apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ripping out a dysfunctional closet and building/installing an entire IKEA PAX Wardrobe system all by myself - including customizing one case to fit in a wedge-shaped space on the end.

four large dresser drawers the legs off a coffee table = custom bookshelf. ripped the fronts of 2 of the drawers, cut them down to fit into the other drawers as extra shelves, stacked them up and put them on the legs. what i ended up with is a shallow (perfect for books) and wide shelving unit that has a unique look at gets all sorts of compliments - most people think it is a store-bought vintage piece.

I've been proud of most of my DIY's, but one in particular. In my last home, a blocked drainage line to the street caused a backup of water in my newly finished basement and essentially damaged part of the drywall and all of the new carpeting and padding. I was devastated at the time, but after the plumbing was fixed and i realized that re-carpeting the basement might not be wise in case of future floods or leaks, i decided to tile. I had only done small tile jobs before (backsplashes and patch work in a shower) so this seemed like a huge job. but i bought a wetsaw and a whole sh*tload of tiles wholesale. I leveled the concrete floor and went to town... it turned out great!
i learned a whole lot in the process, and what had been a devastating problem (to me) at first became a huge selling point when i eventually put the house on the market.

When I moved to LA I had no furniture... So I took a woodworking class. I have since made a credenza, coffee table, dresser, dining table, and 3 benches.

My favorite is the credenza, it fits my style perfectly, and was my first piece.

My husband and I irrigated, designed, planted, set pavers, and built a wooden vegetable garden in our empty yard. The only work that we outsourced was the concrete. It was hard work and a very time consuming project, but we love it.

Ripping out our 60 year old kitchen to the studs, taking down one wall, and remodeling the whole thing ourselves (except for the fabrication and installation of the counter).

And we love it!

It has to be redoing the finished side of our basement. It was furred out with scrap wood and bad 70's paneling. Even the ductwork had paneling glued to it. We did all new drywall, built a brand new soffit for the ducts, and relocated a door to make the space flow better. I was so proud of my mudding job, there were no visible seams. With no previous drywalling experience it was a challenge but well worth it.

No better feeling than DIY! Don't forget, cooking is DIY!

I've got a few design/decorating DIY's under my belt that I'm proud of.

2 closet re-purposes.

1. Bar http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/sets/72157602246616922/

2. Office
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/2714467778/in/set-72157603604294145/

3. One a/v setup in an empty nook. Bracketed bookshelf anchored to concrete, poured concrete counter top, and fabric door:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/sets/72157603018898056/

4. hanging lights--used to be a fear of mine. I still got shocked last time I tried but then realized that a 6 dollar volt snooper will prevent that from happening.

5. growing plants from seeds.

6. having a design idea executed by a professional.

I not only painted my awful looking kitchen cabinets (bright green) but also got rid of a couple of cabinet doors. I now have a Caribbean Kitchen as my friends called it and open shelves.

My dad, my sister and myself helped me take down a small old closet covered with knotty pine clapboard in my bedroom, and recycle that board and repaint it to make a larger closet the width of the room. I'm pretty happy with how it all looks now. This is the only picture of it I have online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackdaisies/2304107586/

Please help me!!!! I've been struggling to pick a color for this hall in my new apartment. I'm pretty open to color as I've thought about everything from black chalkboard paint to terra-cotta.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7896089@N05/2740797587/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7896089@N05/2740794565/in/photostream/

Proudest project? I don't know, but this is the one that gets all the attention: my sofa with painted upholstery. People are amazed or appalled.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a286/MAGNAVERDE/DESK--MAGNAVERDESPAINTEDSOFA.jpg

fixing up a garden in our backyard. :)

my wall of clocks:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82525810@N00/2057449628/in/set-72157602940258814/

not just a matter of hanging the clocks but the huge and heavy 4' x 8' birch panels that cover the entire wall. That was a bitch to do. ;)
-joel

well i'm relatively new to big DIY projects, but reupholstering my 1969 vintage desk chair (it's still in the process) has been awesome! not only am i happy that i have something so personalized, but it's exciting to see it come together. i took it apart, covered the nubby, orange fabric with pink and white toile, spraypainted the base white, and am putting it back together this weekend. it's disgustingly girly and i love it :)

Right now, I think my favorite DIY project that I've completed is a plant stand. I built it last week and I still haven't put any plants in it yet. It's intended for succulents.
http://etrine.com/2008/07/30/plant-stand/

Also, I was really stoked on the bookshelves that I built for our living room.
http://etrine.com/2008/07/14/bookshelves/

Not exactly a DIY, but I swear my proudest do-it-yourself achievement was the first time I opened a pickle jar on my own in my first apartment.

I built a dresser comprised of 5 separate boxes, each with its own drawer (except for the top piece, which had a hinged opening at the top), using plywood and recycled/cut apart dresser drawers. Then I painted them to look like a stack of suitcases, and used luggage hardware for the drawer handles. The top piece was constructed and painted to look like a (round) hatbox. It was quite whimsical. I used it for a long time, but it's been in storage for the past few years.

For sure our proudest DIY was stripping a pitted brass table base only to discover that it was polished steel underneath and that the same table was for sale on 1stdibs.com for $4,800!!! Our cost $20 in a junk store. See it here: http://stylenorth.ca/blog/about/

building my own dining table from ground up.

now i'm working on a framework style shelf.

Purchased a counter-sized chunk of old bowling alley and turned it into my kitchen counter. Built a frame for it, sanded and shellaced the crap out of it, cut out and installed a double sink, and attached a fabric cover to the front. It's beautiful and functional.

A paper "quilt" that hung above the bed:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualingual/372358880/in/set-72157594505190197/

Super cheap and easy, and very impactful.

I know this is off topic, but does anyone know anything about the wall rack in the photo above? I keep seeing it pop up in photos of rooms I love, but can't find out who makes it/ where to get one.

Thanks!! FF

foreverfrida that is an Eames "Hang it All" from Herman Miller. You can find them at DWR or Highbrowfurniture.com. They are not cheap but it is a classic that you will love forever.

Stripping the layers and layers of paint from my midcentury dresser and staining it a lovely walnut. Unfortunately, I couldn't find new hardware to fit, so I had to give it the double knob treatment.

My Nakashima-esque coffee table that made its way to AT before I had a chance to submit it:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/how-to/diy-nakashimaesque-table-052682

Well, having just survived what's essentially been a 2 year remodel of a mid-century home, my "proudest" DIY moment was actually in a rental apartment I lived in a while back.

The kitchen was a horror. Seriously... faded and stained 50's pink boomerang laminate counter tops and scratched wood cabinet fronts. Four rolls of wood contact paper later, I had a funky counter top that looked like butcher's block. And a couple of coats of stained varnish totally refreshed the cabs.

Cheap, easy, and thoroughly fulfilling.

Just this afternoon, I installed an on/off switch on an IKEA cord that plugs in my 'Death Star' sized paper lantern on the ceiling. It didn't have one before and we had to reach over the back of the couch and plug it in everytime we wanted to turn it on. I used wire strippers and everything. AND I'm a girl.

I pulled up the carpet from the second level of my home (3 bedrooms and a hallway). Went to Home Depot and rented the tools/purchased the materials to strip, sand and polyurethane the floors all by myself. I completed the job from start to finish over the 4 day July 4th weekend. My floors are lovely. No one believes I did it alone. AND...I too, like Sisero, am a girl. Needless to say, I'm still patting myself on the back.

Removing old wallpaper from my master bath, which was put up directly over the drywall, sans primer. If you've ever dealt with such a horror... you know. I almost gave up about a dozen times, I could only stand to work on it for an hour or two at a time, and some weeks I was just too disgusted to even look at it. I'm now to the point of patching up over-zealous gouges, sanding, and priming/painting.

My proudest DIY? My website of DIY tutorials. The entire site is pretty much build from scratch now. There's nothing left of the original Wordpress theme, and I'm still adding to it!

Slot Car Wall Sculpture
http://x818.com/slotcar/index.php?directory=.¤tPic=3