After Danny graduated on June 6th, I got my honey-do list back out and batted my eyelashes! He willingly got to work on some of the things I was requesting and he made some amazing things over the last couple of weeks! I helped a tiny bit, and he did the hard stuff! The first project was by far the most time consuming. I asked him to make me a bathroom cabinet.
He started with the back and sides.
After he had gotten started on the cabinet, I was at Home Goods one evening, and saw this cabinet with a herringbone pattern on it and it made me all giddy inside. I came home and asked if he could incorporate it into our cabinet. He is always willing to take on my challenges and he headed to Lowes to buy some really thin wood. Then, in true Amanda style, I needed a visual before he started cutting. I cut a cereal box up to the size of the wood and laid out how we were going to do it. This really helped and Danny got to work making the pattern. He cut each piece at a 45 degree angle. I thought this would be pretty easy once he got going; I thought the pieces would be all the same length. I was so wrong! Danny had to do each piece one at a time and it was very time consuming. It was gorgeous when it was done, though! I'm glad he put the work in.
Almost done!! I absolutely love the door handles I found at Lowes!
He then installed magnets on the inside to keep the doors shut.
Next, Danny and I stained the whole thing grey.
And finally, we whitewashed it together. If you look closely in this picture below, the white wash is on the left side of the cabinet. I love how the grey and whitewash together make it look like an aged cabinet. I was so happy with how it came out. The only lesson Danny learned was to let the wood sit out a couple of days and let it dry and warp BEFORE working with it. He was frustrated with some of the warping that happened after he made the cabinet.
Tada! It's beautiful! I'm so excited to put it to good use in our next home!
Danny's 2nd project was to make me 4 picture frames! I was also trying to give him projects where he would get to use his new router. I picked out the router bit I wanted for the edge of the frame, and asked him to only do 2 of the frames.
So cool what a little touch to the edge can do!
I finished them 3 different ways. I stained one, painted one white, and spray painted one grey. I then painted white flowers on the grey one.
Danny made me the 4th frame out of a pallet. This baby is thick and heavy!
Our 3rd project was fairly easy (I didn't do anything--so I can say that :). This cabinet is as old as Danny and I's relationship. I bought it for my TV when I moved into my first apartment after college 15 1/2 years ago. Because I wanted a tv on it, I popped out the back of it so that cords could come out of it. I guess I threw the back away, because I have no recollection on what I did with it. Because there is no back on it, for the last 15 1/2 years, this cute cabinet has been incredibly wobbly. I have wanted to get rid of it several times, but I always end up keeping it because it works perfectly in a half bath. I asked Danny if he could buy a very thin plywood and spray paint it black to add to the back. It worked out so beautifully and now this baby is SOLID.
Danny decided to make a sign with his new router as well.
These boards were left from the cabinet. It was supposed to originally be the top, but it was warped too much and didn't sit flat on top of the cabinet. He also didn't like how the routed edges looked ...so it became scrap. I asked Danny not to toss it for I wanted to do something with it.
I stained it grey, and then ordered a decal of all of the continents. I know it is surprising that I don't own a cricuit or a silhouette, but I am avoiding buying one like the plague. I know that the projects will get out of control when that time does come. Until then, I searched amazon and found exactly what I was looking for. After sticking the continents on it, I painted a very light coat of white over the top. It wasn't quite whitewashing it, but it was the same idea. I then peeled the decal off.
I am in love with how it turned out! I can't wait to display it in our future house!
With the same white paint that I used for the last project, I repainted the white frame I had done earlier. I didn't like that it was a cream color. I wanted it a brighter white.
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