Chalkboard Basket Labels Tutorial

I loved the casual and organizational use of the chalkboard tags I saw at Pottery Barn Kids, aren't these cute...?

image source

Always up for a fun craft I decided to make myself some for my laundry room. 

I found these thin wood plaques at Hobby Lobby for $.79/each! - 

 I measured 1/4 inch around the entire outside -

Then tape off the edges up to the marked line - 

Once it was taped off, I drilled holes in the upper corners - 

Then sprayed it with this fantastic chalkboard paint by Krylon! (I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby, only $4.79 after 40% off coupon)

After several THIN coats of the chalkboard paint, I removed the tape and stained the edges Minwax's Provincial.


I tied them to my baskets with twine and ended up with this! -

 Came to under $10 for all 6 tags, AND I like them even better than the ones from Pottery Barn. :)

This is linked up to the following parties, check them out!

 

Building An In The Wall Ironing Board - Part 3: Finish Work & Installing the Ironing Board

Part 1

Part 2

I previously left off with my box in the wall and needing to add molding around it:

I wanted it to cover the edge of my box and be wide enough to attach my door hinges to.  I used 3 1/2" mdf rounded edge primed molding and created a "picture frame" edge to the box:

After a lot of wood filler, puttying the nail holes, sanding, calking, priming, and painting...I had this - 

Next I added these white garment hooks to hold the ironing boarding up -

I wanted to have this cupboard match the cabinets I previously did in my laundry room, so I made a shaker style door as I did before by using 1/4 inch birch sheets and 2 1/2 inch rounded edge primed mdf boards.

Here is the finished product!

Total cost, about $50...and a lot of labor and love. :)

This has been linked to the following parties, check them out!

 

Building An In The Wall Ironing Board - Part 2: Cutting out the wall

If you missed part 1 of how I built my in the wall ironing board box, you can find it here.

Here is the area that I wanted to put my ironing board -

If you look close you can see where I measured my 19" x 50" box dimensions that I created in part 1, and drew it out onto the wall.  I also used my stud finder to mark the studs, and used little green note tabs to mark them.  Make sure you measure according to where the ironing board is going to fold down, so it is a comfortable height to iron at.

Next, I used a drywall saw and cut out my box. *Don't go too deep when you make your cuts because you can accidentally cut out through the other side of the wall. -

See that stud in the photo above?  It was HORRIBLE to get out!!  I used a regular saw to cut the top and bottom, and ended up using a hacksaw to cut through the nails that attached the stud to the exterior wall.  And HOURS later, had this -

Now that I had my open box I needed to create supports in the wall since I cut out most of the studs.  I found this great picture below that gave me an idea on how to do this -

source

Here is what mine ended up looking like once I installed my supports:

and...

Now, I could finally screw in my box! - 

Part 3 will show you the finish work, and how I installed my ironing board.

Building An In The Wall Ironing Board - Part 1: Creating The Ironing Board Box

Since I have been organizing and building cabinets in my laundry room, my husband suggested we get an ironing board that attaches to the wall.  I searched and was amazed at how EXPENSIVE those could get, especially the in the wall ironing board units.  

Here are a few that I found:

Home Depot - $169

 Sears - $399 sale (reg $572...r they crazy???)

AJ Madison Appliance - $333 (doesn't include a door either!)

I decided I could build one for MUCH less!  Mine ended up costing about $50 and was much more attractive.  :)


Here is how I did it -

I found this over the door ironing board for $16.47 from Walmart here:

I measured the entire ironing board system and used leftover 1/2 inch mdf from my laundry cabinets to cut the following pieces:

The large back piece is 18" x 49", the sides are 49" x 3", and the top and bottom pieces are 19" x 3".

I used wood glue and 3/4 inch brad nails to put it together:

Now that I have a 19" x 50" box that is complete, I need to cut out the wall to insert it.  Stay tuned for Part 2 and I will show you how I did that!

**update - you can find part 2 here and part 3 here.

 

Laundry Room Cabinet Tutorial Part 2 - Cabinet Finish Work

If you missed the previous posts on the Laundry Room Makeover, you can catch up on them here:

Laundry Room Makeover Reveal

&

 Laundry Room Cabinet Tutorial Part 1 - Building The Cabinet Base

We left off on the last post after just mounting the cabinet base - 

After installing it, I sanded, primed and painted the cabinet.  I rolled the primer and paint with a cabinet sponge roller.  While I was priming, I rolled the primer on and used a spray paint primer for the cracks and spots the roller couldn't reach. 

Next, I installed rounded edge primed mdf boards to all sides of the cabinet.  I used 3 1/2 inch boards on the top, sides, and middle of the cabinet, and a 2 1/2 inch board across the bottom.  Lastly, I attached crown along the top 3 1/2 inch board.  After puttying, calking, and painting AGAIN (I found it easier to putty, calk, and paint the cabinet and molding at different times), it FINALLY looked like this - 

Next up was to create the cabinet doors.  I purchased 1/4" sheets of birch wood for the faces and attached 2 1/2" primed mdf boards to frame it with liquid nails and 1/4" brad nails - 

After more calking, puttying, sanding, and painting...I attached oil rubbed bronze hinges and knobs and hung them up.

And walla!  Custom cabinets for a fraction of the price!  

Total cost came out to about $200. 

Again, the before:

And the after:

I have a few more projects up my sleeve for the other side of this room that I can't wait to share with you!