Categories
DIY Home Decor Upcycling Ways With Wood

Make a Shadow Box from an Old Drawer

Make a Shadow Box from an Old Drawer

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

Tools and Materials
*indicates available at Schnarr’s Hardware
Salvaged old drawer
*Screwdrivers
*Sandpaper
*Dust Mask
*Rags
*Wood filler (optional)
*Burlap, canvas or other solid color fabric
*Corrugated cardboard
*Glue gun
*Hot glue sticks
*Paint
*Paint brushes
*Water and mixing containers for paint
Metal ruler
Self-healing cutting mat
*Utility knife and sharp blades
Pencil
*Hanging hardware
*Small nails
*Hammer
Strong masking tape
Fabric Scissors
*Modge Podge
Squeegee tool
Decorative paper
Memorabilia, collectibles or decorations to display in the box
Optional – heat tool to speed up drying

Instructions:

1. Remove the old hardware from the drawer. You may or may not want to put some of it back on the box later so set the aside for now.

2. Sand the drawer inside and out. This is to give the surface a good “tooth” for paint and glue to adhere to. Wear a dust mask while sanding because you never know what is in old, reused wood. Wipe off the dust with a damp rag.

3. Now it’s time to take a look at your box and think about what you want to display in it. Do you want to set it on a table top or hang it on the wall? What is the look of the room it’s going to be in? Do you want to match the colors or decor in the room? When you have the answers to those questions you can start designing. Here are some pictures of past shadow boxes I have made with descriptions of what I did to give you ideas: Crafts By Carolyn: Shadow Boxes.

I’m going to use my sample shadow box as table decor for my upcoming wedding reception and later I’ll hang it on a wall. So I’m going to give mine a base to stand on as well as hanging hardware on the back. I’m going to paint the inside and the outside of the box to go with my color scheme (navy, coral, lime green and white), add a padded background for pinning small photos, add paper accents to the outside edges of the box with decoupage.

4. If the hardware you removed from your drawer left holes or if there are any other holes or uneven spots in the wood that bother you, if you want you can use wood filler to disguise them before you paint. In my case I like the distressed look and it goes well with the casual nautical theme I’m using so I chose not to fill in any holes in my sample box.

5. Paint your box on all sides and all edges with the exception of the inside back which will be covered. If you are hanging the box on the wall you can also skip painting the back. I’m going to display mine in the round first so I will paint the back.

There are some good painting tips for a distressed piece of wood in my previous article Stencil a Sofa Shelf Made From Distressed Wood.

6. While your paint is drying, you can start to work on your cardboard and fabric background. First measure the opening in your box. Then cut two pieces of corrugated cardboard to that size using a metal ruler, utility knife and self healing cutting mat.

There are some good cutting safety tips in my previous article Introduction to Letterboxing – Part II – Making a Personal Logbook.

Make sure your paint is dry enough to handle, then slip your cardboard pieces into the box and press them to the back to make sure they fit ok. If they are a little too large, cut them down bit by bit until they fit. Allow for a tiny bit of extra room around the edge to accommodate the fabric wrapping.

7. Select a piece of fabric to wrap the front of your cardboard pieces. Lay one of the cardboard pieces down on the fabric and draw around it with pencil. Add another two inches allowance to each side and draw lines. This is so you have enough fabric to grab onto, pull, and tape. Cut out your fabric along the outer line you just drew.

8. Heat up your glue gun and get your masking tape ready. Put a few dots of hot glue between your two pieces of cardboard and press together. If any sides of your cardboard have printing on them, make sure the printing is toward the inside or the back or it might show through the fabric.

9. If I were not applying hot glue to join this back to the inside back of the box, I would not expect the masking tape to be able to do all of the heavy lifting here in keeping this fabric on the board in the long term, but along with a generous application of the hot glue it will be adequate.

Fold fabric over the back and tape down. Start in the middle of each side and pull in the opposite side as you go and work your way out, pulling tight as you go.

10. You’ll want your hot glue gun nice and hot for this next step so a lot comes out. Apply a generous amount of hot glue around the inside back edge of the box and a little bit in the middle. Press the fabric-wrapped cardboard in good side up and hold for several seconds until the hot glue is holding it flat.

11. Apply decoupage decoration to the outside edges of the box if desired.

12. Attach hanging hardware or feet to the box with small nails.

Watch video of this project at Schnarr’s Hardware in Webster Groves:

Make a Shadow Box from an Old Drawer Part 1:

Make a Shadow Box from an Old Drawer Part 2:

Categories
DIY Gardening Home Decor Upcycling Ways With Wood

Make a Wood Plant Tray

Make a Wood Plant Tray

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

Materials
*Indicates items available at Schnarr’s
*Piece of 1/2 inch thick wood cut to 4 inches by 13.5 inches (or other size of your choice)
*Wood for the sides of your planter (I used a variety of widths and thicknesses from my scrap pile plus the Schnarr’s scrap pile)
*Wood glue
*Nails
*Water putty
*Masking tape
*Paint
*3/16″ dowel rod
Ball knobs or drawer pulls with 3/16″ holes
*Disposable plastic gloves
*Dust mask for sanding

Tools
*Saw
*Pencil
*Ruler
*Hammer
*Putty knife
*Sandpaper
*Containers for water and mixing
*Paint brushes
Miter clamp
*Drill
*Small drill bit for pilot holes
*3/16″ drill bit
*Hand pruners
Old credit cards

Step 1: Cut a piece of wood that is 1/2 thick to 4 inches by 13.5 inches or to whatever size you want for the bottom piece of your plant tray. I actually used 1/4 inch thick wood in my sample because I had some lying around but you will have an easier time nailing it together if you use 1/2 inch thick wood.

Step 2: Decide where to cut the wood for the sides of the plant tray and mark the pieces with pencil. I made butt joints at the corners for this project so your wood pieces should be as long as the sides of the tray plus the thickness of the wood.

Parts for two wood plant trays
Parts for two wood plant trays

Step 3: Cut the side wood pieces to size and sand the rough edges.

Step 4: Dab on a little wood glue for extra hold as you arrange one of your butt joints in a miter clamp. We’re going to hammer a couple of nails in from the end to give more strength to the joint. Brace the clamped pieces in a vise as shown in my sample or on top of something like a large block of scrap wood. Drill a couple of pilot holes with a small drill bit. The pilot holes help the nail go in straighter and prevent the wood from splitting. Drive in a couple of nails and repeat until you have a three-sided frame assembled with one side open.

Wood pieces in a miter clamp
Wood pieces in a miter clamp

 

Miter clamp in a vise
Miter clamp in a vise

Step 5: Now we are going to put the bottom in our tray. Squirt some wood glue on the edges of your bottom piece and slide it into the frame. You can temporarily hold it in place with masking tape as you work. Put the last side on the frame and glue and nail the last two corners.

Step 6: Reinforce the bottom by driving a few nails into each side after drilling pilot holes.

Step 7: Next we’ll fill any cracks or holes with water putty. Since I tend to use a lot of scrap wood that has holes in it for my projects, I often patch the wood with spackling paste, water putty or wood filler. Then I can cover up the patches with paint, decoupage or some other surface treatment. I’m using water putty this time because I want my tray to be leak proof. Water putty dries really hard. In my sample I applied the water putty to the bottom of the tray as well as in the inside seams and anywhere else there were holes in the wood.

Mix a little but of water putty at a time with water until it’s a workable consistency. Put on disposable gloves and smear the putty it into the cracks and crevices you want to fill. Water putty is fairly hard to sand off so before it dries do a really good job of flattening and cleaning up the patches to reduce the amount of sanding you’ll have to do later. Old credit cards are a good tool for scraping away excess putty.

Step 8: After the putty sets up, sand your piece to get rid of rough edges. Wear a dust mask while sanding so you don’t breathe in the particles.

Step 9: Place your feet where you want them on the bottom of the tray and trace around them with pencil. I like to use ball knobs and drawer pulls with 3/16″ holes as feet on a variety of wood pieces. I keep a supply on hand along with 3/16″ pieces of dowel rod to use in joining the feet to the wood. After tracing, set the feet aside and drill a 3/16″ hole where each foot will go.

Step 10: Cut pieces of dowel rod to size so that they fit into the hole in the feet and into the holes you drilled in the bottom of the tray without leaving gaps. If you have a pair of hand pruners, I’ve found they do a quick and easy job cutting the dowel rod pieces to size. Put a dab of wood glue into each hole, push the dowel rod piece into the feet and then push the feet into the drilled holes.

Attaching the feet with wood pegs
Attaching the feet with wood pegs

When the putty is dry enough, your tray is ready to paint and decorate. Add some extra varnish to the inside of the tray to help make it waterproof for plant pots.

Categories
DIY Home Decor Ways With Wood

Schnarr’s Hardware is now offering DIY Classes!

Schnarr’s Hardware is now offering DIY Classes!

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

I hope you can join us for our first class at Schnarr’s Hardware in Webster Groves – Make a Picture Frame from Scrap Wood!

make a picture frame from scrap wood

Schnarr’s employee Carolyn Hasenfratz will show you how to use reclaimed wood pieces to make a frame that fits an 8 1/2 x 11-inch picture. This size frame is a good size for award certificates and other common documents that you might want to display. Tools and materials will be provided. You will learn techniques that you can use to design and build your own frames from your choice of wood scraps. Save a ton of money by gaining skills you can use by making your own unique frames for your home decor while gaining the satisfaction of saving materials from the landfill.

Class with Carolyn Hasenfratz – Make a Picture Frame from Scrap Wood
Date: February 22, 2018
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Location: Schnarr’s Hardware in Webster Groves, 40 East Lockwood, St. Louis MO, 63144

The cost of the class is $20. To register please go to this url: https://dabble.co/rc/carolynhasenfratz10

What’s Provided
Wood, tools, metal, chipboard, hardware

What You Can Expect
Learn to build simple picture frames
Learn to design frames from reclaimed wood
Learn to fabricate hardware for the back of the frame using simple tools
Learn how to recycle wood pieces
Learn about sources of low cost reclaimed materials for your DIY projects

For Carolyn’s complete teaching schedule, please go to:
http://www.chasenfratz.com/wp/about/classes-and-events/

Categories
Backyard Wildlife DIY Gardening Sustainability Upcycling Ways With Wood

Make a Pollinator House – Part 2

Make a Pollinator House – Part 2

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

In my previous article Making a Pollinator House – Part 1 I explained why you might want to build a home for native bees and other beneficial insects for your garden. I also provided an example of a quick way to build a shelter out of cinder blocks, wood scraps and dried plant material. I promised to write up plans for a more attractive pollinator house. Here are instructions for building two different designs to enhance your garden’s decor as well as it’s productivity and ecological health.

Tools and Supplies
* indicates items that are available at Schnarr’s
Tracing paper
Pencil
Ruler*
Hot glue gun*
Wood hot glue sticks
1″ x 6″ x 8′ multipurpose board*
2″ x 4″ x 8′ board*
Saw*
Sandpaper*
Dust mask*
Acrylic craft paint
Paint brushes*
Water container*
Heat tool for speeding up drying (optional)
Painters tape or masking tape*
Decorative stencils
Sponges*
Drill*
Tiny drill bit*
Nails*
Window screen*
Hammer*
Wood glue*
Clear matte finish varnish*
Hardware cloth or chicken wire (optional)*

For the additional second design with the pediment, you’ll also need:
Assorted sizes of distressed wood pieces
Decorative brass box corner*
Miter saw*
3/16″ drill bit*
3/16″ dowel rod*
Wooden ball knobs or drawer pulls* with 3/16″ holes to use as feet

Mid-Century Modern style pollinator house

Instructions for Style #1 – “Mid-Century Modern” Pollinator House

1. Download the PDF document “Pollinator House Assembly Diagram”. It is sized to print out on a legal-sized piece of paper. Recreate the diagram in scale on a piece of tracing paper with pencil.

2. From the 1″ x 6″ x 8′ board, cut two 12″ x 5.5″ pieces(although the board is called 1″ x 6″ x 8′ it’s probably closer to 5.5″ so you might only have to cut the board into 12″ lengths).

3. From your 2″ x 4″ x 8′ (probably really 3.5″) board cut two 5″ segments.

4. Put on a dust mask and sand your wood pieces until smooth.

copy diagram onto wood
5. Mark each of your 12″ x 5.5″ pieces with the rectangles shown in the diagram. These will become the inner top and inner bottom of your house.


paint around edges
6. Paint a color of your choice in the border around the inner rectangle on each piece. For this step you don’t have to worry about painting precisely in the lines. Let paint dry.


7. Mark off around the middle rectangle with masking or painter’s tape on both pieces and paint black. When paint is dry, remove tape.

paint middle of boards black


8. Paint what will be the insides of your 5″ high supports black. Paint all other surfaces of your wood pieces assorted colors of your choice.

decorative stenciling
9. Decorate the top of your house and the sides of the supports with decorative stencils. I did not decorate the board edges with stenciling in my sample but you can if you want to. If you are new to stenciling on wood, see this article for tips –
Stencil a Wood Garden Sign.

10. Sand all the edges of your wood pieces so that the bare wood shows through on the corners. This gives the wood a distressed look. If you want to distress any other painted or stenciled surfaces further you can do so by roughing them up with sandpaper.

11. To assemble the house, stage the upright pieces by placing them in their footprints as indicated on the diagram on one of the 12 x 5.5″ pieces. Face the black painted sides inward and the stenciled sides facing out. If you’ve covered up your pencil lines with paint, you can use your diagram to redraw them as needed.

12. Load up your hot glue gun with wood project glue sticks and plug it in to heat up. Apply hot glue to the bottoms of the support pieces and press in place. Let glue harden.

13. Glue the other ends of the supports in place on the other 12 x 5.5″ piece. Let glue harden.

14. Place the tracing paper diagram on top of your house. Mark where the nail holes will go in pencil. Drill small pilot holes then hammer nails in. Repeat for the bottom.

15. Mix some dark brown paint with water to make a thin wash and paint over the whole house. Test first on the bottom to make sure it’s not too heavy or light. Alternately, you could use a wash of off-white paint if you’d rather have a pale wash. The purpose of the wash is to give an aged appearance to the wood – this is particularly effective when the paint clings to the corners that have been bared by sanding. Let paint dry.

16. Paint whole house with clear matte varnish.

17. Cut out a 10 x 5″ piece out of scrap window screen and nail it to the back side. This is to keep whatever materials you fill the house with from falling out the back side.

18. Fill the house from the front with materials that contain holes for pollinating insects such as native bees to live in.

Some suggestions of materials you could use to fill the house:

  • Bamboo or reed segments
  • Rocks
  • Rolled up corrugated cardboard
  • Chunks of scrap wood with holes drilled in it
  • Bundles of twigs or straw
  • Unfired ceramic clay with holes poked in it
  • Natural dried stems and reeds from the garden cut into segments
  • Dried seed pods

If necessary, cut out a piece of hardware cloth or chicken wire and nail it over the front to hold materials in.

19. Read this article for ideas on where to place the house in your garden or yard –
Making a Pollinator House – Part 1.

Depending on where you want to put your house, you may want to attach hanging hardware to it or mount it on a post. The wood pieces we used are thick enough to give you flexibility in attachment options.

Pollinator House with Pediment

Instructions for Style #2 – Pollinator House with Pediment

The prototypes I made for the second design vary somewhat in size and proportions because I used distressed wood that I had lying around. I designed the houses around what wood I had available and embellished some with found objects or hardware. If you want to build similar houses and don’t have access to distressed wood, you can use new wood.

1. Cut out two chunky pieces of wood to use as uprights and two thin pieces to use as the top and bottom.

Different pollinator house designs

2. Cut a right triangle out of wood that is 3/4 to 1″ thick for the pediment piece. A pediment is like a roof gable that is decorative rather than functional. My samples vary slightly in size but the triangles are mostly around 7 1/2″ inches on the long side and 3 3/4″ on the short sides.

3. Choose some thin, narrow wood pieces for the roof overhang. Lattice wood strips are about the right size – if you don’t have any distressed wood in that size range you can purchase some lattice strips to use. Cut these strips into approximately 6″ pieces and miter the corners.

4. Sand all wood pieces.

5. Paint the sides of your wood pieces that will become the interior with black paint.

6. Paint the other sides and parts in assorted colors of your choice.

7. Stencil a bee design or other stencil of your choice on the front of the triangle.

8. If you think any of the other wood surfaces need to be enhanced with stencil designs, decorate those also. Since many of my wood pieces were distressed and had a pronounced wood grain, knots, old nails and other irregularities I let those provide the visual interest in many areas. Antique look, vintage look, grunge or botanical stencils would be especially effective for this design.

9. Sand the edges of your wood pieces to expose the bare wood on the corners and distress any other areas that you think are in need of it.

10. Hot glue the vertical support pieces to the top and bottom of your house then nail in place.

11. To assemble the pediment section, put your two roof pieces in a miter clamp with the mitered ends butted together to make the roof point. Put a little wood glue on the ends as you do this. Position the clamped-together pieces on a block of scrap wood to brace them. Drill small pilot holes in one end and hammer in small nails. Slip a couple of nails in between from the other direction.

Creating roof peak with miter clamp and nails

12. Take your triangle pediment and apply hot glue to the top edge. On your work surface, lay the pediment down, slide the triangle part in and press in place. When the glue has hardened, hammer small nails through the roof pieces into the pediment for extra hold.

Attach roof overhang to pediment

13. Apply hot glue to the bottom of the triangle section. Place in place on top of house and let the glue harden. Drill two pilot holes at each end and drive long thin nails down into the supports below.

14. If you would like to attach wood feet to the bottom of your house, drill 3/16″ holes into the bottom of the house. Cut short pieces of 3/16″ wood dowel rod and put wood glue on both ends. Insert one end of each dowel rod piece into a hole in the house and the other end into the hole in a wooden ball knob or drawer pull.

15. Mix some dark brown paint with water to make a thin wash and paint over the whole house. Test first on the bottom to make sure it’s not too heavy or light. Alternately, you could use a wash of off-white paint if you’d rather have a pale wash. The purpose of the wash is to give an aged appearance to the wood – this is particularly effective when the paint clings to the corners that have been bared by sanding. Let paint dry.

16. Paint whole house with clear matte varnish.

17. Attach a decorative brass box corner to the roof peak.

18. Cut out a piece out of scrap window screen and nail it to the back side.

19. Fill house with nesting materials and place in a suitable location.

Here are some pictures showing how some of the other houses turned out.

Pollinator houses made with distressed wood

Pollinator houses made with distressed wood

Pollinator house made with distressed wood