Pepper Design Blog

Girls’ Room: Built-Ins Are Being Built!

This is happening around here and it’s very exciting!!

Remember back here when I shared about the bookshelf inspiration for the new nursery for the girls?

Liv’s room doesn’t have a closet (nixed that when we built the new bathroom) and suddenly storage became a key factor and a big consideration when redesigning the kids’ room for baby #2. We are bursting at the seams with Liv, and even though we’ll scale back and keep only the essentials, this built-in bookcase is going to be fantastic for the space!! Check out those deep toy drawers and the tall bookshelves waiting to be filled with critical kid supplies. Ahhh, I can hardly wait.

Kevin teamed up with our amazing neighbor who is a retired carpenter and who happened to hear about our plans to build the shelving and window seat unit. I cannot believe how fortunate we are to have him as a friend .

We opted for a craftsman, Shaker-style design so that the built-ins would match our kitchen (which now has near matching cabinetry). I’m thinking of purchasing the same pulls to keep the look and feel consistent?

Next up, painting and installation!

Inspiration pictures from DecorPad (can’t find the original owner of that great blue kid’s room) and Centsational Girl.

Pinterest Challenge: DIY Succulent Planter Box

I have a fun project to share with you today!

I’ve been on the hunt for a neat centerpiece (to either DIY or buy) for the big outdoor table that Kevin built on our new deck and am so happy with how this oversized planter’s box project has turned out. My favorite might be the pops of color in the form of five added geometric hexagons.

Succulents and I get along really well, and they look so pretty all together in one large container! I’ve been wanting to play with them more in our garden in unique ways, maybe even designing a succulent wall along the back bbq area.

The hexagon pattern wraps over the top edges of the box and along one corner as well, I love the symmetrical pattern and how the painted shapes work together but provide their own little bursts of bright, unexpected color.

I was actually inspired to finally getting around to finishing this project by Katie and Sherry’s Spring Pinterest Challenge:

It provided the inspiration needed to pull my materials together and take a couple of hours to build, stain, paint and plant my new succulent centerpiece. The goal of the challenge is to take a pinned idea and make it happen – here’s my pinned inspiration:

This lovely wooden planter box from The Growing Wall and these neat felt hexagon shapes by Squared Array. I imagined them as potentially very pretty when combined together.

Let’s get into the nitty gritty…

The process for building my initial planter was pretty simple. To keep material costs on the low end, I purchased a single piece of 24×28″ plywood from Lowe’s and asked the technician to cut the board horizontally into three strips  that were 24×6.5″ in size and the remaining 24×6.5″ piece into two 6.5″ square sides. That used up just about every inch of the wood perfectly (I had just one large rectangle left over).

Cutting plywood often causes freying at the edges so if I had needed a more exact cut I might have opted for real (rather than compressed) wood instead. But this worked out perfectly as the cuts were kept to a minimal and the plywood cost just $6! And all of the cuts were made at Lowe’s so I didn’t have to bring the board home, pull out the table saw and add that extra step to the process.

Thanks, Lowe’s man.

To nail the box together I used small tack nails that I had on hand.

As well as my trusty floral hammer! No need to dig through the garage and pull out a massive hammer from the tool chest, I really love having my smaller-than-average tools in my office and waiting for everyday use.

I placed a nail every 3″ or so along all edges of the box that met with another edge. 32 nails and one finger later, and the planter box was assembled.

To hide the silver tops of the nails, I used a stainable wood filer that we had on hand (but I would say that this step is optional).

And to remove any pesky store barcode stickers (why do they make them actual stickers??), a little Goo Gone.

We have a decently sized stain collection from various projects in our garage so I chose from two of the lighter finishes. I ended up using both the “ash” and “oak” (oak first followed by a quick layering of ash) to give the box a slightly birchy, slightly weathered look.

With the glare of the light it’s hard to see the finished stain coat here, but the coloring came out just as I had hoped.

I stained the first few inches of the inside of the box as well, the rest will be filled with soil and will be pretty much unnoticeable.

To make my hexagon painted shapes, I printed out a basic hexagon outline (using the Illustrator shapes feature) on to cardstock. Feel free to download my copy here. Laying out the cut out shapes in various formations helped me to come up with a final pattern.

Using that pattern as my template, I taped out the various paintable hexagons one at a time.

And slowly filled in the taped off areas with various colors. You can see that I left a sliver of wood showing between each shape, I love that little detail.

Press down solidly on those edges to prevent any under tape bleeding! And as soon as you’ve applied the paint to the wood, pull up that tape right away for a flaw free line.

Next up was planting. I found it was cheaper to purchase most of my succulents in one large prearranged plastic round planter from Lowe’s (that I broke apart and replanted), then supplemented with littler containers and cactus from our garden.

Finished!

A new, pretty centerpiece that is just the right size for our 12 person table. This will look great in the summer for outdoor picnics and parties – I’m picturing a pretty table set in whites and navy blues, or even pinks and mint greens to compliment the colors of the planter box.

The hexagon shapes are definitely my favorite part.

I will be linking this project up with the four hosts of this season’s challenge: Katie, Sherry, Emily and Renee. Check out all of the great projects!!

Here’s a link to my previous Pinterest Challenge projects (including the fireplace facade that has an exciting announcement to make soon, an ombre step stool for Liv, faux gold mercury glass, a chevron cloth napkin project, a painter’s tape stenciled hallway and so many more fun ideas…).

Kitchen Update: Our Den-to-Kitchen Remodel Feels… Finished

It’s not, I can count on two hands the projects in progress for this big guy, but these last two updates that I’m sharing today make the kitchen feel so very (almost) finished!

First up, we added molding to the end cabinets of our kitchen island and boxed in fridge, and I have to say that it makes all of the difference in the world.

See how the end of the island is boxed in shaker-style now, just like the cabinets? Maybe it’s just me… but now I walk into the room and it feels so… finished! Sometimes it’s the little details like trim work (that very last 10% that you put off for years and years) that make all of the difference.

Here’s a reminder of the before:

Naked, naked island. The raw piece of wood there on the end of the island always stood out like a sore thumb to me… and the tile toe kick had a groutless rough top edge that needed to be covered up.

Oh so much better! We designed the island to be really, really oversized, so we couldn’t order a cabinet door (sans handles of course) to cap the island with when we purchased the rest of the cabinets (which is sort of standard in kitchen finish work). They just don’t make doors that big. We could have ordered two separate doors and bumped them up against each other (so that they had a long seam down the middle), but I always imagined that with a little creativity we could come up with a cleaner solution.

Two and a half years later and it finally happened. It’s just one of those projects that you put off and off because it’s definitely more visual than practical .

And the fridge? She received a trim covered update, too.

That was before Grandma’s art was added there on the end wall, I do love that bright, happy pop of yellow.

Sadly, my trellis print runner had to go. A rug right underneath a hot stove and in the main thoroughfare of our house was not practical… it either caught and held on to Bodie hair like nobody’s business or had grease stains on a very regular basis. I do miss the look of that pattern though… (see trimless kitchen pic above).

I spilled the beans a bit when I posted on the semi-diy botanical chart art (you can see the trim peeking out in the back there), but it’s all completely finished now!

The second major update? We finally had the ceiling fixed between the new kitchen and what was (at one time prior to us in the house) a separate room.

See that miss match of plaster up there? Attic entries have been covered up and moved… central air was added two years ago… a wall (where that giant lip is) taken down at some point…

After a week or so of this:

We had this!

I’m not sure why I took the after photo from a different angle… but you see the idea. It’s wonderful! Another one of those 10% projects that doesn’t make the room any more practical, but suddenly the space feels 10x more complete – those little details subconsciously work away at you.

This was one project that we actually hired out. Lately that’s been happening with some of the ‘finish’ type work, and I’m not really disappointed at all (as I always thought I’d be if we couldn’t manage something ourselves over a Saturday morning). Kev only has time for so much… and sometimes to get that last 10% crossed off of the list you have to save up a bit and hire someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, and can finish that project super quickly. In this case, we’ve just added an awesome new plaster guy and window reburbisher to our rolodex.

I had the camera out, the kitchen clean, and even a cake plate of lemons… so I took a few more obligatory photos of the space.

And just for fun, four before shots to get an idea of how the kitchen and den in this room used to look.

Here’s two shots of the kitchen from practically the same point in the room, just 5 or so years apart (before we moved in and today):

Moving the kitchen from the middle of the house (which is now an office) to the back den was something we had debated quite a bit… but it really is nice to throw open those big sliding doors and integrate the outside with the in.

You can see the dining table just passed the island…

And when the doors are open, the outdoor deck, dining space and fireside area are connected directly with the kitchen.

There you have it, two updates (trimming the end caps of the kitchen island and fridge plus new plaster on the ceiling) that have made a big difference!

I’m thinking that one of the new projects for the kitchen might be a DIY pendant over the new breakfast nook, and a little hint at another definitely has to do with the pantry. Little things always pop up .

PS All den-to-kitchen remodel posts (and kitchen updates like the botanical chart and calendar art) can be found here.