Killer b. Designs

Framed

I took advantage of having the Husbane home yesterday to build a frame for the poster I designed. Using a 1×2 cedar board for $3, I made a custom frame using the same method I talked about here. Though this time, I had a secret weapon. This guy: Our very own nail gun and air …

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Iron Stegosaurus

Yup. That’s an iron Stegosaurus in my garden. He’s pretty much the coolest thing ever. On a whim I decided to take Charlie for a stroll downtown and check out the shops. That’s where I found this guy. He hails from Mexico, and even though I knew I’d be there soon on vacation, I didn’t …

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WIWOT: InSwimwear ads

Need the perfect little black suit? Hop on over to InSwimwear and find one before you hit the beach! (or in my case, the river!) I really wanted a sleek and sexy look for these, and I love how it turned out. Plus, now I get to find my perfect suit for swim season! …

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Baby Scooter Rocking Toy

*Disclaimer: If anyone out there is suffering from Baby Rabies, your uterus may just explode from the cuteness of this post. Seriously. This makes ME want another baby, and I’m not even a baby person!* So, back in high school, I played the bass guitar. The only reason this happened was because I played the …

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Evie’s Birth Announcement

A friend of mine contacted me to design a birth announcement for a new mama in her life. I wanted to do something fun and a little different from the crisp, flush designs I’ve seen hanging around Pinterest. This was inspired by a transparent washi tape look, with bright girly colors. I hope the proud …

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Framed Iron Stegosaurus WIWOT: InSwimwear ads Baby Scooter Rocking Toy Evie’s Birth Announcement

Vintage Screen Pantry Door

Categories:

House

May 22, 2013

by Brooke

One of the best perks about being a flea market vendor is that you get to hang around all day and shop. Plus I have a little extra cash burning a hole in my pocket every time I make a sale. For May’s market, I stumbled on this amazingly beautiful old screen door. Oh, and the best part? It was only $65! I’d been waiting and searching for a good pantry door since we started building, and just hadn’t found the right one. I thought I’d have to build one myself, which would have been in the 60-75 dollar range. So when I saw this, I immediately high-tailed it back to my booth to grab the cash and sent Jacob back to pick it up.

What’s funny to me is that my booth up until then was having a bit of a slow day (we all were, surprisingly) but when Jacob came back and propped that door in the back until it was time to load I was literally blocking people from coming after it! I kept having to tell them, “No, this is MY door I bought around the corner, I’m not losing this one!” My family thought I was a bit nuts to not mark it up and resell for a profit, but I just knew this door was *the one*. And it is. It is the most absolutely perfect door for our kitchen pantry.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that it doesn’t actually sit inside the frame. The door measurements were 3′ wide by 7′ tall, which didn’t quite fit my 31″ x 96″ opening. Not to be deterred, I made it work in our space. I just couldn’t bring myself to cut down six inches of width, so I simply decided it could sit over the frame like a cabinet door. We just used three plain old gate hinges from my dad’s stash.

Blends in, doesn’t it? For the top gap, I made a transom window frame with some scrap cedar 1×2′s and nailed it into place. I also wanted to try out a stained glass look so I whipped up a faux window with some plexiglass and hot glue. I’ll post more on that next.

As the door wasn’t sitting inside the frame, we had to rig up the knob. We removed the back knob and the interior hardware and used putty epoxy to keep the old knob in place. You can see the white rim of putty just barely. To keep the door shut, I again raided my dad’s latch supply and found this old bathroom-style catch. All I did was bend half around the side of the door with a hammer, then screwed it into place. It’s perfect! Very subtle, and simple enough for the adults to do while keeping toddler hands at bay. Now I no longer need to fear looking up to see her dumping an entire bottle of syrup into a bowl on the couch. Yikes.

I am by far and away thrilled with how well the door fits in with the style of our kitchen. It’s the perfect shade of teal that it contrasts well with the red and blends with the gray on the cabinets. Plus it fits the whole vintage theme I have going on with the range, sink, and farmhouse legs on that island. I’m so, so glad I found it, and that I resisted the urge to make a quick buck to resell it! This door belongs here. Just like that little girl enjoying her bowl of midday ice cream at the table. Because who doesn’t need a noon time snack of mint chocolate chip?!

And on that note, here’s where I need some advice. I really really like my dining table. A lot. But does it work the best in this space? Now that I have the teal door, the lighter blue color on the table seems off. Yes, I could repaint it, but I’m worried that the painted cabinets, pantry door, AND a painted table is just too much paint in one place. I’m considering selling it to find a vintage wooden table instead. One that my sister perhaps has in her dining room right now and asked me to build her a new one because she’s tired of it. So, what do you think? Keep the table, or replace with wood? I can’t resurface this one for two reasons: 1) it’s not real wood, it was a white lacquered laminate originally so I can’t strip it and 2) I don’t know how I’d ever get back to the original woven chair backing color. And while I’m still enamored with those cushions, I’m not sure the pattern blends well with the rug. And I think the rug needs to stay, because I like the color/pattern and its outdoor so it has held up well to the food stains that Charlie throws all over it.

So, let’s take a vote on the table! Keep it, or ditch it?

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Rolling Modern Porch Gate

Categories:

Carpentry, House

May 20, 2013

by Brooke

Well after four thousand, five hundred and sixty-five arguments on execution (as in, how to implement rather than offing each other – though I’m sure it crossed both our minds at some point!) we *finally* have a rolling gate for our back porch! It’s so amazing to be able to shut this sucker off and keep the dogs’ muddy paws off the furniture and give Charlie a safe space to color with chalk.

Building the gate was actually very basic. I measured the opening and added a few inches, cut the top and bottom pieces at 72″, chose 2″ fixed-wheel castors then figured out my necessary height (31″) for the two side pieces. They needed to fit just below the top brace of the railing.

Attaching the panel was different on the gate than on the railing. For the railing, it’s sandwiched between two 1×2′s. On the gate, I couldn’t fit the panel on the slim inch and a half of the wood. So we used some 3/8″ two-hole brackets for the corners for stability, then regular old fencing staples for the interior. You can see my pajama munchkin there, chalk in hand. And pop-tart on face

As far as the latch, I kept it simple. It’s just a hook and eye catch like the kind you see in public restrooms. It’s high enough for little fingers not to reach and not quite easy enough for her to figure out yet.

For the catch side of the gate, we used metal deck (I think?) brackets my dad had on hand. Let me preface this section by saying I am exactly like my father in this respect. We’ll look at a random stash of supplies and brainstorm until we come up with some MacGuiver’d way of solving our problem. This drives my husband absolutely insane. But luckily, this worked so well! The top is a U-shaped bracket fed between the 2×4′s and screwed into place to stop the gate at just the right spot. The bottom is an L bracket with holes that we used to anchor bolts into the concrete and serves as a guide as well as a stopper to keep the gate from slipping out sideways. It’s not a conventional method by any means, but when you’re working with concrete your options are limited. Jacob was wanting to use sliding gate hardware that’s used for barn doors and just run it across the bottom. This would be great on a wooden deck that you can carve out space. Here, I just see myself carrying my toddler while massively pregnant and tripping over the slide, plunging head first down the stairs and breaking all our necks. No bueno. So brackets it is!

For the sliding side of the gate, we used two more L shaped brackets for the top, and one on the bottom at the closed portion of the gate. This keeps it all in line, and again prevents the gate from being pushed sideways. The fixed-wheel castors are great, but you can still make them slip sideways with a good hard shove. For the back side of the lower half, we just anchored in two concrete bolts to keep the gate in line and in place when opened. So far, so good! Everything lines up well, and it’s an easy way to roll the gate open and closed.

Plus it’s pretty minimal when its open, though it does stay shut most of the time. It’s so convenient to just open the doors from the house and let Charlie run in and out, looking for the cows and drawing with her chalk.

Plus its very effective at toddler wrangling. Now I can feed the chickens in the morning without the nagging worry that she’ll try to go up and down the stairs fifteen times and crash down them. I’m really pleased with how minimal the brackets are aesthetically. You hardly notice them when viewing the whole porch area.

Please excuse the mess. We’re in the process of leveling out the dirt for our brick patio, and will eventually mount that lattice for my grapes and blackberries. My dream is to have them grow up the panel as well.

So there you have it! I hope this helps someone out there looking for a rolling/sliding gate option on a concrete porch. I searched for ages and ages looking for an online tutorial and found nothing suitable. Now we have a simple (even if it wasn’t easy coming up with the idea!) solution with an easily operating gate. Just in time for summer too!

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In the Bloglight with Hometalk

Categories:

Misc

May 15, 2013

by Brooke

Hey guys! I was contacted by Hometalk to take part in their In the Bloglight blogger series. If you haven’t discovered Hometalk yet, you need to! It’s a great site full of inspiration and community. I promise you’ll be sucked in for hours.

Part of the excitement of this opportunity is that I finally have an excuse to talk more about the blog and less about the projects. I’ve never addressed a lot of these questions about how I got into blogging or why I bother to do it. Anyway, without further yammering, let’s get to it!

How did you first get into blogging?

I started blogging back in 2008 with a “lifestyle” (aka had no rhyme or reason) blog. In 2010 I got engaged and started focusing on wedding blogging. I wanted to apply to Weddingbee, and was accepted as Miss Sand Dollar by the summer. I blogged about our DIY wedding that we pulled together with $4000 by ourselves and how I basically went insane. Once the wedding was over, I started up a home/DIY blog and named it Killer b. Designs and invited my Weddingbee readership to follow. So thanks to you guys who have been with me since then!

How did you decide on the name of your blog?

I wanted something fun and a little bit daring, and since my name starts with a B I landed on Killer b. and threw in the “designs” because I didn’t know how else to incorporate everything I do. I studied as a graphic designer, have a history of general crafting (sewing, paper crafts, decor, yada yada) and recently have found a passion for carpentry and woodworking. So it wasn’t too scientific, but I’m still really happy with the name and get a kick out of people who address me as “Killer”. It makes me feel like kind of a badass. In a silly way.

Is blogging something you do on the side, or is it a full-time job for you?

It’s still a pipe dream to think I could ever rely on this blog as a source of income. Technically I’m a SAHM and do a little freelance design work on the side, and am making a (slow) go at selling furniture at the local flea market. All my blog revenue (which isn’t much) is donated to charity so I don’t get obsessed with advertisers and page views. I don’t have any current goals or plans in motion to “make it big”.

What was the first project you ever posted?

I used to do a little tshirt screenprinting for a band, the Midnight River Choir. I used my Yudu which worked well enough, but I charged a pittance and the work was tough. So after a few batches I quit. But from there I started wedding projects (DIY “fancy” hair combs and my butterfly bouquets) and they grew from there.

What do your friends and family think about your blog? Do they read all of your updates?

My immediate family barely follows the blog. I’m not sure if they’ve looked at it more than once or twice. My husband lives it so he feels no need to read it too! Though my in-laws like to keep up through it, as well as some friends. I don’t usually post too many controversial things, so I’m not too nervous about anyone I know reading it. And I try to throw a family/baby update here and there so they can check out their adorable kin

How has keeping a blog changed you?

I don’t really think it has, all that much. Mostly I just take more care to document things. I like helping people, but I am a horrible teacher. Much too impatient. So I get my “helping” fix through blog posts!

What is your most popular project on Hometalk to date?

I need to catch up on my Hometalk submissions, but my biggest all-time project there (and on Pinterest, and in blog traffic) is my $10 Washer and Dryer Makeover. It has over a thousand pins and likes, and 85,000 views. Who knew one can of paint could generate so much buzz?!

Who do you follow on Hometalk? What projects/people have inspired you there?

I of course follow the Shanty 2 Chic sisters, Funky Junk Donna, my girl Ashley from Design Build Love, Addicted 2 Decorating and so many more! I’m inspired daily by projects that feature repurposing, which is a passion of mine right now. Anything amazing made from other old things people normally would toss in the dump to rot strikes my fancy. I also love gardening and homesteading posts so I can get advice and tips on growing my own food and raise livestock. Seriously guys, this place is an amazing resource!

Do you stick to a strict posting schedule? How do you keep track of when and how often to post?

No schedule. I find that too much structure burns me out and I procrastinate. Prior to kids I posted nearly every day, and after Charlie I still kept an average of 5 posts per week. Since getting pregnant with my second while raising a toddler, I’ve slowed down a lot. Like one or two posts per week. I’m working on getting that back up to 3-4 posts a week now that I have the energy to do projects that are worth posting about. I’m pretty sure nobody is excited that I finally got around to washing a sink full of dishes and five loads of laundry

What are your top 5 favorite home&garden/DIY websites or blogs that you would suggest to those of us looking for new inspiration?

Blogs I look forward to daily are:
1) Ana White
2) Vintage Revivals
3) beingBrook
4) Design Build Love
5) That’s My Letter

What are your favorite kinds of posts to read/write? (Ex: gardening, DIy projects, thrifting, etc)

Furniture tutorials. I love coming up with something new and showing others how to build it too.

What advice could you give to other bloggers that you wish you had known before you started blogging?

Don’t expect ads or sponsors to suddenly make you start rolling in the dough. It’s exciting, but don’t get carried away. Only accept reviews for products you know you love and feel genuinely good about sharing with readers. Or just have a thick skin and be honest if you don’t like it. Don’t take every guest post or giveaway that rolls around. Be picky. Your blog will show your quality of content and you’ll get more readers (and thus, more income) if you be selective and use sponsors and ads sparingly. Don’t sell out and let your blog be one giant commercial! Nobody likes that.

And, that’s it! I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me and Killer b. Designs as a blog. I’ve had a lot of fun participating. Thank you Hometalk!