Two weeks ago I was super stressed out with everything left to do, and two business trips looming ahead for Brent and I, and all the mistakes at the house... so mom offered to take the kids for a sleepover so I could make progress with several consecutive hours of JUST working on stuff. I try to get some of these things done during the week, but I get a few minutes here and there and it's difficult to make real headway like that.
I went to Home Depot the night before to pick up all the lumber and hardware for our first project. I meant to take a photo of my shopping cart there because, I cannot lie, it was awesome. I know most suburban moms don't hang out by themselves at Home Depot on friday nights, but I'm a special breed I guess. Nothing like fresh wood, already cut to the sizes I need, and the promise of a full 24 hours to work on house projects. :) And the guy who cut all the lumber for me was great! Perfect cuts and super helpful.
So, they picked up the kids at 830am two Saturdays ago, and Brent and Igot right to work hit Starbucks and THEN got right to work!
The first project was the nugget's headboard. Sure, it would have been a lot easier to just buy a headboard locally or even online. But his bed is going on a very large, and very tall wall that's going to be painted navy blue, so I wanted the headboard to be tall, like 6' tall. It's not easy to find a simple wood 6' tall headboard in a full size. Although I never would have thought to put white furniture in a boy's room in the past, I can't imagine anything but white for this headboard to contrast against the navy.
Planning is key, as is proper setting of expectations. We were not going for perfection. We were going for charming DIY. :)
Supplies:
1. 4x4 fir posts cut to 6' length (qty -2)
2. 2x6x12 cut to 4' (qty -3)
3. 1/4x4x8 plywood sheet cut in half (4x4)
4. 4x8 beadboard panel cut in half (4x4)
5. 1x4 board cut to 4' (qty - 1)
6. 6" hex screws with built-in washers (qty -12)
7. I also picked up a 1/2" counter-sink drill bit for the 3/8" head hex screws
Then it's just a matter of drilling the counter-sink holes and piecing it all together! Custom, exactly what I wanted, and total cost was about $140.
This photo was taken before we screwed on the decorative finials.
Then it was just a matter of caulking, priming and painting! And here is the finished headboard! It is soooooooo heavy! I just got around to painting it this weekend because the day we built it was very damp out and I wanted to let the wood fully dry out inside first. I apologize for the terrible quality photo - no beauty shot here! It wasn't dry enough to move until after the kids went to bed and by then, the lighting was terrible.
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Looks fine but will look great against those navy walls!
So, we finished building the headboard before lunchtime. Check! Then we went out to get some lunch and decided to keep the woodworking thing going. We stopped at Home Depot and picked up some more wood to make a small rustic bench for our little foyer. Again, I would have bought one, but I wanted it no deeper than 12" to avoid bulking up a fairly small foyer with a gigantic door swing. This time, our Home Depot helper was not particularly interested in his lumber cutting assignment that day. Unlike my experience the night before, retired Bob insisted their cutting services were only made available customers to help get lumber into your vehicle. It's not nice to tell fibs Bob. Bob's lackluster measuring and cutting job set us back some time on accounting for 4 different length legs, but we got 'er done.
Oh Bob... that's about 3/16 off there buddy!
Sorry - I didn't photograph this one as much. Here it is mostly built. I had to stop because counter sinking the screw split one of the boards so I had to glue and clamp it. So we called our woodworking done for the day and then took showers and went out on a real date, sort of. We had dinner and were going to see a movie but neither of us thought we'd make it through with a 10pm showtime and just came home. I finished attaching the boards in the morning.
As you can see, we were going for a very rustic look here with alternating 4" and 6" width boards and the chunky posts for legs. Before I started staining and painting, I beat it up with some chain leftover from our light fixtures up at the house, then scratching along the grain with one of the leftover hex screws. Some hammer marks along the edges of the legs etc. I knew finishing it would be a work in progress until I finally just decided it was done. :) With that in mind, I started with some ebony stain as the base.
I hope the purists don't freak out, because I know some of you are thinking - oh that's a nice rustic little bench at this stage! But next I randomly slapped on some mint green leftover chalk paint and some leftover deep purple chalk paint from previous projects. :)
Then I sanded that down to reveal some of the stained finish underneath.
At this point there was too much color and not enough stain coming through, but sanding was taking the stain right off. So I tried something else, and apologies I don't have photos of the next few steps!
First I tried a cream color wash that just lightened the whole bench too much and looked pastel. ick. So I sanded that down a bit, which was nice as it left just a bit of white behind. Then I dabbed some black paint into all the nicks, dents, scratches, and rough areas and sanded that back. I was left with something mostly right except I had more bare wood showing than I wanted. So I applied some "weathered oak" minwax stain just to the bare wood spots to dull the contrast and warm it up. One final sanding to tone down all the colors one last time and it reached the point where I decided she was done. :)
Two projects down, two billion to go! This week I hope to get to the living room curtain panels or staining the pallet boards for our headboard wall, or both! Wish me luck as Brent is traveling!
Stay tuned!
I went to Home Depot the night before to pick up all the lumber and hardware for our first project. I meant to take a photo of my shopping cart there because, I cannot lie, it was awesome. I know most suburban moms don't hang out by themselves at Home Depot on friday nights, but I'm a special breed I guess. Nothing like fresh wood, already cut to the sizes I need, and the promise of a full 24 hours to work on house projects. :) And the guy who cut all the lumber for me was great! Perfect cuts and super helpful.
So, they picked up the kids at 830am two Saturdays ago, and Brent and I
The first project was the nugget's headboard. Sure, it would have been a lot easier to just buy a headboard locally or even online. But his bed is going on a very large, and very tall wall that's going to be painted navy blue, so I wanted the headboard to be tall, like 6' tall. It's not easy to find a simple wood 6' tall headboard in a full size. Although I never would have thought to put white furniture in a boy's room in the past, I can't imagine anything but white for this headboard to contrast against the navy.
Planning is key, as is proper setting of expectations. We were not going for perfection. We were going for charming DIY. :)
Supplies:
1. 4x4 fir posts cut to 6' length (qty -2)
2. 2x6x12 cut to 4' (qty -3)
3. 1/4x4x8 plywood sheet cut in half (4x4)
4. 4x8 beadboard panel cut in half (4x4)
5. 1x4 board cut to 4' (qty - 1)
6. 6" hex screws with built-in washers (qty -12)
7. I also picked up a 1/2" counter-sink drill bit for the 3/8" head hex screws
Then it's just a matter of drilling the counter-sink holes and piecing it all together! Custom, exactly what I wanted, and total cost was about $140.
 |
| Since we had 2 identical sheets of plywood we decided to use both for extra strength. Notice the big glue heart in the middle? That's a nod to my nugget because whenever he has anything to eat involving ketchup or bbq sauce, I put it on his plate in the shape of a heart "because I love you." This headboard was truly made with love! |
This photo was taken before we screwed on the decorative finials.
Then it was just a matter of caulking, priming and painting! And here is the finished headboard! It is soooooooo heavy! I just got around to painting it this weekend because the day we built it was very damp out and I wanted to let the wood fully dry out inside first. I apologize for the terrible quality photo - no beauty shot here! It wasn't dry enough to move until after the kids went to bed and by then, the lighting was terrible.
Looks fine but will look great against those navy walls!
So, we finished building the headboard before lunchtime. Check! Then we went out to get some lunch and decided to keep the woodworking thing going. We stopped at Home Depot and picked up some more wood to make a small rustic bench for our little foyer. Again, I would have bought one, but I wanted it no deeper than 12" to avoid bulking up a fairly small foyer with a gigantic door swing. This time, our Home Depot helper was not particularly interested in his lumber cutting assignment that day. Unlike my experience the night before, retired Bob insisted their cutting services were only made available customers to help get lumber into your vehicle. It's not nice to tell fibs Bob. Bob's lackluster measuring and cutting job set us back some time on accounting for 4 different length legs, but we got 'er done.
Oh Bob... that's about 3/16 off there buddy!
Sorry - I didn't photograph this one as much. Here it is mostly built. I had to stop because counter sinking the screw split one of the boards so I had to glue and clamp it. So we called our woodworking done for the day and then took showers and went out on a real date, sort of. We had dinner and were going to see a movie but neither of us thought we'd make it through with a 10pm showtime and just came home. I finished attaching the boards in the morning.
As you can see, we were going for a very rustic look here with alternating 4" and 6" width boards and the chunky posts for legs. Before I started staining and painting, I beat it up with some chain leftover from our light fixtures up at the house, then scratching along the grain with one of the leftover hex screws. Some hammer marks along the edges of the legs etc. I knew finishing it would be a work in progress until I finally just decided it was done. :) With that in mind, I started with some ebony stain as the base.
I hope the purists don't freak out, because I know some of you are thinking - oh that's a nice rustic little bench at this stage! But next I randomly slapped on some mint green leftover chalk paint and some leftover deep purple chalk paint from previous projects. :)
Then I sanded that down to reveal some of the stained finish underneath.
At this point there was too much color and not enough stain coming through, but sanding was taking the stain right off. So I tried something else, and apologies I don't have photos of the next few steps!
First I tried a cream color wash that just lightened the whole bench too much and looked pastel. ick. So I sanded that down a bit, which was nice as it left just a bit of white behind. Then I dabbed some black paint into all the nicks, dents, scratches, and rough areas and sanded that back. I was left with something mostly right except I had more bare wood showing than I wanted. So I applied some "weathered oak" minwax stain just to the bare wood spots to dull the contrast and warm it up. One final sanding to tone down all the colors one last time and it reached the point where I decided she was done. :)
Two projects down, two billion to go! This week I hope to get to the living room curtain panels or staining the pallet boards for our headboard wall, or both! Wish me luck as Brent is traveling!
Stay tuned!
Headboard looks great! And love white furniture in kids' rooms, totally gender neutral.
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