Guess What I Did This Weekend

Here's a sneak peak...

I'll have some pics up soon!

Office Cabinet

There's a huge feeling of satisfaction that comes from upcycling or making over an old, neglected piece of furniture. But the same satisfaction can come from tweaking a new piece that just wasn't right when it came home from the store.

I bought this cabinet from Jysk on clearance for $150. It had the proportions that I needed to hold our office copier/fax and printer, and had some handy dandy storage. But it was a pretty blah colour. Just lacquered pine.

Mr. Mel had the clever idea to paint the pieces before I assembled this unit...gosh he's a smarty pants.

Mr. Mel gave them a light sanding (that's right, folks, I put him to work),  then I primed and painted with the same gallon of mistint paint I used on the cubby desk. Mr. Mel was itching to help, so I volunteered him to put it all together!

I replaced the hardware with a couple of knobs I had from an old dresser.

A quick update for a stock piece of furniture, and now she's all ready for business!

Cost breakdown for this project:
$150 for cabinet 
$0 for primer and paint
$0 for cabinet hardware
Total cost = $150

Cubby Desk

** I apologize in advance for the craptastic photo quality...we're having camera issues over at the White City Project **

Our home office project is well under way, but one item was holding things up. I searched high and low for a small desk to fit in our 39" alcove to no avail.

A second workspace was a must for this space and the alcove seemed the perfect place to tuck one away. I wanted to do this room on a relatively small budget so it limited my options to buy new but, no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn't find anything used that would fit.

I finally decided to just build in a worktop and I found a great photo of just what I was thinking of.

I started by drawing up a sketch with your measurements. Don't skip this step or bad things will happen. Bad, baaaad things. Not that I would know from experience, of course. It's just what I've been told ::whistling::  Once you have a drawing, it'll actually be easier to improvise a bit, if you're so inclined wink wink 

The height of my desk will be 30", including a 1/2" thick MDF desktop and 24" deep. I mounted 2x4 lumber to the walls at 29 1/2". I painted these the same colour as my walls before I moved on. I didn't bother filling the screw holes because no one will see them anyway.

Then I mounted a 1x4 apron to the ends of the 2x4s across the front of the desk.

Here's my favourite part! I bought two 4" corner blocks and two fancy shmancy polyurethane corbels from Rona and mounted them on each end of the desk using brad nails. These are purely decorative so don't need any heavy duty fasteners. I filled in the space between the blocks with another piece of 1x4 so the profile of the apron would be even. I used liquid nails on the tops of the wall mounts to attach the 1/2" MDF top.

After filling and sanding all of the visible nail/screw holes, I gave the entire desk a prime and coat of a greeny-taupe colour mistint I had kicking around my paint stash, followed by a few coats of Varethane to protect it.

I used a hole saw (one of the most rad drill attachments ever, in my humble opinion) to make a cut for a desk grommet that I bought from a local office supply store to keep my cords organized.

I am thrilled with how this desk turned out! And I was so tickled when Mr. Mel saw it and said simply, "Honey, I love that desk". Awwww, thanks, hun.

Before anyone feels it necessary to point it out, I am well aware that there are a few gaps around the desktop. Geez Louise, nothing is ever square! But in the end, all I needed was a spot for me to plop down and do some bloggin' so I am not concerned with the little imperfections of it. If I had it to do over again, I would have made my own cuts of the desktop (not have the hardware store do it) to ensure a perfect fit. Ya live, ya learn.

Cost breakdown for this project:
$53 for corbels and decorative blocks
$39 for lumber and MDF (I had to buy an entire sheet of MDF so I have a bunch leftover)
$3 for desk grommet
$0 for paint
Total cost = $95 

Delish - Pizza Pizza Pizza

I love me some pizza! Just about any pizza will do. Which is why I get so excited when I find funky new pizza recipes to try out. These are three of my favourites.

Pizza Margherita

1 lb (454 g) prepared pizza dough

1 can (28 oz/796 ml) whole tomatoes, drained, seeded and chopped

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

5 oz mozzarella ball, thinly sliced into about 8 pieces

6 black olives, pitted and halved

9 fresh basil leaves

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 12 inch circle;
transfer to pizza stone or pan.

Spread tomatoes over dough; sprinkle with salt.
Drizzle with 2 tbsp of oil; arrange cheese and olives over top.

Bake in 475 F (240 C) oven until golden brown and bubbly,
15 to 18 minutes.

Sprinkle with basil leaves; drizzle with remaining oil.

Peach and Gorgonzola Chicken Pizza

Cooking Light

1 (10 oz) prebaked thin pizza crust (I love Boboli)
Cooking spray
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 medium unpeeled peach, thinly sliced
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 F

Place pizza crust on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Brush 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil evenly over crust. Top evenly with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, chicken, Gorgonzola cheese, and peach slices. Top with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella. Bake at 400 F for 11 minutes or until crust browns.

Place vinegar in a small suacepan over medium-high heat; cook until reduced to 2 tablespoons (about 5 minutes); Drizzle balsamic reduction evely over pizza. Cut into 8 wedges.

Mushroom Fontina Pizza

1 lb mushrooms, stemmed
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 prebaked multigrain pizza crust
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups shredded fontina cheese

In food processor, pulse mushrooms until coarse paste; set aside.

In skillet, heat oil over medium heat; fry onion, garlic, salt and pepper, stirring occassionally, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in mushroom paste; cook, stirring, until liquid is evaporated, about 15 minutes. Stir in parsley. (Make ahead: let cool; refrigerate in airtight container for up to 24 hours).

On lightly floured surface, roll out dough into 14-inch round; centre on greased pizza pan. Spread with mushroom paste; sprinkle with thyme and Fontina cheese.

Bake in bottom third of 425 F oven until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden, about 20 minutes.

Bon Appetit!

Saturday Somethin' Somethin'

Hey everyone! I hope you are all loving the colours of autumn, I know I am!

It's a long weekend here in Canada, for our Thanksgiving. I've got TWO huge feasts to attend this year...lucky me!

This weekend's feature are pixel sofas from Zuzunaga. They are funky, I love 'em!

If the sofa is a tad too over the top for you, they also make a line of pixel pillows. These are so fun!



Home Office Inspiration

Mr. Mel and I always planned to have a dedicated home office space. But we figured that we'd wait til the basement was done, then relocate the guest room downstairs and make the upstairs third bedroom into our office/craft space. It all seemed to be going swimmingly...until Mr. Mel decided to work from home!

Mr. Mel is what I like to call a "dabbler". When people ask me what he does for a living, I usually say, "he's a businessman". Truth is, he directs several companies, does financial and corporate consulting, accounting, and real estate investment. He's a busy boy!

So the plan to do the office was sped up. Time to get to work!

This is the room now. Besides plunking the furniture in it when we moved in, we haven't done a thing to it. It's not huge, just over 10' x 10' with a small alcove. It's the guest room but has quickly become the drop zone  for random crap. What...like you've never seen kitty litter boxes and a carpet shampooer before?!

The wall colour will stay as is, Benjamin Moore Limesickle. It's a fairly neutral colour and can look more grey or green depending on the light and accent colours.

Mr. Mel has given me carte blanche with this room. He's happy as long as he has a place to sit and work. Ok by me!

I made a list of what this room needs:

• two workstations/desks.
• desk large enough to use as a sewing table.
• credenza or buffet. The room has a double closet so we have lots of storage space, but I want something that can hold printer, copier, fax, random office supplies.
• chairs.
• desk lamp(s).
• curtain panels.

These are some room schemes that have inspired me and will work with my wall colour:

Kendall Wilkinson Design

Liz Carroll Interiors

Muse Interiors

Photograph by Keith Scott Morton

I hope to have this room together pronto as I need to reclaim my kitchen table!

Paint Booth

I paint in my garage. I prefer to park in my garage. I store stuff in my garage.

I have had a few unfortunate over spray incidents when working in there so I decided I needed some sort of booth to work in that would protect my projects and belongings...and my freshly epoxy'd floors, of course! When I painted my parent's dining set, I rigged up a hideous makeshift booth from tarps, zip ties, and bungee cords. It did the job, but it was dark, ugly, and hard to put together and take down.

I thought I might get creative and build my own out of PVC pipe and poly.

Source

But, seriously, this seemed like too much work for something that I would have to set up and take down each time I wanted to paint something. Not to mention that I needed a good sized booth to accommodate larger furniture pieces.

Ebay to the rescue! I bought this 10x10 pop up gazebo with 4 removable walls for $150 (including shipping).

It's light, bright, sets up quickly, and stores easily in it's own bag. It's perfect. It looks so silly set up inside the garage! ha ha

Time to paint!