Backyard Patio: Tree stump to Day Bed

You know what I realized as I set out to write this post? I completely skipped out on showing you how we turned the stump into a bench in the first place! So this post got twice as long, oops...If you aren't caught up on all the backyard going-ons, I've been trying to tidy up this project for a bit - you can read up in these posts.

So you've seen this picture in some of my updates:

Well as much as I wish that bench would have magically appeared on it's own, it didn't. We had to get real crafty on it, and it was no easy task. Here's what we had interrupting our deck:

Big ol' stump.  Whoever cut it down decided keeping the stump & building a deck around it was a better idea than removing it.  So we inherited it, and after brainstorming for weeks we got hooked on the idea of a large, outdoor daybed/couch type dealy.  The first hurtle was figuring out a seat.

(Now, if you like this idea but don't have your own stump, you can build this over any frame. Even two wine barrels would work. Or just four sturdy legs.Or two piles of pallets secured together to be the right height. Anything.)

After Ralph leveled out the bumps as best he could, (Sander with 80 grit paper!) it was time to devise a sturdy seat.  We played around with some spare wood, seeing what arrangement they needed to be to maximize space.  Plus we were trying to see if we needed to build some sort of frame, etc. Some boards didn't make the cut:

Well it turned out the simplest idea was the best, and building right on top of the stump seemed strongest. After cutting our boards to size and placing them on the stump, we flipped the whole thing over face down (keep the same order in mind!) & braced them with more spare wood.  I made sure to pre-drill some pilot holes so the deck screws wouldn't split the 2 x 2 braces in half.

These wood screws are the best, they come with that little star bit. I was skeptical, but they work amazingly better than a standard philips:

I used the same wood screws to screw down into the stump.  HERE IS ONE OF MY MISTAKES. When the platform we had just build was one piece, we set it on the stump. Amazingly, all was level! So I started drilling down into the stump, and as wood does, things twisted and turned creating a few uneven moments in our lives.  I suggest, if YOU are working on a stump, to look underneath and add some wood shims where needed. This would have solved everything. EVERYTHING!

But in the name of progress, I carried on, adding some custom legs until most things were level:

There was still the tiniest bit of unevenness in some areas, which is unnoticeable when you sit on it. This, helped me decide to make the chunkiest seat cushion on the planet.

Then I sealed the whole thing is the Spar Urethane from our bar project.

Now you are all caught up! It's time to get some arms on this puppy! I've said it before and said it again, sometimes you have to be flexible and let your project be your guide.  The original plan for arms & a backrest was the oh-so-popular Pipe & Flange construction. (Like these).  BUT!!! Do you know how expensive pipes can get? It's the flanges that are the worst! So the total, without lumber, for the pipes on this couch was $180.  I bought it, sat in the car in shock for a second, and then returned it. Yes, I was that horrible person in the return line with like 800 tiny pieces. If this was going to be some gorgeous shelf inside our home, OK - I'll spring for it. But this was to be armrests. Hidden by pillows. OUTSIDE. Not worth $180 in my book.

Our new plan, was to not be lazy and figure something out with the 2x4's we had on hand. This brings out cost down by like $170. Seriously down to like $10. 

I imagined & then designed this shape:

This, would be, an armrest, that also acts as a back brace. Now, it will make sense in a few photos, but it's on it's side here.  The bottom longest side matches the depth of our bench, and the height of the armrest is about 14" (front).  The top of the armrest is the same length as the bottom, minus the thickness of the backrest. The backrest is the piece that sticks up past the rest.

All pieces were cut with 45 degree angles.  I added wood glue, the corner clamp, and shot some nails in using my nail gun that I bought for our downstairs bathroom ceiling project.  Because I'm paranoid, I still shot some wood screws down into the 2x4's after. If you think yours will get heavy use, throw some "L" brackets on the interior of this puppy.

So you need two of these. Identically the same. Then you just place them on your surface, and measure the length you want the back pieces.  Start chopping your spare wood:

Once my pieces were cut, I laid the armrest / backrest on their backsides, and starting playing around with board spacing:

I used a spare 2 x 2 to evenly space the boards before I glued & nailed them in as well:

Once everything feels secure, stand it up. If things feel wobbly, lay it back down and reinforce with either more nails or some wood screws.  Everything can be painted afterwards.

Now it looks like a bench!  With this technique you can easily, and cheaply, add a back to many different surfaces. Upon closer inspection:

Since we had a mix of wood, old & new, redwood & pine, we decided paint was best. We used an exterior paint here, since this would be outdoors.  We used or paint sprayer that connects to the air compressor, but if you don't have that, consider painting your pieces before assembly, and touching up afterward.

You can see the left side is sticking up a bit, this is because one of my boards was acting squirrely and twisty, but I knew it would settle down in a bit. And it did! After lining the backrest into it's permanent spot, more deck screws went down the bottom sides of the armrests into the platform.  Then we staged for fun:

See that lovely giant cushion? Haha... well it got SUPER fluffy when I had it on it's side for the day, so we were forced to nap on it to get it back down to normal. What a pain....

No pillows:

 Pillows:

I joke about this area looking like a Southern Mexican restaurant, because it got super colorful on us. I guess neither Ralph nor myself can say no to color. With each project we had that moment of "what do we paint this?" and the answers were almost always something bright.  I'm amazed we got as much white in there as we did, but I think it really ties things together nicely & adds a sweet trim.

Ok so NOW it's our cantina patio I think....:

Now there are still little details to this zone I'm finishing, but for the most part I think the big stuff can be considered done!

Before:

After:

Oh, Happy first day of October!

-Jesse

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Modern Stool Makeover

Hello World! Well, I'm waiting for the sun to come out so I can shoot some pretty shots of the backyard bench that we FINALLY finished! I'm so. so. SO happy to be done with that thing. It was the biggest hurtle back there, and with it out of the way I feel like I can do whatever I want. I'm free! If you want to travel back and see what I'm talking about, hop over here.

But in the meantime, let me share the easiest little makeover on the planet, whose technique can be applied to so many pieces of furniture.  It has a modern look that's easy to achieve. Piece of cake as they say. (Is cake easy?)

Start with a simple piece of furniture. Pretty much anything made of plywood is likely to have very simple edges. Here's mine:

A certain stool from IKEA called Frosta is made of flat edge plywood, and is pretty common to find in the thrift shops. Or, I guess, Ikea itself. My stool here I SWEAR is from a daycare furniture set. I worked in daycare for 1,000 years - believe me, I know this stuff. It's super glossy plywood furniture.  I found this beast in our local thrift shop, for $1. I'm guessing it was too rough to make it home with anyone else. Lucky me! Just look for something flat, with flat edges. That's the best.

In the spirit of keeping it clean & modern, I painted all the interior legs white.

White used to  be a rare color choice for me, but I've really come to appreciate it lately & I'm hooked.  I'm using a plain white gloss paint, the gloss also helps down the line when you're staining, you can quickly wipe off any drips.  While your painting the interior flat edges,  don't worry too much about getting on the main edges. If anything, you WANT to overlap a little.  Because you can do this after:

Using a fine sandpaper (#220) on my sander, I gave a quick, flat swipe down the sides to remove my overpainting issues.  See how clean that got?

Up next, Pre-Stain the areas of the stool you're going to stain:

Love this stuff. I never used to use it, and then when I finally tried it? Worth it! You only have to wait about 15 minutes before you can start  the real deal. I'm using, Dark Walnut of course:

Just make sure that the pre-stain conditioner you are using is the same type as your stain. In my case, both are oil based. If your stain is waterbased, use a water based conditioner. Makes sense.

Stain the top & the legs.  I have a pile of old T-shirts, and I just cut a good square out and I dip right into the stain. That's my favorite way to stain wood, I'm not the biggest fan of the brush method - but to each their own.  Also, the T-shirt way helps you cleanly stain the edges:

That's my lil T-shirt square. just a tiny dab, and carefully stain the edges.  If you have any drips on the white, quickly wipe it off with another square of T-shirt that DOESN'T have the stain. Faster!

Let it dry, give it a coat of your favorite clear coat (I use Minwax Polycrylic, Satin in this case)

That's it! This is the perfect addition to our wildly colored patio, and ties in the white from one of our tables, the white in the rugs, the white in the banister behind the barstools, and as you'll SOON see, the white backing on our big bench/daybed thingy.

Plus it's handy for a short person like me. Whenever a light bulb goes out on our string lights, I can hop right up all by myself.  The rest of the time, it's a cute little floater stool that offers a seat, anytime anyplace.

Flashback....

If yours has screws in the top like mine, and they bother you, you could always screw them down a little farther - fill them with wood putty - sand & stain. I, didn't really care about them, and left them.

OK I'm off to photoshoot the backyard, can't wait to show you! Have a great rest of your week & a wonderful weekend, get out there and enjoy the days before winter hits - yikes!

-Jesse

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New Kitchen Buffet with Open Shelves

Well in the midst of the usual balancing of many projects, we squeezed this one in recently.  I  had really been craving some large scale open shelving in our kitchen, because with it's height - I felt something BIG was in order.  

If you've been reading around here for a while you've seen the original Kitchen Hutch we had (If you're new, click here for the Kitchen Hutch History):

 I LOVED it, but when I stood back I just felt like it was small for the room (I might be crazy though...) and a little more country than we were goin' for.  Still, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the hutch and replacing it was a tough choice:

As luck would have it, our friend Kim was soon to be moving into a house & needed furniture, and said she loved it too. Perfect! So knowing that she loved the distressed style, we added a little more character here & there for her:

Just a little sanding sponge action & a Saturday night, you know how it be:

The next task was finding a replacement.  In my mind I saw a buffet vs. a hutch, with wide open shelves above it, sprinkled with vintage goods, my ever-growing dish collection, & plants.  On my very first attempt at finding such a thing, I found the perfect fit:

It was in GREAT shape, solid wood, dovetail joints... I think it's pretty old. It was $70, which is normally a little rich for my blood (for USED furniture), but I had to stand back and look at the bigger picture - knowing something  new would not only be thrice the price, but particle board for sure. Which we all know how long that lasts. . . . But this color wasn't me, and in an effort to tie both sides of the kitchen together, we used the same blue/grey color from our lower kitchen cabinets.  (See THAT post here)

This was such a fast job! One afternoon.  We removed the top because we intend to redo it separately once we decide the stain color.

I was using my favorite spray gun that connects to the air compressor (many have asked, you can find it here) filled with my paint. I prefer paint & primer in one, it has great coverage & less coats. Mix a little floetrol in there, and spray away.

I skipped the clear coat on this one to let it age naturally, and the paint was already semi-gloss so it looked finished.  Win-win.

Let's bring it in:

These will be night shots, sorry! When I get going I wait for no one, not even the Sun.   I picked up these brackets from IKEA. They are solid wood, inexpensive, and cute!  These are the 11" size, and using a 1"x12"x6' board for each shelf. 

One snag, I hit the beam on the left side, but the right was pure drywall. I NEEDED these brackets to be strong & lined up nicely above the buffet for aesthetics, so heavy duty drywall anchors saved the day.

I always get a little scared with wall shelves, so before loading these up I put a few books all over them for the night. The next day everything was still tight & secure, and I knew accessorizing could begin! I gave the shelves a quick whitewash & seal (minwax poly baby), and over the next few days we arrived at this:

I'd been slowly collecting things from thrift shops & beyond for this project.  I wanted the shelves to be useful & cute but not over-packed.  One of the main things I was going to miss from the hutch believe it or not, was the fabric background.  I just love that print. So I quickly covered a canvas in some remnants I had, as a tribute to the last hutch.

Coke bottle spice racks...

Progress! Those doors  had to stay open for a bit after painting the interior, but they are back to normal now.  You can see a black curtain on the left side there... yea... that's part of the "tear out the kitchen rock fireplace" project.   More on that later...

I love it! I installed a simple set of under cabinet lights, using the gap behind the shelves (caused by the brackets) to hide the wires.   Oh, those wine glass racks if you're wondering, are from Amazon.

Owl Salt & Pepper shakers. I'm just playing with my camera here.. bear with me, it's new :)

Done. I'm really happy with the outcome, I think the collection is fun & casual. The shelves are open & airy. The size of this set-up really ties the kitchen together, and gives us a lot more flexibility.  Small steps towards the bigger dream kitchen that is probably years & years away.

With the nice weather, we've been working a lot on the back patio lately... can't wait to show more of that.

Have a great week!

-Jesse

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