What Do You Think?

Paint them?

Or just clean them up

And use them?

I'm kind of bummed about the huge dent in the bottom one. It will probably stay as is in the garage. 

But the rest?

Guest Post~Brenda from cottage4c

Today's guest blogger is so creative and so stylish! She lives in the most charming stone cottage~you have to go look!

She's showcasing some great projects today, and I hope you'll all pop over to her blog and check out her blog. 

Hi! I'm Brenda from cottage4c. I'm so excited to be guest posting for Suzanne here at Meridian Road today. I love Suzanne's style and her awesome sense of humor. And I envy her farm life! I share her love of vintage - especially if it's something that I can re-purpose to better suit our needs. A lot of my projects are inspired by necessity. I needed a new, smaller footstool for my living room, so I made this: (Disclaimer - any time I claim that 'I' made something, chances are that my sweet husband Kevin had at least a small hand in the process!) We started a bathroom remodel, and since it's a tiny bathroom we chose to install a sliding barn-style door. Here's our finished product: I also love to figure out inexpensive solutions to decorating dilemmas. A mini kitchen makeover has been on my to-do list for a while. New appliances were not in the budget, so I decided on DIY treatments for the refrigerator and dishwasher instead. Here's our updated refrigerator... And here's our updated dishwasher... I am in love with how this turned out! I wanted to make it look like part of the cabinetry, so we started with a piece of beadboard paneling cut to fit the front of the door. We glued it in place with Gorilla Epoxy. (I read the details about the glue before using it to make sure it would hold in high temperatures. The dishwasher gets nowhere near as hot as this glue can handle.) He then attached a few pieces of trim (cut from 1x4s) to mimic the cabinet doors. A little caulk and some paint, and it looks just like the cabinets! So how to make the top panel look like one of the drawers? Obviously it's necessary to have access to the top panel of the dishwasher, where the handle and dishwasher controls are. Attaching the faux drawer with hinges was the only solution (that I could come up with) that would provide the necessary access. We glued a wood slat across the top of the door. Kevin actually screwed the slat into the door as well. (I was surprised when I saw the screws right into the door, but he said that section is just a hollow piece of the handle, and didn't extend into the dishwasher The slat provided 2 things - a cover for the top edge of the door that can be painted to match the cabinets, and a sturdy surface to attach the hinges for the faux drawer. The faux drawer was cut from a piece of 1x 8 long enough to cover the top panel. (He used a table saw to bevel the edges to match the other drawers.) We attached it to the dishwasher with 3" bifold door hinges. I spray painted the hinges with Rustoleum's Dark Bronze to match the hardware. I struggled with this a bit - whether I should paint them the cabinet color or the hardware color. (I thought that I might be able to disguise the hinges if they were painted the same as the cabinets.) Regardless of the color, it's important to use bifold hinges so that there is enough swing to move the faux drawer out of the way when the dishwasher is operating. I love that the faux drawer sticks out further than the actual cabinet drawers. I think it adds a little architectural interest to an otherwise flat landscape. I feel ridiculous saying that about my tiny little kitchen (sounds so fancy and almost pretentious!), but I don't know how else to describe it. I like bumpy rather than flat??? No - that really doesn't sound any better at all - and that's going somewhere else entirely. ha. I mentioned that using bifold hinges is important. The first time that I ran the dishwasher after installing the faux drawer, water puddled on the floor in front of the dishwasher. I panicked thinking that maybe we did drill into something important! However, the water was from steam that exhausts through a small vent at the top of the door. The faux drawer was blocking the exhaust, so condensation built up on the back of the drawer and dripped. Here is how the drawer needs to be situated when the dishwasher runs... (It still gets wet during the process but no more dripping! It's kind of like the cabinets above the stove when you boil water - a bit of condensation, but no harm done.) Adding cabinet hardware put the finishing touch on the dishwasher camo. I could not be happier with how it turned out! Thanks so much Suzanne for allowing me to be a guest today. I hope that your readers enjoyed my visit! Much love, Brenda  

Thanks you, Brenda! I am enthralled with your dishwasher camouflage. And I think I will be looking for a green door like yours for the rest of my life! Thanks for being my guest today. 

It's The Simple Things

I love that he knows

I'd rather have one rose

in an old 7-up bottle 

than a dozen in a crystal vase.

Things are going to start winding down at the beet dump next week. That's a good thing. Everyone is getting tired. Thanks for your patience. It will be good to have life back to normal. 

No Words Are Necessary

Guest Post~Emily From The Wicker House

 I'm really excited to have Emily as today's guest blogger. This girl has Style with a capitol "S"! She's also another Idaho blogger 

and I hope we can meet in person some day.

Hi Everybody!  It's Me, Emily from the blog, The Wicker House

I'm stopping by Meridian Road today to share with you all a little jewelery box I made over.

Driving down the road one day I saw a big pile of junk and a sign that read, "FREE"

so of course I did what any junk lover would have done.  I pulled over and started digging,  all the while my 6 year old son was in the back seat yelling at me, "hurry up, Mom!"  Guess I was embarrassing him a little bit.  He did however agree that I found some pretty cool stuff.

Not only did I pick up this old jewelry box, I also grabbed a few yard sticks and an old camera.

  

The jewelry box was in pretty good shape. I had to add some new screws to the hinges, but that's about it.

 

I gave it a new coat of white chalk paint, sanded it all down really good to give it some character, then I stenciled on a big red cross.

I'm loving the whole Swiss cross look that I'm seeing a lot of lately.

I like that my jewelry box kind or resembles a first aid kit.

 

  

 

If you want to see more of my projects, stop by my blog,
 You can also follow me on Pinterest.

Thanks, Suzanne for allowing me to guest post of your blog today. 

Thank you, Emily! I love that jewelry box! I've been looking for a box that I could do the same thing to. 

You'll all want to check out her home. 
(Very cool and pretty without being at all fussy.)

Thanks for reading!

Teacups

My dad bought me some teacups at an estate sale. They're really pretty!

 I want to do something with them.

 I could just display them, which is what I've been doing.

 source

But there are some interesting ideas out there. Like those bracelets. I don't know how I'd do that, though.

source

Pincushions would be fun, too.

source

Or a candle chandelier.

What are your suggestions?

I'm Not An Organizer

But I do like things to be organized. I get annoyed and frustrated when they aren't.

This metal thingy is from an old bean planter. It spaced the bean seeds, I'm told. 

I found four of them in an old shed. I thought I could do something with them. I scrubbed this one and gave it a good spraying with some satin clear coat so that the rust won't rub off on everything. 

I bought an old tool box at an estate sale and it contained a bonus prize of nuts and bolts. I picked out six carriage bolts that were the same size. 

Then I epoxied the bolts into place. One turned out a little wonky, but it will still work.

Hello, thread holder! This will make sewing approximately 7% less frustrating for me. 

But sewing is usually so frustrating for me that anything will help! 

Thanks for reading!

Guest Post~Kristen from Ella Claire

I'm so happy to have Kristen from Ella Claire here today! You really should go over and see what she's been up to on her blog(classy and fun Halloween stuff! Yes, it is possible!) and just say "hi".  She's a sweetheart!

Hello! My name is Kristen, from Ella Claire, and I am so excited to be here visiting today!

I have loved Meridian Road for years now and it is a thrill to be able to guest post for Suzanne today.

I am a fellow Idaho girl, and I spend the majority of my days playing with my sweet one year old baby girl. I love thrifting, repurposing, decorating and creating in general.

I am excited to share one of my favorite little secrets with you today.

I love to make chalkboards for my home and also to sell.

Did you know that one of the easiest and least expensive chalkboard frames you can buy are just plain old cast off cabinet doors?

I get mine at the local ReStore, but they can also be found at yard sales, salvage yards, craigslist, and thrift stores.

Here is a little before shot. All you have to do is find a door that has a nice frame and lip on it so it looks more like a real frame.

Then just putty the holes, lightly sand and paint your frame. Once the frame is dry, paint in your chalkboard with chalkboard paint. I also like to distress mine.

These are the perfect size for menu boards, grocery lists, to-do lists, etc.

There are also so many fun shapes and sizes to choose from.

I may be a little addicted to making them.

They are just so esy and fun!

Thanks again, Suzanne for letting me visit!

Thank you, Kristen! I could really use a chalkboard out at the scale house~maybe next year.

Sorry, Guys.

I was going to come home last night and put some finishing touches on a project so I could show it to you today.

But it was a really long day and I was just too tired. 

So here's some pictures instead.  

I love foggy fall mornings.

I have a great guest post for tomorrow~tune in!