We are so Shelf-ish

Being newlyweds means that we have a ton of mismatching Ikea furniture. Obviously I’m trying to replace and upgrade ALLof our stuff but since we have been doing so much to the Man Cave Jon and I decided to get a new media stand. After our bed frame this is the first piece of furniture we’ve bought. 

The old one was too small and the TV sat way too low.

I had been lusting after one of those bookshelves all over Pinterest that are open and have different compartments. Thanks to Pinterest and my online shopping addiction I found this beautiful (and affordable!) one at Wayfair.com (my new favorite online store just in case you wanted to buy me something). 

The plan was to use as entertainment center but I don’t like when you can see all the cables so I thought it would be cool to cover the back with some painted plywood.

Once it arrived and Jonathan assembled the bookshelf. And it was Home Depot time (again) to get some plywood. They have prepared wood that just had to be cut to size. We selected Packers green paint and I painted the panels. Jon attached them to the back and we were done!

We chose Jonathan’s football helmet, a huge bottle of champagne, our favorite books that makes us look smart and fancy and favorite movies to display. Even though it’s the Man Cave, all of my Harry Potter books and movies and Law and Order: SVU DVDs are on it. Thanks Jon!

Funny story: When Jon was nailing the panels to the bookshelf he kicked me out of the Man Cave because I was telling him (really annoyingly I’ll admit) how I wanted it done. I had to pound on The door for him to let me back in. He has no recollection of the event but I swear that it happened.

Initially we were going to put all of our DVDs on the shelf but we have way too many. Our solution was to build shelves in the closet. The idea was mine and the execution was Jonathan. So does that mean the solution is mine? I just want to give credit where credit is due. ;) 

The closet in this room has a little cut out that’s about 11 by 11 inches. You can’t hang clothes there and that width works really well for DVDs or books. Jon measured and figured out how many shelves we could install. Back to Home Depot. We purchased pretreated white boards (the kind that are made for closets), had the lovely folks at Home Depot cut them to size and used little screws to attach the brackets to the wall and wood. We ended up making trips to two different stores because we cleaned them out of shelf brackets.

Here is the end result:

Total there are 10 shelves and its holding the majority of our DVDs and Jon video games. Best use of an awkward and tiny space.

Now please ignore our mess in the rest of the closet. Thanks!

Manly Makeover

When we first moved in the extra bedroom was a catchall. We just tossed stuff in there and closed the door. However, being the awesome (and modest) wife that I am, Jon & I decided to turn that room into Jon's man cave. See I really don't mind football, in fact I've become a full fledged Packers fan but I HATE the Lakers. And I don't really want video games in our bedroom or living room SO Jon gets a man cave. Maybe in our next home I'll get a craft room where I can watch Law and Order: SVU marathons. A girl can only hope....

All the walls in the house are terrible. Whoever painted in here last just threw paint up on the walls. I don't think they covered anything. There's paint on the fixtures, mirrors and trim. The last couple of rooms we've done haven't been too bad with the gross old paint but the man cave was in rough shape. The outlet plates were painted to the wall. We ended up cutting them off the walls. See that huge chunk of dried paint? Ugh.

Luckily the rest of the painting on Saturday went by pretty quickly. Thanks Dad & Erick!

Sunday morning Jonathan and I replaced all the outlet plates with new ones and moved all the furniture back. At this point I was a little concerned the color was too dark for all the black furniture in the room but figured I'd better wait until all the artwork was on the walls before totally freaking out and telling Jon we needed to change something. I was off work today (thanks Cesar Chavez!) and decided to try to hang the frames myself. When I told Jon what my plan for today was he seemed a bit skeptical but I assured him if it was too heavy or something I'd wait for him instead of poking a bazillion holes in the wall. 

I have been slowly accumlating manly artwork. Which is harder than it sounds. We wanted cool, not tacky and I think we chose pretty well. I bought two beer related prints and added some Green Bay Packers inspired pictures and art. My personal favorite is a green and yellow map of Lambeau Field. I also painted an old football helmet picture collage Jon's dad gave him years ago white. 

I laid everything out on the futon and then just started eyeballing it on the wall. I started from the middle and worked my way out. I didn't measure at all. I just went by what I thought looked good. 

Jonathan wasn't on board at first but I think it's because he was seeing it via text and it just looks so much in better in person. 

I LOVE the way it turned out. There's only picutre that's missing and sadly its my favorite. The frame came with the little hook to hang it but it's not attached to the actual frame. I was afraid of denting it or somehow ruining the glass (because that's totally somethng I'd do) so I left that one for Jon to do. Hopefully he'll hang it tomorrow and the man cave will be almost done!

Isn't it pretty? But in a manly way, right?