Now that our new place has a yard, I’ve got a way to get my green thumb on. House plants are fine, but they just don’t cut it. If you’ve seen our wedding pics or spent any time on this blog, you know we’ve got a thing for succulents. So two weeks into our place I’ve already brought the succ to the backyard.

This vintage hardwood dresser was abandoned in the garage and I knew right away I could do something cool with it. Check out the process after the jump:

First off, I drilled a bunch of drainage holes in each drawer. Succulents hate sitting in soggy soil. After that, I sectioned off the drawers so I wouldn’t need to fill the entire drawer with dirt, which meant putting in concrete garden edgers from Home Depot and some spare bricks we had out back. As I moved up from the bottom to top drawer the bricks got closer and closer to the front of the drawer.

Project Costs:
- Dresser = Free
- 3 Bags of Cactus & Palm mix ~$15
- 6 Edgers (should have gotten 9) ~$12
- Succulents ~$55

Total ~$82 but I could have easily done it for under $70 if I was more patient about some of the succulents. Target and Walmart always have pretty cheap arrangements I can break up, but I didn’t feel like making the trek.

Most of the big succulents came from Costco. 3 half-gallon plants for $12.95! YOU CANNOT BEAT THAT! Between plants for me and my mom, I think I’ve singlehandedly cleaned out half of the Sherman Oaks Costco’s inventory (BTW this is the only Costco I’ve ever seen sell succulents). So cheap. I bought a few more little succs at the local OSH, only because I didn’t want to wait around for a better deal elsewhere or get cuttings from my mom in OC. And then I may have “borrowed” a few cuttings from the sorely neglected landscaping of the apartment complex next door as fillers. Anyway, it turned out amazing! If I do say so myself.

Here are a couple more sneak peaks around the backyard of the ol’ Bear Cave 2.0. My plan is to have it really tricked out by the 4th of July. We’ll see what shakes out.

There isn’t enough indoor wall space for the painted picture frames from the old bedroom, so they made their way to the backyard and add immediate visual pow!

There’s no irrigation system and a bunch of funky dead stumps strewn about, but in the wise words of Tim Gunn, I’ll “make it work”.

- Curt

It started with a chunk of wood in my Christmas stocking with the text, “money for new shelves” from my parents. Actually, it all started a few months prior when Morgan over at the Brick House sent ripples across the shelter blog world with her Mission C.A.H.L.R.S.P. So with funding from the fam we set out.

Before and after – Shazammm! Oh, and don’t mind the ugly rug… it’s merely a placeholder for something awesome! Perhaps some chevrons? Or a Navajo rug? We shall see….

We don’t really have anything cool to put on these shelves YET, but here’s what has made the cut so far. We also plan to add a cupboard to the bottom right quadrant (where the books are now) in the near future. So stay tuned for that.

Materials:

1 – One sheet of 8′x4′ Oak Plywood

Fittings & Plumbing (All 1/2″):
19 – 90 degree elbows
17 – 3-way tees
10 – 18″ pipe
8 – Flanges
7 – 8″ pipe
4 – 24″ pipe
4 – 9″ pipe
1 – 37″ pipe (custom cut)

Other Supplies:
8 – 1.5″ All-in-One Anchor & Screws
3 – Cans flat black spray paint
1 – Half Pint of Varathane Golden Pecan wood stain
1 – Half pint Varathane Polyurethane

All in all we are super happy with the result. Feel free to drop us an email if you have any specific design questions or want the CAD file of the design.

- Curt

Couple months back we saw some vintage tennis rackets for sale at the Rose Bowl flea. We were ready to take them home with us until we got slapped with the price, $70 for the pair. That’s right 7-0. OUTRAGEOUS! It’s safe to say I nearly dropped them like they were on fire, but I didn’t cuz then I probably would have had to buy them. So I kept my eyes peeled for rackets during or usual thrift runs and within a month we scored a pair to $6 from the Goodwill in Santa Monica. $70, pishhhh. Long story short, it took us a couple months to figure out where we wanted to hang the rackets, but we always knew we wanted to try spray paint something blue and mount it on the walls and these beauties fit the bill. So for about $12 total, we’ve jazzed up our little entry to the bedroom. See more pictures after the jump:

We were originally thinking Cobalt, but we were worried it may be a little too dark in the dim hallway – so we opted for the lighter “Safety Blue.”

Before…

…After

We plan on tacking some old/cool photos and art on the strings. I’ve already added one little piece by Sara Kissell. Let me know if you have/know of anything that would fit the spot.

- Curt

So this was actually designed for a wedding, but how cool would it be to have one hanging over your dining room table? There’s something so simple about it and I think that’s precisely what makes it so lovely. Also, I have a deep, deep love for Mason Jars so this just makes me swoon.

Jamie Grenough Photography via Style Me Pretty

- Jessica