I’m always on the look out for good trash cans. Most of the time the good ones are way out of my budget. Here is one from Blomus, that depending on the size, may fit yours. The larger pushman will set you back $111, which is no small change for something you throw your trash in, especially for something only 4 gallons. The smaller pushboy just may be the ticket though if you need a small waste bin. At only 2.6 gallons it’s pretty pint size, but the $32 price reflects that. They both would look right at home in a kitchen.
Available from Unica Home for $32 - $111.

We made an Ikea run over the weekend while we were waiting for our floor stain to dry. They have a large area outside filled with pots and other assorted summer things. I was really impressed with the large pots that they had. The prices were very resonable considering the size of the pot, and most of them were ok to leave out for the winter. I also came across this MYNTA hanging pot, and I think I can say that this is the first hanging pot that I have seen in a long time that I actually like! A thin metal cable attached to three holes keeps this 15″ dia pot stable. I seem to remember seeing it in white as well as black.

Available from Ikea for $25.

The fact that it’s done is probably the best thing about it. We pretty much knew from the beginning that the floor was pretty beat up. There were a lot of stains that I hoped we would be able to sand out, but in the end they were all full depth and not going anywhere. I ended up going pretty slow with the drum sander to try and get through all the old layers, and since I’m not a pro we have a little of the washboard effect. If I were to do it again, I may try an orbital instead of the drum sander.
Even though it’s not perfect, we still like it though. It’s way better than what we had before and of course you get what you pay for. We spent around $0.90 a square foot, most of which was in the finish. Our stain was a Minwax oil based, natural color. I really like all the color variation we got from the different shades of boards. I’m not usually an oak fan, but I actually like it. We then used a water based polyurethane from Glitsa that was expensive but very easy to work with. We’ll see how well it holds up. I wouldn’t hesitate may to do it again on a floor that was in real rough shape like ours, but if I had a real nice floor to begin with, I might think harder about just calling a professional.
Cost for 800 square feet; $600 for repair boards, stain, polyurethane and applicator pads. $140 for sander rental and sandpaper.
It took me about 14 hours of sanding and about 4 hours to apply the stain and polyurethane.
More pics below.

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I’m off to Diamond Rental to pick up a floor sander this morning. I’ve never actually refinished any floors before, but I have talked to plenty of people that have so I figure it can’t be too hard. I hope to get them all sanded today and get our natural oil stain on. Tomorrow I will be putting on the protective finish.
If everything goes as planned I will be posting on Monday about our newly refinished hardwood floors.
Wish me luck!

While Crate and Barrel doesn’t usually have as many good modern products, every once in a while you can find some really nice stuff on their website. I’m really liking this Dane Pendant Lamp. At 11″ high and 18″ diameter, it’s a good sized lamp, perfect for over a dining room table. The Brazilian Sandalwood gives it a nice warm look that could soften up a space nicely. Regular pricing is $129, but it is currently on sale for only $79, which is a good deal. It includes a ceiling plate and translucent cord.

Available from Crate and Barrel for $79.

After much debate, we finally decided to patch the worst part of our floor in anticipation of refinishing the whole thing. We were lucky to find replacement boards on our first call to the Wood Floor Warehouse. Apparently they are the only ones in town that have replacement boards for the old red oak floors. Pricing was fairly resonable at just over $3 a square foot. We only had about 20 square feet to patch. The actual patching was a lot easier than I thought it would be. We should be sanding an refinishing them this weekend and starting to paint next week.

The Wood Floor Warehouse.

It’s been fun watching Avalisa’s offerings grow. She started out with a couple of nice prints and now has expanded to offer cards, rugs, and her latest, memory games. Memory is one of those classic games that is entertaining for any age group. These 3 x 4 cards feature all the great Avalisa designs you already know printed on a sturdy little card. They come in a lead free metal box to make sure that they don’t get bent up while traveling. The price is a very reasonable $15, and as always you can choose to donate to Cure International.
Available from Avalisa for $15.

Good lighting fixtures have the ability to totally transform a space. Unfortunately a lot of good looking lights can be quite expensive. That was why I was pleasantly surprised to see the prices on these porcelain hanging lamps from Greener Grass Design. Priced between $89 and $182 they will set you back a little more than your paper lamp shades you got at Ikea but they will stay looking nice a lot longer. I love the super clean look of the white porcelain. It’s sure to add a touch of class to any space.
Available from Greener Grass Design from $89 - $182.

When we first put an offer on our new home we had only walked through the interior once. Honestly we really didn’t care what it was like as long as the bones were good. With that in mind, there were some surprises that we found as we started looking closer at the house. Take the kitchen for example. Upon closer inspection we saw that those ugly fake marble countertops were really shelf paper. Why someone would shelf paper their entire countertop is beyond me. We were however pleasantly surprised to find a nice funky red/orange laminate complete with cold boomerang designs and chrome edges hiding under all that shelf liner and wall paper. I’ll take that over fake marble any day.

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I love creative DIY projects, especially ones that are inexpensive. I came across this post over at Make where someone used an old washing machine barrel to make a decent looking lamp. Seems like it would be fairly easy to do, and I see really cheap and/or free washing machines on craigslist all the time. Almost as exciting as the DIY lamp was one of the comments where someone mentioned that washing machine barrels make great fire pits as well. I have been looking for a decent looking inexpensive modern fire pit for a long time, and this might just be the trick.

Anyone else have creative ideas for an old washing machine barrel?