DIY Projects Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

Coldspring, DIY Projects, JJ Lane, recycled furniture, Thrifty decorating

Recycled Materials Coffee Table

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 Karen

Years ago at our deer camp we found three short hairpin legs in a burn pile. We searched but it seemed there were only three there. Of course I brought them home. I kept thinking I would think of something to do with them. Last year my husband was grading the area that had been the burn pile and found the fourth leg! I will always wonder what the original table looked like but it is clear they came from something mid century.

Recently we cleaned the shop and I ran across them along with some other items and this time I knew what to do with them. I have wanted a coffee table for our front porch.

We have such a nice porch and having a place to put my coffee on and probably my feet too if I’m being honest.

The challenge I set for myself was to use as many items as possible out of my shop to make the table and buy as little as possible.

Ten years ago we made an extra countertop and cabinet for a home my son and his wife were living in. We had planned to make a tile top but at the last minute friend gave me some leftover butcher block that we used instead. We had already made the top out of cement board and plywood with wood trim. Of course I saved that too. I have a problem with saving stuff it seems.

I saw that the cement board piece would make a perfect coffee table top.

I also had leftover white subway tile from our guest house bathroom and another project along with tile adhesive and grout. Some are matte finish and some glossy. We used both randomly.

We were home for a day so my husband and I got everything out, spray painted the legs with rust restorer and spray paint.

I started laying out the tile and could tell it wouldn’t be easy to make the tile look symmetrical. I brought out the big guy (I don’t call him Mr. Math for no reason) to figure it out and even he said it would look funny with the tile I had but he also had a solution.

I had another bowl full of small thin marble tile in the shop that was leftover from our kitchen backsplash. When we laid it all out together it fit perfectly. The marble is slightly thicker than the subway tile but because it is all around the outside edges it works fine.

I thought I was being so smart numbering all the tile with a sharpie after I cut them and laid them out but I learned an important lesson. The Sharpie stained the marble and nothing would get it clean. Even straight acetone so I had to pop all of them up and reapply each tile around the outer edge. The sharpie trick works great on glazed tile, just not natural stone. Lesson learned.

Mr. Math cut a base to go under the tile top to attach the legs to with screws then ground off he part of the screw that came ther the plywood.

He used construction adhesive and screws to connect the two parts. I have no idea why I only took a picture of the legs on top of the tile!

It turned out so cute. I added a plant, an atomic ashtray we found under our rental property when we were working on it, and faux lemons that can’t stay because all my dog sees when she looks that direction is something to chew up. I do have a candle I light when I’m out there without dogs though.

I am crazy about how it turned out and am outside now enjoying the hummingbird war at the feeder with my feet up right now.

While the view is so pretty from our front porch this is closer to reality for me any time I try to sneak out alone.

This was a two afternoon project that cleared out some of my junk and cost close to nothing. Woo hoo!

Happy junking friends,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Coldspring, DIY Projects, Ranch House Overhaul, Space Saving

A Charging Station in the Ranch House

January 2, 2020January 2, 2020 Karen

Hello friends, I promise you won’t be hearing from me every day but this is a project I am really enjoying already and I realized that I haven’t shared with you. Do you have a good place to get all your stuff charged? If you do, I would love to see where and how you charge all of your stuff. Until recently we did not. It stunk. There were some things plugged in on the counter by my stove, some plugged in in our bedroom, and even the bathroom. One thing that I have discovered about an open concept home is that in order to have all that open space, you give some things up. Things like walls to hang art on, hall closets, and other storage areas. I love having a big open room when we are having company. We enjoy the ability to have a pretty large group in our home for meals and entertaining so the trade off is worth it to us most of the time.

Because there isn’t much storage space, we have struggled with a place to charge everything. We have two laptops, an iPad, an Apple watch, two phones, a Bluetooth speaker, and wireless headphones. All of the stuff has different cords and a a tangle of wiring. I hate it. It looks awful and is always in the way. There is just something about seeing a bunch of cords and cables that wears on me. Am I alone in my neuroses? I even had my husband wrap white tap around the foot of cord that connects our television and Dish because it drove me crazy. I started looking for charging station options. (Like these here) but they just wouldn’t work for us. They just aren’t big enough for the two laptops, iPad, phones…

I also do not enjoy things being out on our counter top in our kitchen. It is a constant struggle to keep the counters cleared. Constant. Never ending.

Fortunately we had a weird space in our house that always bugged me. Always. Like since the moment we walked into the house to look at purchasing the home. There was this little niche/shelving/cabinet thing with two bottom cabinet doors, a counter then glass shelves that were adjustable. They were the problem. The peg things were slightly off from each other- like a quarter inch. That meant the shelves were all crooked, and glass, with brass brackets. It was just enough to bug me. I don’t think I have any photos of he offending shelves because I don’t generally take pictures of things that bug me.

Mr. Math fixed both problems for me with one solution. A charging station with closed cabinet doors. The doors hide all the cords, we now know where everything is- or should be- and I can actually charge every stinkin’ thing at one time now thanks to some ingenuity from the hubby.

First we ripped everything out.

It was glorious to get those shelves down and metal (uneven) brackets out. It was so glorious that I didn’t stop to take a picture for fear of losing momentum. Once everything was down filled all the holes, and spackled the walls.

We were lucky in that there was an outlet in the kitchen that hubby could use to run electricity into our new charging station.

He installed an outlet with two usb outlets. Genius. I have no idea how to explain electricity but here is a blog that explains how to add an outlet. Once all the wall work was done we painted the interior with our go-to paint color Behr Moth Gray.

The next step was to add wooden, level shelves. They are basic 3/4 inch plywood cut to fit with veneer on the front. He attached them on little rails across the back and sides. He cut a little square on the back side of the lowest shelf so that we had access to electricity on two shelves.

The shelves all in and the little square cut out, we bought this great surge protector. It was a little pricey but each outlet can move around to make room if things don’t fit on the strip and it also included two usb outlets.

I know what you are thinking when you look at the picture above… what a mess. You are right, it does look like a mess but all that mess is in one location and I can shut the doors! When people come over I don’t have to rush into the kitchen and grab up cords and devices.

We now have a place for DVD’s and cookbooks (yep we still have DVD’s -don’t judge).

The result isn’t beautiful but it is contained and covered with cabinet doors that Mr. Math built to match our kitchen cabinet doors. He had to make them super tall to fit the space, but I like the look. He is so talented.

It makes me happy to know we solved one of our points of contention. Now on to the next project.

I hope you have a great day. I love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

DIY Projects, painting, reclaimed wood, vintage style

200 Dollar Bedroom Makeover

March 23, 2015 Karen

Have you ever read the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff? I was an elementary teacher a long time so I relate to a lot of children’s books. In this particular book we learn that if you give a mouse a cookie, he is going to ask for a glass of milk which leads to a straw, then a napkin… the list grows.

My master bedroom is a lot like that book. Mr. Math finally convinced me to get a king sized bed. Since we were already switching from a queen sized bed to a king I thought that it was the perfect time to do a mini makeover for the bedroom. The change in bed size meant that we needed a new headboard, bedding, pillows, etc. Add to the new bed that a friend just gave me a load of 12 inch wide reclaimed cedar and a plan started to form.

I have had this particular picture Pinned for a long time. Viva Terra

I love the rustic bed, the blue bedding, and the ship lap wall behind the bed. Viva Terra calls this particular bed Gustavian and a king bed is $2195 with a $200 delivery fee. It is a stunning bed but the chances of me paying that much for a headboard and footboard are almost nil. I also love my bench at the foot of the bed to put on shoes so no footboard.

I remembered that I had see this tutorial on Remodelaholic. Curvy Reclaimed Wood Headboard Tutorial

I had also seen this tutorial on how to make a faux shiplap wall using this plywood. Sweet Pickins and knew it would be the perfect backdrop for the bed.

Well, this very rainy weekend we got the room done. The bed got delivered Monday but has been hanging out in our hallway until we could get the room makeover completed. We did it and all in, the makeover- less the cost of the new bed, pillows, mattress pad and sheets, was under $200.00. As usual it didn’t go as planned, but I like the happy accidents. I will have pictures and instructions this week.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Blessings,

Karen

cedar lumber, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, DIY, DIY Projects, Lake Livingston, master bedroom, Redecorating, San Jacinto county, Style

Adding a Corrugated Tin Wall

January 5, 2015January 5, 2015 Karen

We got a good start on the want to finish projects before putting our beloved Star Hill on the market over the holiday break.

This is what the wall in our main room has looked like since we moved in.

We recently got a new-ish wood burning stove off Craig’s List for our near the lake house, Star Hill. ($200 for a stove used one season. It is still for sale at Tractor Supply for over $600. That was a score.) It has a glass door and an electric blower, the two things that the old stove in the house did not have. We can now heat the whole house with it when we want and get to see the flames. We are already enjoying it. We knew that we would want a metal wall behind the stove and had planned for it to be put in for the seven years we have owned the place. Stuff always gets in the way of projects. Stuff like rescuing roadside furniture.

A cold, wet, weekend after Christmas was the perfect time to knock this particular project out. Hubby figured out how much tin to buy. It comes to about fifty cents a square foot. You can buy it in up to 12 foot lengths.

How nice of Home Depot to provide gloves.

First we cleared the wall and found the studs. I love projects where we will cover the wall because we get to write directly on the wall.

Next, attach this wooden support stuff to the studs.

The tricky part here was making sure curves lined up vertically. Hubby chopped off the ends to make sure they all started out the same way then made sure they lined up with each other at the start of the wall. Our roofing nailer attached the wood to the wall.

Our wall slopes up so that adds a level of difficulty to the project that we wouldn’t have had to deal with on a plain flat ceiling.

Using the very scary grinder, Hubby (AKA Mr. Math) cut the angles on the tin along with the vent cover and electrical outlet using rise over run math.

If you plan on doing this project you will need these special screws, gloves (or a box of Band Aids- that tin is sharp), something to cut the tin (if a grinder is too scary for you too, they make a metal cutting blade for a jigsaw) a level, a stud finder, tin, and wooden corrugated strips.

Plan on this project taking a whole day. Cutting around vents and outlets slows the process. Full disclosure here; it took us two days and a trip to three hardware stores. If we planned better and didn’t have to drive all over creation looking for supplies we forgot to bring, we could have finished in one day.

We decided to use some of our natural edge cedar for a shelf on the wall. The brackets were garage sale finds that we used for years with a funky swirl on the bottom. The grinder took care of the swirl. I love the industrial, rustic feel that the wall gives the cabin.

The wall looks great. It is exactly what I hoped. We have it set up with our free or almost free furniture, but I also wanted you to see it with more modern furniture and fabric. It would be a great wall for a modern wall. I really like the look.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope it inspires you to tackle your own projects.

Behr Paint with Primer, Blogging, collecting, DIY Furniture, DIY Projects, Dresser, mantle, new home, resale finds, Rustic Christmas

100 Thousand Thanks

December 16, 2014December 16, 2014 Karen

Ever since I started blogging, I have stopped 25 thousand page views to look over what happened since we started. I just hit 100,000 page views. I had not been paying much attention to the stats so this one was a bit of a surprise. It used to take a long time to reach 25 thousand page views. I mean a really long time. This time took 5 months. I was worried that in the last five months I wouldn’t have much to show you guys. It felt to me like we were sort of stuck and not getting a lot done. The kids moved out of the country, the garage is full of unfinished projects, school got started, life happened.

When I actually looked back over the last five months , I was pleasantly surprised. We got a little more done than I remembered.

My favorites from the last five months are below. If you click on the link below each picture it will take you to that actual blog, complete with DIY and pictures.

Our biggest project was updating our suburban bathroom and figuring out how to get that restoration hardware weathered wood look on a dresser. Board and batten, cool shelf, zinc finished towel rack and chandelier made to look like wood beads.

Bathroom Makeover

Chandelier

The next big thing was creating a fun office at work that included a reclaimed wood wall, suitcase wall and a giant marquee letter.

Suitcase Wall

We made one of my favorite benches from a queen sized bed.

Bench

We finally got started on our pile of cedar and are making headway with projects there. My favorite so far is a cedar barn door.

Cedar Barn Door

I repurposed a 1980’s dresser hutch top to look go with our green buffet table. I now have a place to display my milk glass that makes sense.

Hutch

I worked off and on for a while on a funky dresser that is now 99% complete. I love the look of this piece that is going to be an entertainment center.

Funky Dresser

I tried my hand at painting fabric.

Painted Fabric Chair

and finally…

I enjoyed making a rustic Christmas mantle.

Rustic Deer Head

Not too bad for a “slow” few months. Being a weekend country girl is a great life. I am blessed to have the opportunities that I have.

Thank you all so much for joining my husband and me on this empty-nest, third quarter adventure. Repurposing furniture and blogging has helped me to stay active and has enlarged my circle of friends.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and travel with us on this adventure. We have a lot in store and look forward to the future.

I love to hear from you,

Blessings,

Karen

cedar lumber, Christmas, Country Style, Decorating, DIY Projects, DIY Tutorial, Roadside Rescue

Rustic Deer Head

November 30, 2014 Karen

I saw this fall mantle at Its Overflowing as a fall mantle. The rustic deer head really spoke to me. Last year when we moved in to the burbs I decided that Christmas needed to remind us of our favorite place, Star Hill not a tract home in a master planned neighborhood. I spent a week creating deer heads and rustic elements. One of them was a giant stained deer silhouette but it sold almost immediately when I wrote the blog so I knew that a new mantle piece was needed. I have a whole Pinterest page dedicated to deer head. Feel free to check out my Pinterest Boards here.

When I saw the fall mantle at Its Overflowing, I knew I had found it!

Mantle at Its Overflowing

The DIY is simple.

I laid out a bunch of cedar fence pickets that we picked up on the side of the road a month ago. I only had to cut one to get the haphazard look I wanted.

There are no pictures at this point. The camera was in the house and I was on a roll so I didn’t stop.

I sketched out a rustic deer head with chalk- using a wet rag to fix my boo boo’s. we decided to leave all the pieces loose while it was being cut out. I planned on cutting it out myself but…

I discovered that at the lake house we dont have our scroll saw right now, but there is a jig saw there. I hate jig saws. Hubby had to man it because it bounces so much.

I ran inside to get the camera but Hubby got impatient and started cutting.

I carefully turned everything over after it was all cut out and attached scrap wood to the back to secure the pieces together using a an air nailer.

All in all we have about fifty cents in materials into the project.

I know that this is not something for everyone, but I love it. It is restful to me and the simplicity makes me think of an old home Christmas.

What do you think about our finished project?

I still need to get some white tapers for the small candle sticks but we are just about done.

I hope you have a wonderful day,

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts. I appreciate your comments.

Blessings,

Karen

Apartment living, DIY Projects, Thrifty decorating

Industrial Pendant Parts for under $20.00

September 22, 2014September 30, 2014 Karen

I am always in the lookout for parts that when added together make something awesome. It takes me a while to walk the isle of Home Depot. I love looking at new stuff.

I love this look.

I like the industrial look, I like the vintage bulb, and I think I like the copper. I think I would even like it if it was black.

I do not love $138.00 for the light.

In HD I spotted this for just under $5.00.

Immediately I could see how easy this could become a pendant light.

In the real world I would buy an ugly lamp for less than $5.00 to take apart for my own lamp kit, but for those of you who want to buy a lamp kit they have them at Home Depot.

The $138.00 lamp does not come with a bulb but in case you are wondering, they carry them for about $10.00 each.

Krylon has a copper spray paint that I like.

This would be a super simple project to do.

See the cool things you find when you take your time at Home Depot?

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, DIY Projects, Dresser, recycled furniture, Thrifting

My Next Projects

September 14, 2014September 29, 2014 Karen

Disclaimer. This post is really my “to do” list. It will help me to stay on track and will offer you a tiny glimpse into my teeny tiny mind. I have ~~four~~ five projects that are hanging out waiting to go to homes. The projects are really bugging me because at this time of year my energy just about all goes to opening the school year and my creative side gets neglected.

Here are the five pieces I have planned, lined up and started:

The Mid Century Dresser– I will finish this week. Drawers are stripped and sanded, ready for stain and poly. Dresser needs to be sanded, primed, painted, and poly-ed.

The dresser is going to join the night stand and headboard I already have finished. My friend has been very patient.

This is my inspiration piece for the bedroom set.

Here is the night stand waiting for the dresser to join the party.

Beverage Station– we have the sewing machine out, the mechanism taken care of but we are struggling to find a sink that fits.

This one has been tricky. The machine has been removed, the hardware has been stabilized and we have a plan. It is going to be Happy Camper Green with oil rubbed bronze spray paint on the metal parts. This one needs lots of wood filler and outdoor poly to make it usable outside.

Sweet Little Girl Dresser– I got the hardware off, the dresser and drawers sanded. I am looking for two drawer pulls that match the original or we may have to re-think the pulls. It will be painted next weekend.

It is going to be Behr Gray Area with a whitewash over it.

The Funky Dresser

Here is my inspiration dresser. I have had this picture in the back of my mind every time I look for furniture. I wanted a flat front smallish dresser to create something fun.

The inspiration dresser will work great for the funky dresser. I have rounded up a lot of random hardware for the dresser. The dresser will be stripped and finished to look like Restoration Hardware weathered finish. I am going to try being creative with one of the long drawers to make it appear to be two smaller drawers.

Another bench- yes, I have another bench to make. It is going to be different from the others. No photos of this one.

Hutch

The final piece will be a hutch for the top of our sofa table so that I have a place to display my milk glass.

Here is the inspiration piece.

The hutch will sit on top of this buffet table and will look like one piece.

It is now sanded, holes are filled, and ready for priming. The twists will stay the wood color. The back is going to be one by four slats stained to match the wood on top of the buffet.

I am anxious to get started on the last two projects! They are going to be like dessert for me so I am motivated to finish the rest of the list.

I hope you have a wonderful week. I love to hear from you.

Blessings,

Karen

DIY Projects, reclaimed wood, Style, the office

Giant Marquee Letter DIY

August 26, 2014 Karen

I have a reclaimed wood wall in my office. I am crazy about the warm, rustic look of the wall but I wanted a statement piece for the wall. As principal of a high school, I knew I wanted it to reflect our school and my rustic, vintage vibe. I settled on a large marquee style electrified letter I. I wanted it to look industrial, vintage, and be large enough to be the wow statement for the office.

The big I is 36 inches tall and 24 inches wide. I cannot imagine what buying one that size would cost to purchase, but I know it would be more expensive than I would be willing to spend.

Here is what we did:

First we cut out the letter from a sheet of plywood.

The I was easy to cut out because the letter has all straight lines.

Next we edged the back of the letter with 1 inch by 1 inch moulding so that there is a place for the wires and sockets to hide.

Next, the plywood was painted white.

To give the I the marquee look, we used patio lights and roof flashing.

Hubby attached the flashing with 1 inch sheet metal screws around the edge.

Hubby is the math dude so he taped off two rows along the big part of the I then one piece of tape on the top and bottom.

Hubby figured out where to put all the bulbs. We only used 24 of the 25 sockets. the 25th one is safely covered with electrical tape and is hanging out in the back of the letter with the rest of the wires.

I don’t drill straight. I try, but it just doesn’t come out the way I want without the awesome drill press we have at the Garagemahal. I was too impatient to wait until then so Hubby used the paddle bit to drill holes for the sockets to fit in.

The back is ugly. Who cares?

I pulled off all the shaggy parts before we got busy putting the sockets into the hole and screwing in the bulbs.

I am crazy about how this giant letter looks on the wall.

I am alllmooost finished with the office. Good thing, since next week the kids show up.

I hope you have a great day!

Blessings,

Karen

DIY Projects, reclaimed wood, Redecorating, resale finds, Silliness, Style, the office, traveling, vintage style

Suitcase Shelf Wall

August 15, 2014August 30, 2014 Karen

When I took the job as principal in the suburban city we moved to there just was not time to do much to my office, which before I came on board was a storage closet. Yes, I felt pretty special, but in the rapidly growing district I work in, I am thilled to have a space at all.

The “office” was the most awful institutional blue color with very little light. The light situation probably had something to do with the fact it was never designed to have someone working in the space.

I did what I could (not much) last summer then got busy opening a school.

This summer I had a little more time to work on making the space more inviting. The finished office is coming soon.

Today, it is all about my suitcase wall.

I have wanted to do this wall somewhere since I first spotted it on PInterest two years ago. The long blank wall in my office seemed to be he perfect location.

First, I collected suitcases.

I had the blue suitcase in my stash and planned to use it once day to make another chalkboard. I paid two dollars for it at a thrift store.

I found the dark green travel case at Goodwill for $2.99 a while back, the alligator suitcase was in rough shape. I bought it for $5.00 off Craig’s List. I got impatient to get the wall done so when I spotted two suitcases at a local resale shop, I paid too much. I got the last two suitcases ( a hat box and a leather men’s suitcase) for $50.00. I know what you are thinking. Yes, I did pay too much….but I wanted them and the blank wall was staring at me.

All in I have $60.00 invested in suitcases. Not bad for a whole wall of joy.

Hubby chopped each suitcase in half on the table saw. No pictures of that part. I was at work when he got that done.

I then ripped out all the loose lining.

We cut boards to fit inside the suitcases to make a support frame.

Here they are all stacked with the wood inside.

I laid them all out on the floor in the office to decide where I wanted them to go, then got busy taping it out on the wall. Toggle bolts went into each wall board. The top board was screwed to the top of each wall board, and then small side pieces were attached with the air nailer.

We slid each suitcase over the wooden support then used screws to attach it to the wood. (Air nailing would have been easier and less noticeable but I want to take these puppies with me when I retire in a few short years.)