Migrating DIY My Home

I’m migrating our site to a new domain name:

Please visit us now at www.diy-my-home.com

Thanks and happy DIY’n to all!

$8.50 Modern square end table

     

Seriously simple, modern end table

 

We moved our site: Pretty please click here for this full post with the how-to pictures at our new site. 

This is a seriously simple end table project made from a 2×12 piece of wood and we added cute little feet to it. This would be a great first project…hint hint      

     

 

Living Room Before/After pics

We are moving this site to www.diy-my-home.com 

Click here to see this full living room before and after post at our new domain: 

http://diy-my-home.com/2010/09/living-room-beforeafter-pics/ 

Living room BEFORE

 

 

For anyone seriously considering DIY concrete countertops…

We moved to www.diy-my-home.com

To view this page and see the 4 things we would have changed with our concrete countertops please visit this page: http://diy-my-home.com/2010/09/concrete-countertop-hindsight/

What can you make w/ a 4×4 cut into blocks?

New blocks for Rory OR great idea from watching DIY Network last night? Find out at our new site here :)

Outdoor concrete table ready to pour

I’ve had my eye on an outdoor table that is an odd height. Its taller than a standard coffee table (so you would still feel comfortable eating a meal there) but lower than a dinner table (so you still feel like you are lounging). So of course we wanted to build it ourselves. 

We picked up a 3×5 sheet of cement board (the stuff behind the tile in your shower so it wont rot like plywood) and we already had some 4×4 legs from a failed bathroom vanity (we’ll share that later in a ‘DIY Duds’ post that is in the works). In order to hide the cement board, we decided to make a form out of 1x4s we had laying around and pour a slab on top. We also picked up (3) 12″x12″ sheets of green glass at Hobby Lobby to inlay into the top (wouldn’t be exciting enough if we didn’t include some type of experimental factor!).  Here’s a pic of its current state:

Outdoor concrete table form

 

 Check back soon for the results! 

We will be pouring the slab today then it needs to set (we are usually too anxious to wait longer than 1 day to remove the molds), then we’ll probably need to fill any edges that didn’t turn out perfect, followed by the final step of staining the concrete and paint/poly the legs. So I’m sure it will be complete later this week! Wish us luck (sure hope this project doesn’t end as a DIY Dud). 

UPDATE: Well, it looks pretty good (I better put a picture up soon)…BUT (and that’s a BIG but!) It took WAY more bags of concrete than we were expecting so it weighs about 360 lbs. How are we going to move that around?! Ugh! Not sure if we will reinforce its base and keep it or scrap it (use it as the foundtion the outdoor fireplace we want?!) hmmm…

Concrete Tabletop…why not?!

Our baby dancing at the new table

We’ve moved our site to www.diy-my-home.com

 

Please click here to see this post on how we made this concrete surfaced table!

Project: Bar stool

I began a search for barstool plans that looked nice and wouldn’t be too difficult to make since we are no experts at furniture building.  So, once again we looked to www.Knock-OffWood.com (obviously my new favorite website) for some ideas. We decided to make ours with 1x4s rather than 1x3s to make it a little more sturdy and added a low back to it. Here’s how ours turned out:

My barstool painted gloss black

This is how we built the bar stool: What do you need to buy?

1 – 12 ft 1×2
1-10 ft 1×4
1-8 ft 1×4

How to cut?

Step 1&2)

Make the seat frame then attach the seat boards from the underside with 2″ screws

Underside of seat

 View from the top side 

Seat attached from underside

Step 3) front and back legs go on next

Attach front and back legs to frame

Step 4)  Attach back rest. We just glued and clamped ours until it was dry so there wouldn’t be any brackets or screws in the way.

back rest

 Step 5) Attach the footrests

foot rests

sand and stain/paint

Hope that makes sense and that someone else will build a few of these for their outdoor bar or kitchen island bartop! hint hint.

Fabulous Fireplace Remodel

This is by FAR my favorite feature in our house and one of the main reasons we bought the house…the HUGE fireplace feature. It is the central feature to the home with the livingroom on one side and the dining room on the otherside. Here is a picture of what it looked like BEFORE the remodel:

Fireplace BEFORE

I actually thought the fireplace was fine before (besides the fact that there was no mantel to hang stockings on for Christmas). But I’m sure glad I was talked into upgrading it! It was built out a little bit, framed with beautiful glass tile, added a nice slab of absolute granite and after trying a few different mantel options we topped it with stained concrete to match the kitchen counter color. Here it is:

Fireplace AFTER

And here is a close up of the mantel and tiles:

Closer view of the mantel and tile

I LOVE how it turned out! What do you think? Has anyone else completed or thinking about upgrading your old fireplace? Do tell…

Spray painting EVERYTHING

Obsessed. That would describe my new feeling about spraypaint. After spray painting our master bathroom mirror frame, bed, and headboard all in mocha brown I’ve moved on to Gloss White (and now metallic colors). I painted a set of picture frames (filled w/ colorful pictures of our garden’s flowers) which will be going up on the wall very soon and today I went shopping in my own garage and discovered outdoor hanging planters that were all different colors…and red vases that didn’t quite match our new color scheme…lightbulb moment!…spray them. Here are the BEFORE pics:

BEFORE

AFTER: with colorful mums

Next painting project was my red vases…glossy blue or metallic…hmm!? (UPDATE: decision made…discovered  metallic blue and metallic charcoal colors so here are the pics)

BEFORE: (pretty but didn't match the rest of the house)

Sprayed on primer so the paint would be sure to stick...looks good like this too though

Blue and gray metallic vases AFTER painting

Things I’ve learned:

1-Clean off any dust/dirt that is on the item to be painted

2- wipe it dry

3-don’t wear any clothes or shoes that you love unless you are willing to get a light dusting of paint on them

4-work outside (or VERY well ventilated area) unless you feel like ingesting toxic chemicals and feeling all loopy afterward.

5-Let it dry then check if a second coat is needed…be patient.

6-Enjoy your NEW gift! 

What have you spraypainted? Are you thinking of anything around the house that could use a fun new color? Do share….