Vintage Sign, 12er. Part 3 of 3. Finished!

30 pounds later...

We used 50lb picture wire, 2 50lb drywall anchors, and screws:

Hope you all had a great holiday season! 

Thanks for following along.

Vintage Sign, 12er. Part 2...

First coat of gold:

Second coat of gold:

Aged:

Near the spot where it will be displayed:

Now i have to figure out how to hang it... stay tuned...

Vintage Sign, 12er, Part 1...

Back in the summer i threw together some planks with the intention of DIYing a large piece for the living room. 51" x 48" to be exact:

Whatever I ended up painting on it, I knew that I was going to age the hell out of. First I painted the base coat white:

I mulled over this project for months. I just couldn't put my finger on exactly what i wanted to paint. Definitely wanted a Pittsburgh flavor, so I looked into old local busineses. Pittsburgh Brewing & Heinz, for example, but I wasn't really feeling anything. 

The next step was painting the sign black, as you can see here:

I really wanted this thing to look like we cut it right off of a barn. The more I thought about it, the more simple I wanted it to be. Big thick lines, bold paint, old timey, and ultimately I didn't want to paint someone elses design. After researching Ghost Signs (one of my favorite subjects), I came up with this:

Love the old school fancy type of a Ghost Sign! The number "12" is our address, and not only is Black, Gold and White totally Pittsburgh, but you see a lot of it in old signage.

Scaled it, printed it, and pieced together the paper for one big stencil:

Cut then traced with a pencil:

Traced back over the pencil marks with a White Deco paint pen:

Painted in the White, and traced the Gold parts, also with a Deco paint pen:

Thats where we stand right now... Check back soon for more!

Dad's Flag, Part 2 of 2. Finished.

Last coat, as red as the day is long:

Took some sand paper to it to bring out the white a little:

Nice scuff:

In place:

Not the greatest pics, but you get the idea hopefully:

Hope you enjoyed!

Dad's Flag, Part 1...

Dad's flag is being relocated to the new built-in desk right above my computer/workspace. The woodgrain stain looks nice enough, but i really want something to catch the eye...

Taped off the glass, and got her all prepared for a new look: 

The bottom coat will be white: 

Feeling nostalgic & patriotic on this project:

Since we're feeling a bit patriotic, and this is an otherwise short-ish post, here is a picture i snapped back in April:

Now I'll take the moment to share with you a little "in memoriam" logo i created for my dad about a year or so ago:

Thanks for reading! 

Check back real soon for the next step...

 

Built In Desks, Part 2...

I think we left off working vertically.

Shelves are sized up and built. We're painting the back wall to match the desk to make it look like one unit:

Both sides of the fireplace:

Slopped the paint on pretty well:

We're going to use these brackets at the very top of the shelves, and underneath each shelf to keep them sturdy and in place: 

Almost there... About 2/3rds of the way finished with this project:

Check back for more really soon... Thanks for reading!

Built-In Desks, Part 1...

Since we hammered down a few walls and moved the TV and couches into the newly renovated rooms, we wanted to do something with the previous living space. Simple upgrade, certainly not as large as this project:

So we decided on an office/workspace type of room with built-in desks for each of us.

We started off buying some unpainted kitchen cabinets and a sheet of 1" maple wood:

Quick advice: Plywood is pretty heavy and awkward, but you can ask the staff at Lowe's or Home Depot to cut it for you right there in the store. Per their policy, they wont make an exact cut for you, but you can give them a quick general idea of where you'd like them to make the cut. We had them saw off about a foot down the width of the board, then had them take the bigger piece and cut it across the width in half. It wasn't a busy night, or i'd usually only ask for one cut. 

We used some electrical tape for measurements and an idea of what we were getting into with this project: 

We painted the cabinets and raised the desk top about an inch or so:

Then it was time to measure and cut some wood planks for the shelves:

We positioned the shelves in place. Later on in this project, we will screw these shelves into the studs for more support:

Then it was back to the paint can:

So far, so good and we're about 1/3rd of the way through this project.

Check back for more this week! Thanks for reading...

Planter DIY, Post 2 of 2. Finished

Dressed up:

 

Planter DIY, Post 1

Plain & Simple, threw together a 20min box/planter:

Dimensions approx 20" wide, 5" deep & 5" tall

Gonna dress it up a bit... stay tuned!

Pallet Cooler, Part 7. Finished!

Finally finished and ready to be delivered!

Accessorized it:

Old towel rack, spray painted flat black:

Bottle opener:

Rooe for affect:

Stamp of approval:

Final product:

Hope you all enjoyed that... on to the next project!

Houndogg Flag Sweater DIY, Part 2 of 2...

Finally crossing this project of my list. A little different look on the back!

Front:

Back:

Hope you like!

Knocked out another major project today. Will post pics tomorrow. Check back & we hope you have a great rest of your weekend!

Houndogg Flag Sweater DIY, Part 2...

Heat pressed and sewn last night:

Almost finished, just have to add one more piece to the puzzle! 

Stay tuned...

Pallet Cooler, Part 6...

Looks much better. 

Here, i sanded the right half:

Before:

After:

On to the next step...