Woodworking

My bi-fold pantry door is an eyesore. It has a fake woodgrain and blocks the left side of the shelves when it’s opened. But it’s an unusual size, so finding an off-the-shelf or salvage replacement has been impossible. I thought about converting it à la Jason’s closet-door hack, but then I stumbled upon Ashley’s attractive solution. While she didn’t have a bi-fold to begin with, her door replacement would work for just about any ugly door, including mine.

In spring of 2013, I decided to bust out and build a tree house for my daughter Ursula, which I’d never done before. I remember having one as a kid and loving it. I wanted one that I could build in a day, wouldn’t be too high up so as to worry me or other parents, and which was SIMPLE in design to maximize playtime and allow for adding on later. It’s light, open and can go up and down easily.

The design for this alley makes it viable for a backyard, since it’s easily put together and taken apart for storage. No need to turn your entire yard into the local bowling alley! The tutorial for this project is quite thorough — it’s in French, but with a little Google translate and the excellent drawings that accompany the instructions, you should be fine.

同时应用可以快速再涂一层新油漆and easy way to make over a piece of furniture, refinishing a quality wooden piece is often worth the added time and patience. And it’s often not too hard — a little light sanding and a few simple restoring products is often all it takes to breathe new life into old pieces, and bring out the beautiful grain of wooden furniture.1. A Revamped Kitchen Table, from Door Sixteen2. An Old Dresser, Apartment Therapy3.

Jolene kept some old nail boxes in her garage for some time, waiting for a way to repurpose them into something useful. Can you guess what she made for her kids? Click to see what she and her husband did with one crate in an hour’s time, with a few tools and additional supplies. I’ll give you a hint: it involves eyebolts.Jolene cut some holes for legs and her husband secured the rope before hanging it from a tree in their front yard.

Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook consistently executes beautiful DIY projects with precision and flair. Most recently, she and her family used Ikea’s Billy bookshelves in combination with lumber, mouldings, and spray paint to create a custom look at a non-custom cost.Jenny has slowly been revealing updates to her New York home, and these shelves give the living room a sophisticated feel that’s still young and fun. It looks so good!

This is a pearl of wisdom that I received years ago and wanted to bring back right now. When in need of a really simple, nice, natural material desk, use IKEA butcherblock countertop (which is cuttable, sandable, stainable and paintable) and some cool legs (like the Vika Inge style seen here, which has been replaced with Vika Runtorp).

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Last night fans from coast to coast toasted the return of their favorite Downton Abbey characters. We’d like you to actually get a taste of Downton for this week’s 10-Minute Happy Hour. • The Bittersweet Mr. Bates The Kitchn

Upgrading an old CRT television to a modern flat screen is a costly endeavor in itself, and it gets even more expensive when you consider some of the hidden costs of upgrading. For instance, if your old tube TV fit snug in a TV cabinet, you’ll need to find a new furniture home for the likely larger new screen. Or, you could take a cue from this no-cost DIY project and transform an old TV armoire into something new.

David needed to replace his rotted out farmhouse shed and wanted to go for a more modern look. Instead of shelling out the big bucks for a readymade modern shed, he took a stab at building one of his own for a quarter of the price. I have to say I am in awe of his results.For $3000, David demoed, hauled and started building from the ground up. It only took him a few days and some hard work.

Of the many Before and Afters we have featured, this one may take the prize for the biggest blindside, meaning when you click through, you will in no way have figured out what was coming and the ‘After’ photo just may knock you flat. While you can sometimes predict how a thrift store dresser or end table will be saved and transformed, just try it with this box spring. You’ll be wrong. Trust us. Just go look.We told you!

Any fellow DIY furniture enthusiasts out there? If so, follow me after the jump to learn about a veritable jackpot of free online furniture designs.I have been dreaming of having my own wood shop since the first wood working class I took in high school many years ago, and I’m finally getting closer to it becoming a reality.I drove all over Washington this past weekend picking up major craigslist scores on tools and machines to start making some furniture for my new home.

I am gearing up to finish a few garden projects….one of which is a deck that we dug the footings for last fall. I have gone back and forth on the way to finish the deck. Do I do pressure treated wood that I stain (cheap), or do I invest in a hardwood that will be less maintenance (expensive)?I have obsessed so much that I even had an architect friend write a whole article about the pros and cons of all the decking options.

Perfect for Spring, or anytime, this wooden table and bench designed by Marjan Verboeket, graduate of the Design Academy in Eindhoven, can be yours. That’s because the designer turned this piece into an easy DIY and shared the instructions with Dutch design site 101 Woonideeen.Using wood, nails, a hammer and glue, this cheerful table and bench can be made in just six steps. The bench is simple, it’s more an element than a piece of furniture. They are like Lego blocks.

Many years ago a teacher told me that you could steam out a dent in a piece of wood (one where the wood fibers had been compressed, not where they had been removed) using a wet rag and an iron. This technique was meant for unfinished wood, but unfortunately, most of the wood we deal with in our homes has some sort of finish on it. With some research I learned that this technique can work with finished wood but it depends greatly on the type of finish you are dealing with.

Sleek, tall desks look chic, non? But that slim aesthetic comes with a price: Storage. If you took our advice and opted for an IKEA Melltorp as your main workspace, you might be interested to see how one DIY’er created a portable drawer for the svelte white table.Wein Krisztina, an IKEA Hacker from Budapest, yanked a wooden drawer from an old IKEA Moppe chest of drawers and turned it into a portable storage drawer to hold gadgets at her dining table.

When Elisa picked up this vintage dresser for only $60 at her local secondhand shop, she knew the horrid brown paint just had to go. Though she initially considered repainting, once she revealed some of the wood grain below the paint, she decided this piece deserved a full refinish all the way down to the bare wood.Using a hand sander and liquid stripper, Elisa was able to remove all of the dull brown paint from her vintage dresser.

For months I’ve been seeing this photo of a time-out stool float around Pinterest and wondering about a diy version. I haven’t tried it, but I have two ideas that are sure to fit your diy skill set.Here’s what I had in mind:1. Made With Glass: Large glass timers of this nature aren’t exactly expensive these days. You can find them on the shelves of TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Crate and Barrel, and all over the interwebs.

Brooklyn to West‘s Ariele has done it again. In my opinion, she’s the junkyard, dumpster diving, demo-ed house DIY Queen. This gal finds discarded household materials throughout Brooklyn and transforms them into artistic, thoughtful, and beautiful everyday objects. Most recently, she’s taken floorboards and changed them into cheese boards. Genius? YES!Ariele never ceases to amaze me.

I come across so many beautiful baskets in stores that I forget these items are often handmade. With a little bit of practice and patience, it’s not so hard… as long as you start small. After all, they don’t joke about bird courses as ‘basket weaving’ courses for nothing! I recommend preparing your materials (find local materials, then dry and soak them), then weaving them into small shapes or flat mats.

Do you know what kind of looks you get when you go to the hardware store and tell the clerk you want to DIY a sliding door? When they point in the direction of “Doors & Windows,” you know it’s time to take matters into your own hands. I needed a door for a lofted space above our living room, and wanted the sliding effect. However, since it was a temporary solution, its construction needed to be simple and easy to do.

Wood countertops are beautiful, relatively affordable, and more sustainable than other options. The biggest catch is they require regular care. Follow these simple steps to keeping your wood counters looking their best for years to come. Tips to Longer Lasting Counters: Wash wood countertops immediately after using especially when it comes to moisture containing stains, scraps and spills. Oil wood countertops once a month with a high quality mineral oil.

Years ago I used to live in a studio apartment in Brooklyn and wanted to cover the biggest empty wall space with a gigantic bulletin board. I had a hard time finding a bulletin board that was as big as I wanted — so I made my own out of homasote and burlap.Homasote is actually a brand name that has become synonymous with the product generically known as cellulose based fiber wall board — which is similar in composition to papier-mache.

如果你看过麦克斯韦Bloomi条目ngdale’s Big Window Challenge 2010, you’ll notice his trompe l’oeil bookshelf wall, painted by Mark Chamberlain, which was inspired by the Studiolo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (image 1). The Studiolo happens to be my favorite room in the Met, so let’s take a look at this tiny microcosm of Renaissance humanist values and artistic accomplishment.

Stand clear of the closing drawers! For the New York furniture aficionado, inspiration is just a subway stop away. The five boroughs are teeming with talented woodworkers, each pursuing their humble craft in the big bad city. And if they can make it here, they can make it anywhere right?Despite the prevailing stereotype, woodworkers aren’t all bearded hobbits hiding out in the woods — there’s the occasional clean-cut urban exception.

每个物种的木头呈现出一种独特的个性— some are easy going and fun to work with, others hardheaded and quick to snap. Woodworkers must psychoanalyze this manic material, turning character flaws into well-balanced furniture. To help you interpret wood’s many moods, I’ve compiled a little list of the most common species and their notable traits.Lumber is split into two major groups: hardwoods and softwoods.

Time: 3 days including drying time approx. 12 hoursCost: $60Not all of us can afford a standalone bar in regards to space or cost, but most of us can afford to take a thrift store or flea market bookshelf and turn it into your very own Bookcase Bar, like Theresa did for last year’s January Jumpstart project (Thanks, Theresa!