Pottery Barn swing shelf knock off

Eli's nursery is coming up very well. Yesterday I finished making this swing shelf; a Pottery Barn knock off. I love PB; the prices not so much, but they always have fun stuff like this shelf.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320"] My inspiration from Pottery Barn[/caption]

Here is what you will need:
Drill driver
Shelf
1/4" Sisal rope
2 Robe hooks

I used my drill driver and this 1/2" flat bitwith a double-spur design

Drill a hole in each corner of the shelf. The 1/2 holes worked perfect with my 1/4" rope

I cut out 2 ropes each measuring 20". Closer to the hook, I used a tiny sisal and tied it around several times. Then I put some wood glue on all the knots. It feels pretty sturdy and looks good.

This shelf costs $69. It cost me $11 to make. I had the shelf laying around, just got the rope and hooks

Whale wall decor

Remember the  nautical nursery storyboard for Eli's room? Well, this is the one piece I was not so sure I could pull off. I must say it was very thrilling to make, it looks awesome and its quite big. The whale measures 34" x 20" long

This is what you will need:
2 red cedar fence board
Newspaper (or any large piece of paper)
9 mending plates
Minwax wood finish
Picture hangers
A rug or paint brush
A pen or pencil

Here is my inspiration picture from PBK. I have no idea how much it costs. I even wonder if they ever sold it, it was just part of the room and I loved it. I found these kind of whales for $100 on Etsy and it only cost me about $12 to make my very own..hurray!

Cut boards in half and arrange them like above. Draw a picture of a whale on the newspaper (if you look closely, you will see I had to adjust and redraw mine several times). Cut out the drawing from your paper and using a pencil draw alone the edges of the cutout onto the boards.

Here is how it looked like after

Then I whipped out my favorite tool of all times. My saw, this is one item I would take with me to my grave yes our relationship is that deep. I have used it on all my wood cutting projects, love it love it love it!!

source

Cut up all my pieces, one board at a time

Is that cool or what? The jig saw cut through this board like it was butter. It's the first time I have used it for something this precise and it delivered:)

I turned it around and screwed in the mending plates where the boards came together. Then I nailed in the picture hangers, one on the tail and the other on the head (not shown in picture).

I used this stain, love this stuff

Love it!

Kids Play Kitchen

Ok, here is the project I have been working on for months. It was a process with several mistakes and draw backs but a wonderful learning experience. Anyway, the most important thing is that its finally done and Diana LOVES it. She has already made me 'pretend' chocolate cake, breakfast and bacon soup; (and they were yummy)!

Below are the after/before and inspiration pictures.  Picture 1 is what started it all. It was love at first sight, I knew my daughter would love it. I wondered if I could make it, so James got me power tools as an early Christmas present - (did I mention that I have an awesome husband?)

1. Pottery Barn  2. Target image (this is how my kitchen console looked before)

Here is an up close view of my kitchen. I love the small cooking utencils from here, the pots from here and kitchen appliances from here and similar here. What do you think about my tiling job? I got the tile from here . The burner were made from a place mat I got here. The range knobs were fun to make, Diana thinks they look like a radio, lol!. I didn't want to spend more money buying the actual knobs so I used my spice container lids and I wrote the numbers on a piece of black thin foam and stuck them together. I printed the time on a plain sheet of paper then glued it there. Diana loves to ask what time it is, so this was perfect.

Sink - baking tin. Faucet and knobs from here. I love the little red mug cup.

For the oven door, I used a corrugated plastic sheet from here. I like that its semi transparent (I still have to get a baking rack for the oven). Then to make it look a little real, I draw write lines with a painters marker across.

The fridge - I got the pretend food from here. I love the plastic foods more than the boxed foods. The boxes are way small as you can see from the apple and orange juices, but they are still fun to play with. The fridge, oven and dishwasher handles came from here

Its a perfect size for her. I made the curtains when i made the apron set here. The curtains and the window with a bird outside are a fun addition. She loves to close the curtains when its 'dark outside.'

Say cheeeeese! The apron set looks great on her. Tutorial here

Here is a closer look at the pretend gadgets and appliances we got for the kitchen. 1 Toys R Us similar here . 2 Toys R Us similar here . 3 Ikea . 4 Ikea similar here.

My major draw back came from not knowing how to paint laminate wood. First James sanded it lightly and then I painted it without even using primer. Big mistake. So, we sanded it again, used a paint+primer product, another big mistake. Then I did my research which I should have done at the beginning. Finally something worked, this wonderful paint and primer from Home depot, did the trick. It was a hectic adventure but it saved us a lot of money:)