Dumpster Dive Kid Adirondack Chairs

We didn't actually dumpster dive, but we did grab some kiddo stuff from the curbside of a local neighbor who happens to be moving and clearing out. One evening a few weeks ago, the husband went for a jog around the neighborhood after the kids went down to bed. He came back telling me that some neighbors had a hoard of kid stuff up for grabs to be picked up by the garbage truck the following morning.

I was curious, so I headed there with the car. Among the items (basketball hoop, soccer goals, etc.) were two chairs. These were actually rather dirty and unimpressive. In their former state, they would've been trash for sure. But, knowing Benjamin and his love for furniture, I thought they could use a facelift and be decent enough to put on the deck for the next year or two.

No matter how disgusting they looked, the moment Benjamin laid eyes on these chairs, he was smitten. He toted them all through my house with the nasty cobwebs stringing behind and even busted out the hose to give them a wash. Yes, he knows how to turn on the hose by himself and often does, to my dismay!

Old School Buzz Lightyear and creepy princess cat eyes. I washed the chairs first outside but brought them inside to the utility sink for a scrubdown with dish soap.

For the cost of a can of Rustoleum (2x paint and primer), I am now less embarrassed of what the neighbors see when walking through the neighborhood trails behind our houses. 

I could've put a wee bit more effort and sanded before I painted, but Buzz Lightyear remains while the princess cat eyes are but a memory.

A Real DIY Project: IKEA Jokkmokk Chairs Updated

So maybe my last post about my DIY water table cover wasn't exactly DIY... but I did order it myself and think up the concept. I'm just thrilled about the outcome.

This one though, it's all DIY-friendly.

We recently hopped on over to our local Crate & Barrel Outlet store and bought a kitchen table. We're totally lucky to have one of those stores just 5 miles from our house!

hello gorgeous. welcome to our humble abode.

We've owned the same IKEA Jokkmokk table and chairs since we began dating eight glorious years ago. And even then, I owned the same set in my Hermosa Beach apartment (miss you, Peppertree!) that I bought off Craigslist many moons ago. That set was left with my married Scottish roommates when we moved out into our married abode in Redondo Beach, just about 1.5 years before leaving California {sniff, sniff, tear}.

Lots of Jokkmokk action up in here. Who else has one of these sets? C'mon, America. I can bet within the whole 6 degrees of separation rule that one of you does! Anyhow, the new, much nicer, fancier table needed some chairs. The table also has two leafs (leaves?!) that are bubble wrapped and living in our empty basement. If we could sell the basement apart from the house, it would be sold to the highest bidder! Native Midwesterners think I be crazy, yo.

I searched chairs and in the meantime, lived with the ol' Jokkmokk chairs at the new table. They actually looked halfway decent as-is. Problem was, the chairs had seen a number of other DIY projects as stools and endured 3 moving trucks over their lives thus far. We considered buying some Willa chairs, but hello spicy pricetag and no thank you to the terrible reviews on paint chipping, etc. We have kids. Who destroy. I don't need them destroying $150 chairs on the regular.

I decided to spraypaint the old Jokkmokk chairs. I wanted a teal color for a pop. We definitely have a neutral palate in our home, except that crazy green laundry room! Wild chairs seemed like a fun way to be daring without having to fully commit. If we hated them? It was only the cost of some spray paint.

Turns out we liked them.

Process:
- Sand each chair fully (already had)
- Wipe down all chairs
- Use wood filler in deeper grooves (already had and necessary as these chairs were beaten up!)
- Spray each chair multiple times with Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2x Ultra Cover Paint/Primer, Seaside (Ridiculous sale =  $1.50 each can. Used 5 cans and have one full to spare for touchups as needed $9)
- Use previously owned Polycrylic Clear Satin and a foam brush to apply on each chair. I also did an additional coat on heavy hit areas like seat and top of chair/corners.

Total out-of-pocket cost = $9 because I owned so many of the necessities already.

DIY, No Sew, No Tool Water Table Cover {ON THE CHEAP}

If you're like me, you probably thought a water table would be loads of fun for your kids. It's easy! They play with water, they can't drown, it's perfect for sensory awareness and it's right in your big or small yard!

They'll just play happily while you make dinner!

Right.

Except, if you're also like me, after its first use, you have no clue what to do with the bulky table that gets all sludgy and filled with rainwater. If you leave it inside, it hogs up all the space in your garage. If it's outside, it will become dirty and you'll have to clean it before every use, thus negating the whole "what a great idea and it will be so easy!" excitement you first had.

Dirty, in the cleaning process. I used vinegar and water because a certain 2yo likes to drink the water. Barf.
The Velcro is how I "fixed" the problem of that tower thing falling down every single time we used it. Works okay. I would use tools if I really wanted the job done right. Or maybe they should just make it so the darn thing doesn't fall on kids.

I needed to cover ours, otherwise I might as well send it off to the thrift store.

I had some main requirements:
1. Water and dirt cannot get in and become annoying to clean and a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
2. It had to be inexpensive because the table itself was like $30.
3. I didn't want to have to sew anything. I don't do such things. Plus, what a timesuck.
4. No toolbelts required.
5. Cannot be an ugly eyesore.

That left me with one option: buy one. Except, they don't sell them. I saw two online DIY ideas. One was made by the lady with a *shudder* sewing machine and probably some expensive fabric she had to research and buy at the fabric store along with heavy-duty needles and whatever. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. The second option I saw was drilling into the water table and putting this waterproof material over it and just sort of clipping it to the side. It didn't look very sturdy and wasn't very pretty either. And then, ugh, more work!

I turned to Amazon. Obviously. Water table cover? Didn't exist. But you know what did? Patio table covers. I searched those and then got an even better idea... what about a FIREPIT COVER? They are for outside use, to protect from elements, and they are just the right size for my approximately 32 inch water table diameter.

BINGO.

I bought this one for less than $15 shipped with super reviews as a firepit cover-- so it must be good for covering something plastic, right?

I cleaned up all the sludgy pieces that were sitting outside making my backyard look like a trailer park. I dried them off (because of course it was raining outside when it was naptime and the sun was of no help). I put the pieces all inside the table and covered it. The elastic band is super snug. If there was a concern otherwise, a small bungy cord underneath would handle that... but really, it's snug.

It's classy, waterproof and a time saver. $12 well spent.

Snug as a bug in a rug. Take that Midwest thunderstorms!

Four DIY Project Recaps

I've been a DIY machine lately! I wouldn't consider it nesting considering the need/nature of the projects, but I guess there might be a little in there... what I do when I am too fearful to bring pink into the house just yet. With Benjamin, I called them distraction projects, and I suppose they're back for the final 5 weeks of this pregnancy.

First up:
LEGO Table

I had been planning to make one of these for Benjamin for ages. We decided that we'd gift him with more Duplo and a LEGO table (in addition to other things) for Christmas.

Materials:
- Black IKEA Lack table for $10
- 1 piece of contact paper or equivalent for road stripes $1
- 1 XL gray baseplate for LEGO $15 on Amazon
- Duck double-sided tape (leftover from another project)
                                                                                 
 = $26

1. Assemble table (piece of cake).
2. Measure and cut strips of contact paper for corner and side road pieces (optional: I loved this idea though!) This would be best done on a di-cut or fancy Silhouette machine that I don't have and don't want.
3. Measure and tape down baseplate to the exact center (used double-sided tape because I was warned other epoxies and glues don't work or ruin baseplates by expanding inside the LEGO holes. Double-sided tape seemed like a safer option.
4. Starting with corner contact paper pieces, measure and evenly space apart road strips.

Total time: 30 minutes

Second Project:
Homemade Laundry Detergent

I noticed that our very last bottle of my stockpiled All Free & Clear detergent had only about a month left of washes to the bottle. Instead of waiting until the laundry piled up once the bottle was empty, I decided to jump ahead and get the next stage of detergent ready. I'd been meaning to make some for years now, but I literally had so much laundry detergent thanks to a crazy sale on Seventh Generation and All that I needed to go through the product first before making. I accumulated all the ingredients over time and just needed to get the ball rolling.

With a little help from my friend Renel and the many internet recipes I found, I came up with this recipe, assuming it's not a science because most vary slightly and add/subtract an ingredient or two.

- 1 box Borax
- 1 box Washing Soda
- 1 bar grated Fels Naptha Soap
- 1 bar grated Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap, Lavender Scent
- 3 cups Tide Stain Booster (oxygenated cleaner just like OxiClean-- but I had this on hand and figured I'd use it instead).
- Grater (you can use your food processor, but I bought a very serious grater at a thrift store for about a buck and it grated the soaps super fine!)

I didn't add in any additional smelling crystals/agents because we do like to keep our laundry free & clear due to skin allergies we deal with... but the Tide Stain Booster does add some scent, as does the natural castile soap. Hoping these won't affect us, as they are used in small amounts.

And all I needed was a cute scoop and container! My friend Liz picked up this cute Anchor Hocking glass cookie jar at Walmart when she was there last for under $10. I cannot remember the total cost for the above ingredients as I bought them at random over the course of a year or so, but I can estimate the cost to be about $10 worth of product for 1.5 gallons of detergent. At just 1 1/2 tablespoons each load, that is going to last us a very long time!

Total time: 15 minutes (10 minutes alone to grate the bars of soap and 5 for mixing of ingredients)

Third Project:
Art Frame Display for Benjamin's Room

This is the project I'm most proud of. When I had friends over for a tea party some Saturdays ago, they requested a look at Benjamin's big boy room. We had two walls with hangings already, but the other two walls were bare. One wall was taken care of in minutes by the suggestion of my friend Alli who has a knack for design. But the other wall... they all collaborated at once and suggested I make it a wall to display his art. I loved the idea, but wanted it to be a space we could change out often and easily. I did some Pinterest researching for something along those lines and came up with this idea. I needed 3 cabinet doors of identical size...and cheap. I struggled finding these. I searched Craigslist, Freecycle, Bookoo and everywhere I could think! I even considered using actual picture frames, but even those are not super cheap or sturdy enough for my vision.

I found that cabinet art display idea during naptime on Saturday and as soon as Benjamin woke up, we set out to our local Habitat for Humanity Restore. We were totally disappointed by the stock and prices. It was expensive and they didn't have anything suitable to make this project happen on the cheap.

But I couldn't get this idea out of my mind. I HAD to have those cabinet doors! I discovered another Habitat for Humanity Restore 13 miles away and was about to grab my keys. Until I realized they were only open three days a week, for a total of 24 hours! I waited patiently until Thursday and then we were off. I am so glad we went, because I not only found what I was looking for, but had such a variety that I had trouble deciding! The cabinet doors were $2.50/ea. and I was even able to purchase two drawer fronts (for my 4th project) for $1/ea, two brand new and full-sized bathroom rugs that were an "internet sample" still with tags, a small pint sample can of gray paint for $.50 from Benjamin Moore, and various Velcro pieces and anchor brackets for quarters each. My total was $20! I even considered buying two end tables that I loved, but we really don't need more end tables... but so tempting.

Sweatshirt Gray Benjamin Moore paint sample for only two quarters. Awesome.

No natural light with curtains closed, but we love it! Benjamin proudly looks up and says "B" at the art piece on the right that is hard to see in these photos.

The wall on the right is the "grown up" wall my friend Alli helped design. The double frame had old pictures in it that we needed to replace. We thought a picture of Big Ben & a quote by Ben Franklin were fun additions to the room. For a grand total of $2.36 prints shipped to my door, it completed the wall (to go with his Tootsie Roll Chicago stock & personalized Bears poster).

Materials:
- 3 cabinet pieces $7.50
- Flat white paint & paint rollers (owned already)...would've used spray paint, but I didn't have any.
- Gray paint sample $.50
- 3 magnetic clips (had in teacher supplies)
- Screwdriver + three small screws
- Hanging materials about $7--ultra secured these to the wall so we spent a bit more

= about $15

Fourth Project:
Chalkboard Frames

I just might be envisioning my kiddos heading off to school and just how cute that will be. When I was picking up the cabinets to be used in the art frame display, I saw a few smaller drawer fronts that were only $1 each. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make two signs (you know, because I'm hoping to have two kids in school at the same time eventually) for the kiddos to hold on the first and last days of school. I already had the chalkboard paint from a basement chalkboard wall I've envisioned but since aborted mission because we're too lazy and just don't use the space enough to really enjoy that feature.

They're not perfect, but they do the job for the right price. :)

Instead, how about a couple cute frames for just a few bucks of material cost?

Materials:
- 2 cabinet/drawer fronts $2
- White satin spray paint (owned already)
- Chalkboard paint bought ages ago and used a very small amount of the $10 can
- Paintbrush for Chalkboard paint (owned already)

= $2