DIY: Sunburst Mirror Clock

It's finally done!

Over the weekend, I finished up a project that I was so excited to make - I was finally able to get our sunburst clock up on the wall!  You may remember this clock from the Family Room design plan, and I believe that I told you that it was inspired by some mid-century style mirrors that I had come across. I have seen some people recreate the mirrors, but I wanted to take it one step further and make mine into a clock.  We used to have a clock up on that wall, but the style matched my parents furniture more than it matches ours, so we took it down when we were prepping the walls for painting.  Ever since then, you know, back in December, we have constantly been looking at that wall for the time, so we knew that we had to get a clock back up there soon.

Now, this project wasn't very difficult, but there were a lot of steps, so this post will almost be picture overload. Sorry, I'm not sorry! 

The first thing that I did was decide how large I wanted the clock to be.  I wanted it to be a statement piece on that large purple wall, so I thought that three feet in diameter would be perfect. I bought a 12" craft mirror from Hobby Lobby, as I didn't want something expensive since I would be gluing things to it and drilling a hole in the center.  

I also picked up some wooden dowels in two different diameters, so that the sunburst clock had some depth. I chose to go with 1/4" and 3/8" diameters, and bought the 4' dowels so I could get as many sticks out of each dowel as possible.  Using just a wire cutter, although you could use a hack saw too, I cut the dowels into lengths of 13", 12", and 11" making sure I had the same amount of each length and width.  I chose the lengths because I wanted the dowels to extend to a maximum of 12" from the side of the mirror, and I needed approximately 1" for securing the dowel to the backside of the mirror.  Make sure that you take that into consideration when cutting your lengths, as you don't want to end up with a smaller size clock than you anticipated.

After cutting the dowels, lay out the dowels in a pattern of your choice, keeping in mind that you may have some that are both different sizes and thicknesses. I started with one of the dowels and placed each one of those in a space on the outside of the mirror. I then followed that by a different size dowel until I used all of the sticks in a consistent pattern around the mirror.  I didn't follow any of the directions that others have online, and only did what I liked, so you should do what you feel looks good. 

Once all of my dowels were in place, I did, however, do some simple calculations to figure out how much space I should have between each dowel. Using the diameter of the mirror, 12", I used a circumference calculator online to determine that I was working with 37.67" and then divided that by 30, which is the number of dowels I had, and got 1.25" between each one. If you want to be picky about placement, like me, you can do these same calculations, but if you don't want to, you can always just eye it. 

After being satisfied with how the clock looked, I wrote down the pattern of the dowels, then I took them down into the basement to my spray painting station and coated them with some silver metallic spray paint. Don't forget that the best method of spray painting is in light layers and not thick coats, so you may want to put three or more layers of spray paint on the dowels in order to get them evenly covered.

While I was waiting for the dowels to dry between layers of spray paint, I started to prep for drilling the hole in the center of my mirror for the clock mechanism.  First, in order to protect the glass surface of your mirror, prop it up on a soft, but raised item. As you can see in the photos below, I used some cleaning cloths I had and supported the mirror on them, while at the same time, leaving the center unsupported, that way the drill bit wouldn't hit the towels or the work surface when it finally cut through the glass. 

Without having the proper tools to find the center of my mirror, I used a technique I found online, where you draw three lines of equal length that intersect with two edges of the circle, then draw a line perpendicular to that first one at the center point of the original line.  The perpendicular lines will intersect each other at the center spot of your circle, or in this case, your mirror. Make sure to do this on the back of the mirror, as you likely won't have much success drawing on the front side without using a pen or marker that would leave permanent marks.

You may remember that I purchased a glass drill bit, and I showed you how to drill a hole in a wine bottle for all of those neat projects you may have in mind.  I used my 1/2" drill bit for this project since the post of my clock mechanism was slightly larger than the 1/4" bit that I also own.

Applying a medium amount of pressure, I began drilling a hole in the center of the mirror.  Make sure that your drill is is a level position and don't apply too much pressure, as you don't want your mirror to shatter. Once you have an indentation made in the back of the mirror, begin adding a few drops of water to the surface of the mirror where the drill bit is making the hole. This will help the glass drill smoothly instead of chipping or cracking when you are drilling. If the water begins to dry out, you should continue to add more, just a few drops at a time.  

Continue drilling into the back of the mirror, gradually adding pressure so you eventually get the size hole you need for the post of the clock mechanism. This may take up to a half hour, depending on how thick your mirror is, how sharp your glass bit is, and how much pressure you are applying when drilling. Once the hole fits the clock mechanism, you can drill slightly on the front side of the mirror just to make sure that the hole is smooth and free of sharp glass shards, but this step is optional, and slightly chancy since the clock mechanism will likely cover any areas in question. 

Once you are done drilling, you are ready to attach the smaller mirrors to the spray painted dowels. I bought small mirrors that were 1/2", 3/4", and 1" in diameter just to add some depth to the dowels.  I laid out the dowels in the pattern that I determined earlier, and then placed the small mirrors below the dowels in order to determine the pattern for those.  

Once you have your layout finished, attach the small mirrors to the dowels. I used Gorilla Glue to do this, but I didn't realize how much the glue bubbles and expands, so if you use this, proceed with caution, because you might end up with some of the mirrors stuck to your work surface, or glue stuck to the front side of the mirrors. If you are looking for alternative adhesives, try silicone, and even though I haven't tried it, hot glue from a glue gun may also work. For actually attaching them I found it easiest to place the small mirror face down, put a small drop of glue on the back, and then place the dowel on top. This allowed me to move the dowels as the glue was drying, in case they began to slide off off center. 

After the glue dries, you are ready to attach the dowels to the back side of the large mirror. Since I struggled with the Gorilla Glue, I used silicone for this step. To make sure that I had the spacing of the dowels set correctly, I placed them all on the back of the mirror, leaving an inch on the back side of the mirror, and was able to move them around until I had an even placement of 1.25" between each one. Once they were in place, I then used the silicone tube in the caulk gun and placed a thick bead of silicone over the dowels.

Using a small craft paint brush, I spread the silicone around each of the dowels so they would be secured onto the mirror. In the picture below, you can see how the top left corner has just the bead of silicone over the dowels, where the rest of the back of the mirror already shows the silicone spread around the base of each stick.  

Let the silicone dry and once you are confident that the dowels are secure in place, you can attach the clock mechanism. Each mechanism will probably be slightly different than the other, but mine was very simple. 

Slide the post through the hole you drilled in the mirror, then on the part that shows through the front side of the mirror attach the washer and the nut and twist it until it's tight. Don't over-tighten the nut, because you don't want to crack the mirror after you have gotten this far! 

Finally, attach the clock hands, and if your mechanism came with one, pop on the little cap that keeps the clock hands on the post.  

Lastly, clean off the front sides of all the mirrors with your favorite glass cleaner, and then hang your masterpiece up on the wall!! 

Ta-da! I am very happy with the way that this project came out, however there are a few things I think I would have liked to change. It turns out that these clock hands are just a little too small for the size of the clock face, so it does look a little strange.  Maybe I will try to find some different ones, because changing out the clock mechanism should be easy as long as the post hole can remain the same size.  The other thing that kind of irks me is how small the clock looks on the wall! I can't believe that a clock with a three foot diameter could look so small. I thought that would be plenty big enough, but it does look kind of lost up there. Maybe this is just an opportunity to put some picture frames with my favorite digital art prints in them on each side of it.


What are your thoughts? Do you love this clock? Does this make you want to create your own in your own style? Should I put pictures on either side to help the wall feel fuller?

Cute Little Endtable

A long, long time ago, last year, actually, after I revealed the Family Room Design plan, I ended up taking a trip to Target, where I found that the little side table that I wanted was marked on Clearance and was going to be discontinued.  I snatched it up and brought it home with me, and then it sat in a closet for 8 months.

A few weeks ago, I took it out and brought it into the garage to be painted yellow.  Because the finish on the table was so shiny, I decided to rough it up a little bit first, using some medium grit sandpaper, and going over all of the sides and the top.  

I decided to go with a spray paint for a more even coverage. In addition, trying to paint this side table with a brush would have been difficult considering all of the cut outs in the metal.  I likely would have ended up with drip marks all over the place.  Also, since I really liked the shine that it had before I sanded it down, I decided to go with a glossy spray paint, so I picked up some bright yellow paint from the hardware store.  I'm glad I went with a primary yellow for the room, because finding the right shade of yellow would have been difficult for spray paint.   

Starting with the top of the table, I began spraying it yellow, making sure that I was at least a foot away from the table and moving the spray can in even widths and speed across the top.  

After the top was sprayed, I moved onto the sides, going in a horizontal back-and-forth pattern down the side of the table, and then rotating the yard waste bag that I put the table on so I could get to the other parts of the table.  

I ended up putting three coats of yellow spray paint on the table, just to make sure that I ended up with the most amount of coverage, and to get the yellow color to really pop.  Be careful with your spray paint though...

Because I was working in my garage only a few weeks ago, the temperature was much colder than suggested by the spray paint can directions. I ignored these though, and used it anyways. The spray paint was fine though, because it was being stored inside the house.  The problem ended up being the table - it is made of metal and was being stored outside in the garage, where the day's high temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees, the metal was so cold that as soon as the spray paint hit it, it was wrinkling and almost shriveling up.  

As you can see above, this is what I ended up with in different places on the table. And surprisingly, I am ok with it. I think it makes it a little cooler, actually.  Plus, it's not really noticeable unless you are pressing your nose up against the end table, which I highly doubt anyone will be doing at my house.  Unless, of course, they read this post and actually want to see the crackling for themselves!

Anyways, once I had the three coats of spray paint on my table and let them dry, it was ready to be placed in the family room.  Originally, the table was going to be on the purple shag rug that I bought for the space, but it turns out that an 8'x10' rug in that room is SO much smaller than I thought. So, the table is going to end up off the rug, but still on the side of the couch.  With the bottom of the table being metal, I was afraid of it scratching the hardwood floors, so I came up with a way to protect both the table and the floors - silicone!

I took out my trusty caulk gun, and my ever-so-popular tube of silicone, and spread a generous amount around the bottom of the table, making sure that I didn't go too far to one side or the other.  

Once the silicone was on the rim of the table, I used a few toothpicks just to make sure that it was even in terms of height and that there weren't any spots that I missed.  Also, since I overlapped the starting and ending point, that needed to be smoothed out a bit so that it was even with the rest of the rim.  

I let the silicone sit and dry for 24 hours, although it probably wasn't necessary to wait that long.  You can check your tube of silicone for the actual recommended drying time if you're impatient.  

Once the silicone was dry, I flipped over the table, set it on my hardwood floors, and voila! I had a great pop of color for my family room, and one of the best parts is that the silicone is protecting the floors from scratching, and from sliding around, since curious kitty cats like to explore all the new things that are popping up in our home!

It's amazing how much life the yellow brings to the space compared to the white!  Have you ever revamped a little side table for your space? Would you ever consider using primary yellow in your home decor?

Gigantor Chair

Just about two weeks ago now, we had our couch and oversized chair delivered to our home, during the beginning of a snowstorm.  We had received a gift card from my parents and sister for Christmas to Bob's Discount Furniture, a local to New England furniture store that has some pretty great pieces at a really really lost cost.  While their pieces may not last forever (and that's just an assumption...we've had no experience with them before until now), they fit the budget that we wanted to spend while at the same time having the colors and styles we were looking for.

I had done my research on their products online, and then went into the store back in early October to talk with someone about pricing and the additional features.  While I was there, I got a printed quote that we could bring back into the store when we were ready to order, which we did on December 29th.  One of the greatest parts about Bob's is that their furniture is not made to order - it's all stored in a warehouse, which meant that even though we placed the order on Sunday, we would have our furniture on Thursday morning.  Crazy fast, right?

So that's just what we did. We signed up for the "Breakfast with Bob's" early morning delivery, which was a delivery window of 6:30am-9:30am, that way neither of us would end up needing to take a full day off of work for delivery.  They arrived a little later than their online tracking system stated, but that was because the snow fall was adding some time onto their commute, and I didn't mind really, especially since they still arrived well within their given time window.

The two guys brought the couch, the chair, and the ottoman into the house, unwrapped them, put on the legs, and took all of the packing products with them, which was perfect!  And within a half hour of them arriving at the house, they were gone and we had furniture!  But, the arrangement didn't quite go as expected.  Turns out that the oversized chair that we purchased is in fact really oversized - 53" across!  In fact, too oversized for where we wanted to put it.

The original plan was to put both the couch and the chair against the purple wall, but because of the angled wall and the gray wall jut-out that you see in the picture below, the two just didn't fit right against the wall together, even though I measured how they would fit. The chair ended up overlapping onto the tile floor of the kitchen and it really just didn't look right, and was quite crowded.  So, we left the couch up against the purple wall, and put the chair in the corner next to where the television is.  And this is what we are going to work with now.

I'm hoping that it's not going to be too crowded over on that wall, with the TV stand and the bookshelf there. But, you'll see soon how things have ended up over the last few weeks, since we have started adding in all of the other layers to the room.  

Have you ever ordered furniture expecting it to go somewhere specific and then realized it just doesn't work the way you wanted it to? What have you done to overcome this issue, and how did you resolve it?

DIY: Expedit Hack - Wide Cubby and Legs

One of the things that I like the most about IKEA furniture is that not only does it have clean modern lines and awesome colors, but they all have the potential to be hacked!  There is an entire website dedicated to hacking IKEA furniture, and I'm no stranger to hacking, myself, as you'll remember my Orgel lamps that I hacked to add fabric shades.

Ever since I began designing the Family Room, I knew that I wanted the IKEA Expedit as the TV stand. The fact that it had all of these little cubbies to put our DVDs and video game consoles was perfect. However, the cubbies aren't exactly wide enough for a DVD player, and likely not wide enough for your Cable or Satellite box either, as those are typically around 15" and the cubbies are about 13".  To solve this, we decided to hack the unit, which didn't require any power tools or saws, which for Dylan, meant that it was perfect!

We followed the normal directions on setting up the Expedit unit, by attaching one of the long sides to one of the short sides first.  We put on the first short shelf, then the first long shelf, and then this is the point where we made some changes.

Instead of doing another short shelf and then a long shelf, we did the opposite - a long shelf and then a short shelf.  And yes, I know that sounds confusing, so I made you a diagram.

The black thick lines are the outside borders of the Expedit.  The small red lines are the small shelf dividers, and the long green lines are the long shelf dividers.  The layout on the left is how the Expedit is supposed to look, according to IKEA, and the layout on the right is what we did to make it fit our needs.

It's a little easier to see how we made the change now. Instead of putting a short board underneath the top long horizontal board, we put another long board, this time going vertically.  And then to the right of that long vertical board, we attached a small board, horizontally.  Because all of the pieces are essentially identical in the way they are put together, we didn't have to make any new holes for the dowel pegs to go through.  We did, however, have to make 4 of the wooden dowel pegs shorter.  The long boards (the green ones) have holes that go through completely so that they can attach to both of the short boards (the red ones) that meet up with it. Because of this, and the fact that we are using one of the long boards "improperly", we had to cut about 3/8" off from 4 of the pegs so that they didn't stick up through the long board and into the space we want the Cable box to go.  Not a big deal though - it was really easy. In fact, you don't even need a hack saw, although that would work really well.  We ended up using a large pair of wire cutters and it was perfect, although I bet you could get away with kitchen shears, pruning shears, and possibly even a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer, like you would use a chisel.

So, once you have your boards the way you want them, you can finish putting together the frame of the Expedit, securing everything together just like the IKEA directions say to.  Don't be concerned if you end up with extra boards. We ended up with an extra short board, which is a good thing, because I may or may not have accidentally chipped off an edge of the high-gloss finish...

After you have rearranged our boards, you may declare yourself done with this project, but we still had one more small hack to complete - attaching legs.  Since our unit will be placed on the long side, in order to hold our TV, we wanted it up off the floor so that the heat from our radiators could pass underneath it, and also for easier cleaning and so that the long side of the Expedit doesn't get too scratched when it's moved.  So, enter the IKEA Capita legs.  We originally got the 8" legs, but after getting the Expedit set up, we realized that adding 8" more to it's height would make the TV too high, so we exchanged them for the 4" ones.  They also have 6" ones available if you're interested.  

Anyways, I wasn't too logistical about placing the legs on the bottom, so I lined up the legs with the corners of the unit, and then pushed them inward about 1.5" so the screws didn't interfere with the assembly of the unit at the corners. The last thing I want is the piece to fall apart with the TV on it, right!

First off, make sure that if you hacked the shelf arrangement, that you are putting the legs on the side you want down.  You really don't want to go through these next steps just to realize that you put the legs on the top instead of the bottom!  So to attach the Capita legs, I just used one of the screws that came with the legs, and made a small indentation on the surface of the Expedit in where each screw will go, using the hardware as a guide.  

Using my drill, although a screwdriver would work fine too, I then attached the legs to the Expedit using the screws that were in the unit package.  I did not pre-drill the holes, as the interior of the Expedit structure is not solid wood, so they went in very easily.  

Depending on the weight of your television, you may want to add a leg or two to the middle of your unit. Our TV only weighs 50 pounds, but I just wanted to be extra careful, especially since we technically removed one of the weight-bearing shelf dividers from the unit.  

Once you have your legs attached, you can flip your piece over, set it in place, and then place your TV on top!  Our Cable box now fits in the top cubby, and when we bring the DVD player downstairs, it will be placed right under the Cable box.  

I think this looks great, and I can't wait to fix those cables back there so they don't show. And I have another neat little project planned for the Expedit - yes it is another hack. And I can't wait to get started on that project and show it to you!

Have you ever hacked an IKEA product? What did you do and how did you do it?

The Motherland Has Been Raided

In the wake of me almost becoming a member of the 9-finger club, Dylan and I decided to focus less on painting, and more on decor.  With one thumb less to work with, painting was going to be somewhat difficult, so we spent the Sunday after Christmas at my favorite-est store ever - IKEA!!!

The Motherland, as I will now refer to it, was amazing, as expected.  We spent just about 3 hours there, much to the dismay of both Dylan and his father, but we came out right on budget, surprisingly, and with almost everything checked off on the list.  It turns out that even though one of the rugs I wanted was listed as In-Stock on the website, it was actually off-site in their storage warehouse while the new addition is being added to the building, so we ended up taking another trip up there to pick it up.  

But, now I can say that we finally have some furniture for the house!  We got home, unpacked the truck, which Dylan's parents were so kind to join us for the trip and use their pickup truck, since our cars were just too small for the boxes of furniture.

After a delicious lunch with Dylan's parents to thank them for making the trip with us and letting us mooch off of their owning of a truck, we unpacked the kitchen items we purchased, including our new plates and bowls, and some champagne glasses, since they were on sale, and began putting our furniture together.

We started with the Family Room furniture, and got both of the Vittsjo pieces put together - the Nesting Tables and the Bookshelf.  And we ate dinner on the nesting tables that night, as our kitchen table is still covered in all sorts of junk from when we were painting.  And the bookshelf was left empty, and until this past weekend, it remained empty.  

But, we're getting somewhere with this space!  We ended up putting together the Expedit that we purchased too, but I'm going to save that for another post since we hacked it. I can't wait to show you how we changed it up! Also, I already have another trip to IKEA planned! I just wish that it was closer, but Dylan is very happy that it's not!

I Will Never Paint This Kitchen Again

Last Thursday, I teased you with a picture of all of the paint and supplies I was gathering for part 1 of paint-the-entire-house.  And then, a little later, I teased you with some snapshots of our painting progress.

Now, I am ready to tell you that the Family Room and Kitchen are done! And I will never paint this kitchen again.

The kitchen was so awful to paint. The problem was the space itself.  In addition to the walls, we also painted the ceiling, which is not only 15 feet tall at the highest point and also has sloped sides, but also has 6 pot-lights that don't come out of the ceiling all the way, 2 pendants, 2 central air vents, only one of which could be removed (stripped screw), 1 chandelier and a covered fan box to go around, never mind all of the cutting-in along the wall seam.  And while that sounds bad, the walls in the kitchen have 3 doors, 2 windows, 2 wall jut-outs, an over-the-sink sconce, and all of the cabinets.  In summary, this took forever to paint. One layer of paint took us just over 2 hours to complete.  So, multiply that by vacuuming the walls, washing the walls, 1 coat of primer, and then 2 coats of paint = a lot of hours.  In fact, we didn't finish painting until 2am last night (this morning?) and then clean up took another 40 minutes.

So, needless to say, this kitchen will be gray for the rest of the time we live in this house. I am not EVER painting it again.  The End.

But, let's continue, shall we? After all, I know you want to see the before and after pictures, right?!

You already know about my design plans for the Family Room, but if you don't you should check it out, just so you can see how my vision is coming to fruition.  But, just so you know ahead of time, I am already obsessed with this room, and there isn't even any furniture in it yet!

The obligatory before picture, which is followed by...

Just a corner snapshot of the Family Room accent wall, but, what do you think?! Doesn't it look amazing?  My cell picture doesn't really do it justice at all. My actual camera is having some issues with focus, but when that gets fixed, I'll get a better picture for you.  

The kitchen is also a huge difference. You'll remember the post last week about cleaning the kitchen and I had some great shots of the space, including the horrible orangy-peach color that was on the walls. And now, here's the difference the paint color makes.

And a huge change, the after!

We absolutely love the way that this color looks on the walls. It really makes the cabinets and the appliances the main focus, and takes your eye away from the ugly Corian countertops that we aren't replacing right now.

Next, we will be looking at replacement light fixtures that we could still use when we renovate the kitchen completely in a few years, and then we may have a surprise in store still with something bigger in here!

So, what do you think? The paint makes a huge difference, doesn't it?

The Epic IKEA Shopping List

I told you earlier this week that I was going to be taking an epic trip to IKEA to purchase some furniture and accessories for our house.  I have been making a spreadsheet of all the purchases we will be needing to make in the next few months, and for each room, there is at least one thing from IKEA.  I figured that I would give you a tour of all of the things that I have on my IKEA shopping list, and how they will be used in our home.  

Our first stop is the Family Room, which I know I have already explained most of it to you, but just for the sake of keeping everything together in one place, I will include here again.

So, as far as the IKEA items go, from this room, you'll see the most obvious piece, the Expedit, which will be our TV stand.  I will be getting it in the High-Gloss White color, and I will be hacking it to add four or five Capita Legs so that it sits just a little higher up off the floor.

The next piece you see in the design plan above is the coffee table, which is part of the Vittsjo Nesting Tables Set. I haven't decided what I will use the taller table for yet, but that can always go in a different room if it turns out there isn't enough space in this room.  Also part of the same collection is the Vittsjo Tall Shelving Unit, which actually isn't pictured above in the design plan, but it will go next to the television and the Expedit.  

And what you may not have noticed in the background of the design plan are the white Merete curtains for the windows.  I love that they are grommet curtains that I can use with the DIY curtain rods I have made out of electrical conduit.  

The Family Room design plan shows two lamps, one table and one floor, but those have since been removed from the actual plan - I just didn't update the visual I made in Photoshop.  

The next room is the small bedroom, which will be my Craft Room. I haven't previously shared my design plan for this room, so this will be the first chance you get to seeing how I am hoping it will turn out. I will make a full design plan though, because there are some other really cool items that I will be adding to the space, including my new library card catalog!

The first thing for the space is the Morum rug. It's a flat-weave rug that I am thinking will vacuum really well, which is important since there will be fabric scraps and thread clippings likely falling onto the floor.  

The next thing that I will be getting for this room will be opposite of the rug - the Fuga ceiling light. Currently, the space has one of those old globe lights that has probably been in place since the house was built, so I am really looking forward to switching this light out. I think it's the perfect mix of modern with functional, since the spotlights can be pointed wherever they are needed. 

Dylan and I used to have one of these Linnmon/Adils tables in the last apartment we had together, and it held up really well considering we were using it for food prep. So I put two of these tables on my shopping list, hoping that I am able to put them together in the center of the room to give me enough space to spread out large pieces of fabric.  

A while back, I shared the design plan for the Guest Bedroom, but like the Family Room, I wanted to include the IKEA items in this post.  There aren't too many for this room, because I have since removed the two nightstands and all the lamps in the room, and I already have the bureau, and the IKEA chair has been replaced by one that belonged to my grandmother before she passed away earlier this year.  

So, that only leaves us with two items from IKEA for this space: the Hampen Rug and the Werna Curtains.  I really love the green rug and hope that despite its small size, it will really help to bring some comfort into the space without overloading the room on the green color.  The curtains though, are dark, so I'm hoping that they will help to block the light when we have guests staying over, while at the same time, bringing some dimension to the room with that pop of dark color along the wall.  

The Living/Dining Room doesn't have a full design plan at this point.  I've been really struggling with it, since we have two functions planned - a Dining Room and a Living Room.  I have been debating building our table, but I'm not sure if that cost will be worth it in the end. I have to price out some wood from a lumber yard, because the types offered from the hardware stores are too soft to build a sturdy table.  If I don't end up building the table as planned, I will likely be purchasing the Stornas table from IKEA, which is made of solid wood.  To go along with the table, regardless of if it's built or bought, I will be purchasing ten of the Borje chairs in the Brown finish and the Gobo White seats.

I also thought that some white Lack shelves would look good along one of the walls to show off some of the little chotchkies that we have.  And then on the other side of the table, I was thinking of some sort of sideboard, and I have fallen in love with The IKEA Bjursta Sideboard.  However, I am having a really hard time justifying the price tag, especially since this isn't one of IKEA's solid wood pieces.

There is only one piece for the Master Bedroom that we will be purchasing, and that is this Expedit Workstation so that we can setup our office in our bedroom. With it being as big as it is, we will have more than enough space to set up an office area, especially since the futon currently in our bedroom will be moving to the craft room for additional guest sleeping when necessary.  

Aside from these bigger items, we will be purchasing some decor items, like picture frames for my favorite digital art prints, vases, and fake flowers, and some succulents and actual plants and the cute little tabletop Socker greenhouse you see below.  The venue that we got married at, the Roger Williams Botanical Center, has a few of these plants in the greenhouses, so I thought that this would be the perfect way to remind us of the absolutely beautiful wedding day that we had.  

So, that concludes the bulk of my IKEA shopping list. To make sure that I don't bore you, I didn't include too many of the little things that we will be getting, like some additional accessories for my craft room and some sets of sheets for the guest bedroom and the futon.

But, that's my list! What do you think? What are your favorite pieces above? What about the pieces you have in your home - which are your favorites? Any suggestions on must-have items from IKEA?

All images except the Family Room and Guest Bedroom Design Plans courtesy of IKEA.