Freebie Friday :: Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Happy Friday, friends!

Summer officially began for us today and I wanted to share with you the quick little DIY project I whipped up for our children's teachers as an end of the year gift. 

Using the same tutorial that I made for my no-knit cozy, I made a more colorful version with a cute apple button to cover one of Starbucks $1 reusable cups that I am a fan of:

Inside we placed a Starbucks gift card with a sweet little label that included each kid's picture and a small note as well as the quote, "Thanks a LATTE for all you've done this year!"

Want to make your own? You can download the freebie HERE!

As kind of a last minute idea this morning, I took a quick picture of our oldest so I could do a side-by-side of the first day and last. It really is amazing how much changes in just the short nine months of a school year :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I will be back next week with all the details of our Super Mario party as well as our summer plans. 

xo,

Rachel

TV Console Update

Hello lovelies :)

Tonight I am sharing the simplest DIY that only cost a few bucks, but made a world of difference. 

As some of you may remember from our family room makeover we converted a used and ugly dresser into our TV console. Don't remember? Here it is in all its storage-wielding beauty:

{you can see the whole transformation here}

It has been in full action now for about 9 months, and I would tell anyone even considering a new TV console to not just walk, but to run and find a dresser to use as one. It has been working out beautifully for us! The storage it gives just can't be found anywhere else. 

But, I have to admit there are....downsides to finding an old beauty and fixing her up. Um, like this:

Yeah, that would be what I like to call our dark, little secret - the inside of the drawers were pretty gross. 

Nothing some cleaning and contact paper couldn't fix ;)

At the same time that I picked up the contact paper I used in our kitchen organization project, I grabbed some gray and white chevron contact paper as well. I honestly didn't have a plan for it when I bought it, but once I started working on the family room as part of my one room at a time series I knew exactly where to use it. 

A ton better, right?!

 After covering each drawer, I went through each and organized and purged. The center drawers all hold the electronics:

Wii games and remotes are organized in dividers:

The bottom has their tablets and games {just to prove how much more work I still have to go in organizing out house, I could only find four of the games that go with these consoles!}:

The larger, side drawers hold all our games and activities. We actually still have two drawers empty which is one of the reasons I know this system will work - we have room to grow ;)

Ready to see some ugly again?

Happy Monday {night}!

xo,

Rachel

One Room at a Time :: Kitchen Reveal

Hello!

We are just getting into the swing of things around here after a fun week spent in Tennessee with my parents. All the kiddos are officially back in school, and Jason (boo!) goes back to work tomorrow.  

I am excited to share with you the details of our little kitchen redo. The funny thing about this post is that I have had everything ready to go for weeks - in fact, I even thought I wrote the post already! Um, oops? This probably just goes to show you how absent minded I have been lately, ha! 

For those of you new here, awhile back I decided that I was going to go through our house, room by room, and clean it, declutter it, and get it looking {semi} put together. You can read more about it here. We moved into our house a year ago. During the moving process I got rid of all the things that I thought we didn't need or wasn't part of our style any more. This left us with a pretty dull house. Combine that with three kids, we had a dull and MESSY house!

The first space I decided to conquer is the most used space in our home: the kitchen. I first shared the space here in all its ugly glory. 

The first step was to clean & organize, which I shared here. It has been so amazing just to open up the drawers and not have them be a hot mess!

Since I am trying to do this on a barely-there budget until we buy our place, a lot of love went into this in the form of DIY projects. It kinda felt like once I started, I couldn't stop!

Here is the boring space (complete with dirty dishes - keeping it real here, folks!)

I really think the few simple projects we did made a big impact. Ready to finally see the outcome?

One of the first purchases we made was to buy a new rug. This Urban Outfitters rug brought just the right amount of color and interest into the room. 

This stand was a Goodwill find I purchase a few months ago with the intention of painting it and turning into a cake stand. I bought this for under $2 and used leftover paint from our banquette project. The dishwasher powder jar was a Goodwill find from a year or so ago - it's just been sitting in our laundry room waiting for its home :)

I still think our DIY pot rack is my favorite project in the space!

We actually bought this fruit basket when we moved in - finally hung it! I made the curtains on the window using leftover ikat fabric we had and bought some nice gray, linen fabric for the rest. The curtain rod is just a cheap one that we already owned!

I love the look of layered art. The yellow print on the left I made myself, while the adorable print on the right was a find from the Etsy shop LittleLow. Both were placed in frames we already owned that I just painted with paint we already had. 

I used a curtain we had up in our old place to line the back of our cabinets. I have been debating on whether or not I want to leave the doors on or off. For now they are still on. 

{you can check out all the details about this before & after here.}

I made the art with a canvas we already own. I am going to be honest. I am not super happy with how it turned out, and we already have a little something in the works to replace it :) I do, however, LOVE how nice it's been to have all our coffee stuff in one spot. And off our counters. 

I made the little coffee print and placed it in a random frame that we have owned for years. 

Originally on this wall was our kitchen command center. Although I loved the way that had turned out, I wanted this space more casual and modern. I felt like a lot of the elements I had there were too country. When I really stepped back to see how it was working for us, I realized that all we really needed right here was a spot to make notes, hang items, and our small file system on the opposite wall: 

{spoiler alert: I am currently knee deep a project involving the other items from the wall!}

So here is a little before and after of our space to really see how far it has come:

For the most part, I am really happy with how much of our own resources we used for this project. Aside from the rug, art print, and hardware for the kitchen cart, everything else was used from stuff we already owned. Which is awesome - and speaks volumes to how much stuff we own :)

We absolutely love how this turned out, and I am so ready to get started on the rest of our house!

xo,

Rachel

One Room at a Time :: Kitchen Cart turned Coffee Bar DIY

Hello!

Before I finally share the details of our little kitchen redo as part of my one room @ a time series, I wanted to share one of the projects we did in the space. 

You've caught peeks of the old kitchen cart we have in the room in our post about our kitchen command center, but it's been hidden for a pretty good reason:

It's boring. And borderline country. 

Eh. 

I had Jason give it a quick sand, and I painted the base with leftover paint we had as well as stained the top with stain we had from another project. Some new hardware and it was already looking much better. 

We also gave the cart a whole new purpose by turning it into our coffee bar. 

I made the larger tray out of the top to the ikea storage box we already owned. The top was always being thrown around anyway (because keeping a lid on anything in this house would be a crime according to our children, ha!). I added some new fabric to the top and covered that with clear contact paper to protect it from coffee spills. 

We attached the hardware that was originally on the cart to really make it look like a tray: 

This area now houses everything we need to make coffee. Coffee, (filters are held in the drawer), Truvia is held in the sugar tin I picked up a couple of years ago at Goodwill, cinnamon is kept up front, and mugs are ready to go. 

The inside is equally as functional. The drawer houses our random stuff that I shared with you in our junk drawer redo.

The bottom half now houses our new, smaller microwave (out of sight!) and a basket that we use to hold our potatoes and garlic. 

It's now beautiful AND functional :) Ready to see the ugly one last time?

Aside from new hardware, this entire project was F.R.E.E. 

I can not wait to share the rest with you - including a little tweeking that was done to this area!!

Happy Weekend!

xo-

Rachel