how to make a coffee table

I know, I know . . . this is totally out of order. This project did well over at So You Think You're Crafty this week, so I was asked to write up a full tutorial. You can check it out over there, too, where this week, I'm again competing for your votes in the Metallic/Glitter/Shine theme week. Vote now through Thursday evening and we'll see if I can survive to see another round! (Next week's theme is "Red" and I have something pretty cute up my sleeve!)

Materials you'll need for this project:

one row of card catalog drawers (call your local library if they've recently switched over to a computerized system, or stalk a thrift store or rebuilding store like Habitat for Humanity's ReStore or Bring. The set I used for this project came from Goodwill, and cost $10.)

four vintage wooden mill bobbins (mine came from the Pendleton Woolen Mills store outside of Portland; call them if you don't live nearby, and see if they'll ship to you)

four metal leg attachment plates/corner braces (I found mine at Bring for 50 cents to $1 apiece, and all four match--amazing luck--but you can probably hunt some down at your local hardware store)

one scrap of 3/16 or thicker plexiglass, at least the size of your card catalog (mine was a scrap I used to use for displays at my bookstore a million years ago, but you can buy this new or used at dozens of places)

vintage or new wooden printing blocks (aka moveable wooden type) (I've been a collector for a few years; you can find blocks for sale on eBay or Etsy, or substitute with another type of collection)

thin wood trim (from the ReStore; 25 cents for 3 feet. Unbelievable deal.)

sketch paper (for labels)

piece of heavy tag board or thin wood paneling the same size as your inset space (you probably have something around the house)

flat game pieces like checkers or scrabble tiles

wood screws and nails

Tee Juice dye pen or wood stain

sticky-back felt furniture pads


Tools you'll need

drill

drill bit for metal, just a little wider than your screws

hammer

X-acto knife

ruler

masking tape

typewriter (lacking this, you can also use a typewriter typeface on your computer)


How to Build It

Your bobbins should all be as close to the same length as possible. Drill three holes through each of your metal plates that align with the solid wood edge of your bobbins, and attach with screws.

Turn your drawers upside down and screw the bobbin legs onto the bottom. Add furniture pads to the feet.

Flip your table upright.

My card catalog drawers didn't have a top panel, so there was a built-in inset space once I cut a piece of heavy tag board to sit atop the drawer supports. If your drawers do have a top, you can call your table "done", or you can follow along and add a plexiglass top for a flat collection (see asterisk * below).

Measure twice, cut once. In fact, rather than measuring, you can lay your plexiglass right on top of your table and mark it in place. I marked mine with both tape and permanent marker. That way I could make sure that when I took it to the hardware store to have it cut, it would be as perfect a cut as possible.

You can try to cut the plexi yourself, of course, but it's messy and noisy and sometimes it cracks or splits. Know your strengths.

Fill the inset with wooden type. You can spell words or names or just randomly assemble your collage. I worked the word "Upcycle" into mine to showcase the week's theme.

I used game pieces (and/or old brass house numbers) around the edge to help support the plexiglass. You can use pretty much anything flat and non-perishable that will help the clear top sit and be supported level with your wooden type.

After the plexi was in place, I hunted down the thin, plain wood trim pieces and cut them to size with my X-acto knife. Drill a small finger hold at the back if you want to lift the glass out later to remove the top.

You could use fancier trim, if you wanted to; I kept my trim (and my cuts) simple, and attached the pieces to the card catalog with small wire nails.

To finish, stain to the color of your choice using a Tee Juice dye pen or some wood stain, and print up some paper labels for your drawers.

*If you do have a flat top on your card catalog drawers, you can still add the plexi top and either build up a frame to create an inset, or you can display print ephemera (labels, a poster, library book check-out slips, etc.) under the top for a cool effect.

Thanks a bunch for your votes, everyone! Send photos if you make your own table using these instructions; I'd adore seeing photos.

Linking up to:
Junkin Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds

recycled paper chains

Phew! It's been quiet around here lately, hmmmm? The So You Think You're Crafty competition has been keeping me busy during the hours I'm not hanging out with my kid, or designing book covers, or making robot party stuff, or, you know, sleeping.

It's Upcycling theme week over at So You Think You're Crafty, and I'll get to post my project here tomorrow since voting ends tonight; I think you'll like it.

In the meantime, here's an easy little project you can use to recycle (or, more properly, reuse or upcycle) some envelope liners, paper sacks, and wrapping paper into decorative paper chains.

Using scissors or a paper cutter, cut your envelope liners and wrapping paper into strips. I used strips about 3/4 inches wide and 9 inches long for these Christmas chains, but if you want to use wider strips, just try to keep them under a couple of inches wide so you won't have any trouble linking.

After you've made one circle (using glue dots or double-sided tape to connect the ends), just loop the next strip of paper through the circle and start making your chain, just like you did with construction paper back in grade school!

Keep going until you have plenty of length. Like with most party or holiday decorations, multiples look better than singles, so go all out. Spend a couple of afternoons and you'll be able to make a few 25-foot lengths. When the party's over, you can save your chains for next time or put them in the recycle bin.

The chains in these photos were some we made at Christmas, but you can make them for any holiday or for party decorations. If you have a specific party theme or color you're aiming for, you can accent with some rings made of construction paper or scrap-booking paper, while still keeping most of the rings recycled. It makes for a really cool look that's easy enough for even really little kids to help make.

Thanks for reading!

knock-off "antique" mercury glass lamp

It's official! I've lived to compete another week in the So You Think You're Crafty competition! Thank you to everyone who voted for my "Antique" Mercury Glass Lamp. It's a joy to be in the final seven. I'll let you know when voting is live for next week's Upcycling challenge; as a frequent upcycler (you may have noticed) I'm eager to see how the other crafters interpret the theme!




I love mercury glass. Love it. It's shiny and vintage-looking and meant to look imperfect, all of which make it work well in my house. I especially love the way mercury glass lamps look, and the contrast of a rustic burlap shade really sets off the shiny mirrored glass. What I don't love is the price-tag.



For quite awhile, I've had the desire to try and make a mercury glass lamp with thrift store cast-offs, on a super small budget. Thanks to the "So You Think You're Crafty" competition, I had the motivation I needed to pull it off!



First: the originals and the low-cost knock off:

Originals from Restoration Hardware ($174 w/o shade) and Pottery Barn ($269 w/ shade). My copy: $18, w/shade.



I built it using an extra-tall glass thrift-store vase, a repurposed pan lid, the light kit from an old lamp, and some Looking Glass paint. The drum shade is one I stripped down and re-covered in coffee sack burlap. The Edison-style bulbs were a ReStore score for 50 cents apiece.

Mine has a more rustic shade than the Restoration Hardware version, and straighter lines than Pottery Barn's, and it suits me pretty perfectly.  I hope it suits you, too! At a savings of over 90%, you can't really afford not to make one!

Linking up to:


Junkin' Joe Vintage Finds

thrift store finds: steel storage box

Update: voting for "So You Think You're Crafty" is completed for the week (as of today, January 11th) and I've made it through to the next round!

Thank you all for your votes, and please check back; I'll have a full tutorial for my project up within the next few days. Woohoo!


I found this great steel box with a sliding lid out at Bring awhile back ($4) and have had it sitting in my carport on top of a set of lockers for a couple of months now.

Finally, right before Christmas, when we were expecting house guests and I was trying to get things just a smidgeon organized, I went out and cleaned it up and decided to finally hang it on the wall like I'd intended to do since finding it. Its purpose: to hold cleaning supplies and the kitchen fire extinguisher.

I don't know what purpose it served in its previous life, though it looks to be from the first half of the 20th century. I thought at first it might be a flammable liquids storage box, except the vent on the front (or top, depending on how it originally sat) wouldn't make much sense.

My sister-in-law suggested that it might have been a bread box, which would make sense. Maybe one that stored inside a drawer or something? The sliding lid could still have functioned that way.

At any rate, there were no holes or hangers on the back, and a note (written in marker on bright pink paper) attached to the side (with masking tape) read, "curtains to mend". Not that those two clues narrow it down much.

I admit it: I drilled holes in the back and tried hanging it with picture hangers, but that was just a temporary fix and was really unstable; it needed to be hung with drywall anchors, screws, and washers. I'd normally woman-up and do it myself, but I didn't want to brave the shed right now to find the drill. When the mister offered to take care of it for me, I let him.

I always like the character that beat-up old things add to the house. And it inspired me to put in a little more time priming the kitchen walls, so hey, double points for me!

So: what fun old stuff are you bringing into the house these days? Anyone getting any eye rolls? The mister is a master of hiding his, if he's rolling them at all. He's a good guy.

Thanks for reading!

chocolate stout birthday cake

This year, unlike in past years, the mister requested a specific cake flavor, instead of a cake theme (like the Fallout cake here, the Zelda cake here,  and the Skyrim cake here). This year, he wanted a chocolate stout cake, like the one an old friend of ours made for his own birthday a couple of years back.

Now, I'm not as good a baker as our friend, but I can fudge it. (Ha!) I used Jamie's recipe from My Baking Addiction, with a few alterations.

First: I halved the recipe to make a 6-inch, 3-layer cake instead of an 8-inch 3-layer cake. All that high school math served me well (thanks, Mr. Tutland!) as I was calculating to see if a half-recipe would be enough batter; it was close enough for my purposes, so I went ahead with it. I did this because chocolate stout cake is very rich (the "icing" is just chocolate and cream, for heaven's sake) and we were only needing enough for five people . . . and still only ate half of it on the mister's birthday. A 6-inch cake is just enough for a couple of days, without anyone getting sick of cake.

Second: I substituted a mixture of lowfat milk and whipping cream for the sour cream in the original recipe, and didn't notice any lack of richness, taste, or texture.

Third: I left off the decorative chocolate curls and used sprinkles to decorate instead. (And it's kinda pretty, but I wouldn't recommend it. The crunchiness of the hundreds-and-thousands detracts from the experience of the icing.)

So here's the recipe I used. You can find the original here.

Six-Inch Chocolate Stout Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

for the cake

3/4 cup Chocolate Stout (Trader Joe's makes a great one, which I used)

1/4 cup strong black coffee

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat  flour and 1 cup all-purpose)

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup milk

for the icing

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 pound chopped semisweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)

Directions for the Cake

1) Set oven to 350 degrees F, and grease three 6-inch cake pans. LINE THE BOTTOMS WITH PARCHMENT PAPER. Very important. The cake is very moist, and you'll need the parchment to help get the cake layers out of the pans.

2) Melt butter in a medium saucepan with the chocolate stout and coffee until simmering. Stir in the cocoa powder and whisk till smooth. Remove from heat.

3) Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 

4) Using your electric mixer (or a lot of elbow grease) beat eggs, vanilla, milk, and cream together, then add the COOLED stout mixture. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Divide batter between the three pans. Bake until cake tester comes out clean; approximately 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to cake rack to cool.

Directions for the Icing

1) Simmer the whipping cream in a small, heavy saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until spreadable, approximately two hours.

2) Use a small smear of frosting on the cake plate to stick first layer in place, then spread a small amount of frosting over it. Top with second cake layer, and spread with more icing. Repeat for third layer, then spread remaining icing over top and sides.

I used a stencil cut from parchment paper to get the sprinkles to stick in a specific pattern.

As noted in the original recipe, this cake tastes best fresh the first day, but it can be refrigerated and warmed for leftovers. 

Thanks for reading!  Enjoy your cake!