...and then I found $5.

If there is one thing I can’t stand about showers and weddings, its the tacky favors that seem to plague them. If we’re being honest, no one wants that stuff junking up their houses so it all gets thrown away and ends up being a giant waste of money.

So, for my sister’s bridal shower I wanted to do something different. Something that people could use and that showed thought was put into it. I racked my brain for a couple of days back in February and finally decided to make a homemade scrub. I scoured the internet and finally narrowed my idea down on a coconut/lime/sugar scrub. I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand, so I tested it out. One word to describe this stuff is amazing. Plus, it ends up being a very pretty green scrub, which fit perfectly with her color scheme!

Here’s a step-by-step on how to make it:

Gather your ingredients. Sugar. Coconut oil. Limes. That’s it! (Full disclosure… I tried a different brand of coconut oil at first, large containers I found at Walmart. Big mistake. I had to make a Trader Joe’s run at 8:15 p.m. on a Sunday night to get the good stuff. Just stick to TJs.) You can use any sugar you want, but I wanted the he coarser kind to help with the scrubbing proprieties. As for the limes, try to buy the darkest ones you see as that will help develop the color of the scrub.

Note: I made a very large batch, enough to fill (35) 4-oz containers. The general ratio I used was 24 oz coarse, organic sugar, 12 oz liquefied coconut oil, and 4 limes (you’ll want the zest from all 4, but juice from only 2 or 3). You can scale this down accordingly if you want to just make some for yourself.

Prep your ingredients. An easy way to zest 20+ limes without wanting to kill yourself is to peel them with a handheld peeler and throw the peels in a food processor. I found that putting them in the food processor with the lime juice makes for a much nicer and more colorful zest. While doing this, soak your coconut oil jar in a sink full of hot water. This will liquefy the oil almost immediately.

Mix ‘em up. Seriously. That’s it. Dump your sugar in a mixing bowl. Pour in the coconut oil little by little. As with mashed potatoes, once you add too much milk you can’t go back. Same with this. Add the oil slowly into the sugar until you get to the consistency you desire. Then mix in the lime zest/juice.

Jar it. Since these were being used as favors, I bought these awesome plastic containers (since they will be used in showers I wanted to avoid glass) purchased from SKS Bottle & Packaging (who I highly recommend, by the way!). I got plain white tags from Michaels, printed out the cute monogrammed designs on clear Avery mailing labels, cut them down to size, and threaded them onto twine and purple ribbon—the other color in her scheme, and voilà! 

All in all, pretty easy and everyone seemed to love them!

I based our project off of the tutorial over on Wilsons and Pugs. Thanks Jenna!

Step 1: Acquire pallets. You’ll need to determine the exact size, style and quantity for your specific project. These were (2) 48” x 40” and it turned out to be a rather large table.

2. If you think you’ll need it, get some 2x4s (spoiler alert: they really aren’t 2” x 4”!) that you can drill into the bottom of each pallet to give it a little extra height. Pallets aren’t tall, so it helps. You can get whatever sized lumber you want, 2x4 was just easy.

3. Acquire helpers.

4. Sand and scrub the pallets with a cleaning agent of your choice. Let dry.

5. Attach 2x4s to the bottom of each short side of the pallets using a drill and wood screws.

5. Get painting (or staining). We painted. We used a regular interior paint + primer from Home Depot. It matches our curtains from World Market perfectly!

6. This step is optional, but we wanted the aged, weathered look. If you do too, wait until the paint is dried and use a rough piece of sandpaper along all the edges. Use common sense on this step—where would the scratches and blemishes be? It’s really hard at first to “ruin” a piece you just spent days painting, but it’ll be worth it. I promise!

7. Wipe down removing all paint dust and give the pallets a couple coats of a quick-dry polyurethane.

8. With help, carry the pallets to wherever you want it to live from there on out. Stack them on top of each other upside down (so the tabletop is on the ground and the feet are up in the air) and drill some wood screws down into the bottom of the top pallet (the one that’s on the bottom). This way the pallets are secured together. Do this on all 4 corners.

9. If you want your table to be able to wheel around, screw on some casters to each of the four corners.

10. Very carefully, flip over. You’re almost there!

11. If the boards on your pallet are spaced far away from each other, like yours, you may want to consider getting a custom-sized glass tabletop made. That way, the table is actually functional! Ours came from Dulles Glass & Mirror, located outside of DC, and am very happy with how it came out!

The decorations on the table aren’t final yet, but as with everything else in our house, is always a work in progress.

I didn’t like what he was wearing.

So, I searched the internet near and far for the fabric I made my bathroom valances out of. (For what it’s worth, it wasn’t Waverly. It was Swavelle Mill Creek and is called Briarley Mocha.)

I found it. I ordered it.

I grabbed my trusty staple gun and screwdriver and went to work.

He looks much better now, wouldn’t you agree?

Family Photo

I think it kind of ties everything together.

Quick, cheap and easy!

All of these pictures are nothing short of horrible, so apologies in advance.

Here are the windows in the breakfast nook before. We had blinds, but were otherwise naked.

6 pieces of foam board, tons of packaging tape and a staple gun later…

Here is a “better” picture of what I posted on Friday. This family room is right off the kitchen, to the right of the picture above so you can see how I tied in the fabrics.

(Macho and Beamer said the pictures might look better if they were in them, so…)

Please don’t mind the dog hair all over the carpet. Ohmygod how embarrassing.

These were an easy DIY project that looks great from the front, but from the back and underneath they are a disaster. BUT that’s not the point. The point is it looks great from afar!

The tutorial I followed for these pelmet boxes (that’s what they are called), is from DIY Showoff. As with any DIY project, you usually realize halfway through that something won’t work for you or you’ll find a better way to do it. A couple of things I noticed in this tutorial is that you only need to cut on 3/4 sides—both shorter sides and the top. I also had heavier duty fabric so tape wasn’t working well for me—hence the staple gun’s appearance. 

Anyway, here they are! I think it really pulls together the kitchen and I’m loving it!