kerosene lamps get electric make over

Al took apart some kerosene lanterns and made them electric

he put those tapered chandelier bulbs in to keep the flame aesthetic

the nob that was made to turn fresh wick into the lamp is now a switch to turn on the lamp, how cool!

now we have two!

Painting

so I'm not done painting but I've been doing so much of it I had to reward myself a blog post.

spackling...

and painting over the wierd minty green to a more subtle mossy green

hard to get my camera to get the color right... it's more like that last photo

painted the kicthen a mustard yellow and these other two walls a burnt sienna color. If all goes according to plan the big wall will be mustard colored too

pallet planter

So back in this post I showed a hanging planter Julia and Jacob made from and old picture frame. I think every animal that came over peed/walked on that thing. Hopefully it's on the road to recovery and will hang proudly at Chris and Jules'. Meanwhile I looked for a similar project that would go with the boxes we picked out for the future plant wall. I didn't want to make another picture frame one because everything we are putting on this wall sticks away from the wall a lot and I thought it would look off to have one flate thing. I found this.

a problem I saw with this was that most pallets are a lot bigger than other things that would be going onto our wall. I thought it might look funny if there was one giant pallet and a bunch of smallish boxes. So I held out and low and behold Friday night I found this tiny (about 2.5' x 2') pallet behind the Beauty Supply Warehouse just a block away from our warehouse! So I cut some wood to make a back for it.

staple gunned some ballistic nylon around the back to hold over any cracks


smashed a bunch of soil into it and planted some succulants!

after some unrelated issues with stud-finding this weekend I will have to consult Al on hanging this. It's REALLY heavy. I like the one Julia made more I kinda wish I hadn't picked the same plants for each row but it's still cool looking!

Textiles

With Al gone and a huge slew of home improvements to his name I've been playing catch up trying to get some things under my belt. After I made the cushions for the dining table I did a few more projects.

potholders cuz we didn't have any!

banner flags made from different map fabrics

pillows that look like logs

found some leftover cordaroy and made another leaf pillow

and I never showed the curtains in our room which are sheer so they let light in but opaque enough that you can't really see in when they're drawn

Dining table set!

When we realized we were gonna need a table to eat at we enlisted these bench things we picked up at Urban Ore:

Al had a great idea to turn an old fence in a table and old fences just happened to match those bench things we found!

here it is!

We bought 2 sections of fence and Al made one with collapsible legs so we can pump up the tables when needed! Here's the collapsible one next to the regular one.

lookin good!

the benches are super raw wood (read: insanely splintery) I started to sand them but the wood under was a completely different color so I made cushions to buffer the snagging splinters

made out of some brown denim and high-loft poly batting for a very low-key cushion

Sideboard!

because of large size and matching window needs, we got these bad boys from the regular-priced window section at Urban Ore

Al made a frame and covered it in pallet boards

Here it is the first attempt. Decidedly too tall and too deep

so it was narrowed and shortened...

sawed an old door nob in half for nobs to open it with

before

after (it's not as apparent from the photos but it was really weirdly big before)

yeah!

Side tables!

Made side tables from old timey windows and pallet boards

We found 2 that matched in the $5 section that had the wavey privacy glass we wanted but they were in a sad state.

so I sanded...

and stripped the paint off the glass...

here's the other one...

sanded...

and stripped

Al made box frames and covered them with pallet board

and I put the windows on with some old hinges and drawer pulls to make it easier to open

tah-dah! More storage with wavy glass to hide whatever we put in there!

Other table!

Al made this table out of old pallet boards

It sits behind the couch and maybe someday it will have a projector on it!

Coffee Tables!

When I lived in Portland I had this coffee table I loved that had a display top. Remaking it to the power of infinitely coolerness with some old timey windows:

See how rad that is? There's a place to show off some books without taking up tabletop space!

Al made the frame and bases out of pallet boards

and the whole top comes off for hidden storage! Al made two of these guys for our living "room"