I’m back with a most recent DIY project we just did! We had a broken wood baby gate sitting in our garage for a while. No, not because we have a baby but because we have a puppy that won’t stop getting into the cat litter box. But this gate we had was a really cheap $5 gate from Walmart that didn’t even last longer than 2 days.

Tyler was cleaning out the garage the other weekend and asked me what I wanted to do with the gate. Immediately a light bulb turned on and I thought of a project! I wanted to rip it apart and spray paint it and hang my earrings on it.

And so that is what we did!

Isn’t it so pretty? I love it! Want to know what happened to the other gate? Tyler spray painted it black and says he wants to use it. He’s not sure yet what he’ll use it for. I’m hoping it’ll stay in the garage or his man cave.

Ever since we got our new west elm chandelier up above the farm table, our (Knappa) light fixture from Ikea was laying on the floor in the living room. Tyler was cleaning up one day and asked me what to do with the light fixture. I jokingly said that we should replace it with the shade on our floor lamp in the family room.

I walked into the office to answer some emails and came back out to the family room to see Tyler using pliers to take the shade & parts off of the floor lamp. This is where I went crazy on Tyler asking him why he just did that! Now if the Knappa didn’t look good on the floor lamp then we’re shadeless.

I left the room again because I couldn’t watch him do it. He came in the office and told me he was done and I was nervous to see how it looked.

I actually was surprised to see that I liked it. It’s cute and I’m happy that we’re able to use it instead of just storing it in the closet/garage with no use for it. I’m proud of my hubby since this was entirely his project!

So I have always dreamed of having a farm table and would occasionally look online for the perfect dining table even craigslist. I also found this awesome tutorial from Ana White. But it seemed like too much work and we didn’t really have that much room to build one.

So last week I was talking to Missa Lee about it at work. She immediately looked on craigslist and the first post she found was a woman who was selling a farm table that she made. It was perfectly priced and just the table we wanted! She and her husband made a similar table to the one from Restoration Hardware for $2,245.

I immediately emailed her and learned that she and her husband were building tables to raise money for their adoption in Congo. I really loved the table and it was a nice touch to it knowing where our money was going towards. We made plans to pick it up with my dad’s car. Really…my dad is amazing for helping us with getting the table. Thanks, dad!

We didn’t waste time once we got it into the house. The table was already sanded so all we had to do was stain it. But I kind of didn’t want to stain it. Tyler on the other hand wanted to. He convinced me to stain it…. more specifically the color, dark walnut.

I was nervous since I didn’t want it to be too dark. You know how it is…the longer you leave the stain on without wiping it, the darker the wood will get. We decided to start staining the bottom of the table so we had some room for error. I didn’t wait too long before wiping it off and it turns out it was too light and I didn’t like it. So we left the stain on for about 20 minutes or so.

Don’t let this picture convince you that Tyler did all of the staining. I did pretty much 85% of the work. I know his little game of being slow and watching football at the same time on TV. He knows I’m fast and focused so I ended up doing most of it.

Yikes! Look at how dark it looks with the stain on for a long time.

Wiping off the stain was Tyler’s job. :) The next morning we put fast-drying polyurethane (semi gloss) on the table. We did about 3 coats and that was it!

Now look at this beauty! Notice something else too?

The new rectangle hanging capiz that I got for Christmas!

Here’s what it looks like with the light off.

I just looove it! After my dad and Tyler got the pendant up, we realized that it was too high so they’re going to fix it later this week and add more rods that came with the package so it’ll be lower.

Seriously this is the best multi-purpose table! For eating, holding cards while playing card games, beer pong and ping pong! Want to come over now?

This is what it looked like before. That table has been moved to the formal dining room for a little hang out spot next to the foosball table.

And this is what it looks like now! The table was $265 and we only spent $35 on supplies (stain, brushes & tarp cover). Total cost of the project: $300!!