Home Design Cool

HELLO! It’s Friday and the bench is done! Can I get an AMEN?

Last I left you it looked like this:

Not bad but not done.

Like I said, it felt like all I had to do was paint those cabinets and slap on the hardware and I’d be done. But there was more. Lots more.

I’ve shared how to paint cabinets here but I’ll share the basics again today. Cause I’m in a good mood. :) I was starting with unfinished cabinets so I didn’t use a special primer, just a basic one:

So I experimented this time with a different color primer. Every time I prime unfinished wood it takes SO many coats to get nice coverage on it. So I tried using my tinted gray primer this time, thinking it would coat better at first, giving me a better base.

It did! But it still took three coats of white paint like usual. :) So it was a wash. But I learned. Something.

Anyhoo, after applying one coat of primer, be sure to sand everything lightly between coats:

The primer and paint (mostly the first coat or two only) will pull up the grain on the wood:

So you want to knock that down a bit.

So I used my basic white paint (off the shelf) I use for all of my trim and built ins but I could tell it was getting old. I noticed on the basement kitchenette that it was getting thick and hard to work with. So after attempting one coat on the bench I went out and got some new white paint, this time from Sherwin Williams:

This ProClassic is AWESOME – I used this on our kitchen island and it’s held up GREAT. It’s their base white called Extra White and it went on SO easily and so smooth. Love it! (And no, I’m not paid to say that, I have just become a die hard SW fan over the past couple of years.)

I did three coats of white on the cabinets, then put the doors back on. It was then that I realized that the bottom trim looked like poo:

It was flush in the middle and but not on the sides so it looked weird. I had some scrap trim that I used for the base so I just placed that right over it and I’m so much happier with it!

Another big project was installing the trim around the top of the beadboard. Once I was done I knew I had to address the corners. I don’t have a table saw so I scored my beadboard down to make cuts to fit into the inside corners and outside corner. The result was crappy but I knew I would fix it:

See the big gaps? I use dowel rods to fill those in. I shared how I did it years ago on the kitchen island here. It’s the perfect solution since it just looks like the “bead” of the beadboard.

Now with the dowel rods and some caulk you can’t even tell there were gaps there:

After all that, and touching up some more paint, it was time to poly the bench:

I did one coat, sanded lightly and then did one more.

And here’s the final result…finally:

I still need to paint the trim around the doors, and a ton of other stuff. But the bench area is D.O.N.E. And I am H.A.P.P.Y.

I’m really proud of myself for making this happen. For the months years that I was planning this room I didn’t think I’d be able to do the bench myself. I knew I could build a bench, but a bench with storage I figured I’d have to hire out. I’m SO pleased with how it came together:

That center panel I was worried about between the two cabinets is now hardly noticeable, with a lot of sanding, spackle and paint. :) If I could do it again I’d have the cabinets next to each other (and no space between) but I couldn’t figure out how to get them secured to the wall if I did that.

I’m in love with the hardware in here too – it was all from Lowe’s. I went simple with the hooks so I could fit them on the trim:

I originally planned on four along the back but decided on three there and then one on each side too. I need to go back and get one more for this side:

I figure the back ones will be for coats and bags and the side ones can be for keys and dog stuff.

I got a shot straight on with the help of my wide angle lens:

SO HAPPY!!

Now…to decide on what’s happening above. I thought I had something in mind but now I need to think on it more. I want lots of storage up there so I’m just figuring out how much I want to be open and how much closed. (My plan is both.)

For now I’ll take a break on this space and just enjoy it! The cost for this area was about $300 – that includes the additional beadboard, the trim, the butcher block from IKEA and the cabinets. I used scrap wood for some of it too.

I am looking forward to adding some decorative stuff in here down the line – but for now just being functional is pretty awesome! Especially considering this space used to look like this ALL THE TIME:

Have a GREAT weekend!! Whoot! 

P.S. Here’s how I built the bench and here’s an in between update if you’d like more info on how I did this project.

Hello friends, it’s almost the weekend! Thursdays rock.

I was SO hoping to have the mud room (well, the part I’ve been working on) done to show you today but for all that is good, it is taking FOREVER. It seemed like a couple coats of paint were going to finish it up but it’s all kinds of little things. I really hope to have it done to share tomorrow.

Today I’m talking about something I’ve wanted to share for a while – my very favorite appliance. I like sharing what works well in our home (and what doesn’t) and this is one that I couldn’t live without. Well…I would survive – but it would be tough. :)

It’s not the fridge – although I do love it. It’s not the oven (boring), or even my beloved microwave, but instead the appliance that you may have seen in our kitchen island:

(Yes the snow wall is still up. But I’m about over the snow outside so it’s coming down soon.)

So yes, it’s not the prettiest thing, and when my hubby and I built this house this was one of the things I fought against. The money was adding up and I was starting to freak out and I was all, who needs a trash compactor? Hello…it’s just an expensive trash can.

It is pretty spendy for a trash can but let me tell you – it ROCKS. Ours is ten years old and when we picked out appliances I did a mix of stainless and black, which I wish I could take back (and go all stainless). So it’s not something that’s easy to blend into the island, but it’s worth it:

My husband had had one in an old house and loved it. I was skeptical. When we moved in and I looked at the inside and saw how small it was (I’m sparing you pictures of our trash, but it’s small), I was questioning this purchase even more.

And then we started using it and as I mentioned in the title of this post, it is now my most favorite appliance, hands down. Speaking of hands, you don’t use them to open it:

You push on the lever with a foot and it opens up, hands free.

Our trash compactor and the lever on our powder room toilet make for fun times when we have company over. No one knows how to use the trash can or the toilet. We’re great hosts. ;)

When the trash bag starts to get full you just turn the dial and it smashes the trash down. We only use one small compactor bag a week, if that. (That doesn’t include trash in the rest of the house, but the majority of it is in here.)

The only drawback to a trash can like this is finding the bags. You have to use special compactor bags:

They’re hard to find – we get ours at Sears and it’s the only place we find them locally. Thankfully we don’t need to buy them that often since we only use one a week.

So there’s more info about my favorite appliance. :) The built in compactor also solves the question of where to put the trash can – there’s not a great spot for one anywhere else in our kitchen.

And I just have to throw in a before of the kitchen island for kicks because it’s come SO far:

Do you have a trash compactor? We don’t know anyone else with one. They are very old school, right? Did you have one growing up?

Hello from the tundra! It’s SO fun to wake up to icicles forming on the inside of your windows. Good times.

I’m planning to get a ton done on the mud room today – I don’t think I’ve ever progressed so fast on a room before. I know three months (so far) wouldn’t seem fast to most but it’s like light years for me.

When I added the bench in that room we lost space for something important in this house – the animal food. :) We have four animals and their food containers and bowls take up a lot of space. Originally I was planning on adding a feeding station in the mud room but there just wasn’t room.

So now I’m trying to figure out the perfect spot for all of it. We want it where we’ll see it all the time (to remember to keep them alive) but where we don’t have to step over it constantly.

For now we’ve moved the food and water next to this sofa table:

This is an old pic but you get the idea of where it is.

But because I’ve had an animal every day of my life and I don’t see that changing in the future, I LOVE the idea of something built in. I gathered a few fun food storage and feeding ideas to share with you today. Some of them are ideas for down the line when we redo our kitchen, others could be done sooner than later.

I found a ton of ideas with the food bowls built in to a kitchen island. I like this one with the jars handy for food and treats:

Big SWEETIE.

And THIS one, with the bowls and the drawers with the bone cut outs…I die:

I know with bigger dogs especially it’s important to have their food bowls up a bit higher to avoid bloat – I don’t know if it’s as big of an issue for little dogs but we have an elevated bowl for ours. I like how these are all built up a bit.

This one ties in the pretty design from over the oven:

Sorry for the small pic – by the way if you don’t see a source it’s because I couldn’t find one. If you know where these came from please let me know and I’ll add it!

I love this idea because it shows that you can make a small area super useful:

I love that these include some storage too – it would be great to have all the animal stuff in one spot, near the food.

This isn’t a feeding area but I loved it – I just wonder if the food would smell if you had it in a kitchen:

In a mud room or laundry room it would be perfect. And we’d need two, one for the dog food and one for cat food. :)

OK, this isn’t a feeding area either but I couldn't’ resist it:

Dog and people storage/comfort all in one! (By the way, do you see the sisal rugs at the bottom of the shoe cubbies? Brilliant.)

This one knocked my socks off. I do believe that is a WORKING sink under there people:

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Oh my goodness, our cats would be in HEAVEN.

This one combines two of my favorite things in one – a window seat and smart storage:

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I would just worry about having their water in there since we like them to have access to that all the time.

This one is just adorable and a lot less involved – no built ins needed:

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SO cute. Too tall for our cats and Peanut but perfect for a bigger dog.

So until I have my dream kitchen with the perfect spot, I thought this was pretty brilliant and I could totally install it myself:

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Anyone have one of these? It looks like the bowls can be pushed back up into the wall when not in use, yes? THIS is smart. Why don’t I think of these things?? They come in a few different colors too.

Do you have a great spot for the animal food? Any fun storage ideas? And where to put that cat litter…well that’s a whole other post. :)