DIY Rustic Crate

Not only do I love storage, I need it.  My family accumulates a lot of stuff and they get that stuff out a lot.  My hubby would love it if his stuff could permanently live on the end table.  Why do I feel the need to put away remotes and notebooks and computer monitors if he's just going to get it out again later tonight?  Solution: easily accessible crates.  

I bought two crates like the above bare wood crate.  I bought the first a few months ago at Home Depot.  When I finally got around to getting a second for my project, they were no where to be found at Home Depot.  No problem, I went to Michaels armed with a 40% coupon and bought a second.  I found that while staining, the Michaels crate had a much rougher finish on the interior and next time I will run a sander over it before getting started.

My first step was to stain the crate inside and out with Minwax Dark Walnut.

I let that sit for a while, mostly because I had no idea what my next step would be.  I finally figured out a plan and purchased two colors of sample paint.  I used Valspar's Green Shimmer for the first coat.  I dry brushed it on.  If you've never dry brushed, you basically need to wipe the excess paint off of your brush before you paint with it.

After coating the entire crate, I recoated again with Valspar's Mermaid Tail.  In hindsight, these colors were very similar and I maybe should have gone for a little more contrast...live and learn.  You can see the second color on the left.

Here it is completely covered with both colors.

The next step was sand it down with 80 grit sandpaper using my vibrating sander.

 

I then applied the stain again over the paint.  I made sure to apply stain everywhere as it really took away the "fresh paint" look.  After applying, I wiped away any excess stain.

I bought this leather belt for $3 at Goodwill the other day with this project in mind but it was still too shiny.

My first thought was to paint it with the paint I used on the crate...

it wasn't my favorite so I tried white...

and then wiped off the excess with my stain rag.

The last step was to attach it over the open handle using a couple of screws.

I'm debating putting casters on the bottom box to make it easier for my girls to access their toys.  I'm loving how they turned out and I love how practical they will be for my family!

Lazy Susan Bookcase - Ikea hack

I spotted this Pottery Barn bookcase (for $699) and knew it would be great for my growing-up-way-too-fast "little" girl.  I was not, however, a fan of the price tag and knew it was an Ikea-hack waiting to happen!

Here's what I purchased to make it happen:

An Ikea Billy Bookcase in white ($39.99)


A 24" pine round from Lowes ($17.50)

A couple pieces of corner trim from Lowes ($10.74)

A lazy susan from WoodCraft ($5.99)

And a beveled mirror from Wal-Mart ($14.97)

Grand total of $89.19 for the essentials!  That's about 13% of the Pottery Barn cost!
Admittedly, I spent another $40 on the cute little items I glued on the side of the bookcase and had some extra trim pieces and paint on hand.  Still not a bad discount on the retail price!

Here's the how-to!
First thing we did was assemble the bookcase.  I left the Ikea directions in the hands of my six year old.  She took great pride in building the bookcase.

Good thing she was in charge because I'm sure I wasn't going to fit in that space to put that part together.

I do like to live dangerously.  My thumb likes my dangerous living less so.

 We finished assembly and realized the back of the bookcase was not so pretty.  Yuck, ugly plain cardboard back and exposed particle board edges.  First things, first.  We painted the cardboard back to match her room.

Here are the next problems: 1) my bookcase needs a bottom for attaching the lazy susan and 2) I didn't want to see this gap at the bottom of the bookcase back.

I solved the problem of no bottom by cutting some 2x4s to fit in the gap and them attaching a piece of spare particle board to the 2x4s.  The 2x4's are held in by using my nail gun and nailing through the bottom shelf of the bookcase.  The particle board is then attached to the 2x4s with glue and nails.  I also added a board across the back bottom as a support for a piece of trim that will cover the hole.

Next I added some painted corner molding to the edges and top of the bookcase to cover the exposed edge of the particle board.  I also attached a 6" wide piece of trim beneath the mirror in order to cover the gap that I mentioned earlier.  I cut it to fit between the corner molding pieces.  The support I added in the previous step gave it something to attach to.  You can see the 6" trim piece in the finished pictures at the end.  I used the nail gun to attach the trim pieces and then filled in the holes with some spackling before giving them another coat of white paint.

The final step was attaching the lazy susan to the pine base and the bookcase bottom.  I started by priming and painting the wood base.  Center the lazy susan on the base and mark where you will insert your screws for attaching the lazy susan to the base.  You'll notice that the lazy susan also has four large holes.   You also need to mark these holes on the base and drill a hole in the wood equal in size to the hole in the lazy susan.  You will use these large holes as a way to access the part of the lazy susan that needs to be attached to the bookcase. Essentially, you will put your screw and screw driver into the large hole you drilled in the base from the underneath side and attach the screw.  As an added tip, it's a good idea to drill (very small) pilot holes for all of your screws.  Do this on the base AND the bookcase before you attach the lazy susan to either piece.  It will make your life MUCH easier.

As you can see I added some vinyl lettering above and below the mirror.  I put the phrase "You are loved." at the top and "BeYoutiful" on the bottom.  The mirror was attached using a special mirror adhesive by Liquid Nails.

I added some Hobby Lobby finds on each side.  This side has a magnetic "white" board and a little fox with hooks for hanging some of her jewelry.  I attached both items using the "projects" type of liquid nails.

This side has a little framed A, a birdcage chalk board, and a clipboard for hanging one of her works of art (of which there are MANY).  Again, I attached these using liquid nails.

The shelving was put to good use very quickly.  It's nice that the shelving is the same size as many of the cube storage containers sold at Target.  We inserted one of those on the bottom shelf to hold some small stuffed animals.  If you wanted a less cluttered look, you could use cubes on every shelf.

I am sure another one will be built in the future for the little sister.  As a warning, because the bookcase is very tall and is not anchored to the wall I would not suggest it for use in the room of a furniture climber.  The little sister will get one eventually but not until I'm sure she has passed any chance of a climbing stage!

I hope you love it as much as we do.  

Flat Panel Door Update

Anyone lucky enough to have these old, probably cheap, builder-grade, flat-panel doors from the 80's and 90's??  Yep, I said lucky.  You've got to see the potential.  These lovely gems reside in my sister's house.  Last fall she decided she'd had enough of the wood toned trim in her house and began removing every piece of trim and painstakingly painting it all white.  The result is fabulous but it made these doors jump out at you as being dated and boring.  Good thing she saw their potential The above picture is in her kitchen which has yet to receive its makeover.  Have I made you wait long enough?

Amazing right??  

She added 1/4" maple plywood panels (found at Lowes) cut into strips to create a shaker style door.  She only did the outside of this door since it's a closet.  As she moves on to other doors in the house, she'll do both sides.  As as a result, she'll have to make some adjustments to her door frames to accommodate the added thickness against the door jam.  She also used this tutorial as her guide with a few tweaks here and there. http://jennasuedesign.blogspot.com/2014/06/foyer-update-diy-salvaged-door.html

The paint color she used on the door (and stripes) is Benjamin Moore's Eagle Rock.  I'm seriously considering using it on the interior of my front door and on the (gulp) oak stair handrails in my house.  I'll keep you posted on that one.

Here's one more before and after!!!

"Barn Wood" Bench and Ledge

I tackled another project recently where my aim was to eliminate a problem-area in my house.  I've thought a lot about how to tackle the problem of: Dust That Can't Be Removed From Textured Sheetrock on a Horizontal Space.  Ok, so maybe that's not the best working title but it is a real problem in my house.  Wanna see??





 

This particular area of my house is a flat area above the front entry closet.  Its surface isn't actually visible from the main floor but its dusty glory can be seem from the stairs...and it's gross.  It truly doesn't matter how often or how I clean these surfaces, the thick texture just never allows me to get deep enough to make it look clean.  And...I have more than one.  I've got this "bench" in the dining room too.

As the bench is just "slightly" more accessible, I started there.  I knew I could fix the bench by adding a cushion but since I tend to set knick knacks on the surface, a cushion just wasn't very exciting to me.  I really wanted to jump on the barn wood bandwagon so, I decided it would be my solution.  What if my barn wood gets dusty??  Who cares, it's supposed to look dirty!  Perfect!

Now to rustle up some barn wood...huh.  I've tried this before.  Craigslist is an option but not really a good one.  It's expensive and the options are pretty limited.  I live on the plains of Colorado.  We have farms, we have barns but for no good reason other than supply and demand, we just don't have a lot of barn wood being sold.  So much for saving the planet by reusing our resources.  Off to Home Depot.

At Home Depot I bought cedar fence pickets.  I made the store happy because I bought their ugliest, knottiest pickets.  They really should have given me a discount.

Next, I set out to make this wood look old.  I really like the gray look of old wood.  I decided to go cheap and make my stain by mixing vinegar and steel wool.  I grabbed a trusty mason jar since it's glass and added a piece of steel wool and poured in the vinegar.  It was not an exact science.  I guessed.  Then I sat on my hands for all of 10 minutes before I couldn't wait to give it a go.  I'm supposed to wait 24 hours you say, Pinterest?  Bah!  It might still work.

So, I grabbed a paper towel got it wet with the mixture and started wiping it on a board.  Here's what it looked like right away.  The left board (and some of the board next to it) have been wiped down.

Did it work that fast?  Sort of.  I did a few more boards and some turned gray right away; others didn't.  It really seems to depend on the type of wood.  Ok, I'll be patient.  Here are the results the following day.  I let my mixture sit for 5 hours.  The wood continued to darken as it set.  I found that the lighter parts of the wood, known as the sapwood, didn't take the stain very well, if at all.  In the future, I'll make sure to look for fence posts with little or no sap wood.

The knots darken more than the rest of the wood which I love.  Sometimes a little sanding brings out the grain if you've got that going on.  I then added some turquoise paint to a few of the boards and a little mahogany gel stain to parts of the others.  You really can't go wrong.  Just keep playing til you like what you've got.  As you can see some are wider than others in an attempt to look like I picked from a couple of barns.

I used a miter saw to cut my pieces.  I needed them to be 10.75" long.  I love the barn wood-distressed vibe but I recognize that some people don't.  So, I decided I didn't want my barn wood to be permanent.  I grabbed a piece of scrap bead board laying around and cut it roughly to the size of my bench.  Next, I layed-out my cut barn wood and arranged them until I liked the order they were in.  I truly thought I would need to cut the piece on each end to be narrower in order for it all to fit.  Guess I'm living right, because they were the perfect width for my bench.  No adjustments necessary.  Here they are all layed-out and glued on to the bead board using liquid nails.

Now, for the front trim piece.  I decided to cut the ends of my trim piece at a 45 degree angle rather than 90 degrees.  I just thought it gave the trim a more finished look and we won't hurt ourselves if we run into it.  I gave a it a bit of paint and got out the nail gun.

Tada!!  After a little touch-up on the nail holes, I have a finished bench.

A few days later I finished up the area above the hall closet.  Here it is with a before pic to help you remember.