Tag: polyurethane

Craft Projects

Jewelry Holder: Glass knobs

Jessica Smith

Look what I brought home from work!?! We just had 42 boxes of our alumni magazine delivered a couple of weeks ago on this beauty of a pallet. I quickly called “dibs” on the pallet (no one else wanted it… can’t imagine why) after the delivery guy left and took it into my office, where it happily resided for a couple of weeks. I finally took it home last Friday, and was originally going to use it as nail gun practice. But, when I started to mess around with it, I changed my mind and quickly crafted a new plan.

I pulled out my jigsaw and started cutting off a few of the boards. I took them inside to sand them down a bit and decide exactly what I wanted to create.

Once my board was smooth, I cut it down the middle where the two screws held it to the middle support board of the pallet — right through the holes!

I sanded, sanded and sanded some more until my half boards were super smooth.

Next, I stained a piece of wood a light shade of gray before applying a coat of poly to the top. I let it dry overnight. Then, I screwed in three adorable glass knobs (four if you count the one I shattered by tightening the screw too much… oops) and attached a ribbon.

With that, I had a totally recycled jewelry holder — wood, knobs and all! I literally didn’t have to buy a single supply for this project — I had everything sitting around in my craft room, and, of course, my free pallet. Bahaha, that’s the best kind of craft! So excited.

I think I’ll have to make a few more of these for that Trash to Treasure fair, don’t you think?

Spoiler alert — I already made a second one, but the hangers are so much cooler. Check back later to see it!

One last thing… Here’s a fun fact, for all of you people who are on the lookout for pallets — they aren’t the nicest thing in creation. The wood is jagged and splintery, the screws are warped and they are often falling apart…. but man are they fun to work with if you get the chance! There are two sitting in our loading dock right now that I am oh so tempted to take, but I think I’ll finish tearing this one up first :p

Furniture

Part 2: Dresser refab

Jessica Smith

My dresser is almost done. Almost. It’s been sanded, stained and polyurethaned. Now all it needs to do is dry! Then I can add my spiffy teal knobs!

The project was rather simple, but I certainly learned a lot along the way. First and foremost, don’t stain outside if there is any hint of a breeze — especially in the spring. I had to bring the dresser inside after the first coat of poly because so much crap had blown onto it and was sticking in the finish.

Second, make sure you sand all surfaces you want to stain. New stain + old stain doesn’t always equal a good combination.

Third, make sure you aren’t doing things the hard way. According to my family friend, John, it would have been a lot quicker to use a varnish stripping agent instead of sanding all of the nooks and crannies of the old dresser. A tip for next time, I suppose!

Here’s the progress so far:

OK, this was the first coat of stain. Honestly, I was super disappointed with how it looked — it wasn’t all that different from what I started with.

And here’s the stain after a much thicker coat. Much better!

Before the poly (and before I moved inside).

Remmy watching from inside because he kept grabbing rocks and/or sandpaper, and then running away.

All polyed up and sitting out to dry.


Looking good!

Maybe tomorrow I can put it all back together, knobs and all. I might play it extra safe and wait an extra day for it all to dry.

In other news, if you follow my Facebook page you know that I spent part of the weekend unpacking my craft room. While that sounds super exciting, it was actually rather overwhelming. As of right now, I’ve got a whole lot of nothing to do crafts on except the floor. I also have a whole lot of nothing to use for storage. I’ve been hitting up thrift stores and Craigslist to see if I can find something the meet my needs, but if I can’t I think I’ll have to custom build something into my craft nook. I’m rather desperate to have a functioning craft room, but all in good time.

While I didn’t find a craft table (or a coffee table or a desk), I did find some other fun things at the thrift store this weekend. 

An old dictionary, an old atlas and a nasty silver bowl. Can’t wait to get to work on some projects I have planned, especially with the atlas and the dictionary. Oh! I bought a second atlas, but the hubby loved it so much he claimed it as his own and refuses to let me use it for crafting. Also, I paid $3.50 for it and it is selling for $135 on eBay! Holy cow! Great find, huh, Carrie H. (my thrift store buddy)?