2011 April

Hanging Objects on a Wall the Right Way (the First Time)

It’s a jolly good day, wouldn’t you say?! Did you watch the Royal Wedding this morning? Or did you DVR it to watch later (like I did.) I hope you enjoyed my photos from London and didn’t mind the diversion.

Now I’m back into DIY tutorial mode for the time being. Today you can get a double dose of Pretty Handy Girl! Can I get a “WOOT!”

First up I will be showing you how to make Cubby Shelves out of a Bread Crate and a wooden pallet.

And the best part about this project is it doesn’t require any nails or screws! To view this tutorial you will want to head over to visit with the very lovely and very beautiful Amy from Positively Splendid.

Not only is she as beautiful as Kate Middleton, but she also possesses the talent to create a royal wedding gown. Too bad Kate didn’t call her to design her dress. Amy is a sweetheart and a fellow blogger I met at Blissdom. You will just love her blog!

After you have read my tutorial (and gobbled up several of Amy’s tutorials) you can slip back over here to learn how to hang almost anything on the wall perfectly level and plumb the first time. I’ll be showing you how I hung my bread crate cubby shelves in the tutorial.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Materials:

Picture Hangers (be sure to check weight limit)

Hammer

Level

Pencil

If your object doesn’t have hooks or a wire yet, you will likely need:

D-ring hooks

Screwdriver or Drill with a screwdriver bit.

If you have had misadventures hanging pictures, I have the tutorial for you! Hanging anything on the wall successfully doesn’t have to be hard. All you need are the right hangers and the right technique.

Because my crate didn’t have any hangers attached to it, I needed to add D-ring hooks. Starting on the left, I carefully measured 3″ down from the top of my object. Then made a mark 4″ in from the side. I repeated the same steps on the right side making sure the hooks would be the same distance in from the edges and 3″ from the top edge.

Then I screwed the D-ring hooks into the back of the crate.

Hanging something heavy requires using some different hangers that are rated for the weight of the object you are hanging. Bulldog Hardware sent me some of their rubberized picture hanging hooks to try. These have rubberized tips to keep pictures from shifting or moving (like when my son rushes inside slamming the door behind him.)

In my case, my crate weighs about 12 lbs. filled up. So, I reached for two 50 lb. hangers (Did you forget I have boys that can exert up to 100 lbs. of pressure on anything in my home?)

Start by holding your object up against the wall where you want to hang it.

Make a pencil mark at the top of your object. Set your object down.

Now determine what you want to center your object on. For example: centering the object on a wall; centering it between two windows; or centering your object on another object. In my case I am centering my shelf on the toilet.

Find the center and make a pencil mark.

Set your level vertically against the center mark.

When the level reads perfectly plumb (straight up and down) you can transfer the center mark higher and closer to the top of your object.

Now, measure the distance between the hooks on your object.

Mine are 3″ down from the top. And let’s say the hooks are 16″ apart.

This tells me I need to install my picture hangers at 3″ down from the top of the object and 8″ out from the center mark on both sides.

Use the level to make sure that both marks are level.

Set the picture hanger against the wall so the bottom of the hook lines up with the marks you made.

Gently tap the nails in with a hammer.

Carefully lift your object and line up the D-ring hooks with the picture hanger hooks. Sometimes it helps to have an assistant for this part.

Pull down on your object and make sure it is secure. Now fill ‘er up and enjoy!

What do you think? Did this method make sense? You can certainly use the same technique to hang pictures or a group of pictures.

6 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Do It Yourself, framing, leveling

Three Days in the England

27 Apr posted by Brittany Bailey

If you had three days (72 hours) in the UK where would you go? Last year Pretty Handsome Guy and I had this exact dilemna. We had three days to explore London and the surrounding area. It was a whirlwind trip and we walked 10 miles the first day, 8 miles the second and 7 miles the third day. We saw plenty and brought home many pictures and memories.

I was reminded of our trip this week as the world is turning its lens on London for the upcoming Royal wedding. I hope you will enjoy some of the photos from our trip last April.

Warning: This is a photo intensive post, so I promise to keep the chatter to a minimum.

Me in Trafalgar Square with my Starbucks in hand.

Pretty Handsome Guy and I are such American tourists! We HAD to have our Starbucks every morning. Sheesh.

Okay, now that we got our Starbucks confession out of the way…

Tower Bridge over the Thames River

Gnarly trees near Tower of London

Clock Tower (also referred to as Big Ben – although technically Big Ben is the name of the giant bell inside the tower)

One of the towers at Parliament flying the Union Jack

Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace

The winged figure of victory atop Victoria Memorial

The London Eye

The London Eye up close

Parliament and the River Thames at Dusk (taken from the London Eye)

Thames River Reflections after Dark

North Entrance of Westminster Abbey (where William and Kate will tie the knot, but you already knew that.)

Ornate scroll ironwork in Westminster Abbey Courtyard

Speaking of ornate ironwork! A section from gates near Speaker’s corner at Hyde Park

The London Underground aka The Tube

We spent one day in Windsor touring the castle, the town of Windsor and Eton (just across the river from Windsor). I highly recommend taking this day excursion outside of London!

Windsor Castle in the morning

More views of the Round Tower at Windsor Castle

View of the gardens along the hillside just below the Round Tower

Daffodils lining the hillside

The most amazing architectural ceiling I’ve ever seen! St. George’s Cathedral at Windsor Castle

Ornamental door hinge at Windsor Castle

Twin doors with beautiful ironwork hinges. Windsor Castle

I fell head over heels in love with many of the doors in Windsor and Eton. Here are just a few more:

I love the color of these doors!

While at Windsor Castle we saw the obligatory changing of the guard. The royal band played a few songs for the queen. It must have been all request day because they played: Livin’ La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. I am not kidding! I couldn’t make that up.

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled DIY posts on Friday! And I’ll be glued to the telly watching the Royal wedding! Am I the only one old enough to remember watching Charles and Diana’s wedding?

27 Comments
Filed Under: Destinations, London England

Fixing Common Door Problems

25 Apr posted by Brittany Bailey

Do you have a door that sticks or doesn’t close properly? You are not alone. Many factors can contribute to this problem (house settling, humidity, dry air, young boys swinging on them.) Without being able to control the reasons, it is important to know how to fix a door that rubs or doesn’t close properly.

First, step back and look at the gaps between the door and the frame.

Look closely and notice where there are no gaps as well.

This will give you an idea where you need to make adjustments. For my closet door, I need to move the top slightly to the right and the bottom in to the left.

The easiest adjustments you can make on a door is to tighten or loosen the hinge screws. On my closet door (shown above) I loosened the top hinge screws to increase the gap and tightened the bottom hinge screws to reduce the gap.

Before you break out the power tools, be sure to don a pair of these:

I am loving my new Safety Goggles with Clear Anti-Fog Lens that my friend Sandra turned me on to. The only complaint I have is that everytime I put them on, I spontaneously start making funny faces.

But hey, how many other excuses can you have for making funny faces! So, I’ll keep ‘em.

To adjust my closet door, I loosened the hinges where the gap was nearly non-existent and tightened the hinges where the gaps were large.

Much to my dismay, the door still didn’t close properly.

Sometimes you need to shim your hinges to bring them out from the door frame further. My preferred “shim” for this task is recycled cereal boxes or chipboard. Cut the shape of your hinge into the chipboard. (Be sure to cut two because you might need more than one thickness of cardboard.)

Simply set the cardboard behind the shim and re-insert the screws. Don’t tighten them too much. This should put more distance between the door frame and the door.

Unfortunately, this DID NOT solve my closet door problem. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the one hinge did not sit flush with the door frame.

It was time to break out the big guns.

Or the little guns: like my cordless Dremel. If you don’t have a Dremel, you can use a chisel and a hammer, or in a pinch I’ve been known to use a flat head screwdriver as a chisel. The goal is to remove some wood from the door or the frame so that the hinge can sit flush with the frame. In my case I had to remove a little from both.

I used the sanding attachment on my dremel and it made quick work of removing the wood within the hinge cut out.

Sometimes, the door sticks on the top of the frame. If you have tried to adjust the hinges and it still sticks, you need to plane the top. This doesn’t involve buying a ticket or boarding an airplane. Planing is removing material from the edge of wood. You can try using sand paper with a coarse grit to sand it down, but if that doesn’t work, reach for one of these:

This is a hand plane. The plane has been around for centuries! Some have been found in excavations in medieval Europe and Asia. As you run the planer across the top of the door it literally shaves off some of the wood. Simple design, but very effective.

Occasionally, you may encounter a door that doesn’t latch all the way. The door closes, but the latch won’t set into the strike plate (the cutout hole in the door frame.) If you look closely, your interior door strike plate may have a small screw holding a bar on.

Loosen this screw and pull the bar out from the door jamb slightly.

Tighten it and try closing your door again. Continue to adjust the latch until it sets properly and your door stays closed.

That pretty much sums up fixing common door problems. Next time you have an issue with your door, be sure to “Mind the Gap”. Sorry, just a little british humor.

On a completely unrelated topic, I caught some of the excitement surrounding the upcoming royal wedding on the news today. Several networks have sent their reporters to London.

It was exciting seeing some of the spots that I visited last year while Pretty Handsome Guy and I toured London (in 3 days).

I was thinking about sharing a few photos from our trip, but I also completely understand if you want me to stick to the DIY topics. Let me know, okay?!

Sharing the tutorial with these tutorial link parties:

9 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, DIY tools, Door, Fix It

Making a Citrus Striped Cake Stand

22 Apr posted by Brittany Bailey

As promised, I have a tutorial for making a cake stand using a plate and a candlestick. This is nothing new, and if you’ve hopped around the blogosphere, you have probably seen some variations of this project.

These are a few of the projects that sparked my creativity when I found a striped candlestick at a my friend Su’s yard sale.

Centsational Girl’s sherbert colored dessert stands are pure and sweet eye candy:

Crafty Nest used simple clear vases, candlesticks, and dishes to make single and multi-level cake stands:

And House of Hepworth’s turned a cheese dome into a cloche!

So, armed with my striped candlestick, I scoured my local Goodwill for a plate that had some citrus color for my stand. I finally found the perfect plate, but had to give myself a pep talk to buy it. It was perfect, except for the meal that was baked onto it. Ewww. Seriously, it looked like someone had just eaten off the plate and then donated it. GROSS PEOPLE!

But, alas, it was the perfect color, and when I got home I drenched it in Get Clean Basic H2 Degreaser and wiped it clean BEFORE cleaning it in my sink. (I think I might be a tad germ phobic.)

Tutorial:

Materials

Plate
Candlestick (or other base)
Sandpaper
E-6000 glue
Rubbing Alchohol
Paper towels
Books or weights

Begin by thoroughly cleaning the plate and candlestick.

Using a fine grit sandpaper, rough up the top of the candlestick and the base of the plate where you will be bonding them.

Clean the plate and candlestick with rubbing alcohol to remove any residues.

Squeeze out E-6000 on the rim of the candlestick.

Center the candlestick in the middle of the bottom of the plate.

Set books on top of the candlestick to weigh it down while the glue dries.

Let the glue dry overnight, then turn your cake plate over. And, serve up some wonderful dessert…

…or simply make some fruit more appealing, …

…or use it as a plant stand…

But, personally, I prefer the dessert!

What about you? How would you use this citrus striped cake plate?

Sharing with:

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Filed Under: cake plate, Crafts, DIY, E-6000, Goodwill

Spring Vignettes and Mantle Décor

21 Apr posted by Brittany Bailey

Ahhh, the birds are chirping and the flowers are in full bloom. The azaleas in our yard look like fireworks exploding with color.

I long to open the windows and let in the sounds and the sweet smells.

But, alas, the pollen bomb is still in full dumping mode.

I’m not going to let that get me down. I decided to bring the outdoors in and finished switching out my Valentine’s Day decorating (yup, I like to get the most out of my seasonal décor.)

So, without further ado, here is how I’m celebrating Spring!

I saw the window idea at Classicly Amber (via Pinterest) and had just pulled a few old windows out of a curbside pick up pile. Speaking of Pinterest, if you haven’t tried it yet, you are missing out! It is a great place to “pin” ideas you see and be able to refer back to them easily.

Beth at The Stories of A2Z gave a tutorial on using Pinterest HERE. She’s the one who introduced me in the first place, so I’ll let the master show you the ropes!

I always make it a point to refer back to the original source if I get an idea somewhere else. (Granted, some things are so widespread amongst bloggers, that it is hard to credit the original source.) Pinterest has helped me keep all the ideas together and makes it easier to find the original source. Plus, you can follow other people’s pins and boards. Feel free to sign up and follow mine HERE. Then you can steal my ideas before I blog about it…just kidding!

The striped pedestal holding up the plant is actually a cake stand I made recently using a plate and a candlestick. I’ll be blogging about it later this week, but trust me it is nothing new. You’ve probably seen this trick somewhere else.

This little adorable birdhouse was lovingly painted by my 7 year old son. I always have a stock of $1 birdhouses that they like to decorate on a rainy day. This one brings so much sunshine into my heart.

I love how easy this centerpiece was to create. I rested the ceramic bird into a shredded paper bag nest. Then set the nest on top of a ceiling medallion ($3 at a yard sale) and surrounded the medallion with ivy.

And finally, my favorite: a robin’s egg nest that I made with chicken eggs.

You can view the tutorial for making the eggs and nest at TLC’s Parentables today.

If you struggle with decorating and creating vignettes, you might want to read a few of the guidelines I use when designing groupings and seasonal décor HERE.

Entering this post into the CSI Spring Decor and Vignettes challenge: