I haven't done a DIY post in a while, mostly because a) I haven't had much time and b) my small room infuriates me and I hate people looking over my shoulder (hence why I don't just use the dinning room table). Probably lame excuses, I know. But I have something exciting to tell you guys!
We have an extra garage on our property because the owners before us put one there as the guy liked redoing cars and other equally manly things down there in the spare garage. But we just use it for storage. But!! It's a great space, it's away from the house, it has electricity and it's wonderfully dry down there (as opposed to damp and mouldy). So! I'm turning it into a craft room! I'm so super excited about it all!
It's going to be a bit of a long process. Though I think we are going to tackle it this weekend. The things that have to be done are: Move all our stored stuff up to the top garage (the one that the 'car's supposed to go in' but is so small, the car doesn't actually fit. Pfft), clean it out and get rid of the spider webs and give it wipe down (possibly paint it, although it's actually pretty good. It just needs a good clean), and then we are going to rip up the carpet in our lounge (not specifically for this, though), which will then go down there, so I don't get cold feet. Then I can start decorating and moving things in!
Because this is all happening, I've been thinking about all the things I want in there and how to set it up and things like that (
you may have seen me Pinning some pretty awesome things!)! Which means I've been scouting the opshops/charity stores/thrift stores for amazing things, and, my friends, I keep finding these wonders! There are going to be lots of post in the next few weeks about the things I've been finding and the things I'll be doing with the craft room. So look out for part one, coming soon!
Getting back to the main point of this post: DIY (sort of) Magazine Holder Now, I say 'sort of' because I didn't really make it, I just restored it and made it into something more colourful. It's also not really a DIY, unless you happen to have an old magazine holder lying around the place, but I thought I'd show you guys how I did, then, if you do have something similar, you can see what I did, and perhaps it might help. Sound okay?
Right, so the first thing: I had a magazine holder/rack/thing. One of these things:
But! I didn't really like it being just wood. Don't get me wrong, I do really like the look of wood like this, but I really wanted to paint it. So! I had to figure out how to pull it all apart, and make sure I didn't lose any parts.
Next, I sanded down all the bits. This took a while, but I think it will definitely make a difference in the long term. Sanding it all down means, not only does the varnish come off a bit, but it makes it all rough and grainy, which means the paint will stick to it. Which is what we want.
Paint paint paint! I found some paint that belonged to the previous owners, down in my soon-to-be-craft-room, and, thankfully, I really liked the colour! It's called Pressed Thistle, and in 'real life' it's sort of really pastel purple/blue sort of colour. Imagine you grabbed a thistle and pressed it together...it's that colour. After dusting off all the sanded-particles from the different parts, I took to it with the paint.
Ignore that frame there. I happen to be doing about three different projects at the same time. Anyway, I did two layers of paint on all the parts, and I started on Saturday. By Sunday evening I was able to put everything together again. But before I did that, I really wanted to do something with the bottom part of the holder. I had a couple of wallpaper sample books (long story), and had a flick through them, and found this lovely stuff, which I love!
I then grabbed the bottom, smothered it in glue (just PVA did the trick!), put it on the wallpaper, waited for it to dry, and then cut it out, with scissors and also a craft knife (not pictured).
Isn't it lovely!? I love this print, and the colours are great too. After that was all ready, I had to put the whole thing back together again (much like Humpty Dumpty). It was difficult, I'm not gonna lie.
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| It looks a bit blue in this picture. I think it's more purplely... |
But at the end, it was all worth it. I'm really please with how it turned out! And for a first go at repainting furniture-y things, I think I didn't do too badly.
So, there we have it! It was really fun to do, and I can't wait to put it to use in my new craft room! I think I'm going to but some of my craft books in there, because I don't actually buy magazines. Ha. But there we go!
What do you think? Ever re-designed something like this?
