Coke Crate Ottoman

We had a problem that needed solving. 

The smallest member of our family is our dog, Misty. She is a miniature Yorkshire Terrier. 

A tiny, little five pound bundle of love.  

Obviously she is not the problem.

The problem is that although we have a tiny dog, we also have an over-sized sofa that she loves to snuggle on. So as you may have guessed, getting up on the sofa is quite difficult for her, especially now that she is older.

I know that you can buy steps for them, but our living room is not that large and it would just take up too much floor space. You can also buy foot stools or Ottomans of course, but they are never the right height or not big enough for her to safely jump on. (She thinks she is a lot bigger than she really is.) Besides I don't like the look of them. So here is my solution.

I had this great Vintage Coke Crate that I picked up a number of years ago in Ottawa, 

(hence the French in the lettering). I loved this crate but never really had a good use for it.
Well now it had two uses. A step and storage as well (for some of those dog toys. And yes, the toy in the photo is as big as she is).

 
Let me first say that although the instructions for this project are quite lengthy, it really didn't take me long to do. I actually completed it in a few hours, including glue drying time.
It is also not a complicated one. It was in fact, quite simple.
What took the most time was gathering up all of the supplies! The total cost was about $33.
The crate I already had, and the plywood was just a scrap I had lying around.
What I did buy was the foam ($7), the upholstery tacks ($8) and the button covers ($3) all at Walmart. The hinges I picked up at Rona for ($3).
The upholstery fabric I bought from Chintz and Co. from their discontinued samples for ($6), the interior fabric I already had, and the trim I bought from Fabricland for ($6).

I started out by cutting the plywood to fit flush on the crate . Cut the foam the same dimensions as the plywood (okay, its not perfect but you will never know in the end) and glued it on with E-6000 glue.
There is probably something better suited for this purpose, but A) I didn't know what that was, and B) I was tired of running around gathering my supplies. I wanted to get on with it.
Still it worked perfectly, but the downside is that it is very smelly and should be done outside.

 Next I wrapped the foam with batting I already had on hand. It's the fluffy stuff you find inside comforters, etc. This serves to soften the edges of the foam.

I pressed down onto the foam and pulled the batting tight to make sure it would remain snug once I applied the fabric. It was a bit of a juggling act pushing down, pulling it tight and trying to staple all at once. Probably easier with two sets of hands but I am stubborn and don't like to ask for help unless I have to.
Then I stapled the edges of the batting close to the edge of the board. I wanted to make sure that there was room for me to place the staples for the upholstery fabric later.
Make sure to trim the batting close to the staples and don't let the batting get too thick or bunched up.
I learned this the hard way!
After I had stapled it all on, I did a dry fit on the crate only to see that the batting was so thick in the corners that it actually raised the lid so there was a gap between the lid and the crate in the center of each side.
Not cool!
 
So I had to remove some staples and thin the batting and re-staple.
The above picture shows before I thinned it out.
Then I stapled the upholstery fabric same as the batting.
It works best if you staple in the middle of each side first. It also makes it easier to keep it tight and not let the fabric get crooked.(Especially important with fabric with an obvious pattern!)
I did the corners next. Again trying to keep the corners from getting too bulky.
Several small pleats took care of the excess fabric on the corners nicely.
Then I trimmed the excess fabric.

Sorry no pics of this next part. I was carried away with how quickly it was going.

I then marked the placement of the buttons and drilled holes for them
(only through the plywood, not into the foam).
I probably should have done this step way before this stage, but I wasn't absolutely sure that I wanted to do the button tufting until I actually saw the fabric in place.
I made the button covers from the excess fabric I had just cut off.
Follow the package instructions for how to do this properly.
I had to cheat with a bit of my E6000 glue and some clamps because the fabric was too thick. Made sure that the glue was completely dry and then I used a really long needle and some thick upholstery thread to sew the buttons on. Keeping them nice and snug.

Next I measured out the placement for the upholstery tacks with chalk and a ruler. You don't have to do this step if you are sure you can wing it and you are not a perfectionist like me. But it is easy to get the spacing a little off or go a little crooked.... Just sayin'.

It took two packages of tacks to go all the way around but I think it looks pretty good.
Of course you can skip the tacks altogether but I think they add a nice professional, finished look.

Now I cut the interior fabric (faux suede) in a rectangle just big enough to cover the edges of the upholstery fabric. I hot glued this into place. Yes I know, Hot glue? But really why not? There wasn't going to be any stress on this seam and hot glue actually adheres to most fabrics really well. Besides I didn't want to add more staples!
So I hot glued the trim on as well, making a small pleat in the corners.

Almost finished now!!!
Then it was on to the hinges. I recruited my husband to help me with this part. Yes, you heard right, I actually broke down and asked for help. I just didn't have enough hands.
We decided it was best to mount the hinges onto the interior of the box first and then the lid.  It was a bit awkward getting the hinges on the lid as it doesn't open a full 90 degrees. But we got it done. And here again is the finished product.

Normally I think I would have added legs or casters to the bottom of the crate but then it would have been too high for our little Misty.

P.B. Vintage Dice - Vase Filler

Pottery Barn Knock Off-

Vintage Dice - Vase Filler

Theirs (Pottery Barn)

Mine

My family always played games growing up. You know, old school board games and card games, not video games like today. We used to have family game night when my kids were young too. It is a great way to spend family time together. So when I saw the vase filler dice on Pottery Barn it brought back memories. I wanted them but we don't have a pottery barn close by and I thought it would be a fun project to do.

If you are going to do this project as well, I suggest making as many as you are going to want 

all at once. The assembly line works great for this project.

First measure off the blocks so that the sides will all be even. The thickness of this wood dictated that they would be 1-3/4" square blocks. I decided I wanted three pairs of dice, each pair a different colour combination. In hindsight I wish I had made at least one more pair to fill my jar properly. Sigh.

Next I made a template on paper so I could evenly measure out the dots.  A template made sense since I was making 6 of these. I used a nail as a marker for the dots also because it makes a good starter hole for the drill bit, so it doesn't slide out of place.

Then I sanded all of the edges...

and the corners as well (they roll better that way).

Started drilling for the dots. Be sure not to go to far or you will have holes, you only want round indentations for the dots.

The next step is kind of a pain but necessary when working with raw wood.

Seal the wood with either a  water-based sealant or watered down layer of acrylic paint will do mostly the same thing. It raises the grain of the wood and after you sand it down it will be really nice and smooth and ready for painting. If you skip the sealing the wood, then once you apply your paint it will still raise the grain (the moisture does it) and your paint surface will not be all nice and smooth. It is worth the extra effort.

Then paint! 

I painted the dots first as I thought this would be easier. But I had to go back and touch up the dots after I painted the sides anyways, so maybe the other way around would have been better.

I painted one pair - red with white dots, one pair- black with metallic gold dots and of course the classic - white with black dots. I used acrylic craft paints that I had on hand.

Then  I sanded the edges a little to give it an aged look and waxed them with furniture wax to protect the finish.

         

It didn't quite fill my vintage jar but I added some regular size dice as well and it looks pretty good I think.

People that have seen them can't believe that they are handmade. So I'll take that as a compliment :0)

Re-vamped Sign

Have you ever seen something interesting, grabbed it to look at it more closely, then sadly put it back because there was something not quite right about it?

Sometimes that treasure really only needs a little tweaking to be perfect. 

Don't put it back on the shelf. 

Ask yourself first "Does it have good bones? Can I change it?

How much work is involved? And is it worth it at that price?"   

If the price is reasonable and you think you can do something with it, don't give up on it. Rescue it! 

After all, there was something about it that drew you to it in the first place. 

For instance one day at my local thrift shop I found this rather boring faded little tin sign with the word "GARDEN" in big chunky block letters.

 (This is the back side, sorry don't have a picture with the front. 

But it was much like this, with ugly brown lettering)

 The sign did have some redeeming features though. 

Such as the shape and the lovely embossed details framing it.

All it took was a few coats of paint (Miss Mustard Seed's - Milk paint of course).

First the blue and then the white in the center panel.

The thing that took me the longest was deciding what it should say. It reminded me of a little french cafe sign, so that's what it became. Personalized for me of course! I used graphite paper to transfer the lettering and painted it black.

 Distressed it a bit.

Then antiqued it to bring out the details of the embossing and to age it of course. 

Added some twine to hang it and Voila!

Have to say, I really do love it now. And to think I almost didn't buy it.

Antiqued Mirror

Re-purposed cabinet door into "Antiqued Mirror"

 At my favorite Salvage store I discovered this old cabinet door. Actually there were two. One was in great condition (not my cup of tea!) and the other door the mirror was distressed and yellowing (Score!). It was only $12. I was so excited, couldn't wait to do this project. 

So what to make out of a mirrored cabinet door? Well, a mirror of course! 

I know that it doesn't take a whole lot of creativity to come up with that. But sometimes these salvaged finds only need a little bit of a helping hand to be something "new" and useful again.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the whole door before I got started. Too anxious to get going! 

The door had some hardware that I had to remove first. Namely a keyhole and some other bits that I discovered when I trimmed the one side to match the other. (The bottom was taller than the top. But I was going to be using it horizontally so I wanted them even). 

 

Once I removed the hardware, I filled the holes left by them with modelling paste. Its all I had on hand, and it is paint-able as well. Normally I would use wood putty, but I didn't want to run out to the store and this did the trick just as well.

I had bought some ornamental wood moldings from my local Home Depot ($7), and glued them on each side to add a bit of interest.

 I then painted the moldings, and the side that I had cut, a brown color with some inexpensive acrylic craft paint ($1) in a shade to closely resemble the color of the door. I then taped off the mirror for the next step. 

I used "Miss Mustard Seed's- Milk Paint" in "Ironstone" over the whole piece. I knew the moldings wouldn't chip or peel with the paint because that wood wasn't sealed, but I was hoping the rest of it might. It didn't. It just didn't want to co-operate with me on this one. So I used my method (See my earlier post "Milk Paint tips") to get some chipping. I also sanded down the white paint on the edges and on the moldings just a bit to reveal some of the brown craft paint underneath. 

I then sealed it with "Miss Mustard Seed's- Antiquing Wax" on the moldings to bring out the details and in some random areas to help age it. Then "Miss Mustard Seeds"- Clear "Furniture Wax" over the rest of it to protect it. 

Added some hanging hardware. And Voila! My $20 "Antique" mirror was complete!

Scrabble & Penny Spheres

These are just a couple of simple little projects that I wanted to try. Not many supplies required and very inexpensive.

 



I think the finished products turned out pretty good and are still fun and a little quirky, kind of like me!

 

The first one I did was the Scrabble Tile Sphere and while it was only a little bit difficult, 

it was also a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. Easy doesn't always mean fast.

I started with a  5" glass ball that I picked up from my local HomeSense store. 

I glued the scrabble tiles on with E-600 industrial strength glue (very smelly but very strong).

Use in a well ventilated area.

I placed the letters spelling out names of my family and words like love, laugh, travel etc. To fill in the spaces between the words I used some wooden Sudoku tiles that I found at my local thrift store. These were perfect because they are almost the same size as the scrabble tiles and the numbers are red on one side. So by placing the numbers in-between the words with the red side up you could still easily read the words.

Now, here is where the problems started. 

1) I had to wait for the glue to dry after each word because the tiles would slide out of place while waiting for the glue to set. 

2) Some of the gaps between the tiles were larger than I liked. Too much of the glass underneath was showing through. Perhaps a larger sphere wouldn't have this problem. 

Too late now! So what to do? 

I could have tried grout or something similar to fill the gaps but I wasn't sure how that would affect the tiles seeing as they are wood. I didn't want to chance it. So I ended up cutting out the gap shapes from 1/8" plywood (not an easy thing to do with such tiny shapes)and glued them in after the tiles had dried. The plywood was a bit lighter color than the tiles but you have to call it a day at some point.    

I liked the end result so I wanted to do another one but something different. That lead to .....

The Penny Sphere. 

Here in Canada we have just eliminated the penny from our currency. I had been saving them and now I have a few dollars worth. I wanted to somehow make something creative with this part of our history. This sphere project was the perfect canvas. And it had to be easier than the tiles! It was in fact much easier and faster to make as well. 

The sphere I used was approx. 5" in diameter and it took 148 pennies to cover it.

If you ever plan on making one I would just suggest that you do it in concentric circles.

 Start with a single penny, then glue a circle of pennies around it. Making sure the pennies are touching the ones on each side of it and also the original penny (I used 6 pennies for this). Let it dry and do the next row (mine had 12).  By letting the glue dry after each row, the new row (or circle) can rest against the previous one and not slide around while you wait for it to dry. My rows worked out like this 1 - 6 -12 - 16 - 19 - 21 - 21 - 19 - 16 - 11 - 5 - 1. As you can see one side had to be spaced a little farther apart. Because this glue doesn't set up right away you have the time to adjust the spacing if necessary. 

I alternated between three rows of shiny pennies and three rows of dull pennies. This worked out nice and even and added a bit of interest. I was able to end it with a special centennial penny on the bottom.

Depending on the size of the spheres, you could use dimes, quarters, etc. 

Hmm..... I wonder if I can find anymore that need decorating.....

Custom Vintage Sign

Custom Vintage Sign

 A few weeks ago, my husband, Doug and I went to see our friends' new house that they purchased as a renovation project.  Even though our friend Daryl was busy with contractors, we still managed to get a tour of the property and house. The location is great and the house definitely has good bones. But honestly the thing I am most excited about are some of the treasures we uncovered during the demolition that Daryl allowed me to take home. Apparently he didn't share my excitement in the treasures and seemed quite happy to relinquish them to me. Go figure?!

Some of the treasures included:

A Rudder from a small boat (found in the back garden?)  

Some old glass bottles.
















And today's topic of discussion; a cabinet door panel.

I had to quickly grab this one before it was tossed into the dumpster.








Because it was long and narrow, it reminded me of an old sign. So that's what I would make it (or at least attempt to make).

I taped off and painted with Miss Mustard Seeds- Milk Paint- Flow Blue, Tricycle (Red) and Typewriter (Black). I dry brushed some Ironstone (White) onto the blue to give it a distressed look.
Then I went to my local Michael 's store where I bought two styles and sizes of cut-out wooden letters. I wanted to customize the sign to say something that would fit in with my eclectic decorating style.






 I decided on D&R's (for Doug and Rose) Emporium(for all of the odds and ends we have collected throughout our travels). I used the store bought letters for the word "Emporium" and decided to make the "D&R's" part myself. So I came up with a pattern and cut it on my scroll saw from a 1" pine board I had lying around.

I then tried something I had seen on Pintrest on the cut-out. You supposedly take white glue and make a pattern with the glue and when it dries it keeps its 3-d effect and you can then paint over it. Well I tried it and it was a major fail! The glue flattened out so much so that it was maybe 1/16" thick. Really imperceptible. Originally when I had put it on, it was quite thick, approximately 1/4" thick. Oh well I didn't want to cut and sand another one so I went with it anyway.
I used regular gold acrylic paint on the smaller letters, the edges and sides of the larger letters and also the inner edge of the panel. I used Miss Mustard Seeds Antiquing wax in some random areas but not all over. This helped to give it that aged look. After that was rubbed in I used clear wax on the rest of it, to seal and protect it.

 There was a lot of sanding, sealing, painting and finally antiquing and waxing involved in this project but it wasn't difficult to make, just time consuming.
I am pretty happy with the results, although I may change the blue on the "D&R's" to red.
We'll see, maybe it will grow on me.

Tips on using Milk Paint

If there is still someone out there that doesn't know what milk paint is. I will attempt to give you a description. Milk Paint has been around for hundreds of years. Used mostly during the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain and the States. It is a paint made from  "casein" which is derived from cows milk, natural colored pigments, water and a bit of lime. So it is all-natural and safe for the environment. Since it has a very limited shelf life as a liquid you can now buy it in powder form that you mix with water. The benefit of milk paint is also the negative. It will randomly chip, peel and flake. Giving those painted items a distressed, antique look. I say it is also a negative because you cannot control when, where, or if it is going to chip or flake. Well, maybe..........

Milk Paint Tips 

I use Miss Mustard Seeds Milk Paint because it is relatively inexpensive and readily available. I had read about it on-line, tried it and liked the results.  

Plus, they also have complimentary products to go with the paint such as Hemp Oil, Clear Wax and Antiquing wax.

I am a bit of a control freak so you wouldn't think that I would like milk paint at all. But I actually love it. Especially now that I have come up with these two tricks:

1) Sometimes Milk Paint doesn't chip or peel like you want it to. Fear not, I have discovered a method of helping achieve that :
- Place masking tape over the freshly dried paint in random areas where you would like it to peel and then after about 10-15 minutes, rip it off (like a band-aid!). The paint may now come off in some spots.... It also may not come off at all. Sorry. No guarantees, milk paint is rather temperamental after all . But I have used this method repeatedly with mostly great results.
-If the paint still doesn't peel off, you may have to leave the tape on longer, or even burnish (rub) the tape down. But only try this if the first way doesn't work. Keep in mind the tape may take all of the paint off exactly where you have laid the tape. In the same straight line as the tape. So try and keep this fairly random and don't use totally straight pieces of tape. Tear it up and then apply. Or wrap a piece of tape around your hand (sticky side out as if you were going to take lint off your pants) and dab it here and there.
- If it doesn't work at first, don't give up, keep trying. Once I had to leave the tape on overnight before it worked. Just don't let the paint dry for too long before you apply the tape.
2).  What if you want the paint to come off in some areas but not everywhere? 
-Since you know that if you don't want the milk paint to peel off at all, you just have to add the bonding agent to your paint mixture. Like for instance say you want the paint to peel on the panels of the cabinet doors but not on the trim.
Now I know this one seems obvious but you would be surprised how many people that I talked to never thought of trying this.
Then..........Wait for it.............make two batches of the same paint color!
One with the bonding agent for the places you don't want it to peel and one batch without the bonding agent for the places you would like it to peel.
-Again there is no guarantee that it will peel just because you want it to. But try the tape method above if it is not co-operating.

Good luck and have fun with it.
And don't forget to seal your project with wax, oil or an appropriate varnish to protect it after all of that hard work.
There are a few small examples on this blog using the milk paint with very different results. Check them out!