I almost hesitate to call this a DIY, because these chargers were SO easy to make.....almost too easy for a blog post. However if you're like me, it's the simple DIY projects that I'm drawn to. I made these a couple years ago for my parent's 60th birthday party.....I needed a lot of chargers, and if you've ever hosted an event and looked into purchasing chargers, you will know they can get really expensive. 

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So, we went to the hardware store, bought two wooden boards (each 5.25 inches wide), and cut them into 14 inch boards. After some light sanding (I wanted them to be rough, without worrying about anyone getting splinters over dinner), we stapled two of the 14 in boards together. The finished chargers measure 10.5 inches by 14 inches. I have used these chargers a ton in the past couple years, and they are a nice basic to have on hand.
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Here you can see the back where I (or Connor) simply stapled the boards together.....not pretty or super professional looking, but no one ever sees it, so who cares right?

So easy and cheap, yet it delivers a beautiful finished product when the table is set....time to throw a party!

 We put our fingertips in the cup and after getting a small amount of paint, we "flicked" the paint off onto the napkins. At the start, I encouraged Reese to do small drops on the napkins only to find out that she liked the "big ones". Ha! She's always reminding me that she is her own artist, and I let her do her thing after that. Now that they are finished, I have to say that I kind of agree with her. 

I realize we aren't breaking any new ground with this wall hanging/frame, but for the $3 I spent, it's made a huge impact in our bedroom. You may remember that I made a similar frame for my in-laws when I designed their bedroom last winter. 

This is a great option if you don't want to spend the money on an expensive custom frame, or if you are in my situation and trying to hide something on your wall (old sconce wires left by a previous tenant) that is protruding out and a regular frame won't do (whether it's leaning against the wall or hanging on the wall). All you need?

If getting more sleep was one of your New Years resolutions, I hear you. We bought blackout liners for the girls room about five months ago because we needed a solution for the bright light that kept interrupting the girls sleep (in other words-ours).  Since we had linen curtains from our Indiana house, I wanted to see if I could make them work by just adding a liner. After reading all the mixed reviews, we bought these liners and have not looked back. The room gets exceptionally dark and I am happy that I get to continue using our linen curtains.

Here you get an idea of how opaque these things are.

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We have moved more furniture around in the girl's room than we have ever moved furniture around in our life. Part of the problem is that the room is small, and both the radiator and windows take up some of the wall space. The other part of the problem is that we were originally trying to fit Reese's twin bed and Charlie's crib in the room ( we knew fitting a dresser in the room was out of the question). These are obviously essentials, but tricky in a small space.  I googled "shared toddler/baby rooms" a lot and could only find a few photos. We tried all sort of configurations (parallel, perpendicular...you name it) and nothing seemed to work. I didn't want the crib by the window because of the blinds/curtains, and with the twin by the window Reese seemed to stay up all hours of the night just looking out the window. We finally resorted to putting the crib in the middle of the room at night and moving it back against the wall in the day. Not ideal. In all honesty I sort of gave up on the room.....UNTIL I found this Oeuf loft bed on craigslist for a deal. It single-handedly transformed the space.

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 The curtains. The designer in me is annoyed that they are at the wrong length (higher please!), but the renter in me is trying not to poke holes in these walls unnecessarily, and the windows already had the hardware built in when we moved into the house. I'm trying to respect that- we will see how long that lasts.

That's it! The room I hated the most has been transformed into a space where we love to spend time. What a difference a month makes!

Today I'm taking a small detour from the usual design posts to talk to you about how I take care of our home. Over the years, I've started integrating more of a natural approach when it comes to cleaning. It started when a friend mentioned making her own laundry detergent- my curiosity was peaked. It appealed to both the minimal and practical sides of me. I loved the idea of buying less products, possibly using things I have lying around the house, and not having to worry about chemicals around my children. I also loved the idea of spending less money on said products. I'm still evolving and learning what does/doesn't work for us, but I thought I would share what things I have found to be easy and effective when it comes to cleaning, in case some of you are interested:

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Laundry Soap - 76 oz. Borax, 4lb. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, 55oz. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 3 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap (grated in food processor), 3.5lbs Oxyclean. Mix all together and use 1-2TBSP per load. 
You will notice the smell is very mild- you can add detergent crystals if you want. The recipe can be also found here . This one is SO much easier than it sounds. It lasts me about 7 months and costs only $20. For those curious- I use this on my HE washing machine and it works great.

Furniture Polish- 1 part lemon juice, 1 part vegetable oil. 

This not only polishes my furniture but hides the little scratches that are inevitable after so many years and moves.

Watermarks on furniture- non gel toothpaste. 

I panicked one day when a vase left a large watermark on our credenza and I stumbled across this trick. It worked like a miracle and left no evidence of a stain.

Grease stains- Baking soda.

Baking Soda has a ton of uses, and this is only one of them….but I always have baking soda handy when I cleaning grease stains in the kitchen. Not cleaning related- but baking soda is also the perfect facial exfoliant(just enough grit, but not damaging to skin). I add it to my face wash a couple times a week and my skin feels so good afterwards.

Multipurpose spray or Clean Shower spray- 1 part vinegar, 1 part water. 

I keep a bottle in my shower to spray it down every couple of days so that I don't have to scrub as long or hard when I clean the bathroom. I also use the same spray when I deep clean our shower- I add in baking soda for stubborn spots along with a scrub brush. (Warning: your bathroom will smell like vinegar, so if this bothers you- skip this one!) I bought a 2 gallon bottle of vinegar at Costco for $4!

 

    

 That is actually our old dining room bench (that Connor made). It makes the place cozy and provides seating without taking up a ton of room.

And this is where we plan on spending a lot of time this summer. Cheers!

I realized the other day that we have lived in our house for four months. Four Months! It's always interesting to me how time can hold still and just fly by at other points. For us, our time here in Boston has flown by. We have visited family in the midwest, friends in upstate NY, and my cousin and his wife in Connecticut. We've hosted three rounds of guests and explored the area.

And then, there's the unpacking and moving furniture….can I just say that we have probably moved furniture more than anyone ever should in a year? We've moved chairs and bookcases from room to room, upstairs to downstairs, trying to figure what works/looks best. In a lot of ways, I am still not feeling settled and am aware of all the areas that still need help- but my parents visited recently and kept commenting on how our home looks like we have been here for a long time, so that's worth something. The areas I'm mostly happy with are- the dining room, kitchen, balcony, and living room…..the areas that could use most help are the bedrooms and playroom. Our master bedroom is probably the better out of the bunch. I thought I would share some progress shots and what I hope to accomplish.

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My Fiddle Leaf has gotten huge! So much that when we moved to Boston we couldn't fit it in our car and had to leave it with my parents. My in-laws recently brought it up,(in their prius no less!), and it makes our bedroom come to life. This painting- I don't think I'm finished with it yet, so that's on the list. 

This mirror was backordered, then arrived broken, and then was backordered again. Today I'm very happy to have a mirror in our bedroom. I've realized over the past few months how important it is after having a few rounds of company and only a bathroom mirror. Here you can also see that my dresser and the wall are the exact same color- that has to change. 

I realize Earth Day happened last week, but today it was 30 degrees outside so I refuse to consider this post late. Our patio-the reason we want to make it a nice space? Sure I love having a well designed space to look at from the kitchen, but it's so much more than that. It's a place for us to enjoy with our girls, and for Connor and me to retreat to after the girls are down for the night. A place for us to sip our wine/moscow mules and just talk about whatever we want without interruption. But it's also a place for us to to entertain. We love hosting out of town guests, and we get a lot of visitors. We love it. We have lived all over the country and made some really wonderful friends along the way- so much so that they are willing to travel to us wherever we live. I don't for one second take this for granted! Because of that, we give a lot of thought to making our home conducive to hosting out of town guests. So along those lines, here is my current inspiration for our balcony. I'm really loving the idea of a privacy screen to make our balcony more cozy.
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And here is my moodboard for the space. I already have some Homecrest chairs that I found on craigslist, we are turning our old bench that Connor made (originally for the dining room in Indianapolis) into more outdoor seating, using a rug I found on craigslist, and adding some plants and pillows. 

It seems as though I've become somewhat of an expert on faux marble the past couple months! I have been brainstorming dining table options ever since we found our MA home and realized that our original dining table was too large for the room and the tulip table too small for our family (let alone guests). Long term? We are planning on buying a house in a year or so and the wood dining table that we made in Indianapolis will become an outdoor table and the tulip table will be used as a breakfast table.

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Back to the faux marble table. I wanted to find an affordable option since we needed four dining chairs, and we always prefer to put our money towards travel over things. When I stumbled across this tutorial (by Erin of Earnest Home Co. ) for faux marble countertops I knew instantly I wanted to make a dining table. Aside from the fact that our table looks like real marble and it was actually a relatively cheap DIY, I also love the fact that I can have "the look" of marble without worrying about my kids (or me, let's be honest) ruining it. The end results blew our minds, it looks even more beautiful in person! 

We bought this under frame from Ikea because it seemed the most sturdy. I'm sure you could also make one from pipes (theres tons of tutorials online for that). In hindsight, Connor wishes we had put the table together before painting it so we could have made the whole thing more secure without having to worry about ruining the tabletop, but then we would have also had to worry about the epoxy getting on the frame.

The end result is incredible. The glaze is what sells the table as marble. I really didn't want a table that looked like a really nice fake version, and I'm very pleased to say that it looks like the real deal. More on the dining room later!