Sponsors- March 2012

Happy March everyone!  I have to start out by wishing my incredible mother a happy birthday today (I LOVE YOU MOM!).

Secondly, I am so excited to send out my first sponsor post ever!  YIPPEE!  I have met a few really awesome bloggers who have decided to sponsor swap with me this month.  So please check them out… you can find them on my sidebar all month!

No Place Lyke Home

Hello, Our Cozy Cubbyhole readers, my name is Brhea (Bree-uh) and I am thrilled to be here! I love that Erika’s DIY projects are fun, fresh and creative without being intimidating to take on. I blog over at No Place Lyke Home. I have a passion for cooking, photography and decorating. I tend to brag a lot about my insanely cute nieces and my oh so sweet husband. I hope that you will drop by for a visit!

One House, One Couple

Hey everyone! We are Kyle and Lisha from One House, One Couple. We bought, fixed, and sold our house for a profit during the recession, and we’re finally documenting all our hard work on our blog (mixed with some personal posts about life). Come on over and stay awhile. We love getting new visitors! You can follow us on Twitter at 1house1couple. See you soon! ~ The Yosts

A Home in College Hill

Hello there! A Home In College Hill is a home renovation/design blog with written by newlyweds (that’s me!) with a bit of experience, a few tools, lofty ambitions and eyes bigger than our wallets. My name is Rachel and I’ve had a passion for decorating and home design since I can remember and I started blogging to document the restoration and renovation of my 1932 Tudor home. I am tackling new house projects all the time, and sharing my experiences on the blog along the way. Please stop by for details on my progress and occasionally some ‘renovation reality’ comic relief.

Bungalow 960

Hello! I’m Shannon and I blog over at Bungalow960. I started Bungalow960 as a place to document the happenings in renovations and improvements in the 1924 American Bungalow that I share with my boyfriend and our two cats, but it has morphed into a place where I share snippets of my life. I hope you’ll stop by for a visit!

 

 

Bleak 2 Unique

Hi! I’m Lori and I love sharing my creations over at Bleak 2 Unique. Taking the old and discarded and making it uniquely ours is a family trait…Yes, we are dumpster divers, crafters, and craigslistaholics. So come on over and let’s share.

Laid Off Mom

Hi there! I’m Louise…I’m an Apparel Designer and mother of 2 beautiful girls who was just recently laid off from my company back in July 2011.  When I got the axe, I had two options…One, cry my eyes out, crawl under a rock & find another boss who may/may not lay me off…or Two, wipe my eyes and start a brand new life on my own terms!  I chose the latter, and now I’m “Redesigning Life, Love and Motherhood.”  I don’t know where this blog will take me, but hopefully you’ll come and join me for this amazing journey!

Mailbox Journey

Hey, I’m Melanie! I’ve been blogging over at Mailbox Journey since Mid-August. I currently live in an apartment in Central Pennsylvania as my boyfriend and I save up enough cash to buy a fixer-upper and start our lives together; then the real journey begins! In the meantime I’ve been attempting to make our apartment feel like home & getting my hands dirty in a bunch of crafty projects. Feel free to stop by and say hi!

Attempts at Domestication

Hey there! My name’s Ashley and I’m a newlywed housewife from Richmond, VA. My husband and I met as kids and dated all through college before getting married in April 2011. My blog started as a way to keep my college friends, who are scattered all over the country, up to date on my life, but I’ve really gotten into the whole DIY blog thing. It keeps me motivated to try new things and to actually make the things I pin on Pinterest. I do posts about my attempts at DIY, crafts, throw in a lot of random stuff about my life and share recipes from time to time too. My husband and I just moved into our first home, so we are in the process of shifting focus to mainly home decor and DIY.

Before you get too busy checking out these awesome blogs, as I mentioned in Saturday’s post if you like reading Our Cozy Cubbyhole, please take a quick second to vote for us in the Apartment Therapy Homies 2012 Awards.  We would LOVE to gain more readers!  Your support means a lot to us!! YOU ARE THE BEST! xoxo

$7 DIY Plant Stand & Outdoor Bar

As promised, here is part 2 of our backyard beautification project on Sunday.  While taking out the trash on Saturday, Walker and I saw a piece of furniture left out by the dumpster to be thrown away.  Granted it was ugly and wobbly but it was also free and had a lot of potential!  So we grabbed it and decided to give it a makeover so it could be used as backyard storage.  I think we made a big difference…

It is obviously a huge change so let me break down the steps we took to give this little TV stand a new identity as a backyard plant stand!

First things first, I sanded the unit down to make sure we could paint it.  I discovered that the dark paint was already its first makeover… it was originally white!  But it sanded down well and I loved the multiple layers of paint that will inevitably show when it begins to age.  So I decided to forgo primer (which I would ordinarily use on something this dark) so that the dark paint would show through a bit. I applied the first coat of lime green paint (leftover from my first accent wall in the bedroom) on Saturday afternoon and let it dry overnight.

Obviously I was happy about this project… haha! The next day I applied a second coat of paint, which made the finish mostly smooth (there are still some visible brush strokes and dark paint).  If I wanted to have the finish more even, I would have had to apply at least one more coat.  But since I was hoping the dark paint would begin to show underneath anyway, I figured I would help it out by applying one less coat! :)

Once the second coat of paint was dry, it was time to make the stand more sturdy.  I started by tightening all existing hardware but it was still pretty wobbly. My original idea was to get a piece of wood cut for the back to make it more sturdy but I really loved the open shelves. So instead I opted for installing 4 flat corner braces (totaling about $7 from Home Depot) to give it more support.  It seemed to do the job just fine (though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend putting anything too heavy on it like a human or an anvil).

Now that we were painted and sturdy, I decided to put some fun detail on the drawer.  Using painter’s tape as a guide, I measured out diagonal stripes on the drawer front. A helpful hint: use the tape as a reference for the space between the stripes you end up taping off (and just remove it before you paint obviously) to keep things nice and even. I used a can of white spray paint I had in the garage to spray the stripes onto the drawer.

After the white paint was dry, I removed the tape and put the drawer pulls back on.  I had to touch up one little area where the white paint got out of the lines also… but let’s pretend it came out perfectly the first time. :)

The final step was two coats of polyurethane spray to protect the wood (follow the instructions on the can to make sure you do this properly).  I mean I want it to age a little but I also still want it to be standing next week!  The polyurethane will slow down the impact of the elements on our little backyard TV plant stand.  Since I already had all of the supplies for this project except the braces, the entire makeover only cost a whopping $7!!

Once everything was totally dry, we were able to put our new wooden crate planter box on top (with some cut up pieces of wine cork underneath to raise the planter a bit and a piece of plastic to protect the top of the stand from the planter’s water drainage). We decided to only use one of the shelves to allow more space for our tall succulents. Lastly, we placed all of our gardening supplies into the drawer for convenient access!

The best part is that we can always remove the planter crate and use this stand as a bar when we entertain! WOO! Who want’s to come over for backyard cocktails?

One last little thing, as I mentioned in Saturday’s post if you like reading Our Cozy Cubbyhole, please vote for us in the Apartment Therapy Homies 2012 Awards.  We would LOVE to stay on the board to gain more readers!  Your support means a lot to us!! YOU ARE THE BEST! xoxo

Succulent Sunday Part 2

Is it seriously already Monday? Walker and I had a surprisingly productive weekend. After a successful Saturday morning project (yay for empty/clean closets!), we were inspired to check a few more things off of our list.  It happened to be a beautiful day so we decided to make playing with cacti our new Sunday tradition.

Ages ago, we found an old wooden crate left as a freebie on the curb by one of our neighbors and snagged it.  But it has been sitting ever since because we haven’t known what to do with it. So after last week’s succulent garden was such a success, Walker and I agreed that our old red crate would look awesome as a planter box.

While the process was similar to last week’s post, there were a few additional things we did to make sure the box would drain well and stay protected a bit.  We drilled additional holes in the bottom of the crate for drainage.  We also used polyurethane spray to coat the crate to protect it from the water (follow the instructions on the can and make sure you let it fully dry before starting the project!). Before we placed in the soil, we lined the bottom of the crate with a small layer of rocks for even better drainage (ok this is going to be pretty heavy…). Lastly, we cut off two pieces of the plastic containers the succulents came in and stapled them to the inside of the handles so we could fill the container higher with soil.  I know… we are so resourceful! ;)

Otherwise, the process was similar to the last time!

We used white aquarium gravel as the top layer of our succulent crate parfait to make it look a little different from our other succulent garden.  And there you have it: Wooden Crate Succulent Garden.I know this project was similar to last Sunday’s adventure but this is only part 1 of 2 of our Sunday backyard beautification project!  Where is this giant crate going to live?  What are you going to put in that empty space in the backyard where your bike used to be (thank you garage space!)?  You will have to check back tomorrow for all secrets to be revealed! Bwa hahahah!

One last little thing, as I mentioned in Saturday’s post if you like reading Our Cozy Cubbyhole, please vote for us in the Apartment Therapy Homies 2012 Awards.  We would LOVE to stay on the board to gain more readers!  Your support means a lot to us!! YOU ARE THE BEST! xoxo

Erika

I’m Erika, an interior designer with an aesthetic that is a mix of California Bohemian, Mid-Century, and Scandinavian influences with pops of fun color and loads of natural materials. Plus plants, plants, and more plants!

My sweet family (Walker, Juniper & Hank, as well as pups Arlo & Guillermo) just reloacted from Los Angeles, CA, to Lincoln, NE. We would love for you to follow along with us on this journey!

 
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