Creating a Quiet Reading Nook in Master Bedroom on my $0 Budget

I have always struggled to get my Master bedroom to be the room I dream about. I like everything but I don't love how it works together. I can't really explain it.

We are lucky our bedroom is quite large but it has a really awkward bay area that you see when you walk up the stairs. Until now it has housed laundry baskets, our dog's beaten up bed and many other things that just have no home.

(sorry for the dot in my photos. There is something in my camera causing this and I can't find it!)
Now that we have our beautifully framed flat screen mounted, I knew I wanted to make this area into a reading nook/TV watching area. Since I am working on a $0 budget, I had to repurpose what I have in storage in the basement (aka the dumping ground for all homeless items kicking around my house).

I had a small leather arm chair that has been kicking around my house for a couple of years without a perfect spot. So I brought it up and it seemed to be the right size. I knew I wanted a place to put my feet up so I went hunting. I found two old stools (both bought for next to nothing at a thrift store) that I use to have in our bathroom for when we would spend countless hours a week watching the kids play in the tub. Well, now that the kids are bigger and I don't have to watch them as closely, I had put them in the basement.

The one stool was not the color I wanted, so I got out my handy black satin spray paint and gave it a nice coat of paint. I have to say this was my first spray painting gone wrong experience! Me being the patient person I am and not wanting this to be done the second I got the idea, I did not prime this piece first. So the spray paint just seemed to roll off the 'wood.' I grabbed some paper towels and quickly wiped off the dripping paint and stood back to figure out what to do. I decided to put on a few thin layers of spray primer and they seemed to stick well. After it dried (well not really) I tried the black paint again and this time it worked! Says a lot for priming. One step I won't skip again. My wonderful husband covered the seat with faux black leather that I had on hand.

The other stool, with the large cushion, looked like a tray style side table when the cushion was removed. So I tucked it in the corner with a basket underneath (to hide my never used exercise videos :) ).

I did the Pottery Barn knock off that is going around the blog world by ripping the covers off a few old books, darkened the sides with tea bags and securing them with twine. I added an extra special touch..my daughter made me a paper flower years ago so I thought this is a perfect spot to showcase it. I would love one of those little silver clocks with the feet to put beside the books but that will have to wait. 
 I can't say I am 100% happy with it but I do love being able to sit and read quietly.

 On a side note...does anyone have a suggestion on what I can do for curtains? Should I do one rod across the entire wall and put panels between the windows and on either side of the bay (so 4 panels). I am struggling with this...hence no curtains almost two years after moving in.

Full of Great Ideas $0 Budget Party

{The $0 Budget Party is below}

Here is my last $0 project for the month of March!

Have you seen the Ikea commercial for their Winter Sale? It starts with a woman looking at her receipt in shock and running out the the store yelling "Start the Car!!!"  Well that was me last week. No, I didn't cheat on my $0 budget month and head to Ikea, I went shopping at the Sidewalk Boutique (Thank you Amy at Chestnut Tree Lane for the wonderful new saying! I no longer have to tell my husband I pulled something out of someone's garbage).

So I was driving to pick up my kids at our wonderful home daycare (Hi Bonnie) and I spied a gorgeous cream colored headboard being featured in the Sidewalk Boutique :). I drove past at such a slow speed you could have walked faster. But knowing my husband would roll his eyes, I drove past.  When I got to the daycare, about 5 houses down, I knew I had to go back. With the support of another woman who loves a great deal, I ran back in my high heels to see what it was like. I was in awe...so beautiful! Well it was actually hideous but I knew with some paint it would be amazing.

Here is where the Ikea part comes in. I am a pretty tall woman and with 3 inch heels on I am a good size...well just image me running with this queen size headboard over my head down the street yelling "open the van". Hoping that no one would see me before I managed to wrangle it into the back of my minivan. Bonnie and I wiggled and pushed and somehow managed to get it in. All while her husband (thinking exactly what my husband would be thinking) laughed at us.  I knew my husband would not be overjoyed so when I got home, I carefully (meaning secretively) moved it into the garage and did not say a word. I didn't hide it but I knew once it was in the house it was easier to keep. Well it took him a couple of days to find and all I got was a few "garbage digger" comments. Well worth it in my opinion!

Here is the before (the small patch of cream is where I tested the spray paint):

And the amazing after. Look what a can of Heirloom White spray paint can do!

That is my last $0 project for this month!  What have you done with $0?

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A Few Party Guidelines
*Party is open to any project you've made or created with materials you had on hand. So $0 Budget!!
*Please do not link to Etsy shops because they cost money :). Remember $0 Budget.
*Link to your actual post title (not your blog homepage). If you need help, send me a note and I can help you.
*It would be nice if you added the $0 Budget party button to your post (code above) or a link back to the party and if you Followed me but this is not required.
*Please visit other people's ideas and Leave Some Comments. We all love comments!


 I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and lets PARTY!

Picture perfect TV - Flat Screen TV Frame

Although this amazing project was completed during my $0 budget month, we did plan for it and purchased all the materials a couple of months ago. The materials cost approximately $35, but if you hunt around or have leftovers from putting up crown molding it could cost your far less.  I will let you decide if this was cheating on the budget, but for this month I spent $0 on the frame. Since the goal was to finish projects and to use the stuff I had, I think I stayed with in my goal :o).

At Christmas, my husband and I decided rather than buying gifts for each other, we would splurge on a TV for our bedroom (42 inches for those of you wondering how it would look on your sized TV). I know there are some of you out there that are gasping and thinking "You should never put a TV in your bedroom!" I respect your opinion but I do like to lay in bed at night and watch TV.  Plus with 2 kids in this house, the moment the TV turns on in the family room, they come running and take control over what we watch. If I don't have to sit through another Hanna Montana again, I would be overjoyed.

When we purchased the TV, I made sure the one we bought had the controls on the front. Although this does not matter with modern day remote controls, I like to be able to turn the TV on and change the channel/volume without having to hunt for a remote control that is always misplaced.

I only agreed to put a TV in our bedroom because I knew that I wanted to frame it so it was less obvious. I didn't want to walk into the room and that be the one thing that you see. So I agreed to get a TV and my husband agreed to make me a Flat Screen TV Frame.

I will admit I did not participate in the making of this; I helped design it but I did no physical labor in its production. This is 100% my husband's beautiful handy work!

Before:

After:

Materials:

• 5 inch Crown MDF molding (enough to surround the outer edge of the TV with some to spare)
• 2x1 inch MDF molding (enough to connect the outer edge of the crown molding to the wall. You need a longer piece than the crown molding)
• Thin trim molding(looks like the opposite of quarter round. Curves in not out)
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Wood filler/ sand paper
• Paint
• Hanging brackets

Method:
We (from here on out we is really my husband :)) hung the TV on the wall with a 'flush mount' bracket. This mount does not swivel or tilt, but this is what we wanted since our bed is directly across from the TV. Once mounted, there was only an inch or two of gap between the TV and the wall.

We cut two hole between the studs in the drywall (one behind the TV and one at the electrical outlet height) and dropped all the cables through. We used a special plate/kit made specifically for this, but it really is not necessary since ours is hidden by a dresser like ours.

We measured the exact width, height and depth of the TV. I would give you my measurements but this will vary for every TV and it won't help you.

We first made the crown molding part of the frame to the exact outer dimensions of the TV.  So the inner part of the crown molding frame covers  but a smidge of the outer lip of the TV. We connected the pieces together with small nails and wood glue.

We placed it over the TV to determine how much of a gap remained between the frame and the wall. We had a 2 inch gap so we used a piece of 2x1 flat trim molding to make the frame fit flush against the wall. Again, we used small nails and wood glue to secure the pieced together.

After the frame was fitting flush against the wall, we noticed we had a slight gap (on the inner part) that you could see between the TV and the frame, so we used a small piece of trim molding on the inner part of the frame to hide it (looks like quarter-round but it is curved in rather than out).

We filled in all the holes with wood fill and used caulking to hide seams. After giving the entire piece a light sand, we painted it the same black paint we used for our kitchen table. Three light coats later and it looked amazing!

In order to allow the heat and sound to come out from behind the TV, my husband removed approximately half of the 2x1 molding on the top and bottom of the frame using a router. You cannot see that the wood has been removed unless you bend down and look at it from underneath, but it does allow the TV to vent (these TVs produce a great deal of heat). I am sure you could drill a few big holes in the top and bottom too and that would allow the heat to come out.

We used picture hanging hardware to secure it to the wall. The hanging brackets were attached to the piece of 1x2. This frame weighs hardly anything since it is made of MDF but if you do this with real wood, be sure to use hangers that can hold the weight.

Here is a breakdown of where each piece of molding was used. You can see it in the above photo too (the inner white piece is the small trim, the light brown is the crown molding and the outer white piece is the 1x2) :

 And here it is, the end result again:

I still have not decided how to decorate around it. We did not center it above the dresser because I wanted to do a collage of pictures to the one side...however, it is far bigger than expected and I might just have to leave the plant for height.


Any suggestions on how to decorate this?

Oh and in case you are wondering, we do have a computer connected to the TV. My husband is an Electrical Engineer so every TV in our house also doubles as a computer monitor.

Look what I found with a little googling...a Pottery Barn version available for a crazy/ridiculous price.  I guess I create a Pottery Barn knock off their TV frame Chadwick without even knowing it :)

Source Pottery Barn

Slim book shelves for beside children's beds

I love Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids! Then again, who doesn't? But to be honest with you, I don't think I have bought a single thing there...ever. I use their website as a source for ideas and not for anything else.  When I came upon the slim book holders they show in photos next to the kids beds (priced at $49 each!!!), I knew I had to make them. I loved the idea of having a thin book shelf right next to my guys beds without having to worry about them hitting there heads because it came out so far.

Here is the Pottery Barn version:

(source Pottery Barn Kids)

So I started googling and found an amazing website called Knock-Off Wood by Anna White.  Anna is a genius when it comes to making anything to do with wood.  She gives amazingly detailed instructions on how to make these adorable shelves on her website.

I cannot tell you how easy these were to make and how nice they look!

I went to my local Home Depot and found precut pine wood in the perfect length of 36 inches (they also had 24 inch ones too)!!! These pieces worked out cheaper than the longer pieces that I would have had to cut! The only cutting I had to do was for the two side pieces and if you don't want to do the curved cut, you can have Home Depot cut a squared edge for you for free!

I won't bore you with the details on how I made these because Anna does an amazing job but I will tell you I made a slight modification to the top guard piece. We flipped it so more books could fit in the shelf. Either way works but this was our preference.

 

After they were assembled, I simply spray painted them with navy spray paint (I didn't prime) and put two picture hanging hooks on the back.

As you know, I live in Canada, so the wood cost a little more than Anna White's version. The grand total for this each shelf was approximately $10 for the wood and $2.50 for the spray paint. I could have saved a few dollars by using primed MDF but we would have had to do more cuts. I was overjoyed with the end result and pretty happy with the price, especially when Pottery Barn is charging $49!

I made 2 of these for my nephews for Christmas so they can hang them next to their bunk beds. I gave them each a book and a lamp to round out the gift.

Stephanie