Me and my plank!

Yikes!  Another late post.  In my defense, we are just coming off of our Fall break and today has been "cray-cray" trying to get caught up and all.  Only a few extra days off and I feel like I'm having to completely readjust to a new routine.  But, we all survived.  No one was late to school although some of the kiddos may have had a major case of "bed head".  Oh well!  I even managed to produce a meal at dinner time even if it did come from a box...and no, it wasn't cereal.

Today I decided I needed a quick, easy project to ease me back into the grind.  The project I decided to work on is something I've been meaning to get to and just kept putting off.  It was seriously the easiest project ever because all it involved was cutting a piece of wood and staining it.  It was super cheap too because I already had a plank of wood sitting in my basement.  But even still, the project wouldn't cost more than $10 if you needed to run out and buy all the supplies.

Are you dying to know what I made?

Here it is...a bathtub shelf

It really is as primitive and minimalist as it gets.  Me find wood.  Me put wood on tub.

But truthfully, that's the look I was going for.  I wanted it to look like, well, that I found a piece of wood and set it across the tub.  There are all sorts of tutorials out there for more involved and elaborate tub shelves...just in case you were wondering though.

The shelf, though not overly functional is adequate enough for resting a few candles on as well as the occasional book or rag mag...and possibly a cupcake or two.

I started off by measuring the width of my tub, which was about 31 inches.  I used an 8 inch wide/10 foot long piece of lumber and cut off a 36 inch piece...mainly because it is an easy number to remember.

Then I distressed it.  I looked all over for  the medieval torture device I made when I distressed my laundry room cabinets

but I came up empty handed.  So I ended up just beating the plank with a hammer and throwing it on the concrete and jumping on it and grinding it in the gravel on the side of the house and banging nails into it.  Oh, what the neighbors must have thought while I was doing it...probably, "stay inside kids, the weird neighbor lady is beating up a piece of wood".  

But, my technique {yes, I am calling it a technique} worked.  My plank was adequately abused and distressed...and I was adequately amused and de-stressed when it was all said and done.

Finally, I threw on quick coat of stain and was good to go.

I made sure to work the stain into all the "worm holes" really well.

It didn't take long for the wood to dry.  Pine is extremely porous and just sucks the stain right up.

Once it was dry to the touch I set it on the tub and I was done.

The functionality of the shelf is minimal, but is adequate enough for resting a few candles and book or rag mag on...and possibly a cupcake or two.

Now my bathtub {and bathroom} finally feel complete...and all because of a piece wood.

Old Bi-fold turned Partition Reveal

Okay, so remember these bad boys?

I picked 'em up at the D.I. for $20. Maybe a bit pricey once you factor in the price of paint and primer etc., but I had beeen waiting and waiting ever so long for them so I popped on 'em.
The poor things were covered in mummified spiders and pet hair...ick.

But, I saw through the cobwebs and knew that they had great potential. After a thorough rub down, I primed them.

I didn't take a picture. But I only wanted to use three of the four panels, so I unhinged one set and used that hinge to attach the third panel to the other set of two. I did this after they were primed, but before I had started on the painting...so I didn't mistakenly knick up the paint.
After they were primed and hinged together, I sprayed black paint everywhere I wanted it to show through. I used my candle wax method (which you can learn about here.
I could have spray painted the whole project black, but I knew where I wanted the black paint to show through so I just spot painted instead.)

Then I waxed over all of the black areas with an old candle I had on hand. I know it's not pretty, but don't worry.

Then I sprayed on the top coat in my favorite color...Ocean Breeze by Krylon.

Then, I rubbed, rubbed, rubbed...where I had waxed.

Then glazed a little too...for good measure.

And voila...a cool, rustic partition; perfect for concealing clutter or spicing up a bland corner.

Here she is in her new home.


Just pretend those smudges on the front of the piano aren't there.

Linkin up to:

Anatomy of a vingette.

So, I had this weird little space in my front room that I didn't know what to do with.
Then one day as I was purusing the isles of my favorite thrift store I saw this little beauty. It was like being reunited with a long lost love. I swear I even heard fireworks. (Okay, maybe it was really gunshots. My thift store is kinda in da hood). When I saw her I knew...writing nook

She needed a little TLC, but not much. All I did was wipe her down and give her a coat of dark walnut stain.
I love the variation of her wood and how the dents and scratches give her the "worn over time" look I was going for.

Did I mention she only cost me $8? Bargain.
I put her in her new home and paired her up with these three little guys.


I found them at the thrift store as well. They got a fresh coat of paint in apple green and then I glazed them to make them look old and worn. These three cost me $3.
Then I remembered a thrift store purchase I had made a few months back and decided to introduce him to the gang. He fit right in.

Then came Mr. Twigg's. (An old, glass milk bottle I found at the thrift store. I dressed him with a few willow sticks from the backyard and he was good to go).

And Booksy. (This cool idea comes from my sister who saw it somewhere. All you need are a few old, hardback books that you don't might desecrating. You simply tear off the hard covers and...voila, a cool bundle of ancient looking books. I tied them up with an old piece of twine I had lying around).

Then finally Ole Blue. (This item was my only splurge as I purchased him at a retail store rather than a thrift store. Isn't he the cutest?)

Here's the completed space.

The best part is that I was able to do all of it for under $24. I am thinking about putting some decoupaged numbers or letters inside the empty frames so stay tune for the tutorial. This just goes to show that creating a space can still be chic and cheap at the same time.