Life with diy | Living Life With Lori

DIY Floating Shelf

loriadmin — Tue, 04 May 2021 20:13:09 +0000

Confession: for some reason, I am terrible at committing to putting things on my walls. It feels so permanent and it stresses me out. I finally decided that it was time to put something up on the walls in our living room. After spending forever Pinterest-ing “décor above living room couch”, I settled on building a floating shelf. Even though a shelf would ultimately = holes in my wall, I was content with this idea because I knew I could always change out what was on the shelf, making it feel not so permanent.

I’m actually really pleased with how it turned out! Here is how we did it:

Supplies Needed:

1×2 (pine wood)
1×3 (pine wood)
1×4 (pine wood)
Nails & nail gun
Wood filler
Sand paper
Cheese Cloth
Impact driver
Wood stain or paint (optional)

STEP 1:

Start with a long 1×2, 1×3 and 1×4.

We used a finished pine so that the boards were already mostly smooth.

You obviously want them to all be the same length, so we used a miter saw to cut the boards to equal length.

STEP 2:

Sand each board to make sure all are smooth

STEP 3:

Use a nail gun (with 1 1/2″ sized nails) to connect the 1×2 to the 1×3. The 1×3 is the bottom board where the frames will sit. We did not use any wood glue, but you could use wood glue in addition to the nails for extra reinforcement.

STEP 4:

Next, the 1×4 will be connected to the opposite side of the 1×3. The 1×4 is the board that will be attached to the wall. Use the 1 1/2″ sized nails with the nail gun to attach the boards.

STEP 5:

Once assembled, use natural wood filler to fill the nail holes, while still maintaining the natural look of the wood. (You could also use painter’s caulk). We chose not to stain or paint our ledge, but you definitely could!

STEP 6:

Once dried, sand the holes for a flush finish.

STEP 7:

Before installing to the wall use a tack cloth to remove any debris from the sanding

STEP 8:

Mark on your wall where you want to place your shelf

STEP 9:

Once finished, find and mark the studs along the length of the shelf using a stud finder.

STEP 10:

Use an impact driver to drill 2 1/2″ nails through the shelf, into the studs

STEP 11:

Use plastic wood filler to fill in the holes.

Once it dries, sand and clean for a smooth finish!

STEP 12:

Decorate!

The post DIY Floating Shelf first appeared on Living Life With Lori.

Easy DIY Basket for Baby’s First Easter

loriadmin — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 17:22:19 +0000

I’m so in love with this adorable little basket that I put together for Eva’s first Easter! I’ve included links to all my favorite tiny goodies that your baby will love, to make your Easter basket look effortless, chic and trendy. For reference, Eva is currently 4.5 months old.

You obviously need a basket with some Easter grass. I found this beauty of a basket at Michaels. With some excelsior filler as Easter grass, also from Michaels.

Eva is still a bit young for puzzles yet, but when I discovered these name puzzles from ArrowTown Designs, I knew I needed one!

Alisha is the owner and creative artist. She put together this masterpiece for me! She even pulled custom colors directly from Eva’s nursery.

She makes wooden and acrylic name puzzles, as well as a ton of other cute things for baby announcements, baby milestones, home decor, wedding decor and more!

Easter wouldn’t be complete without an Easter bunny! I got this plush Jellycat bunny and the matching Jellycat board book “If I Were a Rabbit” both from Bubs’ & Betty’s.

You can use my code BO15 for some $ off!

Eva is at an age where everyyyything goes in her mouth. Her absolute favorite teether toys right now are from Ryan & Rose. This teether is the perfect size, shape and texture – making it easy for Eva to independently grasp and maintain a grip on while gnawing on it. It also has a rattle on it and comes in several different colors! OBSESSED.

I also found this adorable Infantino Lil’ Nibble Teethers Carrot on Amazon! It has different textures on each side, as well as easy-to-hold handles.

I added a heatable stuffed duck from Warmies. These stuffies are filled with flaxseed, scented with fresh lavender and can be warmed-up in the microwave. The gentle warmth and calming scent of lavender is soothing to your baby. I’ve been interested in trying one out, so I looked for a little chick for Eva’s basket. They didn’t have a baby chick but they had this (super cute!) ducky and I thought that he would be perfect!

A girly little Easter basket wouldn’t be complete without some accessories and a cute outfit! My favorite place ever to get hairbows for Eva is from Lo’s Bows. I found some cute sunnies for Eva for this summer from Lucky Panda Kids. Annnnd this outfit is to die for, from Bailey’s Blossoms!

You can use code Lori15 for 15% off at Bailey’s Blossoms!

The perfect finishing touch is this personalized, engraved name tag to tie onto her Easter basket! This is also from Arrowtown Designs!

The post Easy DIY Basket for Baby’s First Easter first appeared on Living Life With Lori.

DIY Board & Batten

loriadmin — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 03:02:00 +0000

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

1×2’s (pine wood)

1×4’s (pine wood)

Corner moulding (pine wood)

Nails & gun

Wood filler

Sand paper

Cheese Cloth

Painter’s tape

Paint

STEP 1:

Cut your 1×2’s to the desired length. We cut ours to 47” so that it would be an appropriate height on the wall. Make sure to cut them each very accurately so that when you place the 1×4 over the top of them on the wall, they are all lined up without gaps!

STEP 2:

If your baseboards don’t have any angle to them, the battens will sit very nice and flat on top. Our baseboards have a bit of an angle on the tops, and we did not want to remove/re-do baseboards. To make a smooth transition between our current baseboards and the battens, we attached a piece of corner moulding to the top of the baseboard using the nail gun. I’m super pleased with how this turned out!

STEP 3:

Measure your wall and calculate the spacing you’ll want between each batten. We chose to do about 10.25” so it was spaced evenly across the whole wall. Then, attach them each to the wall using the nail gun.

STEP 4:

Using the nail gun, attach the 1×4’s horizontally above the 1×2’s. We had to use 2 separate 1×4’s to stretch the length of the wall.

STEP 5:

Use wood filler to fill in any seams, gaps and nails.

STEP 6:

Wait for the wood filler to dry and then sand it really well.

STEP 7:

Use some cheese cloth to wipe down your woodwork. This will help ensure that no tiny fragments of sawdust or fuzzies get stuck to the wood while you’re painting!

STEP 8:

Use painter’s tape to prepare for painting your accent wall! Here is the color we chose to match up with our baseboards:

STEP 9:

Paint your board and batten! We used a small roller brush for the boards and a 1” paint brush for the battens. We did 2 coats.

STEP 10:

Paint the wall above the board and batten

And that’s it! That’s all you need to do to create a beautiful accent wall and add some dimension to your space! More finalized pictures here (the nursery tour)!

The post DIY Board & Batten first appeared on Living Life With Lori.