Built in Desk in the nook under the stairs

We have four bedrooms in this house. Three of them are currently being used as bedrooms and the other one is being used as a playroom. I hate the idea of having the computer in our bedroom, and don't really love it in the playroom either. The family room was a no-go as well...as was the kitchen, dining, mudroom, etc. Basically the computer could go in this little cubby or.....it would go in one of those rooms mentioned above and I would have hated it.

Here is our little nook under the stairs. Look at it. It's just screaming at me to do a built in of some sort. I found a bunch of idea on pinterest about built in desks, my favorite is found here....

http://www.theyellowcapecod.com/2011/10/31-days-of-building-character-office.html

I followed what her husband did KIND OF... I modified it to be a little simpler, and used different materials.

Here's what I did:

I knew I wanted the desk top to appear floating. I also wanted the computer modem and cords off of the floor, so I knew I needed a shelf underneath. I started those by building the braces. You'll have to measure your own space to know how high/low to place the braces, just make sure you screw the wood into studs. I used 2x3 lumber here.

(just setting the shelf on top to make sure it fits)

For the desktop brace I cut two pieces at 45 degree angles on each end and placed them in the corners to add additional support. I'm glad I did this. The desktop was heavy!!

For the desktop I used a Laminate Kitchen Countertop from Lowes. I bought a 4' length, it was around $60. I could have used a wooden desktop, but honestly, I wanted something that I thought would look nicer and would hold up better. I did have to cut the countertop shorter (my width here is about 3') and let me tell you.. THAT WAS STRESSFUL. I don't usually get anxiety when working on a project, but I did have it that time!! If I messed up I would be out $60!! Plus I'd have to buy a new counter. NOT AN OPTION.

After cutting the countertop to size (and making tiny adjustment cuts) I laid the countertop on the brace and screwed it in from underneath. Make sure your screws are short enough that they don't come out the top of the counter. Repeat the process for the shelf underneath.

Here's a nice closeup of the desktop...

After those were screwed in (you could probably do this step before too) I painted the braces the same color as the wall so they would disappear.

I also caulked around the edge of the top so I could hide any gaps from my imperfect cutting. 

Guys, seriously, caulk is my best friend these days.

BEFORE CAULKING

AFTER CAULKING

After that it was finishing touches. I drilled a hole in the back left corner so I could put the computer cords through it. 

The hole for the cords needs to be a little bigger... 

Here is the bottom shelf.. I want to find someway to organize the cords a little bit better.. but it works for now!

You can obviously still see that one pesky little cord running over the front of the desk... I need to get a bigger drill bit to make the hole for the computer cords larger. All but one of my cords can fit through it. So when I get around to that, I'll give you an update! 

How to Build a Headboard with built-in Floating Nightstands

Whew. That's a mouthful. For Max's room, since I didn't put trim around his room, I still wanted to have a cool accent or feature. Initially I wanted to cover one whole wall with wood to have a really beautiful accent wall, but I quickly let that dream die... or rather change into this headboard idea...

Here's is what his room looks like all painted with his bed in there...

It looks fine.. it's just nothing special... I really wanted something more substantial and I really want to throw those side tables IN THE TRASH. I made them lots of years ago, and they have truly seen better days...

Here's what his room looks like now...

I still need to stain the headboard and the nightstands a nice warm, dark brown... but this is much better!! I also swapped out that quilt on his bed for something more neutral...

Here's how I got to this point...

First, I measured how large I wanted the headboard to be. It came to be about 60" tall. I knew I wanted it to extend all the way to the baseboard, and I knew I wanted it attached to the wall. I figured since 60" was a good height because that meant I could buy five 12" boards and simplify my life. 

Now, my children have queen sized beds... it's ridiculous I know, but to be fair, where we live, it was cheaper for us to buy a queen size bed than it was to buy them twins... I have no idea, that's just how it worked out.

Anywho, this is a queen size bed, and I knew I wanted the night stands attached to the headboard so I needed it to be wider than the bed. I figured that 8 feet would be a good width. That also meant that I could get away with buying 1x12x8 boards. Again, simplifying the project.

I don't have a lot of pictures of this process... I forgot.. Boo.

But I found the center of the wall and started attaching the boards. There are some electrical sockets on this wall that I need to make sure were uncovered. It was easy because they came to the edge of the bottom board. I just measured where they went, and then cut out the rectangles with my jigsaw. See below...

Here's how it should fit after you cut out the rectangle. Hopefully you did better than me and you don't have one wobbly line. Stupid saw.

I made sure to screw the wood into studs so that it would be super secure and wouldn't fall on my little toddler during the night...

I put lots of screws in each board and then added a simple corner molding so that you couldn't see the raw edge of my 1x12x8 boards...

I cut the corners of the molding to 45 degrees... so that it would look nice and pretty!

I nailed on that trim with an old fashioned hammer and nails. If I had an air compressor and a nail gun, I would have used that... but I don't, so I didn't. This worked just fine.

It looked like this when I was done with that part...

It stayed like that for a couple days until I made it back to Lowe's to grab the rest of the stuff I needed.

Now... the floating nightstands are SUPER easy. I picked up a pine stair tread (weird, I know - the worker at Lowe's thought so too), and 4 metal decorative shelving brackets.

Let me explain the stair tread.... the front of stair treads are rounded.. plus the color of the wood matched the wood I had already bought for the rest of the headboard. Those are the only two reasons why I bought it. Well, those and the fact that it was cheap.

I measured from the sides how wide I could make my nightstand shelf and still have room for the bed to fit in the middle with some extra space between the nightstand and the bed. I don't want anybody rolling over and hitting their head on the nightstand.

I cut down the stair tread, attached the brackets and then attached it to the headboard at the right height. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

It probably looks more complicated than it actually was...

See the nice rounded front??

I also decided that since lamps were probably going to be sitting on these nightstands, I wanted to cut a hole so that the cord could go through the nightstand....

Exhibit A:

I just used my drill and a drill bit made for drilling holes and I drilled a hole. How many times can I say drill in one sentence??

That's basically it! Easier than it looks! I think I want to put some cute wire baskets under the nightstands too... but that means I have to go to a store and find them... which means I need to go out of town because I live in the middle-of-nowhere-Maine where there are not stores besides Lowe's and Walmart :)
Now all that's left is to stain it, and maybe put a few coats of polyurethane on it... we shall see.

xoxo
Hailey

Maila's Bedroom - Primer, Paint, Chair Rail & Baseboards!

Whew!! That's a lot of work going into one little girl's room!!

Yesterday the kids woke up early so I decided to take advantage of it and get some work done. I loaded up our van with some things from our rental and headed over. We got there around 8:20 AM and I did not get home until 12:45 AM... Yes you read that right... I spent 16 ish hours at the house working. I am SO TIRED!!! But I got so much done!!

Here's what it looked like before I spent 16 hours in one day ripping it apart...

And here is what it looked like when I left at 12:45 AM...

Sorry for the low quality - it was late.

- 2 coats of Primer
- 2 coats of Pink Paint on the top half of the wall
- Chair rail wood cut and installed (I used pre-primed MDF)
- Old metal baseboards removed, cleaned, and replaced with custom wooden baseboard heater covers that I MADE!! Woo!

Old Metal Baseboard

New Baseboard Heater Covers

Kyle is a little concerned about the efficiency of wooden covers on baseboard heaters... but I think I may line the back with some aluminum strips to help them be more efficient. I HATE HATE HATE the look of baseboard heaters in general but the metal covers are especially gross. I LOVE how this wooden cover looks! Like LOVE it! I made it study enough that little feet can stand on it too to see out of the window! 

It looks so much better, and to be honest - I'm super proud of myself that I was able to complete so much today!! Lucky for me I had lots of help - my sweet friend came over and brought her kids so that they could keep my kids occupied and she helped me paint! And I'd like to give a special thanks to my new compound miter saw for keeping me company on that long lonely night!

There is still lots to do in this room.. I need to finish installing the board and batten on the walls, caulk everything so it looks more professional, paint the lower half of the wall, the trim, and the baseboard heater cover. I also need to paint the two columns in this room. Also - I'm not sure if you noticed or not but there is no paint on the very top of the wall.. that is where hopefully the crown molding will go!

So much to do... and we are moving into this house in less than three weeks!!! AHH!

Tutorials to follow later! This was just a sneek!

xoxo

Hailey