Let Freedom Ring

This 4th of July, I made my own flag. It's not the traditional red, white and blue but it does have stripes and a few stars...

I decided to keep some boards natural because the knots and grain of the wood was too awesome to cover up! The other boards, I simply dry brushed on some white paint...

 
I knew I wanted to go larger with this flag so I choose a pallet that had the larger planks. As soon as I saw these boards I knew I had to try and keep them intact and use every knot, nail hole and crack I could. I love the texture on these boards!

It was such a pain to pry these boards off, but well worth the effort! I love all the nail holes. I even took our grinder to the nails, grinding off just below the nail heads so I could keep them in the boards.

Because I lack any artistic skills in the drawing department, I did what any useful person would do...trace. I have this little star that I used as my outline. Once I traced the outline of my star, I cut it out with the jig saw.

Some other tools I used was wire and rusty bells to join the boards together. I layed all my boards down on the garage floor, on top of a piece of plywood so I could drill the holes for the wire. The hardest part was getting my spacing between each board just right. Once I had each piece of wire cut (6), I shoved some bells on and twisted the wire together. I have this handy little wire twister thing (no idea what it's really called), but you can use a pencil or even your finger depending on how thick your wire is.

I wish I could say I was original with this one but I did get some inspiration from The Lettered Cottage with their coastal-style flag.

There she is in all her distressed glory. I'm still deciding if I need a 5th "stripe?" Such a simple craft, go find a pallet and get started. I think she'll be hanging out all year long...

I'm linking up with Donna this week...

Not too Shabby....

I bought a coat rack with awesome hooks a while ago but haven't done anything with it because it might be a little too shabby or too clean looking :) My solution? Take the hooks off and slap them on some old rustic wood of course!

Here's my not so good before picture but just imagine 4 hooks on there.

Way to plain for me. Sorry all you clean loving purists :) After I took the hooks off, I went through my scrap pile of pallet boards and cut them all the same length with my chop caw.

I tried to use my Kreg Jig to attach the boards together, but they were all different widths and the screws were just popping through the front of the boards. So I just grabbed some scrap pieces of 1/4" plywood left over from our window trimming project and nailed them with 5/8" brad nails...easy.

I didn't want to wait for my husband to use his superhero measuring skills so I just eye balled it. I grabbed a blue marker that was on the work bench and colored the little knobs on the back of each hook so I could see where I needed to drill the holes.

Notice one is just a nub and the other is the actual hole for the screw to go through. That was easy enough, I just had to move my bit around to make the holes a bit larger to fit properly. Here's where a countersink bit would have been nice.

All layed out and almost done! I love how it looks and it's so much more unique and really makes me wonder what else I can re-purpose. I love wood but the one thing I absolutely hate is this...

I hate splinters!!! And you know what it doesn't matter how many splinters I get, I continue to skip wearing gloves. This was a big splinter...ouch. I took one for the team.

Once I pulled that massive log splinter out, my hooks were ready to hang. I did not want to have to put any obvious holes through the front to hang it. I thought about drilling the little nub hole all the way through and using that hole for my screws but, oh yeah, how will I get the hook back on. I'm so blonde sometimes. So I just nailed a piece of board to the wall, on the stud, using 2" nails. Using the nails will make it more difficult to remove I think, but nail holes are way smaller than screw holes so nails it is.

Then I just nailed my hooks to the smaller board. I wasn't able to use 2 studs so I hope that the 4 or so nails I put in are going to hold up.

I love it! Now the girls have somewhere to hang their towels instead of the floor.

My Bath House sign was super simple too but I won't bore you with details on that - Go check out Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors for a great tutorial on how to make signs.

Speaking of Donna, I'm linking up to Her Saturday Nite Special this week... just in case anyone else has some hooks laying around.

Making a House a Home - Window and Door Casing

So if the jewelry to a cabinet is the knobs and pulls, what is the casing around a window and door? Maybe the under garments? Whatever it is, they just don't look complete without it. Not that people should be seeing your panties or bra. My husband probably thinks I'm crazy when I come up with yet another project but I can't help it! There's always so much to do and to learn...and improve upon.

This walk through from the kitchen to the living room desperately needed some attention. With Paul's awesome measuring skills, it was pretty easy. We picked up some 1x6 pine boards for the inside and 1x4 boards for the outside frame at Home Depot for pretty cheap.

Ew, you can really see the before and after paint colors in that last photo! After gluing and nailing with our 2" finish nailer, it went pretty quick. Here's some shots with all the boards up waiting to be sanded, filled and painted.

Once it's painted and finished and my house is clean enough, I'll post the after pictures. We also started framing out the front window in the front room. I didn't take any before pictures of course but just imagine a plain, boring window. Here's how it looks now with the framing inside and out. We just used 1/4" plywood for the inside and 1x4 on the outside frame. I love it and can't wait to see it all painted and looking good.

It's such a simple thing but it adds so much more character. Kitchen windows are next...

Tackling the Garage

Paul and I have been out in the garage sorting through boxes and trying to get more organized. The entire garage was filled with boxes from when we moved in...back in March. Yes, boxes were everywhere with one little walk way to get in the door. Well everything has been organized (somewhat) and packed away, put away, thrown away and some has even been given away. I should have taken a before picture! Once all the boxes were out of the way we wanted to make a work area for projects and stuff. We started building. First thing, saw horses. Next, workbench. With lots of room and a place to work, what's the first thing we do? Fill it back up of course!! Here's a picture of our latest project...

New console table and matching side tables! As soon as I found Ana, I have been on overload with all the amazing furniture pieces I can build myself!! I will never buy new again...