We lined the walls with smooth plywood boards (that we painted white) from Home Depot, at the time they were around $23 a piece, so a great price point for our project. Our mirrors are 36in x 60in polished edge frameless mirrors, the exact ones are out of stock but I’ll link similar ones below. To hang the mirrors, J cut some 2×4’s to the exact height he wanted the mirrors off the ground and set the rails on top of those to attach. Then he used a level to ensure those were straight before attaching to the wall. The rails come in packs and are right next to the mirrors. J also applied “sticky squares” on the backs of the mirrors, as they dry they become very sticky and adhere to the surface. We may upgrade to drywall in the future so we didn’t want to glue the mirrors to the wall so the sticky squares and mirror clips worked amazing.

One of my favorite parts of the gym is the peg board, I mean wow! J sketched it out, tried out several drill bits to get those perfectly smooth circles and found the diablo bit worked best. His entire plan for this board was so impressive, his mind and skills never cease to amaze me! He even created a template to assure the holes would be evenly spaced, a truly flawless design.

When we thought we were about finished we had a turn of events. We realized there isn’t a ton of floor room as it was to do things like push-ups, ab work, and at home HIIT kind-of workouts plus J has some agility equipment he’d love more room for, too. We have the room… it’s just not being utilized well and somehow we got lucky! We have almost exactly enough room for two pegboards and matching mirrors on the other side, so a quick post on FB Marketplace to sell the bunk beds (using J’s account IYKYK) and we now have a huge space for all the activities! You’ll see my new vision below and the spacing fit perfectly, it was meant to be.

Now onto the flooring, we went with the individual rubber tiles from Dicks Sporting Goods. We had a few cuts to make to go around the sink but it was minimal and an easy install. We also decided that cutting the edge at 45 degrees made for a nice transition into the “room” since the other side was storage.

Shelving for the peg board was a little harder than I figured it would be. The choices seemed to be a bit too skinny or way too thick, so I ended up going with stair treads in a perfect oak finish. A little pricier, but they really pulled the look together. The treads are 7” deep paired with 7” pegs. Where the stand alone pegs are to hang bands, jump ropes and other accessories, I went with 5” pegs. The edges on the peg board looked a bit unpolished from the sides and although not necessary, we decided to add trim to the edges and it worked perfectly.

I cannot wait to see us use this space and have the kids use it alongside us. Bruce even loves it and wanted to check out the reveal!

I hope I got everything! If not, just let me know and I will be sure to add it. I linked 2 punching bags, one the same brand as ours (Fitven) but is on a stand and one like ours that hangs from the ceiling. The dumbbells were purchased locally so I linked a similar set. Thank you for always being here!

<3 Shannon

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post From Storage Space To Home Gym – Reveal & Sources appeared first on Living with Lady.

Below are the links to everything I could think of that we upgraded and added to the van to give it that homey feel we were looking for.[

Curtains – These were a DIY that I followed from The Happy Glamper and while sewing isn’t a strong suit of mine, I am really happy with how they turned out.

Cabinet and wall colors: The taupe color is Creamy Mushroom by Home Depot, and the white cabinets and white walls are Snowbound by Sherwin Williams

Countertops and backsplash– We used Ikea’s faux marble for the countertop and the coordinating marble panels for the backsplash. Because the bathroom marble countertop was a last-minute decision, we got that from Lowes since it came in the size we needed and was available.

Couch– We reupholstered the couch with fabric from Joanne Fabrics

Table– The tabletop is made from Ikea’s faux butcherblock that my husband cut to size, and then we used a table leg purchased from Amazon (linked above).

Hardware– Battle Creek Hardware – Code LADY will take 15% off regular priced items

Ottomans– Boutique Rugs- code LADY60 will take 60% off (Boutiquerugspartner)

Washable Rug– Boutique Rugs -(same code as above)

Bedding– All from Beddys – Code SHANNON takes 20% off

I hope I got everything! If not, just let me know and I will be sure to add it. We also immensely appreciated the encouragement and excitement shown as we completed this remodel; thank you for always being here!

<3 Shannon

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Van (our RV) Makeover Reveal and Sources appeared first on Living with Lady.

.

This has been our plan for the last couple of years and we have taken on different aspects of it when we could, which started with building the green lockers and creating a long desk area for when our kids needed to do homework. (Blog posts on that HERE and HERE.) Little did we know the next year would include them using it daily during quarantine, we were so thankful to have that space for them to do their school work. We never put anything permanent against the back wall because that is where we imagined our washer and dryer would go someday when we were officially able to turn it into our laundry room.

Fast-forward a couple of years and with the big kitchen remodel complete, we no longer had that little laundry room which meant it was time to finish out the mudroom/laundry room.

We started by extending the wall to this room so that we could build a big barn door to shut it off when we wanted to. With this room being in the middle of our main floor, we imagined it being open for the most part, but we wanted to be able to close the doors if needed when company comes over, or if the laundry got to be too loud.

Once that wall was finished, we ripped out the white carpet which I was SO grateful to see go, and we installed cement-looking tile which we have been SO happy with. To read all about it, you can go HERE. It was the easiest tile that required NO thinset!

Once that was in we started on the barn door, and this proved to be quite the project. The door is SO heavy and so big, and we learned a lot while making it, but my goodness, it was so worth the efforts. My husband was able to make my vision come to life and it is now a focal point of our home. I just love it so much. I saved how we did this to my Instagram highlight under “barn door” if you’d like to see the process in how he built it.

We then put another door on the entryway from the kitchen, and this room was complete.

We now use this room every single day for multiple reasons and it just makes me so happy that we were able to turn a room that used to be a catch-all into a functioning space.

Below are the links for everything linkable in the room.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

The post Our Laundry Room Refresh + Sources appeared first on Living with Lady.

The first thing that needed to go was the white carpet, so we ripped that out and started with a clean slate.  We wanted the flooring in here to be different than the rest of the house to add some contrast but also wanted it to be very durable and stand up to any water problems that may occur in a laundry/mudroom. We also wanted something we could install ourselves so when we came across  RevoTile by Daltile that has Clicfit technology, we knew they’d be the perfect fit for our needs.

These tiles are designed to “click” together, which means you don’t need any mortar or thin-set! They also come pre-spaced so you don’t need spacers which takes away so much of the work. We really liked the look of THESE ones because of the concrete look they give, but they have a ton of options to choose from.

How to Install

Since the rest of our main floor was under construction, the baseboards were already removed, so just be sure to remove those first. Then, lay the Rapid Prep underlayment down (also from Daltile) and this helps with noise and any movement of the tile.

Then, tape it together using waterproof tape.

The next thing we needed to do was decide if we want the tiles offset in thirds or in half. What’s nice is that the tiles are already marked for you if you choose thirds. Laying the tiles out will help with this decision as you want to try and avoid any small slivers of tile around the perimeter if you can.

After doing a bunch of math (my husband, not me) we concluded if we laid the tiles in halves, we would have the edge tiles alternate at 9.5″ and just about a full tile, which we liked, so we decided to do halves.

First, my husband cut all of the pieces along the back wall and made sure they were perfectly straight. Once these are straight, then the subsequent rows will line up much easier. And, we got lucky with this piece around the corner making for easier cuts in the doorway. Remember, the baseboards will cover any of those gaps against the wall.

To put the tiles together, line the tongue of one tile up with the groove of the other at a 45-degree angle and slide into place.

To get tight, use a tapping block and hammer into place. To prevent movement of the other tiles, it helps to stand on the tiles surrounding it while tapping it in as you can see in the photo below.

For the edges, use a pull bar to hammer tight.

To cut around the vent, my husband first laid a tile on top of it and traced the lines of the vent.

He then scored the back edge with a grinder so that it’d break off easier.

Then, he cut each side with the wet saw and lightly tapped a hammer in the middle to break the pieces off. To get the jagged little edge off, he went back and forth with the wet saw until he got a clean line.

To cut the other little part of the vent, my husband scored these lines with the wet saw and then carefully tapped them off.

Once all the tiles were laid, it was time to grout! We watched the tutorial on Daltile’s website and used Daltile’s rapid grout, which is what you need for this kind of tile. My husband worked with baseball-sized amounts of grout and smushed it in the lines from all sides at a 45* angle. When finished with that amount, we used a wet rag to wipe clean before it dried so that we didn’t get any hazing on the tile. It worked well for my husband to grout, and for me to follow him to wipe all the excess off the tiles.

No grout…

Grouted and wiped!

We absolutely LOVE how this turned out! It gave the room a concrete feel, which is exactly what we were going for. In all, it took about an hour to grout this room for reference. And, we only needed to wait 24 hours for the grout to dry before being able to walk on it, which was an added bonus.

We really found the Daltile website helpful as they show you exactly how to install it as well as explain all of its benefits.

We have been using this room for about two months now and everything is holding up beautifully! There has been no movement of the tiles and we are so pleased with not only the look but how much easier the install process was compared to traditional tile, too.

As always, thank you for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

The post How We Saved a Ton of Time and Effort Using RevoTile in our Mudroom appeared first on Living with Lady.

The beadboard in the bathroom had warped pretty badly and was beyond repair, so the only thing left to do was to rip it out and start fresh. Once it was gone, we saw how badly the walls were and instead of replacing the walls/spending a lot of time patching numerous holes, we decided to cover it up.

My husband put up board and batten using PVC boards, which will help prevent any warping in the future, and the rest was just adding in some things to make it feel warm and inviting… as weird as that sounds for a bathroom. Ha! I have added those sources below!

As always, thank you for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

The post Guest Bathroom Refresh + Sources appeared first on Living with Lady.

We made these for the first time yesterday on New Year’s Eve and they were a HUGE hit! I think they are the perfect treat for those cold winter months and I will definitely be making them again! For a video tutorial, I saved the process to my “Cocoa Bombs” highlight on Instagram. 

What You Need:

• Molds- THESE are the ones I got; they have a bunch online but they’re not all this size (many are the smaller ones for making truffles, so just make sure you get the big ones)
• Chocolate of choice- milk/dark/white/semi-sweet will all work!
• Hot cocoa mix
• Sprinkles-optional
• Marshmallows- optional
• Spoon
• Small saucepan

What to do:

1. First, melt the chocolate. You can either do this in a double boiler or by microwaving the chocolate in 30-second increments, stirring each time. Stirring in-between and microwaving in smaller spurts prevents the chocolate from burning.
2. Once melted, spread the chocolate into the molds using the back of a spoon. Make sure it’s fully covered and thick enough that when when you remove it, it won’t break. Once all of your molds are covered, let them dry/harden completely. I put ours in the freezer and it hardened them quickly.
3. Remove the chocolate from the molds and in the “bottom” half, put your hot cocoa and marshmallows.  I used pre-packaged hot cocoa, and each bomb fit about half a packet. Heat your saucepan on low, and with the “top” half of the chocolate, set it gently on the saucepan with the edge side down, and melt the edges just enough so that when you put it on the bottom half, it’ll stick and form a ball. It’ll only be on the heat for about a second.
4. If you want to dress them up a bit- melt more chocolate (I used white chocolate) and melt the same way you did the first time. Put it in a ziplock bag, snip the end off, and drizzle over your bombs. Finish with a few sprinkles and you’re done!
5. When ready to enjoy, place in a wide mug and top with steamed milk.

ENJOY!

As always, thank you for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

The post How to Make Hot Cocoa Bombs appeared first on Living with Lady.

There was one wall in our bedroom that I never did anything with because I wasn’t sure what to do with the TV. I knew I wanted the TV hidden somehow, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how we’d do it. I saw THIS photo on Pinterest, and that’s when I knew. We altered the design to fit our needs/likes, but it was a great starting point!

Materials:

Two picture frames bigger than the size of your tv ( I bought these ones)

Two drawer slides the same length (when combined) or slightly shorter than the length of the tv.

1×4 wood cut to varying lengths (see below)

Wood Glue

Screws

Two bumpers

Measuring tape

Stud finder

Level

Screw driver

Directions: 

Essentially, you are going to be making a box to go around your TV to enclose it using 1×4’s, while doubling up the top piece so that it is thick enough to attach the drawer slides to. Make sure your tv, when attached to the wall, does not exceed the depth of your boards. If it does, you will need wider boards to enclose your tv in. To make our TV hang as close to the wall as possible, we hung it using a DIY french cleat that we screwed into the existing screws in the back of the TV.

You can see here how flush it makes it to the wall.

Once you have cut your boards to size, glue two of them together using the wood glue, and then screw them together to secure them shut. This is what you are going to screw your drawer slides to. We then painted all the pieces, but that is optional.

Screw this piece into the studs using pocket holes (if you don’t want the screws to show) where you would want the top of your picture frames to sit.

Finish your box by screwing those boards into the wall as well.

Next, take apart the drawer slides by pushing the release lever. Then, attach the cabinet pieces of the slides to the top of your box (the portion that has been doubled) by screwing it to the middle. Make sure you attach them so they slide properly (in and out).

Then, carefully attach the other halves of the slides to the backs of the top of the picture frames. Re-attach the slides together and then should now be able to slide open and closed over your box.

Attach the TV to the wall (really this could have been done anytime after you’re done screwing things in so as not to get dust in the TV.)

Then, attach the bumpers to the bottom corners of your box so that your picture frames glide nicely back and forth.

Insert whatever art you’d like into your picture frames and that’s it!

Sources

Picture Frames

Art- DIY

Dresser- Antique Fair

As always, thanks for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

The post DIY Hidden TV Art Tutorial appeared first on Living with Lady.

Hey there!

As we find ourselves home a lot more these days (or… all day, every day due to the quarantine) we have been looking for some new activities to keep us all entertained and busy, and these DIY bath bombs proved to be a huge hit. I love that the ingredients were minimal and that they were straightforward to make. Below is how we did it!

Materials: 

2 cups baking soda

1 cup Cream of Tartar

6 tbsp Epsom salts (if you get a scented Epsom salt, you won’t need to add essential oils to it to make it smell nice)

Essential oils and olive oil- optional

Water in a spray bottle 

Mixing bowl

Whisk or spoon

Food coloring (optional)

Molds (you can use a muffin tin ice cube tray, or any kind of mold)

Toys, dried flowers, or fruit zest- (optional)

Directions: 

1.In your large bowl, mix the baking soda, cream of tartar, and Epsom salts together. Add water to your mixture, one squirt at a time and mixing in-between, until your mixture can hold together when formed. It should take between 5-10 squirts depending on your bottle.

Optional– If you would like to color your bath bombs, you can divide the mixture into separate bowls and add a few drops of food coloring to each one and mix it in.

Optional– If you would like to add scents, you can mix the essential oils with a little bit of olive oil to dilute them and then mix in.

2. Next, press the mixture firmly into your molds. If adding anything “extra,” like a toy, be sure to put a little of the mixture in the bottom of your mold, then add the toy, and finish by covering the toy with more of the mixture. If adding dried flowers or the zest of a fruit, add these to the bottom of the mold first, and then add the mixture to the mold.

3. Allow these to dry for 24 hours before taking out of the molds. If you made these in muffin tins, or ice cube trays, where they’re harder to remove, put a cutting board over your molds, turn the molds over so the cutting board can catch them, and then lightly tap on each mold and it should fall out.

Note: Because these bath bombs are not made with citric acid, they are a little softer, and if not careful, can break. They still hold shape really well and our kids really enjoyed making and using them in the bath. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!

*This post contains affiliate links.

The post DIY Bath Bombs (Without Citric Acid) appeared first on Living with Lady.

Materials:

Picture frame in size of choice

1×3 pieces of select pine

Table saw (Or your preferred method of cutting wood.)

Shelf pin jig

Shelf pins 

Screw gun

Screws

Kreg Jig R3 for pocket holes (optional)

Wood plugs (optional)

Paint in color of choice

2 hinges to attach the frame to the box

Magnetic closure 

Directions:

I started by measuring the areas that the medicine cabinets would go, and choosing frames that would fit nicely in those areas, and still give us plenty of storage space. I chose this 16″ x 20″ frame that I got from Target, as I liked the modern look to them, plus they were really affordable, around $20. (My apologies, I couldn’t find it online.)

We started by cutting 1×3 boards of select pine into the sizes we needed, which were 20 7/8″ long for the long sides, and 15 5/16″ for the shorter sides. The shelves were also cut to 15 5/16″, and we decided on two adjustable shelves per unit.

TO make the shelves adjustable, we used THIS shelf pin jig to evenly space the pins up the side of the longer boards. This jig comes with the drill bit that gives it the exact depth that you want so that you aren’t accidentally drilling through your wood.

We ended up creating two sets of holes up the long side of the board so that when the shelf is set on top of the pins, it doesn’t wobble. (See in finished photos.)

To attach the pieces of wood together, we drilled pocket holes at every inside corner using a Kreg Jig to give it a professional finish and filled the holes with wood plugs before painting. You could also just screw the pieces together from the outside, but you would see the hardware if that matters to you.

After trying to match the colors of the frames without success, I discovered that THIS primer matches it almost perfectly, so that is what we used to paint the boxes. We decided to spray them for a nice, even finish, and we use THIS sprayer. We have never had problems with it, and it has never clogged (we don’t thin down the paint) and can’t recommend it enough.

Once the pieces were dry, we attached the frame to the box using basic hinges and then inserted the pins to our desired heights before putting the shelves in.

And to make sure the front of the unit stayed closed when wanted, we put a simple magnetic closure at the top.

And we are THRILLED with the end result! Truly, this has fixed our cluttered counter problem and we both really enjoy having easy access to our most-used items.

As always, thank you for stopping by! I hope this little tutorial helped! And to see the video process of this tutorial, it is saved in my highlights on my Instagram page under “DIY Med Cabinet.”

<3 Shannon

The post DIY Medicine Cabinets appeared first on Living with Lady.

When we moved into our home, we brought with us a small square table from our very first home to put in the breakfast nook of our kitchen. This worked well for our family of four until we added another to the family, and as soon as he was ready to sit in a normal chair (not the high chair anymore) we quickly realized this table just didn’t suit our needs anymore and that someone (usually one of the parents) was usually pulling up a stool and sitting on a corner, which just isn’t pleasant.

When I saw a free table go up on Facebook, I decided to jump on it in hopes we could restore it a little and use it in our breakfast nook. My husband went to pick it up, and when he brought it home I realized it was in pretty rough shape.

I originally thought I would sand the top smooth and then stain it and paint the lower portion,  but with the table so beat up, we realized we needed to take the whole top layer of veneer off in order to get it flat and smooth.

Once we started peeling off the layers of veneer, we realized what a gorgeous table there was underneath. Getting the veneer off wasn’t easy, though. It took a heat gun, putty knives in varying sizes, and a bit of gusto to get it off. I kept the heat gun applied to the areas being worked on while my husband pushed the putty knife underneath to lift it up.

Tip: Wear gloves! The veneer will scratch your hands if you don’t!

Now this is where I had a major fail. I didn’t take any photos during these next steps! But, I did take videos that I shared on my Instagram page that I saved under my highlights named “Table Refinish.”

Once the top was off, I realized just how pretty the wood was and decided that ultimately I would love it so much more if it could all be stained the same color instead of the lower half being painted as I originally intended. Because the legs were in SUCH bad shape, we had to use a band saw to slice the veneer off on the flat edges, and a heavy-duty sander to get the curbed edges. But, it worked and it’s as if they were never covered in veneer.

It was at this point we realized if we took the veneer off the round part of the base, there was a good chance the pieces would fall apart. So, we decided to sand it down as much as we could to get a lighter color, and then hope we could match it to the rest of the table.

Once everything was sanded, it was time to test stain colors. We couldn’t really test these on a scrap piece of wood since we realized upon closer inspection that this table was made from varying types of wood (possibly some particle board?) and that we needed to see how the stain reacted to each layer.

I had a very specific look in mind and every stain combination I tried was not getting me the look I was going for. Plus, one of the layers of wood was showing up VERY red in person, which became quite frustrating.

It was like a science lab in there!

I even tried a pickling effect, which did make the woods blend well together, but ultimately wasn’t the look we were going for.

Alas, I realized if I used a wood conditioner first, it would even out all of the wood tones making the stain apply evenly and it gave me the look I was going for! The picture below is of the last two colors I was deciding between, which were Rustoleum’s Summer Oak (Left) and Minwax’s Weathered Oak (right). After much debate, I chose the Weathered Oak.

Once decided, we sanded the table back down and I applied THIS wood conditioner on the whole table and let it dry overnight. Be cautious, some wood conditioners have a warning label on them that you must stain your piece within a two-hour window once applying the wood conditioner. This brand does not have this warning and the stain went on beautifully the next morning.

I started with the legs when applying the stain and this is when I started to get really excited!

Once everything was stained and completely dry, we applied the Polyurethane. My husband did some research and decided on THIS triple think polyurethane since it only needs one coat, as opposed to three coats with other brands. It goes on THICK and I was worried we were applying it too think, but it dried beautifully.

It has a milky finish when wet, fyi.

But once dry, it was absolutely beautiful and we are beyond ecstatic with the results. What was once a table that may have been thrown away now has a new life and is one that will be enjoyed in our family for years to come.

I hope this little tutorial helped, and for WAY more views of the process, please check out my highlights on my Instagram page! I showed a video step-by-step which I think helps, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

<3 Shannon

*This post contains affiliate links

The post DIY Antique Table Restoration Tutorial appeared first on Living with Lady.