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How to: Make a Bench Out of an Old, Wooden Shipping Box

So this is where it all started. An old, wooden shipping box that a friend gave to me before moving out of state. (Love you!) I immediately saw a bench when I looked at this, but it was going to be a lot of work. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT.

So first things first I had to get a piece of wood for the top. My dad had a piece leftover that he cut down for me, since I don't have my own saw, nor do I know how to use one. Yet. :) Anyway, so I measured it out, then took the box to dad and he cut down the wood for me - he's really awesome. Once I had my top part, I had to make my cushion. Since I decided to do a tufted seat, I first had to figure out where to drill my holes. So I measure the wood to find the center down the length of the board, then I divided it into quarters and found me three button spots. After marking these with a pencil, I drilled my wholes.

Next I had to get the foam for the cushion. I bought some at JoAnns, then cut it to the size I needed to fit on top of the seat.

I then took some batting and wrapped the foam and stapled the batting to the side edges of the board. This will add a little extra cushion and it will help to hide any weird edges in the foam once it's cut.

After I attached the batting, I laid my fabric over my seat and placed the board - with the fabric laid over it - over two supporting surfaces so that I was able to get underneath it.

You'll need twine, upholstery needles to fit the twine - I used doll needles from JoAnns - and you'll need some half ball buttons, which are the kind that you cover with your own fabric and pop into place. Use your same fabric to make the buttons (or a different one to get a little crazy).

Thread the needle from underneath the seat and up through the board and the cushion. Attach the button to the thread, then push the needle back through the cushion and the board. Do this with all three buttons.

Once all your buttons are pulled through, you can carefully flip over your seat and staple the twine to the bottom of the board to keep them secure. Make sure before you staple you pull the twine as tightly as you can to create a really defined tufting. I used 2 or 3 staples per button/twine.

Once you've done that you can staple the fabric to the board - being sure to keep it pulled tight, and you can lift to check it as you go.  Staple about 1.5" away from the edge. Cut away the extra fabric.

If you did that right you should have something that looks like this:

Next comes the hinge. I used a piano hinge that fit the box with about 2-3 inches on either side of the hinge from the edge of the box. Attach the hinge to the seat/top first. Place the hinge on the bottom of the seat and use a sharpie to mark where the holes will need to be drilled. Drill your holes being careful not to drill through the wood of the seat. Attach the hinge to the seat.

Line up the seat and the hinge to the bench, then repeat the previous steps. Attach the seat to the bench.

Finally it's time for the legs. I bought my legs at Home Depot - the Waddell 6"  Traditional Table Leg; just under $3 each. Unfortunately the threaded piece they came with was way too small, so I had to go pick up some longer double threaded screws, and these are 5/16" thick, in case you use these. I also got some acorn nuts to top them off on the inside.

If you did this part right you should have something like this:

Once you have your legs, you'll want to stain and polyurethane them. I used a Dark Walnut stain and an amber tinted poly. I unscrewed the legs about a quarter inch from the base of the bench and just surrounded each of them with painters tape, sticking it underneath the legs as well so it didn't leak under them too much.

And the finished product should look something like this:

I'm obsessed! One of my favorite projects so far. I did end up putting a seat lining fabric on the inside to cover the wood, just to make it clean. But anyway, hope you enjoy!

How to: Make an Infinity Scarf

Recently I found this amazing fabric at one of the local thrift stores; it was  four yards for $6!! Crazy, I felt so lucky. Anyway, when I looked at it, all I could see was scarves. It's beautiful!

Unfortunately I didn't take more pictures, but I'll do my best to explain how I did this. It's actually really easy! So you want to measure out a fabric that is about 6'x3', but you'll want it folded in half so ultimately you have a 6'x1.5' piece. Find somewhere you can lay your fabric flat (folded lengthwise still) and start pinning the free edges together. Make sure your fabric is inside out for this. Then you want to sew along this edge.

Once this is sewn together, you want to turn it out again so the pretty side faces out, then you want to sew the edges together to make a circle; leave about a 4" hole so that you can pull the scarf through again, and then sew the seam from the outside. I'll have to post more pictures when I make another one. Anyway, once it's done, you should have an infinity scarf!

How to: Redo An Old Footlocker Trunk

Hey, everyone! So I'm in love with how this project turned out. I found this beat up, super dirty footlocker trunk on the side of the road up the street from me a while back. The family was moving out and they had all this stuff outside, so I took advantage of the opportunity. I had been spying on it in their driveway for days, so it worked out perfectly. Here's what it looked like before I started:

So first things first, I had to do a little research for what kinds of paints to use on this baby since the outside was made of vinyl. I ended up using a paint by Dupli-Color in Charcoal Gray, and I found it at my local Auto Zone. You want to look for a "Vinyl and Fabric" paint, and I did come across a lot on Amazon as well if you are not near an Auto Zone. So I read the instructions thoroughly and then taped off all the brass parts using painters tape. I will warn you, this took hours. I put the tape on then used an xacto knife to cut it around the edges. Be as precise as you can!

Once you're all taped go ahead and spray it! The paint I used dried really quickly, which was awesome. REMEMBER TO READ THE DIRECTIONS VERY CAREFULLY, IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

I recommend letting the paint sit overnight just in case. Once everything is dry, retape everything keeping only the brass part exposed! This took forever too! But the end product is more than worth it. Once you have taped off all the vinyl, spray paint the brass. I used RustOLeum White Gloss. This will take longer to dry, so definitely let dry overnight. Once you paint this part it should look something like this:

Once that was all dry, it was time to work on the inside. I was originally going to line it with burlap, but due to a time crunch and the risk of being sloppy, I decided it would be much better to paint it. A while back I had bought a RustOLeum paint can of Kona Brown that ended up not being the right shade for the project I intended it for. It was perfect for this. I vacuumed out the inside and sanded it where needed, then went to work.

It really came out great! And the color on the inside turned out awesome! It's almost like a red wine color, I love it. Last but not least, I added some new rope to the sides for handles, just a plain white rope from home depot. Here's the final product that I came up with:

And here she is in action at my craft show on November 17th! Isn't she gorgeous?? Here you can see the handles, and on the front you can see the detail on the front handle where I wrapped it in jute. Hope you like it!

How to: Redo a Thrift Store Chair

I have this darling little chair that I found at Unique Thrift Store near me, for only about 7$. Considering the detail, that's not too bad! I completely satisfied with what I paid. And it's already ripping apart in the back, which is perfect because I'm going to completely dissect it anyway.

Isn't it precious? It has so much potential. Anyway, after months and months of trying to figure out what to do with this thing, I found some awesome fabric (the same silver kind I used on my handmade clutches) and felt motivated enough to get it started. It took me days to pull out all the staples in this stupid chair! But after a LOT of hard work, and hundreds of staples, I finally stripped this thing down.

I then sanded it down as much as I could with my rotary sander, then finished it off by hand. After sanding it down and cleaning it up, I applied three coats of RustOLeum Black Gloss Spray Paint. Let dry between coats! I then rallied up my chair foam, and cut out my fabric, then placed them exactly how I found them and stapled it all in. Once stapled, I covered the staples with black rope cord from JoAnns. After all that work this is what I came up with:

And there you have it! The astrochair.