We bought our 1978 mid-century modern home this past summer after instantly falling in love with the unique style and 1/3 of an acre lot, unheard of in town.
Spending all summer working on the deck and covered patio, painting the exterior of our home, and a few small changes inside have kept us busy.
Here is a video I made before the demo of the closet and how we flipped the entrance to the closet to the other side of the wall creating a pantry just next to the refrigerator now. Yes, I am freaking out on how much space I have, I can SEE what I have and what I need and I just love this door so much.
The weeks turned into months and the lack of storage in our kitchen that seemed inconvenient at the time was now becoming frustrating as we were using gorilla racks in an entry-way closet for our pantry.
We like to use as many quality recycled items as possible in our home improvement projects, and this time we ended up re-purposing pre-finished wood left over from another project.
I have to admit that due to the size of the barn door, the hardest part was getting it onto the track and adjusting the track to make it nice and even!
After we ran electricity into the pantry for a light and a plug in for the floor sweeper, we put in long dark grey tile on the floor and the painted white wood shelving was installed.
We wrapped the frame in the same stained wood that we used for the frame and accents on the door itself, and put the finishing touches on the door.
The barn door came together easily, we lined up the wood pieces running vertical, and connected them to two pieces of woo running vertical on their back to keep them straight.
Being mindful of not wanting the door to be heavier than it needed to be, we ran a stained wood frame and accent pieces on the front, then it was time for hardware.
We have priced the sliding barn door hardware (track, brackets, handles) locally and have found Amazon has the best prices hands down.
It took two of us to get the door on and level, adjusting the brackets so the door slides smoothly back and forth.
And then it was time to get all of our pantry items off the gorilla racks (which had a temporary home in our front living room lol) and finally have it all out of sight and behind a beautiful wood barn door.
I am loving it, and it coordinates perfectly with our farmhouse kitchen table, white chairs and long white church pew in the dining room. The pew is inside for the winter and might stay as we love the extra seating!
The next remodel will be a teeny laundry space that also needs a sliding barn door so the door does not swing in, but stay along the outer wall. We found that door at the Habitat for Humanity store recently for $10 and it’s a beautiful white painted vintage door. The hardware just arrived so I am pretty sure I know what we are doing this weekend!
Thank you as always for reading friend, I appreciate you so much!
I have very dry skin which gets worse each winter, so I am always on the lookout for a solution to keeping it moisturized during the winter months.
I am a little late to party on these as I had no idea lotion could be in bar form until visiting my little sister in Seattle this past spring.
She showed me one she had purchased from a boutique in Seattle and I thought as wonderful as the lotion bar smelled and felt on my skin, I bet I could make one!
If you struggle in the winter trying to keep your skin not looking like the Sahara then you will love how rich and moisturizing these bars are.
I was a little intimidated to try my hand at these since my attempt at candles looks like a sad puddle of wax.
But these are easy, and to keep it super simple I based my recipe off the equal three parts recipe I found here.
You can add a bit of essential oil, but I think they smell great just like they are.
I tried a few different ingredients but so far my favorite it a common three ingredient blend of organic coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax.
I don’t have a double boiler so I just used a mid sized sauce pan inside of a low sided stock pot with a couple inches of water in between the two. It worked great.
I used silicone muffin “tins” and this recipe made 8 bars if I filled each to the top.
Using equal parts of coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax pellets (I started with one cup of each) you stir them as they continue to melt.
Once the solid material is completely melted, remove from heat and add a couple teaspoons of vitamin E oil and your essential oil once the mixture has cooled about 10 minutes.
Carefully pour the mixture into your silicone molds (they don’t need to be prepped at all, just clean and I put mine on top of a large cookie sheet) allow to set completely (mine were totally solid a cool after a couple hours but I let them sit for about 3 hours before removing them and wrapping them in plastic for future use and gift giving.
Everyone I gave them to this year loved them and I am just about out of my supply so I think I will make another batch this weekend.
Have you made your own homemade lotion bars or homemade skin care before?
As always, thank you for reading friend, and I hope these last few days of 2018 find you full of peace, and joy as we are about to ring in a new year!
That are simple, yet meaningful.
Beautiful but not fancy or expensive.
Joyful times and wonderful memories for me have always surrounded the quiet simple moments, and fun memories of doing something together as a family.
With each year that passes I find myself going back to what was most meaningful to me, and two things continually come to mind.
To give the gift of time spent with someone you love, and being kind, showing kindness, and doing so in a thoughtful way.
More than an extravagant gift, or something to “top” what we did last year.
The greatest and most extravagant, undeserved Gift was given in a very humble way.
In humble surroundings that didn’t seem fit for a baby, let alone a King.
No sounding of trumpets or credit cards at their limits.
But a gift of pure love, because we are loved so very much.
Maybe part of what we are to take away from that most meaningful Gift arriving was how we are to live and give.
Sacrificially, giving because we love, not because someone has done something to deserve it.
It’s that time of year when life seems to go into lightning speed mode as the holidays approach, and all I want to do is turn on my Christmas lights and make cocoa!
As simple as I hoped to keep things this year, being the first year in our “new” to us home, a 1978 mid century modern home, I may have not stuck to those plans entirely.
Are you feeling the pull to fluff your nest and make your spaces in your home as warm and cozy as possible?
And I didn’t realize how many I had (similar to the shock when you survey how many craft supplies you have amassed or what your hoard of furniture to paint looks like) until we moved this year.
Knowing that I could make more, and some of them had been stored haphazardly with skate boards leaned against them and a Barbie dream house crowding them out in our garage, I let some of them go.
It was really freeing, and yes I have a couple things looking back thru the exhaustion of the move and unpacking that I kick myself for getting rid of.
But, alas, armed with a glue gun, some paper and a few other supplies, I was able to replenish my wreath hoard this weekend.
I kept thinking about a magnolia wreath, and I knew I wanted to use this kraft paper cardstock I picked up when it was on sale.
So this is the version of a DIY Magnolia Wreath that I came up with.
Sometimes sprinkling a few new treasures along with our favorites sure does refresh what we already have for the holidays.
The excitement of unpacking the boxes of ornaments, some Bing Crosby playing in the background, and the anticipation of the events unfolding in the weeks to come.
And could I just say that I hope it snows? Can’t you see those beautiful trees topped with snow?
Yes, that means my little car will be sliding around and I will probably regret my request if we get too much!
But there is something so magical about waking up to a snow covered wonderland outside.
I love Christmas, and while I have tried in our new house to keep our decor a bit more minimal, I kind of went all out this year.
More on the full living room and entry soon, I can’t wait to show you how pretty this tree farm is!
Hello gorgeous, I have missed you!
We have spent every waking moment (when not at work) working around our new place painting and getting fix-its done before the rainy weather arrives.
I’m saving a few things for winter that are inside that desperately need a redo, like our kitchen that is getting a much-needed pantry.
Our circa 1978 main bathroom Farrah Fawcett may have feathered and sprayed her hair in.
And navy blue Corian kitchen counters that will either become butcher block or brushed concrete.
These are huge decisions and some of them are taking me a while to decide on.
So I keep pinning and sketching, and probably over-thinking (tell me I am not alone in this) and I have come to the point that I wonder if just going with my gut on each will be the winner.
I’m not usually one to err on the safe side when it comes to my home, I like to be a bit adventurous and try something new.
But since a bathroom remodel and kitchen counters are pretty big commitments I am ok with giving myself the time to figure out what I really want.
One decision that was SUPER easy to make was to try a beautiful new wall stencil for a quick spruce-up in our home office just off the kitchen.
I was provided some stencils to try out and share my experience with by Stencil Revolution and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
We are seeing wallpaper everywhere right now, and while I love the idea of creating an accent wall with wallpaper, the cost and difficulty of removal has always turned me off.
Have you found yourself smitten with a color immediately and you can think of nothing else than it being on your wall?
While we are barely making a dent on the to do list at our new place, I had to eek out some time to make the master bedroom feel relaxing.
I wasn’t going to do what I did last time, and that is decorate and re-decorate every room five times over and leave the master bedroom lackluster for so long.