Mod Filing Cabinet

I was tired of the clunky metal object mocking me from the rest of my very ‘cool’ office.

I was inspired by something similar in a Ready Made magazine (now defunct) and just had to try it on my own, of course putting my own little spin on it.

What you will need:
Filing Cabinet-I picked mine up from craigslist for $15
Contact Paper-I chose a wood grain birch (found at Lowe’s)
2’ or 4’ level
Exacto Knife/Scissors
Pencil

Using your level, draw a straight line across the middle of your filing cabinet. This will be the end point for your contact paper. I chose to put the line about a third of the way down of the filing cabinet, instead of a predictable half-way mark, just to make things interesting. I don’t like to be predictable…

Using your level, draw lines at 3”, 2” and 1” of thickness onto the contact paper to make the stripes. The angle you choose to have your contact paper at on the filing cabinet and the depth of your cabinet will dictate how long your strips need to be. Cut your differing width of stripes from the contact paper, overcompensating for the length.

I temporarily taped all of my stripes to the side of the filing cabinet, and adjusted them until I liked the look of them, before permanently adhering them to the cabinet. I have learned to do this the hard way. Let’s just say it is very difficult to remove contact paper from anything. Next, I drew little ‘tick’ marks onto the filing cabinet, notating where each stripe went, so I would remember in what order to adhere them to the cabinet.

Using a level, draw a line across the bottom of your taped contact paper stripes that coincides with the line you had originally drawn on the actual filing cabinet. This will make the bottom angle on your stripes. Remove your stripes and cut the tips off with your exacto knife or a pair of scissors.

Peel off the backing from your strips and began to place the stripes onto the filing cabinet, following your earlier notations. Smooth out the bubbles as you go.

Use your exacto knife to cut the top of your stripe off, leaving about an 1/8” to wrap around to the other side.

Repeat this process around the entire filing cabinet. If you have recessed pulls like I did, cut your stripes extra long in order to tuck the contact paper up and around your pulls. When placing the stripes on the drawers, cut them extra long in order to wrap around the edges of each drawer.

 

Now you have a ‘very cool’ filing cabinet! No more mocking us, Mr. Clunky Filing Cabinet!

Mod Log Table

I have been dreaming of an outdoor end table for quite some time. When my neighbor decided to chop down his very dead pine tree, the opportunity afforded itself.
I love neighbors with chainsaws.
Here’s a view of the finished Mod Log Table. Yes, it’s inside my house. No, it hasn’t spent a day outside yet. I think it’s kind’ve pretty inside…

In order to make your own Mod Log Table, you’ll need a dead tree-preferably very dead. I hopped the fence into my neighbors yard and picked out my victim from amongst the carnage laying before me.

I let my Little Mini chainsaw rest while I borrowed the neighbor’s beefier chainsaw. I tried to make the cut as even as possible, knowing I would have to sand down any high points on the wood later on.

I had some vintage legs laying around, but you can use pre-made legs that you can buy at Lowe’s. You’ll also want lag screws to fasten your legs to the log, polyurethane, a foamy brush, and gloves. You’ll want some steel wool & a microfiber cloth for in between your poly layers.

You’ll need a drill with a drill bit slightly smaller than your lag screw and a belt sander with 40 & 80 grit sandpaper, a socket set and a level(not pictured-sorry!).

Sand the top and bottom of your log until it’s smooth, starting with the 40 grit. Use the 80 grit for your fine sand.
That’s fine, baby, that’s fine….

Once your log is smooth, use small set screws to temporarily attach the legs to the underside of the log. Outline the table legs (so when you remove them later on, you’ll know where they go) and flip your table over to check for it being level.

Using your level as shown, ‘shim’ up your table leg until the table sits level. Measure the amount you will either need to router out of the underside of your table, or shim up with scrap plywood.
Or you can choose to sand it even more until your shoulder falls off.
Flip your table back over and remove the legs.

I cut out pieces of plywood with a jigsaw to make up the difference I had measured earlier in order for the table to be level. I chose to shim up my legs, mainly because I do not own a router. This doesn’t look quite as finished, but for an outside table, I was ok with it.

Drill pilot holes for your lag screws or for your pre-made table legs using a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the screw you’ll be using.

Use a socket set to insert your lag screws, if you have legs like mine (tee hee). If you have pre-made legs with the screw already sticking out of the end, just screw them into where you drilled your pilot holes.

Wipe the table down with a microfiber cloth-get all the nooks and crannies. Now it’s time to make it pretty! Enough of the functional stuff. WOO-HOO!

Apply your first layer of polyurethane and let dry according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It’ll be so purty when you’re done with the first layer!

Use your steel wool to get any of the bubbles out by ‘sanding’ it lightly.

Use your steel wool to get any of the bubbles out by ‘sanding’ it lightly.
Wipe the entire thing down again with your microfiber cloth. Apply another coat of poly and let dry.

You now have such a cute table, you may not be able to bring yourself to put it outside. Mine hasn’t made it outside yet. I keep telling myself to let go…but I’m worried it will be lonely outside…

Funky Gold Medina

I can’t pass up tacky gold objects. I have an addiction,
and I’m alright with that. My lengthy affair with silver seems to be coming to a close.
After browsing one afternoon at Habitat for Humanity, I found two gold light fixture medallions for $1 a piece. And I made this. Want to know how? Read on, sister!

A medallion is the part of the light fixture between the glass that houses the lightbulbs and the ceiling. It covers over the ugly hole in your ceiling cut by your contractor or a housewife that tries to replace a ceiling fixture while her hubby is away.
Not that that’s ever happened.

What you’ll need for this swanky wall hanging:
Light fixture medallion
Oops Paint (2 colors)
Paintbrush
Rubber Cement or White Glue
Textured Wallpaper or textured craft paper
Card Stock or cardboard
Scissors

Trace the inside opening of your medallion onto your card stock and as Uncle Joey used to say, ‘Cut it out!’. Cut a square of textured wallpaper or craft paper out that is slightly bigger than your piece of card stock.

Cover the card stock with a sufficient amount of glue and adhere it to the back side of your wallpaper.
I set a large book on top of the wallpaper to stick the two together.
Sit and wait. I chose to listen to Getz and Gilberto while I was waiting. It was most enjoyable.
Actually, I did a load of laundry and made dinner and returned some phone calls. But a girl can dream, can’t she?

Once your glue has dried, cut away the excess of wallpaper from the card stock circle.

Paint your circle with some of your favorite ‘oops’ or leftover paint you have lying around.
Pay no attention to how messy my brush is in this picture. It was for dramatic emphasis for the reader.

I found a silhouette of a feather that I liked online by, are you ready for this?-googling the words ‘feather silhouette’.
I am a genius.
After tracing the silhouette on your circle, grab your second color of paint and go to town.

Here’s my silhouette taking shape.

After the feather was dry, I mounted the circle into the medallion using double sided foamy squares (the kind used for spacers in scrapbooking and card making).
Then, I hung the finished piece on a tree I have outside. My neighbor just looked at me and asked me what I was doing.
I told her I was decorating the tree.
‘Uh, huh’, she said.
I hung it up in my office eventually, but I just liked messing with my neighbor. She can take it.

Vintage Stereo Cabinet Redux

Biceps and I enjoy working out.
What I don’t enjoy are the ugly weights and yoga mats lying around my house. We don’t have a workout room where I can tuck all this away and shut the door.

I needed a solution for this debacle. I found said solution at Habitat for Humanity for $10 bucks. But, it needed a lot of work.($10 has seemed to be the magic number for me lately-that’s what my sewing cabinet cost, too!)

Picture in your cute little mind these being a pumpkin orange and the wood covered in gunk, spider eggs and stickers. I didn’t take a before picture, darn it, because I was too gung ho to get the project started and forgot to pull out the camera.
Forgive me, dear one. Forgive me.

The sides of the cabinet housed the speakers. We gutted the entire thing, removing the side walls that separated the speakers from where the record player sat, the speakers, the electrical components…the whole she-bang. This is also when I found the spider eggs. I almost had a panic attack

After gutting it, we installed 3/4” plywood to beef up the bottom and close up the backside.

Check that backside out. You like it, don’t you? I thought so.

We cut out plywood to fit where the stereo speaker covers used to be (goodbye pumpkin color) and covered them with some very cool vintage blue fabric. We also installed a clasp to connect this plywood piece into the main body of the stereo cabinet.

Here’s the receiver for the piece of plywood that is now covered in blue fabric. This allows you to remove the blue panels and have access to the sides of the stereo cabinet.

I found these legs at Lowe’s for $3 a piece and stained them to match the cabinet. I added a little sticky felt to the bottom so they wouldn’t scratch my sweet floors.

Lastly, I cleaned the entire thing using my special cleaning/furniture polish (3C olive oil to 1C white vinegar-mix in jar, use soft cloth to apply to furniture). It has brought life to the dullest piece of wood, is super cheap and ‘green’.

And now, all of this….

Fits secretly in here. My solution cost me a total of $22. I think that’s pretty freakin’ cool, don’t you?