If you’ve noticed we haven’t had much major progress around here lately, rest assured that we have also noticed.

In fact, I’ve noticed a lot. And I’ve noticed loudly.

In short, I’m impatient.

We have several big projects (think a major kitchen renovation and new flooring) in the works, but those all require a hefty amount of cash and a lot of planning, and in all honestly, a lot of waiting.

Waiting for the free time to go visit several stores and compare offerings and prices. Waiting for appointments with said stores after we’ve decided we want to talk to someone more officially. Waiting for the best sale price. Waiting until we have the free time to devote to actually doing the project. Waiting until we get other projects finished first… (like the table, all of which are also pretty long projects… and the shorter projects, like figuring out how to change the belt on the sander which have popped up along the way.)

So, you can see my frustration. Hubs is much more patient. He realizes this house is a marathon, not a 5k. You’d think that having just run a marathon, I’d be more sympathetic to his reasoning. However, I still tend to be a bit less enthusiastic about the whole idea of taking our time.

So, as we plug away at the pew project and the table project, I wanted to share a quick little update I did to the little printer shelf in my office.

If you remember, it looked like the photo above, and it was pretty cute. Especially considering that when we started with it, the surface looked like this:

Here’s the post about its initial remodel.

But in my attempts to “grow up” this room a little, I figured I should give it a little update as well. I really liked the yellow frames I added to the wall above the little shelf, and the green on the bottom just wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

Especially considering there’s already a new chevron pattern in the room that I like better, the curtains.

 

Plus, if I’m being totally honest here, and I am, I had wanted to update the little cart by giving it some chunky legs to raise it off the floor a little more.

In fact, I had snagged this free ottoman on one of my long runs a few weeks back (I came back to get it, don’t worry, I wasn’t a crazy runner girl hauling a giant piece of furniture for several miles!) with the idea of removing the legs and putting them on my little cabinet.

Long story short, I did remove the legs from the ottoman…

But they didn’t work on the shelf. The round legs just didn’t do it for me on the boxy shelf. And the bottom wasn’t a flat surface we could screw into, so we would have needed to rebuild the shelves…and I decided I’d rather Hubs work on the table than rebuilding a free, already okay-enough shelf.

So, I’ll have those to use from some other project I guess!

In the process of trying to add the legs, however, we did take off this little false front from the bottom edge of the cabinet, which does give the impression of being up off the floor, so I decided that was enough for now. It went from this:

 

To this,

But, since I had already hauled the unit out to the garage and I was already bent on giving it some kind of makeover, I decided now was the time to try some faux wallpapering using Mod Podge. (It’s all over Pinterest these days!)

So, back to the original theme of this post, the makeover.

I selected two pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper in a pattern I liked. I went with a light gray to play off the gray stripes on the accent wall of the room. I also wanted a pattern instead of a solid to help hide any bubbles or wrinkles since this was my first time trying this. Then, I traced and trimmed the paper to fit the doors.

Then, I applied a layer of Mod Podge to the door, carefully placed the paper on top, and added another layer of glue, spread as evenly as I could, over the top.

Then, I waited for it to try, perfectly patient and not at all worried about the bubbles and wrinkles that were forming as the paper (which was thick like cardstock) softened and re-hardened onto the door.

Ok, that was a lie. I actually fretted and touched and smoothed and wiped and reglued and basically just guessed and gambled my way to the point when I though, “Well, if I ruined it, I can always rip it off and repaint.”

Luckily, all that worrying seemed to be in vain because it actually dried pretty evenly. Since this was my first time, I’m not sure if that was a fluke or a result of one of several smoothing attempts I made, so I’m not even giving a tutorial for this. Maybe next time when I’ll hopefully feel like it was less trial and error.

Then, I reattached all the doors and the hardware before bringing it back into the room and moving everything back into it.

I also took the time to reorganize everything inside—which was pretty fun functional.

So, here’s the new finished look. Wyatt says it looks “countryish” which I can see I guess. I also think it looks classic, and he agrees. Either way, it’s cute and it was a fun project.

(Yes the doors hang a little crooked. This thing survived 6 years of college dorm life and 2 years in my parents garage…and it probably only cost $40 to begin with!

Plus, can you tell the false front is gone on the bottom?

Not really, but I know, so it seems better to me.

 

All in all, I think it turned out pretty okay.

Anyway, that’s one of our weekend projects. I’ll share more in the next few days so stay tuned! What did you do this weekend? Any progress around the house? Any fun family plans? Share!

Also, don’t forget, our “blogiversary” is coming up next week…and there might be a giveaway in the works to celebrate. (Hint, hint) Now’s a great time to follow us on Facebook, or by email. And don’t forget to leave a comment with any questions you have for us. (We’ve only gotten a few questions, so we might decide against answering any if you all aren’t that interested…which is fine, we’re just offering in case you do.)