diy table – A Diamond in the Stuff

DIY Salvage Sofa Table

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 13:00:06 +0000

Even thought the blog has been on the quiet side lately, I’ve been working my booty off. Every Saturday in August I am participating in a local farmer’s market. So every Saturday I sell and during the rest of the week I am making more items to sell the following Saturday. I’ve been cranking out all kinds of upcycled items. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of my photos. One of the many items I completed to take to the farmer’s market is this beautiful DIY Salvage Sofa Table.

This is how it all started. I picked up this super chippy salvaged piece of wood at a local junk shop. I spotted it. I fell in love. I knew it had to become a sofa table. All I did for this piece was trim a little off one end and paint on a few coats to polycrylic to seal all the chippy paint.

The first thing I needed to do was find table legs. Luckily I scored some salvaged spindles at Canton in Texas. They made me a good deal for all of them and I did a little happy dance.

All that was left that I needed was the “apron” for the table. I had some pallet 2×4’s in the garage that I knew would work perfectly.

Side note….I know this photo is horrible. It was late. The table base was put together and I wanted to get painting it. However you get the point. We used the pallet 2×4 as the apron for the table and attached them to the spindles, which are now the legs of the table. To attach the apron to the legs we used pocket holes and screws. This was the most sturdy way to put it all together.

I painted the whole base of the sofa table with an off white chalk paint. After the base was paint we attached the chippy table top with a nail gun.

This DIY Salvaged Sofa Table came out exactly how I envisioned it. Maybe even better.

For a bunch of salvaged items it sure came together and it came together beautifully!

I love to salvage and keep the integrity of things that are naturally aged and imperfect. Weather beaten, tarnished, patina, chippy, rusty perfection.

So what do you think about chippy paint and salvaged wood? Is that a yay or nay in your home?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Speaking of natural patina…..check out this awesome Milk Can Side Table.

Milk Can Side Table

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:00:12 +0000

Welcome August! Sorry for the dead air that was July. Ya know….travel, kids, company, kids, business stuff, kids. We’ve made it to the other side and the kids will be back to school in one week. One week. I’m both sad and ecstatic all at once. This past weekend I participated in a local Farmer’s Market (and I will be doing it every Saturday through August) so I’ve been busy with projects! I recently scored two antique milk cans and just had to so something fun with them. I spied some round wood pieces at Lowes and knew I had to made a Milk Can Side Table.

This is the milk can I started out with. It was pretty dirty to start with, so a good bath was the first step. Then I used a clear spray paint on the milk can to stop and seal in the rust.

This is the round wood piece that I found at Lowes. I bought the smallest size that they had available in my store. It’s about 15in across.

I debated on how I should finish the round top. I went back and forth about staining and painting. Finally I decided to stain this one Dark Walnut because I thought it would look great with the coloring of the milk can. I finished it off with some polycrylic.

Once the round top was done I flipped it over and positioned the milk can top in the middle of the circle. I traced the top of the milk can with a pencil, then I added some E6000 glue to the rim of the milk can. All I had to do was flip the can back over and place it in the circle I had drawn. Pretty easy. I weighed the can down onto the wood to make sure I got good adhesion.

Who knew an old milk can would make such a perfect little side table?

The milk can itself is so full of personality and character. The natural patina on it is perfect.

I think it would make a great indoor table, but it looks awful perfect outside with my adirondack chairs!

I mean, doesn’t this look like the perfect place to spend some long August days at? Ya me too.

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Want to do some more outdoor sprucing up? Give one of these Tiered Urn Flower Pots a try…..

DIY Outdoor Coffee Table

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:00:10 +0000

On the blog last week I shared our huge DIY Backyard Makeover. My hubby and I did a complete overhaul on our boring backyard. That included our porch area. I wanted to make it a place where I could sit and watch the kids play or we could have friends over and hang out. We purchased a patio set last summer when we moved into our new home. I love it. Well except for the coffee table that came with the set. So I decided to whip up a DIY Outdoor Coffee Table to complete our backyard makeover.

I spotted an awesome DIY Coffee Table over at the Shabby Creek Cottage and knew that this is the direction that I wanted to go. So I looked around our garage and started gathering supplies. Luckily we had most of the things we needed to complete the project. I love stash buster projects!!!

I used some 4×4 and some 2×4 boards because that’s what I had on hand. My hubby helped me get all the wood cut and put together.

Once the table was put together I painted it with spray paint that I also had on hand. One item that I did buy was 4 casters to put on the bottom of each table leg. I love that I can just wheel the table around where I need it! Awesome for an outdoor space.

For the top of the table I went searching in my garage. My hubby had recently cut down some 6ft fence boards to create covers for the air conditioner and electrical box in our backyard. So I had a bunch of 2ft boards in a pile. They made the PERFECT table top. We planed each board down as they were quite rough and then I stained them with some of my DIY wood stain.

We used the nail gun to attach the fence board remnants to the table base. I did give the table a coat of Polycrylic to protect it.

The fence boards ended up taking a redish look because of it’s type of wood. But I think it turned out fabulous!

Now my patio set definitely has more personality. I love this table way more than the one that came with our set.

What do you think of my stash busting DIY Outdoor Coffee Table?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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If you want to see my entire Backyard Makeover check it out HERE! There’s lots of fun stuff to check out!

Broken Coffee Table Rescue

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:00:43 +0000

One of the great things about being a DIYer is everyone knows your a DIYer. Why is that such a great thing? Well you will often find yourself being given all kinds of random furniture and supplies from friends and family. Soon after we moved to Louisiana I had a friend give me an oak oval coffee table. It was the kind that held a piece of glass in the top and that glass was broken and gone. My friend must have had faith in me because honestly I had no idea how to make this broken coffee table into something beautiful.

This is what the coffee table looked like before. Sorry for the phone pic, I got all set up for a “before” pic and somehow it didn’t get taken. I went back and forth with a few different ideas, but the fact that the coffee table was oval made it difficult.

Luckily I still have some really awesome old fence wood laying around. I decided to turn the coffee table into a farm style plank table.

My hubby got a new DeWalt wood planer and I think he was a little excited to try it out! I love the old wood, however some of it is a bit too rough. So we gave them a pass through the wood planer and they came out smooth as butter. We used two long pieces of wood as braces across the back of the planks to hold them all together.

Obviously once the wood was planed down it lost some of it’s beautiful darkness. So I grabbed some of my homemade natural wood stain and brushed a coat over the whole thing. It darkened it right up! I also put on a couple coats of polycrylic on the table top to seal it all really well.

When it came time to paint the bottom of the coffee table, I grabbed my Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white. It took two coats to have full coverage….but no sanding, no priming! I just love it! I did some distressing with sandpaper and gave it a wax top coat.

My husband was able to take the existing top of the coffee table (the part that held the glass) off before I painted it. What was left was the base of the table with some ready to use hardware to attach the new top. The plank top was attached by screwing it down through the attached hardware.

You can see how beautiful the wood top turned out. It’s amazing to think it was once old shabby looking fence wood. It still has some of the imperfections you expect to find on old wood though. Honestly I wouldn’t want to totally get rid of it’s character.

The chalk paint turned out beautifully. I love pairing some chippy white paint with old salvaged wood. The combination makes me happy.

Overall I’m really happy with how the coffee table turned out. The best part? Coffee table=free. Old fence wood=free. A little paint, stain, and elbow grease=fabulous farm style coffee table. So the lesson learned? Never throw out a sad discarded piece of furniture until you’re really sure there is nothing you can do to make it into something awesome!

Thanks for checking out my Broken Coffee Table Rescue!! I’d love to hear what you think about it?

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While your visiting, come see my project from last week! Which just so happens to be another fabulous coffee table…..