Reclaimed Gym Floor Dining Table

Yes you read that correctly- GYM FLOOR DINING TABLE FINISHED!!!! Excuse me if I'm a little excited about this particular project because I've only been working on it for well over a year.

TA-DA!!

If you're not up to speed on the fabulousness that is the table see these posts:

The Find

Progress

DIY Safe Deposit Box turned TV Console

Of all the projects, furniture redos, and DIY's I've done I think this one is my favorite. From grimy green safety deposit boxes buried underneath piles of junk in a local thrift store to this:

A new television console in our bedroom.

Here's a quick recap of what we started I started with and how I fixed these guys up-

Some More Progress

It may not look like much but I've made some progress on my safe deposit boxes (soon to be TV console!)

If you remember from last week I painted them white:

After taking the tape off there is some touch up to do of course. :P

During the week; if you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen that I welded a steel "apron" if you will. 

I attached it with the welder and painted it to match. This runs along the bottom of the two safe deposit boxes and will cover the wood support beams.

I found the keys to unlock the boxes but not for all of them. That's why in the above picture some drawers are still stuck in the box.

I also cut and glued up the wood supports. These wood planks will not only support the weight of the two safe deposit boxes but will also serve as the attachment point for the legs.

The legs I ordered are supposed to come in this week! I'm ready to move this baby into our room and out of the garage so I can pull me car in again. :)

What did you DIY this week?

The One Tool We All Have & Some Inspiration

I've recently found a new tool to add to my arsenal. Can you guess what it is? It's something that we all use everyday- any thoughts?

It's my hairdryer! Yes- my hairdryer has become a tool I've used in two projects recently. First with my updated bar cart and then to remove the marble tops off these side tables:

DIY Salvaged Mirror

Oh Monday- you come to quickly. I can't complain to much thought because we had a very full weekend. A rare miracle happened here in Altus, Ok over the weekend; almost a rare as seeing a unicorn. Wait; those don't exist and having a date night with a The Hubs hardly ever exists either so I guess it's partly true. 


We actually had 2 date nights! Con-Man's M.D.O. group had parents night Friday so we caught a movie. We watched Safe Room (I wanted to see The Vow but the Hubs wasn't interested, but watching Ryan Reynolds was fine too...)

Hello!!!!

And then on Saturday we went to the first Annual Altus Chocolate Festival! This is a big deal for our small town- they've never done anything like this before.

We managed to score free tickets and I devoured way to much chocolate. Definitely hit the gym Sunday and going again today! It was a nice Pre- Valentines treat though.

Anyway- lets get to what you really came here for. Check out this cool circle mirror that I made!

Would you believe me if I told you the frame started out as this:

A rusty steel ring from one of our planters. It had come loose and I thought it looked neat- a nice patina of rusty and worn smooth. I yanked it off and got to work. 

First I had to make it usable. I needed some kind flat hanger that I could attach plywood to my steel ring. I found these, they seemed sturdy enough but had a lip on them, so I used the cutting wheel of Dremel to cut the lip off.

Voila Flat hangers! Sometimes they just don't make what you need at the hardware store so you have to invent your own stuff...

Then the fun part- welding! I welded the hangers onto my steel ring.

The next step was to cut a piece of plywood that would fit inside my ring. I had half a sheet of 3/4" ply lying around so I traced a circle and cut it out with my jig saw.

Like my "workbench"?

I had a little trouble with this part, the ring itself had a slight slant inward and turns out it's not a perfect circle. So I had to finagle my plywood a bit to get it to slide in. But in the end it fit and I screwed it in place.

Thankfully one mirror and glass place here in town said they could cut a circle to fit. I called the one other place and they said they didn't cut mirror or circles- what gives? They adhered it to the plywood for me and my mirror was complete!

I love it because it's unique. It had a modern flare but the rustiness makes it kind of natural and relaxed feeling. And the overall cost wasn't to bad- $40 for the mirror to be cut and glued. The clip/hangers were $4 for all. The ring was free!

Have you ever used a material for something other than it's original purpose? 

Linking Here

Reclaimed Wood Coffee Table

Yes, I am back again with yet another coffee table. Just call me the Crazy Coffee Table Lady. I made this one to go in our main living area. We've had our existing Ikea coffee table since I was a single girl living the life in college- almost 10 years ago. The scale is small for our couch and current living room and it's starting to show it's age.

I will have to say in it's defense that even after all the college apartment moves, new house moves, Con-Man beating on it, and all the food and drink spills it's held up pretty well.

I was ready for a change- and BAM!

I now have this Little Beauty. (Well Big Beauty because it's almost 4' long and 2.5' wide!) 

This all started when I bought this funky coffee table at the Goodwill for $20. I since used the top of that table to repurpose an old sewing machine, but still needed to do something with the hairpin legs.

Enter this; an awesome wood beam I found at an architectural salvage shop.

The wood needed a lot of work. And after messing with it I found out it wasn't yellow pine like I had thought; it's actually a cedar beam. This could totally be my mistake, it was hard to tell what the beams looked like while I was picking through them in the dark shady warehouse.

Anyway, I took my beam over to the Altus AFB wood shop to get it cleaned up and cut to the exact size I needed. Like I've said before the guy working there is super helpful. He told me what steps I needed to do and in the order I needed to do them in. I planed the wood down smooth and cut the pieces down to size.

After we got the big stuff done I used hand planing tools to smooth out any rough spots. 

Then we used wood glue to join the three pieces together to make the top. Can you believe wood glue is all we used? I didn't think it would hold at first but it totally did! After that I finished it off with Minwax Provencal wood stain. I used a Purdy Paint Brush; I felt like it gave me a more even finish and it went quickly even though I had a large area to cover.

So, after all that wood working was done it was time to turn my attention to the base. The frame of the old coffee table was about 24" x 24". I decided that I would use my Dremel tool to cut the base down and weld a new, longer frame for my new table. I purchased steel flat bar and had them cut it to the length I needed, then just welded it to my existing legs.

Then all I had to do was screw my new top onto my new base. The hairpin legs already had screw holes from when they were attached to the old table- so this was the easy part! And it's always good to have a helping hand.

C'Est Fini!

I love my new table because it is super sturdy. Con-Man can bang on it all he wants- it already has lots of character so a few more dings will just add to the charm. And since it's cedar if liquid is spilled on it- no big deal. Cedar does well with water so that was a happy accident after all.

I have no doubt that our new table will last another 10 year +. Which is a good thing because I don't think I can convince The Hubs that I need to make another one any time soon. Now all I need is a rug! (Which is totally in the works!)

Linking Up To The DIY Club!