Desk to Nightstands with Concrete Tops

I mentioned earlier this week about the nightstands Jeff made for our bedroom update.  He got a free desk from goodwill because it was in such poor condition, that even they wouldn't sell it!  I had been looking for a desk to make into nightstands ever since I saw this post by Sugar Bee Crafts last year. 



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 The one Jeff found was perfect. Of course I don't have a good before picture because Jeff was too eager to rip the old desk apart and start on the project, but I managed to have him snap a few before he made too many changes. The desk had a lot of water damage, so Jeff ended up replacing the sides of the drawers with 1/8 inch plywood.  After, he basically rebuilt the shell, he sanded and painted them white and gray.

The top of the desk was so water damaged that it also could not be used, so we thought of different options for the tops.  More plywood, marble, laminate....and then Jeff had the brilliant idea of making his own concrete tops!  He built a "mold" using a piece of plywood as the base and then left over pieces of 1x2s that he clamped together.  He realized after a couple of cracked tops, that the best concrete to use is actually mortar.  It dries incredibly fast and left no bubbles on the top.

To seal the concrete he used this stuff.

Then he adhered the tops to the base using construction grade adhesive.

 

We chose these glass knobs from Home Depot to finish them off.

And here they are in our bedroom.  Its starting to come together!

(bonus sneak peak of our new headboard!)

 

Our New Bar

Jeff may or may not have turned our backyard into the perfect party house with the installation of our new bar.  It may have been covered with soda bottles, but the party was raging.  He had this great idea that came out of no where and he pulled it off the weekend before Wesley's party.  I don't have a full tutorial for you, but basically...

He built a frame...attached it to the studs in the wall...added the top (a 2 x 8)...sanded and covered in spar urethane (repeated 3 times)...and added extra support using shelving brackets from Ikea.
Here's what it looked like for Wesley's party...and a sneak at some of the party decor. (Hope to post pics soon!) UPDATE: See pics HERE

Here's some pictures of the progression.

And just for fun, this picture of Wesley with the dirtiest face.  He is becoming such a little boy and is so dirty everyday from playing outside.  This day he was extra dirty, so i had to snap a pic :)

Deck progress

For those of you that doubted Jeff could build an entire deck by himself in one weekend, shame on you. He did it...well almost. He took a few extra days, and while its not completely done (still need to stain and build stairs) we do have a bonafide giant deck in our back yard. 

Ok, so Jeff started on Saturday by finishing the frame for the deck. 

Sunday was Easter, a day of rest (Wesley gave us a two hour nap!), and Jeff had to go into work for a few hours, so not much progress on Sunday.  But he did take Monday off and sent me this picture of his progress with his little helper.

When I got home from work, it looked something like this. 

So he enlisted my help and we worked till 9 pm when we laid the last board!

Thats a deck screw gun I'm holding.  It was seriously fun to use and helped the job go really fast.  If you are going to be laying a deck, this is the way to go.


Nukie loves the deck too!

Yesterday, Jeff rented a sander from the Dept and made the deck nice and smooth and ready for stain.

He also worked til 10 pm last night building giant raised planters that will go on one side of the deck. 

We originally were going to put planters on both sides, but it was a little more pricey than we thought.  So the new plan is to have the planter on one side, and on the other side, put in a sand box for Wesley and his friends to play in.  I am so excited that its coming together.  I am so proud and impressed with Jeff. Aren't you?

Table do over

So once upon a time a certain mother-in-law meticulously spray painted an old table and chairs a fun shade of purple (at my request). I loved my purple furniture, but lately my purple table was living with my yellow chairs and I'm just not that big of a Laker's fan. So my purple table got a make over. She went from vibrant purple to a boring grey, but she looks so much better next to the yellow chairs. Dont you think.  Who doesnt love yellow and grey?

This was her before:

I took advice from one of my favorite bloggers and did my best to paint light even strokes with the spray can. I ended up doing three coats and I think it turned out better than if I tried to cover it all with one heavy pass.

After one coat:

You can still see a lot of purple.

After 2 coats:

Almost completely grey.

And after the final coat, she's lookin good:

I probably could have done one more pass (this girl has a lot of nooks and crannies) but I ran out of spray paint.  I think its good enough.  What do you think, was this a good move?

A trip to home depot

Yay! Jeff is going to build us a deck. I so excited. It's going to be awesome. A 16x24 deck that will allow us to utilize an otherwise useless area in our backyard. Jeff started this weekend by taking us to home depot and purchasing supplies for the frame. Wesley had a great time at the depot and Jeff was successful in getting lots of lumber.  Jeff is just in the beginning stages of this project but promised he'd finish it this weekend.  I am so excited, did I already say that?  So excited! It will be perfect for all the parties we have planned this summer!

But first, take a moment to oooo and ahhhh over the cutest picture ever of my Wesley boy.   Ooooooo Ahhhhh 



Ok, and now for the beginnings of an amazing deck.

This is actually just the lumber for half of the frame.  Jeff will be making several trips to home depot this weekend for the rest of the supplies.

This is what he accomplished last weekend.  Very early stages people.  Hopefully we all will be impressed when we see it next week.

Instead of doing major demolition, Jeff decided to just build the deck over the existing raised area. 

The finished project will look somewhat like this little drawing Jeff dreamed up in 2011.  He plans to build raised garden planters on either side of the deck to frame it in.