Our refinished dining room table

We have a beautiful Amish Oak Dining room set. It was a fine set, structurally, but years of wear had taken it's toll on the finish. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the table before we started, but this is the only before shot I could find of the finish. Ick.

We started with the leaves, to make sure we weren't going to really screw it up. I was amazed how white the wood was after all of the sanding.

We learned a lot from the leaves and moved on to the actual table. Sanding and more sanding...

The stain we picked was pretty close to the original because we didn't need to refinish the base or the chairs. 

 1 layer of stain

 3 layers of stain

We added 3 layers of Glossy Polyurethane

And it came out Oh-So-Shiney! I am in love. The polyurethane really holds up to the kids abuse!

It took us several weeks because it requires a lot of waiting in between coats. Definitely not the easiest DIY project we've taken on, but not to bad. 

How to transfer designs onto any canvas, with no artistic talent.

I am have creative talent to spare, but artistic ability... not so much. I get so frustrated sometimes when I'm working on a project and it doesn't come out perfect because my artistic ability is lacking. So I stumbled on this technique a while ago and felt like the internet needs to know about it!

First, find the design that you want to put on your piece. Re-size it on the computer and print it out. I do most of my re-sizing in Paint, it will even print big images onto several pages so you aren't limited to an 8.5"x11" design.

I didn't get a picture of the tracing paper, but you can purchase tracing paper in most craft stores. This is typically used for copying patterns onto fabric (at least that's what I remember using it for in 7th grade Home Ec. class). Place the tracing paper, color side down, on the wood, and place the design, right side up on top of that. Tape it down so it doesn't shift while you trace.

Trace the outline of the design.

After tracing is done, go over the design with your medium of choice. I generally use Sharpie, paint pen, or a fine paint brush. 

It's as easy as that, if you can trace, you can create!

Now go create: 

Wood Art Ideas here

How to make a wood Canvas

Pallet Wood Canvas

Here is the tutorial for making a wood canvas for whatever wood art you want. I use fence panels that have been "weathered" in my back yard for years. But you could easily use pallets for this as well. 

Decide on your dimensions and cut your pieces accordingly. I always cut two supports just and little bit narrower than the width of the canvas.

Wood Glue doesn't offer much support when it's wet, but I felt it would help keep it together once it dried. 

  

I measured depth of the board and doubled it and found nails that were just a hair shorter in length.  When hammered through the back it won't come through the front. No visible hardware. 

 I hammer in 4 nails for each board, and each overlap. That is a lot of nails, but it holds!

That's it! Sand it until the texture is to your liking, then be creative! 

Use eye hooks or drill holes and use twine to hang. Beautiful!

Wood Art Ideas Tutorial

Design Transfer Techniques

Wood Art

DIY Wood Art

With all of the Pallet projects floating around the internet I got inspired to do my own pallet art. We recently cut our 6ft privacy fence down to a 3ft fence along the back of our property line, because the corn field behind us isn't very nosey. I started crafting with the boards. Armed with a miter saw and a sander, I have been keeping very busy. I've made so much rustic wood art that I don't know what to do with it. Here are some of my creations.

This is our night time saying. I saw this once at a craft fair for $40, I loved it, but I was too cheap to buy it, but I did start saying it to the kids at bed time. 8 years later, I made my own sign $0, bam!

  

Teachers name plats - 2 easy 45 degree cuts and some paint

Smitten with the Mitten! Here are super easy tutorials on how to make the pallet "canvas" and transfer designs onto wood.

Rustic Americana Hanging

The letters didn't come out right, but I love the tree!

Love Birds 

Dandelion, it needs a whimsical saying in the empty spot, suggestions?

Welcome Sign, I need to hang this one!

I was practicing on this piece but I ended up loving the ragged wood

 Everyone loves this saying, I've made several.

I saw this in a shop, ran home and made it myself!

There you have it. I hope this offered some ideas and inspiration. Be sure to check out my post on wood art tutorials here and here. 

DIY American Girl Doll Triple Bunkbed

DIY American Girl Doll Triple Bunkbed

I'm very ADD in my crafting. One day it's sewing, another day it's jewelry making, the next it's bow making. The past few weeks I have been keeping busy re-purposing wood fence panels. I've found quite a few uses for them (more posts on that soon), but inspiration hit the other day when my daughter was lamenting about how all of her "girls" didn't have a bed, the poor things. I have pinned a couple different american girl beds projects on pinterest, but never got to them because I didn't want to make 3 beds. The idea struck me to make triple bunk bed and use the fence panels (this could easily be traded for pallet wood). I immediately headed out to the backyard and got to work!

4- 28 inch boards

9 - 22 inch boards

6 10.5 inch boards

12 right triangles, made out of a wider board 2Xsomething 

I had lots of scraps from decking, So I cut triangles out of that

 First things first, make a plan. I decided the bed needed to be 22" long and 10.5" (10.5 is the measurement of 3 panels, so I went with it) 

The four main supports are 28", 8" for each level and 4" for the feet.

To make the triangle, cut a 45 degree cut on your board then cut at a 90 degree angle from that cut

Cut that triangle in half with another cut. If you are using 2X4 you may not need this extra step. 

I made 6... I needed 12, so I made 6 more :)

3 boards will make the bed platform. Line the 3 boards up and nail the supports to the back of them. Make sure there is enough room on either end for the triangle to fit.

One finished bed platform. 

On each support measure up from the bottom 4", make a line, then every 8". Nail the triangles to each support. I used a nail gun for this step and the next.

Nail the platforms to the triangle supports and you have a bunkbed. We were too excited to play that we haven't painted it yet. That will come soon. 

Because it was so "rustic" we decided it needed bedding. We had lot of leftover fabric from Emily's quilt project last year. I figured it was fitting for the "girls" to have matching bedding.

We made each bunk a "mattress", quilt, and pillow.

I love how the quilts turned out. So fun!