Shelving Unit

Jared needed a wooden shelf to hold the Xbox and direct tv box so I thought I'd make him one. He gave me some pretty basic dimensions...really just saying how long it should be...I got a foot and a half out of him.  So I tried to make it unique...

And of course I can't do one project without making some goofy mistake...

That's right, see that? ^^^ Completely glued and nailed it on wrong.  This looks a little bit better.

Then I drilled some holes in the back center with the drill press so that the cords could go through.

And stained it in my favorite color, dark walnut.

Didn't turn out too bad, it was more enjoyable watching the boys try to mount it to the wall.

So looking back I probably wouldn't use the top lid to a stew pot to make those rounded edges that I cut out with a jigsaw.  It reminds me of a bread box or a mailbox.

Cornhole

I'm really excited that my sister and brother-in-law will be helping me make a cornhole set for Jared.  I'll post pictures and a "play-by-play" when we get closer to starting!  I'm pretty sure he wants a Chiefs themed set so I look forward to the painting part!

DAY 1

Well, I got all the supplies except the stuff to go in the bags for this game set.  I did find some yellow and red canvas at JoAnn's for the bags and I'm even going to make this nifty little cinch sack to store them all in.  More updates to come soon...

DAY 2

Well, Cand and I got a good jump on the cornhole set for Jared.  If you would like to make your own we used directions from www.cornholehowto.com there you will find a set of supplies you will need as well as how to put it together.  I cut the 2 of the 2x4x8 boards in half to start making the frame.  Then used another 2x4 to cut 4 pieces 21" long to make the frame.  

I also cut my sheet of plywood in half so that it's 2'x4' (this will go on top of the frame that we made).

The trickiest part was the legs.  You use another 2x4 and cut 4 pieces down to 16" long.  You have to kind of guess-timate where the bolt will go so that you can either fold the legs in or bring them out so that the board can stand up...or "pitch" as Jared calls it.  Anyway, you have have to round the tops (that you don't see that are under the board) so that they rotate.  Then after that, you have to cut the 16" long 2x4's down so that the board is 12" off of the ground and use a 45˚ angle so the board won't wiggle around.

We still have to cut out the holes for the bags to go in but couldn't find the thing that cuts them. But overall got a good jump on it today.  We made two of these.

Things left to do:

• Cut out the hole
• Go back around some areas with wood filler/Sand
• Paint entire piece red then go back for the Chiefs logo
• Put on the clasps and handle (yes I'm that neat that I make it easy to carry)
• Make the bags
• Make a carrying cinch sack to keep the bags in

I guess I was feeling like a go-getter today.  I also got the cinch sack done.  I first made the sack out of extra canvas I had from the corn-filled bags (which I still actually have to make).

Then I drew the arrowhead and KC design on.

And used white acrylic paint

And then outlined everything in black.  Not perfect but at least you can tell what it's supposed to be.

DAY 3

The holes have been cut, I went back over with woodfiller to make the board more smooth and easier for the bags to slide.  So just have to wait while that dries before I can sand.

And I got the templates all cut out.

I'm trying to decide if I should add stripes on it somewhere...the white/yellow/white stripes that they have on the arms of their jerseys.  Not sure what to do there....CHIEFS will be in yellow and the arrowhead is black/white/red of course.   The circle at the top is going to be yellow also and the main part of the board will be red.  They play a little differently than standard cornhole where if you get a bag in the yellow circle it's 2 points instead of 1.

DAY 4

Didn't get super far on it.  I used a stencil and transferred it to the boards after painting them red.  But I'm painting the stencils by hand which is taking a lot longer than I thought because each piece is probably going to need 3 coats.  But hey, it's a start.

Taping things off.  I wanted to make the stripes that are on the jerseys on the board so here's what I came up with.

Still need to go back over it with red in some spots and black on the arrowhead.  And finish it off with a coat of polyurethane (finish the painting part anyway).  I also got these locks and a handle so it's easier to transport and the sack with the bags of corn can go in the middle of the two boards to keep everything together.

DAY 5

I had to go back over with red and black a few times to get the look I was wanting.

And then 1 coat of polyurethane and they are finally good to go. 

Cornhole bags: after getting two different colors of canvas (I choose red and yellow), I cut them to 7" x 7" squares and sewed a 1/2" seem on all sides. On the fourth side I only sewed halfway so I could fill it with corn. I used 1 3/4 cups of corn. Then used the sewing machine to close up the last half. I went over the stitches 2-3 times to make sure the seams don't break since they get thrown over and over.

 Special thanks to Cand for all of your help!  They already got some use and work great!

Tufted Bench

I'm really excited (I feel like I say this with every project I am just about to start) for this coffee table that was given to me for free.  Since I already have a coffee table I decided to make this into a bench seat to go at the end of my bed.  And I'm going to try tufting for the first time.

I've done research all day today on tufting and since we all know I'm not a sewer I'll be using washers and screws to tuft the fabric and foam.  So here's my supply/to do list this weekend:

• Measure the coffee table
• Pick out gray fabric
• Foam that's at least 3" thick
• Batting
• 3/4" wood screws
• #10 washers
• 1/4" washers
• Cover buttons/half ball cover buttons 7/8"
• Petroleum jelly

I know what you're asking yourself.....petroleum jelly???  YES!  I'm finally getting to try my layered chalk paint look...so the best part about that is I already have left over paint from previous projects so I'll be using three colors, which will be white (Old White), gray (French Linen), and teal (Florence).

CAN'T EVEN WAIT TO GET STARTED!

DAY 1

So I meant to get all of this shopping done on Friday, but that didn't happen so I spent 3/5 hours running around yesterday.  I went to Lowe's to get some more paint...I tried making my first chalk paint, which I don't think I added enough of the chalky stuff to the paint.  I also went to JoAnn's fabric to get some upholstered fabric (which I didn't get quite enough of so lets hope I can skid by with what I got).  I didn't do any sanding to the coffee table I started with 2 coats of Old White chalk paint from Annie Sloan.

Then I went back over in certain spots where I wanted the white to show through and added a very thin layer of petroleum jelly.  I saw this method on another blog for layering chalk paint so I thought I would try it out, it's supposed to make sanding the layer off easier.  Then, I painted 1 coat of Florence chalk paint on top of that.

After 2 hours I was surprised to find out that it wasn't dry.  Little did I know the area I checked was the area that I put the jelly on....so FYI if you try this out you can just use a damp paper towel to wipe the 2nd color of paint off those spots.  You can still sand over top of that too after wiping but no need to ruin your sand paper on paint that isn't dry.

So here's what that looked like after wiping it down.

So not even going to lie about it, the jelly freaked me out a little bit so for the last layer of paint I didn't use it...since this was my "home made" chalk paint I decided not to test the waters too much.  And here's the last layer with gray chalk paint.

DAY 2

When I woke up this morning I did a little bit of sanding on one side just to give you an idea of what it would look like

Here's a little bit closer of a view

You can see the 3 different paint layers and some of the original wood.

I still have to finish sanding then wax it.  So that part of the project is to be continued.  I also started my fabric covered buttons.  I got a kit from Joann's yesterday and let me tell you, the thicker the fabric the harder this whole process was.

I ended up making 13 of these fabric covered buttons and the bench is going to have a 4-5-4 pattern leaving 5" open on all sides of the bench.

I also purchased some 3" thick foam and batting from JoAnn's yesterday so I had to cut the foam down to the dimensions of the table (FOAM IS NOT CHEAP!).  I just used an electric bread knife to cut the foam down to size.

See fits nice and pretty

Then came the tough part about where the buttons should be placed...again a 4-5-4 pattern

Then covered the foam with batting

And stapled the batting to the back of the table top

Now the foam is held securely into place.  I made a huge mistake yesterday about how much upholstery fabric I thought I needed to have, so I have to go get more at JoAnn's today.  I'm thinking about using the fabric I got yesterday for accent pillows so it doesn't go to waste.  Luckily this fabric is reversible so if I do decide on making pillows or maybe a lamp shade out of them I can flip it over for the same design but the colors would be in reverse.

And for people like me, who have no sewing capabilities what-so-ever, tufting with washers and screws was an EASY alternative.  I took one side of scissors and poked a hole through the batting and foam where my marks were at.  Also, be sure to begin drilling really, REALLY slowly to push through the fabric and then pushing down pretty hard on the drill to get through all of that foam to the board.

And here is the full view...

DAY 3

Next, I went on to stapling the fabric to the back of the table top.  Definitely helps to have two people when doing these last few parts.  Here's the back and front view after stapling the fabric to the back.

And next step would be to attach the buttons, since I'm not doing regular tufting I had to use fabric glue to attach them.

Gluing the buttons has been an interesting experience...

This is the fabric glue I decided to try and the buttons aren't wanting to stay in place so I found random house hold objects to keep them down in there.  I will probably let this dry for a good 5 hours or so before attempting to take any of them off.

Happy to report that the fabric glue did the trick on the buttons.  I finished the base of the bench (sanding) and put a coat of wax on it.  I let it dry for an hour before attaching the top seat.

Here's the view from the top....

And there you have it, the long awaited before and after photo.

Dome top trunk

I am super excited about my $60 buy, this trunk is in rough shape but what wouldn't be if it's over 100 years old?  So I did a little research with the patents that are on the hardware of the trunk and most of these trunks were made between the late 1800's to the early 1900's.

This trunk had an old receipt stuck in the bottom slats of the trunk that was from a dry goods store in Missouri that was stamp dated paid in April of 1909.  It also has the name, of whom I'm guessing was a former owner of the trunk, Mrs. Susie A Johnston.

Originally I thought I was going to redo this whole thing...until I got it out to my car and realized that most of it is tin plating on the outside.  I definitely have to replace the bottom and take off some old scrap metal that looked to be used to repair the bottom of the trunk.  The sides did have leather straps to be able to carry the trunk but they are broken.  The inside also is supposed to have this victorian picture on the top, that's half missing, and there's supposed to be this tray that sits on the bottom part of the trunk that's missing too.  It's lined with some type of paper that's coming off.  I also need to fix the side hinge otherwise the top of the trunk could fall backwards.

I got this trunk to store my blankets in, my mom had one in our living room growing up and since then I've always wanted one of my own.  Her's was definitely newer but I'm still in love with the one I got.  I think it will be going in my bedroom though ;)  Just wanted to share, wish me luck on the semi-restoration process.

There was another gentleman who restored a similar trunk, I'm not going that far into the restoration process but he did a great job,  If you want to check it out his blog is: johnmarkpower.blogspot.com

Well, it's been a couple months since I got the dome top trunk.  For my birthday, my dad got me cedar planks to line the inside of the trunk so I can use it for blanket storage.  I'm so excited to take this home!  He's doing an amazing job getting everything installed.  I'm one spoiled girl!

November update:

My dad brought back some old horse reigns (I think that's what they are) from my cousins house.  They are leather and stiff as a board.  I used this leather treatment spray and most of it has become more flexible...but this will be perfect to replace the broken straps on the trunk.

Here's one of the sides before

And after

Looks much better