New Year, New...Shelves?

Is that a sexy title or what? Shoot. I don't even have a good segue...

As you all know, I am not super crafty, as evidenced by the exactly 1 craft post that is currently on this blog. However, I am really excited about the shelves I put together for our "beverage center", and by "I" I mean my husband and I. I was the creative genius, he was my "implementer", so to speak. Anyway, I think they turned out really well and totally fit in to the "industrial farmhouse" vibe we are going for. Note: I didn't know that was what it was called, but apparently my more decorating-trend-savvy friends pegged the look.  :-)

While not exactly cheap to put together (I spent $90 on supplies, not including the wood, which we had in the garage), they look really cool:

They weren't that hard to make, once I figured out what I needed, so let me walk you through the process, and save you the hour I spent at Home Depot figuring out sizes and lengths and numbers of each item needed.

Supplies needed for each shelf you want to make:

4 -- 1/2 inch floor flanges (I used black steel for these)
2 -- 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows
4 -- 1/2 inch X 2 inch steel pipe nipples (yeah, I know. I laugh every time I see the label, too)
8 -- #10 X 1/2 inch screws
8 -- #6-32 X 1 1/2 inch hollow wall anchors


First, using 2 of the flanges, 2 of the nipples and one of the elbows for each bracket, screw the pieces together  like so:

Tip: It's a little tricky screwing them together so that the flanges are level and straight. It might take a few tries.

Here's a photo of the screws and anchors, in case my written descriptions were less than understandable: 

In terms of shelves, I guess they could be as long as you wanted (these are pretty hefty brackets), but because they are heavy, you want to be careful of what you put on them, especially if they are not attached to studs when you mount them. We had some extra wood that was actually perfect in terms of width and length, so I didn't even need to trim them, but what I did not realize until my husband started to put them up is that the corners weren't exactly square. What can I say? I'm more the creative type, not as concerned with details of implementation. Luckily, my husband is, so he made it work. Here's how the hanging of the shelves progressed:

Because the brackets weren't 100% level (hence my warning tip at the beginning) we (my husband) thought it would be better to put the brackets up first, then attach the shelf.

Before you start drilling, hold one of the brackets up into position, then use a pencil to mark the spots where the holes should be drilled.

Another tip: If there is a pocket door behind the wall on which you are hanging the shelves, make sure that 1) your screws/anchors don't impede the path of the door and 2) you keep the door out of the wall (i.e., closed) so that the drill bit doesn't hit it when you are drilling the screws in (learned that one the hard way...)

And there you are! Cool looking shelves.

To paint the wood itself, I just used glossy red spray paint, after first sanding and wiping down the wood. I let the painted wood dry for a couple of days, just to be sure, because I didn't want to take a chance that it would smear on the wall at all.

Let me know what you think! Or if you have any questions. Happy building!!

Let's Get Crafty!

You didn't think this blog would just be about cooking, did you?  I'll forgive you, if you did, since my blog title is kind of misleading.  But let me tell you, friends, I don't just "cook" in the kitchen!  ;-)

I used to be quite crafty, leaning more toward the "arts" side than "crafts," if truth be told.  I used to make my own cards with original artwork, as well as decorate wrapping paper, etc.  I really enjoy the creative process, whether it's art, or baking, or writing.  And then I had kids...

Don't get me wrong; I really love my boys and wouldn't trade them for the world.  They ARE my world, but I just haven't had the time or inclination to spend hours working on a project, not to mention getting all my stuff out, just to fend off little hands from grabbing at everything.  My kids didn't nap very well, so using that hour (no 3 hour naps in this house, ever) went to cleaning or sleeping.

Aaanywhoooo, it's taken me a while to get back into this crafting thing, but consider me back on the arts and crafts bandwagon!

I am notoriously indecisive when it comes to choosing paint color and will think about it for weeks, trying 5, 6, 7 different colors before I finally settle on one.  Which means I usually have a bunch of those little paint sample bottles lying around.    I also happened to have two canvases I bought a long time ago, intending to do a painting of lavender fields, but that wasn't about to happen at this point, so I got this idea of using the paint samples I had left over from painting the master bath and bedroom, which were all similar in tone and hue (grays, creams, lavenders) to paint those canvases.

Now, I didn't have time to do something really fancy and perfect, but I've always enjoyed the energy of Jackson Pollack's works, not that these come anywhere close to his genius.  The technique, however, is easy enough for anyone to try, so if you've been looking to add some original art to your space, give this a try!

First, you need canvases (or just one canvas, depending on how big the space is that you want to fill) and paint.  Before I started painting, I took eight tacks and put them in the back of the frames. I saw this idea on Pinterest so that the canvases didn't stick to whatever they were lying on.  This worked really well!

I painted the background of both canvases the same color I used for our bedroom wall color, with the intention of the background just fading to the wall so you would focus on the the movement of the other colors on the canvas.

Now comes the easy part.  Once the canvas(es) have dried, just start dribbling and spattering the paint around.  Because I wanted them to look like a diptych, with both halves looking like they went together, I set the canvases close to each other and scattered the paint as if they were one canvas.

If you wanted to get the patterns really dense (more like Pollock's work), you could do this over the course of a few days, adding layer upon layer, but I was impatient, so I stuck with my first try and let it go.  With some of the thicker splotches, it took some time for the paint to dry, but you want to be sure everything is completely dry before you handle the canvases or tilt them up, otherwise they will start dripping (unless you want it to look like that, which is a totally legitimate method, as well).

In order to hang the canvases, I had to add some hardware on the back.  Depending on how big the canvases are, you can do the hooks and wire like I did, or you can nail in the saw-tooth kind of hanger just at the top.

To make sure I had the hooks in evenly, I put the first one in, then measured from the top for the other ones.  The directions say you should put the eyes no more than 1/3 of the way down from the top of the canvas.

And, voila!  Original pieces of art to hang in your home. It's always fun to see something in your house that you can say, "I made that!", with a hint of pride in your voice (or at least inside your head, which is where a lot of my conversations take place).

Enjoy!