DIY · Chatfield Court

Kristi / Monday,February 12, 2018

Welcome to “The Nest” – Our Tiny Home Away from Home Camper

The day is here! I’m finally ready to share our next big project. You know, the one I’ve been teasing you with the last few months?

Here she is… introducing “The Nest”. She’s our soon to be tiny home away from home camper.

Yes, it’s an empty landscape trailer, with an unattractive temporary stick protector over it, but soon enough it will be ready for the road. I’ll explain a bit about how it came to be but I also did a little video tour so make sure you look for it at the end of the post.

The hubs and I have been talking about doing this for years and it’s finally time to get it started. We both grew up camping, and we even met and fell in love camping (when I was 16), so it’s fair to say that it’s our passion.

We’ve had several trailers over the years. We started with a tent then moved to a popup and finally to a 31 foot trailer, but building our own has always been a dream of ours. The last time we had a camper was when we lived in Florida, 7 years ago, so it’s time to get back on the road.

I know…this doesn’t actually look like a traditional camper but it will be one when we’re done with it (on the inside at least). We looked at a lot of different trailers, all older and used, but this seemed like the best option.

I really wanted a cute little vintage trailer but we never found the perfect one, that was the perfect size at a good price. Vintage trailers are expensive ya’ll. Once you have them you have to gut and rebuild them. Not practical for us, no matter how cute they are. Sure, we looked at older (not cute), cheaper trailers but most were rotted out and in desperate need of a complete gut job. Again, not ideal.

The hubs tried to sell me on the landscape trailer idea for years, I mean years, and his reasoning finally won out.

It’s a small enough size that we can pull it easily with our current car
It’s small enough that we can store it in our driveway (and not pay for storage)
The outside is all metal so it shouldn’t rot, like most older trailers (this was a big one for the hubs)
It’s empty on the inside (no need to gut it) so we can start fresh and do what we want

I didn’t want to give in, I wanted cute, but I told him that if I did I needed a few things.

A big bed (we are both tall and I have a bad back so I need my space)
I wanted a shower and toilet (this was not negotiable)
I wanted free reign on decorating, which meant it was going to look decorated inside to my taste and not look like a hunting lodge. Hey, he’d be happy with a mattress on the floor and that’s it. That wasn’t going to cut it for me.

He finally wore me down so we went to a dealer that sold landscape trailers and looked around. Most of the time these trailers are used by landscapers for the storage of their tools and equipment. The majority that you see are white and they don’t have windows. We looked at used ones first but decided that, since a new one wasn’t that much more than used, we’d go with new. That meant we could customize it. We ended up getting it to our specifications. Of course we paid extra for every extra but, compared to vintage trailers, it really wasn’t bad.

Here’s what we got…

It’s 16×7 (112 square feet inside – Eeek, that’s tiny!)
Barn doors on the back
4 axels
Gray metal (instead of white or black)
We got the taller trailer, 7 feet inside
3 windows were added as well as a regular trailer door with a window

We did get all of that but we also got a big empty box inside. Yup, it’s just a big empty space waiting for us to fill it up.

Let’s take a look.

Here we are looking toward the back of the trailer. Notice the barn doors and the window. That is where the bed will be.

The plan is to put a table under the big window and a couple of portable stools, with storage.

This area will be the kitchen. It will be small but efficient. Some cabinets, a small fridge and a sink under the window. Hopefully the placement of all the windows will work out. Obviously we had to pick locations for them before it was built.

This view is the front of the camper. There is a point, which gives us a bit more space, but I’m not sure how useful it will be.

This is where the bathroom will go. The shower, toilet and a closet will take up this space.

We’ve been sketching out plans for months and this is the latest layout. Of course we’ll incorporate as much storage as possible. As always everything will be done by the two of us.

Don’t worry…the blog won’t be all about the camper. I’ll share the projects we do, and updates, but we still have plenty going on in the house. I think that the camper fits in well with small space living that we talk so much about and I though we could share some great ideas for working in storage, that still looked good, in a small space. My hope is that it will give you some good ideas and inspiration that you can use in your own home.

So there you have it.

The cat’s out of the bag and the tour is over. Now the real fun starts and we are so excited.

The first project up is the bed.

Don’t forget the video tour. I’d also love to hear what you think.

You can also find me at Between Naps on the Porch, Worthing Court, Savvy Southern Style, French Country Cottage

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Kristi / Tuesday,February 6, 2018

How to Make a Mirrored Barn Door From an Old Wood Door

At long last I’m ready to start sharing our powder room and closet project. Let’s get right to it and kick things off with our mirrored barn door and finished closet.

We started this project last year with a plan to turn a small closet in the guest bedroom into a small powder room. Tiny is more like it. Anyway, after we started construction we decided that we needed to try to add a closet. Not only did we need the storage but if we ever have to sell this house, it would be important for resale.

There was dead space next to the new powder room so that’s where we decided to add the new closet. It’s definitely smaller than the one we used to have but it serves the purpose.

Once the plans were made we worked on framing it out and then sheetrocked it. You can see the whole process, here.

With the build done, we hung wallpaper and added a new light (the light was purchased here). The molding and a shelf and rod were the finishing touches.

Affiliate links used in this post. Please see my Disclosure Policy.

Next we had to figure out the door situation. Not an easy task when you can’t agree on what to do. We knew that we needed to do barn doors, because there isn’t room to open a door, but we couldn’t agree on what kind.

In the end, we went with DIY doors on a budget. Instead of building them from scratch, we used 2 old doors from my collection. You see, I have a teeny tiny old door hoarding problem. Well, it’s not a problem in my eyes but…

If I see an old door I love, that’s in good shape and at a good price, it comes home to live with my other doors. I’ve already used one for my front door and I have plans for several others.

The door we used for the new closet is solid wood and was picked up at a Restore for $15. Too good to pass up, right?

Before we could start working on our doors we had to hang the barn door track and attach the doors. We needed to check and compare length, thickness and width. A step that’s very important.

Unfortunately we had several issues with the closet door. If you look at it you can see that the panels aren’t the same as the powder room door. A few other issues were that the door was too wide, it was too short and it wasn’t as thick as the powder room door. Kind of daunting but with a some thought (and more than a few discussions), we we able to address each issue…one by one.

First we cut some of the width so it would fit the opening. Then we added wood to the bottom of both doors to make them the same length.

We also cut a groove in the new wood on the bottom so the door would glide in the bracket on the floor (this keeps the door from swinging in and out from the wall).

The next step was to make the door look chunky (the same thickness as the powder room door) by adding wood pieces to the sides. All of this is happening on the inside of the door so no one will ever be able to tell. It doesn’t look pretty but remember, no one will see it.

Once we were sure about the length and thickness, we took the doors down, puttied, caulked and then sanded them. We tried to sand the seams down so you couldn’t tell that new wood was added.

Next it was time for me to paint. I ended up giving it 5 coats of Benjamin Moore White Dove, Advanced, Satin, on each side. Fresh paint makes everything look better.

With the door painted we moved on to the last step, adding a mirror to the front. This was going to solve the issue of using mismatched doors (by covering up the panels). I really wanted a full-size mirror anyway and this seemed like the perfect spot.

Finding a big enough mirror wasn’t an easy task. We needed a specific size so it would clear the handle and door brackets. I started looking and couldn’t believe the prices. The only one that I was able to find at the right size was $200. Ugh…not exactly good for the budget.

Our last hope was a leaning mirror that we’ve had since we lived in Illinois. It’s been floating around the house without a proper place to live so the plan was to sell it. I figured we didn’t have anything to loose so I measured it and it seemed to be the size we needed.

Finally, a lucky break.

We weren’t sure what the mirror under the frame would look like, or if we could easily take it apart, but I convinced the hubs to give it a try.

We took our time and carefully took it apart. The edges of the mirror are dinged in a few spots but otherwise it looked good and was the right size…a perfect fit.

All we had to do was buy a $2 pack of mirror mounting clips and attach it to the door.

We held our breath while we hung it up but it all worked out and looks great.

The last step was to attach our custom iron handles. Besides the barn door rail, these were our biggest splurge. They had to be custom made because we needed a certain size to cover the old holes from the door knobs and locks.

Ok, are you finally ready to see?

This room is still under construction so the reflection isn’t the prettiest. Let’s marvel at the finished door instead.

We definitely had our challenges with this project but we’re thrilled with the way it turned out.

Remember, this was an empty space when we started…

And now it’s a brand new closet.

Check out the fit of the mirror. It looks like it was made for this door.

It’s the same thickness, width and length as the powder room door, with no obvious signs of the modifications we made (unless you stand in the closet and close the door).

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post (and the months of waiting for us to finish)!

Want to check out some of the other powder room/closet posts?

You can see the DIY vanity post, here, and the wallpaper post, here.

Next up…the powder room reveal.Sources

barn wood door hardware – Amazon
mirror clips – Amazon
closet light – Wayfair
iron door handle – Etsy (I can not recommend the seller who made ours but there are other shops to choose from)

Don’t forget to check out the powder room reveal, here.

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Kristi / Wednesday,January 3, 2018

12 Creative Home Organization Ideas

Creative home organization ideas.

Let’s start off 2018 right with the DIY Housewives. This month is all about cleaning up and organizing our homes so we are sharing some of our most creative home organization ideas.

As far as our home goes, it’s on the small side so good organization is especially important. Our kitchen is just one of the spaces that I’ve worked hard on organizing. Although it’s open and airy, we really have very limited storage space.

When it comes to kitchen storage and organization, baskets are usually one of my favorite go-to’s. They not only work well at corralling all your stuff, they also look great. If you want to see how I use baskets, plus find out about a few of my other very favorite kitchen organization ideas, you can check it out here.

12 easy and creative home organization ideas.

Don’t forget to visit the rest of the DIY Housewives and take a peek at all of their clever and creative home organization ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Need more organization ideas? You can also check out a few of my past posts.

Bathroom Organization Ideas

Storing Leftover Paint

Keep up with our projects and new happenings in 2018 by signing up to receive our posts by email.

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Kristi / Wednesday,December 13, 2017

DIY Spray Paint Glass Vase

Nothing like a 99¢ thrift store glass vase to get your creative juices flowing, eh? As soon as I picked it up I knew what it would become…a spray paint glass vase for jumbo jingle bells.

It’s the last Thrifty Style Team get-together of the year and I wanted to share a project that you could not only create and use now in your holiday decor, but anytime of year.

Affiliate links used. Please see my Privacy Policy for more info.

A few weeks ago I found a box of big brass jingle bells while I was out Christmas shopping and knew that my cheap find would be perfect for them.

Of course they couldn’t go into a plain glass vase. I had to fancy it up a bit…make it worthy of jumbo brass jingle bells.

Like most of my projects, I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to just use spray paint to give it a facelift. I didn’t want to cover the whole thing with paint so I grabbed some painter’s tape and created a couple of stripes.

I also taped the rim and stuffed paper inside to keep any overspray out.

My jingle bell vase was going to be on display on our black entryway cabinet so I went with flat black spray paint to set off the gold bells.

All it needed was a couple of light coats of paint. It really covered nicely and dried quickly.

This literally took me about 10 minutes, plus a little bit of drying time, to put it all together.

Not bad for 99¢ (and a box of jumbo jingle bells), if I do say so myself. Now I need to find a way to use my super cool spray paint glass vase after the holidays. Hmmmm…

12 days left. Are you ready?

Make sure you check out the rest of the Thrifty Style Team to see what they’ve been up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

You can also check out a few of my past Thrifty Style Team posts.

Cool Thrift Store Faux Fur Stool

Thrift Store Art Gallery Wall

Keep up with our projects and other little tidbits by signing up to receive our posts by email, here.

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Kristi / Monday,November 20, 2017

DIY Magnolia Leaf Garland

Are you ready for Christmas yet? I have to confess that all of my decor is up and my first craft is complete, a magnolia leaf garland that I made for our big kitchen window.

This window is one of the reasons why I love our little cottage so much. It lets so much light in and the view of the woods next to the house is beautiful. There’s nothing like it. I think we appreciate it so much because we had 2 small windows in our Illinois kitchen. Not only did they face North but they also looked out onto our neighbors back door, that was about 25 feet from our house. They were nice enough neighbors but they could sit on their deck and see everything we were doing. Needless to say we always had the windows covered.

Anyway, last year I wanted to do something special to decorate our big kitchen window and bought a beautiful live garland. I loved it but it was expensive and, of course, it didn’t last long. (you can check out last year’s holiday kitchen here)

This year I wanted to use a garland again but I wanted to try magnolia leaves. I’ve used them in my decor before and they always dry beautifully, so you can keep them a bit longer.

I looked online and the prices for a magnolia leaf garland were way more than I was willing to spend. Our window is 8 foot long so we need something that’s about 13 feet in length. Eeek…that equals a lot of money.

Not giving up on my plan (because those words aren’t in my vocabulary), I started looking into making my own. I don’t have a magnolia tree in my yard, and I don’t know anyone who does, so I bought a box on Etsy (affiliate link).

Yup, you can even buy a box of fresh magnolia leaves. 350 to be exact for right around $50. I know…it would be better to get them for free. Maybe I need to plant a magnolia tree in our yard.

I’ve never done this kind of craft before but figured out a plan and, as soon as they arrived, the hubs and I set to work wrapping 350 magnolia leaves.

Supplies for a DIY Magnolia Leaf Garland

- magnolia leaves (we used about 325 for a 13′ long garland)
- floral wire
- natural covered craft wire
- wire cutters
- work gloves

This was really easy to do but it did take some time. We ended up spending about 2 hours, over the course of 2 evenings, to make our garland.

We started out by wrapping 3 leaves together using floral wire. Once we got a good pile going, hubs continued wrapping while I started attaching each trio to the covered craft wire.

There was no measuring involved. I just started attaching them so that the stems all faced one way, about 1 1/2″ apart. The goal was to hide the stems and wire. You’ll notice too that this is a flat garland. Meaning that there is only one pretty side. I would have loved to do both sides but it would have been difficult to hang it in the window (and the hubs would have killed me 😉 ).

I didn’t wear gloves to do this but I recommend them, if you can. The floral wire really did a number on my fingers.

A little tip about the natural covered craft wire I used. Hubs wanted me to use cotton string we already had but, with that big expanse and the weight of the leaves, it probably would have stretched and drooped. I thought it would be wiser to use the covered wire and I was really glad that we did. It was inexpensive and easy to use. There’s no worry about it drooping either.

I would have liked it to be a bit fuller but I love how it turned out. Maybe next time I’ll put my trios closer together and experiment with using the top and underside of the leaves.

They’ve already started to dry and turn color. That’s what I love most about magnolia leaves.

How to make an easy DIY magnolia leaf garland for a kitchen window for the Christmas holiday.

How to make an easy DIY magnolia leaf garland for a window for the Christmas holiday.

I don’t want to share too much of the Christmas kitchen just yet, although the window does take up most of the space. 😉

I’ll be joining in with a group of bloggers next Friday, Dec. 1, to share the rest of the space. Next Tuesday, Nov. 28, I’m hosting a special 1 day tour with 4 of my blogging friends. I hope you’ll come back to check it out.

It’s going to be a busy week with Thanksgiving on Thursday, but I’ll be back on Wednesday to share some holiday shopping goodies.

I’m joining in with some of my blogging friends for fun link party. Make sure you check out all of the creative Christmas decorating ideas at the bottom of the post.

Hope you have a great day!

How to make this easy DIY magnolia leaf garland to decorate a kitchen window for the Christmas holiday.

The Creative Christmas Link Party is hosted by Janet of Shabbyfufu and the the bloggers of Blogging 50. Please visit all of the talented bloggers below!

An InLinkz Link-up

You can also find me at Between Naps on the Porch, Worthing Court, Savvy Southern Style, French Country Cottage

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Kristi / Friday,November 17, 2017

Shut the New Front Door

I’m so happy to be able to finally show and talk about our new front door. Actually it’s an old door but it’s a new door in place of the old door. Does that make sense? 😉

Last year when we looked at this house you could barely open the front door. The key was impossible to turn and it would stick, the result of poor maintenance. The door is original and had obviously been painted..a lot. There were bare spots and chipping paint and it was just plain ugly.

We started using the back door but my fall down the stairs 2 days after we closed, resulting in a broken foot, was enough to get the hubs to get the front door in working order. He worked his magic but the uglies couldn’t be overlooked. As soon as I was able to get around, I started looking at new front doors. It didn’t take long to realize that a new door wasn’t in the budget. Nice wood doors are expensive, ya’ll!!!

So the search for a new old door began. There’s plenty out there, at decent prices, but the size we needed is pretty popular. I probably searched every shop around for months and finally found “the one” at a local ReStore. It was a close enough match to the size we needed, and a steal at $20.

Actually, we found 2 doors (the white one and the black one). I was going to use the white one for the front and the black one for the back but decided that the white one just didn’t fit the style of the house. The green door loveliness is the storm door that will replace the old storm front door. I found that before we even moved into the cottage, and it was only $12. I can’t wait to get that baby up.

Once we decided on a door, we took the old one down and cut the black door to size. We took a little bit off each side and were careful to leave space for a new lock and door knob. We also cut a hole for the mail slot. The old door hardware wasn’t salvageable but we were able to reuse the old brass mail slot.

We had to fill a few holes and then gave it a good sanding and cleaning.

The install was pretty easy but picking out a door knob and lock that actually fit was difficult. We bought 5 knobs and locks on our first trip but, every time we tried a set, the lock would hit the door knob. Our third store, and sixth or seventh try, we found a winner. It’s not what I originally wanted but it works and looks good.

Paint color was the next step.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you might remember our front door in our Illinois house. I loved that color and wanted something similar, but softer. It didn’t take me long to settle on Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue, Regal Select, Eggshell.

Oh my…I love this color. It’s a pretty green/gray with a hint of blue.

Yes, I am mixing the metal finishes but I’m ok with it. I really wanted to use what I could from the old door.

I love the way it turned out, even if it wasn’t in the original plan. The light it let’s into this once dark space is awesome. Now I’m really itching to get the new, old storm door up. Oh, and replacing the back door is also on the long to-do list.

I’m happy to get another biggie crossed off the list.

Happy weekend friends!