Monday, March 25, 2013

Dee from "DeeConstructed Design" Visits!

Today, we welcome Dee from DeeConstructed. :) She's pretty awesome. Make sure subscribe to her feed and follow her on Facebook!

Enjoy!

When Evey asked me to put something together for a cameo appearance on Sweet Songbird, I drew a blank. Over in my corner of the interweb, I chatter about rehoming curbside furniture or cutting apart expensive artwork. Sometimes, I post long-winded sentimental blurbs about days gone by but you won't find a single, solitary recipe anywhere on my blog. Nope, to me the kitchen's sole purpose is to mix up color concoctions and hose off paintbrushes. So yeah, how this chick and I became friends is a mystery to me too. Nonetheless, I couldn't leave her stranded so I searched the archives (a.k.a. meeeeellions of unedited photos) and remembered a project I whipped up for a girlfriend a few months back. Jenny and I used to be neighbors. Her daughter, Natalie, took a liking to me way back when My Littlest Pet Shop was all the rage (is it still??) and we bonded over the super cute pups in the lineup. At some point this little girl sprouted up and was all ready for her 'not a girl, not yet a woman' teen bedroom makeover. Since I'm really good at annoying reminding my friends of my thrifty decorating sense (and penchant for power tools) she asked if I could work my magic to create a message center a la Pottery Barn Teen. Apparently, Nat had been drooling over their Blue Bubble Dottie Style Tile Set but the $300+ price tag made Jenny gag. Since she already had (4) style tiles I had a head start on the project. The two cork boards were covered in batting and fabric and the two whiteboards got a new coat of chalkboard paint. PBT Knock Off
 I know I'm not exactly blazing home decor trails here, people, and that all over DIY-land folks have ventured down this path before me. (yawn) But the vast majority of them conveniently scaled their projects down to fit ready-made frames. I did not have that luxury and I had a rep to protect. Challenge accepted. Anytime I spy baseboard molding on sale I scoop it up. I checked my stock and found some with an attractive profile in 48" lengths. After building a box from 1" x 2"s for the tiles to nest in, I measured and mitered the molding. PBT Knock Off
If you follow my blog you already know I take plenty of shortcuts. Some prove hazardous but most save a lot of time and frustration and usually have something to do with getting out of doing math. Here's my stupid simple solution for mitering 45 degree angles. PBT Knock Off Hopefully that makes sense. Feel free to pin that baby for future reference. Now a close up for the mobile folks...

 PBT Knock Off
 I always draw the arrows in the direction I want to cut. It's amazing how confused you can get walking from the kitchen into the garage. Plus, if you have someone else cutting your wood you just saved a good 15 mins of arguing about who screwed up what. After all the cuts were made, I glued up the corners and smacked in some staples for good measure... PBT Knock Off
...before securing the frame to the box with a few more 'l' brackets. Then the square tiles were installed and I added a couple horizontal 1" x 3"s for additional support. The whole piece got painted white before I added some  d-ring hangers.
 PBT Knock Off
Overall, this piece measured 4' x 4'. Yowza! And it was heavy. I made sure to tell Jenny to find at least one stud to screw in to since I wasn't about to be responsible for any broken toes. PBT Knock Off

So what do you think? Not bad for under $20 huh? Take that Pottery Barn! And because I know how finicky teen girls can be the entire piece can be disassembled and used separately in the future. Thanks for following along and thank you for having me Evey! ~Dee

3 comments:

  1. Awesome job for $20! I love PB knock offs and this is so cute, Dee! I have a grumpy neighbor. Some people have all the luck! ;)

    Hope you're feeling better, Evey! xoxo

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    Replies
    1. Word, she rocked this one out! :) And thank you lady, working on getting better! xo

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  2. Nice work, Dee! Thanks for sharing your awesome projects... love 'em. Linda

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