Pallete Wine Rack

A few months ago I salvaged some old palettes from the school where I work. They had a lot of character and charm and so I decided to release my inner Pinterest and make two wine racks.

Once I sawed them in half and constructed the basic wine racks (I'm too impatient to explain all that—see Pinterest!), I decided to stain one and finish it with polyurethane and put a couple of coats of polyurethane on the other to see which one I liked best. I'm only keeping one. I'm selling the other.

Here's what the wood looked like before I began:

Lookie, here I am using my new electric sander that my father-in-law, Rick, got me! :-) (Action photo compliments hubby.)

On the first wine rack, I used Sherwin Williams' Wood Classics Bistro Walnut. I went with the Wood Classics series, which isn't straight up paint, since I was working with a rougher wood. Here's what it looked like after two coats of the stain:

It was clearly dry looking so I needed to apply poly as a wood sealant. Here's how that turned out after two coats:

Glossy, glossy!

On the second palette, I simply applied two coats of polyurethane to accentuate the natural imperfections of the wood to give it texture and character. See:

Check that out up close:

Here's a close-up comparison:

At the end of the day (actually more like weeks!), we decided to keep the wine rack with only poly. I will be selling the stained wine rack locally. Message me for more information!

Now I've got to find a way to mount this on the wall because it is HEAVY. I might even add the wood attachment to the bottom that would allow me to hang wine glasses underneath. 

Cheers!

Go Bold or Go Home???

I may be having a case of buyer's remorse. I may just be panicking because I don't do color. I mean, I grew up in a white-walled home. I have OCD, too, so things have to be perfect, which sometimes means I just never try something at all because I could mess it up. <breathing into a paper bag>

Let me start from the beginning and explain what I've done and how I need your help.

Jonathan and I finally finished our sea fan frame. You know the beauty constructed using reclaimed wood from downtown Newnan and a dried coral from Etsy:

I am in love with it. We are displaying it proudly in our foyer.

However, the more I looked at this picture, the more I was bothered by the hideously boring walls that we've been vowing to paint since we moved in 3.5 years ago. So, today, I decided it was finally time to put color to my mudroom walls to make the room worthy of my new oceanic wall decor (and the awesome coat rack my dad built me).

I decided to try navy since my friend Lezlee helped me narrow the color field while she was visiting last week (she is a VERY talented artist, after all, and she DID select the beautiful green that is in Nora's nursery).

So, I took several deep breaths and started painting (which, if you have OCD, too, you know that means I've now committed myself to finishing this project SOON because I can't stand to leave things undone). Surprisingly, Jonathan and I loved it. Here, take a gander:

And then it started to dry and darken. Suddenly my "goboldorgohome" hashtag on Instagram was looking more like #goboldorgohome???? 

And then the sun began to set and it darkened some more. And now I worry that we just ventured from the land of trendy sunroom to college frat backroom where the PJ is kept.

See!? Can you tell the difference:

Normally I don't ask for these, but I want OPINIONS! Help me. I'm way on the fence with this one. I either need to be encouraged to embrace color, or to retreat to the safety and comfort of a slate blue or seafoam green.

Help a sister out.

Quick Project Update

I bought my first official tool toward my goal of woodworking on my own more. You guessed it…it was a biscuit joiner. As luck would have it, I found a used one at the Habitat resale store for cheap.

I now have two frames in production. Here is the second one, which needs painting:

Jonathan is finally excited about what I'm doing and is on board with helping me. My dried sea fan arrived and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm ordering a few more, in fact.

I got glass put in the first frame I constructed. Now I just need to build a shadow box for the coral to finish it. I can't wait to post a picture of the finished product! I'm researching the best way to sell these since this is uncharted territory for me. Message me if you have any suggestions!

Biscuit Joiner Reunion!

My parents finally came for a visit this weekend! You know what that means...

I put my dad to work. But first I let him get some quality snuggles with the gal who ran around behind him all weekend saying "Papa."

I'm super sad to realize no one got a picture of Meme with her Nora :-( That just means we need to get together again soon.

Here is the frame I made (with help!) all properly joined.

Here are the biscuits:

Here's my dad marking the boards so we could line up the cuts.

Biscuit joiner in action:

Here are what the ends look like before we added wood glue:

We didn't have clamps so we cinched the boards together with--you guessed it--duct tape.

Still waiting for the coral to arrive. When it does, you will see the next phase of this project.

Dried Coral & Wooden Spools

Today was a loooong Monday. The highlight of my day was my email confirmation that the black sea fan I ordered on Etsy this weekend had shipped.

Picture it:

+

My homemade frame

Well, if you can't picture it, you simply must wait for the finished piece!!! Eeeee! I got inspired at Scott's Antique Mart this past weekend. 

Speaking of Scott's, they had some awesome (albeit mostly overpriced) stuff! And picking through the boneyard outside for parts was FABULOUS. Rick, my father-in-law, even bought me these wooden spools. I'm still trying to decide just how I'm going to use them.

Bookends? Wine rack? Coat rack?? If you have any ideas, do share! I have a much bigger project lined up involving MUCH bigger spools...

My parents are coming up this weekend and my dad is bringing his biscuit joiner. I will finally get to make my frames from repurposed barn wood. And Jonathan and I may con my dad into some home repairs while he's here. Yipee!

Have a great week everyone. And stay off the icy roads (boo, hiss!).

Picture Perfect

It. Is. Cold.

Since I'm confined to the indoors on this chilly winter day, I decided to repurpose an old picture frame that I've had around my house for years. All I added was bronze-colored, jewelry wire.

Only problem is that I can't decide which way to utilize it in my home??

or

What do you think? I'm leaning towards using it as a picture frame. If so, I guess it wasn't exactly "repurposed" after all :-)

Y'all stay warm out there!

First Project of the New Year

I actually managed one project on day one of 2014! A chalkboard picture frame. Lookie:

Haley is my precious niece. I think I'm going to give this to her on her first birthday….it's in April…I got excited…..

Here's how I did it. First, gather the raw materials:

Chunky frames work especially nice. I found this antiquing in downtown Newnan. Someone had already painted it black.

Next, prime it with a coat of spray paint:

While that's drying, go ahead and paint your board with its first coat of chalkboard paint.

                                         

I put two coats of primer on my frame. Then I put two coats of white spray paint over top. I think this was the first coat:

I especially like that you could see a little of the black peeking through the white. Made it look a little more shabby chic.

                                        

Then, voila! Put the two pieces together (I'm going to attach them using a little silicone caulking). Don't forget to mark up the chalkboard with a layer of chalk and erase it before it's ready for use.

A Carpenter

Jesus was a carpenter.

My daddy is a carpenter (by choice — or maybe at first out of necessity — rather than by trade).

Obviously I hold carpenters in high regard. As we toast today to 2014 and new beginnings, I am excited to announce a new beginning of sorts for my blog. Maybe more like a resurrection ;-)

There was a time before Nora when you saw home renovation projects and overall craftiness. You'll recall my father's helpful home improvements, like our Pottery Barn-inspired mirror:

Our foyer coat rack:

Our pantry:

And the raised bed for my garden:

You'll recall that my father-in-law and husband redid our back porch, including repainting, rescreening and recarpeting:

We all pitched in to lay stones for a patio in our backyard for a grill and picnic area:

There were also a lot of landscape projects, a kitchen redo (one month before Nora's arrival) and lots of home staging!

These projects were backbreaking. Everything took at least twice as long as we anticipated — and probably ended up costing about that, too. And we love it!!!!! I love getting my hands dirty for a cause. In 2014, there will be more of that (Nora & God willing!). I'm going to start small and build my way up to bigger projects (remember, there's an entire upstairs of my house that is blue and is beckoning me….). I hope to build my wood-working skills a bit at a time. Hopefully the carpenters in my life will step up and help when I get in over my head. And I will get in over my head.

So, for now, consider me a weekend, nap time warrior.

Consider this blog Simply Melville-lous, redefined.

I have a guy now who is supplying me raw materials for some of the projects I've dreamed up. Like I said, I plan to start simple. Here is a preview of the materials for one of the first projects I'm planning:

Happy New Year everyone! Make this the year that you do what you love.