What shoe lookin’ at?

Tags

entryway, Hemnes, Ikea, mudroom, shoe storage

Not my shoes. Not anymore!

Shoes. We love them. But we hate they way they multiply and cluster near the entrances to our home. At least I always have.

At our last house we kept them corralled in a basket, but it was M-E-S-S-Y. The girls would dig through to find a match spilling the other residents of the basket out around them. It also wasn’t too nice for the shoes, either. Maddie’s school shoes gave my white converse a wicked tread mark and Josh’s work boots smooshed the heck outta Emily’s Hello Kitty mary janes. It was not a good system.

Here at our new house, we enter through the laundry room into a small hall off the dining and kitchen (check out the floor plan here or here). I knew this would be the locale for our kicks, but I didn’t want it to be a hot mess. For one, it’s a narrow space, and two, you can see it from the front door!!!

Enter the Ikea Hemnes shoe cabinet. It fits perfectly in our little hallway and has 4 compartments. One for each member of our family.

Does it hold all our shoes? Of course not. But it does keep the everyday pairs right by the door for quick retrieval on our way out and neat stashing on the way in. (On a side note, my black converse are DERTEE!)

And as a bonus, its a great dumping ground for my husband’s stuff. His ish. His loot that would otherwise litter my kitchen island each evening. I put a little tray on top for the stuff he grabs most often and he has sole discretion (minus the few things I stashed in there until he complains) on the contents of the oh-so-cute little top drawer.

 

And the very best part…

It looks good from the front door!

Everybody’s doing it! {Lack Hack}

Tags

furniture makeover, herringbone, Ikea, Lack, side table, stain

I’m not really a bandwagon jumper. I mean, I have a red couch (although not for long…). How early 2000s of me?! But, after having an Ikea Lack side table for a few years, I knew it was time to give it a facelift. So I hopped on the hack train and prettied up the belly button (everybody’s got one!) of the decor blog world.

My initial thought was just to make it a bit higher. It wasn’t really user friendly with our furniture. I mean, I had to bend my wrist down OVER the arm of the couch to reach my Diet Pepsi. How horrible is that?? Here it is before I fancied it up (oh, and that’s our base house in New Orleans. Note the vinyl wood plank flooring. Not too shabby, huh?).

So originally I was just going to add some cute feet or wheels. But, this post inspired me to do something much more creative. Even my husband is impressed. I gave my Ikea Lack side table a Herringbone top, lower shelf, and a few casters to jazz it up.

KariAnne used paint stir sticks for her table, but I didn’t have enough on hand and the guy at Lowe’s only offered me 3 when I asked if he had any to spare. I didn’t really want to be creepy and visit 4-5 times a week for a couple weeks and ask each employee in the paint section for more. Well, I kinda did, but I was WAAAY to impatient and ready to get started.

So, I bought pine lattice and it worked out great. It comes in different lengths but I used 2-ish 8 foot lengths. It cost about $7 per piece (and this was taken last September, hence the fall magazines. I’m ready! No, I’m not summer. I’m so sorry I ever said it. You are a beautiful season, too).

I’m not gonna walk you through a tutorial because there’s already a great one at Thistlewood Farms, but I’ll tell you what I did differently.

As I already mentioned, I used lattice instead of paint sticks. Secondly, and unfortunately for me, I cut each piece with a hand saw and miter box. They are 5 inches each, which is just a length I eyeballed and decided would look nice. But I wish I’d been a little more scientific with the measuring of the top and the mapping out of the pieces. And yes. It did take forever. Especially the little bitty pieces at the end, which if I’d planned a little better I wouldn’t have had to cut. But, I just flopped out a drop cloth on my living room floor and sawed away while I watched TV (Call the Midwife, to be precise) in the evening. And don’t just eyeball the length. They need to be pretty close to the same to make the herringbone pattern work.

Also, I sanded down the edges all the way around to make it more even and uniform. I just used painters tape on the table to protect it from the sander. You can see it’s not perfect, but honestly, that’s not what we’re all about over here and G&JG.

And finally, I chose a darker stain. I went with Minwax Provincial, which is kinda my go to color (it reminds me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast and who doesn’t love France?!). I thought it worked better with the black-brown color of the Lack laminate.

I added a piece of plywood (also stained Provincial) that I had cut at Lowe’s. It’s attached directly through the Lack legs using screws through the casters.

Those little wheels are the only hiccup in my plan. I ordered some REALLY cool casters from Amazon. But, after a few weeks when they hadn’t shown up I realized that I had shipped them to our old house in Las Vegas. I texted an old neighbor and they tried to ask the new owner, but didn’t have any luck. So, boo. I didn’t want to spend the money to buy the pricey set again so I just grabbed some generic ones at the hardware store. I keep intending to add a little gold Rub n Buff, but I just haven’t gotten to it.

But the shelf has been amazing! It gave us a little extra height to make the table more functional (along with the height of the wheels) and provides a great surface for blankets, magazines, books, board games, etc.

So there she is. My Lack hack. I think she deserves a new name since she’s hardly recognizable. I’m gonna go with Laquita. And yeah, the “q” gives her street cred.

Here’s the moo-ah breakdown:

Table: $0 (already had it)

Pine Lattice: $21

Wood glue: $0 (already had it)

Wood filler: $0 (already had it)

Plywood: $5

Stain: $0 (already had it)

Casters: $20

Total: $46

Not completely a “cheap” project, especially if you need to buy all the supplies, but I’m so happy with it and haven’t gotten SO many compliments. And even though this project has been finished (except for those casters!) for a few months, I’m excited to see how I’ll work it into the new decor at this house. I worked so hard on it. I hope it doesn’t get relegated to the basement (sad face).

Have you hacked the Lack? Do you have a side table makeover to share? Any questions about creating the herringbone pattern? Let me know!

{Linked up at Miss Mustard Seed – Furniture Feature Friday}