DIY Archives - Page 35 of 53 - Pretty Handy Girl

Build It, Chalk marker, chalk paint, Chalkboard paint, Contributor, Decorating, DIY, Home Decor, kids art, Painting & Antiquing Techniques

How to: Build a Wall Chalkboard with a Chalk Ledge

Chalkboards are popping up everywhere (like Brittany’s DIY chalkboard calendar from last week) and you can easily make one, but how about upping the usefulness by making a chalkboard WITH a chalk ledge? Jaime here from That’s My Letter to show you how easy it is to add a chalk ledge to your chalkboard.

You definitely need a place to put all that chalk (or chalk markers like we prefer). This chalk ledge protudes a minimal 1 3/4″ from the wall but still has space enough to hold lots of chalk.

I also attached a galvanized pail for more chalk markers.

I installed this chalkboard near our back door mudroom area. Unfortunately the key pad for our alarm system is nearly smack in the middle of that wall. I simply cut out a square in my plywood using a jig saw to accommodate the key pad. My kids love their new chalkboard and somehow the key pad isn’t quite so obvious once they start drawing around it.

Supplies:

1/2″ plywood (cut to desired size)
1×2 pine board (cut to length of plywood)
1 3/8″ x 1/4″ thick flat trim moulding (cut to length of plywood)
black chalkboard paint
blue painters tape
stain
polyurethane
foam brushes
drill
Kreg pocket hole jig (not necessary but definitely easier if you have one)
1″ pocket hole screws
wood glue
3/4″ trim nails
countersink bit
2 1/2″ toggle bolts
5/8″ spade bit (check toggle bolt requirements)
pencil
level

Instructions:

Step 1: Cut your plywood to size, using your Kreg pocket hole jig make pocket holes every 8″ along bottom edge of plywood (on back side). (I used the portable base with automaxx clamp here, much easier that slipping a large piece of plywood into the jig.) Read more

February 19, 2014/8 Comments/by Jaime Costiglio

arts and craft, Contributor, Crafts, decor, DIY, Home Decor, organizational tips, Tutorial

Perpetual Menu Board

We were recently in North Carolina visiting with Matt’s family. While we were there I took the time to visit an old dear friend of mine. This girl has known me for years! In fact I just realized it’s been 21 years since I first met her. Needless to say it’s important to catch up with friends like this whenever you get a chance. While visiting her, I noticed she had an adorable menu board in her kitchen where she keeps track of all of her meals for the month. Since “What’s for dinner?” is one of Matt’s favorite things to ask me, I knew I had to make one of these menu boards.

Materials:

12×12 Frame
Clear Plastic Calendar Page
Scrapbook Paper
Magnets
Dry Erase Marker(s)
Printer Paper or Card Stock
Printer
Laminator or contact paper
Sheet Metal
Magnetic Paint
Tin Snips
Safety Glasses
Gloves

Instructions:

Start by measuring the inside of the frame. (In my case that measurement was 12″ by 12″.) Using a marker, mark a dot 12″ down from the edge onto your sheet metal. Repeat this on the opposite side.

Use a straight edge (or carpenters square) lined up on the dots and draw a line. This will be where you make your cut.

DIY Wooden Arrows

Although I don’t typically decorate for Valentine’s Day, this year I couldn’t resist a little craft project to celebrate the holiday. After all, it is about love and chocolate and who can resist love and chocolate? Instead of the usual craft creating something heart shaped, I decided to pay a little attention to Cupid and his arrows. I put together these easy DIY wooden arrows and now I’m going to show you how you can make one too!

This project is really easy, and totally customizable so you don’t have to be exact with your measurements. Feel free to be a little more free style. You can paint it {or not}, just about any color you’d like.

Materials

Wooden Shims
Wood Glue
Miter Saw (or a hand saw and miter box)
Pencil
Ruler
Spray paint, craft or wall paint or wood stain {optional if you will paint/stain it}
Frame for framing {optional}

Instructions

1. First select some nice wood shims to use. Make a rough representation of what you’d like your arrow to look like.

This was a rough image of what I came up with. Two shims for the point and a few more for the tail.

2. Start cutting your arrow and tail parts. You can cut the pieces like the arrow on the right or left, shown below. Either way you’ll need some pieces with a 45 degree angle. That’s where your miter saw comes in. See Brittany’s post about how to use a miter saw here. It’s one of the first power tools I learned to use and is very easy to handle and work with.

3. To cut the 45 degree angles, first set your saw at the 45 degree mark. Then cut one end of the wooden shim to 45 degrees.

Desk Makeover {Paint Stripping with Citristrip & Painting with Latex Enamel}

$desk makeover sitristrip latex enamel$

One of the unique features of our home’s floor plan is a “tech room” with built in desks just off of our mud room. When we first built our house I thought they would make the perfect place for our older boys to do their homework.

The builders painted the desks with latex paint and unfortunately it showed evey little mark and scratch almost immediately after we moved in. Within a few months I had already given the tops of the desks a coat of black chalk paint in the hopes of giving it a more durable surface. I was again disappointed within a couple of weeks.

In a last ditch effort to make the space look nice I did a total overhall last summer and redecorated the entire room.

It looked fantastic at first but again, it held up horribly. I knew I needed to come up with a solution that would make the desks both functional and durable.

At this point the desks had multiple coats of paint and my husband and I decided to strip them bare and start over. We opted to use Citristrip to strip the paint after much research. We have three small children and the lack of toxicity was a big plus for us.

Materials:

Citristrip Stripping Gel
Paint brushes
Scraper/Joint knife
Sanding block
Latex Enamel Paint
Safety Gloves
Protective Eyewear

Instructions:

Clean your surface of dust and debris. (You can see how horribly my latex painted desk held up to three little boys!)

Apply a generous coat of Citristrip to the painted surface using a paint brush, you’ll notice the Citristrip has a thick, gel-like consistency and does not have the strong odor of other paint strippers. It is important to use a thick coat (if your Citristrip begins to dry out, it was not thick enough.)

You should wear gloves and protective eyewear when working with Citristrip. (I didn’t realize until later that my husband didn’t have his gloves on in many of these pictures. He has been sufficiently reprimanded!)

Allow the Citristrip to sit on the project for 30 minutes and test a small area with your scraper. You can leave the Citristrip on the project for up to 24 hours before scraping.

Scrape the Citristrip and paint off the surface, scraping in the direction of the wood grain. The paint should be removed easily.

Remove paint debris and thoroughly clean the bare surface. Sand surface lightly to remove any residual paint if necessary.

When our desk was stripped we were left with a large piece of MDF. We originally thought it would be regular wood so I attempted to see how stain would look on the MDF but the results were not good so that plan was quickly abandoned.

After much research into durability we decided to use a latex enamel paint to finish the desks. We chose latex enamel because it is a harder, more durable finish than traditional latex paint.

$latex enamel$

Apply one layer of latex enamel paint with a paintbrush and allow to dry fully. Do not place anything heavy or damp on the painted surface for 7 days to allow the paint to totally harden.

$desk painted with Latex enamel$

I’m happy to say it has been three months so far and the latex enamel is holding up perfectly! It’s durable enough to scrub and I love the deep, velvety appearance of the paint!

-Learn more about Melissa-

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January 29, 2014/39 Comments/by Melissa Riker

Before and After, Build It, built-in window seat, cabinet, demolition, desk, DIY, Do It Yourself, flooring, framing, habitat ReStore, hole filling, hole repair, Home Tour, kitchen, Kitchen Renovation

The Kitchen Renovation of 2013 – 1 Leak. 1 Year. 1 Woman.

2013 Could be called the year of the kitchen renovation in our house. Or the year that nearly killed me. Or the luckiest year of our lives. I’m still debating the title. What I do know is that, I decided to take on my biggest DIY project to date. I re-built my own kitchen from bare studs and subfloor.

It started one morning as I was confronted with a foul odor. It’s only describable as that odor that usually lives in the high school gym locker room. I thought my 9 year old son’s feet were starting to stink. Unfortunately a stinky pair of shoes wasn’t the culprit, it turned out to be a very minor leak that turned into a very big kitchen renovation. We persevered through 45 days without a washer and dryer and many months without a kitchen. But, it was like being a contestant in Survivor. I lasted the year of construction; the set backs and sore muscles; and in the end I was rewarded with a brand new kitchen!

Today, I walk into our beautiful kitchen and I know it was all worth it! It was worth all the sweat equity, the daily Advil doses, and the tree falling on the house. If you want to reminisce with me as I recap my kitchen renovation of 2013, here’s your ticket to all the tutorials and posts: Read more

January 17, 2014/38 Comments/by Brittany Bailey