Wait, you see what I did there? The fauxdenza? It’s done. Coined by Anna at D16 and used again by Morgan at the Brick House, the fauxdenza has finally found it’s way into the studio:

We used the same Ikea Akurum cabinets and Applad doors (the ladies are smarties, I tell you; who thinks of this?) to create a task station of sorts. While I don’t plan on working from this desk (it’s very shallow at just 13 inches deep), I did want to utilize it as a place to perch temporarily, even if just to check a few emails. The majority of my time will be spent at the painting table, which will eventually find it’s way into the room after a new paint job (ironic, if you think about it).

The cabinets we chose are meant to be used as upper kitchen cabinetry, so they’re installed using Ikea’s suspension rail system. Because of this, we hung them at at 36 inch counter height, which allowed them to float 5 inches off the floor and give a feeling of weightlessness. Always something we like in small quarters.

We first mentioned the fauxdenza right here, and we admitted the pains of finding a properly sized plank of wood at the needed 13 inch depth. (On a side note, a top is necessary since the finished cabinets have exposed screw heads; after all, they’re never meant to be seen in their actual setting.) After searching high and low, we found a beautiful piece of white oak from Wood World, cut it to our proper dimensions and finished it up with a nice, dark stain (we used Minwax Jacobean, but see our complete three step conditioner, stain and poly system here).

We used mitered edges (although if you’re looking to save some trouble, Morgan used straight, flush cuts, and it’s still beautiful) and settled on a length of 89 inches in total. This left a 35 inch middle gap for stools and barely 3 inches of space to the door. But because it’s such a shallow depth, there’s no awkwardness or hip bumping when you walk into the room – a very good thing for a counter-height-hipped girl like myself.

To save money, only the exposed side of our task station has an appropriately sized slab of the oak. We needed to shave off about 3 inches of depth from the original purchased piece (we picked up a 16 inch deep plank), and we used that extra depth to create a faux-side on the end that meets the wall. Here’s the exposed side, but no one will ever know the opposite end is a partial piece:

Keeping in mind that this’ll likely be a landing pad for my laptop, we drilled into the top for access to the electrical outlet below. We’ve also been toying with the idea of using my pretty pendant as a hanging desk lamp, in which case, that cord will need to have a place to go, too.

As for how it all stays in place, we carefully drilled pilot holes from the inside of the cabinets to attach the top and sides. To make sure we don’t accidentally get drill happy and poke through the other side (ugh, the horror that would have caused!), Scott marked his drill with blue tape to signal where to stop.

For center support and added security, we added two L brackets. And to show off how tough this guy is, we snapped this photo for Facebook and learned a little something about “owling” in the process.  (Have you heard of this? We’re so behind.)

Aside from a few shipping items (put away after this was shot), the concealed storage is still mostly empty. Much to Scott’s dismay, I’m having a bit of stage fright on where things will go; I’m getting caught up on the perfectness of it all (this, of course, after I boast the joys of imperfectionism in gallery walls).

There are so many ways to customize the end layout you’re looking for, and our best advice would be (if possible) to go to Ikea and see the options available. In all honesty, we went with one idea in mind and left with another. (But isn’t that always the case with that place?) We actually have 3 cabinets – 1 on the left and 2 on the right, one on top of the other. The total for the 3 and all the components (rails, drawer silencers and the luxury of carrying home our weight in boxes) came in under $250, and although that doesn’t exactly make my thrifty heart sing, it did afford us an 8 foot desk. A sturdy, floating, custom fit counter height desk.

As mentioned before, we’re planning a wall of exposed shelving to go above this desk/task station/fauxdenza, so more and more (and more!) storage is to come. But, uh, we have to build it. Again, (say it with me?) one step at a time.

Even still, we’ve had some fun crossing off the ol’ to do over the last couple of weeks:

• Prime the walls, trim and doors
• Paint the walls, trim and doors
• Install crown molding and chair rail
• Paint the painting table for the new room (yes, really)
• Sell and/or donate the unnecessary furniture
• Design, build and install a storage wall (similar to our media wall)
• Decide on artwork for the room
• Clean, paint and prep thrifty frames
• Frame, mat and hang inspirational artwork (using this technique)
• Decide on lighting
• Decide on textiles: rug, curtains and upholstery for seating (halfway there)
• Buy the decided upon things. Budget. Install them. (halfway there)
• Re-stock painting, shipping and packaging supplies
• Pull it together like we own it
• Return to normalcy (we can only hope)

So, have we sold you on the fauxdenza yet? Who’s with us?

See more of our studio ideas on our Pinterest board, right here.

Now that we’ve begun Operation Studio, I’d like her to continue on as an integral piece of the puzzle as we pull the room back together. But in the meantime, I’ve got some decisions to make.

The chair was a gift to my grandparents on their wedding day. Since then, she’s been reupholstered (from the original blue), but sadly, her guts have seen better days. A squeaky bottom cushion and bouncy back support had me wondering if she needed yet another upholstery job.

All signs point to yes.

But I’m ridiculously scared. My gut reaction was to tackle this job on my own. However, with a barely walkable hallway, stacks of frames piling up and plans for upper shelving in the works, I’m beginning to have second thoughts due to a full plate.

Nevermind I’m not even sure what’s going on with those springs. I’m also afraid of sewing machines, and how in the world do I apply piping?

And there are still a few major components to purchase – a rug, for example. One like this. Or this. (Very different, I know.) So regarding Miss Mustard’s new look, well, what gets my heart thumping wildly is the idea of a pretty, punchy coral. This is not to say that I’ll change my mind on a whim and go with a plush, navy velvet. Or yellow. Again.

For such a sentimental piece, should I leave this to the pros? (Oh, how my sad, DIY-loving and thrifty heart would break. But maybe I need to hear this, too.) To be honest, I’ve no problem pulling out staples, trim, and uncovering the entire frame, but goodness knows what really lies beneath. I’m incredibly conflicted. What do you think?

Has anyone else conquered an out-of-their-league upholstery job and lived to tell the tale? If so, how’d you fare?

See more of our studio ideas on our Pinterest board, right here.

For better or worse, this weekend was our first test.

If you follow us on Facebook, you might’ve seen that a full-on office gut job has begun. The space is making a slow and steady transformation over to Kim’s dedicated studio space. It’s going to be awesome… when we finish it.

We made solid progress on Saturday. Trim and doors were given a fresh coat of white, walls were primed and painted (more on the color later) and the project was on schedule. Yesterday, on the other hand, was a total disaster. Honestly. What began with an awesome morning dog walk turned into the mother of all shitstorms.

A simple crown molding installation turned into a nightmare (dramatic, yes) that still isn’t completed. We spent $30 renting a nail gun and $15 on finishing nails we didn’t even use – much to Kim’s budget-crunching dismay. The light we ordered for the room was cancelled from the manufacturer when they realized they didn’t even have it in stock. I drove 30 minutes to Lowe’s to find that they had just sold their last gallon of base paint we needed to finish the walls. We wasted hours of time, argued over the right way to do things and accomplished absolutely nothing.

So what did we do? We quit.  Feeling totally defeated, I returned the unused nailgun and changed out of my painting clothes. Big effing deal. Our first pseudo-new years resolution was a success. When the stress got to be too much, we realized that we’d be happier and more productive another day on a fresh charge of the old batteries.

We hoped to have an awesome progress report post ready for your perusal today, but we don’t. And ya know what? We’ll all live. In the meantime, we realized we still had a bunch of fun, awesome thrift store adventures to share with you guys. While visiting Kim’s family in Pittsburgh over the holidays, we found some gems hidden throughout it’s hills and valleys – with our tops being UFO and Bill’s Furniture (found on our way to Retro on 8th, which turned out to be closed that day!). Here’s what we saw through Kim’s lens, including the much debated Dorothy Draper knock-off that I convinced her we positively did not need.

But what we took home are a few carefully selected gems that did make it to the back of the Subaru. They’ll all end up in my lady’s studio – eventually.

In other (non)monumental news, our ol’ wagon reached the 100k mark. While it didn’t quite make it during the triangle of terror, it did reach it’s target during the umpteenth trip to Lowes over the course of the nothing’s-going-quite-right Sunday. How appropriate.

More news on the studio progress (or lack thereof) in the coming days. In the meantime, any thrifty scores make their way into your home lately? Resolutions you’re willing to share? And who else photographs their car mileage milestones? (Yeah, we’re literally all over the place. Sorry ’bout that.)

We entertained the idea of cutting down the main support tube of the chair, modifying the table, and a couple other ridiculous ideas, then it hit us. Casters! It seemed so obvious and so easy. Simply raise the height of the table a few inches, rather than hacking up pricey furniture to “make it work.” After another round of research, we found these pairs of bed casters on amazon and got to drilling. (Disclaimer- I got to buy a new set of drill bits to accomplish this project, so I was on board from the get go.)

And wouldn’t ya know it – three inches of rise from the wheels mean that the table is not only mobile, but that the chair now tucks nicely under it when not in use.

Now when I return home from a long day at work, the first words out of Kim’s mouth do not generally revolve around back pain and wrist strain. Hooray!

All that research got us brainstorming other cool and interesting ways to use casters around the crib… and as some of you may know, Kim has become quite the Pinterest addict. Her quick search pulled up some impressive results:

An Ikea Expedit bookcase turned on it’s side (could be great in a mudroom as a storage bench, too!):

Islands? Sure. Why not?

Log? Yup.

Looking for a mobile daybed? Howsabout you use a handful of reclaimed pallets on wheels?

Why buy those cheapo under-bed-storage bins when you could use vintage drawers on wheels? (Also great for serious puzzle fiends.)

So that’s that. Mobility and a touch of height are easier than you thought.(Not to mention, it just looks cooler.) As we recently found out, there are actually entire web stores that sell nothing but casters in every size, shape and variety. So, how do you roll?

Pinterest images can be found on our pin board here, with links to all original sources. Man, you all are a bunch of smarties.

The hall was the last place we tackled with paint, figuring that the original khaki paint was sufficient enough (and by then, our arms were sore and aching, ow). And awesome, generous girl that I am, I actually bought Scott hallway paint for Christmas. You’d think that’s a joke, but nope. We chose Porpoise by Behr, and we finished it off with a few framed prints (that have since moved to our entryway).

But last year, after throwing the idea around for a few weeks, we got a wild hair and papered an accent wall. I remember stumbling across the pattern in Anthropologie’s sale section, then racing home to show Scott that it was just $25 a roll. And this is just one of the many (many!) reasons I love my man: He took one look at my computer screen and said order it!

The first stop off of the hall is our bathroom. It’s now on it’s third color (four if you count the original khaki), but oh my. I just have no words for our first two choices. We were a little all over the place in the beginning, and I fully believe that a bathroom is a place for a few more risks – after all, you’re not staring at it all day long (I hope). But that deep brownish-green? We were going for spa. And that bright ocean blue? Well, I don’t even know what that was about.

But we did begin our wall of photo strips during the blue phase, and you can see we also replaced that original contractor grade mirror with something more substantial.

And now, here we are three shower curtains later and a few fresh coats of Opal by Martha Stewart. (As for the too-red cabinetry, well, we like to daydream of something cleaner and brighter. For now, it’ll stay put as my purse strings are wound a bit too tight.)

All that black wasn’t safe for long, and while the photo frames got the white wash, we had a bit more fun with the mirror and got all Yolk-y on it.

Further down, our bedroom shoots off to the left. It’s pretty amazing how small it looks in this photo, but the truth is that it really is just that small.

And you know what we did? We went, uh, orange. It’s my favorite color, and I stand by that. But I almost have no words for this first round. The photography on the wall was a project I shot in college, and our obvious love for clean, white bed linens holds true. Aside from that, we sincerely apologize for that burning feeling in your eyes.

We later toned it down with a minty green strip (Behr’s Relaxing Green), moved the bed away from the window wall, and added a photo ledge to anchor it’s new placement. It was better, but it took me a while to work up the courage and tell Scott that, sorry, I was over the orange. (After all, I insisted on the pumpkin farm from the beginning.)

So rather than tell him, I acted as my usual self (we’ll call it strong-willed) and began painting it while he was away for a weekend. (You can read about that so-called drama right here.) While we love our color, we both agree this was ultimately a smart move (why, thank you), and although the room is small, we like to think of it as our little cocoon. It’s damn cozy.

Across the hall from our bedroom is our office, and yes, it’s even smaller than where we sleep, coming in around 8′x10.’

At first, this room was our afterthought. We put a desk in there and a small futon that could pull out for a quick, overnight guest. Because, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with an extra room? Maybe so, but in our case, it wasn’t working. And it was boring.

So we did what we do best – added color! We painted Behr’s Distance on opposite walls, upgraded our desk for something sleek, and added storage with our sideboard. Over time, we layered in a filing cabinet, pieced together a Flor rug, and added fun accents with Grandma’s side chair and vintage mirrors. Oh, and of course our guests are still welcome.

Most recently, we got our act together and got our jumbled tangle of mirrors just so, and even swapped out the lime desk chair for Scott’s almost-dumpster find.

But wait! There’s more. You might know by now that our patio is very precious square footage, but it didn’t always look so inviting:

This summer, we took full advantage by giving her the sprucing she deserved after an obnoxious, lengthy winter. The Old Man was vicious this year, and with the gorgeous weather we’re having this week, we’re still hanging on to our outdoor room until the first chill.

As you know, our home is barely 700 square feet, but we still (really) enjoy playing with color and pattern, even though we’ve done some toning down over the years. While we didn’t have any major reconstruction to deal with, we like to think we flipped that contractor’s box upside down, and we’ve created a home we enjoy and love – that is, with our usual tweaking and refining (!).

And if you hung in there for the whole tour, kudos. Is there anything you were surprised to see? Uh, the bathroom perhaps? (I cringe.) But how about you? Any past mistakes you’re willing to share, or maybe there’s an update on the horizon? Let’s hear.

With this anniversary of sorts, we thought it would be fun to look waay back to the photos we snapped when we were considering purchasing – and all the phases in between. After all, this little slice of web was born two years after moving in, and each room has seen their fair share of rights and (really) wrongs.

We were the first owners to take the reigns on what was a freshly rehabbed building, and there were two glaring challenges: 1) space and 2) all those khaki-colored walls! (Say hi to my little sis!)

We tackled the walls first, and as color lovers, we went a little, um, bold. And while we would have loved to splurge on furniture and decor, a new mortgage didn’t allow for much wiggle room. For the first few months, we worked with what we had from our first city rental – a hodge podge of dark carpets, black tables, and overstuffed couches.

Over time, we gradually began playing with layout (moving the couch to the window wall and even adding a small seat to act as a room divider), and we slowly saved up funds for a lighter area rug and a sleek and pretty couch, among other things. We even toned down our kitchen walls for an easy, visual flow.

Of course things don’t stay the same for too long (you know we like to shake things up – even if it’s just a pillow, a table lamp, or in this case, new paint and furniture!), and as we become more inspired, we pinch pennies (getting in touch with our inner DIY), and bring in change.

In the last 6 months, we’ve brought in a cozy, shaggy rug and a round table to save space. But the ticket to bringing in the most impact was nixing that green and creating a custom media wall.

We couldn’t get rid of all that color, so the foyer still pops with Behr’s Chlorophyll. (But down the road, who knows?) A rotating crew of art and fresh flowers keep things lively, and it’s a far cry from those sad, khaki walls!

For those that know us well, you totally get that we’re still editing and fluffing and floofing all the time. This easily explains why the above photos – snapped only a few months ago – already seem to be missing the upholstered ottoman, our Bazaar-cracked-vase and even terrarium numero uno (among other things).

But with every tweak, we still take a moment to revel in our favorite city nook. Like you, we cuddle up on the couch. We cook chili all day, and we burn fall scented candles. We go to bed early just so we can feel how soft our bed is, and we curse when the morning alarm goes off. We sing to our pets, and we dance with them around our home, and we still sit on our back patio and will do so until it’s 20 degrees cooler.

We’ll show you the back half of our home in the coming days, and if I can get myself in order, we’ll throw in our first crack at a video home tour. (It’s filmed, but goodness knows my skills are less than stellar, and it may only be 20 seconds or so. But dammit, we’ll show you.)

But I digress. I doubt that any of you visit our little blog to read about barber shops and apple pies. To view the slide show, just click on the large image or any thumbnail below.

And, uh, you see that beautiful white ceramic vase I was holding in the last photo? We took it home and cleaned it up, only for it to suffer an unfortunate fate. Kim is still reeling from the fiasco; more on that later in the week.

All in all, the show was great, even though we missed the boat on that fantastic little kitchen scale (Kim was hoping to use it for weighing Pet Shop packages). Everyone in our small group of scavengers found exactly what they were looking for, or something happened to find them. I, for one, am pretty happy with my vinyl find and in the end – although my lady may not admit it – all was not lost with the vase.

Did any other Windy City dwellers hit the show yesterday? Or maybe you found somewhere else to scavenge for goods? Or, hey, just wanna tell us about your weekend, you know, in general?