Home Renovation Saving Tips: DIY

Sponsored advertising content: I’ve received compensation from MBNA for this sponsored post. As always, all opinions are my own

Our great Canadian reno is well underway, and as you’ve seen already, if you’ve been following along on social, we’ve battled through some pretty major obstacles. To be honest, I can now see how people go on for years renovating their homes and are still not happy with the results. Once you see the mistakes you cannot un-see them. Let me tell you how this particular project got started…We were sitting on a room full of stuff that needed to be dealt with. With our busy schedules and need for sleep, it seemed like we’d never get to it. I had a particular vision in mind and it just didn’t seem possible – mostly because the piece of furniture I was hoping for is REALLY hard to find, and also REALLY expensive. Not one for settling, I thought I would wait until I found the perfect solution before tackling this problem. The solution, it seems, found me quicker than I thought –  I found a DIY article on how to make your own mid-century inspired wall shelving unit with pieces easily accessible at hardware stores. As soon as I found it, we got to work.

Meanwhile, I had also applied for the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® credit card. There are so many options out there, and every card offers a different reward, each as enticing as the next. It can be overwhelming to choose. That’s what I liked about the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® – It solves this exact problem. It offers Cardholders the flexibility to redeem their points five different ways. It’s like having five rewards cards rolled into one!

I’ve teamed up with MBNA to do a three-part series showing you how I’m creating my perfect space, and I will be bringing my new MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard® with me for the ride. It gives me the flexibility and freedom to redeem my points in a number of ways. The card offers five great rewards like travel rewards, cashback, merchandise (see all the items your points can buy here), gift cards and even charitable donations.

The perfect way to start our reno was, of course, to build our shelving unit, as this is the focal point of the living room. One of my favourite ways to redeem points is for gift cards and merchandise. It’s exactly how I acquired my first set of knives (which I still use), my pots and pans and other kitchen accessories when I moved out on my own. Rewards have totally gotten better since then and now you have whole catalogues of cards and products to choose from! What a time to be alive! I chose to redeem my points for a $100 gift card to Home Depot as our online research found that they had all the pieces we needed to get started.

SO, what did we get at Home Depot to make this DIY happen:

6 x 70″ twin rail tracks to ensure even weight distribution (after all we are mounting this to paper walls), instructions recommend a track for every stud, which makes it every 16 inches

1 x 6 foot 12″ deep shelf

1 x 2 foot 12″ deep shelf

3 x 4 foot 12″ deep shelf

30 x 11.5″ brackets (we didn’t actually count how many we will end up needing so that we can leave the actual configuration of the shelves till last minute, buy and return is my motto)

We chose to go with all white shelving because 1. they had a nice looking finish and it would save us a lot of time spray painting and staining and 2. white shelves make the room look more spacious, and since we don’t have much of it to work with it seemed like the better option.

And finally lets not forget all the plants that will make our condo feel like a real home, we picked a few of our favourite palms (that we always kill) and cacti (that we never know how much to water), because we’re totally practical like that!

Now that we have everything we need to put this room together I can’t wait to show you the finished result. Stay tuned for the next post! We’ll be filling the room and playing with how much stuff is actually too much stuff (is there such a thing?). To Be Continued…

*I’ve teamed up with MBNA for this series of sponsored blog posts. Find out how you can get started with 10,000 bonus points after your first eligible purchase with the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® by visiting the MBNA site, www.mbna.ca

The Toronto-Dominion Bank is the issuer of this credit card. MBNA is a division of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. All trade-marks are the property of their respective owners. ^® MBNA and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.