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:

3M™ 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

cupcake stand

Make these DIY industrial cupcake stands now and you’ll be ready for all the upcoming holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas are fast approaching!  The cool black steel plumbing parts base combined with the natural wood slice platform lends itself to an unexpected industrial feel.

Each cupcake stand costs $5.50 in parts (not including the birch log), very reasonable for a unique, DIY project that could easily lend itself to become a favor or small gift.

cupcake stand 3

Supplies required (for one DIY Industrial Cupcake Stands):

  • 1/2″ black steel floor flange
  • 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ black steel nipple
  • birch log (approx. 5″ in diameter)
  • hand saw or circular saw
  • palm sander or sandpaper
  • drill
  • 3/4″ circular drill bit
  • E-6000 glue

DIY Industrial Cupcake Stands Instructions:

cupcake stand 4

Step 1: Using a handsaw or circular saw slice off 3/4″ thick disc of wood from the birch log. (If you’re concerned about bugs, you can bake them as shown here.)

Step 2: Sand wood slices smooth.

Step 3: Using a drill with a 3/4″ circular bit drill out a small hole for the nipple piece, only about 1/4″ deep, be careful not to let the tip of the bit pierce through to the other side of the wood slice.

cupcake stands 5

Step 4: Apply E-6000 glue to one end of nipple and screw it into flange.

Step 5: Apply E-6000 glue to circular hole in wood slice.

Step 6: Gently ‘screw’ other end of nipple into wood slice.

cupcake stand 6

Let the glue dry while the cupcake stands are upside down.

When dry, flip the stands over and load them up!  They are perfect not only for cupcakes but candles too:

cupcake stand 2

Cupcakes, candles and individual pies too!  Mini pumpkin and pecan pies are on definitely my Thanksgiving menu this year:

DIY Industrial Cupcake Stands

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DIY Industrial Cupcake Stands

How to DIY a GIANT artist canvas | Pretty Handy Girl

Have you ever yearned to own a giant piece of artwork but the cost was prohibitive? Or you knew you could create some awesome abstract paintings, but buying large canvases would cost too much. Well, for those hesitant artists, I have this quick tutorial for building your own GIANT canvas!

Materials:

How to DIY a GIANT Artist Canvas

  • 2×2″ boards for frame supports (two sides, top, bottom and center support)
  • Kreg Jig and pocket hole screws
  • Drill
  • White fabric (canvas material would be best, but use what you have)
  • Staple gun and staples
  • Paint brush
  • Gesso (if you don’t have gesso, primer would probably work fine)

Instructions:

Cut your 2×2″ lumber down to size. Cut your top and bottom the full widths. Cut the two sides and the center support 3″ shorter to accommodate the height of the added top and bottom pieces. Note, if your canvas is portrait (instead of landscape), your support will be a center horizontal brace instead of vertical as shown. Read more

DIY Room Divider King Headboard

I’m still working on my bedroom re-do, it’s been a long process but it is slowly coming to an end with the decorative part.

After painting the room, my big question was how to make the bed or that whole wall where my bed is going to be located, the focal point in the room.  At first I was thinking about installing wall paper with a nice design, then I thought about using a stencil since its a more economical choice. A painted stencil would also be easier to change later on.  Then, I received a stroke of luck! I scored a cabinet in the FREE section of Craiglist! When picking it up, the owner asked me if I also wanted this room divider:

DIY Room Divider King Headboard

“Of course!” I said and run out of there before he had time to change his mind!  That thing is super heavy! It looked really nice after a good cleaning, up close not that much, something was sprayed on it 🙁 there were lots of spots all around.

DIY Room Divider King Headboard

That’s why I decided to paint it and use it as my bedroom’s headboard.

The materials and tools you will need: Read more

PrettyHandyGirl's Guide to Tiling a Backsplash - Part 1: Tile Setting

This is the tutorial that I’ve been anxious to share with you! How to Tile a Backsplash! The reason I’ve been anxious to share is for two reasons!

1) The backsplash and tiling truly makes my kitchen feel luxurious. In addition to the cork flooring, it was one of the things I REALLY wanted to have in our kitchen. And this is definitely a project that anyone can take on (with a good tutorial.)

PrettyHandyGirl's Guide to Tiling a Backsplash - Part 1: Tile Setting

2) The source of my tiles is a best kept secret! I found the supplier online after researching and searching for affordable marble subway tiles. TheBuilderDepot.com was a site I stumbled across in my search. After contacting them and discussing my project, a response came immediately with ideas for my backsplash. My contact, David, was there for me throughout the process and gave me lots of ideas and tips along the way!  He even sent me a photo of my tiles before shipping them.

Venato Marble Subway Tiles from TheBuilderDepot.com

But, here’s the best part, in one of our email conversations I learned a little more about TheBuilderDepot and their company’s history. I want to share his email with you because I think it’s wonderful how they run their business:

We started our business in 2008 with $12K in sales and because of the financial meltdown and housing collapse banks told us we were crazy starting an “ecommerce” marble business.  None of them would loan any money, not even $1K.

Last year we grew to a $2.4m company (this year we are on target to double), employing locals and making an impact in the way consumers buy luxury natural stone.  Our vision was to offer a quality that is second to none, buy direct from Italy and quarries around the world, pay cash for everything buying 30,000 to 40,000 sq.ft. of product at a time from the quarries to keep costs low and quality high. 

 We have no debt as a business (that was not a plan but has worked out well) and avoid traditional marketing channels that are heavy on costs.  Basically a no frills marketing strategy. 

People think we are crazy when, if we cannot supply something or another supplier offers a better more affordable solution we refer them to a competitor.  We do not need the sales as we never anticipated growing this big, we are just interested in people creating pretty rooms with natural stone.

Part of the success is we ask what people are planning, then come up with some ideas of our own.  We are really passionate about Carrara.  The only company that separates into two collections.”

A company that has good business practice is worth supporting!

As mentioned in previous posts, when choosing companies to work with, I make sure to select brands and companies that I can stand behind. I have always maintained strict criteria when selecting companies to work with, and The Builder Depot goes above and beyond my criteria:

Before you source your next tile job, check out TheBuilderDepot.com. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised ;-).

Ready to get messy? Let’s tile that backsplash!

Prep-Work: Read more