are stained yellowy. They may have even come in an off white tan ish color, but either way it doesn’t look good. I have been able to get it cleaner using a homemade shower cleaner that uses vinegar, but it’s not anywhere near my standards. The caulking was also done very sloppily and is coming off in some spots around the tub.
Because there isn’t a fan in the bathroom moisture has caused some damage. The paint is peeling and cracking on the window as well as the ceiling. The ceiling is textured and I would love to get rid of it. I would like to add frosted contact paper to half of the window, and take the curtain down. This way there is always natural light coming in, but no one can see into the shower. It would also be epic to add a bathroom fan, but who knows how much that would cost or if the landlord would pay for it.
Here you can see the staining and messy caulk. You can also see a chip in the tub’s finish, and there are a few more in other spots of the tub. Funny story – there is a chipped spot in the back of the tub on the bottom and for the longest time whenever I would be getting in the shower and already had taken my glasses off I would think it was a spider. I had to put my glasses back on and double check it wasn’t a spider. Silly me. I would love to refinish the tub with a rustoleum kit as well as tiling the tub surround. Tiling the tub is probably a long shot though…
I don’t know how this happens but the surround pulled away from the caulk instead of the caulk coming apart. Either way I can’t imagine that’s very good for the wall behind the plastic sheeting.
Well, there’s my bathroom for you! It’s not as glamorous as I would like, but the projects we’ve done so far haven’t cost much money and the decorations were all relatively cheap as well. Once we put the new floor in then I will be much happier with it. The shower is really rough, but at least that can be hidden with a shower curtain.
What do you think of the space? I would love to hear ideas on creative storage solutions! Are you excited to see more room tours and the Home Tour Page?
Recently, Pinterest created a lot of buzz about reclaimed wood and pallet furniture . So, I wanted to get my hands on some pallets and see what all the craze was about. The first project I wanted to do was create a simple headboard for my apartment bedroom. As you may have already seen here, my apartment has white textured walls and in order to make a cozy space I needed to add color as well as more visual interest.
My goal with this project was to not spend any additional money, and I also wanted a piece that I wouldn’t feel bad trashing once I moved out of my apartment. A pallet was perfect because you can find tons of them for free, and upcycling gives them an extended life.
To begin any pallet project you need to make sure they are safe to use. This post helped me learn what the different markings on a pallet meant, and which markings meant a pallet was unsafe to use. Below is a picture of the stamp on my pallet:
The label marking on the left side is the stamp of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and this stamp means the pallet is up to the IPPC’s standards (read the linked post above for more details). The upper right marking MX 1255 is the country code (Mexico) followed by the registration number of the supplier. Below that, HT means the pallet was heat treated opposed to MB – treated with Methyl Bromide. Do not use pallets with an MB stamp!
After making sure my pallet was safe to use I began using a palm sander to smooth out the pallet. Using that thing didn’t last long! There was either something wrong with it or I’m just a weakling. It was bouncing all over and made my hand tingle way too much. So instead I decided to switch over to the good old fashion non-electric sanding block. A headboard doesn’t need to be baby butt smooth either, so a regular sanding block worked just fine. I sanded it just enough to make sure I wouldn’t get any slivers. This is how my pallet looked to start:
To add color to my pallet I decided to use leftover Howard Restor-A-Finish in Dark Walnut from this project instead of buying a stain. To apply the finish you can just use an old rag or use steel wool. Fine steel wool is typically used to buff out scratches in wood that is being restored. I used steel wool since I had quite a bit and I didn’t know if the Restor-A-Finish would stain my rag or not. We don’t have a lot of crappy rags around our house and I didn’t want to risk it ;).
Above is a close up of the contrast between the wood with finish and without. I really like how the finish emphasized the grain in the wood which will add visual interest for my room.
You can especially see in the board on the right in the above picture that there are little holes and imperfections in the wood. I used Q-tips dipped in the finish to get into the little crevices. it worked really well, but I went through quite a few Q-tips because the finish drained out of them really quickly.
Here is a farther back picture of the difference between with and without finish.
Here is the finished product up on my bed! This project was so simple I really could not have asked for it to go any smoother. To get the headboard up I pulled my mattress out a little and the frame stayed put. I simply set the headboard on top of my bed frame. Once I pushed my mattress back the pallet wobbled a little, so I stuck two command strips on the back of each side to keep it held against the wall.
Now I will share some complimentary glamour shots 😉
As soon as I got the headboard up on my bed I was so giddy. I can’t believe how easy this project was and it looks great! I absolutely love how the wood looks worn in some places. It has a rustic barn feel to it. I have two more pallets at home and I already have ideas for them! I’m not sure how soon I can tackle those projects, but I’m definitely excited to get started.
See You Around!
Lauren <3
Pssst.. If you liked this post don’t forget to share it!
Now that I’ve been settled in to my apartment for almost two weeks I figured it’s time to give you a little tour of my bedroom! The main goal with my room was to fill as much of the wall space with color as I could. I ordered a tapestry from Amazon and it practically fills up my entire East wall. To the right of my wall I hung a big map from my kayaking trip last summer.
Above is the panoramic view of my room. I was standing in the doorway when I took this picture. As you can see the room isn’t huge, but it’s a decent size.
This is supposed to be an entryway bench but I use it to store jeans, pajama pants, and leggings. I put the bench on risers so it would be easier to grab stuff and I wouldn’t have to bend way over. It also makes it blend in with the room better because all of my furniture is about the same height. On top of the bench I have my textbooks, a jar of change, my jewelry holder, and upcycled cans used for holding pens, pencils, and what not. The lampshade is for a future DIY project.
This is my small gallery to the left of my window. Once I print out pictures I will add them here to fill in the spaces.
Here are the little details on my bed. I love the idea of having basic black and whites and adding splashes of color with artwork and small objects. The puppy was a valentine’s day present from my boyfriend and he keeps me from getting homesick (yes I know that sounds childish).
Everything you see in the gallery above my desk is a DIY I made. I made my calendar from a cheap poster frame with paint samples and washi tape to divide up the days and weeks. I write on it with a whiteboard marker. The vase is a spray painted wine bottle with “flowers” made from melted CD’s and gold wire.
My closet isn’t very pretty but for now it’s pretty functional. I have two different sets of drawers for more clothes and the black bin is all my extra shoes. To the left is my laundry basket, a box full of sweaters, and on top of that I have a bag full of purses I’m currently not using and other bags. On the shelf I fold all my sweatshirts, t-shirts, and tank tops as well as extra sheets for my bed.
This is my scarf rack inside my closet. I made this by putting two command hooks on each end and using a curtain rod. Most of the scarves are hung up with shower curtain rings. I didn’t quite have enough otherwise they’d all be hung on rings. The winter fluffy scarves are towards the back and the lighter scarves are in the front.
I keep my printer on top of this storage ottoman. In the ottoman are random things for hanging pictures and just stuff I don’t use on a regular basis. Below the Arctic Monkeys poster I plan on hanging two sheets of paper. One will have all of my professors office hours and contact information, and the other paper will have the detailed goals that I set for this semester. When I took this picture I just realized the trim on the closet and the trim on the door are different colors and grain :’D gotta love college housing.
I love how cozy my room turned out and it’s definitely nice being able to have a space to call my own since I don’t have that at home. So what do you think? Did I do a good job hiding the fact that I live in cheap bland apartment?
Can I use shag to describe my newly cleaned carpets even though I do not in fact have shag carpet? I think so. Moving on. Cleaning my carpets is something I put on my to-do list for this month and in reality it has been on my wish list for a LONG time. I put it on an official to-do list because I’ve waited long enough and school is starting very soon. I don’t own a carpet cleaner so I had to borrow one from a family member. This is one of the reasons I had to wait so long.
I cleaned my carpets on a few different days. The first day I did my entryway/stairs, kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. The second day I did the second bedroom, and the last day I did the living room and master bedroom. These days totally were not consecutive. Whoops.
Even though the lighting is different in these photos you can still see how much smaller and less noticeable the stain is. This was probably the dirtiest area in our whole house. Below is a view of the dining room from the living room. I might do this area again in the future because the nastiness isn’t completely gone 🙁
When I first started cleaning the carpets I didn’t really see a huge difference in most of the spots. That is until I dumped the first bucket of dirty water. Ho-ly COW. I am shocked at how disgusting that water was, and there was sediment along the bottom of the bucket too. I even vacuumed before I started. My hypothesis is that the carpets don’t look much different because I only cleaned a surface layer of dirt off. There was so much grime that I couldn’t get deep into the fibers of my carpet. The areas I cleaned the first day took 3 or 4 gallons of water with about 2oz of cleaner for each gallon.
The cleaner I used is Bissell Febreze Oxy Carpet Cleaner in the Hawaiin Aloha scent. I didn’t buy this product I borrowed it along with the carpet cleaner. The hyperlink goes to Walmart if you want more information on the product. Even though I couldn’t see too much of a difference on most spots on my carpet I definitely noticed a difference on how it felt when I was walking around on it. The carpet was kind of scratchy and grimy feeling before. Now it feels soft and my feet don’t pick up dirt as I’m walking around. Even right after I vacuumed my feet would still pick up pieces of dirt.
Above is the one spot in my house that I avoid touching at ALL COSTS. You can see that it is between the shower and the toilet which to begin with means there will be water. Then you add on that this is also the spot where we keep the plunger and toilet bowl cleaner. AND ITS CARPETED. Pretty please don’t barf all over your computer or phone or whatever else at the thought of how gross that is.
I used the attachment on the carpet cleaner to get into this corner and I think it did a pretty decent job of getting a lot of the grime out. I think the edges along the wall and bathtub are stained that way for the rest of the carpet’s life. Originally, I wasn’t planning on cleaning the bathroom carpets since we will be tearing it out soon and replacing it with vinyl planks. If you haven’t heard about that yet check it out here. However, I don’t know when we will be replacing the floor and just in case it doesn’t happen for a while it would be nice to have clean carpets in the mean time.
Little T’s bedroom before and after. Again, not much of a difference but you can see in the middle of the room on the left there was a dark spot that was removed (not just the lighting I promise :p).
Another angle of T’s bedroom. You can see by the doorway there was a dark spot removed. I’m thinking maybe it wouldn’t have hurt to go over the spots more than once and use more water but I didn’t want the floors to be really wet and have to wait forever to put furniture back.
At first glance in these pictures the room doesn’t look much different, but if you pay closer attention it almost looks like the carpet is yellowy in the first picture. I’m thinking that is actually due to the carpet cleaning since I edited both these photos the same and they weren’t taken very far apart. It looked cleaner in person anyway.
You can see in these pictures along the indent in the carpet a stain was removed. You can also see in these pictures how I got lazy and didn’t move all of the furniture. I would have if I had help but I was on a time crunch since I was moving out to my college apartment that night.
Again I think the carpet looks brighter in the after picture 🙂
The corner of the living room is much cleaner! The little black spot in the center was removed and the coloring of the carpet looks much more even.
Mostly in this picture it looks like it got worse but on the right hand side you can see it l looks more even. I honestly don’t know it looks worse in some parts???
From this angle you can definitely tell the carpet cleaner worked i’t’s magic. Right below the shadow of the couch on the left you can see a dirty yellowy area that I completely removed.
Well that’s the entire house! Add some furniture and you have a house tour 😉 Don’t worry I have one of those in the works. I almost felt silly at times writing this post because I knew what a difference the cleaning was making, but it just wasn’t showing up how I wanted in the pictures. Have you ever had a project that you felt great about but it just wasn’t translating on the blog scene? I think I also need to improve my picture taking skills so those fine details show through in photos. Let me know what you think!
I completed my trunk table long before my blogging days, but I thought I’d share it with you since I receive a lot of compliments on it. This wasn’t a project I planned out and needed to go find the supplies for. I think the best projects aren’t planned because you find a piece of inspiration and just run with it. I found my trunk at Salvation Army piled in with some other luggage. It was $10 and I instantly knew it would be a killer table… with a lot of love that is (I typically buy things of this nature if you couldn’t already tell).
A photo I shared on Instagram that makes this trashy trunk look way more glam than it actually was.
The first photo was after I cleaned this beast and the second photo was after I slapped on a coat of chalkboard paint I had on hand. I thought about writing on it with chalk, but I decided that didn’t really go with my style. I also thought about painting the brown metal parts, but I didn’t have a good color for it and I thought it made the trunk look just shabby enough with the fresh paint. Still, I want to go back and clean it up a little bit more because there are some rusty spots that don’t look so hot.
The inside of the trunk had ugly contact paper and smelled mustier than a century old mummy. I scraped as much of the paper out as I could and vacuumed the rest. To get the smell out I put cat litter in the box. I heard that will trap all the smells and when you dump it out the smell will be gone. It worked I think but then it just smelled like dusty cat litter.
The new inside of the trunk is shelf liner but I totally bought the wrong kind. I bought the squishy stuff not the plain paper kind. I was in a rush and I really liked the design on it, but it cost like $10 and I ended up having to buy two rolls of it. Seriously a dumb mistake. I used mod podge to stick the shelf liner in so then my trunk smelled like glue instead of cat litter. I think that’s a good thing? Eventually I sprayed Febreze in it and it took the smell away. 🙂
An up close of the front hardware. This is one of my favorite parts about the piece.
I added this on so the lid would stay open while grabbing out blankets.
I measured how tall I wanted the legs to be based on the height of the couch. Then I stained them using the vinegar and steel wool technique except I used the kind with soap in it and tried to rinse out the soap. I don’t recommend that. You can buy plain steel wool at the hardware store.
So what do you think? Were my expensive mistakes still worth it?
