pallet wood Archives - Spoonful of Imagination

Wake Up and Do Good

August 22, 2013 By Erica Deuel 7 Comments

I’m not a morning person. I am not a night person either. My poor husband married someone who really, really loves sleep.

This past weekend was kind of like the perfect weekend. We hung around the house, relaxed, slept in, and worked on some projects. I got a slew of signs done that I have been wanting to create. My latest sign was inspired to help get me moving faster in the mornings.

With the school year here, I have been trying to get up before the kids. It has been wonderful. I wake up in my living room rather than kids pulling on me, needing something, and feeling already behind.

I wanted a sign that could go in my kitchen (which is open to the living room) that could be a little reminder on those tired mornings or moments when I couldn’t wake up before the kids. I don’t want to be a snippy mom. My work is important and good. My heart beats for that, so all my actions need to show it…even when I’m tired and want to stay in those selfish moments.

It was fun creating this sign, and I fell in love with it once it was complete. I love the rooster silhouette rather than a cup of coffee like on most kitchen signs. I loved it so much-I decided to go huge. I made another one that is almost poster size to hang above my frig.

Do you find yourself turning to the art or music in your house to help remind you of what’s important in life? My house will probably end up having signs every where we turn because I need reminders. Now that I have this reminder sketched almost across my forehead since it will take up such a huge space, I don’t think I need the small sign anymore. It is approximately 7 1/4″ x 5 1/2″.

If one of you would like it, please contact me. I thought I would offer it up for $23 shipped which I can send an invoice for through paypal.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great week!

Ryobi Sliding Compound Miter Saw

August 16, 2013 By Erica Deuel 9 Comments

Disclosure: I received the saw for free to review, but all opinions and words are my own! I really do love this Ryobi Sliding Compound Miter Saw!

I have a tool in my life that I am quite giddy about. I am now the proud owner of a Ryobi Sliding Compound Miter Saw. The world of new projects and potential by having this saw is flooding my mind. I already have a specific miter saw to do list a mile long. A new entertainment center, a bunk bed, a dinning room table, and a pallet planked wall are just a few of the coming projects that we will be tackling and sharing along the way because of my new saw!

I must first say that I have always been afraid of power tools, especially saws. When the saw came I knew that I needed to get comfortable with it. It was time to conquer my fear and try something new that would stretch me. Although working with wood is no new task for me, being the one to make the “cuts” would be. I typically design, measure, and attach all my wood pieces but bribe my husband or brother to make cuts for me.

Instead of just starting to get used to my new saw by cutting boards, in total Erica fashion, I came up with a project to try my saw out on. I literally was so scared and my heart was racing as I set it all up. I read the manual, cleared my workspace off, and tried to wear all the protective gear. Note: I forgot the mask as a newbie wood worker, but I wont forget that again!

I started by cutting pallet wood, which is hard treated wood. This saw cut through it like butter! I was amazed immediately with how easy it cut. I carefully marked my wood to cut 45 degree angles, and rotated my blade to do so. The laser light helped me to make accurate cuts!

There are lots of features that I love about this saw. I love the clear protective guard around the blade, the sliding bar that allows wider pieces of wood to be cut, and the clamps that allow the table and wood to be tightly held down. Those are just a few of the many awesome features!

I tackled this saw and my first project with it, while my husband was out-of-town. I did it completely on my own. If I could figure it out, conquer my fear, and have my six-year-old document the process in pictures for me-you can too! I highly recommend this saw!

Using this Miter saw to create something that I had pictured in my head all on my own is an awesome feeling. I did something new and am better for it. I will be sharing the full tutorial next week, but I am so excited to show you that I made this!

I must say, I will still be cautious (because it is a powerful tool), but as a fellow DIY blogger has said “there should always be a healthy level of fear with saws.” I would say mine is now a healthy fear. I will be cautious and slow, but the fear to turn the saw on, be intimidated, and give my “cut tasks” away is no longer there! I can do this! My world of projects and possibilities has been opened and I am so excited to use this saw over and over again.

I highly recommend it! Ryobi products, like this Sliding Compound Miter Saw, are found at Home Depot.

For loads of inspiration on projects and the chance to enter your own projects for prizes, visit Ryobi Nation!

Disclosure: I received the saw for free to review, but all opinions and words are my own! I really do love this Ryobi Sliding Compound Miter Saw!

The Six Month Bedroom Makeover

October 12, 2012 By Erica Deuel 13 Comments

I am so excited to share with you the process of our bedroom makeover. This process began in May, and we are now in October. Life with three young kids might be part of this six month process, but i like to think it was more about dreaming and creating to MAKE our favorite things ourselves.

I look at this picture and I am blown away that our room used to have a more “haphazard” and “messy” feel.

The dark wood headboard created a much darker feel in our room. We originally painted this room with a $5.00 can of oops paint from Home Depot five years ago. We didn’t love the color, but we were planning on moving and knew a “clean” coat of paint would be more appealing than the dingy beige we had before. While painting the green, we decided to use another left over paint to create a brown accent wall.

It was a mess, and as we have stayed in our house and not moved its been a goal of ours to fix up this space. Unfortunately, it has been low on the list of priorities. We finally had time and space to start fixing it up, and it started with this beautiful mirror my husband made for me for Mother’s Day.

That is the one of the best presents I have ever received! For our eight year anniversary, we gave each other a new bed. We upgraded our queen to a huge king size with nice firm mattresses.

This new bed helped me complete my king size rag quilt. I made it on a small budget and yet it has an anthropology, bright, fun feel without costing a fortune. It has become one my most prized projects ever.

Our room is small with only one wall without windows or doors. The only way for us to both have a dresser is to have two tall dressers side by side. Still trying to fix this wall, although we are attacking the piles on top.

We needed a new headboard, since we only bought a metal frame with our new mattress. You got a glimpse of the DIY headboard that we created on last week’s Friday Project Spotlight.

I have posted a few pictures on Twitter and Facebook this week showing glimpses of how it looks hanging in our room! I have been so excited to share with you all of these pictures.

We picked Rain Water from Behr paint as our new room’s color. With all the bright color in our mirror, quilt, and headboard, we knew we needed a subtle color on the walls to let everything else pop.

It took two coats, but we got it painted! I am a mess when it comes to painting. Fortunately there’s no shortage of blue tape and brown paper to help keep me in line!

Oops! Who paints in jewelry!?!

The color goes on looking pretty close to white. I was at first a little nervous that it was too light, but as it dried it became a really pretty light blue. I love the color!

Seeing my headboard on the wall might have made me just a little giddy! I have a feeling this room could become one our more used rooms. 🙂

Everything really does pop more and have a more feminine touch without hopefully feeling too girly! Caleb was pleased that we chose blue for the walls since his “daddy has to sleep under a ‘girl’s’ blanket.”

That shag/t-shirt rug I got on clearance at Kohls sometime this summer for $4.00!?! I bought it in a heartbeat and didn’t even know what I would do with it. I just knew it was a great deal and I loved it. Don’t you love finds like that?

Another find for me was that purple/turquoise chair. Do you remember seeing it in my Ohio Auction post? It was a great free find that looks so much better with a coat of spray paint.

We all love to hang out in our room now! It is so fun that every one of our rooms is starting to feel like “us” and as “complete” as crafters can ever say. I think I need to post a tour that is more professional than our last home tour.

Thank you so much for checking in on my Friday Project Spotlight! Do you have a big project you are in the midst of working on?

Update: I have since added some new throw pillows to our bed, and I love all the color they bring!

DIY Headboard

October 5, 2012 By Erica Deuel 12 Comments

I have been wanting to create a new headboard for our bed ever since I finished my king sized rag quilt.

It has been a long time coming, but we finally created one! (I say “we” because Matt was largely involved. My projects often involve him. What an awesome man.)

I love how it turned out and I can’t wait to hang it in our room!! Would you like how I came up with this piece? Stayed tuned! First off, I did lots and lots of scouting on Pinterest for inspiration. Out of everything I saw, here are four of my favorite boards…

I love the simplicity of this look with the sweet branches. I thought the stained wood would look good with my bright quilt too.

I loved the way “love” was painted with the stain look, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to be such a bold piece.

I loved the way this “love” was painted smaller, but then it seemed like “not enough” for my taste.

So, I was a mess wanting something “simple” and yet “striking”.

I loved this rustic door and “love” mix. We looked for a while and couldn’t find an old door for cheap. Junk places realize what they have and price crazy old doors starting at $100? You can buy new doors cheaper. I didn’t want to pay that (cheap I know!), and I didn’t have an old barn in the back yard that I could “stumble” across such a treasure.

We have been getting caught up on How I Met Your Mother. Amazing show if you have not watched it! Every time I saw Marshall and Lilly’s bed, I wanted it. I loved the bold color.

I ultimately decided I am a “color” kind of person. Why not have a fun headboard to go with a fun bed quilt!?! So, this is what I came up with…

I mixed the simple branches with the word “love” on top of a fun color. I love the result! The only thing is my room is currently painted green.

This beauty totally clashes. 🙂 Hence, it gave us another “project”. We have already bought the paint. My room is getting a makeover little by little!

Would you like do to this too? Here are the steps…

We bought six boards at Home Depot – (4) 1×6 and (2) 1×4 . I laid them out in the order I wanted. I didn’t want the two smaller boards together.

We measured and trimmed off some of the ends. We wanted our headboard to be about 80 inches long once we were done. We cut the boards a little shorter than that, since they are overlapping each other to create the overall 80 inches in length.

We then chiseled, chipped, sanded and hammered to create a rustic, ripped look on the ends of the boards.

Our boys love “project days” and jump right in on their own creations!

Reagan loves all the commotion and everyone hanging out. It is a blast these days.

Once the boards were roughed up we laid them back down and drew a chalk line, so we would know how to line them back up while attaching them.

Matt attached them with lots of screws and wood glue. We don’t want any part of this falling on us during the night.

Here is where I got to start playing. All that hard labor stuff led to the fun stuff. Life. I painted a light coat of my teal blue. Don’t worry about covering it evenly. It makes sanding later much easier!

I then used a burnt orange acrylic paint to paint the word “love”.

I then painted the branches in a creme acrylic. This is where I left it for a couple of days. I had to decide if I liked it, by staring at it. This occasional walk by and stare session was to make sure I didn’t want to add or subtract anything.

This can be the hard part for an impatient craft-er like me, but it is so valuable. There would be nothing worse than to totally finish this project and not love it by always “regretting” one step.

I decided I loved it, so I sanded it down. I wanted the newly painted touches to look more rough like the teal background.

Don’t you love seeing how we work outside in our car port in these pictures?! My professional wood working brother is usually right there with us, which we take full advantage off to ask all our questions.

Next, it was time to stain! I love this step. It’s so quick, yet the effects are huge!

Doesn’t the stain just finish it off? Check out the sanded image verse the stain image up close…

It makes it look complete in my book. I can’t wait to hang this up above my beautiful bed!

Up next, we have to paint our room. This weekend’s project, Matt???

Thank you so much for checking out my Friday Project Spotlight! I hoped you enjoyed seeing how we created our headboard, and you might be inspired to try it yourself!

We had all the materials except for the wood which was about $50. Cheap for a headboard!

Let me know if you have any questions we can help you with!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

I linked this project up at: One Project Closer and The Ugly Duckling.

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