Office upper cabinets and chairs

 Unfortunately I didn't take picture of the process of the upper cabinets, but here is the down-low. I bought cabinets at IKEA. They are called IVAR cabinets and they are simple, pine, unfinished storage cabinets. I couldn't find them and the store and the kitchen cabinet lady didn't know what I was talking about. So I went over to a catalog (where I had seen them) and showed her. She told me where to find them but not without first making sure I knew they were not worthy to be with the kitchen cabinets. Or something. Major snobbery in that moment. No matter. I got what I wanted they were $80 per double cabinet.

 I added trim on the front. I once again used the long, 5-gallon bucket type stir sticks that are free at the Home Depot. These cabinets had a funny lip on the door...hard to explain. So my trim covered it up. But then, later when I added handles it was a bit of an issue. But no one can tell. HAH! I can't even explain it in a way that would make sense. Painted them "surfer" by Behr, paint plus primer. It covered AMAZING! I was surprised. Sorry, photo doesn't included the handles on the doors. Maybe I will get to it when I build bookshelves for the open areas on the sides.

 I picked up these chairs at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. My husband, Jeremy, thought I was nuts.

 But I think they turned out great.

Desk thingy part 2

Next steps included: finishing painting, adding legs and hardware.

I swear that I took pictures of staining the top but I guess I didn't. So the top is 5 2x6's that were sanded smooth and then stained with one coat of "Early American" which was redder than I expected so I went over it with a second coat of "Dark Walnut." I like the result. I have not chosen a finish to protect it yet.

The board were laid on top of the bottom sections and then secured by 1x2's underneath to hold them all together. I want to take this with me (if possible) when we sell this house (someday) so that was the least amount of screws and such. Plus, each board is itself pretty heavy. So permanently attaching them together would make it impossible to move.

More pictures to come when I get the finish all done! And I must figure out some plan for the upper part of the wall. We definitely need some more storage and room for books....

Semi-custom, semi-built-in desk area thingy PART 1

Do you ever have this problem in your house? You have "office-type" stuff in about 3 different locations in your house. It is quite annoying to have to look in 3 different places when you need something. I have been dreaming of having it all in one location.

I was dreaming up a desk and was thinking I was going to have to build exactly what I wanted. Then I was getting overwhelmed at the thought. And then a friend said he had an old desk he was going to trash. So we picked it up and I hacked it apart. So I ended up with these two banks of drawers. They are particle board with a melamine veneer.

First order of business was to make them better looking. I scuffed them up so stuff could stick to them.

 Then I got the genius idea of using **FREE** paint sticks as the trim. They are the larger ones for stirring 5 gallon buckets.

 I glued these with liquid nails.

Used a little caulk to clean up the edges.

 The banks of drawers were too short to be desk height. So I needed to add some height. I wanted more drawers anyway so I added some height at the top giving room for another drawer as well. I used this old particle board from my pantry shelves.

 I made a height extension with three sides. 2 sides and a back. It would be best to screw and glue to the bottom cabinet but the way mine was constructed made it not really possible. So it is just glued. But don't worry. A little reinforcement comes later.

Front view.

Then I made a drawer to fit the space. Bought simple drawer slides from the hardware store.

 I used MDF to make drawer fronts for the new drawers so they could match the old drawers. I used the same dimensions for the drawer front so everything looked consistent.

  This is after I had also primed the older drawers.

I needed a third bank of drawers so that I could construct an office area with 2 workstations. I used MDF and built it to fit 2 pullouts that I had leftover from the pantry project.

 Made a matching drawer front for the upper pullout. The lower area will have 2 doors. Haven't gotten to that part yet.

The sides were mismatched and ugly so they got some beadboard. Attached with liquid nail and brad nails. And they needed a little reinforcement since the top section was only glued on.

And this is where we conclude for today...

Pantry Reno Part 2

It was time to get the door ready. I bought the door from craigslist for $10. It was pretty dirty from being in someone's shed or something. I cleaned it well, scraped off any loose paint and put on 2 coats of Polycrylic to keep the paint from peeling anymore lest one of my rugrats decides to eat paint chips.

 Hanging the door was definitely a 2 person job. A third person would have been helpful too. The hardware was heavy and so was the door. By the way, the panes are glass but have some sort of textured coating that obscures the glass. Looking from a side angle, you can't see in really at all. The hardware is from Grainger and was less than $150 for the track and hangers. Much better than the $400 stuff.

 Front view:

 Sliding open:

 Here is a comparison with the old door jamb. I gained like 7 or 8 inches in the opening. Don't miss the cutest helper on the planet.

 

 Here is another view...from standing on the counter. Because everyone does that when they come over.

 People kept asking how I would keep the door next to the wall and not swinging out. And believe you me, the kids were pulling it out like crazy until I put this little do-hickey on. I found it with all the decking/framing connectors at the hardware store. I had to bend part of it up to suit my needs. Think outside the box people.

 I built a cabinet to house the drawers.

 And built this big, heavy pullout. Building it was the easy part. Getting all the drawer slides to work together took days.

 Here I was testing fit:

 How it looks when it is pulled out.

 After I painted it and put a handle on the pullout.

 Front view:

 Drawers pulled out all the way:

 Requisite pinterest photo with drawers all pulled out at staggered intervals. I lined the drawers with some shelfliner from Walmart. I looked and looked for alternatives but finally just settled with the grasscloth-lookin' stuff. It's wipeable which was the first priority.

 Somewhat loaded up. I have so much more room to use! The pantry is the same size but has a lot more access and better use of space so I can fit more in it. BAM!

 If you look strait on the door, you can see somewhat inside. Vaguely.

 But, again, from the side, you can't see what's in there hardly at all.

 Almost forgot. Since the door doesn't "latch" I put a lock on the top. You know, to keep the rugrats out when I don't want them gettin' in to things. The block acts as a stop for the door as well. If I had made the stop deeper then the lock could have sat better, but this works.

 I had it done just in time for Thanksgiving and I can say it passed with flying colors. I had 25 people at my house, including my own hubs and kids and it stood the test. I love it. It is all I imagined.