DIY Hairpin Leg Dining Table

Our "dining room" has been a source of contention for a few years now.  I say "dining room" because we are talking about a 8x7 area of space - hardly adequate dining room material. It's cool though - most of our meals are centered around our sofa.  Our ability to balance plates has been mastered.

But, with a kiddo coming, and the holiday season upon us, it's time we retire the sofa, and actually sit and stare at one another.  Do I dare say, converse?

I'll tell you, the thought has always been there to utilize our dining room space.  Which is why we have gone through 3, soon to be 4 dining room tables in less than a year.

First we had our pine harvest table - pretty, but pretty big.  And, for all of you wood fanatics, you are probably aware that pine is annoyingly soft wood.  I swear putting a fork on the table left an imprint.

We sold our harvest table and graduated to a Versa table from West Elm... because that's what adults do.  But it ended up being way too small.  Two chairs, easy.  Four?  Hard.  A great pet peeve of mine is when you can't push your chair in all the way.  I'll chalk it up to being a preschool teacher in another life, and seeing kids smash their faces on the ground after tangling their feet in the legs.  I mean, I'm okay with my face.

Credit: West Elm

As of now, our lovely Versa table is hanging out in the basement, soon to be used as a Lego landing station for epic builds.  After the Versa, we opted for a round table - haven't tried that shape yet!  Round, danish style tables aren't the easiest to comeby, and the ones we did see were either white, or more bang than what we had for bucks.  We took to AllModern for a solution, and found one with deep discounts.  The table was easy to assemble, and certainly great quality for $250.00, but we were back to square one, again, with the chairs not having space to be pushed in.  The table has a nice walnut finish, but I don't exactly know the type of wood used - it's soft or faux, this I know, because we nicked it up with little difficulty.

Credit: Felices Dining Table - All Modern

A week ago I started looking around for yet another table.  I've always had a thing for hairpin legs, and found a nice little set on Amazon.  With little thought, I ordered four 28" legs in black matte, and started reading up on other desperate DIY dining room table enthusiasts.  I found some great tutorials on DIY Hairpin Leg dining tables that are very simple.  You can check them out here and here.

Now that I had my inspiration, all that was left was to convince the hubby that we needed this.  And because pregnancy trumps all... well, there you have it.

Sometimes in order to get what you want, you have to do your research.  In this case, research meant measurements.  I took some painters tape and measured a 40" x 6' space and marked it off.  Visuals are huge with the husbands, ladies.

The other DIY table sites went with premium wood boards from the lumber yard.  Most boards in the lumber yard are pine, and since we have already dealt with a soft table, we wanted to check out some other options.  Our town doesn't have a lumber yard with specialty/exotic wood that I'm familiar with, so Menards seems to be our go-to.  There, we checked out their specialty plastic-wrapped wood.  In the past, we have used a lot of poplar for projects because of its gorgeous variance.  But if you look at the wood scale, poplar is, once again, soft.  And for those of you whose mind went there (like mine every time I type wood, soft or hard), I'm talking about trees, although I'm sure we can all agree that hard is always best no matter the situation.

This go around, we grabbed four 1"x8"x6' maple boards and one 1"x6"x6' hickory board (to use as a decorative runner essentially).  All hardwood.

Another thing we did differently is we used the Kreg Jig instead of screws and a drill to get the tightness and precision we were looking for.  Both ways will create a stunning table, but if you are seeking longevity, maybe check into a Kreg.  Pretty inexpensive ($39.98) for the magnitude of what it can do.

Once all pieces were secure, we attached some supports underneath using premium oak from the lumberyard.  First, we pre-drilled our holes to avoid splintering before securing the wood using screws.

After the supports were in (underside):

Topside of table:

The table was stained using Varathane wood stain in dark walnut, to match our cafe chairs.  After applying the stain, wait 3-4 minutes before wiping off the excess.  Reapply as needed to achieve your desired color.  We opted to do one layer to achieve the look we were going for.  To help aid in protecting the wood finish, add 3-4 coats of clear matte polycrylic, lightly sanding with 220 grit sandpaper in between coats. Like other sites, I would agree that using a coaster for cold, sweaty beverages will help protect the table, and prevent any unnecessary water marks.

Staining process:

Once the table dried, we attached the hairpin legs.  Our hope is that this little table will stick with us for awhile as our family grows and memories are centered around it for generations to come.  After all, there was a lot of love and teamwork thrown into it.

As far as materials, we spent just under $200.00 - which in the grand scheme of things is pretty damn cheap when you compare it to an average of $600.00+ for other store bought maple hairpin leg dining tables.  Our plan is to build a matching bench in the coming months, and will certainly update this post with our progress.  Without further adieu, the after:

     

I hope this post serves as some inspiration and confidence boosting for your future DIY dining table endeavor, because...

Thanks for reading and happy building!

Campaign Dresser 3.0

So, I'm here again.  You know when I said that there are times where I do shit, and I can't leave it alone.  There is something off about it, or something I half-assed (let's get real here), and you can't appreciate exactly what you did until that little thing is fixed?  Have I rambled enough?  I think so too.

These campaign dressers.  Man, I knew they were going to be something that would require work. Who knew I would be talking to you about their third update.

Just to recap - remember when?

Not terrible.  I was clearly very excited at the time. But, let's get back to half-assing.  I never actually got around to attaching the wood.  In the two years or whatever, the wood slid around, scratched up the top and my ego.

Then I had an epiphany.  These dressers were never conjoined in the first place.  So why dress them up like they are?  It was time for these sweeties to part ways.

They got a new paint job - different colors.  And were encased (or topped) with some good quality poplar wood, stained and secured with brads.  The hardware got a new metallic paint job too.  If you can make your original hardware shine with a little love and elbow grease, by all means.  But this brass hardware went from pretty to dingy in a month.  Plan B.

Spray Painting Hardware Tips:

For perfect hardware the first time and every time, pick up some Clean Metal Primer by Rust-Oleum. This is one serious heavy metal ass kicker.

Give your hardware a nice, even coat of primer and let dry.  Flip hardware over and spray other side.  Any knicks or debris can be sanded with fine grit paper.  Spray additional light coats as needed. Once your primer is set, any paint type, color, sheen, you name it, will be flawlessly applied.  Let dry.

While the hardware was basking in the sunshine, I began sanding away flaws that I overlooked the last time I decided to "fix" these dressers.  I noticed there was still a lot of leftover laminate stuck in various spots.  The medium-coarse grit sandpaper and orbital sander took care of that.  With the wood settling over the years, there were some tight spots.  A little buffing allowed for the drawers to glide a bit more easily.  Once the sanding was done, I took a damp shop cloth and wiped down all surface areas.

Onto the painting!  I did two different colors for two dressers - I used Rust-Oleum's 2X Ultra Cover in Antique White, Satin finish, for the babes room and Stone Gray in Satin for our bedroom.  Hardware was painted in Rust-Oleum Universal Pure Gold.

When it came to the wood, I can't remember if we went with a large slab of poplar (my favorite), or pine.  The wood was cut to size, sanded, and stained.  I ended up applying a few coats of poly to the top of the babes dresser - just in case convenience factor plays a role, and we use that space for a changing table.  I don't need shit getting into the grooves.  No puns here.

Otherwise, the wood was stained with Minwax in Puritan Pine and Natural.

The babes dresser was completely encased in wood.  Only a top and bottom trim piece were added to the dresser in our bedroom space - it's interesting how much room an inch takes up when you have limited space to work with.  Small brads were used to secure the wood to the dressers.  We opted to carry the dressers inside before securing the wood slabs.  One of the smarter choices we've made - because those dressers are heavy AF with the added wood. 

Here's a little snapshot of the beans dresser:

And ours:

Same same but different.  But still same.  On that note. 

Happy fall!

Yellow Campaign Dresser Flea Market Find

A few weekends back our town hosted its annual Gold Rush in Rochester, Minnesota.  The weather was junk, but the Rush diehards persevered.  Obviously I'm talking about myself, guys.  So hardcore.

Our Gold Rush group seems to expand a bit more every year.  Me and Shane are pretty lucky to have friends and family who don't mind digging and sifting through a bunch of shit (literally).  This year I scored a "planter," which I'm guessing use to be a pig feeder of some kind, and this... dun, dun, dun, dun, duuuun!  Campaign dresser!  I was giving it a good cleaning and came across a 1963 ACME Tractor Guide hidden behind the drawers.  This could only mean one thing-- I scored this vintage (if not antique) piece for $25.00. (insert exploding head here)

I had every intention of repainting this piece but I'm realizing the color is growing on me, at least in the interim.  There was a bit of board rot on the bottom, so I got that ripped out and replaced with some fresh poplar.  The tall boy is missing some hardware pieces that will eventually be replaced, but I can't complain, considering one vintage campaign pull is $20.00, and I've got seven.  Totally deserves bragging rights.

I HIGHLY recommend you check out your local flea markets and thrift stores for these killer finds, especially during garage sale season.  Check back later for more progress updates on the bathroom(s) and entryway.

Tree Rings Media Cabinet (DIY)

Guys!  Ugh.  I am walking proof that New Year's resolutions DON'T WORK.  No weekly updates here.  Would you settle for an every (other) month one?

Back in August me and Shane both agreed that we needed to kick back, relax, and shelf our projects for a bit after non-stop work and broken budgets.  Remodeling is not for the faint of heart, so kudos to all of you bad-ass renovators for sticking with it.  Our "break" turned into months of project-free days.  Then I realized we never stopped the projects.  Just blog updates.  So.  No more promises.  It will happen when it happens.

Did I mention how grateful we are for all of you who check out our site?  No?  Über grateful. :^)

Alright boys and girls.  Today we are going to be talking about the custom media cabinet we put together to fit in a rather askew space.  For years the corner has been adorned with electric cords... something I truly dislike.  A lot.  Like a lot, a lot.

Here is what our 29 inches of  "space" looked like before:

For years we strategically angled a chair to cover the mess in the corner.  Throughout those years, I browsed every possible online furniture site, checked out every imaginable thrift store and explored every (no joke) corner media cabinet on Pinterest.  Nothing stood out, and NOTHING would fit. Until one day....

Tree Rings Media Cabinet

I saw this.  This gorgeous Tree Rings Media Cabinet at Anthropologie.  For... $450.00.  After reading the (not so great) reviews, I thought it was best to use this piece as an inspiration.  I did some quick measurements and drew a sketch.  Pinned it to our fridge... and there is sat for awhile.  But then!!! One fateful day, Shane came home with wood up the azz and started building.

We ended up purchasing a few woodworking must-haves.  If you want your top, sides, and bottom to fit together, we would recommend you check out a Kreg Jig.  Pretty inexpensive product for how much it does.  You can get one as low as $19.00.  What a steal and gain!

I checked with Shane to see if he had been documenting the process... and no.  No he wasn't.  So unfortunately, no in-progress photos to share.  He said he would do it the next time...

But here are photos of the completed piece--

Shane built shelves and cubbies for the inside to house his precious electronics.

Basically, you make a box with some doors.  We wanted our doors to set-in, not rest on top of the unit, so we ended up picking up special hinges to accomplish this.  The unit itself is made up of poplar wood-- for the most part, and stained in Minwax Puritan Pine.  The wood rounds are birch, and were fixed to the doors using wood glue and clamps.  Going into it, we were going to cover the doors with wood rounds, but after getting a few up, we opted for a design instead.  Initially we added some heavy-duty top plates on the bottom to support the wood legs.  Once we put it in the corner, we both agreed the wood legs made it look too top heavy next to our anchored faux fireplace.  So those came off.  Bow-chica-wow-wow.

So there you have it friends.  Our version of the Tree Rings Media Cabinet.  I know this shit can be subjective, but I like our version waaaaay better.  There are always bonuses when you can DIY something.  You end up with something you worked hard at.  Your piece is as unique and special as you are, and you end up with extra money in your pocket that you would have spent in the big box store.

Thanks for stopping by!  See you in a week or two!  Just kidding.  No promises.

XO 

Jenna

DIY Portable Wood Pallet Table

Making a portable ottoman/coffee table for the outdoors is as easy as 1-2-3... and 4.  Literally, four steps.

1. First, get one of these-

2. Add some of these-

I used locking rubber casters.  You never know when that guy is going to come over.  The rubber wheel is a good way to protect your deck.  You can snag these locking casters from any home improvement store.  I picked mine up from Menards for $4.47 a piece, along with some double coated 2" deck screws.

3. Attach the casters.  *Tip, make sure your locking flap extends beyond your pallet so you can easy stomp your foot down to secure the wheel, you know, for when that guy comes around.

 

4. Flip over, stain it-- or don't; add some decor or a cushion on top and enjoy!

Beers anyone?

XO
Jenna

DIY Patchwork Dresser

In the basement of WFMC you'll find me.  You'll also find some other crazy shit like dressers.

Man, did I feel for this dresser who was totally hating life.  They need loving homes too, so, I took him home.

First off, I scored big.  This dresser needed serious help, but it was made of solid wood.  I'm going to guess pine...?  It made the whole sanding off paint-stain-combo really easy.  In 30 minutes I had the dresser down to bare bones.  Secondly, this dresser has ten drawers.  Enough said.

After taking one look at this dresser I knew what I was going to do.  West Elm is one of my favorites, as I'm sure it is for a lot of people, but sometimes the prices are not so much.  I like the humor of their 'patchwork' furniture, but I'm all over here being cheap.  So, I would do what any cheap person would do and that is to make the dresser different, but same same.

After getting the sanding bit done, I primed and painted the frame of the dresser, letting the drawers free ball it for a bit.  My go-to white for a lot of furniture projects is White Dove by BM.  The white is pure enough, but it also gives off this milky appearance, making it look rich and creamy.

One thing that makes these patchwork dressers so unique is the variance of stains that are used.  As hard as I tried, the lightness of the wood could not illuminate a brighter shade as much as I sanded it. This meant some stain choices were totally out of the picture.  However, I was able to use this helpful guide from Panyl to come up with additional options.

If you're bored, I would totally recommend that you check out their site too.  Lots of valuable information in there, especially when it comes to modifying Ikea furniture.

Ten drawers should equal ten stains, right?  When you are dealing with so many shades, keep in mind that similar shades should stay far away from one another, therefore considering the placement of your drawers before proceeding is a must.

As you can see above, Panyl does something really awesome.  They have a color selector so you can visualize what the stains will look like when they are put together.  No more ah shit moments.

I choose Ebony (a clear favorite in our house), Driftwood, Gray, Puritan Pine, Gunstock, Red Chestnut, Dark Walnut and Jacobean by Minwax.  I ended up pairing certain drawers and used the same stain, just to give that "Patchwork" oddball feel.  To preserve the wood, I would recommend using a finishing wax to buff on your drawers.  Kids?  Dogs? Husbands?  No problem.  

The knobs and pulls make all the difference with patchwork dressers.  I've seen a lot of diversity when it comes to knobs on other DIY patchwork dressers.  What I have come to realize is I like things to be slightly off, but cohesive.  The price range of knobs and pulls can also make or break your budget.  I personally am a huge fan of brass.  You either love it, or leave it.  I think when it is done tastefully, it looks ah-may-zing.  My husband on the other hand is a leave it--get that crap outta here kind of guy.  He enjoys a good brushed nickel.  It's a classic, but not for this project, guys. 

I checked Myknobs.com, which is a great resource, if you know what you are looking for.  If you are unclear in anyway, the site can be really overwhelming with their 4,000 brass choices.  Lews/Lewis Dolin knobs are a favorite of many fellow bloggers out there.  Needless to say I was curious.

These Lewis Barrel Collection knobs will run you about $7.00 a piece.  I had a talking to my cheap ass and told myself to suck it up.  This dresser was worth it, dammit.  But I did what any thrifty gal would do-- I let them hang out in my shopping cart for a few weeks.  Today, after checking out the Lowes website, it turns out they have the exact same knobs for a fraction of the cost.  Purchased and done.  Awesome.

I was also in the market for a set of vintage tapered legs to add to the base of the dresser.  I checked out Etsy, and found that their prices for such things were a heck of a lot cheaper then going through some big box table leg store. I found a set of vintage 4" tapered legs to attach to the dresser, and paid under $35.00 with shipping.

I wanted the legs to match the dresser, so I primed and painted them using White Dove by BM.

Next up was attaching the legs.  I picked up four straight top leg plates and some steel hanger bolts from Menards for a few bucks.  Word to the wise- to avoid attaching hanger bolts to your legs, it isn't a bad idea to purchase ones that already have them.  If you really like a set of legs that do require bolts, it isn't hard to do, just not a lot of room for error.

To ensure that the legs would stay on, I had to build a frame on the bottom of the dresser and used 1 inch primed PDF boards to create the trim on the bottom for a bit more substance.

I filled the cracks in using my favorite, vinyl filler, and painted the trim to match the rest of the dresser. 

Cost Breakdown:

• Seven Various Stains- $25.00
• Four Legs- $34.00
• Trim- Salvaged
• Leg Plates and Bolts- $4.00
• Dresser- Salvaged
• Knobs- $45.00

___________________________

Total: $108.00 (give or take)

Here is the best part.  I saved $1191.00 not buying the West Elm version and... I have more drawers. Boom.  The end.