Rustic Wood Cake Stand | Pretty Handy Girl

Rustic Wood Cake Stand | Pretty Handy Girl

Day two has arrived and I have ANOTHER fabulous Très Frugal DIY gift idea for you. Honestly, this is one of my favorites. And I owe it all to this little picture from my Instagram friend, Kennesha. She blogs over at Restoration House and has an amazing sense of style!

After seeing her rustic cake stand that she wanted to DIY, my creative wheels began to burn rubber.

I simply picked up a few wood discs and a furniture leg to create a unique cake stand. Here’s the tutorial:

Rustic Wood Cake Stand | Pretty Handy Girl

Materials:

  • 15″ Wood Disc from Lowe’s
  • 5″ and 7″ Wood plaques (from Michaels)
  • Turned furniture leg (from Lowe’s)
  • E-6000 glue (or wood glue)
  • 1 – 2.5″ wood screw
  • 3M Sandpaper block
  • Drill
  • Drill bit slightly smaller than the screw
  • Drill bit slightly smaller than the furniture leg bolt
  • Philips head screwdriver bit
  • Food safe sealer (Behandla cutting board sealer found at IKEA)

Optional: Paint & Glazes (all available at Lowe’s):

  • Valspar 6006-1A Woodrow Wilson Putty
  • Valspar 6007-2A Arid Plains
  • Valspar 6005-1A Asiago
  • Valspar clear mixing glaze
  • Dry brush paint brush
  • Paint brush

Not optional: Cake or Cupcakes!!!! (kidding of course) Read more

feathered_nest_christmas_tree

I know what you’re about to say…”What?! It’s not time for Christmas decorations!” Well, I received an email from Michaels asking if I’d like to participate in the Michaels Dream Tree Challenge. If you saw last year’s contestants and the resulting dream trees, you’ll completely understand why I was excited to be asked to join in this year. Plus, I’ve been working feverishly on the Très Frugal month of DIY Gift Ideas and having some Christmas décor set up has put me in the mood (and provides for a festive backdrop for photography!)

Once I received my pre-lit tree and the gift card to pay for my tree decorations, I hit up my local Michaels retail store. I really had no idea what theme I wanted to create, but I did know I wanted to be frugal and make my gift card stretch as far as possible.

As luck would have it, there were lots of Fall berries on clearance. Can you tell the difference between fall red berries and Christmas red berries?  Read more

Painted Lampshade & a Quick Guest Room Makeover | Pretty Handy Girl

Painted Lampshade & a Quick Guest Room Makeover | Pretty Handy Girl

My mom was coming to visit his month. Since she’s a repeat guest, I wanted to give the guest room a little mini makeover for her. With the addition of some new pillows, curtains and a painted lampshade I gave it a new look in an afternoon.

Here’s the before:

GuestBed

And the after: Read more

How to Create a Rustic Wood Headboard for $80 | Pretty Handy Girl

I’m back with more progress on the beach condo. I am really excited to share this tutorial on how to create a rustic wood headboard with you because it caused quite the buzz on Facebook and Instagram. This has to be one of my favorite projects that I completed in my stepmom’s beach condo. (You can see more pictures of the condo renovation on my sister’s interior design business page. Be sure to like her page, she has some great renovations to share.)

My sister, Caitlin, wanted me to make a unique rustic wood headboard for the master bedroom. Her budget was running low so she turned to Pinterest for some ideas and showed me this picture as inspiration.

I followed the link to a retail site where you could purchase the headboard for $2,195! {Cough, choke, gag…this was well out of our budget!} When we tallied the receipts, the lumber and materials to build our own king-sized headboard came in around $90 from Lowe’s! Woot woot!

And best of all, it is a relatively easy project that anyone can do if they have the right power tools.

Materials: Read more

How to Make Vintage Painted Oars | Pretty Handy Girl

Vintage painted oars are nostagic objects for me. They bring back memories of camp and watching crew teams rowing along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. So, when my sister wanted to find some oars to decorate the beach condo with, I jumped at the opportunity to make some. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you know that my sister Caitlin (of Symmetry Designs in San Jose, CA) and I have been renovating Diane Chamberlain’s Topsail Beach condo. The condo is a great size (three bedrooms) and located ocean front. That’s where the pros ended. Sadly the condo was stuck in the 80’s: teal carpeting, orangey wood trim and cabinet doors that were falling off. We converged on the property back in September to start the renovation process.

Before the trip, I whipped out these fun painted oars. They were easy to make, you could sooo do this!

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Materials:

3Mâ„¢ Safety Products:

Instructions:

Clamp your 1″ x 6″ board to a work surface. Trace out the oar shape onto your board. You can use rulers and rounded paint cans or plates to trace the curves.

Put on your safety glasses, ear plugs and grab the jig saw.

How to Make Vintage Painted Oars | Pretty Handy Girl Read more