our rainy weekend project - the ikea malm dresser hack.

hi! hope you had a good weekend! we finally got to go on that apple picking trip that eluded us for a couple of weeks and picked out pumpkins which we plan to carve some time this week. i already picked out my template and can't wait to give it a good ole carve.

today i thought i'd share a thing we did a couple of weekends ago -- an ikea hacking project. unfortunately i didn't take a proper before shot of the dresser and so i had to scour iphone photos i took within the last year to find some what of a decent one. {see above left} {it'll just have to do!}

the weekend when it rained nonstop i had mentioned that we went a little overboard with painting. the garden pitcher was one victim project, and this was the other. 

a couple of months ago i came across this pretty diy on hej juni in which i was subsequently led to a link that featured her project as well other "ikea hacks." i have never heard of this term before and was intrigued. this thought sort of sat in my head for a while and during that dreadful weekend downpour i remembered. and so i gots the husband on board to work to transform our malm dresser. 

this dresser does come in white, but we bought it in birch. i had contemplated on whether to paint it the sunburst yellow coat we gave our dining chairs, but decided to go with the "you're the boss" white {both are from clark+kensington}.

we probably broke every rule there is to painting and hacking ikea furniture. 

there was no sanding. no protective coating. we ran out of paint to do the legs and the inner and bottom and sides. and the holes didn't drill perfectly in the back. eecks. i know. sounds a little sloppy. but so far the dresser is doing {and looking} just fine. we're still new to painting and furniture diy and as we do more we'll get the process down pat. it's sort of like a big ole learning process for us and i guess we need to screw up first to learn {is that an odd concept? i hope not..}

we painted the outer shell first and left the drawers for later. yangkyu needed to make holes for the knobs, which he did the following day after we headed over to anthropologie to rummage through their sale section. we got knobs at $2.95 a piece but were bummed to find so many of them broken and cracked. we got some duplicates but we hope to go back in a couple of months to pick up a few new ones to switch the them out. i'm also thinking that if the all white look gets tiring, i may just re-paint the drawers in the sunburst yellow color. what do you think?

^^ that's piri overseeing the whole process. he likes to make sure we're on top of it like this time here.^^

so there it is. our newly transformed dresser. we gave it two coats of paint. we hope to pick up some more to finish the legs and also the bottom and side inner sections we didn't account for soon.  i'm still gushing over this shade of white and the mismatched knobs. just really satisfied with the look. yay to another finished project {well almost}. 

would love to know if you did any furniture re-dos and your lessons learned! please share and have a good week ahead! 

woot!

after two failed tries to make it out to an orchard, we scored! we now have apples {so juicy} and pumpkins {ready to be carved}. these are the stuff that kinda make fall great.

have a good weekend + links

it's an end to an odd week. i think columbus day kind of threw us off. actually i think having yangkyu go back to work this week threw us off {he was forced to take a vacation last week because of the shutdown}. but things seem to be functioning again around here and so we hope to use this weekend to get back to our regular schedule and get out of this slow funk we've been in. 

what do you have going on this weekend? hope you enjoy your time and hope you squeeze in a few laughs and hugs with the ones you love. here are some links i hope you will find worthwhile -- 

 // if this doesn't make your day, i don't know what will. cats steal dogs' beds but the ending is so sweet.

 // embrace your weirdness. it'll make you great one day. 

 // it's squash season after all... 

 // love these address stamps. 50% off this weekend to boot.  

 // it's time you face your fears.. the etsy way. 

 // a worldwide campaign calling all knitters for.. wait for it... penguins. 

 // tips on how to create "fun"tastic gifs. 

 // i can't wait to bake this. 

 // already thinking about holiday cookies. {we're sending them as gifts this year} 

 // hands down the best read this week. 

 // this kind of story makes me shed happy tears. 

xoxo, 
jane

a great documentary just in time for halloween.

the other night we watched the american scream, a documentary featuring three families in fairhaven, massachusetts, who love halloween. i mean really love. they go all out transforming their home so that for one night people can be spooked and awed. they call themselves "home haunters."

i remember trick or treating in my childhood neighborhood and there was a home like this. they didn't decorate as extravagantly as the homes in the documentary but i was pretty spooked. and i still remember it to this day. home haunters don't get paid or receive any honorary recognition, but they know that people will remember the experience for the rest of their lives. this is what drives them to spend long nights and weekends preparing for the scariest night of the year.

this documentary is funny. we laughed so much. it's touching. it's inspiring.

i remember taking a course in nonprofit management. our trainer mentioned a study - two people were asked to type as many words as they could in a set amount of time. one person posted pretty good numbers, but the other knocked it out of the ballpark. when asked what drove her to type so many words, she said, "i wanted to do my best." the whole point of that session was to find people who have the will and tenacity to go above and beyond in what they do. 

i couldn't help but think about that course when i was watching this documentary. there were certainly other themes that were so beautiful - like one of family and community - but there was one of passion and drive. these home haunters didn't just put on a halloween show for one night. they poured their hearts into it. and it showed. and that really moved us and kept our mouths open for about half of it.

so glad we watched this. we're definitely ready for halloween now. 

do you remember going to a haunt house? 

we spotted a cute little bear this morning demanding treats and neck scratches.

and he looked awfully similar to piri. had me scratching my head there for a minute. 

piri is wearing a snood. have you heard of them? i never have until i started meeting other cocker mamas and papas on instagram. they keep the ears from getting dirty while they eat and are outdoors. i recently bought one for piri although he's never really had a messy ear problem. but i came across a world of adorableness and thought i'd buy his first snood just in time for halloween. 

what do you think? does he pass for a bear? 

 // linking up with blogpaws wordless wednesday blog hop.