Tag: crystal

Furniture

Refreshed Grain Bin

Jessica Smith

I bought an old grain bin this spring that’s been moved from wall to wall until it found its home in my dining room. It’s lived in the dining room for months now, in its grungy, dirty state until I got tired of the grime and fixed it up this weekend.

You can see in this photo below the grain bin in its original state on the day I brought it home. It had a white knob and was all scratched up.

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I took off the white knob, which was only drilled partially into the front of the grain bin. It was a pain in the bttt to remove, but I needed to do that before I could clean around it — it was oddly grimy. Yuck.

Grain Bin_Old

I took a few more photos of the piece before getting started on the refinishing. Here’s the beat up top — probably the worst part of the grain bin.

Grain Bin_Old_Top

The front panel of the top of the bin was super scratched, too.

Grain Bin_Old_Front

Since the wood was in super rough face and didn’t look like it ever had much of a stain on it, I was doubtful that my go-to Restor-A-Finish would work. But lo and behold, this might be the best use of the refinishing product yet. To use Restor-A-Finish, simply dab it on a paper towel and rub it on your piece. Let is sit for 20 minutes, then wipe any excess off.

The grain bin was thirstyyyyy, so there wasn’t too much of the finish to wipe off.

Notice any of the scratches or discoloration before?

Grain Bin_Refinished

Nope! Buh bye scratches!

Grain Bin_Refinished_Side

And hello beautiful, shiny top. I mean, seriously, can you believe the difference?

Grain Bin_Refinished_Top

All I needed to do at this point was add a knob back on the front. I grabbed my drill to make a hole through the front panel, then attached an antique0looking crystal knob.

Grain Bin_Refinished_Knob

So charming. Check out the whole thing:

Grain Bin_Refinished_Whole Project1

I bought the grain bin on a whim — basically I just had to buy something at the Barn Sale I went to back in April. Now that it is freshened up, I love this impulse buy and think it totally belongs. It acts as such a nice mini-buffet in the dining room. We usually have our fruit bowl here, but my three apples looked sad and lonely.

Grain Bin_Refinished_Whole Project

Did I mention we store all of our outdoor equipment in it? Volleyballs, badminton racquets…. all sorts of fun stuff. What… don’t you store that sorta thing in your dining room?

Craft Projects, Holiday, Wreath

Snowy Winter Wreath

Jessica Smith

Winter Wreath Square

If you follow my blog you know by now that I am a cool colors girl. I don’t need any reds or oranges in my life. Give me blues and greens and I’ll be happy forever.

Last year I made a beautiful wreath for my front door. But that was when my door was red. And when my green and red wreath looked bangin’ good.

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This year, with my fancy teal doors, the red and green just wasn’t so hot. So In the name of cool colors and my love of snow, I wanted to create a snowy wreath.

Allie and I (I told you we did a million things this weekend!) got all of the supplies at Michaels, and she created this AMAZING wreath while I made my centerpiece and a wreath I’ve yet to share.

To make this wreath, I bought a grapevine form and pretty much any and all of the snowy white floral stuff Michaels had in stock.

Winter Wreath1

Allie spent half of her time cutting each branch apart from one another before she started to systematically arrange them on the wreath. For the branches, she simply stuck them into the wreath far enough so they wouldn’t fall out.

On some spots, she added hot glue. With the pearls, she glued them all in after sticking them where she wanted them.

Winter Wreath3

She did this wreath layer by layer, adding small amounts as she went so it was evenly spaced around the form.

Winter Wreath close up

And basically she should be a professional wreath maker because it turned out to be gorgeous! You can really see all of the detail in the photo above. Some branches are covered in snow, others are covered in clear crystals. It is magnificent and I love the way it pops on my teal door. Buh-bye red, hello snowy white 🙂

This is one happy girl.

Craft Projects

Key and Crystal Wind Chime

Jessica Smith

As promised — new craft project!!!

Remember how I altered my aunt’s beautiful wind chime to match her preexisting one? That project inspired me to think out of the box to create her a final wind chime to complete her set. Both of her chimes are copper with key and crystal accents, and I happened to have a ton of old keys and chandelier crystals in my craft room. What luck!

{A Smith of All Trades} Old wind chime

{A Smith of All Trades} New wind chime

I set out to make my own wind chime using  keys, crystals, wire, chain and an embroidery hoop.

{A Smith of All Trades} Hoop unpainted

First, I separated my hoop into two pieces. I went outside and hit each side with some copper spray paint to match my aunt’s existing chimes.

{A Smith of All Trades} Hoops painted

Once the hoop was dry, I brought it inside and drilled six holes around the inner of the two hoops. This is where I attached the actual chimes, using the outer ring as a safety measure against the wire getting too much wear and tear.

{A Smith of All Trades} Hoop

When the holes were drilled, I started making each strand of the chime. I didn’t want my strands to be even, so I didn’t bother measuring out the chain. For this step, I laid out my supplies: pliers, wire, chain, keys, crystals.

{A Smith of All Trades} Tools

I had two sizes of crystals from a leftover chandelier: Large drops and small faceted octagons. I used the large drops at the end of each chain to give them weight. For keys, I had a nice mixture to choose from. I opted to not be matchy-matchy. I spray painted a few copper, but left others natural.

To get the crystals onto the chain, I took a copper wire and looped it through the pre-drilled hole.

{A Smith of All Trades} Wire

Once the wire was in and trimmed to a good length, I started to twist it around itself, creating a loop at the other end and hooking in the chain. Once the chain was hooked onto the wire, I came back down the wire, wrapping it around itself until the wire ran out.

{A Smith of All Trades}Wire Wrap

After the anchor crystals were on, I continued this process up the chain. Crystal, key, crystal, key. I added more keys to some chains, and fewer to others.

{A Smith of All Trades} Crystal bead

Once the chains were created, I attached them to the embroidery hoop using the same method of twisting the wire. When all six chains were added, I added two chains at the top (using the existing holes) to hang the chime from.

{A Smith of All Trades} Crystals

Aren’t the crystals beautiful?!

{A Smith of All Trades} Key

And I just love the different keys that I added to the chime. They are all so unique.

{A Smith of All Trades}Wind Chime cg

The chime is so pretty, I almost don’t want to send it off to my aunt. But it will match so nicely.

{A Smith of All Trades} Wine Chime1

{A Smith of All Trades} Wind Chime

{A Smith of All Trades} Wind Chime 2

What do you think? Will you be grabbing your space embroidery hoops and old chain to make a chime? You could make on using beads instead of crystals! Anything would go 🙂