During the night Remodelaholic posted a feature I wrote just for them that I haven’t shared here.
Check it out at this link: Remodelaholic
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Have a wonderful day.
Karen
A Bench From Bits and Parts
February 19, 2015
Behr Paint with Primer, Country Style, Lake Livingston, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, Repurposed Furniture, rescuing damaged furniture bed into bench, cleaning out the garage, trash to treasure 2 Comments
Well operation trash to treasure went well this weekend. A year ago I bought four sets of headboards/ footboards for $12.00. One of them ended up on my front porch. One ended up as a gift for a friend.
The one that ended up being mine is partially assembled here. The others are in the background.
The last two have been hanging around the garage ever since. The double bed one was a mid century teak veneer headboard that had a broken leg and the twin set was mostly that not real wood, you know the stuff…sawdust and glue with contact paper on top covering it all, except the four bedposts which were cannon ball style solid wood spindles. It was the grossest piece of junk in the garage. Mold was even growing on the swollen wood like substance. Mr. Math has seriously asked to get rid of that particular set more than any other piece in the garage. I just kept thinking inspiration would strike.
Finally, it came to me…marry the best of both sets to make one bench.
The bench is going on our lake house front porch . It is going to be a functional seat to put on or take off shoes. No bells, no whistles, no arms… Just painted wood with stained slats for seats.
I came up with the idea of using the bed posts in the moldy set upside down as the legs of the mid century set. The curvy legs add to the straight lines and cutting the footboard in half horizontally allowed more of them to show.
I decided to do slats for two reasons; I like the way the stained slats look and leaving little gaps between them will allow for rain and dirt to fall through. Here they are all cut, sanded and ready for stain. Minwax Jacobean stain is my go-to stain for a dark color.
After staining this collection of mismatched boards from the scrap pile looks more uniform.
If you know me, then you know the steps to getting paint on a piece. Sand the flat places, use liquid deglosser on the curves and gooves, prime it all with Zinser primer.
I feel like I say this a lot lately but seriously, the weather is just not my friend right now. Here are photos of the 90% completed bench. I SOOOO very much wanted it to be out on the porch when the realtor showed up, but alas, no luck with the weather allowing me to finish.
Here are the photos of the bench all put together. There are two boards that need painting and it needs a good coat of Poly before going on the porch. This bench out of bits and parts will probably end up being one the most used benches we own. I am going to make rolling crated to go under it for shoes.
I would love hearing from you.
Have a great day,
Karen
Welcome to Our Little Corner of the World
February 13, 2015
Blogging, mid-life, Painted Furniture, reclaimed wood, Repurposed Furniture, The Garagemahal blogging 7 Comments
If you are new to The Weekend Country Girl, Welcome! If you are one of my long-time friends, please indulge me as I introduce myself to the newcomers. My blog has literally doubled in readership over the last month.
My name is Karen and I am not a professional blogger or furniture repurposer. This blog and my projects are my hobby. I am a professional educator in a suburb of Houston. I am a high school principal who loves her job, works crazy hours, and has a lot of stress in her daily life. On the weekends, and any other chance I get, I head to the small town of Coldspring, where I wear sweat pants, go thrift store shopping, and work out in the Garagemahal. I am a happy chick when I am covered in paint or sawdust on the weekend. Come visit if you ever in the area. For real.
I am happily married to the love of my life, Mr. Math, who is a small town farm boy from Troy, Texas. We have been married for 33 years and have two great kids. I am lucky enough that both of my parents are still with us and active.
Both kids are married to wonderful spouses and live a long way from us. We miss all four of them terribly.
We also have a rescue dog named Lumi. She keeps me humble and reminds me that I am not in charge of the world.
If this photo looks like a school yearbook photo, that is because it is! Does it take you back to high school?
Here we are in the first ever selfie I took of us. It was on our Christmas cruise this year.
If you are new to my site it is probably because of my recent post about a corrugated tin wall on Remodleaholic, or the Facebook post on their site about our super simple buffet table for the deck, or because of my mudroom bench. That bench has been my most popular post, ever. Whatever the reason, I am thrilled to have you here.
I started blogging as a way to show my friends and family what we were up to at our little cabin in the piney woods near Lake Livingston. We are both cheapskates frugalistas who would rather figure out how to do something ourselves than pay someone a crazy amount of money to do the work for us. Buying a second home eight years ago was a stretch for us financially so we really had to figure out how to furnish a home on the cheap. I never envisioned that my blog would be read by anyone who did not know me personally, in fact, I remember when I had my first post with 50 page views. Man, I thought I was something else.
Along the way I have learned a few things about blogging (okay, not so much here), design, and how to re-imagine furniture but who I am has not changed. This site is still just a hobby and way to show my friends what we are up to and to get input. ( I really do want your input when I ask for opinions. )
Beverage station from sewing cabinet.
Bench from headboard and footboard.
Buffet table from dining table legs and re-claimed wood.
I make mistakes, I am a terrible photographer who can’t take a good shot indoors to this day, I have a hot temper that gets me in trouble more than I like and I get my feelings hurt when people are mean.
I love a variety of styles, I like mixing painted wood with stain. I think every room should have one piece of furniture or accent that makes folks smile when they walk in the room.
We are hoping and praying right now that we can sell our beloved Star Hill so that we can buy 15 acres in Coldspring with several buildings that will be our retirement home. I hope you follow along on our journey into mid-life and beyond.
Thanks for finding this blog and welcome to our little corner of the world.
Blessings,
Karen
Trash to Serving Tray
February 11, 2015
Behr Paint with Primer, crafting, reclaimed wood 1 Comment
I am going to apologize that the finished tray picture is not as awesome as the finished tray is. It was a mad rush to get finished Sunday. I will add a better photo after this weekend.
Every week until I get the Garagemahal cleared I am going to be doing a quick project that only uses items in my stash of bits, parts, and scrap wood I call “the hoard”. Most of the things there are items my husband would love to throw away.
Today the project uses a plywood scrap, a 1X2 scrap, and some hardware I have collected over the years from either projects that I repurposed, were given to me, or I bought at garage sales and thrift stores.
I love the look of trays on coffee tables and we use a ton for carrying things from the kitchen to the deck.
A quick search of Pinterest had a bunch of good ideas for making trays like:
Here are a lot of ideas in one spot.
The steps for this crafty project at super simple. Take a piece of plywood, a cabinet door, or even a wide board and cut it to a length you like for a tray.
Attach 1X2 around the edge. I attached it with glue and the air nailer.
Sand it all down so that it is smooth and fill any holes ( like where the nails went in) and I even used a thin coat of wood filler along the edge of the plywood to make it more smooth. a quick sand made it feel better along the edges.
Prime and paint. This tray is a gift and I knew my friend wanted it to be my favorite creamy white, Behr Sea Salt.
I had this vintage brass hardware that was given to me. My friend loved it when she saw it a while back so I am happy to pass it along.
My husband told me about these amazing things. They allow you to screw knobs directly into wood. They are now a staple in my tool kit.
I attached four brass knobs to the bottom as feet. I like the way they raise the tray and make it feel a little lighter.
Here is the finished project.
I really like the look. I like it so much that i am making myself one, too. Mine is going to be Behr Red, Red Wine. It is going to to have some of my favorite 1970’s drawer pulls. I need knobs for feet and longer bolts so I can finish mine.
This is a cheap, easy way to get a tray that matches your personal style.
The hoard is thinning out and I am enjoying stretching myself.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate you more than I say.
Blessings,
Karen
Pallet Buffet Table
February 9, 2015
Country Style, reclaimed wood, Star Hill repurposed wood 11 Comments
We have a great back deck at Star Hill, our near the lake house. It is a great place to have friends over and is our main hang out area in the spring.
In order to serve food on the back deck we have used card tables, folding tables, and even tv trays. We are getting ready to paint the deck with a wood restore product and got everything power washed. While waiting for the deck to dry out and the temperature to rise enough that we can apply the paint we built a buffet for serving food and drinks. We also have this ugly pipe that bugs me. The buffet is going to mask the ugliness.
My friend Mary, from SJ Ranch offered me some pallets last week. These pallets are what the cattle feed comes on and they were stacked in the barn. I love being given materials to use. I honestly did not expect to get pallets out in the country.
Full disclosure here. I did not think this up, the idea came from this site:
Why yes, I did notice it was mostly not in English and yes I noticed that there were no instructions. That is what I have Mr. Math for. He is the best at figuring out what I want when I can’t explain it very well. We did have the picture to look at:
We studied the photo then… as usual, we modified it to make it work for us. I love the look, the durability and the functionality for a back deck that is exposed to the elements.
We laid out the pavers then started figuring out the dimensions.
The three pallets we got were not uniform in size. We found two that were less than an inch apart in height and about an inch different in width. Mr. Math cut the larger down to the size of the smaller one. ( Honestly I think I would have just made them work together but it would have driven him crazy.) Once we looked at the pallets, we decided that the best way to place them for our deck was with the slats going vertically instead of horizontally like in the picture above. The buffet is 40 inches tall and 47 inches wide. We used deck boards that were too rough to keep on the deck to wrap around the top and bottom of the pallets.
The deck boards added some stability to the structure and gave it additional weight. Once the deck is painted, we will be putting a few screws through the bottom into the deck just to make sure that it never falls over on anyone. There may have been some rough housing from time to time at our house If I were going to be putting the buffet on the ground I would put some sort of stake into the ground just to make sure it stays upright.
I plan on staining the narrow boards and painting the deck boards once we get the deck finished. A good coat of marine varnish will help it to last.
Here it is finished except the painting.
This is going to be a welcome addition to our deck.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. If you are new to my blog, welcome. If you are an old friend, thank you for hanging in there with me.
Blessings,
Karen
Updating A Ranch Home
February 8, 2015
Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, curb appeal, gray, land scapimg, new home, San Jacinto county painted brick, updating an exterior 8 Comments
Here is what the home we are looking to buy currently looks like on the exterior.
Okay, be honest, what are your thoughts when you see it?
What I see is brick that is not a pleasing color, an undersized porch that by the way is not functional, the door is sheet rocked over inside. True story, A porch to nowhere.
If and when we are able to purchase the home the following will be part of the three year plan for the home update.
Add a long metal porch. Look at the porch added to this home on Fixer Upper (Click Here to See all the photos from the episode). We will be adding cedar posts with rock bases the length of the porch.
Before
After ( Do you see the porch addition and the painted brick? Look past the French country because that is not my style.)
I love this porch roof from Gem Homes. I like how it attaches to the shingled roof.
We also want to make the gable the appropriate size to match the scale of the house and add a walkway with a new door. Oh, and make the door functional.
We will paint the brick. Yep, paint that brick. I have done the research and feel confident that we can correctly paint the brick so that it lasts as long as any other painted surface. The reaction I get when I mention painting brick is a little funny to me. Painted brick is not something new. Most brick from before 1870 was painted because it sealed the porous surface and extended the life of the brick.
My daughter and son in law live in a painted brick home that I think is stunning.
I wish, wish, wish I had the software and skills to redo this home virtually, but I already see it in my head. White trim and a darker gray tone paint, shutters, and posts out of cedar, with a metal roof and a carport at the end of the home that is part of the roof line, not a $600 pre-fab job.
I am hoping it will look something like this:
It will make me smile every time I drive up if this happens.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the color I should use.
Blessings,
Karen
Remodelaholic Feature
February 7, 2015
Look who is being featured on Remodelaholic! This girl.
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2015/02/diy-corrugated-tin-wall-tutorial/
Making a Twiggy Large Letter
February 6, 2015
crafting, rustic adding texture, glue gun, twig letter 2 Comments
I have to plan better next winter. I need some small projects to do in the house while waiting for it to get warm enough for me to head into the Garagemahal, or if all goes well, our new, yet to be named, workshop.
This year I have had a few projects going, but not enough to keep me from being bored.
A lot of searching Pinterest gave me some ideas for quick ideas to keep me busy.
The first was a twiggy letter “S” that got done this weekend. It is an easy project that requires few supplies; a glue gun, large wooden letter, wood stain, garden limb cutters, lots of sticks, and lots of glue sticks.
I bought a large wooden letter at Hobby Lobby 40% off and stained it with walnut stain so it looks a little aged.
To gather twigs at the lake house meant going out to the burn pile and saving some from being burned. The trick is to get the twigs as straight as possible and a consistent size.
Lots and lots of patience are also a requirement for this project.
The steps are easy. Cut the twigs to fit and glue them down.
I love the rustic textural quality of the finished product.
Craft Night
February 5, 2015
Coldspring, Country living, crafting, DIY Art, Fun with friends burlap, collage, craft night, using corks Leave a comment
In our adopted city, Coldspring, Texas, I am lucky enough to have met a group of ladies who want to hang out once a month and do something crafty. The rules are simple; each person has to take a month, plan the craft, provide the space, a shopping list for those coming, and the basic supplies.
The social planner, Tanis, had this month at her beautiful home. She planned a collage project and collected a bunch of supplies to make the collages with. Everyone had to bring a frame. No rules about size, color, shape, or design.
I made filled my 8X 10 Goodwill frame with Texas winery wine corks that the social planner had access to and was willing to share.
Burlap, scrabble tiles and a key gave the frame the look I was going for.
We used glue guns, E 6000, and spray adhesive depending on the material we wanted to attach.
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We laughed, worked, burned our fingers, and came up with some pretty cool frames.
All eight turned out differently and each is special. I love the diversity.
I also love the fact that these ladies have welcomed me to their group.
I hope you are taking the time to do something creative for yourself this week.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog I appreciate you all more than you will know.
Blessings,
Karen
Making a Standing Chalkboard
February 4, 2015
Chalkboard DIY, Coldspring, Country Style, Curbside rescue, reclaimed wood, recycled furniture, The Garagemahal trash to treasure 6 Comments
We are clearing out the Garagemahal as we prepare to put our beloved Star Hill on the market. I am getting pressure from Mr. Math to get rid of the hoard. My collection of odd bits and parts, Doo dads, rusty metal, and miscellaneous hardware needs a new home. Mr. Math would be fine with the new home being the trash.
Not this girl.
Saturday morning I stood in the hoard and started looking at what I had to work with. I decided to make a standing chalkboard/ message board. (They need a better name and I am open for suggestions.) In fact while I was at it, I figured I may as well make six of them for the ladies at craft night.
I pulled out a set ls spindles from a table the social planner and I got off the road one day. It was a wreck when we got it but the spindles were solid wood so I saved them.
I pulled out my stash of hardware. I have quite a collection of odd handles, knobs and bits. Some of them I buy for pennies at thrift stores, garage sales, or ReStore but most come off pieces I redo and change the look.
I had a can of spray chalkboard paint in the cabinet. I have to admit that the spray chalkboard paint is not my favorite, but it works.
I grabbed two sections of 1X12 pine board that were shelves an a section of 1X1 moulding and a 2X6 board for the project.
My sweet husband cut all the spindles down to the same size and then used the drill press to put a hole in the center of each top for a screw to go in.
I played with the parts until I came up with a plan.
I cut the pine board, the 1X1 moulding, and the 2X6 into 6 inch segments each.
The assembly process took both Mr. Math and me working. The steps were to connect the spindle to the 2X6 with wood glue and a screw, then connect the 1X1 to the other end of the spindle with a screw in the center.
Two screws at each end of the 1×1 went into the 1 inch width of the 6 inch section of the 1X12,
A little wood glue, wood filler, and a quick spray of primer unified the four sections.
The whole thing got primed, painted with sea salt, then heavily distressed and glazed.
I then taped off a chalkboard rectangle on each board then spayed them.
While the chalkboards were drying, my friend the social planner helped me pick out some of the hardware and knobs to attach to the pieces.
Do you remember the roadside end table? The handle from that piece made it onto a piece here.
So did some hardware from my windfall.
Once the chalkboard was dry we attached the hardware to each piece and the social planner attached a clip with E6000 in case someone wanted to use it for invitations or photos.
Here they are ready for the party.
The cost of this entire project was what I spent in screws, wood glue and paint. I am estimating I spent $10.00 total in supplies I will have to replenish.
These would be great table numbers at a wedding or on a buffet table Here they are lined up for craft night.
It was nice to see the craft group enjoying their surprise.
When the ladies came in they got to put a tag on their chalkboard. It was fun to see the different ones each chose.
Well, what do you think?
I love hearing from you,
Blessings,
Karen
The Weekend Country Girl 