Tag Archives: home decor

DIY Sofa/Daybed

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Wood Crafts

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Needing a sofa for the den, I’d been looking around for inexpensive ways to build one that would be nice looking, yet be nearly indestructible. You see, again, we’re real people and this house is lived in pretty hard. We also have indoor pets who, despite their small size, can find ways to destroy just about anything. Thankfully, we’ve always had a sense of humor about the chaos, sort of. William used to laugh a lot more than I did when viewing a little dog sitting amidst a pile of chair stuffing, “We can’t have nice things” he’d giggle, while I’d be envisioning doggie handcuffs and mugshots. Bless him, he always was the “better half” of this relationship.

I’d already begun building a patio sectional from plans here: http://www.morelikehome.net/2011/06/our-new-outdoor-sectional.html and had built a very nice patio work table with plans on that same site. Loving the work with inexpensive 2x4s I went back to that site and found plans for a “Simple Modern Sofa” http://www.morelikehome.net/2012/10/day-31-build-simple-modern-sofa-with.html

So, we went to work. First, John started cutting the 2x4s according to the cut list on the plans, and while he was cutting, I drilled the appropriate pocket holes. This way, by the time John was finished cutting the boards, the pocket holes were almost done and within a few minutes we were ready to start putting the frame together. We didn’t speak aloud the niggling feeling that “Wow, this is pretty big”, and trusted the plan, which clearly said “Simple Modern Sofa”.

sofaback2Here you can see John assembling the back of the sofa, drilling into the pocket holes. That blue handled clamp you see is a truly nifty device from Kreg called a right angle clamp. It is built so that one jaw of the clamp is pointed so that it fits down into a pocket hole and holds both boards firmly to prevent movement.

I recently heard that the average height of humans these days is around 5’3″. This would explain not only why I have trouble finding size 12 jeans that don’t hit above my ankle, but also why so many furniture plans seem more suitable to children than to my 5’7″, mostly leg, frame. Having been unhappy at the height of the patio chairs in the sectional plans, we added a few inches to the height of the sofa. We should have added fewer inches, because I didn’t take the depth of the cushion into account.

sofaslatsJohn is adding the seat slats for the sofa here. We had finally begun to mention, in passing, “hmm.. this is pretty big”, and at one point I, half jokingly, said “Well, if it’s too big for the living room you could replace the cheap daybed you’re sleeping on with this.” We weren’t deterred. I needed a sofa darnit, and the plan said, this is a sofa.

sofafinishedBecause I am sick to death of staining, waiting, urethaning, waiting, sanding, waiting, urethaning, waiting, etc. We chose a lovely brown paint, Glidden Stewart House Brown, which looks like devils food cake batter in the can, and goes on the color of Hershey’s Syrup chocolate. The chocolate references are important as well as accurate.

The finished “Simple Modern Sofa” looked great on the enormous patio, as you can see in the photo above. We had to open both sides of the patio door in order to schlep it inside where it magically doubled in size. If anyone would like to buy a gorgeous, sturdy daybed with room for a trundle underneath, just let me know, I happen to have one. I’d be willing to trade this great twin sized bed for a dachshund proof sofa.

In the meantime, I’m going to need a great deal of chocolate in order to live with a bed in my den.

 

DIY Billiam’s List Patio Chair

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Wood Crafts

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Working strictly with the 2x4s that were included in the Craig’s List haul several months ago, I built a patio chair this weekend. You folks could do this in just a few hours, but I have to take frequent and extended breaks. Even with breaks, I’m a hurting unit right now and will need to take a couple of days off. However, as I recline with my bottle of Tylenol, binge watching Netflix, while my back and hip realign themselves, I will be smiling with pride, because this is the first of our many projects that I built entirely without help.

The original project plans, not using 2x4s, by Ana White, can be found here: http://ana-white.com/2010/05/plans/simple-modern-outdoor-sectional-armless-section

The above plans were modified for using 2x4s which changes the “cut list”. If you plan to make yours out of 2x4s, which to me are sturdier as well as less expensive, use the cut list on this page: http://www.morelikehome.net/2011/06/our-new-outdoor-sectional.html

To the above cut list, you should add another 2×4 cut to 21″. As you will see in my photos, the chair really needs another back board midway between the top of the back and the back of the seat. This board is not added to the 2×4 cut list, yet it is shown in her photos of the finished sectional.  Ana White’s page doesn’t show this board at all in her diagrams and only shows cushions resting against the back, which doesn’t look comfy.

patiochairsectionseatbottomFirst I put together the seat using the Kreg Pocket hole system. This photo shows the pocket holes at each end of the seat boards. This is the bottom of the chair seat which will be unseen unless someone turns the chair over to check my handiwork and that someone will likely not be invited back anytime soon. Using the pocket holes on the bottom saves you from screwing in from the top to attach everything, leaving visible screws if you care about things like that.

patiochairsectionalseatThis is the top side of the chair seat. See? No screws. It’s magic! This technique also seemed to make the seat very easy to attach to the support frame.

patiochairsectionalsupportAlthough neither of the above sites mentioned it, I used pocket holes in the support frame, not only to attach the frame to the front and back of the chair, but also to the seat boards. I placed three pocket holes along the top edge of each support board as well as the side and front aprons. I laid each piece out on the chair seat and marked where the pocket screws would connect to the seat and then drilled the holes. This took all guess work out of attaching the seat and, again, left no visible screws in the top of the seat.

Ana White’s measurements for the distance between the side apron and the seat support boards is only 3 inches. This is fine until you have to attach those support boards to the back apron. By then, you have all your side aprons and seat support boards firmly attached to the front apron, the seat, and the front legs. I saw this problem coming, so I added another inch and a half between the sides and the supports to allow for the drill. That still was not enough room for my small hands and my Ryobi drill to get between the boards and attach them to the back apron. I would suggest you leave at least 5″ inches of space between these boards.

patiochairsectionalbackIf you are making this chair from the 2x4s, remember that many of the measurements change. Be sure to check the site for the 2×4 built sectional for these changes. For instance, the back seat board for the 2×4 plan needs to be 13 and 1/2 inches from the ground, rather than the 15″ shown on the Ana White plan. One day, I’m going to do the smart thing and print these plans out so that I don’t have to burn wheelchair batteries running back and forth to my computer to double check! I did double check the measurements and instructions each step of the way, and wrote myself about a dozen sticky notes, so I didn’t have any major oopses. Also, you can really see in this picture that another board across the back is needed.

patiochairsectionalfrontHere is the finished patio chair. The plan is for a sectional which I hope to build. Ana White’s page shows how to attach the pieces to each other. To me, that defeats the purpose of having a sectional, so I’m not going to attach each piece. This way, if I need extra chairs by the pool or by the fire pit, I can just swipe a couple from the sectional.

Remember, this is reclaimed wood from Craig’s List. The boards are not perfect and, therefore, neither is the chair they’ve been used to build. If you’re using reclaimed wood, prepare for a few surprises. The board you cut so precisely to fit, may have just enough of a mild twist or bow that it doesn’t fit the way you expected. This is what they make wood clamps, power sanders and cuss words for.

 

 

Wood Patio Table/Work Table DIY

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, Uncategorized, Wood Crafts

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Our back patio is approximately 48 feet long by 12 feet wide. One end is open and the other end adjoins a wall. Having such a large patio is great on one hand because of the outdoor space it provides. On the other hand, however, that’s a long space to fill up! Our back door leads down onto the patio at about the halfway point. Being an entry way to the outdoor room the patio will eventually be, the steps will naturally bisect the space into two halves. Rather than trying to tie the entire long patio together like some sort of banquet hall, it seems natural to me to make two areas.

The grilling  and main dining area will be on the north, open ended side. The sitting, socializing, and sipping tea or cocktails side will be the southern end with the wall. I thought this a natural set up because aftah all, that’s what we do in the south, we sip sweet tea or cocktails and socialize. Actually, my real reason is that the grill should, of course, go on the open ended side of the patio so that the smoke can waft out and away from the patio, and go up the street to make my neighbors drool.

pationorthACK! Don’t look at the mess. This is why people never see pictures of the north end of the patio when I’m out there taking pictures of the pretty plants. This is the end with the big grey plastic monstrosity holding the pool tools and toys, the grill, and a table where we pot plants. Consider this the before picture and try to imagine an outdoor kitchen and dining area here instead of the current clutter.

patiosouthThis is the south side of the patio, with all the pretty plants, and Belle the barn dog who is currently being employed to keep the rabbits and squirrels from devouring the pretty plants. She’s a bit of a micro-manager when it comes to supervising the projects though. This area and the garage are being used as work spaces for our projects. This patio is closed due to construction

The southern end of the patio has that big blank beige wall, and a tiny door to the master bedroom in the corner. I have planned to build a seating area with two storage benches and two chairs, but I hadn’t decided what to do with the big blank wall. Briefly, I considered painting a mural. Then I remembered that I would have to live with whatever I painted. That caused a cringe. As I was surfing through decorating and DIY websites, I came across the use of mirrors outdoors.

Several years ago a friend gave me a large framed mirror that she could no longer use. I knew I could use it, I just didn’t know where to hang it so that it would reflect anything in my house that I wanted to see twice every time I came in the room. When I saw the patio mirrors on the internet, I knew just what to do with the big blank wall. I can’t just have a big mirror on the wall, so we’re building a small table that I can use to work on the patio projects. Once the patio projects are finished, I will paint the table and place it under the big mirror, and fill it with plants, candles, and whatever pretty stuff I think might be safe there.

patiotablejoiningWe decided on this simple project not only because it is functional and I needed a table, but also because we wanted to practice our pocket hole joinery technique before moving on to more complicated projects. We first pre-drilled all of the necessary pocket holes for the frame boards. After that, joining the pieces went faster than assembling any furniture I’ve ever bought in a box.

patiotableframeThe completed table frame is also much sturdier with our pocket holes than anything I’ve ever put together out of a box. The screws hold fast without using glue!

patiotableWe were going to use pocket holes to attach the table top and the only thing that stopped us, as usual, was that we didn’t have enough screws. Instead, we drilled in from the top to attach the boards. If this had been a project I planned to stain, I’d have probably waited and bought more screws, but because we’re leaving it unfinished to use as a work table and, in the end, will be painted, I’ll just fill the shallow holes around the screws before I sand and paint.

You can find the plans for this project, along with 30 more things to do with 2x4s here: http://www.morelikehome.net/2012/10/day-30-build-2×4-craft-table.html

 

Reclaimed Cabinet Door Serving Trays

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized, Wood Crafts

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Most of the old cabinet doors we found on Craig’s List were the sizes we wanted to make a surround for the grill, planter boxes, and bench seats. I also spied a few odd sized doors there and immediately knew they’d make great serving trays so I loaded those up too. I mean, if I’m going to have a nice new patio one day, I’m going to want to serve food out there right?

This is an extremely easy project, and is only time consuming because of the wait times for paint and poly to dry. Unless you just like hanging out watching paint dry, you can go back to whatever else you need to do.

For the project you will need:

1. An old cabinet door, preferably unpainted. If the door is painted you can either strip it or let the old paint become one of the colors in the finished project. 2. A sample jar of paint in what ever color appeals to you. 3. Stain. I use MinWax Espresso. On used cabinet doors, I find a dark stain makes a more noticeable difference and adds to the “old” look I’m trying to achieve. 4. Medium grade sand paper. 5. High Durability polyurethane. 6. Door pulls.

cabinettray1This reclaimed cabinet door had seen some abuse. It started as a golden oak, then apparently someone had applied a polyshade to one side (good grief, they didn’t even do both sides, didn’t that bug them whenever they opened that door?).

cabinettray2I had seen someone refurbish an old dresser using red paint and then distressing it. I liked it so I thought I’d use that on my trays. Everyone needs a dash of red somewhere. I picked up a sample jar of red which is enough to do probably 6 of these trays. I didn’t even try to paint a nice even coat. I just slapped it on the door in a medium thickness coat. Once dry, I went over them with a medium grit sand paper to get through the paint, through the polystain, and through the original stain in some areas, and to rough up the paint a bit all round.

cabinettray3After wiping off the sanding dust I liberally coated both doors with stain and let it set in for 10-15 minutes before thoroughly wiping it off. This will take at least two rags to remove all the excess stain.

cabinettray4Now you can see the aged look the stain gives to the red and how it darkens the original wood.

cabinettray5Once the stain has cured and there are no sticky spots or glistening stain on the doors. Apply at least two coats of High Durability polyurethane. You won’t be able to slice cheese on these trays, but you want to be able to wipe salsa off of them easily. If you want to have a tray that you can put food directly on, get an untreated, unstained wood board and apply a non-toxic, food grade oil before adding the handles. The handles I used for these trays are reclaimed cabinet door pulls I found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Once the urethane cures and hardens, it will hold up just fine to the normal abuse from chip and dip bowls, popcorn bowls, coffee cups, cold drinks, etc.and it will wipe clean with a damp rag.

No one says you have to use this weathered look and go through these steps. If you like lime green, purple, black, gold leaf, polka dots or whatever your heart desires, just paint your doors the way you love, rough the paint up just a little and urethane it before adding the handles.