Home Decor - 3/32 - The Idea Room

Build Your Own Wooden Box

I shared with you earlier in the week this simple Thanksgiving Centerpiece I made for our Thanksgiving Table this year. Today I want to give you some simple instructions so you can make this DIY Wood Box. The great part about this is that it is a super easy project that can be whipped up in just a couple of hours. And if you have never built anything this DIY Wood Box is a perfect beginner project. You can do it…I promise!

Materials you will need:

Two 5.5 inch pieces of 1 x 4 poplar wood boards (ends)

Two 31.5 inch pieces of 1 x 4 poplar wood boards (sides)

*(we used poplar wood because it takes stain better than pine, if you are painting it, pine should be fine…but remember pine can tend to shrink and may split easier when putting nails into)

30 inches of 1 x 6 a pine wood boards (base)

hammer

nails

wood glue

wood putty

clamps

sand paper

stain or paint

Polyurethane

Directions:

The overall dimensions of our finished box is 31.5 inches long x 7 inches wide x 3.5 inches tall. Depending on your needs, you may want to adjust your measurements accordingly.

1. Cut your wood base 30 inches in length. We used a 1 x 6 pine board.

2. Cut TWO end pieces of a 1 x 4 poplar wood board. We cut them so that they were 5.5 inches to match the actual width of the pine board.

3. Attach the end pieces to the ends of the base. Be sure that they sit evenly with the base. Add some wood glue and then throw a couple of nails on each end of the 5.5 inch pieces. Let glue dry according to your glue’s drying time.

4. Cut TWO side pieces of a 1 x 4 poplar wood board so that they measure 31.5 inches (which should fit flush with the ends of the box). Attach to the sides of the base and the end pieces with some glue first and then some nails to secure the hold. Use clamps if needed and allow your glue to dry.

5. Fill nail holes with wood putty and let it dry. Sand down any excess wood putty and your box to smooth out any rough edges or spots.

6. Wipe your box down with a damp cloth to remove all dust.

6. Now you are ready to paint or stain your box. I decided to stain mine a darker color to go with my dark wood floors. I used a Minwax stain called Red Mahogany. I used a couple of coats to get the color I wanted. Then I added a couple of coats of a satin finish Polyurethane.

These boxes are great because it can be used for so many other projects or home décor items. You can also build one to fit perfectly in your own space by adjusting the measurements of the wood you use and cut.

As always, I would love to see if any of you end up making one for your home! Wouldn’t these also make a great Hostess or Christmas gift? And if you have any wood scraps lying around like we did, this is a VERY inexpensive project!

November 9, 2012 · Filed under: DIY Tutorials, Home Decor, Thanksgiving Tagged with

Apothecary Cabinet

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I have the privilege of being a Lowes Creative Ideas Blog team member. As a member, each month Lowes Creative Ideas issues our team a themed-project to create and share with our readers. This month the theme was wide open. We were able to create anything we wanted to for our project! So of course I was super excited. It seems like I have a list a mile long for a bunch of projects I would love to create. Since I am STILL working on the finishing touches on my office (which is taking forever!!) I knew I would use this opportunity to make the Apothecary Cabinet I had been needing.

I had this unused space in the corner of my office that NEEDED something but I was having a difficult time finding the perfect piece of furniture that fit the space perfectly. I needed something fairly narrow so that it didn’t block the doorway (which leads to the kitchen on your right and the other doorway which leads to our living room on the left. But, I wanted to be able to put something that added some color and functionality.

I have been loving Apothecary Cabinets but they are hard to find, the wrong size, or super expensive. So what is a girl to do? Make her own of course! I found an awesome tutorial for building this Apothecary Cabinet from none other than Ana White. Of Course! I LOVE her plans! We made a few changes to her plan because we had some specific needs and I will share those in a later post.

Back in September I shared with you on Instagram(@theidearoom) and Facebook a few sneak peaks of some wood that I was staining. This is the project I was working on! I LOVE the color of stain I ended up going with. I still need to add the polyurethane coating to the top and am planning on getting to that this weekend.

I now have the perfect spot for my Silhouette CAMEO and supplies. I LOVE that I can use it right where it sits and set my computer up on top. It is so nice to have it hidden away and off of my desktop. We also chose not to put a back on the Apothecary Cabinet so that we would have easy access to the computer cords and electrical outlet which was so conveniently behind the cabinet.

And, if you didn’t notice, the outside of the cabinet makes it appear as if there are a bunch of drawers. I would HAVE LOVED to have a REAL apothecary cabinet, but making all the drawers and the functionality would not provide me with what I needed. So I LOVED that Ana’s plans were for a faux drawer front that were actually cabinet doors. Thanks Ana!

Do you have any projects you have been wanting to work on in your home? It seems like there is always something to do around the home. Well, Lowe’w would like to give ONE Idea Room Reader a $100 to get you started on a project of your own. How awesome is that?

Main Entry:

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1. Sign up for sign up for Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine.

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*Disclosure: Lowe’s provided me with a gift card to showcase this project this month as part of their Lowe’s Creative ideas Bloggers team. However all opinions and statements are mine. Giveaway will close on November 5, 2012 at 9:00 pm MT and a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the gift card or a new winner will selected. Entrants must be 18 years or older to participate. Limit of 4 entries per person.

October 30, 2012 · Filed under: Giveaways, Home Decor, Home Remodeling, Lowes Creative Blogger Tagged with apothecary cabinet, apothecary cupboard, Make your own apothecary cabinet

Tips for Re-Painting Furniture

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I have finally been getting caught up on all the projects we put on hold over the summer. Today I want to share with you how some tips and pointers to prep for paint when you are repainting a piece of furniture.

We inherited this vanity dresser from some family and have been using it in my daughter’s room for a few years. When we received it had been painted white. The paint job was pretty beat up and it needed to be refinished. We are also in the process of updating her room and we wanted to paint it in a fun color other than white.

There are a few things that you need to know and use to make the process of repainting your old painted furniture as easy as possible.

I used several 3M TEKK Protection products to get the vanity dresser prepped and ready for painting. You will want to use the following:

1. 3M Lead Check Swabs

2. 3M Sandpaper

3. Protective Eye Wear

4. Face Mask

5. Rubber Gloves if you are stripping the paint

6. Ear Plugs

7. ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape

It is always a good idea to test your painted surface for lead. Since we did not know how old the paint was on the vanity dresser we were sanding down we wanted to be sure it was safe to sand the paint down. We did not want to be using or working with any lead based paint or breathing in the dust particles. We used this simple 3M Lead Test from 3M TEKK Protection to determine if the old layers of paint contained lead. You do not want to be sanding down lead paint and breathe in the harmful particles.

For a more detailed explanation of how to use the 3M Lead Test and other important tips for preparing this vanity dresser for repainting, check out the video below.

1. Now that we have determined that the paint is lead free you can go ahead prep your furniture for painting. Remove all hardware. I also removed the mirror since it was just a matter of taking out 4 screws. This makes it a lot easier to paint. I also took out all of the drawers.

2. Now you should be ready to sand down the furniture. We used a hand sander for the flat surfaces and drawer fronts, then used a piece of sand paper or a sanding block for the smaller finer detail work. Sand and remove all loose paint and any blemishes.

3. After you have sanded everything to a nice smooth finish you can do any repair work that may be needed. We glued a couple of loose drawer joints and filled in a couple of larger gouges with some wood putty. Let those areas dry completely and use a finish sander to get them smooth again. Be sure to prime any of these areas with a primer paint.

4. Take a damp cloth and wipe down all the surfaces to remove any excess dust. This step is very important to getting a smooth finish!

Now go ahead and paint away. I will be sharing our favorite tips for painting furniture in a future post.

I am really happy with how the vanity dresser turned out. It adds a punch of color to my daughter’s room. And she can fill it with her crayons and art supplies…and sooner than I want, makeup and hair products…oh boy! I am so not ready for that stage!

We had this fun chair, so I recovered the seat and did some quick paint touch-ups on. I decided for now to keep it white and I think I am loving the white chair with the yellow dresser. What do you think? Should I keep it white or paint it yellow?

And since I know some of you are going to be curious…I painted the dresser with Sherwin Williams White Raisin. The room wall color is Benjamin Moore Rockport Gray with 50% reduction in color.

*Disclosure–This post is a collaboration with 3M DIY. To learn more about safety and preparation, visit 3MDIY.com.