TV Shelf from wooden pallets

After building my wine shelf from pallets, I had some pallet pieces left over and had just bought myself a new Television which I had first had on a rack of shelves. I decided to move it from the bedroom into the Lounge and put it on the wall.

A problem came to mind. As one can see, I have a pool table which is movable but lives under the tv, when not in use, so I have no space for a shelf for Technik. 'n Boer maak 'n plan!!!

I used the same concept as for the wine shelf, just that the shelf has been screwed onto the wall the other way around.  I have strengthend it in the correct places too, as to hold the weight of the appliances on it.

The wiring has been taken care of as well as possible by means of plastic covering and screws.

I used Teak oil mixed with normal cooking oil to darken the wood colour and to keep the wood cared for, which will have to be repeated about once a year.

Have fun doing the same.

Until then

Tash

xxx

Mirror with Wood Frame

I took my closet apart a while ago as it was falling apart. I kept all the pieces o could use of course. One of those pieces was a rectangular mirror that was part of One of the closet doors. It lay around for a while until I decided what to do with it.

If you have read my past posts, there is the old garden gate. I still had pieces of it left over, even after Making the Coat Rack with the most of it.

I cut the wood into almost the same width, the length couldn't be the same because I had to cut off some mouldy bits. I just hoped I would have enough for the whole frame, otherwise I would have to have another idea.

It was just the right amount. My luck! 😉
I sanded it all down. First by hand then o remembered that I have  a multi-tool. Got that out but the sand paper wouldn't stay stuck to the Velcro bit on the machine. So back to doing it by hand again....

That eventually done, I turned the mirror over, placed the pieces and screwed them on, one by one. I did it from the back so as not to see the screws from the front.

I then drilled two holes in the top of the wood to put in hooks to hang the mirror up.

How an eventually found tree trunk became a beautiful scratching tree

I love cats. I always have and always will. I have also always had cats and always will have at least one of  them.  That also means that I´ve had a few scratching trees in my day and also thrown a few wobbly left-overs out.

I once took place in a scratching tree competition.  The participants had to put a given scratching tree together and the fastest was the winner.  I was the only female competitor and i as the universe desired, won the competition. :)  The prize was the scratching tree i had just put together, plus a package of food and toys for cats and i was photographed and an article was in the local newspaper.  It was fun yet surreal ;)

What i wanted to say with this story is that i have had experience with that which i was about to build.
The idea came from my best friend, who requested a scratching tree for her cats which also had terminated their current excuse of scratching tree.  The ones which one can buy almost everywhere are expensive and do not stay stable very long.  Cats who do use them, use them well. They have to hold out a lot of energy and strength, with which the cats give off whilst using the trees.  So the main factor is stability.

I ventured off, searching for the perfect tree trunk.  It took me ages.  I looked everywhere and always.  Always had my gloves with me and my car seats down for space to take it with straight away.  I eventually found the perfect one.

I live in Germany, though i come from South Africa.  I was brought up on different rules and regulations as to what one learns here in Germany.  One cannot just take a piece of wood found without asking permission.  So once i had found my prized tree trunk, i had to find the person responsible and ask if i could please take it with me.  My luck been that the forester just happened to be close by.  He said it´s not a problem, as long as its not too much.  So I found another that i would use for my best friend too.  Bonus. Thanks forester.

Tree trunks home and the first question. Should i leave the bark on or take it off.  I decided to take it off but how?  I googled how one does that and found something called a bark peeling iron, which i do not posses so i had to find a different idea.  I chose a hammer and palette knife which was working but was so tiring and taking too long.  I left the trunks outside a couple of days, where they were rained upon and then i used the bark peeling concept but used a knife.  That worked much better, just had to be careful not to hurt myself.

Bark off, ropes on.  As almost all scratching trees have the sisal rope on them for scratching purposes i did the same. I didn´t cover the entire trunk with it, just a couple of places.  The hardest part was then on my girlfriend, who rolled her eyes every time i mentiond wanting to get a chain saw.  She had the honor of sawing a piece off the bottom of the trunk, so that it would stand straight.  With a hand saw,  she has changed her mind about me getting a chain saw!!! :)

I decided for three surfaces for the cats to sleep on.  Those i cut out of one long plank of wood and padded them by means of old hand towels, then covering them with chosen material by using an industrial stapler.
(Be careful of your fingers!)

Then there are two of you necessary as you have to keep the trunk in the right position and screw it all together at the same time. This meaning, the trunk is not screwed directly onto the wall, the lying surfaces are screwed onto the trunk and then onto the wall.

I didn´t place anything under the bottom of the trunk, as it was cut very straight and another wooden plate was not necessary. (Thanks to my assistant bunny ;)

That was it. I just added a bit of decoration and the scratching tree was complete.  It is not only very stable but also a wonderful piece of decoration and nature in my flat.  I enjoyed making it and made the next for my best friend a couple of weeks later. (Pictures of hers are to follow.)

Pool cue holder

I play pool often and well and i love it.  I decided to get myself a pool table a few years ago.  It´s not too big, only 5ft.  But its good and fun.  The pool cues didn´t have a proper place to live and got in the way, so new idea...

 Ta da! Left over wood and branch became a pool cue holder for upto four cues.  It was actually quite simple to make too.

I´ll start with the top round piece.  That i cut out of a plank of wood  with a jigsaw after drawing a circle onto it with a pencil. i used a larger bowl as a template.  Then, using my famous compass saw, i cut the holes out, the size according to my needs. Five holes i made because as you can see, i connected both the top and bottom to the branch in the middle.  That i did my means of screwing brackets onto the branch and the circle of wood, i used four of them to make sure that it stayed put. 

The bottom piece also has a hole in the middle for the branch. This i glued tight with wood glue and left it a while to dry before continuing.  It is just a square piece of wood with a heightened border, so the cues can´t slip off the panel. 

The border i made by measuring one side at a time and pasting them on with wood glue.  Once again i used teak wood oil to finish it off. 

That was that really.  It is compact, looks good and it fulfills its purpose. It can also be moved from one corner to the next without getting in the way.

Coat rack

I had kept the left over wood from my old garden gate (see post before - New garden gate), and wanted to do something with it.  It had taken a beating through the years but it had something about it and would have been a pity to throw out. 

I cleaned it up by scrubbing it down and sanding it with sand paper.  My choice was a new coat rack in my hallway.  My ex-landlord had left hers, so i had an old metal one as i moved in.  It had fulfilled its purpose until now, but i had never really liked it. I have another entrance to my flat downstairs, which is not used as it is a store room for my bike, but i moved the old coat rack down there anyway.
That way, i used it for all my jackets and therefore there would be more space for    visitor´s jackets upstairs.

So, wood cleaned up, and i also let it stand about a week, inside, so it could dry out.  I didn´t want the wood to mould on the wall.  Again, i varnished them with my teak wood oil and let them dry a day.

I organised some drawer knobs and hooks and all i needed to do was drill holes into the wall and screw the planks onto the desired positions.  Then i did the same with the knobs and hooks and that was it.

Stable, practical and good looking. (even though i screwed them on crooked. Will fix that sometime. ;)

New garden gate

I have been living in my flat for about 9 years now, have a little garden with a gate which is used daily, either by me or visitors.  One can imagine what it looked like after all this time and use. Been prone to all weather types all the time.  A new one was necessary.  My landlord is difficult to get hold of so i decided to take the matter into my own hands.

I studied the current gate and checked other possibilities online.  I chose a simple construction. After having measured the old gate plus added height, off i went to my favourite place to spend money. The local hardware store.

I bought relatively cheap wood panels, four of them. All the same length.  Three hinges of my choice (see picture) and i decided againgst buying a new latch for a lock, as the one i had on the old gate was still in a good condition.

Back home, i went straight to work.  Laying three of the panels aside each other on the grass.  Meanwhile i measured the fourth panel, which was to be used for connecting the long ones (as seen in the picture). Two of the same measurements of course and cut them to the correct size using a jigsaw.

That done, i lay them in the right position, which was not 100% measurement, i have noticed that i have a very good sense of proportion, so i just "guessed)".  Without moving anything, now that everything had the correct position, i screwed the two horizontal planks onto the three vertical ones, leaving equal spaces between them.

That done, i did the same with the hinges and then stood the gate up so that i could cut the arch off the top.  I just used a pencil and drew the shape i wanted onto one side of the gate then using a jigsaw, i cut the excess wood off and smoothed the edges with sand paper. 

Now the tricky bit came.  I always work alone, this day was not otherwise.  I had to hold the gate in the right position and screw it onto the foundation pillar without doing it wrong.  Piece of cake!

All that was left to do was screw the latch onto the right spot and then i used Teak wood varnish again to protect the wood from wind and weather, which i will have to repeat annually to keep the gate in a good condition for another couple of years. 

This project took me about 2 hours to complete.  I made it in about June 2015.  These pictures are recent, January 2106. Just in case you thought that i would stand out in the cold and build a gate :)

Wine box couch table

I have to admit, this was not my idea, but i found the idea so easy and the end product looked so good in pictures.  I work in a hotel, so i asked our wine merchandiser very nicely if he could organise me four wine boxes, which he pulled off, but it took a while. By the time i had gotten them, i had totally forgotten that i had asked him for them.

You could also use apple crates but as i say i work at the source for wine boxes.

All i had to organise was a thin piece of wood which would be the floor and hold it all together and five wheels.  The wheels i took off my (ex) couch table to be, as this new one would replace it and the wood was easily found at the nearest hardware store, i just placed the boxes in the position that i wanted them and measured the size of the area for the wood panel.

After placing the boxes onto the wood panel, making sure they were the right way up (writing on box readable), i screwed them onto the panel and also together on the sides. That simple. Then i turned the construction over and screwed the wheels on. Almost done. 

I have worked a lot with wood varnish and decided to varnish the table too, as it protects the wood and also gives it a nice colour (depending on which varnish and colour tone is desired).

After the varnish dried, my new couch table was complete and the hit with visitors, not one person who comes by has not said how great it looks.  If only they knew how easy it was to make.

TIP:   I am not a fan of glass tables, but it would also be possible to place a glass pane over the top of the table and fill the middle with decorations of your choice.