Rustic Industrial Sofa Table

The poly finally dried and my wicked awesome table is complete!

Sorta…

The table is done but there’s one small glitch.

You see, we ordered a new loveseat and it hasn’t arrived yet (booooooo) and the couch we currently have has a much higher back their our new loveseat so my pretty table looks too short.  But once my new, sleek loveseat arrives it will be beautiful.

Without further ado: how my rustic industrial sofa table was born.

I’ve been dreaming about making something out of plumbing pipe for some time now.  Every time we’d go to the home improvement store I’d play in the plumbing pipe aisle, making different legs for a table, brackets for a bookshelf, etc.  Then it finally hit me that a sofa table in our living room would be totally awesome because some other furniture changes in the room have made end tables unnecessary. (Oooohhh… cliff hanger)

First I measured the height of my loveseat (well actually it’s sister – the couch currently living in my family room) and found it to be about 31 inches high.  I Googled it and found out that sofa tables are traditionally 5 or so inches below the back of the sofa.  So I needed to get the height of my table to be approximately 26 inches give or take. Don’t you love my scientific approach?   I also measured the length of the love seat which was about 62 inches.

After a bunch of finagling and brainstorming, I came up with a super simple leg for my table. Here’s my shopping list:

(all my pipes are 1/2″ black unless noted)

4 floor flanges – I used galvanized since they were out of black
4 18″ long black steel pipes
4 6″ long nipples
4 Tee connectors
2 1/2″ nipples
4 caps

Total price: $42.00

Once I figured out all my pieces (ahem… by fully assembling one whole leg in the middle of the plumbing isle) I was good to go.

What I love about this project is that you can make it as simple or complex as you’d like. Add elbows and different connectors and get a totally different look to your table.  And one of my favorite parts: it can all be disassembled later if I want to do something different! Or we finally get to move and I need a different sized table.

The wood top on my table is a scrap piece of 1×8 from our garage and the wood stain we had as well, so they were free!

I washed my pipe in sudsy water because they were a bit grimy. Allow them to dry.

(DO NOT PUT THEM NEAR THE OUTPUT ON YOUR DRYER VENT AS OUR BEAUTIFUL PIPES WILL RUST FROM THE STEAM)

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(Not that I know from experience)

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(Sigh. Anyone have black spray paint?)

Once your pipe is completely dry you can start assembling the legs.

For me I screwed one of the 6″ nipples into the bottom of one of the T connectors. The 1/2″ nipple was then screwed into the side. Attach another T connector to the other end of the 1/2″ nipple and 6″ nipple to the bottom of that T connector. Hard to explain but the pictures will help hopefully.

Now it’s time to add the longer, in my case – 18″ long pipes and the flanges.

Admire your new table legs.  Oh wait… Forgot something.

You may want to add the caps to the exposed end of the 6″ nipple.

Now you can admire.

But not for too long because you need to repeat the process for the other leg.

Next up: the top!  You’ll want to cut the wood you plan on using for the table top. Since I just needed a skinny table I was able to use one board of scrap 1×8 that was 60″ long.  A planked top ala Ana White would be awesome if building a console or coffee table. The sky’s the limit!

Stain the wood to whatever color you wish. Wait for it to dry patiently. Or not.

Put on a couple of coats of polyurethane. Wait for it to dry patiently.

Once it is dry (finally) you are ready to add the legs to the table top (finally).

Determine where you want the legs.

Using screws, attach the flanges to the bottom of the table top.  Repeat with the other set of legs.

Admire your new sofa table.

Add some fun lamps and put your couch back in place. Wish you’re new loveseat would hurry up and get here… patiently.

Hope you liked my little tutorial of sorts! When my new loveseat arrives I’ll update and accessorize!

Check ya later,

Erin

Not Just for Nemo

Ready for the easiest tutorial in the world?

Step 1: Go to Walmart or Petco or wherever and buy yourself a piece of fake coral for fish tanks. I got mine at Walmart for $3.98. As you can see, mine is pink.

Step 2: Locate your white spray paint from the 10,000 cans you have. I used Krylon Fusion for Plastics.

Step 3: Remove coral from package.


Step 4: Spray paint the bejesus out of the fake coral.

Then spray it some more.

Step 5: Let it dry.

Step 6: Stand back and enjoy.

What do you think? Easy right? I’m contemplating going back and getting more. They had a bunch of different sizes and types to choose from. Can’t you see a grouping of these sitting on a bookshelf? Ooh, perhaps with the beach inspired frame near by? Would be awesome!

I’ve seen fake coral like this for $20+ a piece at Pottery Barn! I’ll take my $4 version any day!

Hope you liked my little project!

Lots of love,
Erin

P.S. Sorry about the iPhone pictures. I’m currently in bed nursing a sore mouth after a visit from the dentist this afternoon.

Melted Spoon Flower Frame

Hopefully, you have looked through my archives and were able to see my gorgeous monogrammed acrylic tray tutorial. If you haven’t yet, go now. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

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Back? Super cute, right?

I big pink, puffy heart it.

Anywho, I don’t know if you noticed in the background of one of my inspiration pictures there is this a really pretty picture frame with flowers on it.

{ image originally from Chic Cheap Nursery | edited by me }

Isn’t it just lovely? I had to make it. So I did. Yay!

I used an unfinished wood frame that I bought for $1 at Michaels, some plastic spoons from the dollar store, a ceramic tile to build my flower on, hot glue and a candle. Not pictured is the white spray paint I also used and a glass jem (like for fish tanks) I used for the center. Oh, and matches or a lighter for your candle.

I had seen all of the lovely melted spoon tutorials floating around Pinterest and thought that they looked very similar to the flowers on my inspiration frame. After reading several I just decided to go for it.

Step 1: Melt a spoon. To do this hold your spoon sort of close by not too close to the lit candle. Too close and you will 1) catch the spoon on fire, 2) melt a hole in your spoon or 3) get char marks on said spoon. It wasn’t too hard but it took me a couple to figure out how close was too close.

Make several so that when you go to assemble your flower you have plenty of petals to choose from.

Next, cut the bowl of the spoon off from the handle. I used my kitchen shears for this. Be warned: the pieces sort of fly all over the place.

Place a pretty big bead of hot glue in the center of your ceramic tile. This will be where you build your flower. Don’t worry, the flower will come off the tile really easily when we’re all done.

Working quickly before the glue dries completely, insert your petal into the hot glue. I played around with my petals before using the glue so I had an idea of what petal I wanted where. As you can see, I used 4 petals for my outer flower. I used another 4 petals for my inner flower. The inner flower petals fill the spaces left between the outer flower petals.

Then I glued a floral gem into the center of the inner flowers. This covers up an rough edges that may be in the center of your flower.

I repeating the process again to make a second flower. I also melted spoons to resemble leaves. Then I did a dry fit to make sure they fit on the frame and where I wanted the flowers to be placed.

Spray paint the frame white. Once dry, it’s time to add the “leaf” spoons. I left the handle longer on these spoons so they tucked nicely under the flower. Then I hot glued the flowers onto the frame. Then you’re done! Time to enjoy your new, gorgeous frame.

{ side view – I love the texture }

{ close up of the flower }

So what do you think? Do you love the texture as much as I do? Sigh. <;3

Lots of Love,

Erin

{ Pinterest Thursday: } Clothes Pin Frame

I stumbled upon Steph from Crafting in the Rain‘s clothes pin picture frame through a linky party. I was immediately drawn to the awesome texture the clothes pins gave the frame. I knew I had to make one ASAP.

{ via Pinterest }

Steph dyed her clothes pins using black RIT dye. I didn’t have any and I wanted to make this project using things I already had. No problem. Spray paint to the rescue!

The project is pretty self explanitory. Get a frame and glue on the clothes pins. My frame had a nice wide face so it was perfect for this. I used 12 wooden spring clothes pins to cover my frame found in my laundry room. How many you will need will depend on your frame. I recommend a dry fit before gluing. I just slid them right off the spring mechanism.

First I spread the glue all over my frame. Don’t laugh but I used good ole fashioned Elmers for this. You could probably use whatever glue you wanted. Even hot glue but you would have to either work in warp speed or put a bead of glue, one pin, glue, one pin, etc. I wanted to be able to move my pins around a bit to get the fit right.

Arrange the clothespins on the frame flat side down. I really liked how Steph alternated the direction of the clothes pins so I did the same. The two small pieces? I used those as fillers in the interior corners. (Kind of hard to see)

Once you play with the arrangement and get it just right, let the frame dry.

Now it’s time for spray paint. I used a gloss brown spray paint I found in the basement.

I had a great time moving the frame around the house.

In our bedroom. In the family room. On the mantel (see anything familiar? ) But I think on our landing might be my favorite spot.

What do you think? Where should the frame live? Are you going to make your own? I’d love to see it!

Lots of Love,

Erin

DIY Lunch Sign

 

I may have a new piece of decor in my kitchen.  I saw this gorgeous sign in the kitchen of Kelley at The Polished Pebble.  As soon as I saw it I had to make my own.

I started to looked for a way to transfer an inkjet print out to wood.  I found a tutorial for this at Green Wedding Shoes.  I thought I would give it a try.

First I got a scrap piece of wood and cut it down to the size I wanted.  I was a little overzealous and painted it before taking this picture. Whoops!

To give it a distressed look I brushed on waterdown black paint.  I added the non-watered version to the edges just like in the inspiration. Let it dry.

Now for the transfer part.  The tutorial I used told me to brush a thin coat of Elmer’s glue onto a piece of cardstock.  Once that had dried, I sent it through my printer.  I designed the lettering in Photoshop by just typing out the word lunch and then reversed the image so the transfer would work.  The black lines helped me to design the lettering to fit my board.  Once the design had printed I cut it out just inside the black lines.

 

Per the instructions, I brushed on a thin coat of Mod Podge onto the wood board. And then I put the print out facedown onto the wet Mod Podge.

Really press the print down into the wet Mod Podge and flatten it out getting rid of any air bubbles.  Make sure that your entire print is down in the Mod Podge. Then place a heavy object on your board and leave it for at least 8 hours. I left mine overnight.

The next day I ran the board and cardstock under warm water like the tutorial told me.  However, I was super impatient and started to pick the paper off.  I think that’s why I didn’t get the real nice transfer I was hoping for.  No worries.  I just filled in the letters with black craft paint.  I’m going to try this method again and hopefully I’ll actually follow the directions next time.

Then I went ahead and used my sandpaper to sand the edges and lightly sand over the lettering to distress the sign a bit more.  Here’s how it turned out:

{ in the window }

{ on the (very dirty) coffee maker }

{ sigh. love it }

So what do you think?  Do you love it as much as I do?  I’m going to give the transfer method another try.  Hopefully I’ll follow directions next time

Lots of Love,

Erin

Crate and Barrel Circlet Stand Knock Off Tutorial

I was flipping through Crate and Barrel’s website and I saw their Circlet Stand and immediately thought it looked like an embroidery hoop. Since I have a bunch that I’ve been collected for an art display in my daughter’s room if we ever move, I decided to give it a try. Here is my inspiration:

{ via Pinterest }

Crate and Barrel offers these in 3 sizes with prices ranging from $50-70. Granted theirs is made of handwrought iron. But mine looks metallic thanks to spray paint. Onto the tutorial!

I got my supplies together. The inside circle of an embroidery hoop, a wooden plaque, a piece of dowel, wood glue and spray paint! That’s it! This project actually cost me nothing as I had all these materials on hand!

First I removed the center circle from the embroidery hoop by loosening the screw clamp thing.

Apply a bit of wood glue to the outside of the hoop where you want your dowel to be.

Put the dowel into the glue and hold it there. Or do what I did and use tape to hold it up until the glue dries.

Find the center of the wood plaque and drill a hole the size of your dowel. Fill the hole with glue.

Insert the dowel into the glue and allow it to dry completely. When dry, find your favorite metallic spray paint and paint away. I used Krylon’s Oil Rubbed Bronze. It turned out awesome… Until I tripped, fell and dropped it. The hoop fell off. I almost cried. But then I whipped out the hot glue gun and fixed it in no time flat! Yay!

Now that it’s all fixed and dry it’s time to style it with your favorite accessories!

{ I love the modern hoop art paired with the vintage camera }

So…What do you think? Will you be making one for yourself? Hope you liked my tutorial!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Shared at:

• Hookin Up with HOH – House of Hepworths
• Time to Party – The 36th Avenue
• Blue Cricket Design
• DIY Link Party – aka design
• Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots & Jello
• DIY Project Parade – The DIY Show-Off
• Sunday Showcase – Under the Table and Dreaming

 

UPDATE: Oh my goodness! Beckie has honored me once again and featured the Circlet Stand knock off on Knock Off Decor! Thanks, Beckie!

{ Pinterest Thursday: } Vintage B Wall Art

I love the House Tours that John and Sherry have on Young House Love. For me, it’s the less creepy equivalent of driving through a neighborhood at night and peeking through lit up windows.

Nearly a year ago, I saw Melissa’s house tour I fell in LOVE with her gallery wall an especially the vintage looking letter she had. She bought it from Ross but we don’t have a Ross here so we made it ourselves!

We went to Lowes and bought a piece of pine. The piece we bought wasn’t very thick and I really wanted it to be thick like Melissa’s. How do we do that? Glue and clamps! We started by sawing the board in half and then applied a hole lotta wood glue to one half. We stacked the other half of the board on top of the glue and used clamps to hold the boards together tightly. We left them in the clamps for about 24 hours just to be safe.

In the meantime I colored the back of the letter I had printed with a pencil (my super secret transfer method ). I used Photoshop to make my letter fit an 11×17 sheet of paper.

I flipped the paper over and pressing firmly with a pencil I traced the letter. I checked periodically making sure the transfer was going through.

Here’s what it looked like when I was done transferring. I went over the any light spots so we knew where to cut.

My hubby was kind enough to cut the letter for me using the Jigsaw.

I applied some stainable wood filler to any gaps or gashes in the wood and allowed that to dry.

After a good sanding the letter was ready for stain (hooray!), I used Rustoleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Paprika. I loved its warm, rich tone. Not too light. Not too dark. Juuuuuust right.

Usually I apply stain and then wipe if off but I really liked the way the stain without being wiped off. It may have taken longer to dry but achieved a richer stain color.

Once the stain was dry, I had fun staging it around the house.

{ on the wall }

{ leaning on a shelf }

{ and just for fun, how about on the stairs }

That last picture gives you an idea of the size of the letter. This thing is seriously huge. Here it is compared to the size of the kids toy basket! And apparently I need to vacuum. Sheesh!

I really loved it but felt like it needed something else. Melissa’s letter had lovely dark edges so I tried to replicate that using my Distress Ink (a trick I learned from Shelley at The House of Smiths)

I rubbed the ink pad on the edge and then smudged the ink with my finger. In the places where I couldn’t get the ink pad I would apply the ink to my finger and then smudge it on. I think it really make the letter look old and well-loved just like I wanted it!

There we go. Hang it on the wall when the ink has dried and adore it. So pretty!

So what do you think of my vintage letter? I seem to be on a monogram/initial kick lately. I have no idea why. Weird. Anywho, I hope you like this little tutorial and that you’ll attempt to make one yourself. If you do, send me a link or pictures as I would L-O-V-E love to see it!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Shared at:

• Hookin Up with HOH – House of Hepworths
• Time to Party – The 36th Avenue
• Blue Cricket Design
• DIY Link Party – aka design
• Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots & Jello
• DIY Project Parade – The DIY Show-Off
• Sunday Showcase – Under the Table and Dreaming

Everything’s Just Beachy

My mother-in-law celebrated her ::cough:: birthday the other day. They purchased a house last year and are in the process of making into their new home. The house looks over Lake Michigan and so my mother-in-law has a lot of beachy and nautical decor. I knew I wanted to make her some sort of frame and once I saw these I knew I had to make my own.

{ This is actually a canvas! }

It was actually pretty easy. Here’s what I used:

I started out by measuring my frame. Mine had a little lip and I wanted my wood pieces to sit right inside that lip so there was a white border. I did a dry fit to get an idea of how I wanted to lay out the stirrers. Then I marked the stirrers where I needed them to be cut.

Hubby helped me by cutting the paint stirrers into 2 big pieces that stretch across the top and bottom of the frame and the little chunks of wood for the sides. I actually used different kinds of paint stirrers from different stores. I used big paint stirers (like for the 5 gallon buckets of paint) and regular gallon paint stirrers from Lowes and big paint stirrers from Menards. Each of these paint stirrers were different thicknesses giving the frame a cool wavy type look.

{ See the different thicknesses? }

Once cut I started by applying a coat of my favorite wood stain, Rustoleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Dark Walnut to all the wood stirrers. I made sure to get the edges of the long pieces too but I probably should have done that for all the pieces.

While the stain dried I gave the frame a quick coat of white paint. I just used craft paint but you can use whatever you have. Most of it will be covered by the wood pieces anyway. I took out the glass and back to the frame so that I didn’t get paint on them .

So the frame is drying and it was time to turn my attention to the now dry stained wood pieces. I used my most beachy craft paint colors but you can use greens and pinks like the Savvy Photographer’s or whatever you like! Or you could just skip the paint all together and just leave it the stained pieces.

For mine I wanted the stain to peek through the paint so I brushed a fairly light coat and then immediately following by wiping it off with a paper towel. It’s messy but worth it. I also worked in pairs so that one piece would be on either side of the glass. I’m just OCD like that. I love how the wiping off the paint gives the wood pieces a really old, worn look.

Once the wood pieces and the frame are dry it’s time to assemble!

I ran a bead of wood glue on the frame and then carefully applied the wood pieces to the frame. I laid the big pieces and then went down one side and then the other because the glue dries really fast. I made sure to adjust the pieces as I went along since I was butting each piece against another

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Allow everything to dry really well before inserting your glass, your favorite picture and the frame’s backing. And now: Picture overload!

{ Stand back and enjoy the fruits of your labor – or the fruits of mine (that’s my daughter in the picture) }

{ Or lean it on a shelf }

{ I love the texture the different thicknesses of wood gives the frame }

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I actually ended up with a few extra pieces (how’d that happen?!?) No problem. Rather than throw them away, I went through my stash of frames and found one with a nice flat face.

After dry fitting the pieces to the frame, I applied wood glue (I need more actually – I’ve run out!) and attached the wood pieces. TADA! Darling table top frame for me! Woohoo!

Not sure why my hair looks purple… Probably cause I did this all REALLY late at night and needed to use my flash. Anywho, photo taken by the very talented Missy Widener of mL photography taken for our 5-year wedding anniversary. Love them

What do you think? Have room in your decor for a beachy frame? I already told the hubby we going to need more paint stirrers. I may need one of these big guys for myself! Or I might try it with just the stained stirrers and see how that looks. Either way, you know I’ll share!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Shared at:

• Hookin Up with HOH – House of Hepworths
• Time to Party – The 36th Avenue
• Blue Cricket Design
• DIY Link Party – aka designs
• Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots & Jello
• DIY Project Parade – The DIY Show-Off
• Sunday Showcase – Under the Table and Dreaming

Cherry Blossom Painting Tutorial

As promised here is the tutorial for the cherry blossom painting I mentioned here. As I said previously, I already had the canvas so all I needed was more craft paint (yes, I need MORE paint no matter what my husband says )

First I tried to draw the tree out with a pencil. But that didn’t workout so well. So I threw caution to the wind and just started painting. I’m such a dare-devil.

Once the brances were dry I moved on to the flowers. I used two colors of pink for my flowers: a darker pink and a lighter pink. To make the flowers I started by using a small stencil sponge brush and painting 5 circles really close together. I sprinkle them all over the canvas to whatever was pleasing to my eye. I liked it but I thought it needed some smaller flowers too.

Well, necessity is the mother of invention. Since I used my smallest stencil brush to make the “big flowers” I used both my fingers and even the handle of the sponge brush to make the smaller ones.

For the center of the flowers, I used my fingers again. The dark pink flowers got the light pink center and vice versa.

I thought the flowers needed a little something more. I broke out a teeny tiny paint brush and some yellow paint. Inside the center of the flowers I painted 3 yellow dots. Just the pop it needed!

Once I was done I couldn’t even wait for it to dry before hanging it up! I carefully carried it upstairs and hung it on my wall. Definitely brightens up our room!

What do you think? Going to attempt this project yourself? I’d love to see how it turns out!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Shared at:

• Hookin Up with HoH – House of Hepworths
• Think Pink Sunday – Flamingo Toes
• Sunday Showcase – Under the Table and Dreaming
• DIY Project Parade – DIY Show Off
• DIY Link Party – aka design
• Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots & Jello

{ Pinterest Thursday: } Hanging Flower Vase

via Pinterest

The girls at Shanty 2 Chic always have such cool projects. When I saw this one on Pinterest I immediately Pinned and decided I needed to do this project right away. Their instructions are super easy to follow but I ran into a big giant road block with the bottle. After trying several types of bottles (Coke, different brands of beer, Jones Soda, even the bottle my Olive Oil comes in) I decided I needed to improvise. Here’s what I used.

I was able to find a piece of scrap pine in our garage so that was free and as I said, I had trouble with the bottle so I used two bud vases that I found hidden in the back of my cabinets. The Shanty girls also used 3/4″ split rings where as I used 1″ simply because my vase didn’t fit in the 3/4″ size.

We started in the garage. First, hubby cut the pine board into 2 14.5-inch pieces. He also cut the threaded rod into 2 pieces 3-inches long. After giving the boards a quick sand, I stained them with my favorite stain. Then it was time to assemble.

I started out by putting my split ring on the neck of the vase. Just unscrew the screws on the split rings, place the vase in the center of the ring and tighten the screws back up. Easy peasy.

I added a picture hangar to the back of the wood piece.

Then I assembled the metal pieces. The ceiling flange gets attached to the wood followed by the threaded rod into the ceiling flange. Lastly carefully attach the split ring and vase onto the other end of the threaded rod. Now pop some flowers into the vase and it’s ready for your wall.

;;”>

I put this one in my bedroom next to my mirror and I really love it. The warm wood with the metal really looks great and ties the other wood and metal pieces around the room.

Sigh. <;3

Truth be told, I didn't just make one. I actually made 3. Two are the same vase and one with a slightly smaller vase. One of the long vases lives in my bedroom as you saw above. The other two currently live in my kitchen, right by the kitchen table.

I love that these two are different but similar. Every time I walk in and see them, I smile.

Hope you liked my take on Shanty 2 Chic‘s hanging vase tutorial!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Shared at:

• Hookin up with HoH – House of Hepworths
• Blue Cricket Design
• Think Pink Sunday – Flamingo Toes
• Sunday Showcase – Under the Table and Dreaming
• DIY Project Parade – DIY Show Off
• DIY Link Party – aka design
• Weekend Wrap Up Party – Tatertots & Jello