Serving tray

I finally found some use for that old picture frame that I had. I decided to make a serving tray with it.

Step 1. I sprayed a 1/4 inch piece of wood that I cut to fit into the frame with chalkboard paint.

Step 2. I removed the old painting and attached the wood to the back with woodglue and very small nails.

Step 3. I attached some old spoons that I had with some screws for handles

Below is the finished chalk board serving tray.

Wainscoting Picture Frames

Carolyn was looking to add some photos to our upstairs hallway and she wanted to use Wainscoting. The previous owner happened to leave me some extra pieces so all I to do was build some frames.

Step 1. I cut some 1x3's into 16 inch pieces and cut them at 45 degrees at the ends. I attached all 4 pieces together with a staple gun. The frames aren't holding a lot of weight so the staples will hold. I used about 5 on each side and hammer them in to make sure they are tight.

Step 2. The next step was cutting the Wainscoting. Just used a jigsaw to cut them to 16" X 16".

Step 3. I attached the wainscoting to the frame with wood glue.

The next part took a little planning a head. I decided that the easiest way to add the photos was to just add a 5 X 7 frame to the back. So I bought 2 frames from the dollar store.

Step 4. I cut out the opening with a jigsaw and made sure that it was about a 1/4" less than the 5 X 7 inch frame opening.

Step 5. After all the cutting was done I sprayed everything with a satin white can of paint.

Step 6. I attached the frames to the back of the wainscoting with some wood glue.

Below is the final result after they were added to our upstairs hallway.

Old cabinets turned headboard chic

So I just completed my first commission piece - a new headboard! I was looking to do something a little different from the project I designed for our room, so I started digging through the shed and I found two cabinet doors from our old entertainment center. I decided to use these as the focal point.


The first step was to build a frame to hold the doors. I used some 1 X 3's to frame it out.

After the frame was built, I cut the cabinet doors to fit. I attached them and added a 1 X 6 on the top and a 1X 4 on the bottom.

For the top, I picked up some decorative crown molding from Home Depot. Here is a closeup of the detail. I attached this to the top and top the sides and used a 1 x 8 on the top for the ledge.

For the final step, I painted the whole headboard with Behrs Polar Bear white and sanded some of the edges for a distressed look. Below is the before and after install.