creative little daisy

Because I love a good challenge...

My new friend Linda who blogs at It All Started With Paint, has put forth a very intriguing challenge. Tackle that project you have feared, dreaded, or just plain believed impossible. The time has come to stop putting it off, look that project in the eye and tell it who's the boss. Turn your impossible projects into impossiblities.

Linda plans to finally give her master bedroom the makeover she's been dreaming of by facing her fear of heights. She has mile high vaulted ceilings in her bedroom, well maybe I exaggerate, but man, she's going to need a ladder and a long roller handle. How about cutting in? How will she do that? Is she scared? Yes, but she her desire for a newly decorated sanctuary is stronger than her fears.

I had to think a bit before settling on what would be my impossiblility. Not much in the realm of DIY scares me. Many shake at the thought of painting their kitchen cabinets. I've painted mine a few times.

I've tackled slipcovers, I've changed light fixtures. The one thing I've yet to attempt is building something from wood. I don't mind using power tools. I just get all anxious at the idea of precision cuts and joining wood.

When I gave my bar a makeover I cannot tell you how many cuts I had to redo. That old measure twice cut once adage, how about measure three or four times and still cut half a dozen times.

I got a Kreg Jig for my birthday, and it's still in the box. I see other bloggers using plans from the amazingly talented and generous Anna White and I want to be able to say I built a book case or a bench. I just haven't been able to face my fears and just try. I get dizzy just thinking about the math involved. Did you know a 2x4 does not actually measure 2 inches by 4 inches?

I have a sofa table pinned that John of Young House of Love made. I have the same sectional, so I know the dimensions he used will work for me. I pinned it with the intention of convincing Mitch to make it. He really deserves a break from my never ending honey-do list, so I'm taking Linda's challenge. I'm going to build that sofa table. I think I can, I think I can...

Just call me Tim the Tool Man...

I've been power toolin' around here all week and I like it! My bar got a make-over. No plans, just flying by the seat of my pants. Ya'll should know me well enough by now, to know that's just how I roll. I have all these ideas floating around in my head, and I never know when they will decide to materialize.

Last week, or was it the week before... anyway, one day I was walking through the kitchen and I don't know what came over me. I just started tearing the beadboard wall paper off the bar. It just happened, really it did.

Pretty, no? This ended up being a bigger job than I imagined and took me a few hours.

Once the old wallpaper was all scraped off, I put up more. The same wallpaper friends. I wanted to start fresh. I figured too may coats of paint and you start to loose the beading effect.

Next came the fun part. Molding! Mitch cut the first few pieces of baseboard for me and I did the rest. It took me a long time. A long time. I made many, many trips to the garage to cut and re-cut, but my my thighs and kitchen are the better for it. I used muscles I forgot I had with all that bending and squatting. If I did this for a living I'd have buns of steel.  I cut, nailed, caulked, and painted it all. by. my. self!

This photo shows where things got complicated. I replaced the baseboard with a taller board and brought it around to the side of the cabinet, where there had been none before. Figuring out how to tie it in with the cabinets nearly fried my brain. I do not kid when I say I sat on the floor for hours, at that very spot pictured, scratching my head and playing with molding. I looked at countless photos on the internet, consulted Mitch, scratched my head some more. Finally I rigged up something that seemed like it was going to work.

Kinda crude looking, but nothing some caulk can't fix.

Caulk? My new bff. We're tight, me and some caulk, cause my seams aren't always so tight.

I found these brackets at the Salvation Army several months ago. I didn't know what I'd use them for at the time, but for a dollar a piece, I knew I'd find something.

I actually enjoyed the priming and painting.

I love it, and now I want to put molding on everything.

The front is still black. I hope I can get that painted this week. 

Want to see the many faces of my kitchen through the years? Sure you do.

Now brace yourself for the original, 90s version. Be warned, it's a little scary.

I know, right? What was I thinking?  Man, there's a lot going on there. Sorry I exposed you to that. I hope it doesn't cause any bad dreams.

I'll be sharing this project at some of these fun linkie parties.