DIY Craftsman Style Built In Cabinets

New oak built-in cabinets accompany an updated mantle.

Just before our daughter was born in 2013, we used our last drops of nesting energy to complete a remodel of the fireplace. Since that project, we've slowed down a little on the remodeling front, as most of our energy goes to keeping kiddo from falling off dangerous precipices.

That being said, we still get the occasional bug to remodel.

B has suggested multiple times that we should add cabinets under the windows in our living room. I'd always thought there was not enough room, and the window were too low to incorporate anything meaningful — until we were at a neighbors house and saw theirs had the exact cabinets envisioned.

Sometimes you need is a good example of what's possible

The size and proportions worked perfectly for their house, so we got excited and decided to try a prototype for our house.

Before going to the trouble of buying materials and cutting lumber, I decided to use an enormous Amazon box to make a prototype in the space. Mostly I was curious to see how far the box should protrude from the walls, and how thick to make the frame and doors (visual balance, etc).

I'd recommend trying out a cardboard version of your built in idea before committing to a project. It only takes a few minutes and could potentially give you an idea to make your final version even better (stealing this trick from software development). We learned the perfect depth of our box was around 13" deep, where originally we were thinking a little smaller.

Cardboard prototype with drawn lines to indicate doors.

 Once we got our final measurements from the prototype, I made a list of everything I'd need to do to complete the project and put the steps into a logical order. Step one was to prepare the space, which required some removal of baseboard and other oak trimwork.

The Process

We always salvage the oak trim for future house projects.

We used a multiool blade to remove a section of baseboard. (Thanks Cole)

After finishing the box and counter, I made measurements for the doors.

One shelf was deemed better than two. Toddler for scale.

Cut some holes in the back of the box for cords.

Cords magically disappear under the bottom shelf of the box. This is my favorite feature.

We decided on sliding doors instead of swinging since the space is tight. I reused salvaged baseboard for a door.

We added glass to the doors and stained it all up in the last week. Overall cost was around $300 and took about 30 hours to complete. The final results below.

The left cabinet is 1/2 in wider than the right cabinet.

View from across the room at night.

Installing Party Lights in Backyard

So Becca and I have been wanting to finish off our backyard deck with a little pizazz. Our first idea was to get a pergola, then it was deemed too much, and we wanted something simpler. We liked the idea of a canopy of lightbulbs, so we sprung for some party lights from www.partylights.com.

  

This was the box that the lights came in. We ordered three sections of 35' and created a triangle shape  that converged at the garage (scroll for photos). The website said the lights need support to hold the weight, so we strung stainless steel cables for each length.

 Once the cables were up and secure, all you need to do is use zipties to secure the lights to the cable support. It's fairly simple to get them on the line, I suggest getting ones that match the color of your lights.

 Here's a close up of a party light bulb socket and the ring that keeps it secure to the support wire.

Each string required some strong supporting hooks on either end.

Once all the lights are clipped on the the wire, we drug them across to confirm length and support strength.

Here all three sets of lights converge, and we had the electrician wire them together and connect them to a switch with a dimmer.

 

Here I am screwing in 7.5 watt lightbulbs into the lights. This is the fun part.

Mom and Ivy breaking in the lights on the first night.

We like how the tree looks in the glow.

 

Playing scrabble and listening to podcasts in the backyard.

Testing out the dimmer. It added some extra cost, but we love having control over the amount of light they emit.

Looking Back: 5 Years Later, Part 2

Chris and I have loved looking through the old photos of our house before we moved in, that we happened upon the other day. As we think about five years in our house, it's great to see how much we've been able to do (and think of how naive we were when we bought the house).

Earlier this week he shared some of our favorite outside before and afters. Today, I bring you the interiors!

We'll start with the main floor. Here's a view of from the living room into the dining room and office:

Closet turned water closet! 

My first floor favorite - the kitchen. 

How about another view? Can you believe we lived in that before kitchen for nearly three years???

And now upstairs. Here's our guest bedroom before and after. 

Our bedroom.

Ivy's room (good-bye turquoise walls!).

And our most dramatic upstairs shots - the bathroom (I think this one deserves two views).

Looking Back: 5 Years Later

We've come a long way since that fateful day 5 years ago. Luckily, we stumbled upon some pics from the first time we looked at the house. We thought it would be fun to recreate the shot so you can compare where we are today to when we started 5 years ago.

Fireplace Oak Mantel and Marble Tile Remodel - Before & After

We started working on the mantel remodel in December after Ivy was born. Since then we've been busy with raising a newborn and everything that comes with that. 

On the weekends, I've been slowly chipping away the tiling portion of this job. Admittedly, the project took longer than I'd like, but I took my time getting everything updated since I'd never tiled before.

We started with refinishing the hearth. The old bricks tiles popped out fairly easily and I didn't have to cut too much tile for the job. I also spent a lot of time preparing the different brick surfaces for tile by coating them in thin set, which was a lot like floating joint compound.

Photos below document my progress from mantel pre and post tile.

Finished mantel before we tiled. Looks pretty good, probably could have stopped here if we had to.

Hearth was step one. You can see I dry fitted everything before laying the tile. The bricks are white from thin set.

The top row was a skinny long cut, so I just had Lowe's make a bunch of these tiles to save me the work.

This Old House recommended starting the vertical tiles across the top, with a ledger strip to guide the tiles across.

Pulled off the ledger guide and ready for the verticals strips.

I taped together my sections so the tiles stayed together.

Labeling helps keep things in order (A,B,C)

Tiles glued to wall, after grout.

Detail of finished job.

I repainted the cavity black - it has this empty clean feel now. 

Becca found the perfect side table and bird to complete the design.

Viola! Job is done - 4 months later - yikes. What do you think?