Quilts on a Ladder

I found this picture on Pinterest awhile ago, and I'd been dreaming about finding an antique ladder to hang quilts on ever since.

Love this one too. Especially covered in cashmere blankets. Sigh. As if.

Quick side note - when was the last time you said, "As if?" It seemed relevant in this post.

Fast forward to the day I decided I wanted a ladder for my living room. If you want one too, here's my advice. Good stinking luck finding one. If you can find one on Craigslist, it will likely cost a zillion dollars. And that's a huge IF. So unless you are already a garage saler / antique fair stalker, I don't know how you will find one.

Unless you are supremely lucky and the universe is smiling upon you.

I'm working on a project with a teacher whose parents love to antique shop. I mentioned months ago how much I'd love to have an antique ladder, and that if her parents found one I'd gladly buy it. This was pre-Christmas. It was awhile ago.

Fast forward again to last week. I came home from a meeting and saw this beautiful piece of wonderfulness next to my front door!

Even Instagram can't save my crappy photos. Oi.

I asked Zac where it came from and he said, "Some lady just came by and said it was for you?" My teacher-friend's parents had found it and gave it to me! And it's GLORIOUS -- It's about 8 feet tall, and has so many rungs, for so many quilts!!

My grandmother is bringing me some of her quilts when she comes to visit in June, but here it is filled in the mean time:

Do you love it??

It is SO tall!! Here's a view of it in the living room:

Another shot:

Don't worry. Taking a photography class is high up on my list of things to do after graduation!

If you're curious about the quilts...

1. Second quilt I ever made... still my favorite.
2. Quilt Zac's grandfather made. So precious that we have it.
3. Quilt Gramma made me for Christmas a few years ago.
4. Our Christmas quilt. It's a placeholder!!
5. I love this quilt. My gramma pieced it by hand from scraps. We only saw her a few times a year when we were younger, and I remember her making it over multiple visits. There's even a square that I added that has my name on it! It's GIANT, and it's so special.

What do you think about the ladder? Be honest. It's more country chic than we usually do in our house, but it's so unique and I think with modern quilts it isn't too much? Reassure me, please!!

Our creepy basement, part II

When we left off, I had aired our dirty laundry (no pun intended) and showed you the worst part of our house. Our genius plan for awhile has been to build some shelves to make better storage and help us organized all of the things we need to permanently store down there. We have a teeny tiny kitchen, and things like our crock-pot, bread machine, etc. all have to live in the basement when they aren't being used.

Why did we choose to build shelves instead of buy them? Good question. It ended up costing us $80 for the wood and screws, which is a pretty considerable cost. Buying similar quality metal or plastic shelves would have cost almost as much, and we needed ours to be "custom." Our ceilings are so low and our floors are so un-level, that building made the most sense for us.

So... first step to building custom shelves is to buy a huge pile of wood at Lowe's. Second step is to find this happening:

She is crazy. It doesn't matter what new thing you bring into the house - if you set it on the floor, she wants to lay on it.

Firs,t we cut the wood. We loosely followed these instructions here.

Got distracted and had to take a picture of Zac. He's cute when he's building stuff!

We started by building these frames. Don't get too excited - these are NOT fancy shelves!

Then we added the second half of the frames.

The plywood goes on top to make shelves.

To give you an idea of where they go in the basement.

And of course, the cat helped, by snoozing on whatever old, dirty suitcase she could find. And giving me the stink eye when I tried to take her picture.

Here's the final product. Much better than the random pile that was laying there earlier! Now all we need to do is load them up!!

A peek into my closet

I can't wait any longer to show you my new closet!

You may remember a long time ago (like, April) when I noticed a little "nook" in our bedroom that was the perfect size for a closet. So perfect, in fact, that I convinced Zac and his dad that we should turn it into one.

See, I'm sort of the ideas person in this relationship. I say things like, "Wouldn't it be cool if we built a second closet? How long would that take, like 2 hours?"  Six months later, I'm eating my words.

I'm convinced that the secret to marital happiness is going to be having two closets. It's not that I don't love Zac. I do. And it's not that I don't want to have children with him. I do. And it's not that I don't want to grow old together. I do. I just don't see why our clothes need to be squished together while we're doing all of those things!

The closet started out looking something like this. (Note to self: stop forgetting to take before pictures). This is actually the closet in the sewing room, which is a mess. Don't judge.

Door open

Doors closed.

A quick note on mirrored closet doors. I hate them. Sort of. I got used to having a mirror when I got dressed so quickly, and while I miss that, I can't say I miss living in an aerobics studio!

So... here's the transformation!

I love this guy.

I think it looks like I need more clothes??

Yay! What do you think?? Obviously the room itself has a lot left to go (like painting), but I think this is a big improvement!

Oh, and I can't tell you how to do it. Because apparently it's super hard and takes about 6 months. The fact that our house slopes seemed to complicate things. And it cost WAY more than we expected. But I love it!

Building with Wood - The Big Reveal!

It took a while, but our wooden box is finally finished!

We built it using these plans from Ana at Knock Off Wood - thanks Ana!

It was a PROCESS. I had every intention of learning to use all the tools, but I ultimately decided to let Zac do the sawing.  It just didn't seem like fun.  I did help measure though, organized our piles and did some hardcore drilling while Zac was at work.

We had a lot of fun working on the box together.  I have a big list of plans to tackle next (dining room table, chairs, wine cabinet, sewing craft table, desk) so it sounds like we'll be spending some more creative time together soon.

So... without further delay - our finished box!

Yay! So pretty!

Holding some of the patio cushions. You know - since they don't all fit!

Straight on view

Close-up of our less than square box.

Cheesy pose!

We wanted to tackle a "beginner" project before jumping onto what we hope will become a family heirloom (dining room table). I can't imagine this one will stay in the family forever, but we sure had a lot of fun building it.  Hope you like it!

You can view the rest of the process here and here.

Building with Wood, Part II

I had to work late tonight, but Zac decided to go ahead and keep building.

Dilemma: the weather here is stormy tonight. So in all of his infinite wisdom, he just kept building - in the dining room.

So this is what we have to show so far:

For our first wood project, I'd say it's pretty good!

With the lid (no hinges yet)

It looks huge, but apparently we have GIGANTIC patio furniture cushions, because only two sets will fit! Not sure where the other two will live yet... bummer!

It took less than 2 minutes for the Soph to get in on the action. Which means the box has cat hair and the cat has sawdust. Dining room is still a mess - so who cares??

Still needs to get painted and the top and bottom securely attached, and then we'll be able to store half of our patio cushions!  More coming soon!

Building with Wood, Part I

I wanted to wait until we were finished building our masterpiece, but I'll end up with way too many pictures and you'll get bored.

So... here's the beginning. We're building a box for the patio where we can keep all of our cushions. I found Ana's blog Knock-Off Wood right before we bought our new house, and I've been dreaming about building things ever since.  Since it involves power tools, Zac was in.

We have grand plans for a table, craft desk and sewing desk, office furniture, etc., but we decided to start with something clearly labeled BEGINNER so that whatever we mess up won't be on something we hope to have forever (ie: dining room table and chairs).

We started with a big pile of wood (they're 8 feet long!) which was probably the most overwhelming part.

My good-looking and talented boyfriend soon cut it down to size, with a lot of help from me. And I'm serious about that! I did the measuring and moving of boards. Important work!

By the end of the day yesterday, we had made this!

I built this piece today while Zac was at work - by myself!  Is it perfect? Nope. Is it totally awesome? Yes! I built that BY MYSELF.  Pretty much, that means I rock.

Sanding this small piece already had me re-evaluating how much I want to refinish the kitchen cabinets!

Not a bad start, right??

Oh - and what happens when you don't have a garage and you're worried about rain during your building project? Your dining room looks like this:

YUCK!

We can't do anything tomorrow (both of us have to work late) but hopefully by Thursday we'll have everything put together.  It's going to get a pretty color paint, which is the only thing left to surprise you with, so you'll have to wait for that!