Monday, November 10, 2008

busy bees

I'm going to steal Kyle's funny line today and say that I am happy to be at work so I can relax! We had a really busy, but very rewarding weekend, making a lot of headway on our list of things to be completed before company starts coming...see you in a week, Gramma & Papa! Here are some things we got to cross off:

1. Dresser mini-makeover
We snagged this sub-$300 dresser at Ikea and are loving it for its spaciousness, smooth action drawers, and style versatility. However, the round burnished metal (really chincy metal) knobs weren't doing it for us. So, I scored some knobs at my favorite place (RH Warehouse sale...you guessed it) for $1.99 apiece, and voila! A dresser worthy of our swanky hotel-style retreat bedroom. The new, heavier, shinier, and more luxe knobs go really well with the bedside lamps and that Jonathan Adler ceiling light that's on my wish list. Now if we can just get all of our junk cleared off the top of the dresser...

Before

After
2. Re-frame living room windows
Kyle worked his pants off (all the better for checking out his calves that I love!) this weekend on the window trim in the living room. The bay window has been a mess since I hastily ripped the tile off the sill back in June, so he got a bunch of wood, a new router bit, and worked the table saw to come up with this:
He stripped the other LR window and the little on in the stairwell of their trim too, and patched up some drywall before hanging the new stuff. Next it's my turn to paint and dress the windows!
3. Paint new tv cabinet
Kyle and his cousin Corey built this piece of furniture a few weeks ago in a mere 5 hours and for just 60 bucks. I decided to paint it white to coordinate with the trim in the house and to keep it versatile should our decor in that room ever change. Here it is, before and after! We haven't put the tv back on and boxes back in yet, but I'll post those pictures once we do. They custom built it to hold those cute file storage boxes, which are housing our cds, dvds, etc. You can just make them out (they're green) in the background of the second picture.
4. Assemble new headboard and make bed
Thanks to Mom and Dave for this awesome early Christmas present! I was going to try making my own headboard, but after seeing prices for the fabric I wanted, realized it would cost pretty much the same to buy a new one, and it would most likely be a lot nicer. So, they obliged and didn't even make us wait until December. Here it is!
5. BAKE!
My coworker's birthday was Sunday, so I wanted to bring in some treats to celebrate today. I thought I'd use the opportunity to make some double batches and freeze some breakfast goodies for the aforementioned holiday guests! So I spent yesterday afternoon alternating between the kitchen and the service porch (a.k.a. tv room...see previous post for explanation), baking and painting. I think I washed my hands more than I ever have in one day. But I made some good chocolate-hazelnut biscotti, lemon blueberry scones, and orange oatmeal muffins in the meantime! They met rave reviews at work and the rest are waiting in the freezer for ya'll.

Oh yeah, we managed to squeeze in a 14 miler, a hockey game, church, and a tapas party at the neighbors' in there too. How was your weekend?

3 comments:

Heidi said...

We have the same Ikea dresser. I know what you mean about the knobs. I've been spying some cool and funky knobs over at Anthropologie and I'm hoping to convince my husband that they'll work in our room.

Christi said...

nice work! i've been eyeing the hemnes dresser at ikea for the same reason. yours looks like the hemnes one but the original knobs are different. anyhow, love it!

Katie said...

Thanks, girls! I finally checked in after wow, nearly a month...anyway, it was fun to see your notes! You're right, it's the Hemnes. We're still toying with the idea of getting the upright chest of drawers too, since Kyle's closet is just a tad bit smaller than mine. :-)