Brass Chest Reveal

I started with a brass colored chest which I thought was pretty all by itself but my husband did not so I used my brain and thought of what I wanted. Then I read on the Zinsser primer can that it works with metal so I thought this was the perfect test.

and then I ended up with this!! 

I love it now, a little elbow grease and its custom to what I wanted. 

Miriam

I'll post the how to later

Zoo or Ball pit very pinteresting

So my friend Kelly really wanted to make a stuffed animal zoo. They are all over pinterest, at least sort of all over pinterest. There are hundreds of different ways to do it. Thats the beauty of this project you make it to fit your space and needs. All the instructions on the web were different. So we kind of made our own using other peoples advice. We looked at the pictures here and then went on our merry way. I wanted to make this on a budget so I went to Home depot and sat in the wood section with a piece of paper and calculator and figured it all out, then I went and told Kelly how much it would cost  (about $20) and then I made the mistake of going to Lowes to buy the wood, there were different sizes, so I then sat there with a paper and calculator and figured it out again

I bought for 2 zoo's. We wanted them 5 feet tall and a two foot box all around. Warning this is huge!  We didn't realize how huge it was! Its ok though there is room for growth.

I would recommend but you don't need:

 gloves when painting

music in your ears

a fan if its hot 

a level

You will need:

a drill

a drill bit for your screws

some kind of finish (paint or stain I guess you could go all natural)  

We primed ours with zinnser oil based because we only wanted to use one coat of white latex instead of 6 to cover all the wood.

a saw for straight lines (if you don't get the guy at the store to cut it for you)

sand paper

100 feet of rope (if your making it huge like we did) We chose pretty colors.

 I bought 2 1x2x8 and cut them down to:

(8) 2 foot pieces of  1x2x8 

I bought 4 1x3x8  and had them cut down to:

(4) 2 foot pieces 

(4) 5 foot pieces

 Then these:

There were terrific!! You will need a square drill bit with these, they didn't split the wood and went in easily.

We used 12 1 1/2 inch

We used 24 2 inch size when attaching the squares we made to the 5 foot pieces just for more support

The screw eyes were for attaching the ropes we used 60 of these .99 for 14 at walmart

We started by cutting the pieces to size (you can ask the guy at the store to do this)

and then sanding all the rough parts with a 150 grit. Then we zinnser primered them:

Then we let them cure for 24 hours

Next we predrilled 5 small holes (we wanted the gaps in the rope 4 inches apart) in each of the 2 foot pieces (the ugly side) and hand screwed in the eye screws which wasn't hard at all

 Then we started piecing them together the 2 foot pieces were made into boxes:

We just used one screw on each edge and it worked well.

we put the 1x3 box on the bottom because it was heavy and we wanted it sturdy. 

Then we attached the first 5 foot peice and screwed it in with 2 screws and then put the other 3 in.

Then we shimmied the next box down to the half way mark (2 and a half feet) and used the level and screwed it to the other 5 foot pieces. A level might seem tedious but we did out first one without it and it looked crooked to us so we had to fix it. 

Then we put the top on. We made sure to use the level and screwed each corner in (if you cant tell the boxes go on the outside of the 5 foot pieces). 

Then you are ready for your rope! 

We chose colored rope because we were keeping them white. For this size we needed 100ft of rope! We bought two of the 50 foot kind and it was about $7 for both. Then you thread your rope. You are going to want to just continuiously weave it through so you only have to tie 2 knots at the end.

 Then you have your zoo! Here are our zoos together, you can see the beginning of the stuffed animals, we through a fat little panda in there.

 Here is is on its own again.

Now when my husband came home from work that day he was like "That thing is huge, we should use it for our giant bouncy balls. I thought that was a fantastic idea because they really dont fit anywhere so here they are!

 So instead of a zoo we have a ball pit and I love it. Kelly's is a zoo though and I will hopefully grab a picture of it at her house!!

The end!

Miriam

DIY Ball pit, known as a zoo in some circles

This is a project I recently finished with my friend Kelly. 

She saw it on pinterest and asked if we could make it. 

yes. 

That is the answer, Here are some of the final pictures. 

 Here is the beginning of a stuffed animal zoo

Here it is used as a child timeout box, ha ha thats a joke, he ran in there as soon as it was finished. 

But my favorite use which I will be using mine as is a ball pit:

Love it!

Miriam

P.S the tutorial well its kind of a tutorial will be up in a minute or many.

Your everyday every house Windsor chair REDO

 Imagine a natural windsor chair.  Like these

 That is what we started with. Then my friend Katie sanded all the seats down with a 150 grit, make sure you get all the finish off.

 This takes many hours, if you want to use an electrical sander a mouse one will probably be your best bet. We sanded first then did we taped all around the part where the spindles meet the seat.  Then we started painting the backs and bottoms of the chair with Zinsser oil based primer. We used a roller and then a wooser oil paint brush. This is something you should do with gloves (we did not) and in the right temperature. If its too hot your paint will start to thicken very quickly and you will get goops all over your chairs.

 If you get tons of goops never fear you can just wait 24 hours and then lightly sand them off with a 150 or higher sandpaper and it will be nice and smooth for your final paint coat.  So after we zinssered them all we waited at least 24 hours and then started painting the chairs with the cream with our nice brushes. Then you end up with this.

 Ready for stain! We tested a small spot to make sure we would like the look

 It had this barnwood look which looked very rich and full of character so we wiped on the stain and tried to be careful to not touch the bottom of the spindles. This did not always work as you can see here

 at the bottom so I came back through and touched them all up like this

going up with the brush, it was like cutting in on a wall but on a much smaller scale.

Then I ended up with this on all the spindles of all the chairs!

Then I was ready for my finish. 

Before you put your finish on make sure to go and touch up any makes on the paint.

I used Rustoluems water based polyurethane for my finish. I did some research and saw rave reviews about the ease of application and how well it looked when dried so I tried it. I used a foam brush and did 3 coats (as recommended on the label) It only takes 2 hours to dry!! And it cures in 3 days!! So I used it and LOVE the results. I can’t believe how beautiful it turned out! There were also no fumes, it smelled like shampoo to me! I am sold on this polyurethane and would recommend it to anyone for ease of use (you can also see when applying if you have put too much on there, its like a fluorescent purple white color so you just go back and smooth it out until clear) 

I also used the polyurethane on the paint to give it extra strength. 

It didn't yellow too badly and turned out well.

 

 These chairs went from plain wood to a much richer and older looking finish.

 As with all stain you can't control how the wood will take it so the end look of the chairs was this

 The one of the far right was the most different but I think they all have so much character now. I really love how they turned out. Here are some pictures of the chairs in action.

Who knew a windsor could look to elegant. 

Miriam