A Vast Expanse of Purple

Walls baffle me. More specifically, hanging things on walls baffles me. Many of my walls are bare because I cannot figure out what to hang or where to hang it.

The biggest dilemma is the vast expanse of purple wall behind my bed. I can't decide what to do with it. I like the iron headboard but feel it's not enough.

On the same wall is my nightstand. I'd planned to paint it black, but it's a bit too large after the addition of the chest of drawers/dog bed.

A small shelf might be better than a nightstand. With that, I would need a lamp(s) hung from either the ceiling or the wall.

But what to do with the wall?
I don't want a quote/words. (A decal wouldn't stick to the textured wall anyway.)
I don't have any photographs to hang.
Any art would have to be calming and in limited colors so as to preserve the restfulness of the room.
Beyond that... I'm open to ideas.

Fabric?
Lamps?
Candle holders?
???

What do you think?

Black-on-Black Chest of Drawers

Once upon a time, I bought a chest of drawers at a thrift store. It was the perfect size. It was most definitely NOT the perfect color.

I painted it into a more pleasing appearance, and it lived for a few years in stripey, batty glory.

Then I decided to make it over again, this time with a bit more sophistication. One thing I've learned from GIY projects is that small details, such as feet and molding, can have a big impact on furniture. So I began this makeover by turning the chest of drawers upside down in order to add feet.

I made feet by cutting some balusters into pieces (same as in my kitchen).

To attach them, I cut a piece of plywood to size, drilled holes in the plywood and feet...

And attached each foot to the plywood with a screw.

Ideally, I would have used just one piece of plywood. However, I didn't have a piece large enough, so I used two separate pieces. I attached the plywood to the bottom of the chest with screws.

To hide the plywood edges, I added some wood trim.

I righted the chest and added matching trim around the top edges.

I painted the piece with black latex paint in a matte sheen. I then used the same paint in a semi-gloss sheen to stencil a design on the drawer fronts and the sides of the chest.

I painted the sides and inside of the drawers purple and added adhesive shelf paper to the bottom of each drawer. I painted the knobs with silver (brushed nickel) spray paint.

And the makeover was complete!

This chest of drawers matches my dresser and IKEA Rast dog bed.

EDIT:  Adding some details in response to reader questions:

When I first got the chest of drawers, I sanded it a little to smooth out the nicks and dings. This wasn't a heavy-duty sanding job, just a bit of hand sanding on the problem spots. I then applied a coat of latex primer before painting.

I used Behr Premium Plus paint in "Black." (An unusually simple name for a paint color!) I used the matte sheen for the overall painting and the semi-gloss sheen for the stenciling. The purple is Behr in "Wild Elderberry" (left over from painting my bedroom walls).

I applied the paint with a small foam roller, plus a brush for the trim and inside corners. I used a small foam roller for the stenciling as well.

I used a Stencil Ease Victorian Baroque Wall and Floor Stencil. It's available on Amazon. Any stencil will work but wall stencils are easier because they are large and have marks to help line up the repeating pattern.

I attached the wood trim with construction adhesive. I used masking tape to hold the trim in place while the adhesive dried.

IKEA Rast Dog Bed

The internet has taught me that redoing IKEA furniture is not a makeover; it's a "hack." :) So here is my IKEA hack using the Rast chest of drawers:

When I adopted two small dogs, I wanted to provide them with a cozy bed in my bedroom. However, the only appropriate space in the small room was occupied by a Rast chest of drawers. I didn't want to get rid of the chest and lose the drawer space. Then I remembered that sitting in my basement were some of the cabinets I had taken out of my kitchen. Upper cabinets are 12" deep, the same as the Rast. Hmm...

None of the cabinets was exactly the right width, but one was pretty close. It might just work...

The thing might even end up vaguely resembling one of those "chest on chest" style pieces.

I painted the chest and the cabinet with black latex paint in a matte sheen.

The general idea was to set the Rast on top of the cabinet. To keep the whole thing from being ridiculously tall, I cut a few inches off the sides of the Rast (essentially, I eliminated the toe kick).

I had cut a piece of plywood to fit the top of the cabinet. I turned the shortened Rast upside down and attached it to the plywood with screws.

I righted the Rast, placed it on top of the cabinet, and attached it with screws through the plywood. To cover the edges of the plywood, I glued on some wood trim.

I added the same trim around the top of the Rast.

I painted the plywood and trim matte black.

Using the same black paint in a semi-gloss sheen, I stenciled a design on the sides of the piece and on the drawer fronts.

For knobs, I combined the plain wood knobs that came with the Rast with wood bat shapes I'd purchased at a craft store.

I simply drilled a hole in each shape for the screw to go through.

I painted the bats and knobs with silver (brushed nickel) spray paint. I poked the screws through the top of a cardboard box and loosely attached the knobs, allowing me to spray the tops and all around the sides easily.

I attached the silver knobs to the drawers.

I added a cushion made of memory foam inside a pillowcase.

Then, with the addition of a blanket, the dog bed was complete. Nook loves her cozy little nook. :D

Oooh, look, shiny bats!

I used the same gloss-over-matte technique on a chest of drawers and a dresser.

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year!

I am starting 2016 feeling happier and more energetic than I have in ages. :D Pets can do that to a person. My two new dogs are cute and affectionate, and they make me laugh out loud.

This newfound energy is being directed into GIY projects. Currently, I'm working on some projects which involve these drawers...

this cabinet...

and this IKEA Rast chest.

They're taking some time because I'm sort of making it up as I go along. ;) But I'm optimistic that they'll be successful and I look forward to posting about them soon!

In the meantime, have some cute dog pictures.

It's a good thing I bought two crates. XD

Dog Names

When I named my dog Bean Sidhe, I thought of banshees as a well-known myth. Turns out I was wrong. People would ask me her name, and even after I repeated it twice, they didn't know what I was saying. They thought she was Benji or Bouncy or Bandit.

And the spelling... well, people didn't know what to make of that at all. (Can't blame them; Gaelic rarely makes an appearance in the U.S.) I'd fill out paperwork, and her name would get typed in as "Bean Sidle" or "Bean Sigh". I quickly switched to using "Banshee" on any kind of paperwork.

So... lesson learned! I decided that any future dogs would be given simpler names.

I'd been contemplating names for a while, particularly paired names because I thought I'd eventually get two dogs. One pair that stayed in my mind was Indigo and Violet (the places on a rainbow where my favorite colors are found).

As it turns out, even though I did adopt two dogs, they are so different that paired names didn't seem to fit. I needed to choose their names individually.

Little brown dog was difficult to name. She's timid and horribly thin, and she doesn't display much personality beyond wanting to be in my lap at all times. I think that will change as she gets healthier and more secure, but of course she needed a name sooner rather than later. I decided to go with one of the names that had been rolling around in my head for a while and call her Indigo.

As for little black dog... she loves cozy, den-like spaces. She was following me around the house, and every time I opened a closet door, she immediately ran in to explore all the dark corners. In my big walk-in closet, she liked the comfy spot behind my dresses. In my tiny linen closet, she happily curled up on a stack of towels. She's always looking for a cozy little nook... so I named her Nook.

I took both dogs to the vet today for a check-up. Their names were immediately understood and spelled correctly. Success!  :D

Nook got a clean bill of health. The vet agreed with the shelter's assessment that she's about three years old.

Indigo has a few missing teeth, and the vet thinks she is older than the shelter's estimate - probably six or seven years old. She is obviously underweight, and she doesn't show much interest in food. It's imperative we find out why. I have been tasked with collecting urine and stool samples (ah, the joys of pet ownership!), and I'll be taking her back in for bloodwork tomorrow.

I'm afraid getting her to a healthy weight will be challenging. I have to coax her to eat... so far, I've managed to get her to eat sliced turkey and scrambled eggs. The vet suggested baby food, and I did coax her into eating some this evening. Hopefully I can do the same tomorrow.

A Dog Owner Again

You may recall my 17-year-old dog Bean Sidhe died eight months ago. I felt a profound sense of loss, and I missed her terribly. For whatever reason, I grieved in spurts. I'd be okay for a while, then suddenly I'd be hit with a wave of grief, and I'd start sobbing.

Time does help heal, and eventually the episodes became less frequent. Finally, about a month ago, I began to think that maybe I was ready to get another dog. I periodically searched online for adoptable dogs. Two caught my eye; coincidentally, they were at the same shelter.

I went to the shelter this morning to meet the dogs. I liked both, and they seemed to get along with each other, so I adopted both of them. :)

One is a nine-pound Chihuahua mix estimated to be about three years old. She is black with a white stripe on her chest and three white feet.

The shelter staff said she'd come in with some behavior issues but had come a long way in the six weeks she'd been there. When I met her, she did not show any fear or aggression; she was immediately friendly with me.

When we got home, she was timid at first. She stayed in the kennel where she felt safe. But within a couple of hours, she was trotting all around the house carrying her little pink elephant toy. In fact, she was so active, I had trouble getting more pictures of her.

The second dog is a brown and tan Miniature Pinscher estimated to be about four years old. After my beloved Bean Sidhe, I have a soft spot for Min Pins. I saw this little girl on the shelter website, and I just had to meet her.

She was described as timid, so I wasn't sure what to expect. A shelter volunteer brought her into the room, and the instant he took off her leash, she leaped right into my lap. Within two seconds, I knew I wanted to take her home.

She had come to the shelter through the night drop, so the staff didn't have any background on her. It's heartbreaking how thin she is. She's an absolute bag of bones. She weighs only 5.5 pounds, half the weight of my similarly sized Min Pin Bean Sidhe.

Like Bean Sidhe, loves heating pads and blankets.

To help keep her warm, I made a little coat for her out of a sweatshirt sleeve.

So far, the two are getting along well. Little black dog did not want little brown dog in her kennel, and little black dog was a bit possessive of her squeaky toy... but otherwise, they seem okay together.

I'll take them both to the vet in a couple days for a checkup. I want his advice on helping little brown dog get up to a healthy weight.

In the meantime, I need to decide on names for them.

Hello, I'm Grumpy

I wish I could write an interesting post about all the interesting things I've been doing lately. But I'm too darn grumpy.

I'm grumpy because it is too hot in my area at work. Last winter, I was comfortable. I was even able to wear long-sleeve shirts! (Cotton t-shirts, but still... they had sleeves!) I should have known that was a fluke.

I was, of course, hot during the summer. Now it's winter, and I'm hot because buildings are overheated. I'm too hot at work, too hot at the grocery store, too hot at the mall... if I'm inside a building, I'm too hot.

When leaving a heated building to go outside in the ice and snow...

Reaction of normal people:

I need more layers! I'm freezing!

Reaction of me:

Glorious relief! Oh, ice, how I loooove you!

There was once a remarkable exception: I was comfortable at the Mall of America. I was there during a frigid Minnesota winter, and I was amazed not because of the enormous size or the indoor amusement park, but because I was there all day without being too hot. I was actually able to enjoy looking around without feeling like I was going to melt or burst into flames. How is such a thing possible?

The Mall of America has no central heating system. And they recognize that the 70F/21C achieved with skylights and body heat is plenty warm enough... because when it's ten below (-23C) outside, people are probably going to show up wearing a sweater.

But outside of making a long trip to Minnesota, I'm only comfortable when I'm at home. I heat my house to about 66F/19C (lower if I'm moving around a lot, and only to 60F while I'm sleeping). Yes, I know that's not what normal people consider comfortable.

I am insanely jealous of normal people who run at normal temperatures. People who don't have to linger in the frozen food section to cool down before facing the canned goods aisles. People who don't have to shower upon returning from a sweltering 10-minute visit to the pharmacy. People who can actually wear something other than a short-sleeve cotton t-shirt in the middle of winter.

I am tired of being trapped at home knowing I'll be miserably hot if I go anywhere else.