screw – A Smith of All Trades

Wooden Tree Decoration

January 5, 2015January 5, 2015 Jessica Smith

One of my favorite gifts that I made this year I of course failed to take a nice picture of. Just my luck.

I made my godfather a decoration of trees and a graphic design print with lyrics from his favorite song, In the Bleak Midwinter.

The print is simple and has the first verse of the song. I wanted to create a decoration to sit beside it, so I used pallet wood to create a tree scene.

First, I cut out pallet pieces using a jigsaw. I didn’t care for the lines to be perfect, so you’ll see that the trees aren’t all straight or the same size. Imperfection is the name of the game.

Once my trees were cut out, I sanded them down and laid them out in a way I thought looked pleasing.

I pulled a piece of scrap wood from my stash and cut it down to size. I wanted just enough behind the trees to help the whole decoration stand on its own.

Next, I stained the trees. I used a darker brown stain and a light green stain, choosing to leave the tree in the middle untouched.

Once the stain dried, I screwed the piece of scrap wood into the trees so they would be permanently affixed together.

Last, I used a small piece of scrap wood to create a star — I wasn’t able to cut a star out of wood, but instead stained an itty bitty piece of wood yellow and used a wood burning tool to add a star. I added this to the center tree only.

Ta da!

Like I said — not a good picture. It really doesn’t do this decoration justice. My godfather loved his framed graphic art and the accompanying tree decoration. I almost didn’t want to give the trees away!

Furniture

Crate Coffee Table

March 30, 2014 Jessica Smith

Are there any freecyclers out there reading my blog today? I signed up for the local freecycle group more than a year ago and pretty much ignored the onslaught of emails that frequented my inbox until recently. I was clicking through and saw this beautiful antique dresser that I had to have. But of course, since I didn’t pay any attention t the emails and was a week late in asking the person if I could take it off of their hands into my loving home, I missed out on destiny. OK, that is super melodramatic — it would have been awesome to score a free dresser, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Ever since then, I keep an eye out and quickly scan the emails (I get about 5 a day). I saw a posting for a free crate. No picture, no description other than it was homemade. And I jumped on it.

My loving hubby graciously went along to help me haul the crate into our truck and into our home. I was pretty nervous since there wasn’t a picture, so I wanted him that the whole thing very well could be a bust.

To my great surprise and pleasure, the crate was awesome. AWESOMEEEEEE.

It is beat up and well-loved, and once we brought it inside I was totally digging it in our space.

Sure there’s random crate graffiti…

… but I kinda like it!

The inside is also way cool…. in fact, I wish they’d used some of the neat inside boards on the outside. But hey, you can’t ask for perfection when you get something for free.

The crate was just sitting on our carpet in front of our couch for a while, waiting for some attention. So I gave it some love by adding casters! And while it wasn’t an earth-shattering change and won’t be the last thing I do to the crate, it made a pretty big difference.

Or at least I think so. … if for no other reason than I can actually move it easily now!

I got the casters from Home Depot and was able to add them with just a few screws each. It took me all of 5 minutes. Gotta love that for a quick transformation.

The crate will serve as a lovely coffee table in our family room until I find something a tad bit more permanent. I think it looks really cool near the thrift store end tables that I found not too long ago. The whole room is slowly but surely coming along. Someday I’ll finish it. Maybe.

Scored any free treasures lately?

Furniture

Metalic Pedestal Side Table

July 25, 2013July 22, 2013 Jessica Smith

I’ve had this beautiful silver tray for more than a year now, holding onto it because I knew eventually I’d come up with something cool for it. Well, I finally was inspired to tackle the tray, turning it into a side table for my navy blue chair.

My coworker and I were rummaging through a local thrift store on our lunch break last week and I found (what Rachel called) a plant stand that would become the perfect base for my table.

A whole $5 later and I took that puppy home and got to work. First, I had to remove the top of the plant stand. Whoever built this screwed the top in right through the top itself. It didn’t look so hot, but whatevs.

Once the top was off, I wanted to cut the icky part of the base off of the top. It was covered in an adhesive and was rather gunky.

My hacksaw quickly did the trick.

Next up, drilling through my tray. I used a drill bit that was capable of drilling through metal to put a hole smack dab in the middle of my tray.

Then using a screw, I secured the tray to the top. In theory, I’ll eventually get a nicer screw for the top that is even less noticeable, but the one I chose you can barely see, so it works for now.

Ta da!

Except my hubby thought it was really ugly. And the more I looked at it, especially next to the chair, the more I thought it was sorta ugly, too

So then I decided to spray paint the base black. I did the best spray paint job of my life, which involved a TON of patience. A few coats later and a coat of primer and I was almost finished.

One last step — I cut a small circle of thin wood out to sit under the tray so it wouldn’t be flimsy. After painting this black, too, I secured the table back together.

Much better, huh?

It’s the perfect size for a side table, although Brian still hates it so I might relocate this table into our downstairs bathroom to hold a few decorative knickknacks and some hand lotion.

I think it’s pretty darn cute, though. And for under $10 — heck yes!

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