Pretty Planters

Hi - I am back!  I have so many projects to post about you all will be sick of me soon!

 

 

I made the first set of these planters for my parents as a Christmas gift.
They look great on their deck and the big advantage besides being pretty is that they
won't blow over every time we have a bit of wind!

  

 

When my Aunt Rosemary was visiting, and helping my parents after my Mom's knee surgery, she asked me to make her two planters!!   I made a slightly different style and they are 20 x 20 rather than 16 x 16.

The one thing that made this job way easier was the new toy I got for Mother's Day.

A Ryobi Brad Nailer!  I LOVE IT :)

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a while!

It has been too long since I posted, but I have been very busy!  I had knee surgery 4 weeks ago (it went very well) and I had to take a break from heavy lifting and being on my feet too long!!  I have lots of projects to post about though so here goes.

 

A friend of mine had an old family heirloom chair that had a broken seat and was very much in need of a makeover.  I repaired the original wood with glue and then added new wood inside to support the wood that had been broken.  I used Howard's "Restor-a-Finish" in dark walnut followed by Howard's "Feed-n-Wax" Wood Polish and Conditioner to refresh the wood.  Rather than go to the expense of having a professional reupholster the chair my friend let me have a go at doing the upholstering.  I think it will work well for a chair that is not used much but, I still have a long way to go with my upholstery skills :)  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

Rather than go to the expense of having springs redone I went with a plywood seat covered with 2" foam, batting and then the fabric.

 

 

My friend really wanted a zebra print but her sister had something more neutral in mind so I threw these pillows in as a bonus!!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Flowers

 

 

Even though the weather outside is snowy and cold we have a little bit of spring in the kitchen!!

 

I made a box out of scraps of wood in the garage, stained it with paint diluted with water and recycled some Starbucks Frappuccino bottles to create a little flower box in the house.  A $5 bouquet of tulips from the grocery and I can feel the warmth of Spring heading our way!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was Featured!!!

The art Sam & I created last week was featured today on a fantastic blog called Knock Off Decor!

Check it out!

Snow Day Fun!

What to do on a snow day with a pile of scrap wood?

Sam had a snow day last week and as always I was itching to do something in the garage but it was kinda cold and we had about 4" of snow on the ground.  I have turned my ping pong table into a indoor work space so ....

We started with this:

Using a chart we made on graph paper, my miter saw and sander in the garage we made this:

We moved to the basement to create the puzzel.

Again using our chart we painted each piece using leftover paint from around the house and other projects and we had this:

 

 We took our painted boards and glued them to a piece of plywood, let them dry, then sanded and added nails. This is the finished piece:

 

 

 

Our inspiration came from this Pottery Barn Wall Decor:

Pottery Barn 50" x 50" $399.00

 

Art by Sam & Gretchen 30" x 30" $10 (for a piece of plywood)!!!

AND

We had a fun day doing it!!

We think it will grace the wall in Sam's bedroom or the game room!

Almost Done!

I have been working on my LL Family Room all winter and I have everything finished except for painting the walls!  This was a great project for the winter because it has been too cold to paint outside but I was able to paint in the basement since that's where the furniture was going anyway!  Here is a list of everything I did:

1) Sold Furniture
2) Bought a new chair and sectional from Pottery Barn
3) Moved plaid chair and ottoman from upstairs to downstairs
3) Made and finished a coffee table
4) Refinished two side tables to match the coffee table
5) Made a tray for the coffee table and a chalk board for the wall - both painted red
6) Redid most of my accessories

 

By making the LL Bedroom into a game room I was able to eliminate lots of clutter from the family room - Doug says it looks like a grown up room now! I am very pleased with the way everything turned out.  Now just have to have the walls painted or do it myself :)  I am not sure what color they are now but they are very gold so I am leaning toward Sherwin Williams "Latte".

 

BEFORE

AFTER