A year later, a DIY wreath

Moving so close to last Christmas made for pretty hectic holidays. I kept staring at the listing photos of our soon-to-be house and wishing it would just hurry up and be ours already. At one point, going a little crazy, I started doodling on one of the outside photos, putting some Christmas decorations up. My favorite part was the idea of putting a huge wreath on the third garage door. But I hadn’t realized exactly how expensive something like that can run, and didn’t really have a plan for how to put one together myself. We moved in 6 days before Christmas and did what we could with decorating, but didn’t go all out. But I have spent a year wondering how I could put together a 4-foot wreath for this Christmas… 

So let’s put together a wreath, and do it without spending the money it looks like it would take to get a good 4-footer capable of matching up to the idea that’s in my head. That means at least starting with materials already on hand, and seeing how things work.

I'm good, but I'm not "free hand a perfect circle" good.

But my improvised compass worked beautifully.

I still have a pile of drywall around, and even better it’s already kind of green, so that seemed like as good a starting material as any. Taping a screw and a marker on a two-foot piece of scrap made for a halfway decent circle, which I managed to cut out pretty cleanly. It’s 4” wide, I hope that looks thick enough when everything is done. I attached some scrap 2x4 at points to either support places that looked like they were about to fold, or give it a backing to stick off the wall a bit. Ran some picture wire across two of those pieces and just like that, we have a starting point for our wreath. Plus, it continues my scrap materials streak since I’m still using stuff I had around.   

Cut out and supported.

That might help, a little.

It strikes me that drywall probably isn’t up to holding up to the elements over a Chicago winter, so we’ll see how things go. I taped the edges shut, at least, and I’m hoping the overhang above the garage door will give it some protection. A wire frame is probably better suited to a project like this, but only if you can find one in the size you want to work in. I could not, so I went with what I had.  

A test-hang overnight on the garage shelves worked fine, so I think we’re good to move on. If we can find the time, a quick trip to check out the Christmas village at Menards will hopefully yield some cheap options to cover this thing. Then I just have to figure out how to actually hang it over the door. Figuring things out as I go, just the way I like it.

Scrap picture frame easel

I seem to be in a groove when it comes to scrap projects. It’s good; the more I use the less I have to clean up on my days off. Today’s project was a small one, but it feels like one that could be useful in a couple of places.

Another casualty in our dropped moving box was a collage frame full of wedding pictures. None of the glass actually broke, but the 8-picture frame broke into a 6-picture frame and a smaller 2-picture frame. A little glue was enough to get it back together, but I haven’t put it back on the wall yet. Partly b/c I wasn’t sure it would hold, and partly b/c the cherry wood didn’t match anything else already up. So I thought some of the scrap I have sitting around would make a good easel to put this on a shelf somewhere.

All glue, all good.

That looks like a just about perfect fit.

Yup, that'll do.

This was another one of those things I kind of threw together haphazardly and things worked out. No nails, just glue, with only one cut to scrap I already had on-hand. That was for the piece on the top, I trimmed it to fit into the frame so it wouldn’t move. It seems more than sturdy enough to hold the frame up and keep it in place, which is great b/c these pictures have been looking for a home for almost a year now and this will help get them get one (once I stain this too, in case it’s visible wherever I end up putting them).

Scrap drafting table

I rescued the top of a file cabinet from the trash heap over at work this summer, and it’s sat in the workshop since then just waiting for the right project. Sometimes driving vs a riding a bike has its perks. It’s pretty beat up, so I didn’t know how it would hold up to any resurfacing efforts but it’s a good sized plank of material and I was sure I could use it somewhere. I thought about chopping it into shelves, or using it to top another media stand, but nothing really seemed like the right idea. But something definitely clicked when I saw a nice drafting table this week and thought that might make a nice addition to the shop.

Without any free time that initial idea had time to ferment a little, and ultimately I thought I had a decent plan for a drafting/drawing table, all with other materials and scrap I already had in the garage. I still had the long 2x3’s from the leaning bathroom shelf for legs, extra 2x4’s to use for feet, and the third shelf from the bathroom to attach underneath for storage. I toyed with the idea of making the tabletop able to go from flat to angled but a fixed 15 degree angle seemed like the simplest solution for something that probably won’t get a lot of use since it’s staying in the shop. As far as planning went it seemed like a solid one.

Only screws in at this point are connecting the legs to their feet.

With the legs together minus some additional support, a dry fit actually went really well. Without anything else glued or screwed, the top balanced by itself on the legs and things seemed pretty sturdy. Adding the shelf in the middle helped steady the legs too so when it actually went together things were very sturdy.

Seems sturdy enough

Ready to stain

It was pretty mismatched, with some bare wood, some stained, but different colors. Staining the bottom all one color might help a little, and a coat of sealer should help a little more in a day or two. As soon as I find more time. Time is precious though, even more so with the holidays coming. Finishing this might have to get added to my growing list of winter break projects.

Messing with leftovers

Let's try to ignore the horrors this past week has brought and get some work done around the house with the extra day off. If you had told me a month ago I could feel this bad a week after the Cubs won the WS I would have laughed at you. But my country just elected a cheeto-colored vulgarian President and all I can do about it is get back to work. Sigh.  

I hate it when scrap becomes clutter. As happy as I was with the hearth tile, having nearly a full square left over but not returnable was bugging me. So I starting looking for places to use the rest up. The shelves in the bathroom looked pretty bare, so I thought they might be a good fit.

I wasn’t about to grout again though, so I stripped the backiing off all the leftovers and glued them on one at a time. It actually ended up looking pretty good.

Small touch, but nice.

Buddha is happy. Remember that.

 It adds a little pop in a pretty dull bathroom.

Goodbye scraps.

Even better, it took care of the leftovers almost perfectly. I didn’t want to toss an almost entire square, but I can toss these scraps easy. Or at least easier; I finally got rid of old tile from our condo the other day. They made it through a move! But it was time to get rid of them. Unfortunately for these guys, their time has come a lot sooner.

As soon as I get home tonite...

I still hate grout...

but it’s a lot more fun when your team won the World Series the night before. 

I wasn’t expecting to be grouting again so quickly, but now that I have I’m glad to say I’m done and wow, what an improvement from the cement slab hearth. Just about any kind of tile would look better than that though, but I’m very pleased with how this ended up looking.

Square enough at least.

One tricky part, spacing the top layer of tile square to the edges meant a gap between the flat top and the edges. I ended up squeezing some grout in with a bag to make sure the top tile stayed level as I filled it in, then cleaned it up. The corners went pretty much the same way. Thankfully, again, this wasn’t a big job surface-area wise, and doing it again so quickly after having grouted the wall tiles meant I had a routine that I thought was working well.

That's not bad.

There are actually quite a few finishes in the basement that still need caulking, and this fireplace adds to that list. But needing a line of caulk where the two types of tile meet isn’t stopping me from considering this project done. It feels like it took longer and shorter than two months; getting those wall tiles up felt like was taking forever but each stage of remodeling actually went relatively quickly. It just took from early Sept to early Nov to find enough free time to get each step done. Not a good sign for all the trim and tile on the caulking list, but the good news is winter break is right around the corner.

Nearly done.