Some recent crafts...

For a long time now, I have been wanting to make a cute map so that Jeff and I can pin all of the places that we travel together.  And this week, I finally got around to it.

I printed a big map of the Good Ol' U.S. of A. from this website that I found on Pinterest: http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm.  You can print maps off as big as 8 pages x 8 pages.  I chose to print mine off at 3 pages x 3 pages.

I cut out the map and taped the pieces together to make a stencil.  I used a roll of cork from Hobby Lobby that cost me $8.99 thanks to their 40% off coupon.  I traced the map and cut out the USA.  The cork had been rolled up, so I left some coasters and things on the map overnight to flatten the edges out.

I currently have a collection of large frames, mirrors, etc. that I have picked up at thrift stores and yard sales along the way.  But, my map was too large to fit in any frame that I had.  But I did have an old corkboard from Wal-Mart or something that was the perfect size.  You know, one that looks all plain like this:

I also had some extra burlap from my wedding laying around.  So, I recovered the corkboard with the burlap, just stapling the burlap to the back of the board.  I used spray adhesive to glue on the map and added a couple banners and ended up with this:

Hopefully we'll get to add a few more locations soon!

I also had an ugly, gold, scratched-up oval frame laying around and decided to finally do something with it too.  I spray painted it white and added some Valspar antiquing glaze.  I also used burlap for the background of this project too.  I got a wooden "H" at a local Home Accents store and ...

I am so excited that the house is finally coming together, and I am finally doing something with all of these random frames that I have bought over the past year.

So last night I made a ottoman...

We recently rearranged our furniture in the living room, and we realized that we needed a huge ottoman in the middle of our couch and chairs to complete the look.  A few years ago some friends of our's gave us their coffee table.  It used to have broken tile pieces on the top and looked like this:

I forgot to take a "before" picture of the coffee table - this is the only one that I had.  Riggins was such a cute puppy.

I bought some upholstery fabric at Hobby Lobby, some foam, and some batting.  Picking out the fabric was a little difficult (mainly because I got to Hobby Hobby 11 minutes before they closed, so I was in a bit of a hurry) because our couch is a sage green color and we have a pinstriped chair with a million colors in it.  So I picked out a fabric that had some of the same colors as the striped chair - but in a floral pattern.

The project took longer than I expected because I decided to paint the bottom and legs of the table.  Tip: Maybe you are smarter than me and you already knew this, but it is way easier to spray paint the legs of the table if you flip the table over.  That way, you don't have to lay on the ground under the table trying to paint all the way around the legs.  Believe me - it is much easier to flip the table over, with the legs sticking up.

After I let the spray paint dry, while I watched The Vow for the 25th time, it was time to get to upholstering (- i think that's a word).  I used spray adhesive to secure the foam and then cut the foam to fit the top of the table.  Then, I pulled the batting tight and stapled it to the bottom of the ledge of the table top.  Next, I cut the fabric and stapled it to the ledge as well.  I trimmed all of the extra material and corners - and I was done! Voila!

I also decided to add some decorative fabric tacks for a little extra decoration and to secure the fabric better.  And they were only like $1.99 at Hobby Lobby.

Our Farmhouse Table

So our dining room is rather large, and we really like to eat a lot, so Jeff and I got this bright idea to make our own dining room table.  We found an Ana White plan online that we really liked.  We pretty much followed it exactly with just a few small changes.  We went to Lowe's and bought all of the wood, screws, stain, and polyurethane.  We also got all of our lumber cut at Lowe's  - which is so much easier than having to measure and do all of the cuts yourself.  Then, it was time to get started!

1. We started by putting the apron (the sides) and frame together.  We used 1x4s for the apron and 2x2s for the under tabletop supports.

Big thanks to my husband Jeff and our friends Kyle and Taylor for their help!

2. Next, we screwed the 1x10s onto the frame to make the tabletop.  

NOTE: To make sure that your tabletop boards are centered,  find the center of your  apron and mark it. Screw the two middle boards on each side of the line, and then screw on the two outside boards.

This is where we ran into Problem #1:

The tabletop was supposed to be 40 inches wide - made from four 1x10 boards (4 multiplied by 10 = 40).  So we made the frame 36 inches wide so that there would be 2 inches overhang on each side (36+2+2=40).  

That all makes sense mathematically, right?  

WRONG.  

Some of our boards were a little warped, and a 1x10 board isn't technically an exact 10 inches wide - it's just more of an approximation it seems.  Well it seems to me like the lumber industry needs to get their stuff together and start measuring things correctly.  

Well all of that resulted in ZERO overhang of our tabletop - as in the sides were flush with the apron, and I did not like this.  So Jeff and Kyle made a quick trip to Lowe's and bought two 1x12s.  We left the two center 1x10s screwed into the apron, removed the two outside 1x10s, and replaced them with the new 1x12s.  Now there was a few inches overhang on each side of the table, and I was happy, happy, happy.

3.  After the tabletop boards were finally screwed in, it was my turn - time to sand, stain, and paint.

In order to make the table sturdy and to keep the tabletop boards as close as possible, we had to put ugly screws in the tabletop.  In an effort to make the tabletop prettier, Jeff filled in the screw holes with wood putty, and I attempted to sand down the wood putty.

Problem #2:

Wood putty does not stain.  I repeat - WOOD PUTTY DOES NOT STAIN.

So when I finished my first coat of stain, you could clearly see all of the places that we had tried to fill in the screw holes - and that was much uglier that just being able to see the screws.  

We let the stain dry for 24 hours, and then Jeff took the sander to the wood putty again and got most of it off.  I put another coat of stain on the tabletop, and made sure that I put a good, thick coat on the areas that had the wood putty on them.

Sorry the picture is so awful - it was dark.

4.  After letting the second stain coat dry for another 24 hours, I applied one coat of polyurethane.  I let that first poly coat dry for 24 more hours, and then applied another coat.  I also chose to paint the apron and table legs white.

5. After letting the final poly coat dry for 24 hours, it was time to move the table inside and put the legs on.  I really wanted to make the legs out of 4x4s, but Lowe's did not have any.  So the legs are currently 2x4s.  [I may try to find some 4x4s or some pretty table legs and replace them later.]

Project Overview:

This project turned out to be easier than I expected.  It took about 5 days to finish the table, but that is because you have to do so much waiting in between stain and polyurethane coats.  [Usually I am the most impatient person when it comes to waiting in between paint coats, but I knew that this table was something that I wanted to have for many, many years - so I wanted to do it correctly and follow the instructions.]

Labor Time: 3-4 hours

Total Time: 5 days

Stain: Cabot - Red Mahogany

Cost (lumber, screws, stain): About $110

Our New House!

We have successfully moved into our new house.  We have gotten a lot of rooms painted and several projects are in the works (including a farmhouse table for our dining room - post to come).  The boys (Jeff and some of our friends) have done tons of work in the backyard - chopping down trees, clearing out a lot of brush, digging up an old goldfish pond, etc.  It is starting to look sooooo much better :) We love the new house and are enjoying making it our own.  And Riggins loves it too!