DIY Weekend and the Big Reveal!

I've been hard at work since last night (well, I was collecting all the stuff all weekend) to get these things on our walls. The walls have been so bare!

In total, both projects cost less than $50, if not less than $40, and we're pretty excited as to how they turned out. DIY is definitely trial and error and they aren't perfect, but they were made by hand and that's pretty special.

All done and the centerpiece of our living room!

This gives a really great look at the grain and depth of the wood.

Last night's project... the "U" is from Joann's and the "J" & "R" is from Kohl's.

From the bottom, up!

Scrapbook paper glued to pieces of spray painted wood.

Onto the banana bread I'm baking... enjoy the pictures!

From Goodwill to Our Family Room

Well, a lot of our family and nearby friends have heard our excitement over our little coffee table. And we're more than excited to share it with everyone else.

Searching for new furniture when you are on an extremely tight budget can be hard and totally time consuming. Especially, when your taste has more to do with designer and less to do with Walmart. Enter... driving to every second-hand furniture store on an seemingly endless search until you find it. And I will not take the credit, as my loving husband will not let me... it's truly, until your husband finds it. Because, honestly, I walked right by it and as I was walking by, I said to him, "There is nothing here..."

Our timing could not have been better, because a man who walked in behind us was so disappointed to find us paying the hefty price of $10. He said to us, "Do you know how lucky to find this? With all the pieces? You don't know what you have..." And to two 24-year olds, we thought, oh wow, we must be lucky! Especially, when we took it to Home Depot and the paint/wood lady gawked over and ogled our find.

What did we find, you wonder? A pre-WWII solid oak, paneled, "card" table with detachable wings/leaves. May the pictures speak for themselves. I'll add some instructions on how to get from point A to Z if you every find something similar or want to do something similar! (P.S. If any of you know what exactly this thing is called, we would love as much info as we can get.)

Stay tuned for the finalized picture, along with the other little DIY projects we've been doing! In the meantime, we love our table and hope you do, too!

Unfortunately, all of the pieces of the center were falling apart by the time we got it home. We do not have a "before picture" of the whole thing.

This is how the "wings" come out.

The first step was to strip the wood. We used a soy based, biodegradable stripper from Woodcraft.

Here is all of the wood, it needed to lay out for a few hours covered in the stripper.

We used water, scrub pads, and paint scrapers to get the stripper off.

After letting it dry outside for a while, we moved it in to finish drying. This is the original oak!

Our first piece of dyed wood (see the last picture for info on how we dyed it).

Jordan had to work really hard to get into all of the grooves on the base.

Top and base, all finished!

These are the things you need to dye wood. You over saturate the wood with an old t-shirt dipped in stain, then wipe off the excess with a paper towel. Yes, it is that easy. We do not have a picture of the finish we used. It is the same brand as the dye, but a water-based polyacrylic. We put 7 coats (same method as dye) on the table top and 4 coats on the base.

 

 

 

DIY Martha Stewart Paper Doily Place Cards

This is a totally random post, I know....

When you're unemployed and your employment is finding a job, you run out of the usual websites to check for new postings in about 3 hours. I'm trying to fill my days with things that are productive instead of watching 250+ channels of Comcast all day. Although, I am loving the Exercise On Demand one... I wish there was an Employment On Demand: Gain 5 Employers in 2 Weeks!!

This utter, absolutely crippling boredom brings me to our blog. As you can see (or already saw), last week... it got a new look, this week the post is going in a completely new direction (something I've been meaning to do forever). I'm putting down the instructions on how we made our place cards for the wedding. They are paper doilies, folded into envelopes, that stood up on the upper flap. Inside is the table number, on the outside was the name of the guest. Is it complicated? Yes. Did |Martha Stewart| neglect to say that on her website? Yes. Does Martha Stewart provide instructions? No... no, she does not. Was it worth it? Judge for yourself, these are mine at our wedding!

Supplies needed:
White cardstock
Doilies (5" square)
Exacto Knife
Boning Tool and Board
Extra Strength Glue Stick
Cutting board/scissors
Cutting mat

 

Step 1: Order Doilies

You cannot use just any doilies for this look. They have to have the |exact| same pattern as the ones that I used. They can be different colors, but have to be the same pattern, as you need to cut along the circles in the middle. (Click "exact" above to go to a website that carries them in white for a reasonable price.) Also, I could not find them in stores, I looked everywhere and the only place to get them (in packages alone) is online. Maybe you guys will have better luck! Purchase more than you are planning to need, they are very delicate and tear easily.

Step 2: Create Number and Name Pieces

You will need to create a document on the computer with the names or cut the rectangles and have them done by a calligraphist (as Martha did). I used Pages on my mac and took the document to Office Depot (best printing jobs for price), I am not sure how MSWord would do at the document, but you could try it. Feel free to play with the following dimensions, my brain is a little rusty and I cannot find those documents:

Each table number card: 2.5" x 1.5"
Each name card: 2" x 1"

Step 3: Cut out Number and Name Pieces 

After obtaining the documents, go ahead and cut the document up to the sizes stated above to make all of the Table Numbers and Name Cards. Match the name cards to the table numbers and set aside. Feel free to trim the Table Numbers by making the long side shorter, they are hard to get in and out of the "doily envelope."

Step 4: Make Doily Envelopes

Step 4a: Bone Doilies

Using your boning tool and board, you are going to fold the doily in four places. Make sure to keep at least 3 doilies in the stack to fold, otherwise, they will rip. You are trying to create a rectangle shape in the middle of the doily. Each fold runs perpendicular to the the point of each corner. I can't tell you where the folds go, use your table number cards and look at your boning board as each one is different. You'll need to place the doily in the boning board at a diagonal, so that you are looking at a diamond instead of a square. Using your tools, bone the doily on four sides: you will have two long sides that are parallel to each other and two short sides that are parallel to each other. Do not actually fold the doily until you've done the next step.

Step 4b: Cut Front Flaps

Now, you'll create "flaps" for the name card on the front. Using the cutting mat and exacto knife, find the two of the 4 little circles pointing to the center that are opposite from each other and on the long side of the folds. Cut the circles free from the rest of the doily, they should still be attached because they are the holders of the name card. (I hope that makes sense, I couldn't think of a way to describe it, but check out my picture and the picture on Martha's page above. It's one of those things you just have to see.)

Step 5: Construct a Place Card

Now that you have the flaps cut and the fold marks done, go ahead and fold the doily. Glue three of the four points together, leaving an "envelope-like flap" open at the top. Slide in the table number (be very careful, ripping occurs often here and you may need to trim some of the table numbers down so that go in and out smoothly.) Shimmy the person's name into the circle flaps that you cut on the front and fold the top envelope flap down to make it stand by itself. 

And you're done... with one. Hooray! If you have any questions, let me know.

Next time, I do a "How-To" blog, I'll be sure to picture document the steps. And if you like the doily look, check out these |envelopes| for your invitations. Man, I wish I knew about these! On the other hand, my labor - husband, Jordan; sister-in-law, Katie; and cousin, Joanna - probably do not.