Crafty Craftsmanship: DIY, Revamping, and Woodworking Projects

I #FleaMarketFlip 'd and #DIY 'd it until it #sparkedjoy . Some of them were quite the #FixerUpper but was worth it to help make my temporary home my #DreamHome . Life can get rough, stressful, and busy. For me, there were some pretty tough years through grad school. I was by myself (boyfriend, family, and friends were all 3 hours away), and I was eat, sleep, and breathing school, library, and lab-work. But I created ways to cope with my stress healthfully. I did this unsuccessfully at times with shop-therapy, but I also used fitness, nutrition, and hobbies as healthy ways to cope. One thing I ended up truly enjoying to help take my mind off of the stress of school was crafting, DIYing, revamping, and woodworking.

When I first moved to my apartment in Knoxville, it was practically empty. There was little to no furniture... my TV was sitting on top of a trunk from Good Will, I had an air mattress for a bed, and my table and couch were both hand-me-downs (very appreciative for the free gifts, but felt it wasn't very "homey")... I knew I had a knack for crafting and woodworking, so I put it to good use. Either I bought cheap furniture from second hand stores or online yard sales, and made them my own. In this very brief post, I describe a few of those projects and a little about how I made them come to fruition.

I would also like to note that the majority of these projects were done within my small apartment living room space - just putting down plastic and opening up doors to air out fumes and particles. 🤣

French Blue Dresser Makeover: I bought this dresser for $15 on Facebook Market. Cleaned it up, sanded it down, used mineral paint and wood-wax (espresso), new hardware from Hobby Lobby, and a gray-ish stain on top, and it's just like a brand new (or well-taken-care-of antique) fancy french blue dresser!

Cost: (Dresser= $15, Paint, wood-wax, and Stain = $30, Hardware = $25) = $70

Faux Mercury-Stained Glass Lamps: I bought these lamp bases from a Karm Thrift store in Knoxville, TN for $5 each. I used a little bit of hot/super glue to fix the socket shell and cleaned them up a little. Using vinegar-water in a spray bottle and silver spray paint, I was able to mimic the more expensive and classical-French looking Mercury glass (hard to see in the after picture, but it looks great in person!). I bought these lamp shades from Home Goods, and Voilà, brand new expensive looking lamp shades for about $12-15 each!

Cost: $25-30 for both

Modern Wooden Console Table: I made a console table from scratch using leftover wood from another project and hairpin legs from Amazon. A little bit of sanding and a nice coat of stain and a coat or two of poly to finish it off. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Cost: $40 (for hairpin legs - I already had the wood, stain, and poly)

Mid-Century Modern-Japanese-Style Slat Bed Frame with Hair Pin Legs: This is a bed-frame that I made from scratch. I bought, sized, cut, sanded, stained, poly-finished, and assembled these slabs of wood with some hairpin legs. Since the wood was ply-wood with a layer of oak on the outside (to make it look nicer), I used wood-tape veneer to hide the plywood peeking out of the sides. Ka-Pow, a modern and Japanese-style wooden bed frame! Looking back on it now (this was my first time making anything of the sort), I would reinforce the center with some sort of wooden piece that supports to the floor - having all of the weight on the four small hairpin legs with no center support led to the hairpin legs splintering (we've had to screw back in, and use other items (i.e. textbooks...) for added support).

Cost: (Pure-bond Oak Plywood= $100, other wood for assembly= $20, veneer wood tape= $10, hair-pin legs= $25, other hardware and stain= $10) = $165

(The price of similar products online I saw ranged from $800-2000!)

Mid-Century-Mod Entertainment Center:

I also made an entertainment center from scratch. This was made similar to console from above (actually the wood used from console was leftover from this project) as far as the work and materials needed; I cut, sanded, stained, and assembled the wood and added some hairpin legs that I purchased from Amazon. I also hollowed out old books I got for free from McKays and used hot glue to assemble them in order to hide the unsightly cable and wifi boxes. Although I am not 100% proud of it, I also made the lamp pictured; the base of the lamp was $5 from Karm Thrift store, and the top was a trash can from Karm as well. I simply hollowed out the bottom of the trash can, and Macgyvered a way to attach it to the lamp, and tadaa - my "Frankenstein Lamp" was brought to life.

Cost: (Wood= $32, Hairpin legs= $25, Stain and Poly= $10) = $67

Modern-Industrial Wooden and Metal-Piping Shoe Rack: I made this shoe rack from scratch. I cut, sanded, stained, and poly-finished wood. I then added some metal piping and floor flanges as well as some dark caster wheels to finish it off (It's mobile!). All of these items found at your local hardware store (I tended to go to the superstores for their convenience - Lowe's and Home Depot).

Cost: (Wood= $10, Metal piping and Flanges= $25) = $35

Modern Decorative Wall Hangs:

This project was pretty darn easy, and for me, made such a big difference for an otherwise very bland and empty wall! I used pre-cut wood pieces from Lowes (for some reason, Home Depot doesn't have these smaller pre-cuts like Lowe's does?!) and some rope/heavy-twine. I sanded, stained, and poly-finished the wood, drilled holes for rope, tied knots, hung the hooks, and Boom! Done. Using some free colorful books from McKays, and some decorative pieces from Tuesday Morning and TJ Maxx/HomeGoods, and the work-of-art is done!

Cost: (Pre-cut wood= $10, Rope= $5) = $15

Armored Keep-Sake Storage Trunk:

I bought an old orange metal trunk from GoodWill (about $10) and painted it using white-chalk paint, added legs I bought from Amazon (which I also painted with the white chalk paint), and then carbon-transferred and painted a design I printed off for free from a Pinterest post. Ta-Da!

Cost: Maybe $15-20

French-Style Bistro Table and Chairs Set: These table and chairs were donated to me by family for the move. I painted them using various sample-sized colors ($2-3 each x 3 colors - blue, light gray, and dark gray). I also made the seat cushions pictured.

Cost: ~$10-15

#beforeandafter #transformation #furnituretransformations #modern #industrial #lamps #mercuryglass #hairpin #hairpinlegs #FrenchStyle #BistroSet #TableandChairs #dresser #dresserrevamp #recycle #reuse #upcycle #tvshowpuns #DIYdresser #CarbonTransferPaper #design #style #diy #woodwork #craft #design #furniture #home #console #bedframe #entertainmentcenter #trunk #japanesestyle #minimalist #retro #midcenturymodern #revamp #mariekondo #tidy #sparkjoy