DIY Master Suite Headboard.....yes, again.

My poor husband must think I'm crazy. I love change. Maybe I'm addicted to it? We've lived in our house for about a year and half now. And our bedroom has changed probably....at least four or five times, and that depends on the degree of change. If you count everything...its probably more like twenty.

Well. A week or so ago. I got one of those visions in my head. Don't you just love them? And I couldn't get it out. I knew I wanted to change up the master bedroom a little. I already painted all my furniture. But my vision was telling me that this change had to be more dramatic.

And so....it starts.

Here's where its at so far. Yep. That would be my 3rd....yes, t.h.i.r.d....headboard in a matter of a year in a half.

But isn't she a beaut???

I followed the same steps when making this headboard as the now 'retired' one I did in this post.
It only took me an hour to upholster once I got the base how I wanted it. don't you just love DIY headboards.....or DIY anything :)
Here's the original headboard....and thus, essentially, the before - before picture of my bedroom:

And making progress with the nightstands:

And after! Voila:

All in all....I think it is a good change.

And of course....I had to make it dramatic. Its 80 inches tall, thats six and half feet!

And faux white leather.

I got the fabric half off, so all together, this baby only cost me $30 to make!

I tufted it simply by aligning 9 points and stapling them with a staple gun.

Then got my hot glue and glued on some bling!

Now for more drama!!! My beautiful tan walls are now going to be colored mocha!

My curtains are coming down, and new ones are going up... and I'll actually have art on the walls! I'm so darn excited!!! ......sorry babe :)

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DIY Planter Boxes

So.

I admit.

I was a little MIA.

For awhile.

But, that's what the summer will do to ya' now huh?

You know another thing summer will to do you?

Make you spend gobs and gobs of money on flowers and plants.

Take my word for it, I know by experience.

So, now with my newly acquired gobs and gobs of flowers and plants (which obviously replaced my gobs of money), I need a place for them now don't I?

*ding*ding*

Problem solved.

Planter boxes!!!

So, I had this great idea (and totally easy by the way) to create a long rectangular planter/window box.

But, my husband didn't just want them to be 'rectangular', so he took over and gave them a little attitude with a nice angled edge.

Which by the way....making these took for.e.e.e.e.e.e.ver.

Like forever as in if we would have stuck with my original plan, it would have been done a week earlier.

Anyway.

Since he did these, I helped a little, but......really,

all I know is that the magic number is 15. (for the angle)

So, a picture speaks a thousand words right?

Well, here you go, cuz I'm not spending the time to explain how to make these :)

We made the longest at 3 feet long, the smaller ones at 2 1/2 feet.

These are made out of cedar planks and secured by cut up pieces of 2x2.

We drilled some holes in the bottom.

Painted and sealed.

And .....a week in a half later.

We finally had our beautiful planter boxes!!!

So. Then we came across a little problem.

How does one hang these newly assembled planter boxes on a railing?

Any ideas??

No?

Well. We batted this back and forth for awhile too.

And came up with this stuff:

Thats right....screen door pulls and felt bars.

(felt bars so it wouldn't scratch up the rails)

See how they work....

Ingenious huh?

I guess we'll see how they stand up to the weather and weight and what not.

Here are our babies now:

We're hoping the flowers on the ends will start cascading over the boxes.

*Cross your fingers* cuz we all know I'm a plant killer.

And my Max buddy helping momma:

I think he's happy with the planter boxes too.

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DIY Candlesticks / Plant stand

Ready to beef up those DIY muscles? What do three pieces of wood equal? A magnificent candle stand, plant stand, do.whatever.you.want.with.it stand.Yep.

Here are the supplies:

8 foot 4x4 of Douglas fir.

however long 2x6 (I think it really measures to 2x5 1/2) of whatever wood

drill

screws

wood filler

wood glue

paint

And if you choose to go with my direction:

Compound Miter Saw

Router/Router table

Alrighty. Now lets get started. I cut the douglas fir into three different lengths with the miter saw. Choose whatever lengths you want. Then cut the 2x6 into 6 squares. These will really have sides of 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 once you're done.

Use the router to decorate the edges of the squares to your liking.

Next. Use a large drill bit to make a hole a quarter of the way down on one of the squares side...this part will be the top and bottom of the stick...so make sure you think that through considering your routed edges.

Now apply the wood glue to the 4x4 and press one of the squares in place and center it. Let it dry.

Do this to the other side.

Now your drilled 'hole' should be visible if you did this right.

Now drill a screw through the hole on both sides. I had to use 2 inch screws for this.

Now fill the hole up with some wood filler

Let dry for a few hours and sand.

These are what you should have come up with:

See. You can't even see the holes anymore if you look reeeeeal close.

Now Paint Those Babies!

(excuse the dog...he wants to be involved in everything)

Okay. Sand the edges to distress them a little bit.I did this pretty much on every single edge.

Then stain the now distressed edges.You can use a furniture fix-it marker for this or real stain.

I did both and can't even tell which one is which.

And there you have it!

I added a stencil on the top to have a little pizazz.

I routed the edges on the bottom of the top square and the top of the bottom square. You can barely see it in the pics...but trust me...they.look.gorg!!

See. You can put whatever you want (and that will fit) on it.

Candles, vases, plants, dog, cats, kids, a cup of milk, some soda....whatever....your dinner.

Hmmm. I guess the possibilities are endless.

Okay. Now for those of you who don't have a router.

Get one.

But....until then.

You can do it this way to add a decorative edge.I just used plywood for these squares.

I cut one at 5x5 and one at 4 1/2 x4 1/2. Wood glued them together. Then used the same technique as above to finish the project.

Looks good eh?

(side note...do these pics look really yellow to you? I have two computer screens and one says yes..and the other says no.)

Anyway. These ones are super tall. like 4 feet I think about. I stenciled all the way up and down.

I think they look like they belong in a cathedral.

I'm not sure why.

Here's the same technique...only smaller...in white.With burlap.And ribbon.

*sigh*

I really have no idea what to put on these. Because...as you all should know by now....I have an OBSESSION with candles. Like I have about 60 candles (very rough estimate) on the first floor of my house alone. I really don't burn these candles...they are just for decoration. Oh....Add 4 more to that...I just remembered where I had more. Anyway. Some of them are burned....some not.

Anyway.

OBSESSION.

So, with these 'candle sticks' I was trying to not put any candles on them. And these were lying around. hmmmm. What do you think?

Alright girls!

Now get crafting!

or...woodworking!

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Hanging Mason Jar Post Tutorial

Y'all remember these mason jars don't ya?

Here's how to make the posts behind them!

You'll need:

1 piece of 2x4

4x4 cut square and a 5x5 cut square per post (I just used plywood and sent it through the table saw, you can also get fence post toppers at the home improvement store. They cost like $7 for the cheapest one at the store by me...so I figure I can get a whole thing of plywood for that amount, ya' know?)

Hooks.

Finials.

Wood glue.

Screws

Drill.

I first cut the 2x4 into different lengths. I think they are like 13 to 17 inches tall.

Next, screw the 4x4 onto the bottom of the 2x4. (In order for it to be flush, I drilled a slightly bigger hole a quarter of the way through the plywood where my screw would be sitting, you'll probably need to do this so the 5x5 will fit snug aka counter sink it)

Would glue the 5x5 onto the 4x4 (make sure the 4x4 is centered, obviously). I let this sit for about a day. I used the clamps on one of the posts, then didn't want to keep trying to clamp the other posts, the ones I didn't clamp came out just as strong as the one I did. So, I would say...no need for clamping in this case. Just let it cure for a little bit.

Next I attached the hooks. I found these brass hooks at 2 per a pack at wally world for about $2.

The silver one was pretty, I found it at home depot for $2 for one. I figured I was going to paint over it, so it didn't really matter how pretty it was, thats why I would  go for the beauuuutiful (cough*cough) brass (and it was cheaper!).

I drew a line about 2 1/2 inches from the top. To make sure the hook was level, I just made sure the lines showed through the holes where the screws would eventually be.

Almost done!

Now, for the finials. I forgot to take a picture of the befores of the finials, but they had a 'tail' (?) that would fit into a drill hole. So, next I drilled a hole! I found a drill bit that was the exact size of the finial tail things. I found the center on the top of the 2x4, and went to town:

Here's the finial after: I found them at hobby lobby. Three of them for a couple of bucks.

You could probably wood glue the finials into the hole, but the fit was so snug I figured it didn't matter.

As you can see, I also painted the hook.

Okay. So I have a confession. I am the queen, as I'm sure all of you are, of spray painting.

That's my first go-to method. But....I decided that it takes far less time and less fumes to just paint straight wood. Like with the whole paint bucket and paint brush deal. Yeah. Spray paint just gets absorbed into the wood to quickly. I only have to do like 2 coats of real paint rather than like 5 coats of spray paint. And that's not even using white. When I spray paint with white. It takes literally days! for me to get the coverage I want when spray painting wood.

So, yes.These were actually painted with nice goopy paint. Even the hooks...which by the way was half near impossible. But I did it!

Here they are holding my hanging mason jars:

I loooove how they turned out! They would totally work holding little holiday or name signs too.

Or, I guess pretty much anything that can hang :)

Happy Creating everyone!!

Update! Here's another way you can hang your mason jars. Click on the picture for the tutorial!

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Easy Mother's Day Gift Idea

Mother's Day is just around the corner!

And by some miracle, I'm not doing this last minute :)

I'm amazed at myself.

Here's one of the gifts I'll be giving to my mom.

This came in under $5. Can't beat that, huh?

Okay. Supplies:

2x4 cut to whatever size you want.

I cut my 'letter' blocks ranging from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches.

The bottom piece is 15 inches.

Multiple pieces of coordinating paper.

Wood cutouts.

Paint for wood.

Flower.

Stain/stamp.

Decoupage medium.

And accessories.

1. Cut wood to size (if not already cut).

2. Paint wood coordinating color of paper, I picked 'Linen'.

3. Cut coordinating paper a smidge bit smaller than the face of the wood blocks.

4. Brush decoupage medium on face of wood block and press piece of paper to block. Let dry.

5. Sand edges of block and paper.

6. Stencil and cut out paper to fit wood letter cutouts. Decoupage paper to letters.

7. Hot glue letters to face of wood blocks.

8. Stain edges of letters and wood blocks: 

9. Accessorize with ribbon, tacks, flowers, etc.

I cut out the bottom letters with my Cricut and decoupaged them onto the bottom piece of wood.

I just cut the stem and wire off of the flower and  hot glued it to the wood block.

 So easy.

This only took a little under 2 hours.

I'm pleased.

I hope she is too :)

I picked the 'quote' on the bottom because it is completely my mom's motto.

She enjoys life to the fullest and loves every minute of it!

Linked to:

Reinvented

A Soft Place To Land

Beyond the Picket Fence

Finding Fabulous

Someday Crafts

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