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Things I've done. Maybe you'll be interested maybe not.

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I bought the pattern for this panel from Justin Behnke.  I was anxious about the complexity of the pattern but pushed through it and was very happy with the outcome. 

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Completed this original panel a couple years ago. 

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Fibonacci inspired stained glass panel.  Pretty happy with how this one turned out!

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I saw some California poppy stained glass and decided to come up with my own design.  I used different background glass when I created these two versions.  Which do you prefer?

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“Star Magnolia Buds” Stained glass panel

When designing this panel I tried a few styles of break lines for the main background and settled on minimal straight lines.  This is the first time I’ve done that and I like the simple clean look it helps provide.  I’m pleased with the glass color selections but I suppose I’m biased.  What are your thoughts?

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“Spring” Stained Glass Window

This is the first in a series of four, one for each season.  They will be installed in a vacation home near a lake.  Each will feature my interpretation of aspens and at least one bird.  I selected a bluebird because we see them every spring at the lake house.  This is the largest glass project I’ve done at 30.5 x 20.5 inches.

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Stained Glass Peacock

My third stained glass project.

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Stained Glass Yorkie

Getting started with stained glass.  Found a window on Pinterest and modified it a little.  My daughter wanted a yorkie with a bow.

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DIY Reclaimed Wood Queen Bed and Side Tables

Most of the wood used for this project was salvaged.  It is very unlikely I would have made head and footboards out of 2x12 stock but it was free and I needed bedroom furniture.  The salvaged wood came from four very large pallets each consisted of one 2x12, two 2x6′,s four 4x4′s and a couple 2x4‘s all in non standard lengths.  The 4x4′s came with the corners beveled off.  I don’t know why they were that way but I decided to bevel the edges of the boards used in the head and foot board and the top of the end tables so they all had a similar stylistic feature.  

The only wood that was not salvaged was the 4x4 legs for the bed, the rails and the drawer fronts.  The pallets had several carriage bolts holding them together which means there are holes in some of the table legs and all of the 2x12′s.  At first I was going to fill them with dowels but ultimately decided against it.  I oriented the legs so the holes weren’t visible from the front.  When I applied the finish I made sure the stain covered the interior of the holes to prevent the glaring sight of unfinished wood from any viewing angle.

This was my first attempt at making drawers.  They aren’t super smooth opening but overall I’m very satisfied with the look.  After completing the project my wife suggested that maybe carving bear paw prints in the head board would have been a nice touch.  I agree.  I’m not an experienced carver and ultimately just didn’t have it in me.

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DIY Queen Bed and Side Tables

The furniture was inspired by this Ana White design.

I chose to glue the thick end of the shims down and used a small headed nail to hold the thin end in place.  I overlapped the shims leaving 6″ exposed.  Gluing takes longer but you don’t have exposed holes.  Use only enough glue to hold the shim in place but not enough that it squeezes out and comes in contact with the wood surfaces that need to accept the stain. 

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Rustic Coat Rack/Shelf

After a late summer down pour I was encouraged to build a coat rack for the cabin mud room.  I had found the inspiration for this project months ago on Pinterest. 

It is four and a half feet long.  The shelf is a 1″x6″ and the back is a 1"x10″.  They are fastened with pocket screws.  I started by ripping 1/4″ strips of scrap 1″ stock.  I increased the width by 1/4″ four more times until I had enough to varying sized blocks to make the five colored rows.  Used four different stains to give it some variety.  Burgandy is my wife’s accent color so I sprayed that on some blocks and distressed them.  The blocks are just hot glued on and they are there to stay.  We could have gone with consistent hooks but decided to shake things up.   

The shelf doesn’t have a bend in it.  That is camera distortion.  Sorry.

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Reclaimed Wood Bear Art

The cabin has a bear themed bedroom in the basement.  I liked this wood art and used it as inspiration for my reclaimed wood bear art.

I took strips of pallet wood and painted or stained them then distressed them.  I enlarged a bear image I found online and traced it on a scrap piece of 3/8″ plywood my father-in-law gave to me.  A jig saw with a fine toothed blade made fast work of removing the unwanted plywood.  I built a frame around it all then gave it a couple coats of polyurethane.  It is large (24″x36″) and heavy so I used a french cleat to mount it securely to the wall.

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Rustic Queen Bunk Bed

This bunk bed was built using 2x6 and 2x4 lumber.  There are blocks of 2x2 stock at each corner as supports for both bed boxes.  Pocket screws join the posts and the bed boxes and rails are positioned to cover them up.  It is sturdy and I think it looks great.  I found this bunk bed post on Pinterest and made the necessary adjustments converting it from twin to queen.

The cabin has 10 foot ceilings.  I was able to make the space between the bunks and between the top bunk and ceiling high enough that an average size guy can sit up not hit his head.

Sorry the pictures are dark. 

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Rustic Sofa Table

I got marching orders to make a sofa table.  So here it is.

It largely matches the coffee table I made a few weeks ago.  It measures 72″ wide by 28″ tall.  The ends were originally just 1″x6″ boards fastened with pocket screws to the 4″x4″ legs.  Then it occurred to me to glue and screw reclaimed pallet wood over the top to give a bit more of a rustic look.  I also ripped some reclaimed wood to cover pocket holes just above the middle and lower shelves.  I would have liked to use more reclaimed wood to build it.  I couldn’t source the wood fast enough to meet my wife’s expected completion time. 

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Rustic Towel Rack/Shelf

The basement bath in our cabin came with a standard towel rack that held two bath towels.  Since most of our guests will be using this bathroom we needed to accommodate more than that!

So I found this on Pinterest and used it as my inspiration.  My version is made from a 1x4, 1x10, with a 1x6 for the shelf.  I cut a bunch of aspen tree rounds but found the wood hadn’t dried enough so I substituted rounds from my favorite peach tree which I had removed a year ago.  I had cut larger branches up for firewood and they had been stored in the shed.  They were dry.  I also used branches from a neighbors lilac which he had given to me.

I cooked the rounds in the microwave for one minute to kill any critters and put one coat of poly on them.  Hot glue was very effective for securing the tree rounds to the board.

We had three hooks left over from other changes we made in our bathrooms.  We bought three more hooks of one variety and two of another for a total of eight hooks.  We are pleased with the results. 

Any thoughts or questions?

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Mirror to Chalkboard Conversion

This mirror was given to us many years ago.  It didn’t quite fit the style or decor we were going for so it languished in a downstairs closet until I saw this tutorial.  

The decoration on the mirror is a raised surface so after removing the mirror I used chalkboard spray paint on the back.  When I went to purchase the chalkboard spray paint another customer cautioned me that the spray paint may not cover my surface well and recommended buying chalkboard paint that rolls on.  I bought the spray paint anyway and used the entire can with multiple layers of paint.  

Before I mounted the mirror in the frame I conditioned the surface.  Just hold the chalk sideways and “white out” the entire the surface then wipe it off with an eraser or soft cloth. 

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Rustic Coffee Table

The table in the link was my inspiration.  

Reclaimed pallet wood was used on the stretchers and lower shelf detail.    Instead of using plywood the shelf is made of 1x6 boards joined with pocket screws.  I was going for a more rustic look and wanted to keep the cost down so I did not buy the suggested legs.  I had a couple gaps when I cut the bottom shelf so instead of attaching it even with the top of the lower stretchers I dropped it down and added the wood trim.  I think it like it better this way!  It isn’t obvious in these pictures but I abused the unfinished table a bit with a hammer etc to make the wood look like it didn’t come straight from the lumber yard.