Easy DIY Book Rails

In our daughter's small bedroom, space is at a premium.  We try hard to make the most of the space and keep the floor as open as possible to help the room feel a little bigger and give her more area to play.  On one wall of her room, there is a very shallow nook I wasn't sure what to do with but wanted to make it an efficient use of space.  After some thought, I decided building some custom book storage would be the perfect solution.  

Materials:  

• 1x3 boards

• 1x2 boards

• screws

• wood glue

• spackle

• level

• painters tape

How-To:  

1.  Cut the wood the desired length of the rail shelf.  You will need two 1x3 boards and one 1x2 board for each rail.  

2.  Line up the boards as shown below (the wide ones on the bottom and back, and the narrow one at the front).  Pre-drill, then glue the edges, and secure with wood screws.  

3.  Once it's dried and secure, spackle the screw holes, let dry, and then apply 3 coats of paint (I used semi-gloss trim paint).  

4.  Next mark the location of the studs and the approximate spacing of the book rails.  I could have easily put three rails in this space but I didn't want our toddler trying to climb it like a ladder, so I decided to only do two.  

5.  Center the book rails in the space and use a level to hang the book rails, pre-drilling and screwing the book rails into the wall studs.  

6.  Decorate and add your books!  While these are pretty sturdy, I would recommend being mindful of the weight put on the rails - don't put too many books or large, heavy books on them, especially since your little one will be reaching up to pull books off and you don't want anything heavy to topple off.  

And finally I decided to build a simple, sturdy narrow crate to hold our daughter's bigger, heavier books.  

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Other posts you might enjoy from Birch Landing Home:  

• Cape Cod Inspired Toddler Room

• DIY Learning Tower / Kitchen Helper, Based on Plans by Ana White

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Cape Cod Inspired Toddler Room

It's been a long time coming, but we've finally moved our little one up to her "big girl room"!  Decorating and organizing this space has been a challenge since it's such a tiny room.  And while arrows, deer, and gold polka dots are all the rage right now, we wanted to get the biggest bang for our buck and go with a timeless, classic theme that our daughter can grow into.  | This post contains affiliate links |

We decided to go with a blue, white, and yellow color scheme (which always reminds me of Cape Cod) and just a few decorative touches that can easily be changed out as our little one grows and tastes change.  Keeping everything pretty light in the room helps make it feel just a little bit bigger too.  

The bed and dresser came from Ikea and were very reasonably priced. In fact, these were my first purchases from Ikea EVER (gasp) and I was very impressed with the quality and sturdiness of them. While not shown in these photos, we have under-mattress bedrails that are typically on the bed so she doesn't roll out.

The bedding was one of the most reasonably priced quilt sets I could find and came from Amazon (*at the moment it's listed for double what I had paid, but Amazon pricing can change often so hopefully the price will come down again soon). I just love all the different blues, greens, and creams in the bedspread! It keeps with the Cape Cod color scheme and adds a country touch.

The "love you to the moon & back" sign was made by me and will be coming to our Etsy shop soon ;)  

This little dormer was the perfect spot to tuck the dresser in as well as some decorative touches like the wooden oar, which was a freebie find. The custom name puzzle is from Amazon, and both the lamp and the curtains are from Wal-Mart.

We also added this Personalized Alphabet Printable from my Etsy shop as well, and our daughter loves finding the letters from her name in it.  

This Moon Bed was a custom creation from my brother and sister-in-law as a gift for our baby shower - it makes the perfect spot for snuggling up with a good book and some stuffed animals. The starfish watercolor painting is by New England artist Jen Scully of Mack & Ro. I love how it compliments this corner with the "moon and stars" theme but also fits in perfectly with the overall coastal vibe of the room.

What's New England without a farm? This little Pottery Barn table was a yard sale find (score!) and makes the perfect spot for a barnyard scene. The wooden barn is from Melissa and Doug but the animals are Little People (all yard sale finds again). The woven rope basket to hold accessories for the farm adds a coastal touch. This rope basket is old, but I've linked a very similar one here.

This room has a very shallow alcove and to make the most of the space I built custom book rails in it for storage and display.  I debated on putting one more rail down lower but decided against it since I know our toddler would try to climb it like a ladder.  Instead, I made a custom narrow wooden crate to sit on the floor and hold her heavier books that I didn't want to put up on the wall.  

The book rails make for great storage that doesn't take up a lot of room, as well as gives us a chance to show of some of our current favorite books (including some fun New England-themed ones).  

And last but not least, possibly the most important addition to our daughter's big girl room, the Ready to Wake Clock! I was a bit skeptical at first, but this clock really has been a lifesaver (and no, this is not a sponsored endorsement). Our daughter used to get up between 4-5AM everyday, but once she learned that she needs to stay in bed until the clock turns green she now sleeps to the decent hour (6:45AM) that we set her clock to (thank goodness!).

I've tried to link all my sources for the room but if there's anything I'm missing that you have a question on, please send me a message.  

Reusable Weekly Planner - Plan your week, meals, and goals! {Free Printable}

For a while now I've been striving to get better about meal planning, so a few months ago I designed this weekly planner to keep in our kitchen and see if it helped.  After using this method for several months I'm happy to report that it has been a HUGE success and wanted to share it with all of you who may have staying organized, planning meals ahead of time, or reducing your grocery bill as goals for 2016!  

This weekly planner can either be printed and written on directly - or you can print, frame it, and simply write on the glass to keep reusing it (which is what I have done).  I love having it under glass because it means it's always on display and easy to refer to, and it saves a lot of paper and ink.  I didn't include too many photos of it it in our kitchen because it was so hard to photograph.. the glare from the glass makes a decent photograph nearly impossible.  

Pro-tip:  Write on the glass with a Sharpie to avoid smudges, then erase with a little 91% rubbing alcohol.  

To write on the glass, you can use a fine-tip dry erase marker or a Sharpie marker.  I prefer the Sharpie because it writes cleaner and won't smudge.  

"But how to erase it!" you ask?  

No problem at all:  simply put a little 91% rubbing alcohol on a paper towel and it wipes off with no problem and no residue.  

Example

Every Sunday I sit down and first fill in all the daily "to-dos" for the week.  These are things that have to happen that day, like appointments.  This gives me a sense of what the week will look like and how much time I may have to cook dinner that day, etc.  Days we won't be home means I don't have to cook (wahoo!).  Because I lay it all out ahead of time I can plan ahead for groceries... leftover potatoes from Monday can be thrown into Tuesday's chili.  The chicken I buy can be portioned out for dinner on Thursday and Friday.  Planning ahead means less waste and saving money in the long run (and you know how hard I try to save money on groceries).  

"Goals for the week" is where you put in projects and goals you can pick at over the course of the week when you get spare moments.  I feel like this list makes me more motivated (and accountable) to be productive when I have down time.  

Reusable Weekly Planner

{Download free PDF of our Reusable Weekly Planner HERE}

So that's my Reusable Weekly Planner!  It's been a huge help to keep me more organized, more motivated, and save more money on groceries.  I hope that it will be as helpful for you!  

Cheers to 2016!

Every time the New Year comes around it really gets me motivated.  I want to overhaul everything in the house, with Birch Landing Home, and my fitness goals and this year is no different.  

I've decided to take most of January to focus on our home:  it's time to do our yearly closet purge, deep clean all the carpets, and reorganize the dumping ground that our basement has become.  While I haven't read the book myself yet, I have read a lot of articles on The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and I'd like to try to use these techniques to purge more unused items from our home.  Though I can't make too many promises on this front.. I can be pretty sentimental about little things so we'll see how far I get.

I have big goals for Birch Landing Home too and I want to grow my Etsy shop and blog in many ways.  I'm planning on expanding to more New England-inspired decor in the shop including signs, handmade boxes, and painted sap buckets (don't worry, we'll still have our signature hand-etched ornaments available).  I'd also like to get our products carried at more local retailers too.  
The blog will still be a mix of DIY projects, product reviews, and lessons learned as first-time parents but there will a be a stronger underlying New England vibe to it.  I'd like to blog more about our favorite places to visit in NE as a family as well as showcase more great local products and makers (by the way, if you're a New England-based maker and want to collaborate this year please send me a message).  

And then there's fitness goals.. every year I say I want to get back into running and while I did run a lot more this year than I have in a while, I still didn't get to where I want to be.  So this year I want to make the push to finally run a half-marathon!  For those of you who aren't familiar with my running backstory, I was training for a half-marathon about six years ago when I suffered a couple stress fractures, mostly due to a structural issue with my foot (which I now wear orthotics for).  
We're hoping to expand our family again within the next year or two and so I feel this year will be my last chance to try for a half marathon again before I'm too pregnant or busy with a newborn to seriously run for awhile.  

Whew, so those are my top goals for 2016!  Wishing everyone lots of health, happiness, and success in the New Year - cheers!  

Closet Turned into Mudroom for Cheap!

Okay, so I struggled for a bit whether to blog about this little DIY closet makeover.  I really loved the project and I think it came out great, but it was just SO impossible to photograph.  This closet is at the end of a narrow hallway with no natural light, and there's no way to photograph the whole thing in a single picture.  So please forgive me for the poor photos - they aren't to the standard I like to try to keep for the blog but the project and message were just too good not to share.  | This post contains affiliate links |

When we moved into our home we quickly realized we needed a "drop zone" by the back door.  It was really the only door we used and we needed a place to put all our stuff as we came and went.  Thankfully there was an under-utilized pantry here and while we can always use more storage, for us it was more important have a mudroom/drop zone.  After surfing Pinterest we decided to turn it into a mini mudroom complete with beadboard, a shelf, hooks, a built-in bench with metal baskets underneath for shoes, mail organizer - the works.  And so within weeks of moving in we took the door off the pantry and it became our temporary drop zone while we planned... and there it stayed for three years (yikes).  

Embarrassing, right?

You see, our dream mini mudroom would have cost big bucks and we kept sidelining it for other, more important things (furnace fixes, putting in a vegetable garden, repairing the driveway..).  And then we got a puppy.  And then we had a baby.  And then spending big bucks on a teeny mudroom was just absurd.  And the closet stayed the way it was, and just looked ugly and cluttered.  

Then we realized:  it's great to dream big for make-overs and remodels but what's more important is to assess what's realistic now.  Realistically we couldn't afford now what we wanted to do originally but we still needed a mudroom - so the design got cut to the very basics.  We needed a shelf, hooks, and mail/key organizer; the beadboard, bench, baskets, and accessories would have to wait.  

The first step was removing the Closet Maid shelving system. To do this, I used a flat head screwdriver and needle nose pliers to pull out the pins and drywall anchors that held the shelves and supports in place. We saved all the shelves and supports in case we want to add more shelving to another closet down the road. We were left with a ton of holes to fill, but some drywall patch and light sanding filled the holes in fine. 

Afterwards I repainted the walls of the closet with some white ceiling paint we had in the basement. My goal was to use as much materials as we had already and I didn't want to buy a new can of paint just to do this little area. The ceiling paint covered great and it only needed one coat. 

Then I marked the studs with painters tape and cut a 1x12 (given to us by my father-in-law who had scrap boards in his basement) down to the length of the back of the closet, attaching it into the studs with long screws.  

I cut the angled side supports down and cut another board to make the top shelf (all cuts were made with just a chopsaw).  Everything was glued, screwed, and nailed into place so it was nice and sturdy.  Then I patched all the screw holes and lightly sanded before painting the shelf with trim paint, which we already had on-hand.

Once the paint was dry, I added the hardware - the only items we actually had to buy for this project!  The four coat hooks were from Lowes and cost about $4 each, the two accessory hooks were also from Lowes and were less than $1.50 each, and the mail/key organizer was from Amazon and cost about $10.  All-in-all since we reused paint and wood we already had we spent around $30 for everything!  Someday I'd still like to add a bench, baskets, and cover the textured walls with beadboard but in the meantime we have a functional, simple, efficient mudroom which is what we really needed from the beginning.  I'm kicking myself for living with the messy old closet for so long when doing a simplified mudroom was so achievable this whole time! 

Ta-da!

The coatrack and mail/key organizer.

The small accessory hooks on the opposite wall for hats and leashes.

Totally unstyled, real-life photo right here. Definitely not magazine-worthy, but perfect and functional for our family.

Lesson learned:  sometimes settling for less is best. 

Product Links:  
|  Coat Hooks  |  Accessory Hooks  |  Mail + Key Organizer  |

Mudroom Organization

I always keep an LL Bean boat tote bag by the door, full of our little one's outerwear so we're always ready to go play in the snow!  

The Easiest Way to Clean Your Shower Curtain Liner

The other day I heard someone say you can clean your plastic shower curtain liner by putting it in the washing machine and I thought she was crazy.  But now that I've tried it maybe I was crazy for not knowing this sooner!  

In the past I've fought the uphill battle of scrubbing and wiping down the curtain periodically and then replacing it when I let it get ahead of me. Buying a new liner always hurts because we only buy the eco-friendly, PVC-free ones and they're a little more expensive. So after I heard it can be cleaned in the washing machine I decided to try this for myself and never again have to buy a new shower curtain liner.

I had planned to take before and after photos of our frosted shower curtain but it just didn't photograph well and maybe that's for the best, I don't think you all wanted to see our soap-scum anyways.  It also didn't help that our pup Harley kept trying to "help."

How to:  

Now to clean the liner, it's pretty darn simple - just stick it in the washing machine with one or two bath towels, 1 cup of white vinegar and your regular detergent (we use Seventh Generation Free & Clear), then wash on the delicate cycle.  When it's done hang the curtain back up to dry -- DO NOT put in the dryer.  The curtain will be a bit wrinkly at first but as clean as the day you bought it!  

Ah, nice and clean - I wish I had known this sooner!  

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Related Posts:

• Sheet and Towel Stripping How-To

• How “Clean Kitchen at Night” Changed My Life

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Art Caddy

A few weeks ago my mom picked up this Longaberger silverware caddy for me from a yard sale for $1.  I couldn't find the exact item on their website, but a different style of silverware caddy is listed on there for $65.  Gotta love yard sales.  

I didn't really see myself using it as a silverware caddy though so I decided to ditch the fabric insert and use it as an art caddy on my little craft desk and I absolutely love it.  It's great for corralling brushes, markers, pens, and scissors - not to mention it looks really nice against the yellow walls.  I have to say, I'm pretty happy with this re-purpose!