"S" is for Shipped

A Valentine's box shipped to our cousins:

We used a painted wooden bin (see original post here) as our carrier and added two large goody bags for cousin Anna and Christopher:

My girls filled the goody bags with playdough, a heart crayon and lollipops:

We sealed them shut with a banner tag and heart clip and placed both in the bin:

Wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon, ready to ship:


A sweet little something for our cousins to open on Valentine's Day.

"D" is for Desk #2

I built Grandpa a new desk.

Here's what we started with, a little corner nook with a wall that jogged back and a window and radiator on one side:

In order to make the best use of the space I designed the desk to fit exactly the length of the wall and snug in between the wall and radiator.

The plan is based off of Ana White's cubby desk although I modified the size and added the hutch shelf piece.

If you're ever looking to build a furniture piece Ana's site is your best starting point.  The plans are detailed with graphic drawings and lots of measurements on the drawings which makes it easy to modify for your space and size requirements.

Here I am putting together the drawer:

All together in the buff, sanded and ready for stain and paint:

Good view of the drawer:

Desk surface got two coats Minwax cherry stain plus finishing paste:

All remaining parts got:
 1. one coat Kilz primer
2. two coats Behr off white satin
3. distressed with 220 grit sandpaper
4. Minwax cherry stain
5. one coat Minwax satin poly

Added an open shelf under the right side, which would've been unused space due to the radiator:

Added a hutch shelf on top for books (only a few Grandpa, not your whole collection), an undermount light and some cork space for pictures and notes:

drawer with hardware:

Good view of window and radiator sticking out:

from the side:

before and after:

Now Grandpa (and Grandma) have a designated workspace made to fit:

I'm linking up to:

   

"F" is for Floor Lamp

A floor lamp makeover.

As usual I got this floor lamp from Freecycler Doug.

(Yes I do buy things sometimes but when I know it's worthwhile I'm all for Freecycle.)

Not bad for a boy's room baseball theme.

But I needed a 'gender neutral' theme for my kid's bedroom.

I refinished the base with the following products in this order:

(This is what I had so this is what I used.)

prime, paint, sand, stain, seal

For the lampshade we started with this:

And now we have this:

How's how I changed the lampshade:

removed the 'stitching' strings and red fabric:

cut new fabric to fit height of shade and long enough to cover all four sides:

using spray adhesive, attach fabric to one side and wrap 1/2" over side seam:

for the next piece I folded the edge for a finished look and applied:

there's lots of ways to go about it, basically wrap the shade with the fabric

Then I sprayed the bottom and top edges and folded inside:

Use binder clips at corners to keep fabric in place while drying:

Adhere trim, I made blue binding from fabric and used fabritac to glue it:

Finished:

One last side by side:

Definitely worth my time.

I'm linking up to: