Happy Monday & welcome back to The DIY'ers. We had some great link ups last week, and here are my Top Three. Alexis at Persia Lou s...
What Makes a Great Tablescape?
A good tablescape juxtaposes rustic and refined, tall and short, new and old. |
Do you wonder why, despite your efforts, your tabletop displays don’t look like those you see in magazines and decorator showhouses?
Small items can be pilfered when your home is being shown, so stage with props that are too big to fit in pockets, or that don't have much value, like these nuts in a bowl. |
A good tablescape juxtaposes rustic and refined, tall and short, new and old. Do you wonder why, despite your efforts, your tabletop display...
Wood Slices + Sanders
During the wedding planning for my brother's wedding, one thing that the lovebirds knew that they wanted were slices of wood for their centerpiece. Unfortunately - finding slices of wood locally proved to be impossible. Although we found them on Etsy they were pretty expensive to ship to Canada. I kept racking my brain trying to figure out how we could do our own. It wasn't until I was at our cottage - a few weeks before the wedding that it hit me - We have a TON of wood stumps on our property and all I needed was someone to slice them. (It seems obvious I know, but really it was the slicing part that was stumping* me)
The "ah-ha" moment was the realization that a man who works at one of my favourite cottage antique spots always was wood working outside the shop, and it hit me that if anyone knew how to slice the stumps, he would. I decided to try my luck and see if he would be able to help me. And he said yes! He informed me all we needed was a chainsaw. Well, we needed a chainsaw and someone comfortable enough to use it. That's where Andy came in.
Meet Andy. :) A few bucks later, my car was full of slabs. But they were a little "rough" so I brought them home and proceeded to sand them.
I have a little mouse sander but it wasn't working as much as I'd like it on these. The Home Depot heard I was doing this project back in September and sent me this awesome gadget....
A Ridgid Heavy Duty Belt Sander. Whoooooo!!! If there is one thing I love as much as I love vacuums it is power tools that I can use like power sanders. If you don't have one in your home then I highly, highly recommend one. Although the mouse would likely be the most used in most DIY toolboxes this belt sander is pretty awesome for heavy duty sanding. Although I'm showing it in use for this wedding craft - I actually got more use out of it in some other projects I'm working on - which are coming up. But back to the wedding crafting for this post....
The sander arrived when my brother was there - so we actually got to do this project together which was pretty darn fun. (Although my brother looks pretty grumpy, but I assure you he was happy). It was ridiculously easy to use. The cool thing with this sander is that it has a bag on the end to collect the sawdust - a great plus if you're doing something indoors (which I did do later, and although it doesn't suck up ALL the dust, it's pretty significant how much it does)
The thing that I discovered was that the belt sander was actually too powerful for the little slabs of wood that I initially wanted to use it for. It kept throwing the slabs at me because the rotary part means that the sandpaper well, rotates vs. staying in one place. Even though it kept chucking the wood slices at me (cue a few screams from me, and hysterical laughter of those watching) it worked really well on planks (you can see me sanding a plank above). So if you're sanding small items, stick with a mouse. Bigger items like planks of wood or big furniture pieces - the belt sander is sooooo much fun.
With the leftover slices that weren't even enough for resting a vase on - I painted chalk board paint on them to be used throughout the wedding venue to write things on. :)
It was pretty darn cute. Ps., Oscar snuck into the picture above.
The birch wood slices sanded the easiest. So if you're hunting some piles of wood - go for the birch. :)
In terms of sanders, the mouse still is my favourite but this Belt Sander is a welcomed addition to my DIY toolbox for bigger projects. :) You should also check out this pretty helpful page: Sander Buying Guide
Belt Sander.......Ridgid Heavy-Duty Belt Sander via The Home Depot
Wood Tree Stumps .......... My cottage. :)
Wood Cutting ................ A friendly neighbour at the cottage, Andy
Mouse Sander ............... My own, but you can get it at The Home Depot
The Home Depot provided me with the rotary sander to help me accomplish this project. Thank you!!
*Pun Intended. :)
During the wedding planning for my brother's wedding, one thing that the lovebirds knew that they wanted were slices of wood for their c...
Moving in: Samaritgränd
Je vous souhaite un très bon weekend!
Another fun styling by Fantastic Frank, the most creative of all real estate agencies... This studio flat is located in Stockholm and is for sale here.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
Encore une mise en scène amusante par Fantastic Frank , la plus créative de toutes les agences immobilières... Ce studio se trouve à Stockho...
bits + pieces
Happy Friday! I have a whack load of projects on the go, all worthy of blog posts but every night when I typically would come down to my office to write or, get some extra hours of work in - I'd head up to bed, curl up and watch trash TV. It was one of those weeks of feeling bummed out and at the same time pretty thankful for a lot of things. I had some lovely "dates" this week. I went for a coffee with Debra, and had a girly night sleepover at my Mom's house - and hung out with my new sister and her sister - who also feels like family. Oscar is home from preschool today, his cold got worse and I've been up a lot at night with him rubbing vicks on his chest and on his feet. Aubrey thinks I'm nuts but I swear the feet thing works. All in all, it was a really nice week and I'm excited to show you some projects. :) Here are some bits + pieces that I thought I'd share.
- What would you do to your home if you were given $1,000? That's what I was asked and see my response You can enter to win $1,000 - which is aweeeeeeesome. *
- This is genius. How to recognize artists
- Oscar wants to be a pirate for Halloween and he told Aubrey that he has to be Captain Hook and I'll have to be Mr. Smee. I'm not terribly happy about being Mr. Smee. But then he tried on a Banana costume and for awhile there we were going to have to go as a Banana family. No lie. And I may have bought adult Banana costumes for Aubrey and I. I'm waiting for someone to dare me to walk down the street as a banana.
Happy Friday! I have a whack load of projects on the go, all worthy of blog posts but every night when I typically would come down to my off...
DIY Weekend Projects
Hi Friends. HApppyyy Friday!
Justin & I are in Fargo for a wedding through tomorrow morning, but we're still going to find a small amount of time for some DIY'ing.
One of the DIY projects that will be coming up in our future is building some furniture for our bedroom reno! Since Justin is so talented, I'm in full support of building all of our furniture and saving a few hundred dollars vs. shopping all of our pieces. Here are a few that I've been eying.
Low Credenza // I love credenza's. I love the simple mid-century design of this one, with some interesting wood detail. It seems like it'd be easy enough to build, too with it's straight lines and simplicity.
5-Drawer Dresser // This dresser is a whopping $1,5000 on Crate & Barrel, but I know Talented Mr. Husband would be able to replicate this design in no time.
Mid-century Modern Chair // I'm such a fan of mid-century modern furniture, and these chairs would be an awesome addition to our living room along with some killer fabric to tie it into the room.
How many of you are furniture builders or re-finishers? I'm still hoping to one day drive around the neighborhood and find a beautiful piece of furniture in the dumpster - but until then Mr. Husband's hand's will be full.
P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a Breaking Bad print from Hope Prevails! Enter through this post.
Hi Friends. HApppyyy Friday! Justin & I are in Fargo for a wedding through tomorrow morning, but we're still going to find a small a...
Small space living: good examples...
Des petits meubles multifonctions comme des tabourets ou des tables pliantes s'adaptent facilement à différentes activités.
Small and multi-function furniture like stools and folding tables can easily be adapted to different activities.
No space is too small for a a tailor made/built-in solution.
Des meubles transparents prennent moins de place visuellement.
Transparent furniture takes less space visually.
Regrouper les petits objets en collections est une excellente façon de personnaliser l'espace sans la surcharger.
Grouping small items together in a still life is a great way of personnalizing the room without overloading it.
Green plants add life to the room.
Bien évidemment, des rangements astucieux et flexibles (aussi bien ouverts que fermés) sont indispensables. Et le grand miroir est une astuce classique pour agrandir l'espace visuellement.
Obviously, smart and flexible storage (both closed and open) is essential. And the big mirror is a classic trick to increase space visually.
Et enfin, un éclairage intelligent et adapté, ca change tout pour l'ambiance d'une pièce!
And last of all, intelligent and appropriate lighting changes everything for the atmosphere in a room!
Si vous me suivez depuis longtemps, vous savez que j'ai déjà parlé de compact living plusieurs fois. Essayer d'optimiser un espace l...