Condo Blues: wood
Showing posts with label wood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wood. Show all posts

Friday, March 8, 2024

How to Replace a Folding Camp Stool Seat

I bought two folding camp stools to use as foot stools on my front porch last year. I like that the folding stools are versatile. I don’t like that Michael's didn’t have two with matching fabric. Not to mention the fabric is pretty cheesy and cheap.

Let’s fix that.

 

how to replace a folding camp stool seat
Save this makeover tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

 

It’s time for a folding camp stool makeover!

Thursday, December 9, 2021

How to Make Peg Doll Gnomes

One of my fellow renaissance festival performer friends, painted a set of wood peg dolls for her daughter to look like some of the characters from our show so she has a period toy to keep her busy/quiet/not fussy if she is visiting with her family –  dressed as a fairy.

Her peg doll toys gave me the idea to make wood peg doll gnome pin favors for my fellow fae performers. Our little Honorary Fairy wanted a mini me too (and my heart exploded into a million pieces of joy.) I asked if she wanted a pin to wear or a gnome peg doll to play with. She asked for a gnome peg doll so Nissa can play with all of her peg dolls of our village.

 

how to make wood peg doll gnomes
Save this quick, easy, and kid friendly gnome craft tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

My homemade gnome peg dolls are quick and easy to make. You can make them for children or with children. You make them as detailed or simple as you like

As of this writing, I’m calling my DIY peg doll gnomes, Nissa Tomtesdottir Elizabethan Action Figures because who hasn’t wanted to have their own action figure?!

 

Quick and Easy DIY Gnome Peg Dolls

 

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Wearing Wood Dutch Shoes Part 2 and Friday Favorites 598

One of the first questions I get when I'm wearing my Dutch clogs (called klompin. You can guess why) is are they a comfortable shoe to wear? I've had my shoes for awhile, broke them in during outdoor show rehearsals, and the opening weekend (12 hour days) of the festival I am performing in.

My answer is :

  • Yes, once you get used to walking in them (toe first instead of heel toe,) and  as long as you are wearing very thick socks/leather klompin socks (if you want to wear a slightly thinner knit sock) and
  • No, because I bought the wrong size. My first pair was a smidge too small and gave me blisters, they felt like they were heavy as rocks at the end of the day because my feet hurt so much. 

Fortunately, I found an unworn pair of wood shoes in my size on eBay and was able to get them much more quickly than ordering a new pair from the Netherlands. The correct size pair looks giant compared the original shoes I bought, take a look.

I am not wearing my thick wool socks in the photo so you can see that a correctly sized Dutch wood shoe is supposed to have a much larger gap between the shoe and your foot than when you size and buy leather shoes.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Easy DIY Wood Crate Storage and Drawer Organizers

In our early just bought a new house and need new stuff to store our old stuff days I turned some vintage fruit crates I discovered neglected in the basement of our old rental into a down and dirty wood crate storage dresser by slapping the drawers from an old  cardboard night stand into the crates and calling it a day. The storage boxes aren’t very pretty but it worked at the time. I had every intension of upgrading to a better solution later.

 You can probably guess that Later never came.

This version of my fruit crate storage dresser is not working for me any more. The supplies inside quickly turn into a jumble that I have to paw through to find the thing I need. The final straw was finding feathers turning up here, there, and everywhere in the drawers and room except in the drawer that is supposed to store them with my hat making supplies. Gah! I need an organization makeover – stat!


 vintage wood crate dresser

I used a hodge podge of baby food jars and such to store beads and jewelry findings that barfed out their drawers. This isn't pretty, but it is honest. An honest hot mess!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Easy DIY Paw Print Home Sign

Once upon a time, I bought a wood burning and stencil tool thinking it would be a fun hobby that would allow me to make all sorts of unique handmade signs. I brought it home, fired it up and remembered I don’t like the way I draw, and screwed up every stencil I attempted to make. I shelved all of my stencil making dreams along with the tool in m craft room.

Recently the super nice people at Stencil Revolution asked me if I wanted to try their laser cut stencils to make a project – no strings attached. Since there was absolutely no pressure and I wasn’t sure I was going to publish the project because I tend to overload the stencil with too much paint and ruin the project.

I saw the perfect dog related decorative Stencil Revolution stencil for our house, and given the no pressure requirements of the trial, I decided to cross my fingers and Lacey's paws, jump out of my comfort zone, and say yes to their kind offer.


Quick and easy wood burning tutorial
Wood sign work in progress!

I wanted to bump a sign project with more than just two different colors of paint to make the paw stand out. Think, think, thinkidy, think.... hey!

What about using that old woodburning tool?

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Quick and Easy DIY Wood Shower Floor Tile

I absolutely adore high end teak in a bathroom, especially the trend of using it for a shower floor. It is warm, it has texture, and not to mention wood is more eco friendly than the vinyl shower pan that came with my house.

On the flip eco side, keeping the current shower floor during our bathroom remodel to be is uses less new resources than ripping it out and replacing it with a new shower pan and wood shower tile just for looks sake.

Fortunately the solution was a quick, easy, and split the eco friendly middle IKEA hack away – install removable outdoor wood deck tile over the current the shower floor.

Pin this post for later!


Sunday, April 30, 2017

How to Make a Self Watering Planter Box

Husband and I were cruising the nursery when an apache pepper plant caught his eye and we decided then and there to  grow peppers in our patio garden. Yummy!

Unfortunately the self watering planter I made from a plastic storage tub had different ideas and cracked when visiting the Land of Ice and Snow (although most people call it Winter.) I wasn’t surprised because I used a light duty storage container to make the first planter.

There wasn't any love lost because while the self watering planter worked great, having a plastic storage tub taking up space on my patio wasn't' very pretty. I promised Husband a new and more rugged planter box we won’t be embarrassed to have in our back yard.


Pin this How To and share it with your friends!

 

Self Watering Planter Box Tutorial

Sunday, November 6, 2016

How to Make Pallet Storage Shelves with Side Rails

I have a DIY power tool battery station hanging on the wall on my workbench and little else. All of my tools, hardware, and empty tool cases are stored low to the ground – like me! –  in my DIY kitchen cabinet workbench where I can easily put everything away after I finish a project in my shop.

Short girl problems, yo.

But man, those empty molded plastic power tool cases are taking up some variable storage real estate in the workbench. I don’t want to keep shuffling them around the workbench to get to things I needs but I don’t want to get rid of them either. The cases are nice for those occasions I Handy Ma'am it at someone else’s house.

A dead space the wall over my workbench is the perfect place to store my power tool cases. I put my recycled pallet wood stash to good use and built a storage shelf with built in bookends (for lack of a better term) so my tool cases won’t fall off the end of the shelf.

How to make power tool case storage
Pin this idea for later!

How to Build a Simple Shelf with Built in Bookends

 

Sunday, May 15, 2016

How to Make a Pallet Wood Clamp Storage Rack

The small downside to insulating the garage walls is I lost my free wood clamp storage organizer. I can’t store my clamps on wall stud like I used to now that they are filled with insulation.
Currently my wood clamps are stored in a pile of stuff on top of my workbench. At least I think they are. There is too much junk on top of the workbench to tell. Sigh.

During Operation: Clean and Organize my Workbench and Clear My Recycled Materials Stash, I added a woodworking clamp storage rack is a quick and easy wood pallet stash bust project that took practically no time and with very few tools to make to my punch list.


Quick and Easy Workbench Woodworking Clamp Rack

 

Pin this for later!

You will need:

Sunday, May 1, 2016

How to Make a Colorful Year Round Wood Wreath

I found a bag of round hole saw scraps in the reclaimed wood stash in my workshop.  I’m not sure why I kept them. Most of the “wood holes” in the bag were cracked, split, and otherwise wonky because that’s how hole saws work.

A hole saws is designed to cut a round hole in wood and not for cutting a piece of wood into a perfectly round shape.

I could blow it off as part of a being DIYer who works with recycled materials but the fact of the matter is, my reclaimed wood stash is starting to outgrow its storage area. I need to either use it or start making up gift boxes of scraps for friends to use as kindling in their fire pits. Which I may or may not have gotten puzzling looks when I may or may not have tried to pass off a box of wood scraps for a fire pit as a hostess gift in the past.


hole saw scrap wood
 Hole saw scraps!

Fortunately, there were a few wood rounds that were in good enough shape - or could be with a smattering of wood filler and some sanding - that I decided to use them to make a scrap wood wreath. And you can too! Read my step by step tutorial to learn how!

How to Make a  Wood Wreath

Monday, April 4, 2016

How to Test for Lead Paint on Flea Market Finds

We are the first owners of our condo built long after the US 1978 lead paint ban. We don’t have peeling paint and my family doesn’t lick the walls (which in my opinion would mean we have a bigger problem!) As far as any scaremongering about lead being everywhere in every home, we figured we’re good.

Except.

Maybe not.


Pin this post for reference! 


I like to upcycle and recycle found, salvage, and old stuff in my DIY projects. Swap meets, antique shows, and flea markets are my playgrounds. Some of my favorite transformations started out as thrift store finds or from the side of the road. I didn’t think I had to worry about lead in my project materials because I generally steer clear of chipping paint because it is a pain to sand smooth.

I recently discovered chipping paint does not mean an item is covered in lead paint. Neither does the color of the paint. Actually  bare wood or stained items can test positive for lead because of something in the stain or varnish.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

How to Make and Hang Wood Fruit Crate Shelves

The new floor plan and stuff switcheroo for the guest room/craft room leaves me with two vintage wooden fruit crates that won't fit in the room with the new plan.

Yay!

I want a new place to stash this stuff and allow my linen closet to hold linens again. Crazy town, I know.

I have a big boring wall above the toilet in the guest bathroom...



I have two crates and three 2013 DIY Goals: create storage, use what I have first before buying materials, and add personality to the guest bathroom...