Fireplace Makeover: Part 2

On Monday I left you with something that looked like this...

Not what I would consider a visual improvement to the green granite we started with {safer? Yes! Prettier? Not yet!}

That is when I came swooping in {I left James to build while I went to the fabric store} and started sewing.

{What we did}

How to: Cover the Facade
{one} Cover the facade in batting. To do this I cut pieces and wrapped the facade and used a staple gun to hold it into place {ok... and a little duct tape}

{two} Cut your fabric to size: This is where you are sort of on your own because every fireplace is different. However, if you are lucky you will have just a simple rectangle box to cover and not some crazy lopsided U shape thing... but I digress! I was fortunate in the fact that for the top piece I purchased upholstery fabric {which I am in love with. Seriously, I swooned when I saw this} that was just wide enough that we were able to cut a {lopsided} U shape piece and consequently not have to deal with seams for the top piece. For the side pieces {in brown, duck-cloth by the way} I cut three rectangle pieces to cover each side. I also cut long strips of the orange.

Sophia posing on our upholstery fabric before we cut into it!

{three} Sew: I cut our three brown pieces together and also used the orange to create some piping.
{four} Pin it up: I pinned our piping to our topper and pined the brown fabric to the piping and them slipped it over the top of our facade to make sure that it fit properly... IT DID!
{five} Sew: Then I sewed up all the pined sides and slipped it onto our facade

{six} Lastly we took our staple gun and pulled the fabric tightly around the back and stapled it in place. For the staples that did not go in nicely, we hammered those in.

Once we put it into place, we let our biggest critic test it out... Thank goodness, she approved!

Added bonus! I had enough leftover upholstery fabric that I was able to make three throw pillows for our living room also.

So just to remind you, here is the before and after. It is functional and pretty: Win/win!

Fireplace Makeover: Part One {bye bye deathtrap}

This little project is seriously like another child to me. Crazy I know, but that is what it feels like. Right before I had Sophia, about a year ago, I started brainstorming some ideas about what we were going to do about the death trap that is out granite fireplace.

DEATH TRAP! Sharp pointy edges... everywhere!

For a while I just threw around the idea of throwing some of that foam piping stuff you can buy at Home Depot around it and call it a day {this was my thought process when I was ready to burst pregnant b/c the thought of doing anything other than that exhausted me... in fact even the thought of having to drive to Home Depot exhausted me}.


However, the more I thought about the more I hated loathed this plan. You see, our little fireplace actually is the focal point from our kitchen, living room, and dining room. You can see it from both of our hallways. In fact, unless you are literally in one of our bedrooms, with the doors closed, you can see this fireplace. So the thought of having a bunch of foam piping wrapped around the major focal point of our house was not an appealing option.


A few months later, after more brainstorming, I came up with another plan. This one involved still adding the foam piping, but sewing a pad that would be placed on top of the bench part of the fireplace. This seemed like a perfect idea to me. I figured the cushion would mask the hideousness of the piping and my problem would be solved. However, the more I thought about that idea the less I liked it as well. I really wanted to be able to put piping down the two sides of the fireplace as well, and a cushion was not going to hide that.


At this point, I went to my friend, the internet, and scoured looking for options... but I came up short handed. There is no way that I am the first person to deal with this sort of problem. How can I not find anything out there? That is when I got a little scarred! Maybe there is no solution.


That is when I had an epiphany {i.e. my genius mother said, "why don't you just build a facade around it"}. A facade?!?!?! BRILLIANT!


We kept putting off the project because, to be honest, we knew it was going to take some work. However, it got to the point that we needed to get it done because Soph was getting to that "pull up on everything, even if it is not meant to pull up onto" stage. Now that it is built and finished I kinda {read: obsessively} LOVE IT! Seriously, I wish I would have done it a long time ago... oh, how I love hindsight!

{what you need}
~ Pieces of plywood/particle board cut to size for the top and sides of your mantle
~ 2x2's cut to size to run across the inside of your facade {these are the braces to hold your plywood together}
~ Nails or wood screws {whatever you choose to use get ones that are long enough to really stabilize your facade}
~ Material {for our project we used three different types}
~ Batting
~ Staple gun
~ Piping {the soft kind I mentioned earlier. You can find this at Home Depot for CHEAP! It is used for winterizing your pipes}
~ Duct tape


{what we did}
How to: build the facade:
~ First we measured all the sides of our fireplace. We added 2 inches to our measurements on top {both vertically and horizontally} to make-up for the 2x4's we were using as stabilizers for our sides. We also added 4 inches to our front piece to make up for the 2x4's in each corner---- Are you confused yet? Here is a diagram to help!

~ Next we cut our ply board using our dimensions above. Dimensions were: 60"x 14"{that fit on top of the yellow top line on the left of our diagram}, 48"x14" {yellow, top right}, 52"x15 {pink front}, 52"x 14" {black, top}, 74"x15" {left, bottom side}, and 62"x15" {right, bottom side}. SIDE NOTE: The top pieces on the left and right seem short, but it is because the front top is already covered, so we had to subtract that wen cutting our boards because we did not want things to overlap.
~ Then we cut the 2x2's. Dimensions: {4} 15" pieces, {2} 52" piece, {2} 48" piece, {2} 50" pieces


Are you with me so far?


~ Then we screwed all the 2x2's together creating a frame.

~ Next we added the plywood pieces to the frame with screws/nails.
~ Lastly, we added some duct tape to hold together a few of our seams {classy right?}, and attached our foam piping.

Can you say hot mess?!?!?! Now, obviously I don't leave it like this {I guess you could if duct tape and gray foam is the aesthetic you are going for... but we weren't}.


Be sure to stop by on Wednesday for part two of my fireplace makeover. Also, if you have any questions so far, leave a comment and I will try to clear it up in Wednesday's post.

Weekend Warrior: DIY Pallet Table

I remember growing up watching home improvement shows religiously! I would get home from high school, turn on "Trading Spaces" or "Interior Motives with Christopher Lowell" and I would call up my best friend, Kayla, and we would sit on the phone for hours discussing the projects that we were watching. I remember seeing whole rooms transformed in the matter of a 30-min show and thinking, "I could so do that!" I had always romanticized the idea of home improvement because, to be honest, these shows made it look so easy. They would go to put together a custom made chest of drawers and everything would already be magically prepped and ready to just hammer/screw together. 

Fast forward about 10 years to me discovering the cold hard truth that creating something one of a kind for your home, can not be created in 30-minutes... there is not a magical gnome who comes over at night and preps everything for you {bummer}. One of a kind takes work, and sweat, and tears {at least for me}. However, the end result is so worth it. To know at the end of the day that the kitchen table you are eating at, or the head board you are leaning against is 100% original and made by you! 

This weekend James and I embarked on a little project that I have been wanting to do for awhile, but had not gotten around to it. I saw a patio table {well, it's more like a coffee table for outside} that was made out of a pallets and I fell in love! I had to have it! 

Here is the whole budget breakdown:

{4} casters {we bought two with locks and two without}: $12

{2} 42"x42" pallets: FREE {we just drove around an industrial park till we found two that we liked being ready to be tossed}

Wood Stain {we used coffee colored}: $14.70

{1ish} 2"x4": FREE {we had enough scraps that were long enough to work}
{1ish} 4"X4": FREE {gotta love lots of scrap wood}

{7} 2"x1"x42" wood pieces: FREE {my dad had some 2x1's that he did not need anymore that we used}

Total cost: $26.70 

We started by pre-cutting all the pieces we {thought we} needed. We cut the 2"X1" pieces to fit between the large spaces between the pallet boards {we did this for the top only}. We also cut 4 4x4x17" pieces {these will become the legs}. Then, we sanded everything down and got to staining it all. 


The one thing that I wish I would have thought of was to have borrowed from my dad some stands that I could have propped the pallets on when I was staining. Crouching down for 3 hours staining and re-staining makes for some sore legs the next day. OYE~


After staining, we started putting everything together.... Let's just say we had to change our plan of attack a few {dozen} times. I was all set to have this swift and easy tutorial that was going to tell you how to magically do it, but now that it is done, I am not quite sure all that we ended up doing. 

Here is the main gist of it: We used a nail gun to nail in the slats on the top pallet. Then we flipped the pallet over and screwed the legs into the sides of the top pallet {Side Note: After we did this and flipped it over we almost just added the casters and called it a day because we like it just as it was, but I did not have the heart to leave out the other pallet that we spent all day sanding and staining, so we forged on}. 

Things get a little hazy after that! On the bottom pallet we cut out 1 hole in each corner the size of the post, so the legs from the top pallet would fit down into the second pallet {does that even make sense?!?!?!} 

In our minds that was going to work perfectly! We would fit the table down inside the other pallet, reinforce a couple areas, throw some casters on, and then throw some high fives and tell each other how awesome we are! 

Uhhh.... instead it went something like this: Realize the table legs don't fit, cry a little, re-cut so it does fit, screw everything in, make a bunch of little filler pieces to try to cover up our mistake of cutting wrong the first time, re-stain new cut pieces, screw those pieces in, add 3 casters to the bottom, when adding last caster run out of power, hand screw last caster in, flip table over.... then throw some high fives and tell each other how awesome we are! {At least we had the same end result}

It really was not a difficult table to make {the prep was pretty time consuming though.... but not hard}. 

We were thrown for a loop that our careful planned way of building the table did not in fact go off without a hitch, but in the end I think the only people that will know about that is us {and whoever reads this post... promise not to tell?}

Next weekend I want to attack these little beauties and pretty/de-uglify them. They are super functional but up against our new table they are looking pretty sad and tattered! 

This week I linked up to:


Check them out for more inspiration!