Y’all saw the table we built for our home and in honor of the Pinterest Challenge earlier this week.  It was worthy of its very own post, so here is the step-by-step on how we built this rustic dark X base table by hand in a custom size.

We were inspired by all five of these tables (links:1/2/3/4/5 ), but mostly by the dark stain and classic X base shape.

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Hello hello, the day has come, it’s time for the Pinterest Challenge friends!  We issued this Summer Edition challenge last week and we can’t wait to see what you’ve created!  There are link parties galore going on today, hosted by Young House Love, Bower Power, Ten June, and also right here, so it’s time to show us what you got with a link to your Pinterest inspired project below!

What inspired me for this round?  Well, I’ll tell ya!  I’m working on a makeover in the kids’ playroom space, turning it into a study, since they’re in elementary school now.  It’s a space for them to read, to do homework, or just chill with their friends.  We had a circular table in the space (seen here) but with the new window seat we built from IKEA cabinets, that table was looking disproportionally small, so I imagined a larger chunkier more substantial rustic table in that space to give cool contrast to all the white.  Time to flex my DIY power tools muscles and build a brand new table, booyah!   

Here’s our new X base table Matt and I built for this space! 

It’s a gorgeous handmade table made of kiln dried Douglas fir that we bought from a local lumber supply company.  This is the first piece of furniture we’ve ever built together, and it’s customized for this space.  We used these five tables as our “Pinspiration” !   

Pins: 1/2/3/4/5   

Sources:   Frances table; X Base Farmhouse table plans;  table under window; hooker table; dark stained X base table. 

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One of my son’s best friends is Jack, or Jackie as everyone calls him.  Jackie is a sweet, athletic, funny boy and we hang out with his family a lot.  Jackie’s mom asked me to refinish a dresser for him and I was inspired by a Pottery Barn Kids dresser to paint it a bold blue and add some brushed nickel pulls to mimic the look of the collection.

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Wow, what a weekend!  After six weeks of renovation, we finally finished up the kitchen over at our Alma Project at I snapped a lot of pictures, can’t wait to show you the transformation, it’s such a great before and after story!  Thanks for all the sweet comments on our blue balcony from last week.  As promised, here is the four step easy peasy lemon squeezy way to sew your own removable pocket pillow covers.

First things first, grab yourself some outdoor fabric from a local fabric store or online (here’s a great list of online fabric sources!)  I used two yards of P. Kauffman Conservatory Aquamarine for two rectangular lumbar pillows and two yards of Waverly Meridian Medallion for the square versions.  (Depending on the size of your pillow, you often can get away with only 2/3 of a yard per pillow, but I ordered 1 yard for each pillow to be safe.)

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