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

Styled :: DIY Party Favors, Napkins, & Cups

Hi there!

This weekend was our daughter's birthday party, so we have been busy little bees over here!

I wanted to share with you some really simple ideas I used to make some of the cheap party supplies and favors I bought a lot more fun and special. 

I started this Styled series because I really want to show how easy it is to create a unique and beautiful party. It's really just taking something ordinary and adding those details that make it stand out. 

Almost all of the projects I am showing today used printables that I created, but they can ALL easily be substituted using scrapbook paper or even wrapping paper. 

First up, some cheap bubbles I grabbed from the dollar store got a face lift with some labels I made. This could easily be wrapped in some pretty craft paper and embellishments or even fabric. In fact, as I just typed that I am a little sad I didn't go the fabric/twine route!

A great way to stock up on cheap favors is to shop to the clearance items after any major holiday. I got these crayon boxes on a super clearance from Target after Valentine's Day and new that with a little imagination they could be really cute. 

To create your own label, first take apart one of the boxes and trace around it onto your decorative paper. Allow a little extra on the sides to overlap. Add stickers, ribbon, or other decorative items. 

Cayden really wanted to hand out little notebooks in her goody bags, so I knew I needed to come up with a cost effective way to make some cute ones. 

The party store is a great go-to for bulk favor items, so I grabbed a bag of small notebooks and gathered some of the scrapbook paper I had leftover from the envelope liners we made for the invitations. 

All you have to do for this project is trace around the cover of your notebook, cut, and glue. 

I added snowflake punches to go with our party theme, but you can easily swap out the shape for any other one. 

I love the little cups that have been popping up in Target's party isles. They are the perfect size for serving up ice cream, fruit, or other small servings. I even used them to serve our ice cream in our construction party. 

Adding your own custom wrapper is an easy and cheap way to make these look custom made. To make your own, I would use the same technique I listed for making the crayon wrappers: take apart a cup and trace (make sure to allow extra room on the ends so you can overlap!)

Add a pretty spoon (I used washi tape to hold ours) and you're set!

This last project was super easy and added a really cute detail to the party. 

Using a stamp and some acrylic paint, add some detail to your basic paper napkins. 

Easy Peasy, right?

xo,

Rachel

Snowflake Party :: Invitations

Hello :)

We enjoyed our first snow day here, and while the big guy of the house is shoveling the driveway (for the second time today, ha!) I wanted to finally share with you the invitations that I sent out for Cayden's snowflake party. 

As I mentioned before, she had planned on having an ice cream party up until a couple of months ago, so I already had the whole thing planned: it was going to be girly, a little shabby-chic with an eclectic mix of prints, and lots of chalkboard details. When she decided that snowflakes was going to be her theme (hey, at least it's more season appropriate!), I knew a lot of the ideas I already had would be carried over. 

{You can see how I made the lined envelopes HERE}

Our little girl is pretty terrified of any new place and especially dressed up characters, so the party is being held at our home with a surprise gift of a petting zoo & pony. Since it's still pretty cold up here, I wanted to give the parents a heads up and include a small note that told them to dress warmly. 

I also made a back design for this one: 

And because every party needs a little sparkle and fun, we added snowflake confetti to the envelopes:

A little bit of washi tape, and the envelopes were sealed and ready to be delivered! 

xo,

Rachel

One Room at a Time :: DIY Hanging Pot Rack

Hello!

Today I am so excited to finally show off my hands-down favorite project that we did in our mini-kitchen makeover for my one room @ a time series. This idea came about while I was organizing the kitchen cabinets and trying to figure out what to do with all our pots and pans. I was starting to feel discourage about the entire project (yes, only two days into it, ha!) since I didn't feel much was changing aesthetically (organizing, yes! But the pretty just wasn't there yet). 

Jason has been really into the idea of a hanging pot rack above our peninsula, but I was worried that would close in the area a bit, and I love how open it feels. 

A few weeks ago, I had found this pin and saved it:

{found on this site}

I loved how the pots & pans were hung in such a way that it didn't take up much visual space. Apparently I really liked it, because it turns out I also pinned this image a year ago as well :) 

I had an idea on how to recreate it in our kitchen, but since the only wall it would be able to go on was occupied by our huge mixer, there was no way to do it. I didn't want to move the mixer because if it's not on the counter, I find we barely use it. 

Then one day, our only-a-year-old microwave turned off and never turned back on again. This thing was a beast that took up an entire small counter. Here's a reminder:

{it's the giant piece to the right of the oven} You can also see the red mixer in the left corner. 

Having it kick the bucket gave us the excuse to by a new, smaller one that we could tuck away in our kitchen cart (out of sight!). We don't use it too often, and honestly I love the idea of having it be a tad inconvenient so that we don't use it all the time. This cleared up an entire counter that I then was able to move the mixer and spice rack to.

 I feel like our microwave breaking was a sign {perhaps a gift??} from the universe! 

It allowed me to then do this:

To do this, I simply used a thin curtain rod we had in our family room that was left there by previous tenants.  I have plans to replace it with a curtain rod that we already own that has been sitting on our bedroom floor since we moved in....a year ago. The length was perfect, and I actually don't even mind the finish. I had Jason screw it in flush with the bottom of our upper cabinets:

The "hooks" are actually shower curtain hooks turned backwards. I had an entire, new package of them that I have been holding onto for a year now, waiting to use them with another project. 

So, that made this entire, amazing project FREE. 

I am over the moon with how this project turned out. I think Jason and I both knew the second it went up that we were smitten. It's functional (I get kind of giddy every time I reach for a pot and realize it's right up there!) and really opens up the space.  It also adds a casual feel to the room which is something I am looking to do to the entire home. I should note, that because of the height of our cabinets, only the smaller pots/pans fit up there. The larger ones are still tucked below. 

This project also renewed my excitement about the entire series. If all the rooms turn out half as great as our kitchen has, I will be thrilled :)

xo,

Rachel

Linking Up...

iHeart Organizing

Happy Monday & a Feature

Hi! How was your weekend? Ours was basically spent rearranging our entire house, because that's what normal people do, right?! I have been so busy figuring out the details to our little princess's party, that it didn't really dawn on me that we just invited 20 people into our house....looking like this...eek!

Project One Room @ a Time is in full swing, and I can't wait to share with you tomorrow my favorite project that we did in this space! Aside from a few small details, I would say the kitchen is done and the family room is well under way. I showed off a sneak peek on my Instagram {@nestling_designs} this week:

This is actually great timing, since this space was just featured on Inspire Me Heather in a great roundup of family rooms. This room is pretty special to me, so it was an honor to be up there with some other amazing spaces! You can go check out the entire post here.

Happy Monday!

xo,

Rachel

Simple DIY Envelope Liners

After everything that happened last week, I am admittedly behind on our little girl's party. Although the invitations are printed, they haven't actually been handed out yet :) In my own defense, she only goes to school 3x a week, and since yesterday was a holiday it has be delayed even more. 

I wanted to share with you a little detail that I added to the envelopes that I think makes them that much more special. It was really easy and inexpensive, and since I am obsessed with little details, it makes me quite happy. 

I chose scrapbook paper as my liner, but I think wrapping paper would be a really good alternative because of its price (I used some of the snowflake wrapping paper I had on a few & it worked wonderfully because of its thinness). The envelopes were purchased from Staples and the glue is just craft glue I typically have on hand. 

The first step was to create a template for the liner. 

First, I traced around my envelope onto cardstock (my kids are always using our printer paper as their drawing paper, so I just found one that had already been drawn on - that would be a page of Braden's B's that he has been writing all over the place!)

Next, I cut my tracing out.

I then folded it in half width wise and trimmed about 1/2" around the edges, so that you would still see some of the pink of the envelope. 

Finally, I tested out the template to make sure it fit. 

After that, I simply traced my template onto the backs of the scrapbook papers I picked out & cut. 

I found it was easier to insert the liner first, fold it over with the crease of the envelope, and then glue the back of it on. 

Since I want her party to have a bit of a vintage-y eclectic feel, I love that all the liners coordinate but don't match. 

Easy-Peasy :)

Happy Hump Day! 

I will be enjoying the first childless morning I have had in forever, since Boo gets to go back to school today. *yay*

xo,

Rachel

One Room at a Time :: DIY Projects

Hello! 

I am excited to share a couple of the simple DIY projects I did for my One Room @ a Time series. {catch all the details about the series here and see how I organized the space here}. Since the name of the game over here is to make things look pretty without costing much, I knew I would have to get crafty with a few objects we already had. 

First up was a cute, little tray I picked up from Target awhile back. {Okay, I may have picked up a few ;)}

I love the simple lines and the smaller size. The blue, however was not working form me. 

This project was simple & FREE. I used paint and fabric leftover from our dining room project. I really liked incorporating these colors in a small area in the kitchen because I felt like it helped the two rooms tie in together.

The fabric I used was {literally!} scraps. But I just love it so much, I wanted to make it work :). You can see the line down the center where the two swatches meet up, and I would normally never do this, but since I knew it was going to be covered up by items anyway, I went ahead a did it. 

Much better, right?!

The other project I did was much smaller, and easier. We have had these three glass storage containers for years. I love the storage, LOVE that they are glass & not plastic, but haaaaate the ugly, old wooden tops. We picked them up from a thrift store for a song, so I can't really complain. 

As you can see, I added labels using this tutorial on how to make my own chalkboard labels. The next step was  a light sanding and paint. Luckily, I still had some gray enamel paint leftover from the desks in our family room, so I was able to use that for the tops. 

Then for a little added fun, I used a stencil on the top. I purposefully have each one a little different because I like the eclectic vibe it gives. 

Oddly, my favorite, is the one I messed up on - my foam brush still had too much water in it when I used it, so it caused a lot of the paint to bleed through the stencil: 

It's a small detail, but I think they look a ton better. 

Happy Tuesday!

xo,

Rachel