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Furniture Projects

DIY Door Table

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Building from discarded materials is sure to open up a whole new world of creative, and functional, possibilities for you.

In days gone by, resourceful homeowners made many of their household items themselves, often out of whatever they had on hand and often times recycling old materials, or converting items that had outlived their useful life. But your furniture need not look like it came out of the trash heap. There are tons of thrift shops, garage sales, and flea markets, not to mention your own garage or attic, that have materials that would make a great, recycled table. All you need is a few basic tools, a little patience, and some elbow grease.

You may approach this project in one of two ways. You can decide upon a particular style of table, pick a location in your home for it, and then go out seeking supplies to suit, or you can allow the materials that you find or fall in love with to dictate the style of table that you construct. I have personally done this both ways and I must say that allowing the materials to “birth” the project is the most fun and rewarding.

DIY door table

Recycled Door Window Seat Project

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Is it just me or can you never have enough storage? It seems like we are always in the same mode at my house of trying to find a home for all of our stuff. It took a full eight years for Laura to finally get the window seat that should have been included when we built the house. But you need not wait to have your own because this project goes together in an afternoon with minimal fuss.

Having a supply of old paneled wood doors at our disposal has provided us with design ideas and material for various projects like this one. The door that we selected for our window seat, by a stroke of luck, happens to be ideal for the cottage style that we so adore. It can sometimes be quite difficult to find what you’re looking for, while other times the perfect piece seems to speak to you from the junk pile. There are no guarantees in junking, so you have to resign yourself to go with the flow. I tend to think the challenge of finding materials is the best part, if you can get past the whole frustration thing.
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How to Add Castors to Furniture

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How to add castors to furnitureDo you have any pieces of furniture that seem a little low to the ground? I have a lovely sofa table that I picked up at a garage sale and wanted to use as a writing desk. When I placed the table where I wanted to use it, I realized that the drawer trim made it impossible for me to sit at the table with my legs underneath. The drawer was too close to the seat of the chair.

I searched around for some ideas on how to lengthen the legs and settled on casters.  I wanted the same old fashioned casters that were on my antique furniture pieces and after much searching, found the perfect ones at an online hardware store.

The casters I picked out are gorgeous vintage look wood wheels with stems that were the perfect addition to this table.  Here’s the step-by-step guide to how to add castors to a piece of furniture.

Painted Chair

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So you want to give that old chair from your Aunt Joan a facelift but you don’t have the funds or the know-how to handle traditional re-upholstery? Have no fear, there’s still hope for you and that chair of yours.

Prep Work and Selection

Painted chair tutorialSome upholstered furniture is more suited to paint therapy than others, so it helps to understand a few basic principles before we sling paint. Different fabric textures accept paint differently and a good rule of thumb would be susceptibility to stain or soil. If a fabric absorbs fluids or picks up dirt, it’s probably a good candidate for our technique. In other words, vinyl or faux leather won’t work for you.

Next is the condition of the piece. Is it sturdy? Are the springs and foam in good shape? Painting upholstered furniture is a good way to give new life to a sound piece that you’re just not into anymore, but probably not so great for pieces that need extensive frame work since that usually involves removing fabric. A little common sense goes a long way. If you’re advanced enough to tear down a chair, repair the frame damage, and reattach the fabric, then you might as well reupholster the chair, but that’s a different post.

Vintage Pie Safe Knockoff

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Farmhouse kitchens are all the rage right now. Before ice boxes and refrigerators, pie safes were used to store not only pies, but also meat, bread, and other perishables, to keep them safe from vermin and insects. The doors, and usually the sides,were ventilated either by tin panels with punched holes or screens.

When I built a small pantry for myself, I wanted to create an old pie safe look.   I came across some pie safe tin panels made in the old-fashioned way in an on-line hardware store and I knew I had found the right pieces!   The technique I’m about to share can be applied to almost any existing cabinet door; all it takes is a little wood molding.

Assembling the Materials

Measure the cabinet door(s) and choose the tin panels that fit best. The ones I used were vertical panels 10”x14” in size. I had a single large and very plain wood cabinet door to work with, so I picked out 4 panels.

Laying out the panels for the pie safe projectRemove the cabinet doors and lay them flat. Lay the tin panels over the top of the wood. I just played with the layout until I liked the spacing between the panels.   Then I took down the measurements in between the panels and around the edge. I didn’t want to cut holes in the door for the tin panels so I opted to lay them on top of the wood instead. This gives the same look of a pie safe without the ventilation component.

With the pieces laid out and my measurements taken, off I went to the local building supply to buy the trim I needed. I picked up some thin wood molding that I had the building supply store cut down to the width and depth that I needed.  The trim pieces wound up being 1 1/2 ” wide and 3″ wide, with 5/8″ depth.

Vintage Tub Couch

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How to repurpose a cast iron tub into a couchRepurpose a Cast Iron Tub

As if taken directly out of Holly Golightly’s New York apartment, this project is timeless cool. In fact, for those of you with a great attention to detail, you may remember seeing one of these fabulous cast iron tub couches in that iconic film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

At first this project may seem daunting since we have to cut metal, but with the right tools it’s no big deal and you’ll have serious DIY cred for making your own.

Acquire the tub

You may already have an uncommitted cast iron tub lying around, but if not you can generally find them at architectural salvage shops and even swap sites. This project is a great candidate for tubs in less than perfect condition, so you may be able to get a great deal. For reference, at the time of this writing we paid $200 for a tub that we got from an individual on a social media swap site. I actually thought this was a little bit on the pricey side, but I’m cheap.

Bring help when you go tub shopping, this can be backbreaking work! Another tip to consider is the height of the vehicle that you intend to load your tub into. A low trailer may be easier to load than a pickup truck.