Ikea Fjellse Hacked!

So, I finally hacked the bed. Well, almost. I’m considering adding nail head trim around the front, then possibly framing it, and then it’ll be finished. It isn’t perfect, but I’m happy with the way it turned out. One more project crossed off my ever growing to-do list.

It wasn’t a long process, but I spread it out over 2 days. I think it took a total of 4 hours, and that includes all of the cutting, painting and fiddling with my staple gun. There are a few tutorials online, so I’ll just share my process, and show what I would have done differently.

What I used:

• screwdriver
• spray glue
• wood glue
• foam
• batting
• mending plates
• furring strips 
• paint
• primer
• clamps (since I was working upright)

• OSB (I cut my piece with a jigsaw…it was far from perfect, and really didn’t make a difference)

The top measured up almost perfectly, in the picture below, the OSB isn’t attached, just leaning against the back.I knew that the foam and batting would be forgiving so I didn’t worry about making the straightest lines in the world.

If I were to do it again, this is the part I would do differently.

I should have corrected this immediately, but I decided to push on, and see how it developed. It doesn’t look terrible, but the sides aren’t an even thickness from the top to the bottom.

I do love the paint color though, and it looks even better after the second coat.

This room is starting to come together, and I have to say that I’m very pleased with the progress.

Until the next time,

signing off.

Its a Desk!

As I said in a previous post, I need a desk. For a while, I considered building one myself since I was feeling a bit confident after I finished the toy box, but I am a perfectionist. And that seemed like it would be a tremendous task…one that I just wasn’t ready to take on. So, I ordered the Oxford Executive desk from Home Decorators. It was reasonably priced, the right size, and black. Plus it was pretty, and I really like pretty.

But Oh my goodness! This thing had so many pieces…

and 13 pages of instructions, all in English by the way.

On the bright side, everything was labeled well, and there were extras of some of the smaller pieces in case anything got lost.

It didn’t require a ton of tools to assemble,

all you really need is a screw driver, and

a superman. Also a little bit of painters tape may be of some use if you don’t have a set of extra hands.

The directions were pretty clear, and assembly didn’t take more than an hour. For me though, a lot of that time was spent sorting through all of the pieces and looking for the one that I needed. And I was pretty organized.

One piece of advice if you are looking to purchase this desk, or if you already have, is just be careful not to over screw.

The desk and all of its pieces are, overall, pretty solid and sturdy, but it is easy to knick and the coating scratches off easily. For the price however, I’m pleased with it.

The file drawer can fit both legal and letter sized paper, my desktop tower fits nicely inside of the side cabinet, the drawers slide smoothly, and best of all, it’s pretty.

Also, ignore all of the random extra wood in some of the pictures. It doesn’t come with the desk. I decided to build something else. But I’ll tell you about that later.

Talk to you in the next one!

I need a desk.

For the past few months, I’ve been working from the chaise of my Kivik.

When I moved, I didn’t bring my desk so for now, this is all that I have. It’s fairly functional, and I’m usually pretty productive, but it is nearly impossible to stay organized or find what I need when I need it.

Then there’s also the occasional distraction visitor who likes to unhelp with everything.

Since I’ve been here, all my stuff has been scattered around my house, stashed in piles against various walls in my bedroom and dining room. So, I decided to pull it all out, gather it up into one spot, and figure out what type of office solution I need.

My current pile rests in the middle of my dining room so that it’ll bother me enough to address it immediately. I don’t have too much though. Especially since I went through and weeded out the unessential. With a desk, a couple of file drawers, and a bookshelf or 2, and I should have what I need.

This will be fun…I have sooo many ideas!

Off to make a mood board, or 2. Talk to you in the next one!