Feature Friday: Blue Roof Cabin

Happy Friday Everyone! Are you as ready for this weekend as I am? We have 2 Easter Egg Hunts to look forward to and I'm taking Con-Man to a Mommy/Son brunch on Sunday. Yay! Some other news- we found out that Tiny Falcon #2 is a Boy! We had the ultrasound yesterday in Oklahoma City. Yay! Con-Man is going to be a good big brother! Now I can start thinking of ideas for the nursery.


Today I'd like to introduce you to Michelle from Blue Roof Cabin. She loves to build, she loves to repurpose, and she asks for power tools for Christmas. My kind of gal!


Her first project that caught me eye was these awesome built in shelves she made for her dining room. I love the way she made them look like they have always been in the home. It sounds like it took a lot of work! Building, replacing floors, staining painting. It turned out great!

And look at this banquet she made from salvaged doors from the ReStore. Be still my heart! 

In another repurposing project she turned an old stereo cabinet into a useful shelving unit. How smart is that? I've seen lots of old cabinets at the Goodwill- now I know what I could do with them.

Michelle also has some great paint and refinishing projects. Like this cute crate that she built then painted. I love the quote she chose!

And this beautiful armoire before and after:

I am so inspired and in awe of all the things Michelle has made. I hope you enjoyed this peek into Michelle's blog Blue Roof Cabin! 

And I hope you'll check back next week- I'm finally done with Con-Man's Big Boy Bed. It's ready to be assembled and I'll have some pics for you on Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend and happy creating!

Accessorize Your Home For Free

Lately I have been finding that if I want any sort of accessories for my home I've been turning to projects I can make for free or recycling objects I already have. This is partly because of the fact that we live over an hour from the nearest a home decor store and we're always trying to save money.


While doing some Spring/ Easter decorating this was also true. So it made me think that I'd round up some accessory ideas that you can make for free.


Mother Nature is always willing to lend a hand in your decorating adventures.


Branches spray painted white make a bold statement anywhere in your home. 

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Here's one that I picked up and painted the other day:

You can also leave branches natural. I used a branch as my Easter Tree on my mantle instead of buying one from the store. Still needs a few more "ornaments" but we're working on it.

You can even turn branches into great modern wall art!

Martha Stewart shows us how to use pine cones in lots of different ways for some Fall/Winter Decorating:

A scrap of lumber leftover from a past project can become a Wood Tealight Holder.

And along those same lines, a thick branch from a tree can also serve as a homemade tealight holder:

I also love all the great art people come up with using paint chips:

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Recycling things that would otherwise be thrown away is a great way to accessorize your home. Wine bottles are one of the first things that come to my mind. Here's a link to great round up of Wine Bottle Crafts and a few inspiration images:

Or how about sprucing up something you already have? I am digging these paint dipped wooden spoons!

Spicing up everyday items in your home instead of buying new:

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Or reusing something you have no use for anymore in a new way. Like old sweaters turned into cozy pillows.

I feel like I could go on and on forever but hopefully these ideas will get your wheels turning. Next time your thinking of heading out to the store to buy an accessory for your home take a look around first; you never know what you might find or cool idea you might come up with!

Gallery Wall- Fini!

I hope everyone had a fantastic spring weekend! 


We had some great weather here in Oklahoma  so we tried to spend as much time outside as possible. And we went to see the Hunger Games!! I didn't make it to the wood shop like I had hoped (they were closed for Spring Break!) but I did finally get our family gallery wall together.


I feel like I've been talking about it and working on it forever. I needed to fill this blank wall in our living room. 

So slowly but surely I collected frames from our local thrift stores and then painted them all white.

I also decided to add some other personal touches. Like this Letter F to represent our last name; Falcon.

And a Fleur De Lis I found at Hobby Lobby to show our Louisiana heritage.

I also added some of Con-Man's artwork that I can change out every once in a while. He gets a kick of seeing things he made hung on the wall.

Once I gathered everything together I set about laying out my frames. There are some great tutorials out there on how to lay out and hang your frames, but I just winged it in the end. (I'm lazy what can I say?) I measured my wall width and height. Then figured that I would leave about a foot of space on either end and center the middle photos at eye level.

Then laid of my frames on the floor beneath my barren wall.

Then I began to hang them starting from the center most frames and worked my way out. 

I will have to say this is not a fool proof method- I had to rehang a few pictures higher or lower. So I ended up with a few extra nail heads but it didn't take long- my kind of project! I think it turned out pretty good. I love having our family photos displayed.

If your itching to try a gallery wall of your own but don't want to wing it like I did here are some great tutorials on how to go about it:

Brooklyn Limestone

Nothing But Bonfires

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Happy Hanging!

Feature Friday: Paint Speckled Paw Prints

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope everyone has had enjoyable week. It was Spring Break here in Alus so Con-Man had no MDO. So that meant no wood shop for me this week. I hoping to get in there on Saturday and work on our Basketball Floor Dining Table. 


Do you have any plans for the weekend?


I also wanted to share with you another awesome DIY Blogger I came across- Kristen from Paint Speckled Pawprints. She and her Hubby are fixing up their new home and have lots of fun DIY projects to share.


I'm a sucker for Pallet projects so when I saw their Floating Pallet Shelves I was hooked. How cool are these?

Kristen also framed out the builder grade mirrors in her bathroom. She was tired of the plain look and took on the job herself! I love the new look.

Kristen does lots of fun crafty stuff as well. I love these Silhouettes she painted of her puppies! So cute!

And a fun Springtime Wreath: I love the colors even though Kristen makes sure to note that she and her husband are not LSU fans. What?! I thought everyone was an LSU Fan- I guess that's just my family...

She also has lots of great tips like Refinishing Cabinetry: (Love the bold paint color)

Using your tools:

Even car safety basics!

So if your looking for DIY adventures and fun projects go check out Kristen's Blog Paint Speckled Pawprints!

Have a great weekend everyone!

DIY IKEA Inspired Wooden Book Holder

Woo Hoo! Another project completed for Con-Man's Room! He has a lot of books and I had them piled in this cube shelf:

Since we're bringing in a bigger bed and transferring the cube shelf to the new baby's room I needed some kind of storage for his books. I saw this cute idea on Pinterest:

Isn't that neat? Those are the Bekvam Spice Racks from Ikea. I liked it because they don't take up floor space and it will be easy to see for Con-Man all the books.

They are only $4 each- since I need a few of them I thought they were my perfect solution. But problem: Bekvam is not available for order online and the closest Ikea is over 4 hours away. 4 hours isn't a bad drive is your in the market for a bed or sofa, but the cost of gas trumps $4 spice racks.

So I started thinking, what's better than $4 spice racks? How about FREE ones!!

I had wood leftover from Con-Man's bed and a few scraps of dowel rod laying around from my wreath project, surely I could make my own.

This is what I came up with based on the dimensions given on Ikea's website:

(Look at me all fancy with Sketch-Up!)

If you want to make some of these yourself here's what you need:

3/4" pine board or MDF (I used a mix of both)

1/2" Dowel Rod

1 1/4" wood screws

Wood Glue

First I started by cutting my wood down to size. 

Cut 1 long piece to 1' 3 3/4" long x 3 1/2" wide, and 2 short pieces 2 3/4" x 3 1/2" for the sides. Cut your dowel about 1' 3" long.

After your pieces are cut, drill a 1/2" hole for your dowel rod in front center of each of your side pieces. I used a drill press for this but you could use a drill bit like I used here, just a smaller size.

Next add a little bit of wood glue to the bottom of the side piece and clamp one of the side pieces to the end of the bottom. (I used the other side piece as a support, but did not glue it at this time) Predrill a hole for your screws. Then screw 2 wood screws to secure the side.

Next add some wood glue to the holes of the sides pieces and insert your dowel. Add more wood glue to the second side piece and place it at the other end of the bottom piece. Then predrill some holes into the bottom wood piece and insert your screws.

Let it all dry and your done! If you used all pine you could leave it natural or stain it. I used a mix of MDF and pine so I painted mine. I sanded them a bit to add some age and wear.

Then added hooks on either side and hung them in the same manner I hung his chalk/ art supply holders.

Time to add books!

These book holders came together really quickly and we pretty easy to make. I'd love to hear if anyone else has used the spice racks as book shelves, or are thinking of making some of your own!

Linking Here! and here