Upcycle some wood shims! This wood shim wall art is made of ordinary 16-inch construction cedar wood shims glued together.
I’m back from vacation and ready to make more furniture and decor! Let’s get to it!
Supplies/Tools:
16 inch wood shims
Titebond 3 (or another wood glue)
four bar clamps (length depends the length of your shim wood art)
ruler
square
timer
jigsaw
sandpaper
polyurethane (or another finish)
The 16-inch cedar wood shims I used for this project commonly come in packages of 42 at home improvement stores. I bought four packages (168 total shims) at Menards, but I didn’t use all of these. After I opened the packages, I sorted them into “keepers” and “other.” My (more…)
These vases are made by covering inexpensive glass vases and glass bottles from the recycle bin with anchoring cement. They are surprisingly easy and fun to make.
I happened on the idea of using anchoring cement to cover objects such as the glass vases when I was making my DIY Cement Replacement Sofa Legs for IKEA and Other Brands. When making these legs, I mixed up very thick batches of cement. I noticed that the wet cement could be hand formed for a short period of time because it got thick and pliable, kind of the consistency of silly putty, and then it hardened quickly. It was only in that pliable form for a few minutes. So when I was making the sofa legs, I got in the habit of making little free-form cement bowls from the left-over cement mix. Then I began to think about all the things around the house I could cover with cement, and I decided to try cement-covered glass vases and bottles (before moving on to the furniture 😀 ). (more…)
This live-edge tree slice table is made from a horizontal cut of the trunk of a mulberry tree. I made the legs, my new version of DIY industrial pipe legs, from steel lamp pipe and brass fittings.
As I mentioned in the “About” section, I originally became interested in making furniture in order to furnish our three-season sunroom. I intended to rehabilitate the sunroom from being a storage area, and before that when the kids were little, a playroom. (I say “intended” because the sunroom is now my workshop studio.) I was looking for furniture that I could make, having limited skills, tools, and budget. The first type of furniture that caught my eye was the live-edge style. “Live edge” refers to furniture where the natural edge of the wood is incorporated into the design of the piece. It was popularized by George Nakashima in the middle of the last century. Live-edge furniture can be deceptively complex, with emphasis on craftsmanship, sanding, and finishing. Because of the limitations I mentioned, I am making simple live-edge tables made of a “slice” of the tree, with legs. It is an uncomplicated style, rustic and elegant all rolled together!
The Live Edge Side Table project has six main parts:
