Pantry

One of our recent projects was the pantry in the kitchen.  The old fridge cabinet is the new home of our pantry.  As you can see, we put in shelves and now need the doors. 

So, to start off, I drew a plan for the doors. I took all the measurements and headed to HD to pick up some cabinet grade plywood, hinges, and trim.

My assistant helped me make the cuts to the trim. :)  I sanded down the doors and the rough edges to a nice smooth finish.  I initially used the palm sander with the orbital attachment, but that was taking off too much wood in a very random fashion.  I switched over to the regular palm sander attachment and it did the trick perfectly.  I used 120 grit sand paper.

I glued down the trim flush against the edge of the front of the doors with Elmer's wood glue.  I didn't see a trim that matched the current cabinet doors perfectly, so I picked out something similar but not so similar that it looked like I was trying to match it.  I tacked in some nails over top of the glue for extra stability.  I counter sank the nail holes and filled them with wood filler. 

I then attached the hinges to the doors and then had Eric come in and help hang them.  It really is a two person job to hang cabinet doors.  The hinges have to but pushed flush against the cabinet in order to mark the holes - if they aren't pushed in, the hinges don't lay flat and will give you an incorrect mark.  So, I had Eric place the doors up against the cabinet and I used the drill to make a pilot hole and then screwed the doors in.  We had a few minor issues.  First, the cabinet is not plumb, so when we used the level to make sure that the doors were hung straight, it appeared that they were crooked on the edges and straight on top.  We ended up eyeballing it and it came out perfectly.  Second, I screwed in the hinges on the wrong side of the second door (easy fix with wood filler, but a real DUH moment for me).

Finally, I attached a magnetic plate to the door and the cabinet to keep the doors securely closed.  We haven't chosen hardware for any of our cabinets yet.  I keep changing my mind on the style. 

The cabinets are primed, but not painted yet.  I need to swing down and pick up some more "Glass of Milk" Martha paint in Semi Gloss color matched in Behr to finish the job.  Will post final pics soon.

It is so nice to finally have a door on the pantry - the kitchen looks so much more organized without the big "black hole".

Backsplash Update

Although I loved the way the kitchen backsplash came out, I was really disappointed with the grout color that was chosen.  I knew when I was talking to the tile guy at HD that I was making a bad choice - but he insisted that they beige would be perfect.  So, I tested out a small swatch in a much lighter shade after I finished the entire kitchen and knew that I needed to regrout.  I finally tackled it this week and am super pleased with the results.  Here is a side by side view of the tiles...on the left is the area that I regrouted - on the right is my first choice in beige. 

I am withholding a wide angle shot becuase of some work that we are doing on the kitchen as we speak and want to do a nice reveal once we finish up the projects :)

On a side note, Ryan cut his first tooth this week, and has become a cranky, drool faucet.  Poor kiddo.

Owen is chatting like crazy, repeating everything that we say.  It's pretty amazing.

Ikea Spice Racks as Bookshelves

I have been slowly working on Owen and Ryan's rooms.  I recently saw a post over on Aubrey and Lindsay's blog where she hacked some Ikea spice racks into book shelves for her son's room.  I loved the idea so I grabbed 6 of them on my last trip. Ikea was selling them for $3.99 each.  They fit perfectly - I mean perfectly - in the space.  

Here is a before pic of the room that I took during the walk through with the inspector during the buying process.

And, here is the after with the new book shelves and the chair that Owen's Auntie Dora and Uncle Andrew gave us this week. 

The bottom two shelves are the perfect height for Owen to reach his board books.  The top shelf is for the special "real paper" books that he would tear to shreds if left to his own accord.

 As you can see, they fit exactly in the space side by side. 

Owen's room is coming along well.  I feel like it is a nice mix of little boy stuff and things that he will grow in to stuff.  Currently, am  working on a mobile to hang over his bed as well as the changing table.  I also want to hang some art, and will be making a window treatment soon.  We went on a field trip last week to Joann's to pick out the fabric and can't wait to show you what we came up with.  

* * *A special note on this project...we are reading books more then ever now that the books are so nicely on dispay.  He is able to pick out what he wants and put them away all by himself when we are done.