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DIY Wood Shelves

June 23, 2015 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

bedroom_shelvesFor months my boys have slowly been adding things to their dressers. It started as one small card or lego creation to a full on craze. In their eyes, it is the most beautiful mess.

messy_kids_dressersDo you see the beauty as well or do your mom nerves (like mine) kind of cringe too at those pictures? You can see what the chartreuse dresser first looked like here and my son’s red dresser/chalkboard wall here.

They have reached this age that when I ask them to pick up their room and toys there are things they don’t want just thrown in a bucket.

I found myself in this pivotal mom moment. I don’t want to raise my kids with a passion of things, but I also want them to appreciate what they have and take care of those things well. Throwing action figures in a bucket of toys is one thing, but there are things like their art, trophies, pen pal letters, basketball card collection, nature collections, Hawks programs, movie tickets, and mementos of ‘home’ that are special. Most of these things are items that I could say, “throw them in a drawer,” but then I remember…Those things they are proud of.

They want to see them easily and know that they wont be messed with by siblings/friends/dogs. Their little lives don’t have all the milestones, scars, and triumphs ours have had. Those things are their memories. In time, some might get thrown out, but for today they are held tightly. My boys will feel loved by me showing a little love for things that are important to them, so I have refrained from telling them to throw stuff out or hide it merely for my OCD tendencies.

I realized that they needed shelves. Having one central area dedicated to this would be wonderful, so it was time to get out my tools.

I started by shopping for some wood.

picking_out_wood_for_shelvesYou may have some of these supplies on hand, but a lot of the supplies can be altered depending on how you finish your shelves off. I will list the supplies I used to make my shelves, but just know you can alter and make do with different things to get this same look.

Supplies:

  • 10″ x 1″ boards for the shelves
  • garden stacks
  • Ryobi Sander
  • Ryobi nail gun
  • Wood filler
  • Wood Stain
  • Foam brush
  • Ikea Shelf brackets (these were $0.49 each in my store)

The first step I did was measure the little nook where I wanted my shelves to go here in my boys’ room.

roommate_TNMT_decalFrom wall to wall it measured 35″, so I used my Ryobi Miter Saw and cut all my boards (including my garden stacks) 34 1/2″. I then sanded the boards.

wood_sanderAfter all the boards were sanded, I used my nail gun and nailed the garden stacks to one side of the 10″ wide boards. My original thought was that this little lip would face down and create an illusion that the shelf boards were made from a thicker, rustic wood. While nailing the boards together though, I decided to use the lip face up, so it created a little wall that could help keep the boys stuff from falling off the shelf easily. This is a boys’ room with a basketball hoop on the bunk bed, so who knows what can happen.

working_at_home

wood_shelvesAfter all the shelves were pieced together, I used wood filler to cover my nail holes. I let the wood filler completely dry, sanded over it, and was then ready to stain my shelves.

wood_fillerI used a foam craft brush and painted the stain on. I left it to completely dry (instead of rubbing it off with a cloth). I wanted a dark look. I did both sides and then my part was done!

wood_staining

wood_stainMatt did the hard part of measuring, spacing the shelves out, and making sure they were level. These little plastic braces were so inexpensive, yet they totally work. I think they look great! We didn’t have any black screws on hand, so we used the silver we had and I went back and painted a little acrylic paint over each screw and you can’t tell the difference.

DIY_wood_shelves

wood_shelves_tutorialNext, the really fun part happened. The boys got to decorate their shelves. They were so excited. They would hold something and contemplate if it should go on their shelf. After placing it, they would stand back and admire. They were so excited. I literally bit my tongue as I saw my beautiful shelves get decorated….well beautifully :).

The boys were thrilled, the dressers were a little cleaner, my boys continually said how much they loved their new shelves, and I think their little hearts felt loved. That was the point, so the after picture looks perfect to me!

boy_bedroom_shelves

boy_shelf_tutorialWe do a lot of tasks for our kids as parents, I hope my kids feel us pursuing them more than anything else we do. Their little hearts, interests, memories matter most.

boy_shelvesWe have already built a lot of shelves in our time here in Indiana. You might like these as well. Click either of the pictures below to be redirected to those blog posts, if you are interested in their tutorial.

industrial_book_shelves

DIY_wood_shelfI love shelves. Can you relate!?

If you have kids or know kids, I hope you are able to go a little extra step and use your imagination and skills to help them feel loved this week. Every moment matters!

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Toddler Picture Books

January 8, 2013 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

Welcome back to week #2 of it’s All About the Kids link up!  Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you link up a fun kid related post this week.

There were some great link ups last week!  I loved the post from Dollie on how to Use Puzzles to Teach Geography and the post from Heather on how to have A Snow Day with shaving creme!  Both amazing ideas and fun activities to do with your kids.

The link up that I randomly picked to feature today was The Blessings Jar from Heather at Upside Down Homeschooling.

blessings-jar1Heather is going to keep a jar and write blessings on little of slips of paper as they come in through the year to stick in the jar.  I love this idea, and we will definitely be doing it in our home as well.  Thank you so much Heather for inspiring us to look and appreciate the GOOD things that happen!  Please thank her for this great idea by stopping by her blog to say hi!

Today, I am sharing a toddler picture book I made for my nieces for Christmas.

toddler book

My sweet niece, Charleigh, lives 14 hours away so we only get to see her a handful of times during the year.  She is almost 18 months old, and I want her to know us.  We send pictures and Facetime, but for Christmas I wanted to add a personal touch to her present.  I thought of this cute little book.  I simply got a few pictures developed and ran them through my laminator at home.  I ended up going back and laminating them twice, so the pages are extra thick and protected from little girl drool.  Once I had the pages laminated, I punched a hole in the top of each page and stuck them all on a keyring, so they can be flipped easily.

I loved it so much, I made my niece, Natalie, one as well.  Even though we get to see her quite often, she loves her book because it is people that love her and she loves too.  My brother and sister in law took it out to dinner with them the other night and helped pass the time while they were waiting for their food.  How smart is that!?

photo gifts

homemade toddler book

personalized gift for toddlers

If you read my DIY Ruffle Fabric Bag and Christmas Wrap Up Post, you got to see a few other Christmas presents I made this year.  Did you make anything you gave away this holiday season?

Now, I am so excited to party it up with you all again!  Please link up your newest All About the Kids post!

Spoonful of Imagination




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Where The Wild Things Are

July 20, 2012 By Erica Deuel 3 Comments

Did you grow up loving the book “Where The Wild Things Are”?  I did not.  I didn’t get it.  To me , it was just a lot of pictures of monsters.  Now that I am a mom, I adore the book!  I love the imagination and can relate as I see my boys create places and pretend daily!  I tell my boys “I’ll eat you up-I love you so”  all the time now.  It’s a daily quote used around here.  In honor of this book and our love for it, I thought I’d paint another famous line.

“Let the Wild Rumpus Start!” is a line I often think of when I think of my little family.  Having a five, three, and one year old makes life a little crazy!  You know life with young kids normally is crazy, but it is so so good too!  I want to embrace our craziness because to me it means we are so so blessed!  I can’t imagine life without my three kids.  Yes, I might get to craft or blog more, but my life would be nowhere near as rich and rewarding.  I love my life, so I choose to say “bring on the crazy” which is what “let the wild rumpus start” means to me.

I started this little sign with an old piece of tongue and groove wood, and you know I love old wood!  I then stenciled my words on with the technique I showed you on my burlap sign.

I probably worked on this sign for 1-2 hours everyday this week to complete it.  My five-year old sat right next to me during most of my painting spells.  Thanks to him there is actually a picture of me here crafting. 🙂

Isn’t he a cute little sidekick?!  One day he painted this big rock.

Another day he wanted to paint the same picture as me 🙂

After I got the words down, I added the trees.

I dream of having an art studio with a huge gorgeous room decorated right off of pinterest.  There is just not a place for that in our little 60+ year old ranch house, so for now…this is where I created this piece.

It works though.  Until I get that studio/craft room, I will just enjoy the creative spot I have!  I slowly added monsters, until I had one on each of my trees!

I was getting close to being finished!  I love to create and craft, but I get “tired” of doing one thing for too long.  Haha! That’s probably why I do a little of it all!!  I can’t master one piece in my store like I wish I could.  I love to make and try new things.  After five days of painting this thing, I was excited for it to be done.  Although I LOVE love painting…and paint bottles and paint brushes.  They just make me feel like creating.  Do you have materials that you just love like this?

I painted some leaves on my trees and outlined them with a small sharpie, and my sign was done!  I love the finished product!

I’m not exactly sure where we will put this sign.  Maybe close to my kids art wall (that’s not yet complete), or above our engagement pictures.

It is not exact, but you can see the picture I was going for and used to model my design.  That fourth monster was the hardest to paint.  I mean, he’s like two colors yet shows contrast and depth!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my sign as the project for my Friday Project Spotlight this week!!  Thank you so much for checking in!  If you haven’t entered my hair bow giveaway yet-be sure to!

This weekend I am heading north to Farmersville, Ohio to help my grandparents auction off their big log/loft house and acreage.  They are down sizing into a retirement neighborhood where the houses are small and they get their grass cut for them.  It makes sense for an older couple, but this place has so many childhood memories for me!  It’s an amazing house that I grew up loving to go to.  I am sad to see it go, but I am also excited to see an auction!  I have never been to one!  I will post about it when I get back!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Let’s Party at One Creative Mommy,

At The Picket Fence,

I Heart Nap Time,

Stuff and Nonsense,

Romantic Home.

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