Feathering My Nest...: January 2013

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Dismantling a Pallet...

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I was very excited starting out… I dragged two pallets to the basement after dropping Chris at work for the day… our Saturday Italian Supermarket pizza plans quashed and my new DIY plans now in place…

...now after hammering and smashing… splintering and nail pulling I sit here snuggling with Ollie feeling defeated… turns out ripping one of these bad boys apart is a little harder than I anticipated!.. Don't get me wrong… you can do it… but start out well armed!.. hammer… rubber mallet… thick pants… ear plugs… I had all but the ear plugs… and I was wearing lulu leggings so I got a few big splinters…

Here are the two beauties that I started out with…

…weapons of choice...

I say I feel defeated mostly because it took a lot out of me to get the pallets apart… I did get a nice number of boards from the large one… the smaller one I still have some more work to do to get it all apart… halfway through I figured out that instead of pulling on a hammer to yank out nails that hitting the hammer handle with the rubber mallet works quite well ;)

Quite a number of boards were partially split when I'd started so those ones came apart completely… see that stack of rubble in the middle… yeah that also lead to the defeated feeling… I was hoping to get more full boards… at first I just tackled the pallet with a chisel and hammer… then I googled and found this video: How To Video

It's a different type of pallet than the ones I had to take apart but the process is basically the same... start at the bottom and bang the edge off!.. things went more smoothly after that…

I will grab another pallet when I pickup Chris from work… as you can see I've begun to mark out boards to cut up for a project that I want to make… only I've enough board for one of two circles that I need…

…for now… I'm taking a break after pulling these pallets apart and I'm getting some snuggles from Ollie… and I'ma make some cinnamon sugar toast… Mmm… comfort toast…

Don't get me wrong… I'm not unexcited now… I just wish it was a little easier and less time consuming!.. there's my lack of patience shining through… I just want to be working on the project that I'm ripping these pallets apart for!.. Stay tuned!.. it's a gooder!..

Do you have any pallet dismantling tips?

Lacey

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Wooden Labelled Organizer...

Feathering My Nest has moved!... come check all of this out over at www.featheringmynest.ca/blog

So… I was laying in bed the other night… scrolling through Pinterest on my phone when I found a neat little cubby organizer… I clicked on the picture to check out the source… the source was a sweet little website tutorial!.. SCORE!.. The next morning Pickle and I got up and headed to Home Depot to pickup supplies so that I could make this beauty!..

Check out this amazing website ChalkBoard {Blue} for the tutorial… materials list… cut list… great instructions…

It took longer to finish the wood than it did to prep all of the cuts and to nail the thing together!..

Broke out the measuring tape and square!.. got serious on this bad boy…

Pickly helped me with cutting the thin strips of plywood… I did all of the mitre saw chopping… and Chris helped me to secure the last board to ensure that everything was lined up!..

I'm so stoked on this!.. I can't wait to make another… I think the next one will have a solid colour paint job… I love the weathered barn board look but it took so long to paint and sand and distress and stain!.. :P

OH!.. These label holders!?… they came from Staples… We tried two Michaels and they had nothing… we went into Staples on a whim Pickle found these Martha Stewart Stick on Label Holders!… he knows what I like!…

Seriously… this was a dream to make!… really a one day project if you're going with some solid coloured wood!… if you're going with any sort of faux finish or specialty finish then the wood prep will take longer and you should probably do this project over two days… I'm so stiff and sore and a little bruised at the moment!… I was working on the floor in the basement!… hahaha… but it was worth it!…

Lacey

This is too good not to link party!

Small Projects…

Feathering My Nest has moved!... come check all of this out over at www.featheringmynest.ca/blog

Hey!.. How've you been?.. how's your January going?.. I've tackled a few projects… Finally finished the kitchen chairs… only the paint is too stark white… I need it to be more cream… So I'm going repaint them… again…

I tried out Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint… It's neat!.. I'd been using the Annie Sloan Chalk paint before this but Lauren Lane just started carrying the Milk Paint and they're stopping carrying the Annie Sloan and Van Gogh Chalk Paints… I really like the Annie Sloan… It has amazing coverage and sands like a dream… I need to see the Milk Paint's coverage on some prefinished furniture!..

I picked up this wooden Ikea step stool this past summer at a garage sale… and it has just been raw wood ever since…

I needed a test project for the Milk Paint and Pickle suggested our unfinished step stool!.. He's always got awesome ideas and suggestions…

I didn't make it chippy… but more just worn looking… it's very farmhouse now...

While I was working on the kitchen chairs I threw a couple of coats of Kilz on this folding tray… it was in rough shape… I think a couple more coats of kilz and then the last little bit of the cream Annie Sloan cream that I have left…

I might chip through the paint layers to show through to some of the gold underneath… I did leave a gold square on the back unpainted… it is a very pretty gold...

Actually… instead of cream I think I'm just going to paint it a crisp white… then I'll give it a few layers of oil to give it a nice shine...

Old nasty table that I found on Kijiji…. the top was too damaged on this one to restain like the one that I refinished for the front living room…

So… I sanded down all of the water damaged areas so that those areas were now flush with the rest of the table top… then a few layers of Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue… a little sanding… and a little oiling and it was done!..

This same night I was struck with the need to start ANOTHER project… Burlap potato sacks… old seagrass footstool… batting and and old sheet...

New footstool for our living room!… It was pretty basic… I ironed out the potato sacks because they were rather wrinkled up… I wasn't sure if there was anything on them that would ruin my iron or ironing board cover so I placed an old sheet above and below and ironed away…

I measured out the top and sides… cut out squares of burlap with a little bit of seam allowance… and I also cut out a fabric square from the old sheet for each burlap square… I sewed these together to help the burlap squares keep their shape… It's not a tight fitting cover… it's a little loose which suits the burlap… before pulling it on I wrapped the old seagrass footstool in some batting… stapled it down and then pulled the cover down over it… some staples around the bottom and BAM!.. new footstool for the house ;)

I think I might try the larger seagrass chest next…

…I hosted Bunco at Le Chateaux Pickle the other night… and a few of my bowls were empty since packing away the Christmas Decorations… so I busted out the paper shredder and some old books… paper filler!… I also twirled some paper around my finger and tied it together with another shredded piece… they kinda look like little paper eggs…

…and we picked up some coloured chalk… look out house chalkboards!..

I'm fired up and ready to get more projects finished!.. the hunt begins for new treasures to refinish!.. do you have any exciting project plans in the works!?...

Lacey

Link Party Time!

Coastal Charm Savvy Southern Style The Shabby Creek Cottage