Old Gate

So as you know, lately I’ve really been in to building things, especially “old” things.  I’ve been inspired a lot by Funky Junk Interiors blog.  If you haven’t been to her blog yet, you should really pop in and check it out.  You will be sucked right in and you will find yourself looking at “junk” in a whole new light.  Promise you.

I saw her old gate and fell in love at first sight.

 

She even has a tutorial on how to make one, so I decided I had to at least give it a whirl. 

And since Tim had just recently taught me how to use our table saw, I put on my brave pants one day and got to work.  All by myself, I designed, measured, and cut all the wood.  I was so proud.

However, I do not exactly know how to use a drill yet (it’s on the top of my list for next power tool to master though), so I had to wait for Tim to put all the screws in and add the hardware for me.

 

My house now has a hint of “funky junk” in it and I’m digging it ALOT.  The great thing about making “old” things is that nothing has to look perfect.  In fact, imperfect looks better.  See the uneven boards, the messy paint job, the splintered wood with nicks and holes in it?  All perfectly imperfect.  You can’t really mess up something that is “old”, you are just adding more character to it. 

 

I love how it turned out.  And I think it looks wintery and rugged sitting up there on my mantel.  It gives me the warm fuzzies inside.

Making an old sign

Look what I found… 

 

A never ending supply of pallets down the road from my house! 

 

I decided to make an “old sign” to hang in my kitchen from one of the boards that I picked up.

After I decided on the board to use, I very roughly slapped on some white paint.  I didn’t try to make it evenly coated, in fact, I purposely left it looking pretty uneven and I let some  of the wood around the edges show through.  After painting, I sanded and distressed it to give it even more character and “age”.

Next, I opened up a word program in my computer and decided on a font.  Then I blew up each letter to a size that would fit nicely on my board.  I printed, traced, and then cut out each letter to make stencils.

 

Next I traced each letter on to my board.

 

And then I carefully painted in all the letters with black paint.  It was tedious.

 

Finally, I sanded and distressed my board once again.  And Tim hung it up for me.

 

I love how it looks hanging over the doorway in my kitchen.

Building with pallets

Pallets are all the rage right now and I’ve seen some pretty cool things made out of them.

These are some of my favorites…

Lori Danielle’s toddler bed.  Is this not AWESOME?!!  Hudson might need one of these when he gets bigger.

 

Ashley Ann's pallet reading bed.  She made this for her little girl’s room and it is totally adorable.  I love it!  I want one in my house, I just don’t know where I would put it.

 

And check out this table made from old pallets over at Funky Junk Interiors!  So creative and original!

 

She also made this t.v. stand from an old pallet.  A-MAZING!!

 

These ladies totally inspire me and make me want to build something with a pallet!

The other day, Tim scored a pallet for me from his work, but since I have no experience in the building department, I wasn’t quite ready to tackle major furniture projects yet.  My mind started brainstorming things I could make with it. 

 

Now, you may already know this, but crates are also very trendy right now in home decor.  The problem is that they can be quite expensive when you try to get vintage ones.

Check out these photos from decor8.

Don’t you just love crates now?!!  I do!  And after seeing those photos, I decided I needed some crates in my house pronto.  And Ana White had plans on her site for building them.  I thought this would be the perfect starter project for me.  So during naptime, I dragged Tim down to the garage to help me build a crate using wood from our pallet. 

First, we had to get the boards off the pallet.  Not a lot of fun and some boards split.  But my attitude with this project was, the more character, the better.

Next came measuring and cutting the boards.  I can measure, but I’ve never cut anything with a circular saw in my life.  (Well, maybe I did in Shop class when I was in high school, but that was literally a lifetime ago, and I don’t remember a thing about it.)  I was a tad scared to use the saw (mostly for fear of losing a finger), but I wanted to learn because I have big dreams of building things and I can’t always convince Tim that we need to build something, so it is pertinent that I can do this myself.  So I made myself get brave and Tim showed me the ropes, or um…  the saw.  And look at me go!  And I still have all of my fingers, thank you!

After cutting the wood, we started piecing it together.  We temporarily taped the pieces that had split, then used a staple gun to hold them together.  We probably should have used some wood glue too, but we were in a hurry (naptime had come to an end) and we just wanted to get our crate finished.

 

Tim did all the hammering while I held and entertained kiddos. 

 

And here is our crate!  The best part – it was free! 

 

After finishing, I decided it needed a little more character.  So I used some stencils and a Sharpie to write our anniversary on it.  I sanded it afterwards to give it an older feel.

 

And since I need something to keep my roaring fire going, I filled it with pinecones.

 

Yes, I know it’s no bed or table, but I’m pretty proud of my first little building project. 

 

Now, I just need to get some more pallets!

Frosty the Snowman

Does anyone else still have their pumpkins left over?  Or is that just me?   Yea, it’s probably just me.

Even though Halloween and Thanksgiving are done and over and it’s technically Christmas season now, we still had our pumpkins out on our front porch up until just a few days ago when I made Tim put them out back because the rest of the neighbors were starting to put their Christmas decorations up.  I had really grown quite fond of having them around these last two months and they still looked so cute that it  seemed wasteful to toss them out with the trash. 



So I came up with a way to keep them around just a little bit longer. 

Meet Frosty the snowman Pumpkinman.

Isn’t he so adorable?!!

And he really wasn’t difficult at all to make.  My main goal was keeping this project as cheap as possible and using what I already had at the house.  I spent $0.97 total (for black spray paint), so I thought I did pretty good! 

Here’s how I made him.

First, I stacked my pumpkins up and hot glued them together.  Just to warn you though, hot glue doesn’t really hold them together that great, so you have to be careful when moving them around or they will come unglued.  But I figured since this was a temporary decoration that would just be sitting around our house for a month or two, hot glue would work well enough (plus that is what I had on hand).


Then I spray painted all my pumpkins white.  It was fast and easy.  I only had primer spray paint, so that is what I used. 


I thought this little pumpkin somewhat resembled a top hat, so I decided to spray paint it black.  After letting it dry, I hot glued this one on top of the three white ones.


Then I started searching my house for things I could use to make his face.  I used buttons for the eyes, fake berries for the mouth, a piece of potpourri for his nose, and some ribbon for the scarf. 


When Frosty’s day of doom does finally come, I have a feeling that I’m going to have an even harder time throwing him out now.  He’s just so darn cute!


I sure hope Frosty doesn’t melt sitting so close to our raging fire!