Ben's Wooden Crate Bookshelves

They're finished!

I finally got around to completing Ben's bookshelves yesterday

all thanks to my in laws taking Ben for the night on Wednesday.

It was truly glorious. I haven't been able to work on a project uninterrupted for that long in...

well I don't even know the last time, to be honest.

I had seen this picture a couple of months ago of front-facing bookshelves

made from a wooden pallet, and I knew that's what I wanted for Ben's room.

So after sucking up to my roofers, and after their speedy delivery of a nice clean pallet,

I decided to go for it.

 

I'm including my tutorial below if you're interested.

This project was virtually free for me.

The crate was certainly free,

and I had everything else.

I did buy some extra pieces of lumber (3 1x3's) for the bottom of the shelves

that didn't break the bank at about $1.50 a piece.

Oh yes, and a couple bucks for the mounting hardware.

That's it! So cheap.


I kept the "pallet look" by just using a pickling stain instead of paint,

and I did not fill any holes from the nails.

If you wanted a more finished look, I would fill those with some wood filler

and then either paint or stain darker.

But I decided I that I wanted to be able to tell that it used to be a pallet.

And it seems to fit in well with the other furniture in Ben's room.

I also added some quotes (listed at the bottom of the post) about reading that I love, some serious and some silly.

I found a TON, and it was difficult to narrow my favorites down to three,

but I did, and they're great.

And the best part of the whole thing?

Ben LOVES to take out the books.

(We'll have to work on putting them back in)

And the bottom shelf is just the right height for him right now.

He loves to read which is exciting

because I have always had a love affair with books

and I know that the love of books had a HUGE positive impact on my life.

I certainly hope this trend continues for him.

So here's how I made them!

Pallet Bookshelf Tutorial

Step One:

Hack up your pallet.

I was able to get three shelves out of mine.

Depending on the construction of the pallet, you might only be able to get two.

Step Two:

Pry off one of your boards.

You could try and use this board as your bottom piece.

I didn't for two reasons: the board was too wide and I couldn't seem to get the boards off without them splitting and I wanted a nice strong board since that's the piece on which the books will sit.

Be sure to take out all of your nails and such.

 

Repeat for all of the shelves.








 

Step Three:

Sand it down. I sanded mine thoroughly first with a coarse, then a medium, then a fine grit sandpaper.

I hate sanding. Hate. But I would rather sand than pull out splinters from Ben's hands later, yes? yes.

 

Step Four:

Cut the lumber for the bottom of the shelves.

Again, I used a 1x3 for each.

My shelves were about 4.5 feet long, so I cut a piece to match with my mitre saw.

 

Step Five:

Attach the bottom piece.

I glued mine and then nailed where the bottom piece met the braces (four).

Step Six:

Final sanding and cleaning of the shelves.

You want to make sure that you have a clean, dry, smooth surface to paint or stain.

Almost there!
Looking good, yeah?

 

Step Seven:

Stain.

I used a white pickling stain by Minwax.

There are so many different stains out there, it's crazy.

I think it would be fun also to do a colored stain, especially since these are for a kid's room.

Follow the directions on the label of whatever product you use,

and keep in mind that you might want more coats,

the more coats, the more saturated the color.

Step Eight:

Once my stain had dried, I added my quotes.

If you have a fancy Silhouette machine of something like that, this would be really quick and neat.

I've also found this technique.

But in the end I just printed my quotes in a couple different fonts and used those as a reference to free hand the words.

I drew them on with pencil first, and then painted them on with a watered down acrylic paint.

Step Nine:

Attach your mounting hardware,

and mount to the wall.

Please use extra care when selecting your hardware and mounting furniture in a child's room.

You don't want anything to fall down on anyone,

and it's always best practice to assume that it will be pulled on.

 

Done.

Fill that thing with books and cozy up with a good one.







"Let us read and let us dance- two amusements that will never do any harm to the world." -Voltaire

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." -Frederick Douglass

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

I am NOT a Broncos Fan

But I know some people who are!

One of my favorite families in Colorado needed bean bags for their corn hole sets (bean bag toss game thing for those of you scratching your heads).

Anywho, I've made about ten gazillion corn hole sets, so I offered to make theirs.

Bean bags are probably one of the simplest projects out there, am I right?

They sent me the fabric in the mail since they wanted Broncos stuff (which is NOT available in Pittsburgh), and the only problem is... there was WAY too much of it.

So I thought I would make a simple tote to match and carry all those bags.

Problem solved.

And it all turned out pretty cute, yes?

The straps I took off of a bag I already had that had seen much better days.

 and the zipper was purchased as a goof (I bought the wrong size, but kept it in case I needed it in future). 

I reinforced all of the fabric for extra sturdiness (is that a word?),

and added an extra panel at the bottom made with double layers of stabilizer and more Broncos fabric.

So all in all, I had the materials already except for the Broncos stuff, as, I repeat, I AM NOT A BRONCOS FAN.

I'll post more details on the bean bags soon.

Being the crazy neurotic person that I am, they are, of course, made to regulation as per the directions of the Cornhole Association of America.

Yes, they do exist.

Vertical Insanity

I got my green beans in the ground over the weekend,

and I'm glad that I did because the weather made a turn for the worse.

I've seen a lot of ideas for vertical growing out there,

and as someone trying to optimize space in a city lot,

I'm overall a fan.

However, there seem to be a ton of fancy schmancy trellises out there (I'm looking at you Pinteresters)

made of all kinds of weird things.

While I appreciate the creativity,

I thought I would show you all how I built mine.

It's far from creative, but I would argue that it is what I have found to be most practical. :)

Growing pole beans is the bee's knees when it comes to saving space in the garden. They grow up, not out, and since they're so nice and tall, you can plant plenty of things in front of them,
and still have access to the plants when it's time to pick.

For my trellis, I only used things that I had at the house, scrap wood and such,

and even if you had to buy these materials, they are super cheap.

I had this fence panel left over,






so I cut one panel down using my circular saw to make three tall stakes.






I stuck them in the bed toward the back edge.












and attached bamboo at the top and bottom horizontally.










See how much room I have left over in the beds? Perfect.








Then, using a natural jute rope, I weaved up and down to create my trellis.
Up and down. Up and down again.








I know these pictures are brown on brown on brown,
but hopefully you can see everything alright.


I really like this method because at the end of the season, once the plants have stopped producing,
I can just cut the rope with the plants,
and since it's natural,
I'll just throw it all into the compost.



I've planted bush beans in the past,
but like I said, if you want to optimize your space,
I really like pole beans because they take up very little space in the garden,
and they're easy to grow as long as you give them something to grab onto.

I'm planting a Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean this year (there's a joke there somewhere).





I like to soak the beans in some water overnight before I plant,
and then just scatter them in rows below my trellis.
This variety is meant to be planted about 3 in. apart, but I went heavy and I'll thin them out later.
I've had bad luck with green beans in the past, and sometimes, not a lot germinate.
This way, I should have plenty, and if I'm lucky and a ton come up, I'll just thin to 3 in. between plants.

And that's it!
I'll let you all know how successful these are as the season continues.

Beginner

For my Christmas gift this past year, Chris got me the best gift.

Something that I desperately wanted,

enrollment in a pottery class.

A chance to learn something completely new,

and perhaps even more importantly,

2.5 hours of bliss away from the house creating something

with people that I had never met.

It was such a great outlet for me for 10 weeks.

I LOVE learning new things,

especially new ways to create.

So, I thought I would share with you some of my wares.

They're not great.

I can pick out imperfections in every single piece.

A thumbprint here, a chip in the glaze there...

There are those that I hate,

those that I like,

those that I did hate but now like,

those that I thought I would like, but now I'm not sure....

blah blah blah.

The point, though, was not to master pottery.

I knew ahead of time that it would take much more than several weeks, several years even to feel accomplished in this field.

Being familiar with other forms of art didn't help me much either.

It was like learning to speak a different language.

I guess I could liken it to someone being a fabulous pianist

and then trying to learn how to play the oboe.

There are similarities, for sure,

but when it comes down to it,

you're probably better off just having no preconceived notions,

no firm expectations.

What you throw on the wheel,

takes on a completely different personality when it is trimmed,

and then takes on another when it is glazed.

Unlike other crafts and art forms, it is almost impossible, as a beginner, to know at the start what your creation will look like in the end.

This was both frustrating for me and liberating (once I placed my OCD neatly in my back pocket).

For those of you in the Pittsburgh area,

you should definitely check out the Union Project Ceramics Co Op.

They have a multitude of classes,

including classes for beginners, classes for kids, for the whole family, and more.

They also have community classes around holidays like carving ceramic pumpkins at halloween and this Saturday a Mother's Day wind chime making class. I mean, come on... how cute is that?

The members of the co op are all super laid back and great teachers.

They also each have a different style and something completely different to add to the craft.

Plus, it's a great studio space (lots of natural light) and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is included in the prices and available to you.

Plus, their pieces (the professionals', I mean) are  available for purchase at the Union Project and also at the Three Rivers Arts Festival coming up in June.

It's great to learn something new, right?