Vintage Trunk Coffee Table

If you've been following along with me for awhile you might remember a few weeks back when I decided to tackle a project I'd been putting off for some time.

You can see that post over here.
I promised to give you an update when it was finished, so here it is-




My vintage steamer trunk turned coffee table!

 Something you won't be surprised to hear if you've been following awhile: I wasn't going to spend any money on this project. 
If you're new here, welcome to Creating a Life, where this broke single mommy does nearly every project on a zero budget! It really is lots of fun : )

I used some white latex paint I already had to paint the outside of the trunk, including the metal latches and the scrap of leather handle still hanging on. I could have removed the leather piece, but I kind of liked the way it looked. 

I used metal legs from a stool I've had over 20 years (leftover from my retail furniture store days). It had been broken for a really long time, and I was happy to find a new use for the legs.

I used a couple of scrap boards left from my DIY Air Conditioner Screen on the inside of the trunk to give me a sturdy place to screw the legs into from underneath. I decoupaged them with vintage sheet music so they would blend in a bit better with the other papers on the inside of the trunk.

  
A sadly under used antique trunk now has a whole new life as a unique and useful piece of furniture with storage. I love that.

 

Later this week I'll show you a few more of the summer touches around the living room.

Thanks for reading!

Jeanette

Sharing this week at...

Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours

Tutorials Tips and Tidbits at StoneGable 

What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants 

Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson 

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home 

Be Inspired at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 

Pretty Things at twelve O eight

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch  

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill 

Creative Bloggers Party at Homemaker on a Dime 

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 

Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 

Knick of Time Tuesday  

The Scoop 

Junkin' Joe Upcycled Treasures at The Cottage Market 

Inspiration Monday at twelveOeight 

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Junkers Unite at Knick of Time  

Party Junk {storage ideas} at Funky Junk 

 

Savoring Summer

Last August, my 15 year old was beginning to teach me how to start a blog. Yes indeed, not too proud to learn from a teenager over here : ) 
I know I was completely annoying, but she taught me alot, and I'm thankful, and I'm still here!
I did a couple of "practice posts" while I was trying to learn what the heck I was doing. This is a re-post {I use that term loosely, since I hadn't told a soul, except her, that I even had a blog when I originally posted this} of the second ever post I ever wrote. 
Anyway, just for fun I thought I'd take you back to last summer for a little cookie picnic by the river. A funny note about that "expensive" bottle of lemonade- we bought that several years ago on a trip to California. I saved the pretty bottle, and now we refill it with homemade lemonade when we want to make ourselves feel like we're doing something more festive! A little silly, I know.
Hope you're having a great weekend! 




Summer is slipping on by, and we aren't ready to let it go....sigh. 

We're grabbin' hold of some sweet summer memories with a cookie and lemonade picnic at the river park.

Recipe for these easy and delicious cake mix cookies here

  

 Pretty vintage glasses and linens always make things feel a little more special.

We stopped on the way to the park to cut some wild Sunflowers
on the side of the road.

 

  
Lots of space to run after we finish our cookies : )

  
The frogs were the highlight of the afternoon for my critter-loving 8 year old!

  
~Wishing you all the beautiful summer dreams you can grab hold of, my friends~

Jeanette

*Re-posted from August 15, 2012

No Money DIY Air Conditioner Screen

In my last post I told you about finding a saw that I had been wanting at a garage sale for $2.00 last weekend. I can't even tell you how freeing it has been this week just to be able to cut a piece of wood!!
Really. It has been so frustrating to have projects and ideas that I could not make happen without that tool. I'm sure my kids think I'm totally nuts when I run in to the house after cutting a board just to say how giddy I am : )

Recently I showed you the beginnings of trying to reclaim (or just claim) some of our outdoor space over here. 
The patio area isn't completely finished, but I want to share an easy, useful and totally free project I did this afternoon. Hey, it's been awhile since I showed you a "no money" project : )

A couple of months ago my daughter called to ask me if I wanted some fence boards her neighbor had put out for the trash. Well, you know what my answer was. I new they would be reject boards from their fence project, but I figured I could do something with them, so she picked them up for me. 

Today, armed with my "new" saw, I set out to make those 6 trashed boards into something I really wanted for the patio area-

  
Something to camouflage this eyesore! 


 Here's what I did:

All of the boards started out the size of the tall one pictured here.
I took one of the boards down to the air conditioner and simply stood it in front of the unit and made a pencil mark across the board at the length I wanted to cut. I layed the first board on top of each of the other four and made a pencil mark across each one where I would cut it. I cut each board with the jigsaw. This project would be "rustic" by the very condition of the fence boards, and I wasn't at all concerned with perfection, but the jigsaw makes a very easy straight cut.

I took a section of board I had cut off the bottom and cut it lengthwise giving me two narrow boards for the cross pieces that would hold the five fence boards together.

I layed the 5 cut fence boards on the ground, lining them up as evenly as I could, and screwed the two narrow pieces across the boards creating sort of a gate-looking panel. Now I needed to figure out a way to make the panel free standing, in front of the A/C unit. 

I decided to make a stand using the bottom half of the last fence board (the long one in the first photo) because the top half of the board was badly split. The bottom half of the board was still good, so why not? I used some four small 2x4 chunks as braces.

I screwed the 2x4 pieces into the board "feet" from underneath, using two long screws in each. 
I offset them so the front 2x4 pieces could be offset to the opposite side, allowing me to screw through the fence boards to the block from each side.

 

Now I stood the panel up with the 2x4 brace up against the back side of the panel and screwed from the front of the boards through to the 2x4 blocks.

I repeated the same thing on the front side of the panel, screwing the 2x4 blocks into the base from the underside with two long screws. Then screwed through the backside of the panel into the front 2x4 blocks with two screws each. 
I hope all that makes sense! I know you real builders will be giggling at my method, but sometimes you just have to wing it with what's in front of you, right? It does stand firmly, and that was my main goal : )

I did one quick coat of white paint and sanded and distressed it a bit. 

I hung a primitive twig wreath on it, placed my son's rarely used wagon, some flowers and my "new" free patio chair (tell you about that soon) in front, and I'm loving it!
 

If I had had more fence boards I probably would have made two panels, either hinged together or screwed together at a right angle to wrap around the other side of the A/C unit also. But this side is our lounging area and the area behind the unit is mostly where the kids play with their water toys etc, so "looks" wasn't as much a priority on that side.

I also considered leaving the boards their original length and creating a tall panel, but it gets quite windy most every day here, and I worried that it would blow over.

 

One more look at the before and after. 

I still have a few more unsightly things to figure out how to camouflage around the patio area, like the power lines and breaker boxes. 

6 free roadside boards, screws and white paint I already had, total money spent = zero. You know how I love that : )
Thanks so much for coming over to see what I've been working on today. I'll be showing you the rest of our spruced up patio area soon!

Jeanette

I'm excited to be sharing this week over at:

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Creative Inspirations at Embracing Change 
Tutorials Tips and Tidbits at StoneGable 
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours
Be Inspired at Common Ground 
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home 
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage 
Catch as Catch Can at My RePurposed Life 
Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 
Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill 
Creative Bloggers Party at Homemaker on a Dime 
Budget Decorating Party at Creative Cain Cabin 
Pretty Things at twelveOeight 
The Scoop 
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm 
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch 
Home {work} Wednesday at Marty's Musings 

 

Encouragement and Provision

We are "cat tending" for some vacationing friends this week. Isn't their porch awesome? They live outside of town on a few acres and it is quiet and beautiful up at their place. I wish I could sit on their porch. Alone. For a long time : )

 I couldn't resist sharing a couple of photos from outside their home.





There are rustic and charming things to take in everywhere you look.

This is the view from the back of their house! Just incredible. 
  
So it's been a busy week over here with projects, birthdays and just being a mom. I wish I would have documented my sweet boy's 6th birthday better, but I know he enjoyed his day from beginning to end, and that's more important than a pretty blog post to this mama today. Do you ever think about the "endings" that come with birthdays? Two nights ago I was struck by the bittersweet realization that I will never again be the mom of a 5 year old boy! It's ok, really, it just caused me to pause and reflect for a time.

His day included double chocolate brownies, (his choice instead of cake)
 

playin' crazy at our friend's house,
 

and a pre-haircut chocolate-y dessert face photo!

From ragamuffin to stylin' overnight : )

He had asked for an afternoon of fishing at the lake on his birthday, but I had some car issues I couldn't make that happen. He was very sweet about it and said it was no big deal. 

I was able to take him and one of the girls fishing at the pond in our neighborhood this evening, so he did get to try out his new birthday fishing pole. It was a gorgeous evening, and he and his sister had a ball!

 

 As a blogger I hope to be real with you about my family's circumstances without constantly having a "sob story" about how difficult things are for me. I do have times of feeling very tired and discouraged, but I must tell you that God continues to bring hope and provision into our lives on so many levels. 
Sometimes, like today, it can come in the form of something as simple as a needed tool at a yard sale. I have projects that have been put on hold because my power tools aren't in working order and I simply don't have the money to buy new ones. This morning when I headed out to tend to my friend's cats, I came across a yard sale (I usually don't even stop these days) and found a saw I've had on my "list" for just $2.00! I thought it was a mistake, or that there must be something wrong with it, but nope. It's in great working order. An answer to prayer. I've referred to God leading me across troubled waters on stepping stones of grace, and this week was no exception. Sometimes his care for us looks just like a jigsaw :)

One more bit of encouragement I received this morning was finding out my DIY mason jar chandelier was included in an online slideshow at Good Housekeeping! I know in the scheme of things, it's not a "big" thing, but to this little nobody blogger it was pretty darn exciting! 

 

You can see the Good Housekeeping article over here,

which includes some other mason jar projects I think you'll love!

Thanks again for walking this road with me, my friends. It means more than you know.

Have a blessed weekend!

Jeanette

 

Painting the Vintage Trunk

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a good weekend. 

I spent some time yesterday afternoon working on a few projects I've been dragging my feet on for awhile.
You know, I have a perfectly good work space in the garage, but it has been so windy I couldn't paint with the door up yesterday, and I didn't want to be out there with the door closed. Silly, I know.
Some friends took my kids on a hike after church, so I blasted my Needtobreathe station on Pandora made a mess inside the house!

This one makes me a little nervous, (but not too much) I've had this antique steamer trunk for several years and for many months I've thought about painting it and possibly turning it into a table. Yesterday I stopped thinking, and started painting. My son shook his head and said, "Pooor old trunk..." haha.
I originally planned to paint over the wood trim, but my daughter convinced me to try leaving the wood first and seeing how that looks.

Obviously I was just snapping a few photos as I went along here, sorry it's a bit blurry. This is one coat. I'm thinking she was right, I really like the combination of the white and warm wood tones! What do you think? I plan to sell this piece, so I'll give you an update when it's complete.

Another piece I've had for many years is this very heavy panel that I think may have been part of a piano at one time? (another not so good photo, sorry)
I started painting over the natural oak finish awhile back and worked on it some more yesterday. It hung over the fireplace in my previous home for a long time (I added hanging wire to it, way back when) but I think I'm going to sell it. I'm not sure if I'll leave it as a wall hanging piece or...? It's just the right size for a full size headboard, so maybe I'll go that direction. 

My "baby" is turning 6 this week! He's hoping for fishing and a picnic at the lake on his special day, so I'll be working on that and lots more this week. 

Blessings to you-

Jeanette