DIY Wood Study Wall Organizer

DIY Wood Study Wall Organizer

Bedroom Budget Friendly Kids Office Our Projects/DIY Paper Clutter School

I mentioned earlier this week that it was time we turn a little attention to our oldest son's bedroom.  His room is one I have been working on here and there over the years, without any true finish or "reveal" date in site.  Being a teenage boy, overall he doesn't seem overly concerned with the decor side of things, he just enjoys having the space.  But one day I noticed he was moving his furniture around, just as I did when I was younger.  And after looking at his room closer, we both acknowledged that there were definite areas that could use a little attention, freshening and finishing.  Especially since he started High School this year and should have a room to reflect this important milestone in his life.  

That said, we have a few things planned for the space; closet organization, a new headboard and a good study situation. 

We wanted to streamline his desk area and give him a surface that could easily be free of any supplies or clutter come study time.  After spotting this study organizer at PB Teen, I was inspired to create something similar (for much, much less than $170!).  And Preston loved it so we were all in.

Because we always have 101 projects happening at once, we have a lot of scrap wood waiting to be used in our garage.  In fact, we had all of the supplies on hand for this project, with the exception of some pegs and cork.  I always love when it works out that way!  But for those looking to create something similar, here are the wood pieces we ended up using for the project:

To keep it light weight, we used a piece of 1/4" birch plywood for the main surface area and folder pocket.  We also used a few scrap pieces of 3/4" pine to give us something sturdy to nail to.  I found these pegs at Home Depot and this cork tile at Target.  The entire project ended up being about 33" wide by 18" tall.

To get started, we measured and cut all of our boards to the planned sizes.  Then we constructed the pocket portion of the organizer, by gluing and nailing the face and bottom of the pocket to the thicker 3/4" pine sides.

I placed a bunch of stains on a scrap piece of wood and held the options up in Preston's closet for him to select what he liked best.  He picked Early American by Varathane.

So I stained all of the pieces with a brush and wiped them clean with a dry rag.

Once the stain was dry, we used wood glue to affix the pieces of trim around the face of the plywood board.  We held the trim in place with clamps and let everything cure overnight in the garage.

The next day we were ready to attach the pocket and the cork to the face of the plywood board.  This took a lot of careful measuring, as we would be using wood glue on the front and nailing in from the back with our brad nailer.

To attach the pegs, we pre-drilled the pegs and small holes under the pocket on the front side of the board.  You can see we also cut off the notched bottom of the peg since we were not insetting them into the wood.

Then we used small screws from behind which we were able to screw the pegs to.

The final step was to add a coat of polycrylic for protection and to also give the wood a nice finished look (we use Minwax Water Based Poly).

Of course, I couldn't wait to see the new beautiful wood organizer paired with the gray paneled walls.  And the combination definitely didn't disappoint!

I wanted to surprise him, so I loaded it up quick with a few of his belongings, but I am sure he will give it his personal touch over the next couple of days.

The cork will be the perfect place to pin up photos, memos, homework, whatever is clever really.

While the 2" deep pocket can hold supplies and papers with ease, keeping his desk free for spreading out with his laptop and books.

The pegs were a fun little decorative addition but ended up being a great place to hang a pair of headphones, which he uses while he studies.

I love that the wood tone is warm and masculine, yet the entire piece offers a nice place for him to organize his study items.  Not a bad project created out of scrap wood, pegs and cork!  We invested a total of $15 for this piece, which has me wanting to go out for cheer squad! 

I am hoping to keep the momentum going over the next few days with some painting and more building.  Heck, maybe Preston and I can learn to be more confident with power tools together. 

Cheers to the weekend everyone! 

Four Days & Four Drawers Mini Organizing Challenge: DIY Kitchen Utensil Drawer Dividers

Four Days & Four Drawers Mini Organizing Challenge: DIY Kitchen Utensil Drawer Dividers

Before and After Budget Friendly Cabinets/Drawers/Closets Kitchen Our Projects/DIY Storage Solutions

Welcome to the end of Four Days & Four Drawers week.  This week I was dedicated to accomplish four organized drawers within four days, and once again, I am sliding in just under the mini-challenge wire.  The cool thing is I almost accomplished six drawers in four days.  The not-so-cool thing is that when I was complete with the DIY portion of two of those drawers, I wasn't 100% satisfied with my work.  So although I am not quite ready to share the final two drawers yet, fingers crossed I will get those finished up this weekend.

But today is not about what I didn't get done, and all about celebrating what I did accomplish.  The final two drawers this week were both kitchen messes that I have been meaning to deal with for quite awhile now.  Next to our range we have two drawers that are dedicated to our cooking utensils and kitchen gadgets.  We have never been ones to keep an abundance of random kitchen tools on hand, but we do have a few favorites that we find quite beneficial to our daily cooking and meal preparation.

When we unpacked our kitchen boxes, we did it quickly to clear our guest room for visitors.  Everything was tossed into the specific cabinets and drawers as planned, yet not in any organized fashion.  Although the drawers and cabinets are not extremely messy, they definitely need a little love and attention.

The top drawer holds our spatulas, slotted spoons, pastry brush, can opener, masher and salad tongs, as well as our herb chopper and pizza slicer.

I had started trying to organize the next drawer down with some organizers I picked up at the Container Store awhile back, but I wasn't 100% happy with the result. 

After looking for a few options that would fit our spatulas and drawer measurements, I found myself coming up short.  And when I can't find exactly what I am looking for, I turn directly to DIY options.

We have created wooden drawer dividers in the past, but with all of the odd shapes and cuts for our kitchen tools, we decided that we needed an easier solution than the one we used previously.

For the dividers themselves, I picked up a five pieces of 3" oak hobby boards from Home Depot.  After I added a few of our unused tools to our donate box, I arranged the remaining items in the drawer.

Then we just measured and cut each drawer piece one at a time (straight and simple cuts).  We placed them into the drawer at the approximate location that fit our layout and worked our way from front to back. 

While each of the divider pieces were in their planned location, we used a pencil to mark each board to keep track of our template/layout.

After everything was measured and temped out inside of the drawer, it was time to make them stick.  We didn't want to do anything permanent to our new drawers, so we had to find a way to affix them together while keeping them removable as well.  I considered using wood glue and small nails or staples, but I didn't want the visual messiness of those options.  I found this tutorial and decided our best bet was to go with construction adhesive.

It is important to select an adhesive that will dry clear/transparent because the glue is placed along each divider seam.

Prior to gluing, we placed down a layer of parchment paper to protect our drawer.

We then put our drawer dividers back together based on our pencil markings, using the drawer as a guide to hold all of the pieces together while they dried.

We first placed glue on the edge of each board with our finger.  When the board was pressed against another board, the glue would squirt out through the seams.  I used a cotton swab to clean up any drips or chunks and occasionally also added in a bit more glue to be sure everything was going to dry solid.  Above you can see the adhesive initially comes out white, but below you can see it clearing up as it dries.

Once the dividers were dry (I waited a couple of hours), I removed them from the drawer so that I could line the drawer with true drawer liner (the same liner I used for our pantry and our essential drawer).

Although I typically use anything from cardstock to gift wrap when it comes to lining drawers, this stuff is the "real deal" and has held up quite well in the other kitchen drawers.  Plus, I appreciate keeping the lining consistent throughout the entire kitchen space.

Top drawer done and filled:

And the next drawer down also completed and filled:

Prior to this drawer project we had already purged the majority of our utensils and tools down to our very favorites, however, I did go ahead and purchase a new set of matching measuring spoons since we only had a few miscellaneous sizes of previous sets remaining (which also ended up in the donate box).  Above you may have also noticed that we had a spatula that was slightly too long to be placed in our drawer sideways, but being that it is made of wood, we were able to easily take a small portion off of the handle to make it fit where we wanted. #victory 

The entire cost of the project came down to the pieces of hobby wood and some glue.  To achieve beautiful wooden dividers that fit our exact tools and needs, I think it was $20 and time well spent.

As much as I love (LOVE) acrylic dividers, I also appreciate trying something new.  By mixing things up from our "go to" option, I was able to maximize how we utilize the drawers and create a clean look with wood that blends in seamlessly with the drawers.  Double win.

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a great weekend everyone and cheers organizing our homes one fabulous drawer at a time!

** Catch up on the remainder of the mini series with our home office drawer here and our school supply drawer here. **

DIY Pretty PVC Containers

DIY Pretty PVC Containers

Budget Friendly Our Projects/DIY Painting

Today's project was initially dreamt up the moment I spotted some sweet little planters from Urban Outfitters.  I fell in love with their gold versatility and at around $8-$10 each, I didn't think the price was all that bad.  But I thought, "Hmmmm, could I just make them for less?"  I can certainly try!

It looks like my inspiration has since been sold out, but here is a glimpse of the one that I had heart eyes for.

(via)

My plan was to make three herb planters for our kitchen, so I went through a variety of DIY solutions in my mind continuously came back to PVC.  PVC is both easy to work with and not too expensive at most home improvement stores.

To get started, I purchased one 3" wide x 2' long PVC tube for around $7.50.  I also purchased a few cans of corn and dug out my gold spray paint and Rub-n-Buff.

Going in, I didn't think that I would be able to create a sleek waterproof option, so the cans of corn were purchased to act as an insert for holding soil or water, the PVC was to be more of a decorative sleeve.

The process was simple, we cut down the two feet of PVC into multiple cylinders, slightly taller than the can of corn (we were able to get 5 total cylinders from the single $7.50 tube).  PVC can easily be cut with most saws and lightly sanded to smooth any rough edges.

I then gave each PVC cylinder a few coats of Rustoleum Gold Metallic Spray Paint.

The cylinder on the right shows a nicely sanded cut edge, the one on the left shows the edge I initially missed which was easy enough to go back and fix even after painting.  The one on the left also shows the difference a little gold Rub-n-Buff made to the finish.  It gave it a little bit of that patina that is in the original inspiration piece; you can rub it in a straight or circular motion to achieve the look you are after.

And it was simple as that.  I planted a few herbs into my washed out corn cans, and slide the PVC over the top and instantly had myself some little gold planters.

But then I realized that they couldn't be easily moved without the can falling out of the bottom, which is not really an ideal situation, especially for items that need frequent watering.  So, I went back to the drawing board and also back to the home improvement store to find some 3" PVC caps (which I also sprayed).  Luckily, we cut the tubes long enough that the added height of the cap didn't push out the tin can, but it is something to consider when measuring for your cuts.

For the herb labels I had Parker paint me some thick popsicle sticks with craft paint and I added some vinyl labels with my Silhouette.  Cute right?

Buuuuut.... I ultimately decided that our kitchen doesn't really need three gold planters.  They were pretty, but our kitchen ultimately needs something with more character and color.  They gold was just "too much" anywhere they landed as a grouping of three.

However, I was loving the idea and didn't want to waste the project, so I just kept playing.

Round two I was going to make a wood vase.  We have played with wood veneer edging in the past, so I thought I would see how it would work wrapped around the PVC tubing.  Using scissors, I cut multiple strips just long enough to fully wrap the tube.

Hot glue alone didn't want to hold the strips, I found it stronger and better to start with a piece of tape (I used double sided) and hot glue.  Once the starting point was secure, I continued to hot glue and pull the strips tightly around the PVC.

If you find one doesn't lay the way you like, it is easy enough to pull it back up and try again, even a few strips in.

Once the strips were secure, I grabbed some stain and rubbed it onto the vase with a paper towel (Varathane's Early American).

After it was dry, I filled an empty tin can with water and placed it inside of the tube.  I then filled it with some fresh flowers and fell in love with the warm result.  I also loved the little bit of gold still popping through on the top.

The last tube was wrapped with some beautiful marble contact paper (still leftover from this project), to create a lovely and substantial looking pencil cup.

Once the bottom was added to the tubes they became endlessly versatile, especially with a can added as a liner for planting and water.  Most nights at dinner we keep things informal and I place all of the cutlery into a mason jar on the center of the table.  Now, I can toss them into the gold or marble "vase" to bring things up a notch.

Funny how one idea spun into a whole lot of randomness and the initial intention didn't even stick.  But that is why I love a little DIY crafting session, it allows the creativity to flow and you never know where you will end up.  And who knew that PVC and pretty could ever go together?

These little cups will be useful for so many fun things around the house.  Vases, planters, containers, drawer organizers, oh my!  Only time will tell where else they will land down the road.

First acrylic, now PVC... what's next?