industrial Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

Coldspring, Fun with friends, recycled furniture, Repurposed Furniture, ship lap

An Unexpected Visit

September 8, 2022September 9, 2022 Karen

A funny thing happened on the way to the antique store this week.

The Social Planner, her sweet husband, Mr. Math, and I took a quick trip to a town I am falling in love with, Crockett, Texas. The town has some of the most beautiful old homes, a walkable downtown, and great food. It also has some really nice shops, resale, and antique stores.

The Social Planner hanging out with me in Crockett.

This was The Social Planner and my second visit in less than a week. I found something that I just had to go back for on our first trip and luckily it was still there when we wrangled the guys into going back and they were troopers. We found several more shops on Goliad Street that we hadn’t visited before and met the nicest people.

The unexpected visit on the trip started when we, four grandparents who looked like exactly what we are, walked out of an antique store to the roar of a chopper pulling out of the garage next door. It was beautiful. It looked like something off television and the rider could have been an actor from easy rider. As we stared at the chopper pulling away a sweet young lady walked out of the garage to tell us hello. She was so welcoming and pleasant we stayed to visit.

Robin and Ronnie own Filthy Gringos. They make custom parts, build custom bikes, laser cut designs in metal, and ship a lot of it to other places. They moved from Houston to this small town because they wanted a simpler life and lower cost of doing business and it didn’t really matter where they are located. I learned they bought the building two years ago that was literally falling down, rebuilt it, and got permission from the city to convert part of the building into living space. We visited long enough that we got to meet their son Oden and see the awesome home they are in the process of creating/finishing. As soon as I saw the space I knew they were my people. Reuse, redesign, reimagine. The building was originally a cotton gin and has 16 inch thick walls, at one time had a huge skylight, and still has the vault for keeping records and money when cotton was bought and sold. They retained as much of the original items as they could.

Welcome to their space: I am so sad I didn’t take more pictures. The entrance to the home is a wide barn door that was original to the building but I was so shocked she invited us in I didn’t get a picture. It takes a lot of courage to let a stranger come into your home with no warning and allow them to take pictures of the home.

There is so much cool and unique stuff there,

The kitchen area. That vintage sink is cool.

You can see some of the reused materials here.

There are no walls in the interior space. Rooms are divided with these repurposed bookcases from the high school which was torn down.

The bathroom was my very favorite. They literally turned the vault into the bathroom.

Ronnie did come back on the chopper while we were inside the home part of the shop and had a good visit with the guys.

Never pass up the opportunity to meet new folks. We got to see a super cool space and learn new things. if you get the chance, visit Crockett, Texas.

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.

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

moving, new home, Redecorating

Industrial Laundry Room

August 10, 2013August 14, 2013 Karen

When we moved into our new house there were three things I liked about our laundry room.

We had one, and it was a good size
There was a sink in the laundry room! Never had that before.
I liked this graphic on the wall.

Nothing else. It needed love.

The former home owners left all the paint that they had used on the house (thank you so very much- we are thrilled that we have touch up paint and know what colors were used!) We had just used it as a dumping ground and created a mess as we moved in.

I have seen some amazing transformations of laundry rooms on Pinterest. I love them. I like seeing the chandeliers, soft colors, pretty boxes, crystal containers and granite counter tops. The problem I have with those laundry rooms is that they seem to say- in my opinion only- that the laundry room is the woman’s domain. Somehow cleaning clothes is a feminine activity alone.

Not. At. My. House.

We both wear clothes, we both get them dirty, and we both wash clothes.

That being said, I adopted a more industrial look to the laundry room. I wanted to make sure that Hubby felt comfortable in our shared space. I don’t want to give anyone the idea that is MY laundry room! Also, our laundry room currently has open shelves. I will probably get cabinets put in because I like to keep some things in the house that others may keep in the garage. What can I say? I like to have a drill handy.

I found these great galvanized bins for about $10.00 each at Walmart.

The smaller ones had cool rope handles too. I decided to stencil the baskets, sort of like a locker room. I purchased a cheap set of cardboard stencils in the art department at the same Walmart and a bottle of less than a dollar dark gray-black paint ( called pavement by Plaid).

I decided to give the three smaller bins a number. I chose 58, 61, and 82. The years of our birth and the year we were married. I sorted out the stuff to go in the bins according to who uses it most. My bin has floral wire, picture hanging kit, glue gun, staple gun, E6000… you get the drift. Hubby has stuff for the sprinkler project he is working on, electrical wire cutters etc. The shared bin has flashlights, tape measure, levels…

The larger bins will go on the lower shelf. One says FEED and the other says…SOAP. Guess why? Hiding the detergent and pet food in plain sight. Love it.

Here is the project under way. It seriously took me 30 minutes to get everything out, stencil the baskets, put everything up and get the baskets on the shelf.

The addition of a glass wash board that belonged to my grandmother, a key cabinet made for us when we married by a family friend, the chalkboard that Hubby made from a roadside find headboard (it did not make it to the garage) and tadah! I feel like We made some serious progress here. I still want a functioning hanging bar and will be moving in a drying rack from the lake house, but we are almost there with this room. I love having the keys to all our random things in one location.

This olive basket was also at Walmart and is going to serve as my trash can. I love that the handles are going to hold trash sacks.