DIY Jewelry Holder for about $10

So my girlfriend had been eyeing these wooden on the wall jewelry holders for a while that a few sites and some people on Etsy sell. She wanted a way to store her "statement" necklaces and pieces so they were easier to see and reach. Rather than allow her to purchase something well made, and reasonably priced, I insisted that she let me make her one from scratch. Here is the process and some basic guidelines should you choose to try this yourself after the jump.

the finished piece mounted to the wall

another view of the finished piece

Refinishing an old desk

As I had mentioned in a previous post, my girlfriend and I recently got a new apartment together, and we needed some furniture. Being rather handy, I wanted to make or refinish as much of the furniture as possible. My girlfriend needed a desk (shes a teacher), so I refinished my dads old teaching desk for her use. The original desk was about 100 years old and had three different finished piled on top of each-other. It also had brass hardware that had turned black with age. I started by removing all the drawers and repairing any physical damage to the desk and drawers. I made sure they all fit correctly and closed, and any weak spots were re-enforced where necessary. Next a chemical stripper was used to loosen the old finishes and a very time consuming process of sanding, filing and scraping was undertaken to remove everything. Next I primed and painted the desk and drawers white to make the turquoise color my girlfriend selected really pop. I then spray painted a base coat of turquoise color and hand painted a few layers on top of the mausoleum blue lagoon color. Lastly, I sprayed clear lacquer on any area that would see alot of use (the top and drawers) and then coated the entire desk in a layer of clear polyurethane. The handled were soaked in a vinegar and water mixture for a few hours and then hand polished twice with brass-o. Do not ever coat antique brass with a clear coat to preserve the finish; it will destroy the brass.  If enough people care/are interested I will do a full write-up on how to do this.

The original desk; note the blackened hardware and terrible finish

the finished desk!

Adventures in furniture making

So I recently got a new apartment with my girlfriend and decided that we needed some new furniture. Not wanting to spend a fortune on "fancy" store furniture and not wanting to buy cheap crap that falls apart in a few months I decided to build some of my own.

I stumbled onto this fantastic site, The Design Confidential, on which the author drafts up her own plans for lots of commonly available furniture from many stores. The site is organized fantastically, and is very approachable with excellent plans. More importantly, I felt lazy and did not want to break out the router, and non of her plans called for using a router; instead they called for a pocket-hole jig.

For those unfamiliar (that included me until a few weeks ago), the Kreg pocket hole jigs you see used on all these furniture plan sites are not part of some global marketing conspiracy; Kreg really does make one of the only affordable jigs around and it is just the best thing I have bought for woodworking in years. I love it. Buy one; seriously, it makes making furniture so much easier.

Anyways on to the furniture!