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DIY

OMBRE DRESSER DIY

November 8, 2020

What started out as a necessity as a cash strapped college grad moving to a new town for graduate school has become a hobby over the years: upcycling Goodwill furniture finds. I can easily say that every single clothes dresser in our house has been thrifted from a local Goodwill and at this point that is quite a few of them considering we have three kiddos! 

I’ve outlined a few steps below of how I select my thrifted pieces and a quick how-to on this colorful dresser which added the perfect pop of color to our youngest daughter’s nursery.  

Pick Your Piece

  • Peruse local thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, and Goodwills for solid pieces of furniture that are in need of some elbow grease and a little imagination.  
  • Do open drawers, check backing, and inspect legs to ensure the structural integrity of the piece. 
  • Don’t pick laminated furniture or items made from particleboard. These aren’t absolutely off the table, but they can limit what type of modifications can be done based upon the material if not made from real wood. 
  • Be sure to check for water damage especially on laminate/particleboard as this will cause a bubbling effect on the surface of the furniture. 
  • Always opt for real wood constructed pieces. They can withstand the test of time and lend themselves to greater flexibility and creativity in the refinishing process. You can choose to sand down to a natural wood finish and stain or simply sand and repaint. 

Prep Your Piece

Assess the work and tools needed: 

  • The effort of this step is very dependent upon what condition your thrifted or existing dresser is in and what finishes you select for the final product.  
  • For the purposes of this “how-to” you can see that the dresser I bought was bland, but in decent condition. These instructions will be for re-painting an old painted dresser.
Sand all painted surfaces:
 
  •  Remove drawers and hardware. 
  • Use sand paper with a low number and heavier grit to knock off most of the paint and then finish with a higher number, finer grit sand paper. 
  • Quick lesson on sand paper: It is normally categorized into ranges of numbers starting with 20 (extra coarse) up to 600 (super fine). The majority of use on furniture with a normal sander or by hand sanding for the purposes of refinishing furniture is to start with an 80 grit and smooth out with 120-160 grit. 
  • If simply repainting, all of paint does not need to be sanded off, but the surface does need to be lightly sanded and smoothed so that paint will adhere well to the surface.
  • Patch any holes or deep scratches with wood filler and allow to dry before gently sanding smooth to match the same level as the surface. 

Wipe down excess dust

  •  Take a tack cloth (these are better than any other since they are specially formulated to be lint and residue free) and wipe all surfaces that will be painted. 
  • On occasion and in a pinch, I have used a wet wash cloth, but have had to be careful to check for lint and allow time to dry. 

Paint Your Piece

 

  • For the first time in the history of all of my DIY projects, I did not buy any paint for this project. I used a hodge podge of leftover colors from other projects. 
  • I chose to spray paint the dresser with Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X in Ivory Bisque. This is also the same color as the top drawer. 
  • On the other drawers, I used Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X Candy Pink, Sweet Pea, Vintage Blush, and Krylon Colormaster Ballet Slipper Pink.  
  • For first time users of spray paint, spray lightly and multiple coats really are better. Take it from someone who has tried to rush one too many times and has gone a little heavy handed with the spray paint only to have the paint drip and run. This will put you back in the sanding phase of the project—after the paint dries of course. 

Replace Hardware and Enjoy

  • After the several coats of paint have thoroughly dried, it is time to replace the hardware. 
  • Hardware is all about personal aesthetic and chosen functionality. I tend to work on pieces that I am restoring to a specific style and I often try to salvage the existing hardware–especially if it is original to the piece. 
  • I was able to find these gold cylindrical knobs at Hobby Lobby on sale. Here is a similar set on Amazon: Gold Knob Hardware
  • This hardware has held up beautifully to toddler hands pulling and yanking on drawers. Normally, I stick to Lowe’s or Home Depot for cabinet hardware selections, but Hobby Lobby came through with a fun eclectic selection that matched the playful paint colors I selected for this project. 
DIY

Mobile Goat Shed DIY

September 7, 2020

At this point in our marriage, Ben is not phased by the things that come out of my mouth or the thoughts that stir around in my head. When we tackle projects together, Ben, the engineer, is often in Step 1 determining feasibility of the project and I am already at the end goal and working my way back through the steps. I do budgeting and financial analysis for a living so I am often focused on long term strategy while simultaneously monitoring the impact of every day decisions. I spend a lot of time devising the plan and am often looking to the future to identify any roadblocks to success. Our very different ways of thinking about projects can sometimes cause very interesting communication challenges too because we’re not even thinking about the same step of the project at any given point. 

In the case of our goats and goat pastures my thinking in reverse of what the end goal would/should look like has saved us some future labor (and $$) which I’m sure Ben will thank me for later. We didn’t want to fence all of the property at once (also fencing can be very expensive) and we still need to cut some trees and clear undergrowth in other areas. We also have a whole section of the property that has major drainage issues and is basically a bog—that will most likely require some grading before we add fencing. We fenced off the middle section of what will become three goat pastures. We plan on rotating our goat herd across multiple pastures so naturally when planning for a goat shed I told Ben I wanted it to be mobile. I envisioned us being able pull it from one field to another as we moved the weed eater crew so that they will always have shelter and we didn’t need to construct three goat shelters—see? I told you Ben would thank me!

Materials

  • 4×4 posts (base)
  • 2×4 boards (frame)
  • 8″ pneumatic heavy duty swivel casters
  • LP SmartSide Strand Panel Siding 48″ x 96″ 
  • SunTuf Polycarbonate Corrugated Roof Panels 26″ x 12 ft
  • 3″ construction screws (starbit head) 
  • 2 hitch rings (for towing from location to location) 

Build Out Steps(& Missteps)by Ben

Step 1. Determine the size shed you want to build.  We made an 8′ x 8′ base with a 6′ tall front sloping down to 4′ in the back. We chose the dimensions mostly to simplify the material selection and the measurements and with a sloped roof to ensure proper water runoff. 

Step 2. Cut foundations boards to the correct length.  Since we chose an 8’x8′ base, we only had to cut two of the foundation boards.  We used 4×4 posts as the foundation. Measure all the boards before cutting, as an 8′ board may be slightly longer than 96″ and a 4×4 is not four inches wide (the board was four inches before it was dried and processed at the lumber mill). 

Step 3. We chose to do butt joints instead of miter corners, which made the measuring and cutting much simpler. Place two of the 4x4s parallel to each other, then place the other two boards on the inside.  We screwed these together first.  You may notice that it is really hard to find screws that long without going into the specialty hardware section and paying a lot for a little.  We drilled pilot holes about two inches into the ends of each board that were large enough to fit the entire screw into as well as the driver bit holder.  This way we were able to keep the materials list smaller and use what we had on hand. 

Step 4. Make angle braces using 2x4s.  The screws through the end will not be enough to handle the stress on being pulled and moved, so the foundation needs additional support.  You could use 4x4s for the angle, but we always have some scrap 2×4 material, so we doubled up each corner with 2x4s. To make the angle braces, you will need to cut each 2×4 into 45 degree cuts on both ends in opposing slants. If you know what you are doing, you can make the measurements and just make the cuts with a miter saw or a circular saw.  If you are like me, the cheater’s way is to lay the 2×4 over the 4×4 foundation and make a mark on the 2×4 using the 4×4 as the guide.  This will give you the angle of the cut on both sides and help you from having a mental lapse and cutting the wrong 45 degree on one side–ask me how I know!

Step 5.  Attach the angle braces to the 4×4 foundation using screws or nails (I prefer screws, they have a better hold and its harder to whack your thumb with a drill/driver). If you made perfect 45 degree angle cuts on your angle braces, but have a small gap anywhere between the 2×4 and the 4×4, that means your foundation is not completely square.  You mostly likely will not end up with a completely square foundation because of the posts, but you should adjust as much as possible to get the structure as square as you can (trust me, I didn’t and regretted it at the end).

Step 6. Attach the wheels to the 4×4 foundation at the corners. If you decide to use swiveling casters like we did, make sure they are free spinning before you flip over the foundation.   You may need an extra set of hands to flip over the foundation, it is a bit heavy and a little awkward to handle.

Step 7. Time to make the walls! Start by building out the corner vertical boards.  We used 2x4s for this, but you want it be extra solid you could use 4x4s.  Again, I took the fast route to make the measurements simple and attached the boards to the outside of the foundation and aligned them with the bottom of the 4×4 supports of the base.  This made the cut for the vertical board easier, but made for a small headache later. (for clarification: the boards should have measured to the top of the 4×4 base otherwise you end up with additional inches in depth or width) 

Step 8. Attach a header board for the side walls using a 2×4.  If everything went according to plan, in our example, this board was 8′ matching the post foundation. After doing the header for the two side walls, measure out the header for the back wall. This should also match the length of the cut foundation board beneath, in our case ~7.5′. 

Step 9. Measure out the studs for the side and back walls.  You can do a measurement, but the shortcut way is to place the 2×4 on the foundation board and make a mark on the 2×4 and the bottom of the header and that will give you your cut.  Space out the studs about every two feet.  If you are a better planner than me, you will measure it out to make sure one of the studs will be at seam of the siding.  If you are like me, you will have to go back and add a 2×4 later to make the seams stay down. 

Step 10. Attach 2x4s from the front header to the back header spacing them about 2 feet apart. You can reduce your spacing and add more boards for a place to adhere the roof material or you can opt to add additional boards to run parallel to the front and back.  We opted to add 1x4s to run parallel to the front and back, spacing those about 2 feet apart.  

Step 11. Measure the cuts for the siding. I chose to hold up the siding to the framed out walls and draw the template to make the cuts rather than measuring and making sure I had good angles and straight lines. It really help to have an extra set of hands on this one! If you are doing a solo build, you can use some scrap material to hold the siding in place while you draw the template, but from experience on this one, if you can get help, use it. 

Step 12. Using a circular saw or a jig saw (circle saw is much faster, but a little less fine of a cut), cut your siding to the lines you drew for your template. 

Step 13.  Adhere the siding panels to the framed out shed.  I used a pneumatic nailer and opted for finishing brads and just used a ton of them. Not the best choice, but it has worked so far.  I did not want to use bigger nails or screws as we opted for the thinner OSB panels and I didn’t want to have a big nail or screw head breaking up the vertical line pattern of the siding. 

Step 14. Almost there! Attaching the panels was the moment of truth of how well you made your cuts and how square your building is.  You if you are like me, then you spend the next twenty minutes thinking about how you are going to do better the next time about making sure things are square.  Remember when I said I regretted attaching the vertical corners to the outside of the board, well that’s because I didn’t think about it making the shed about 99″ instead of the 8 foot (96″) that I had planned on.  So, if you are like me, you can add decorative 1×4 or 1x6s to the back corners to cover up any gaps in the siding. 

Step 15. Attach the roofing material to the roof cross members.  You can use regular screws or nails, but it is better to use the screws made for this material that have a small washer with a rubber gasket on the bottom to prevent moisture from getting into the screw holes. 

Step 16.  Attach the hitch rings to the front foundation board with heavy duty screws of your choice. We chose to place the rings equidistant in the front to optimally distribute the torque when towing the shed from location to location.  

Step 17. Finally finished and ready for use (unless your wife wants to paint it and add Craftsman styled trim in which case the Mobile Goat Shed is finished for now) 

 

DIY

Jenny Lind Twin Refurb

August 23, 2020

Jenny Lind beds are making a comeback–a two hundred year revival in the making, but not too much of a surprise considering their history of style at an affordable price point. More commonly, the genre is considered spool-turned or spindle furniture and became one of the first mass produced types of furniture available at the turn of the 19th century. Commonly referred to as “Jenny Lind” this furniture was popularized by the Swedish opera singer Johanna Maria Lind who is claimed to have slept in one of these beds during her American tour with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Don’t be like me and think Jenny Lind was a furniture designer like the Stickley Brothers of the Arts and Crafts Era. 

Personally, I love the spindle furniture style and have been fortunate to find some pieces to add to our home. I was given a beautiful Jenny Lind full bed from my mother-in-law that was Ben’s when he was younger that I refreshed and painted when Lily graduated from a toddler bed to a real bed. The curved spindles give the perfect feminine touch for a little girl’s room. 

When we decided to move and buy a new house, I knew I wanted the guest room to have twin beds. Luckily, I found two matching twin beds on Facebook marketplace in varying conditions. One bed had normal scuffs and scratches that I knew could be easily covered with paint and the other had been kept in a barn and sustained significant damage that threatened the structural integrity of the bed. Of course like any purchase sight unseen, I did not realize the true condition of the bed until it was time to pick it up. Thankfully, I only paid $40 for the bed in rough condition which is good because it needed more work than most of our normal projects. 

Step 1: Structural Repair

For the bed that was damaged, we used a combination of wood glue, tie plates, and corner braces to ensure that the headboard and footboards were structurally secure (think toddlers jumping on the bed as the litmus test here) prior to priming. My joke with Ben was that this bed has more hardware than the tin man! Thankfully, between the location of the hardware and the paint, it does not impact the aesthetic of the bed–you can’t tell between the two which one required the significant amount of work. 

Step 2: Sanding and Paint Preparation

After sanding for what felt like hours—lots of hand sanding on those spindles with all the tiny curves and crevices. I opted to use a combination of heavy grit (80) sand paper to knock off the flaking old paint and fine grit 220 sanding blocks to finish to make sure the wood surface was smooth and ready to be painted. The bed that was in relatively good shape needed to be sanded in a similar fashion to knock off a varnish and “rough up” the surface enough for paint to adhere well. I cleaned all the residue and dust from sanding off prior to painting with primer. Although we do have a paint sprayer and that would have expedited the process significantly, I chose to hand paint these two beds (the paint sprayer is still packed somewhere in the garage).

Step 3: Paint

Once the sanding was complete and the gaps in the wood were filled and smoothed down, we primed the beds with Kilz All-Purpose Interior White Primer. I learned from my first experience spray painting a Jenny Lind bed that I needed to use a primer beforehand and a heavier duty paint to withstand the rough and tumble nature of the crew of toddlers that live in our house. Lily’s bed has numerous chips of paint missing and will be going through a re-painting process soon.  I chose to use Door and Trim paint in high gloss white for its durable and wipeable finish. Even with the primer it took several coats of paint to cover the wood and hardware. We’re normally a Valspar family or Sherwin Williams paint buyers–not Glidden, but I bought the materials for this project when the COVID-19 pandemic began so I limited myself to what was available at the local Walmart where I also happened to be buying my groceries. This is a latex paint–I would have preferred an oil-based paint. They tend to be thicker,  better at filling small imperfections, and naturally more resistant to wear and tear than water-based products like latex. However, this latex paint was quick to use (short drying time), emitted low fumes, and should still remain chip resistant for the long run. 

Step 4: Enjoy

Once you’ve got your head and footboards sanded, painted, and dried, they are ready to use hook on bed rails and we cut DIY bed slats from 1×4 lumber. These pieces can be bought in 8′ to 16′ pieces at Lowes (the longer, the cheaper per linear foot) and you can cut to size. Throw your mattress and bedding on and you’re ready to take a well deserved nap!