Reclaimed Apple Crates for Kitchen Cabinet

Around April of this year I began a kitchen remodel that still has some finishing touches yet to be done.  I have been wanting to share it but would rather wait until it is completed.  Until then I thought I would share a cabinet that I made for the remodel.

We were given a bunch of old Hospital cabinets from the 70's I am guessing, not sure, and they are pretty nice cabinets.  They are all metal except for the top cabinets which have glass doors which we really like.

As with any old cabinet set we had to make these cabinets work for our kitchen.  We only had 5 base cabinets and 4 upper cabinets.  

They all fit well but there was one area next to the refrigerator that was too large to leave open, and we were out of base cabinets.  I was thinking of buying a wood cabinet and painting it the same color but thought it would look like I was trying to make it match.  So I took a trip to a local antique store.  

There is this guy in Vienna, MO that has almost anything old.  He has about 5 large buildings just jam packed.  I went looking for something that would do the job and came back with three old apple crates.

This is what the cabinet looks like, it still needs the base trim put on.  

There is a small area between the crate cabinet and the metal cabinet for storing cutting boards.

The construction wasn't to difficult.  I made a simple cabinet shell out of 3/4" plywood just large enough for the crates to fit.  

Next I used 16" drawer slides to install the drawers.  These can be purchased at any hardware store and have directions on the back.

One package will include all hardware to install one drawer; two sets of slides and screws.

These are easy to install.  The slide for the cabinet is attached flush on the face of the cabinet (this has trim that was attached afterwards) and flush with the base of the drawer. 

The slide for the drawer is attached flush at the face of the drawer, or right at the back of the drawer front, and about an inch up from the bottom.

The slides have stops built into them so the drawers don't come flying out when little ones like my kids pull on them.

All I had to do to the crates to prep them for being drawers was put a few coats of polyurethane on to protect the paper advertising, put some drawer pulls on, and some trim on the edges.

The drawer pulls were all items I had laying around:

The drawer face trim (some old wood I had):

The finished product, well almost finished.

Sandbox for the Boys!

Another old project that I thought I would share.

Every boy needs a sandbox right?  It was time to build the boys one.  Once again I tried to find items to reuse instead of going out and buying lumber.

We had some old oak 6x6's that would work great.

First was the excavation which CJ helped with and Moses watched.

I failed to take pictures of the build but it was pretty simple:

I leveled the ground out and then laid the posts.  To screw them together I used my new favorite lag/timber screws, TimberLok

It just took one 8" lag in each corner and one in the middle of the posts.

After screwing them together I laid down some weed barrier and then added sand, which I was able to get from the river for free.

This project was all of $30 and the kids love to play in it!

Reading Nook In Boys Room

For a while now I have wanted to build a spot in CJ and Moses' room for them to sit and read, a loft type area.

I have been putting it off but now that we are having our third child it was time to get the room finished.

I was at Menards a few weeks ago and out back in the pick up area I saw about 4 pallets of random wood stacked about 6 or 7 feet high.  When I inquired they said it was $50 a pallet.  It was either left over, cut offs, or just random pieces.  I bought one pallet that had a lot of good wood and more than enough to build the boys reading area.

It is worth it to look in the bargain areas sometimes apparently.

This is the area before:

And this is what it looks like right now:

I am basically making a loft area on top with a ladder going up and a simple railing.  Underneath will be a little hiding place as there will be a book case built in front of the square opening.  

This is the start of the reading area and I will add more photos once I continue.

I still have to add the book case, a light underneath, and stain it all.

All the joints on the railing were made with the Kreg System, http://www.kregtool.com/default.html, my new favorite tool!  It makes pocket screw holes that then when screwed together make nice square joints, and it is fast and simple.

The Kreg System:

They sell different setups and at the time I bought the bigger set but since then they have come out with a new one that is even nicer.

The system works with stock wood from 1/2" up to 1 1/2".

Just adjust the system, clamp one piece of the wood in and drill some holes.

The special bit that comes with the system drills an angled hole (this is how the system is set up) and a pilot hole for the screw.

Kreg also makes other tools to aid in making perfectly lined up joints.  This "C" clamp keeps the wood flush while screwing.

The system comes with an extra long square head bit that works with the Kreg screws and is long enough to screw into the pocket the drill bit makes.

I bought a Kreg variety screw pack but they can be bought in individual types.
The screws have a large flat head that helps pull the wood in tight to the other piece.
I haven't tried but I don't believe a regular screw will do as good a job.

Reclaimed Lumber Floor

Thought I would share something I did when we first moved into our home.  We added an addition off the back of the house, to be used as a sun/family room, in which we added a woodstove as well.  Since there would be the woodstove we thought the room could use a bit more of a rustic look and so I wanted to add a plank floor, something like this which I had seen in someone else's home.  

After calculating the cost for even a simple pine floor with 1 x 12 boards I decided it would be too much money.  I decided to try to reuse a bunch of old 1x's instead,  all different lengths, widths, colors, and types of wood.

How it originally looked after it was completed:

How it looked during the construction of built in window seats/storage:

The floor wasn't really all that hard to do.  I sorted all my 1x's according to widths so that all runs would have the same dimension wood.  Then I started to nail them down with square head nails to give it that more rustic look. 

Once nailed I rented a large floor sander and sanded about 5 times with different grit of sandpaper until all the wood was level and smooth on top.  

Once sanded I used bulls eye oil based poly and a roller to apply.  I put about 8 coats on to give it a strong durable finish.  

The floor has been used for about 5 years now and still looks great and is holding up wonderful.

In all the floor cost me about $150 for the poly and sander rental.  

The sunroom gets quite a bit of use and will soon be opened up to our new playroom/schoolroom which is under construction now.

The boys love to help daddy with, well, pretty much anything...

Boys Toy Storage Cabinet

A while back I got this cabinet from someone who was trashing it.  It was a bit beat up and pretty rough so at first I wasn't sure if I was going to reuse it or just strip the wood off to reuse.

We needed some more storage for our boys toys as we are about to have our third child, a girl!  We are going to be putting our boys in the same room and redoing the third room for baby Karis so it was time to make room.  I thought this cabinet would do the trick and so began the redo.

First I wanted to ad a base to this as it looked like it lacked something:

I made a simple 2x4 base on the bottom and then added some old crown that I had saved from the dumpster.

I wire-brushed and sanded the rough spots all over to clean it up then gave it a light spray with a paint close to the original color.  I didn't want to loose the old look, just freshen it up.  After the paint I added a spray poly to give it a finished look.

The inside of the cabinet and the shelves were cleaned and then sprayed with polyurethane.

The finishing touches:

We wanted to make it fun for the boys so we added a bit of decor to the outside.  We were leaning toward adding some antique toy signs but went with an old car  theme.  We looked all over for original signage but couldn't find any and ended up buying a few signs from Hobby Lobby for 50% off.

I found an old car handle and old tractor light at an antique store to add to it.  The handle just had to be shined up but the light was a bit more work.

I had to sand it, spray paint it, and add all new guts.  I still need to change the bulb out to a better one and adjust the location of the bulb but for now it works.

The before and after:

 

His and Her Desks

Our home is not a very large home, about 1,500 square feet, an old modular home with 7 foot ceilings.  It may be on the smaller size but we love it.

Because it is small we don't have a lot of space beyond the things we absolutely need, so space for a study for me and craft room/study for my wife would be luxuries as is the case for most families I imagine.

We found some areas that would work for study areas but would need smaller desks to fit the spaces.

Hers:

I made Cristina's out of an old sowing machine base, which are easy to find at antique stores for around $20,  and part of a trashed entertainment center.
I removed most of the sewing machine parts just leaving the sides and the back.
The top is the side of the entertainment center stripped, sanded multiple times, and then clear poly'd five times to give it a smooth hard finish.  It is oak.    

His:

Mine is one I designed and made from old lumber; oak, cedar, fir and pine.  Simple construction on top and bottom then several coats of poly.

Being glued up and waiting finish sanding:

Finished with poly drying:

Now we both have our little areas that we use for morning devotions and such.

Wood and Steel Stair Railing

A while back we added a sunroom onto our home and it is a room we love.  It has windows seats on two of the walls which make for extra seating when having a lot of guests over.  Under the seats there is plenty of storage.  There is a woodstove that heats the house very very well when we choose to do so and a nice old leather recliner in the corner adjacent to the woodstove.  There are plenty of windows to enjoy the nice view and watch the birds eat from one of the many bird feeders.


One thing that I really like is that in order to go into the room there are three steps down into the room, about 6 feet wide, which makes it feel like a private room even though it is wide open to the dining room.  The only problem with the steps is that for older people and little people (our kids) it is a bit hard to walk down.  So I needed to make a railing.


I wanted to make it out of wood and steel, this much I knew, as for the rest it was created as I made it.  I did want to use 100% old material as well.


This is the finished project:

To make it I first had to figure out the angles and to do this i made a simple rail out of wood and screwed it together so that my angles would be right.  Then I welded an angle template that I used as I cut and welded the metal. 

I used 1x2 steel for the uprights, 1x1 steel for angle brackets holding the wood rail and for the two parts parallel with the stairs, and 2" flat steel for the middle rail.  

There is a middle rail for the 'little' people and the wood rail is for the 'big' people.  The metal rail is two flat pieces I welded end to end to make it long enough and then heated and bent the end.  

The cross sections in the middle are some old tire irons that were going to be scrapped, they ended up working great.  

The wood is an old piece of oak I cut, sanded, routed edges, and then oiled.

I bolted it down and it is very solid and not going anywhere.  

another view: