Dinning Room

Hey there!  We are in the process of redoing our boys' rooms upstairs and this past week, I worked on several projects for little guy's room.  I was so happy with how they turned out, but it sure didn't start out that way.  I have a tendency to get in a hurry when working on projects, because usually I have other things to do like laundry, dinner, and being a mom and wife, so I get in a hurry and do things wrong only to have to go back and redo.  Not fun.   First up was this headboard I made for his room using our collection of vintage yardsticks.    I started out by building a simple frame using 1 x 2's and attaching the yardsticks to the front of the frame.  Because I didn't want to use all yardsticks, I also used groups of lattice strips that I already had from a previous project.    Originally, I stained those strips of lattice with Minwax special walnut stain.  But I didn't love it and it didn't look right. ...

Hey there!  When we first found our home 6 years ago, I was absolutely in love with this side porch off the kitchen.  At the time of course, it looked awful because it was in the middle of being renovated, but, I saw what it could be.  I pictured pots of delicious herbs just waiting to be harvested for cooking, a cozy table to enjoy lunch or a morning cup of tea or coffee, or just a place to sit and read.  Funny thing was, it wasn't until now, 6 years later, that I finally filled the porch with those things.  I have no idea why. We have a large vegetable garden in our backyard, complete with herbs, so, it never occurred to me to also have some on the porch.  My hubby came home the other day with a crate that he found beside the road that I just loved.  I had it sitting on the porch for a few days waiting until I decided what to do with it when I realized how much I loved it on the porch.  And an idea was born; fill it with unique herbs that I don'...

One of the things I've loved so much about blogging this past year is how much I'm learning about home design, building my own furniture, and various wood treatments.  And I look forward to learning so much more.  Now that I work with wood for a living, I've also learned so much about different ways to age new wood, though, I'm certainly no expert. Several years ago when I decided to build a new dining room table with the table legs that my dad made, I really didn't know that much about any of those things, but we really needed a larger dining table for our larger than usual dining room and I really wanted to give those special table legs a purpose.  The tabletop I put together then was okay, but, I wasn't happy with the dark stain and polyurethane combo I used.  It didn't absorb into the wood, instead, it sat on top of the wood and dried to somewhat of a strange shine.  Neither of which I wanted.  I also longed for a thicker table top.  Preferably...