I got Benched!!

As the title infers....my latest projects have been benches.  Two very different styles of benches but both using reclaimed materials. 
The first bench I made from that old piece of wood that I almost climbed into the dumpster for.....recall my ill fated trip to the salvage yard in a dress and flip flops?
Here is the block of wood before....

All it took was a lot of sanding....starting from the coarsest grade down to the finest....then I added some blocks as risers...and some metal legs...a coat of stain and tung oil.....and here is the final result.

I'm hoping to sell this and several other pieces at some shows I am doing in January/February.  So you will be seeing lots of other projects happening here soon to get ready for those!

The next Bench project was for my son's room.  He has wanted to make a bench out of old hockey sticks for over a year now and we finally collected enough to do just that.

We looked at lots of different designs and decided on a simple one that uses only hockey sticks for the bench, legs and supports.  I built the top of the bench first...

And then added legs and cross supports....

It looks great in his room and is a personal and quirky keepsake now! 
After completing these 2 very different benches I realized how practical that particular piece of furniture is and how different they can be made for every space.  You can bet I will be making more benches in the future.  It seems that they are just the right size and scale to fit in many areas of the home and are useful for many things.  Although I think in my son's case it may just be one more place to throw dirty clothes on...sigh....

Fall projects

Recently a friend commissioned me to make a headboard for her daughter's bedroom.  She wanted one made from a door similar to others I have done.  The difference for this project was that they wanted to do fabric inserts where the "panels" of the door are.

Their daughter is a teen and she wanted to update her room to a more sophisticated look. 

I started with a raw 5 panel door and cut it down to the appropriate width for a double bed.

I used the cut offs from the door as "legs" to raise the headboard to an appropriate height....

Primed and painted the whole thing white....

Then I cut pieces of wood to fit the inserts....and wrapped them in a layer of white felt (to soften the edges and pad it a bit) and the fabric.  I staple gunned the fabric to the wood backing.

 Then I attached the fabric inserts with my nail gun....

 The result is a really pretty and more sophisticated bed for a teen.

Hopefully she loves it!

Next project was a super quick little autumn decor project.  I don't get fresh flowers often enough for the house and decided that Friday dinner with friends coming over was the perfect time to change that.
I wanted something really pretty and fun for fall so I purchased 2 pumpkins and some small sunflowers.

I hollowed out the pumpkins to fit small cups as vases.....

 I also grabbed some grasses from our front garden to act as filler....

And then arranged them all inside the pumpkins for 2 really cute centerpieces!

All in all a productive week...let's see what next week holds in store....I'm planning on making some floating shelves out of cast off timbers.....fingers crossed!
Happy Fall Everyone!!

How's it Hangin?

This weekend was "odd jobs" time.  You know all those little things that don't take very long to do, but never seem to get done?

Some of that included sorting through things we had stashed in the basement during the kitchen reno back in March/April and never dealt with.

Other chores included the twice yearly turn over of clothing...summer to winter in this case.

I have a theory that if you haven't used something in a year...or have put it in storage and not brought it back out or missed it....then you probably don't need it.

I applied this theory in going through basement stash and clothing.  Needless to say the pile for Goodwill is quite sizable now!

In the basement collection of cast offs I found some prints that I previously had hung in the kitchen but we hadn't put back up yet.  I didn't want to put them back exactly as before...why go through all the effort of renovating only to put it back as it was?

So I started to wonder how I could hang them again in a more creative way.  I loved the metal "frame" I made in the last post for our Beef Cuts print and wanted something along those lines.

I dug around in the workshop and found a cool piece of barn board....and some old metal tacks and nails.

The board turned out to fit 3 pictures perfectly!

 I attached the photos on with the old brass tacks....

.....and then hung the whole thing on some old rusty square nails.

It fills the space between our eating nook and cupboards perfectly and I like that it is a more interesting way of displaying the art without simply using frames.

 

Don't wear a sundress to the Scrap Metal Yard....and other tales from the field

This morning was beautiful and sunny....and I am trying to milk everything left out of summer so I decided I would wear a sundress even though it's past Labour Day. 

After a lovely long walk on the boardwalk with the 3 dogs (we are looking after 2 of my sister's plus our own) and then supervising the drop off of pea gravel and stones for our new schoolyard project, I realized I needed to get some yeast so I could make some homemade pizza for dinner tonight.

I popped in the car since it had started raining and off I went.  But I couldn't stop thinking about that Beef Cuts Chart and how to mount it on the wall.  I wanted something that would be industrial and interesting and decided upon sheet metal as a backdrop.  I would then magnet the chart to it.

On my way to the grocery store there is a scrap metal yard that I often visit and thought they might have something for me.

Upon arriving there I quickly realized wearing a sundress to such a venue was a pretty bad idea.  I'm sure I looked the perfect part of ditzy, bored, soccer mom.  It's still raining and I just had my hair straightened and was trying to save it so I was huddled under an umbrella looking for someone who worked there.  I ended up being hassled by a customer dropping off a load of aluminum who assured me "I'll be thinking about you for the next couple of days that's for sure"....ewww!!  Reason #1 for not wearing such ridiculous attire to a scrap yard.

Finally found the guy who worked there and asked about some sheet metal...turns out they didn't have any.  About to leave, I spied a huge chunk of wood in a dumpster.  I asked if I could have it and he shrugged....apparently the strong, silent type.  Not so strong as it turns out because he couldn't lift it out of the dumpster for me.  Cut to me perched on dumpster, in sundress hauling out filthy wood.....nice huh?  Reason #2 for no dress at metal yard.

Hope you'll understand if I just don't have pictures of that! But here is the beam of wood in my trunk...perfect fit!

Next stop was a sheet metal fabricator just past the grocery store...I had been there before and had some luck so I drove there.

I got out of the car and was greeted by the welcome wagon.

Not too sure how valuable sheet metal might be but I guess it's better safe than sorry?

They had exactly what I needed there and cut me a piece.  Success!

Back home, I cleaned up the border of the sheet metal with my drill and wire brush attachement.  Then mounted it to the wall with screws, washers and nuts. 

Attach print with magnets and voila!

I think it sets off the print perfectly and with interest.  I also think this is a great idea you could put to use for a photo collage, memo board etc...I plan to make a few more of these.

Not sure what I am going to do with the old beam of wood but I'm sure I will come up with something.

To Market...To Market....

This past weekend was fantastic!  There were 2 great antique/flea markets happening and I was able to attend both....totally fun and decadent!

Saturday was the fall Christie Antique Show in Dundas, Ontario.  I had heard about it for years and finally was able to make it there this year.  My friend and I set out in a torrential downpour...which might have made us unhappy except we figured that the rain might keep people away and we'd be able to get some great bargains.  We were right!

This market is huge...I mean acres huge.  Rows and rows of stalls....antiques, collectibles and everything in between. You can bargain with the vendors for the price so you can really get some good value there.

I scored some great finds.  I have been looking for an old metal gym locker basket for a while now and managed to get one for a lot less than what I had seen them listed for elsewhere.

It sits on our counter and holds all our glass jars and bottles.

The next thing I came across was a metal letter "R"....I have always loved these metal letters and really what's a girl whose last name is Roberts to do but scoop that up?....looks great here I think!

 On our second go around (you really need to walk around it a few times to make sure you see everything once before buying) I spied another metal basket...I loved the shape of this one - perfect for holding all sorts of stuff at our front door....so yes I picked that up too!

Honestly the deals were just too great.....I could have bought so much more but that wouldn't have gone over so well at home I don't think.  My friend picked up a really great painted cabinet with a tin ceiling back....don't have a photo of it, but trust me it's beautiful. 

We left feeling totally happy with our purchases, secure in the knowledge we had acquired something special and at a great price.

This morning I woke up and while on Facebook saw a post from the Junction Flea www.http://junctionflea.blogspot.ca/p/dates.html that reminded me the market was on today....so I packed my youngest into the car and off we went.  He's quite the savvy shopper and it was a fun opportunity to do something neat together.

Upon arrival I sensed it was going to be a really good day again.  Tents set up with goodies....antiques, collectibles, edibles... just like the Brooklyn Flea we visited in July.

We started the go around (ever notice how you almost always start on the right and go counter clockwise?  I do anyway) and spied a really neat wooden bench.  It was an old washtub stand.  I loved it but wanted to wait and see what the rest of the market held.  Glad that I did because further along we spied another similar bench for 1/2 the price!!!  Yup...scooped it up!!

How perfect will this be in our new (but completely non-existent) Master Bathroom...time of arrival to be determined.

We kept walking and it was great to see all the memorabilia.  Luke was desperate for an old typewriter which made me laugh because it was just like the one I used to type up my high school essays on....way to make a gal feel old!  We passed on that one.

Something else we saw and really scooped up was an old ice-cream scoop.  I've always wanted to get one that was like those in the ice cream shops....so we brought it home.  Luke said it would look great on display as well as being practical...I've taught him well....

Then I noticed a vendor selling prints....on our way to the market I had told Luke that I wanted to see if we could find a "beef cuts chart".  I thought it would be great on the wall by our fridge.  And sure enough they had them there.  We debated over the red or black one and both of us agreed the red was more interesting...love it!

Now I just need to figure out how to mount it on the wall...I have an idea to mount it to old barnboard then mount on the wall but want to see how that will look first.  Stay tuned!

Home again and please with our purchases I set about finally finishing the coat rack at the front door.  I needed to mount the old door knobs on it to hang coats from.  

Now it is all done and works so well to keep everything organized while looking great.

After I had all our purchases installed and the coat rack done I decided to harvest the basil we have been growing this summer and make some pesto.

I love homemade pesto because it is so simple to make and we can use it all the time.

Wait a second...somethings wrong with this picture.....

For those of you who know me, you will notice the lack of wine glass in the first photo...my husband soon remedied that issue and I was good to go!

I made 2 batches....one to use now and one to freeze for later (for the frozen batch I didn't add the cheese....will do that when we thaw and use since cheese won't freeze well).

All in all an amazing and fruitful weekend!  Hope yours was just as fun!

Hack Job

Phew....kids are off to school and now I feel like I have some time to get back at all those neglected projects gathering dust for the past 2 months!  It was an excellent summer but I am glad to be back into a routine of sorts and to finally have some time to get down to business!

A while back I started following a blog called "Ikea Hackers" www.ikeahackers.net

It's a brilliant site filled with ideas from people who have taken Ikea products and reworked them. The premise is that you can use the prefab Ikea products as materials in another project.   I have often used Ikea products to do this very thing and was thrilled there is a blog devoted to them.

I had a couple of shelves in the basement storage area...allright it is just a corner filled with junk....and I decided I could put them to good use.

The first shelves I garbage picked/salvaged from a neighbour and had been wondering what to do with them ever since.

Here they are in their original form/use from the Ikea website:

I used to stash all my gift wrap/boxes and ribbon in my closet on a shelf (and they would fall on my head every time I opened the closet...anyone with kids, remember Zaboomafu?)  Anyway, it was time to get this stuff organized.  I started by removing a few of the bars from one shelf to make room for the rolls of ribbon and feeding the rolls onto the front bar.  Then I took apart the other shelf completely and put the rolls of wrap onto the bars.  Voila!  Instant gift wrap shelf.  Everything is organized and where I need it.

The next project was a new shoe organizer at our front door.  I should start by saying that this started with us ordering a new front door (yet to arrive)....of course then this lead to me having to repaint the front hall, which leads to the upstairs hall so that got a coat of paint too....which then lead to me not liking our old tired rug and hook system.  So I decided we needed a new shoe rack and coat rack (coat rack project almost finished and will detail in another post).
Remember those timbers I dug out of the dumpster and put to good use as cannon base and candle holders?  Well they are back again.  This time as the legs to the shoe rack/bench.  The top is an old plank of wood from the same dumpster.  I wanted to have a shelf for one row of shoes and then put another row on the rug/floor.

I realized I had this stainless shelf from Ikea in the workshop:

It was perfect in length and I loved that it would look great and be super practical with muddy wet shoes on it.....so I attached all those elements together and it came out looking like this....we love it!

So check out the Ikea Hackers site...and see if you have any Ikea products around your house that you can transform!

Another Family Treasure Re-purposed

I recently decided that we needed a new coffee table in our living room.  There was nothing wrong with the old one...it was just...well....boring me.  As you can imagine, my husband was thrilled to hear about this latest project.  I mentioned it to him and he just gave me a look and said "uh-huh".  He's learned by now not to bother even arguing about some things.

I had received a 50's style kitchen table from my grandparents and hauled it from rental to rental....house to house for years.  I don't have a picture of that exact table but it was very similar to this one with blue diamond patterns on the top.  Really nice but over the years I got bored of it and never really liked that blue.

 I took off the original metal top and replaced with a top from Ikea, painted the base a dark brown and it served as an "art table" in our kitchen for years.  But as those tops often do, it showed the wear quickly.  I have since decided that I won't ever use a laminate as a top again and will hold out for solid wood.

After I restored that pedestal table (see previous post in March 2012 about that project), I took apart the other table and stored the wood base.  The top was in bad shape so I got rid of that....okay to be totally honest it is still in the front our house completing our "trailer park chic" look.

I just couldn't seem to part with the base.  Then I had an idea...while on my run as usual....what if I cut down the old base and used some of the wood planks I have in the basement as a new top?

Out came the table saw, the old wood base and, it seemed, every other tool I owned.  First I cut down the table base to 18".  The wood was approximately 1" thick so it would give me a finished height of about 19" which is great for a coffee table.   Then I sorted through my planks to see which ones would fit and work together best for an interesting top.

 I cut those down and then, you guessed it, the sanding began.  Once again coursest to finest grade and after not too long the 2 pieces were looking nice and smooth.   I applied 2 coats of Tung Oil and then fixed them to the base with screws from the underside.

Here is the final result.  We love it! 

 I guess it pays off to hold onto things in the long run after all.