June 2011 | Crafted Niche - a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorialsCrafted Niche – a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorials

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A Dog Bed for Roxy

June 23, 2011 in Bedrooms, Building and Repurposing, Do it your Dog-Gone Self, Pups

If you know me (or are getting to know me), then you’ve probably realized by now that I love my pets…. A. LOT. My 14 year old Jack Russell is no longer allowed to sleep on my bed and she has some pretty strong feelings about being banished to the floor. I mean… who wouldn’t!? I’ve tried to make her happy with a pillow and a throw, but she’s not content. I’ve woken to find her sleeping in my suitcase (which I’m TERRIBLE about unpacking)… sleeping in a laundry basket (nope, not kidding)…. and even sleeping UNDER the bed.

Enough’s enough. It’s time for this girl to have a fitting bed! Lord knows she’s waited 14 years for a bed of her own

Thanks to Ana White I recently discovered that I CAN build things… and I LOVE IT. A. LOT. My first project was a bench, straight from her website, that I posted about here. Then I moved on to a frame for a print I’d purchased for CHEAP at Michaels. Apparently that was just enough to get my feet wet and I was hooked.

I dreamed up the plans for Roxy’s bed and made my shopping list. One quick trip to Lowes and I was on my way! 3 hours later I had made a dog bed sturdy enough to last for my great great great granddog’s to use some day. Admittedly, I built this thing to be stronger than a fort. Not intentionally… but hey… it’s my first build without someone telling me how!

What’s that? You want a play-by-play…. well don’t mind if I do!

For this project I purchased:

(4) 1×4′s for the planked sides, back and front
(2) 1×2′s to trim out the top and bottom
(1) 2×4′ piece of plywood, cut down to 21×30″
(2) 2×4′s

I already had plenty of screws and nails, glue, clamps, etc on hand at home.

I started by cutting out all of my pieces and stacking them up. The front boards are all 6″ tall, backs and sides are 11″ tall. I created my base frame and then began attaching the planks with 2″ wood screws. After finishing the frame and 1st side, it looked like this:

I kept crack’a'lackin until it finally looked like this…. ok wait. Before you scroll… just know that I realize it’s NOT perfect. It’s in fact far from perfect… but it was made with love. (I’ll wait while you finish groaning)

After all of the planks were attached, I used the 1×2′s to trim out the top and bottom edges and add a front lip. Who knew nail guns were so handy! WOW! If only I’d had it when I built the bench!

By the time I put my last nail in, I had a blister and two cuts. Small price to pay for a comfy bed for Roxy! I couldn’t stand to wait so I ran inside and threw two coats of primer on it that night. By the next night it looked like this:

First coat of grey drying! ….and then the next day I tried my hand at glazing. Definitely not perfect… but hey… I’m learning (slowly).

I love how the dark grey/black glaze really brings out the boards and planks.

I planned ahead and sized the bed so I could toss two old bed pillows inside (with waterproof covers). This way I could wash and clean as needed!

Sweet Dreams Roxy!

Bouncing around at:

My very first DIY Build!

June 11, 2011 in Bedrooms, Building and Repurposing, Furniture Makeovers

After countless hours browsing Ana White’s website I finally decided to give it a go! My very first big-girl building project. I was flying solo on the Spa Bench… here goes nothing! I followed her shopping list to a T… but I did all of my cuts with a circular saw and unfortunately don’t own a Kreg Jig. Good thing I started with a simple design!

I followed her plans, step-by-step. Above you see the initial box I built prior to adding trim and beefing up the legs for stability. I can’t stress enough…. This is TOTALLY doable… for anyone!

Here you see it after I added the trim boards and sat the top bench seat on the base. Loving it! The bin is there just for looks… and no, I didn’t build it. I found it on clearance at JoAnn Fabrics a while back.

Stay tuned for more pics and updates when I get around to staining/painting!

Dresser Makeover

June 5, 2011 in Bedrooms, Building and Repurposing, Furniture Makeovers

I did a bad thing. A very bad thing. I completely forgot to save the before photos of this piece. It kills me… because it was bad. B.A.D. Picture chipped up darkish-greenish paint all over with navy and dirty white stars coming up the front and angling across the top. AW-FUL. I first started by gluing and clamping the top. The front curved board was a bit wobbly and I wanted to sturdy it up. Then I sanded… and sanded… and sanded. Then I tried paint stripper……only I missed the part where you aren’t supposed to let the stripper dry on the piece. WHOOPS! Rookie mistake. Little did I know how hard it would be to get all the chalky stripper residue off. So I sanded… and sanded… and sanded some more. Forget it. Sanding wasn’t getting me anywhere. I grabbed a wet rag and wiped the whole thing down. Lugged the piece back inside… cracked open a can of Annie Sloans Chalk Paint in Old White and went to town. Let me tell you… I LOVE this paint. You can paint it directly on any surface… glossy, rough, whatever. Just slap it on there. When it dries it has the most amazingly smooth finish. Then you can easily go back and distress it with some light sanding. Finish it off with a coat of wax and you are GOOD to go!

….so without further ado… here’s the latest addition to the 2nd bedroom:

(Definitely going to have to find a new mirror that better fits the space!)

If you look closely, you’ll see that one of the handles doesn’t match the other three. I thought I’d try my hand at wrapping them with jute and hot glue to try to match them up a bit! Still need to paint the silver i-bolts to match.