A Non-Working Weekend

Happy Tuesday - it sure is a chilly one here in Melbourne! The last few weeks (months? eek!) have been busy ones for It's A Date... as such, I haven't had a weekend "off" (defn. "off": from Friday night to Monday morning without turning on the computer, trimming or gluing anything, or opening Illustrator) in a long long time. It's difficult for me to "switch off", and I'm sure you've read many a post about this same topic. The most success I've had with disengaging from work for the weekend is to create a project for myself that doesn't involve computers. Our little house has copped many a DIY project ever since this discovery (that is, unless my project is to watch a backlog of television and movies, I do like that project!)

Three tasks from this weekend have been little but lots of fun (I also had a bonus day off with the Queens Birthday holiday, so that helped!).



1) I painted some pots I scavenged from my parent's farm on my last visit and potted them with some ferns for our bathroom. One of my goals on my 30B30 list is to end up with plants in every room: I feel like they balance out all our gadgets and technology and that constant buzzing in the background. The paint colour is great - it was a wrong colour-match mix for another customer, marked down to $2 a tub at my hardware store, and I liked what little I could see painted on the lid. I've since rationed it out as much as I can to paint lots of other things with it, it's a really lovely warm grey-beige (greige). I am thinking about getting a bigger pot mixed! (This photo is all you'll ever see of the bathroom, it is a cold, badly designed afterthought tacked on the end of our little cottage, and since we rent it, there is no hope for making it any more practical or pretty. I can dream though!)



2) I collected a $6.50 lamp from it's previous owner (via eBay), picked up some gold spray paint, a globe and an Ikea shade and gave it a makeover. The lamp is quite massive (about 60cm tall without the shade), I was really psyched to win it as large lamps can get up there in price! It adds a little touch of glamour to the room now, not to mention an alternative light source to our overhead light.



3) I created a coffee table out of recycled packing pallets for our lounge room.

I thought I'd write about the third project in a little more detail because it is both a work in progress, and something I have wanted to try for quite a while now. It's not a new idea - I saw HEAPS on Pinterest, which gave me confidence that I may be able to pull it off!



The steps were pretty simple:

1. Find some pallets. They're everywhere. I asked politely at a pet store if I could take two pallets from their loading dock after buying my dog a bag of biscuits. I got a weird look from one salesperson, but then the other chimed in and said, "sure, are you making furniture with them?" Apparently someone from a reality television show had been in earlier to ask for the same thing - which isn't a surprise since that show is being filmed in the same suburb that I was in, but, being a home-reno-show tragic, I got a kick out of it! It helps to try to find some that are relatively clean, have intact boards, and are reasonably straight. Mine weren't exactly the same size when placed on top of each other, but I didn't realise this until I got home with them. It doesn't worry me that much.

2. Get the pallets home. This isn't easy if you have a small car (but I imagine a lot easier than carrying them home yourself). The ones I picked were a lot heavier than I imagined, and they were about 1200 x 1000 mm, so that's a lot of pallet to get in the backseat (and a lot of splinters, I won't lie).

3. Sand the bejeezus out of them. I did this more for my dog than anything else, I didn't want his hair catching on them every time he walked past.

4. Nail it together and slop on some paint. I picked a white gloss as we have dark floors. These buggers DRANK the paint like no one's business. One coat of primer and about two/three coats and I still feel that it probably could have done with one more coat. I just painted the bits that would be visible as I intended for there to be a "top" on the table. After considering castors, which were the popular choice on Pinterest, I added little stout legs (which were about $9 each from Bunnings), one for each corner and one in the middle. I also made a valiant attempt at nailing it all together. It wasn't my finest hour. Wood glue is far more to thank for holding this thing together than my Zoolander-esque hammering.

5. Get some wood cut for the top. It's hard to find a piece of wood this big, I lucked out at finding some that was slightly shorter width wise, but I don't think it will matter. I just got it cut at the same place I purchased the wood, because, well... I'm not sure if you picked this up, but I'm okay with a paintbrush and that's about the extent of my abilities.

This is a WIP as the plan is to eventually get some foam cut for the top, and "upholster" it with some designer fabric so it becomes more of an ottoman than a coffee table. I had a slight heart attack at the quote for getting the foam cut so I am not sure how soon this will be, to be honest. But for the moment, we've got some big floor pillows on it for comfort which do the trick. The pallet coffee table ended up costing me very little and it's been great so far for all it's drink resting and foot supporting duties. Also, it's pretty fun to make something with your own hands, even if it's just painting some packing materials!

Now, it's back to work! Have a great week folks!