Child's Pallet Step Stool

I've been trying to work on small projects lately, little things that won't take up too much time (or space) but will still give the chance for some shop time and provide something useful in return.  My son is getting old enough to start washing his hands by himself after he comes in from a busy hour in the back yard, or some other equally defiling activity, but unfortunately still lacks the height he needs to reach the sink himself.

A couple of simple stools was the perfect project for me to tackle in my spare time!

My usual habit of doing a Google Image search until I find something that looks similar to what I want led me to this blog post about a step stool put together with pocket hole joinery.  With a little adaptation to account for the materials I had on hand, the project came together quite well.

Notching the sides was easily done on the table saw.  I cut the notch a little bit wider than the thickness of my rails, and then cut an angle onto the edge.

I also cut a slight angle onto the rails - the miter gauge on my table saw was adjusted to a 45 degree angle.  I made one cut and then stacked the rails, mimicking the angle already cut so that everything would match.

With the angles cut into the sides (leaving enough wood under the shoulder of the notch to fully support the rail), drill pocket holes in preparation for attaching the rails.

Use screws in the pocket holes to connect the rails to the sides.  I made them a couple different sizes to fit comfortably in the two different bathrooms. 

Just for the fun of it, we decided to use milk paint!  I've been reading about it for a while now, and decided that this would be a great project to see how well it works.  From what I've read and seen, there can be some neat finishing techniques that you can use with this!  We bought a bag from the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company, and I mixed up half a cup of powder with half a cup of water to try it out.  That was about twice as much as I actually needed to do two coats of paint on this - milk paint acts as its own primer.

I sliced free some nice sections of pallet wood that I had planed down to act as the tops, tested out a bunch of different stains, and then decided on the same Special Walnut from Minwax that I've used for just about everything else.  Go figure.

In the end, though, they came out quite nicely!

Pallet Nightstand

After last year's Christmas present to my sister, this year (which ended six months ago - that tells you how far behind I am on blogging!) needed another pallet project to complement the first. A piece to help round out the bedroom set was in order, and a nightstand was the best choice overall. 

Ana White has a nice, simple little plan for a bedside nightstand.  It was fairly easy to adapt to use pallets instead of the covering pieces she used. 

Kreg Jig produced pocket holes to fit everything together.  Not too hard - just do a Google search for it and you'll find plenty of examples and tutorials. The frame pieces were all 2x4 stock that was ripped down to 1.5" on each side.  

The frame went together pretty simple, piece by piece: I attached the front and back bottom supports first, linking the left and right halves together. 

With them in place, I then connected the fronts to the backs.  

Thin (1x2) pieces were used as trim on the sides. A second lower support was added to the back here.  Note the plywood: that was originally supposed to be the backer behind the drawer, but I took it off because you could see the edge from the side, and it looked terrible. 

With the frame complete, you can then nail in the tops.  Pallet wood was prepared beforehand, and I used a brad nailer to connect them up. 

Keep them square and even, and clamp each piece in place and triple-check before you nail it down. 

Making a drawer for the nightstand was pretty basic.  Use a Kreg Jig to attach some 1x pine boards together, and you're all set.  

The drawer is just a box with a bottom - no big deal.  Add a false front of pallet wood to it later on, and drill for a drawer pull. 

I didn't take shots of the sides going in, but they were pretty simple too.  Nail in some more 1x stock to the inside to support the drawer, using a torpedo level to ensure that the front-to-back and side-to-side balance is level.  Be finicky about this - it'll dictate how well the drawer slides.

Add the false front to the drawer, squaring, clamping, and then nailing it into place. 

That's it!  A simple little build - follow the Ana White instructions, adjusting for your sizes as needed, and use pallet wood to trim out the top, sides, back, drawer front, and bottom shelf. This piece was meant to be pretty rustic, so I used wood from different pallets and didn't sand out the original marks and scuffs on the top.  I'm pretty pleased with the way it all turned out!

Love Story Pallet Sign and Valentines Mantel

  Putting away my Christmas decorations and wondering what to do next with my mantel is what got me started on this pallet sign. I just started by doing a Pintrest search for "Valentines mantels" to get ideas and I came across this saying "Every Love Story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite." I thought that would be a fun saying to do as the centerpiece of my mantel. So, that lead me to do a search for "Love" pallet signs and these two were my favorites (Link 1) , (Link 2)

   Andrew disassembled an entire pallet for me and let me pick out the amount of boards I wanted.

  I pick these four, one was wider (and turned out to be a different kind of wood) then the other three but I like the way it looked.

  I loved the fact this board had a heart shaped knot on/in it so I had to have it for my "Love sign".

  Andrew put the sign together for me and then I tried the vinegar and steel wool stain idea. It would have been really cute, but because I chose two different size boards that turned out to be two different kinds of woods, the stain turned them different colors. Three boards were more of a tan color and the other was grey. The grey I liked but the tan not so much. Andrew kindly sanded it down again for me and I started again, this time without staining.

  Picking out stencils turned into quite a challenge - finding the right sizes was difficult. I end up finding them at AC Moore Crafts and getting 3 inch New Times Roman and 5 inch Scroll letters. They were all capitals so that changed my sign a bit too. I ended up just using the 5 inch letters on the L, S and O from the words Love, Story and Ours.

  I sketched out the saying first starting from right to left making sure that I had enough room for everything! Then I mixed up some grey paint from some white, off white and black paints I had on hand and started painting. I attached each stencil with photo splits (I use them for scrap-booking) and tape, then painted. Once it was dry (which didn't take long) I'd move to the next letter in the word. It took a few days to finish all the letters but then I do have an almost 2 year old to take care of too!

  Then it was just a matter of adding it to my mantel and getting it centered! I think it turned out pretty nice!

A close up!

  Our whole fireplace and mantel! Side note, this mantel didn't cost me anything! The wreath I made a few years back from roses Andrew has given me over the years. It used to hang in our apartment but since we bought our house I haven't found the right place for it! The heart garland I made last year from scrap-booking paper. The tulle was leftover from a wedding I'd helped with and we brought it home - Andrew had found the bag while cleaning the garage and put it with my stuff and I was looking for something to finish off the mantel and the tulle looked good with it! The candles were free from my grandmother... well since taking these pictures I've replaced them with maroon once that I found at Savers (of all places) so I did spend money on those. Grandma's candles were too glittery for this mantel - I'm sure I'll use them for something else. I put the candles on some birch wood cookies - a friend of mine was given a bunch of birch logs and asked if I wanted some to use for crafts or decorating and this was the first idea I had to use them.

  Happy Valentine's day to all!