Living Room Built Ins

Here are a few bookcases and/or ideas that I am looking at to do in the living room one day:

Kentwood Bookshelf

Master Closet Tower

The Favorite Bookshelf

Custom Cabinet Base

Channing Bookcase

Toys Toys Everywhere

Every parent struggles with toys all over their house. It's insane. There are ways to keep up, but it is a lot of work. Constantly purging the collection is hard, and since adding a second child to this house, it's even harder. Our kids are 5 years apart - which means two totally different stages of learning and development. IE 2 full sets of toys. There is no avoiding it.


So here are some toy storage solutions that I am considering. They can both double as side tables for the couch (for my always-cold-coffee):

Toy Storage Bin Box with Cubby Shelves

1x12 Wood Bulk Bins

Entry Built Ins

We're still ignoring the front entry addition - so I'm thinking about all the fun things instead. In addition to the dresser I spoke of the other day, there will be a built in section. Our hope is this will contain all of the our shoes, backpacks, purses, coats, hats, etc etc. Here are a few built in plans that I will probably use in combination for our entry way storage:

Mudroom Bench with Easy Drawers

Mudroom Unit

Living Room Desk

We desperately need to upgrade the desk we have in our living room. It is the original 1980's desk that I've had since I was little, and although it is still in good shape, it ain't pretty.


It has been everything: from a kid's homework desk, to a computer desk, to my sewing space, to an office area, to a kid's homework desk again. I'm not sure what style I want, but here are three plans I am considering from Ana White:

X Leg Desk with Drawers

Desk with Drawers



File Cubby Base Desk with Drawers

Coffee Table Creation

Here are some of the coffee table plans from Ana White that I am considering for a new coffee table in our living room:

20 Sec Tidy Up Coffee Table

Rustic X Coffee Table

Wooden Train Table Coffee Table

Corona Coffee Table - Square

Turned Leg Coffee Table with Apron Drawer

Square Industrial Coffee Table

New Entry, Old Dresser

As we continue to ignore our front entry addition renovation, I continue to plan the finishing details of the room. Who needs electrical and drywall, when you can choose furniture and light fixtures instead!


My Mom has kindly offered up one of their old dressers to me, and I am half in love. Originally I was looking for something quite modern, like below:

But instead I am offered a free dresser like this:

Not the same at all - but may work! Also, the price is right...


So now I'm trying to figure ways to make it my own and get that crisp, clean, modern flare I was going for. I'm digging the white paint colour (shocker.) so I'm thinking that an interesting knob choice could work. You know how I love knobs...


Here are a few options that I'm considering/trying to think of how to get for cheaper:




Etsy $64.92 for 6 = $129.84

HomeDepot $2.81 = $33.72 

HomeDepot $2.98 = $35.76

HomeDepot $3.04 = $36.48

HomeDepot $4.08 = $48.96

HomeDepot $5.13 = $61.56

OR - do I refinish the knobs that are already there? Will spray paint hold up? Should I paint only the face of the knob? Should I measure the space and make sure the dresser will even fit??

TV Hutch Makeover

I recently did a little TV hutch makeover. I love our TV hutch, but I found the two glass panels on the sides were showing all of our movies and gaming systems. You can't make that look tidy.



So I decided to line the backs of them with scrapbooking paper. This way I could hide the mess, get some extra interest into the piece, and it would be cheap and easy if I wanted to switch it out in the future.

Handy dandy scrapbooking paper pad

I selected two patterns that I liked

And opted for the one on the left, as it goes better with the tone of the wood


I cut the paper to size, and taped it to the glass from the back


And it turned out lovely!

And it still looks this great! I'm surprised how well it's held up, and now couldn't imagine it without the paper detail. The bonus? A friend pointed it out sayin that was such a neat feature and asked me where I got the TV hutch. Score.

Simple, cheap redos on furniture - now that's what MorganDesignInc stands for! Have you ever done a mini-project like this before? How did it turn out? Is your stock of scrapbooking paper embarasingly large as well? Or are you actually cool.

Another Lamp Upgrade

I love the smell of spray paint in the morning! Well, I've been at it again, turning an ugly old ($2.50 did I mention?) lamp into a thing of beauty. All it took was a little help from my ol' friend Spray Paint.

Remember when I went to the DeanParkAnnualGarageSale and grabbed all those great lamps on the cheap? The brass/glass one (second from the right) was my target this time.



This time I opted to do something different and cheery - a little different than my 'very-erin' white lamps.

Krylon has an amazing array of colours for their indoor/outdoor spray paint (available at Walmart, CanadianTire, etc) - for this project I grabbed a pretty 'robins egg blue'



You may remember my little side table in the living room, from when I made little orange and blue boxes during a snow day.



And here is my cute table now with my lovely blue lamp

I taped off the glass middle (a last minute decision) and I am so glad that I salvaged some of that beautiful old world charm.

Well, have I convinced you to spray up some lamps yet?

Watching reruns of TrueBlood - I know it's a stupid show, but I forgot how gosh darn entertaining it is! Are you guys suckered into this show to? Do you remember when Sookie starts dreaming about Eric? Okay, maybe that's the only reason I'm watching..

Hello, my name is Free.

Those who know me well - know that I love a good free printable. Love.

So today I'm going to share with you a few of my favorite free printable sites. I use them for printing and making framed prints, and wish I had them when I was getting married.

The Graphics Fairy
The best place for all your old fashion prints - I use this one a lot. I used the following print in my living room (photos to come)



The Wedding Chicks
My new favorite website! Totally customizable invitations and stationary - you can even customize all of the colours! I feel like my friend Jennie is the only other one who, like me, will be now mumbling in her sleep "Mason jar invites, or bicycle...hmm.."




Lemon Squeezy
A one-of printable bookmark, but they are too cute! It's of a fox, but I think it looks like Dutch (who also looks like a fox)



MmmCrafts
Again, a simple one-of printable, but made me giggle out loud at how very Erin-and-Richard this is. Make with the chocolate, Bozo.



Have any of you tried these different sites? Isn't TheGraphicsFairy the best site ever? Do you have photos of old bicycles in your living room? Will you now?

We Blue It.

Since first posting about plans to paint the exterior of the house this summer (here), you have all been patiently waiting for the final reveal. Well, you've come to the wrong post. But, we did make some progress. Finally.

Last weekend (okay, last last weekend) we finally started painting the house. I started by, of course, taking some photos (I know. weird eh? It’s like I have a blog or something). Here is a photo of the house as you drive down the driveway.

Wow. Ug-ly. With a capital ‘ugh.’ So right we were to paint this ol’ house of ours. We’ve been working for so many years on the inside, I guess we forgot people could see the outside of it to. Heh, yeah, we’re those neighbours.

While taking the first few photos, Lucy couldn’t help but sneak into the shot. She was actually chasing me and smiling into the camera. What a diva.

I felt a little bad for Dutch – being over shadowed by her little (but huge) sister. Dutch was just behaving during all this, obviously stacking wood for us. Good dog.

Here is a photo of the back-yard-side of the living room. Yes, the siding is on an angle – which we hate – but we plan on doing a major renovation to this room in a few years, and it wasn’t worth the time or effort (or money) to replace it right now. “We’ll just throw a little lipstick on this pig, and it will be good as new” (we hoped.)

And here are photos of the front-walkway-side of our living room. We hate the sunrise shaped window, but for now, like the angled siding, it stays.

After taking the first few photos of the house straight on, I realised just how dirty the gutters and roof were. I knew they were a little weathered, but it had never made it on to our regular maintenance schedule.

I figured that we (by we, I mean Hubby and Jamie) should give the roof a good sweep and scrub. So I loaded the boys up with a few beers and sent them up to do my dirty work. Yes, Ladies, this photo proves that man can sweep! It just takes copious amounts of alcohol and the danger of falling to get them to do it.

I managed the scene and watched the dogs while they worked.

Then came paintin’ time! [Insert a rendition of Erin singing ACHammer’s never released remix of the original song – ‘Stop. Paintin’ time!’]

From what I remember about the house paint when we bought it (which is very little) I don’t remember it being so blue. This was the point when we started saying “Wow, it’s blue alright” (code for “What have we done?!”)

Here is photo evidence that we did indeed use the back end of a shovel as a stirring stick. Don’t judge.

Finally after one day of Hubby and I painting, and another day of me flying solo, we have [most] of the living room painted!

Before

After

Wow, it’s blue alright! [This is when we started saying this every time we walked past a painted side, or noticed the paint left over on our finger nails.

Before

After

Okay, we didn’t entirely finish. Have I ever mentioned that I’m not a fan of heights? This was as far as I could reach with my ladder without my knees getting too wobbly.

Again, only part way up the wall on the other side to. We hope to finish it - [before the kids move out] - in the next few weekends.

There you have it. One weekend of lazy, ‘hey-lets-sleep-in-first’ work. The blue still scared us to death for another week, but started to grow on us after that. Good thing, because we are far from done, and we already paid for the paint.

Have any of you ever painted the outside of a house? Did you own the house for 4 years first before you even noticed that it maybe needed to be painted? Did you buy paint that turned out to be a lot blue-er than it did in the paint store? Are you free next weekend to come over and help finish?