Lucas's Name Rack

One of the most rewarding things we get to do is make a piece for a good friend.  Especially when that friend just had a beautiful baby boy.

I wanted to create something original but at the same time, practical.  After trying to find inspiration online, I was striking out.  I knew I wanted to do something with his name on it but not your typical baby gift.

Just around this time I had come into some great pallet wood.  There was one piece in particular that stood out.  I am all about making things even and neat (it’s just me…I am OCD like that), but nothing about this piece had those features which was intriguing to me.

I think the fact that it isn't symmetrical is one of its greatest attributes, especially for this project.  It had such great character.

I started by sanding down the piece to ensure there were no splinters, especially since this is for a baby and may likely be put in his room.

Next, I put on a pre-stain conditioner and let it set for 24 hours.  When I returned the following day, the conditioner had really brought out the texture in the the wood.

I sanded it down, once again, to remove any fibers that were lifted from the conditioner and then applied a natural stain.  I wanted to keep the original look of the wood as much as possible.

At this point, I still didn't have a vision for the final product but then again, I usually never do. My vision usually develops and changes as the project does.

What helped me with this project was thinking of what I wish my 2 year old son would have.  Since Avery has made a pastime of throwing his coat, clothes and basically everything else on the floor, a clothing/coat rack could be a nice thing to have.

I choose the simple font of the letters because I didn't the attention to be taken away from the interesting detail of the wood. You can pick them up from Michael's, or any other craft store. OK, now I was seeing the project start to come together!

I wanted the letters to stand out from the board a bit to create a more three dimensional look.  The other important thing was that this piece needed a touch of color.  Not much but enough to add some vibrancy and life to a piece with otherwise neutral, and mostly natural wood, colors.  Adding the blue and pallet blocks served both purposes.

To finish off the piece, I added D-hooks to the back for easy wall hanging and hooks beneath each letter so Lucas can hang jackets and baseball caps in the future.

We are now offering this piece on our Etsy shop and can be customized in a ton of ways!

Our Week In Review

a few pictures from this past week including a trip to Ben & Jerry's, visiting daddy at work, our 4th wedding anniversary, Mema and Pop-Pop babysitting for the weekend, sleeping past 6am, Avery going to temple for the first time, staining a dining room table, making a towel rack, mod podging Avery's stool and putting my brother to work sanding a Jenga.

Transformation Tuesday: Coffee Table

I found this coffee table at a church tag sale in our town covered by a huge pile of hand-me-down clothes they had on sale.  Protruding from underneath the garment heap were those beautiful wooden legs (insert Pirate joke here).  This sale turned into a gold mine as I scooped up a side table for my living room and a dresser for the guest room as well.

My original idea was to paint the table all black for a chic, clean look.  I wiped the table with a cloth and got down to it. I used Paint Minerals and mixed in some black paint I had left over from our front door project (more on that at another time). It was really easy to mix - All that was needed was to  add the ingredients to a mason jar and shake it for a few minutes until it exhibited a smooth consistency.

After all that paint and a little bit of distressing, this is what the table looked like. Not at all what I had envisioned. It was neither sleek or distressed enough and I wasn't feeling the black, but hey, that's what refurb and DIY is all about right?  Trial and error.

Back to drawing board I went. Since there was a layer of paint on top of a thick layer of poly, I used the lowest grit sandpaper I had in my garage. 60 worked well and within an hour and a half, the top was clean and back to it's beautiful raw state.

This table had beautiful grain and knots that needed to be shown off. I already had Minwax Walnut stain sitting in the garage which was leftover from out dining room table.  I loved how it made the grain pop.  After the stain dried overnight, I lightly sanded down the legs with 220 grit to give it a distressed look.

 A little wax to seal it all and voila! 

This guy is up on the Etsy page for sale!

Transformation Tuesday: The Blue Dresser

I picked up this sad little guy at the same church sale as the coffee table. I was immediately drawn to the vintage detail - the shape of the top, the brass key slots and the little brass casters. I wanted to do something special with this piece so I turned to Miss Mustard Seed to help with inspiration and to pick a dynamic color.

My first step was to sand the thick coat of poly off the top. It was a little tricky due to the ridges on the edges but I was eventually able to clean everything off. I stained the top with Minwax Walnut and sealed with soft wax. For the paint, I used an old blender to mix but still found that it was challenging to get the consistency I wanted. Once I accomplished a non-chunky, non-watery consistency, I painted the frame and drawers with the first coat. The color I used is called Flow Blue.

After the first coat there were still a lot of spots that didn't have enough coverage, in my opinion, so I went over it with another coat. I am so glad I did because I love how the color deepened when I added the second coat. 

Once everything dried, I used a putty knife to scrape off the the cracked paint then 220 grit sandpaper to smooth and distress. I finished sanding when I felt the piece was distressed enough and then finished with  Miss Mustard Seed's soft wax. I was amazed at how smooth it felt!

I can't wait to add these beauties and some new casters to the bottom!

What do you think?