Wind Turbine Light Fixture

I was pretty excited about the Hardware Store Week challenge at So You Think You're Crafty.  Lowe's is my absolute favorite store, followed by Home Depot for a close second.  It's so fun to walk around the aisles and try to see a new use for all of those supplies.

I had seen vintage turbine fans turned into light fixtures on some pricey websites.  All that I had seen were well over a couple hundred dollars.  I loved the look, but couldn't justify the price.  I needed a light fixture for my craft studio and I had a feeling I could DIY my own version.

I started with a wind turbine exhaust fan from Lowe's.  It was about $35, but I have since seen a few on clearance at my local Lowe's.  I think these are mainly used in attics or barns.  They came in a couple of different colors, but I planned on painting mine, so I wasn't picky.

Here's what she looked like after taking her out of the box.  There are basically two pieces.  In addition to this fan piece, there is a tube type of piece that the fan sits on.  I didn't use any part of that piece for this project, but maybe I can find a new use for it in the future.

At this point, my dad and I just started taking pieces apart.  We were trying to get all of the "extra" pieces off so that we were left with just the fan blades for the light fixture.  This little plastic piece was at the top, holding the apparatus that allowed the thing to turn.  We pried it off with a screwdriver.

We started unscrewing pieces, trying to cause the least amount of damage.  We still wanted it to be structurally sound, but I didn't want all of the inner workings.  They would be in the way of my pendant light.

We ended up doing more work than we had to.  In the end, we just took some metal snips and cut the three support bars that were holding all of the pieces in.  Once those were cut, we were left with the outer shell which was going to function as the shade for the fixture.

At Lowe's, I picked up one of the pendant light kits.  It was sold in the small endcap area with different types of glass shades so that you can mix and match to make your light fixture.

 I unscrewed the metal rod that covers the electrical wiring and threaded this part of the fixture up through the bottom of my shade.  Then, I had to thread the wiring back through that metal rod and screw the rod back into the fixture.  Basically, think of it as sandwiching your shade (the exhaust fan) between the light socket and the metal pendant rod.

Here she is, all ready for paint!  I gave the whole thing a couple of good coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint, let it dry well, and it was ready to go!

The light fixture now hangs in my studio and casts the prettiest design on the ceiling when the light is on in the evenings.  It's the first thing that gets a comment when people walk into that room.  Everyone wants to know more about it.

Quilt Calendar

Sometimes you end up with family "heirlooms" that you're not quite sure what to do with.  I had this old quilt that was stained, tattered, filled with holes, and quite literally falling apart.  I don't like it when things just get stored away and never seen, so I knew I needed to come up with a way that we could enjoy this piece of the past.  Week #4 of So You Think You're Crafty had the theme of Sentimental, so I thought this would be the perfect entry.

Normally, I wouldn't dream of cutting up an antique like this, but it was really no good to anyone otherwise.  So, I cut out a rectangle of the quilt, paired it with an open back frame and some glass, and used my embroidery skills to make a wall calendar.

If I'm embroidering text, I always start off in Microsoft Word to get a font and size that I like.  I print off my text and tape it up on a window.  You could also use a lightbox, but I was too lazy to dig mine out.

I then tape my piece of fabric, unbleached muslin in this case, over the text.  I use a water soluble fabric marker to then trace the letters onto my fabric.

There are a ton of embroidery tutorials out there, but I'll give you the basics.  I'm not an expert, but I get by.  I usually use three strands of embroidery floss and try to keep my stitches super small on text.  It helps to keep the curves looking good on the letters.  Start by pushing your needle up through the fabric ahead of where you want your stitch.

 

Then, go back down through the fabric overlapping the last stitch slightly.  I push my needle through the last stitch.  I think it makes it look more like a solid line.

After I stitched my days of the week, I trimmed each one to have roughly the same size border around each word.  I didn't finish off the edges at all.  I wanted it to look a little rough and worn.

I laid my tired, old quilt out and picked out a useable area to work for my calendar.  I picked up my barnwood open back frame at Hobby Lobby (wait til it's on sale or use a coupon) and got a glass and backing kit at Michael's.

I cut a rectangle out of the quilt that was about 2" larger than the frame opening.  I laid my days of the week labels where I wanted them, along with a larger piece of blank muslin to use for the month label.  You could also stitch these into place, but I just sandwiched them between the quilt and the glass.

Once everything was in place, I flipped it over and set it all into the frame.  I squished the backer board down into place and trimmed up any edges that were sticking out too much.

I used a staple gun to place staples at angle to hold my backer board in place in the frame.  If I ever want to change something or use the frame for something else, they will be easy to pull out with pliers.

I added a large sawtooth hanger and it was ready to hang!

 

The grid pattern of the quilt makes up the calendar blocks for each day of the month. 

A dry erase marker makes it easy to change the month and dates.  I opted not to embroider the months onto fabric because I knew that it would be December and our calendar would still say July.  So, I left that strip of fabric blank so I can just change the month with a dry erase marker.

This dilapidated quilt has found a new life in our mudroom, where it gives my family a quick glance at our month.  Even though it was cut, the quilt is sure to be appreciated more now that it's a part of our daily routine instead of folded away in a box.

Vintage Door Headboard

I'd like to share my audition project for So You Think You're Crafty with you.  That's right, I'm competing in Season 13 of the weekly crafting competition.  The actual competition starts on September 10, so be sure to check in each week and vote for your favorite project.

I decided that it was time to whip our guest bedroom into shape.  We hadn't really done anything in there since we moved in.  It was acting as a holding ground for some furniture and other junk that didn't have a permanent home yet.  We had a queen mattress, box springs, and basic bed frame, so I decided to start with that.  We needed a fun headboard to set the tone for the room.

About two years ago, I ran across a Craigslist ad for a bunch of old doors.  The seller was asking $100, but there were about 40 doors.  Somehow, I convinced my husband that this was a good idea and he and my father in law drove a truck and trailer a hour away to pick up my treasures.  My LARGE stash of doors has been sitting in my parents' barn ever since.  I've used a couple of the doors here and there, but there are many projects still waiting to happen.  That winter (see the snow?), it was starting to warm up and I was getting the itch to get outside and work on  a project, so I started scraping the white paint off of this door.  I stuck it back in the barn and let it sit until now.

 Then a couple of months ago, my father in law tore out this old fence row.  When I started thinking about some kind of posts for my headboard, he scavenged a couple of the posts out of his trash pile for me.

 I cleaned up my door and removed any loose paint that was peeling off.  I gave it all a rough sanding, just to get any grimy parts off.  I removed the hardware to clean it and sealed the whole door with clear acrylic spray, to keep everything in place.  Then, I started laying out the posts to see where I wanted everything.

 After I got all my measurements down, I cut the posts to length and added a plastic nail-on furniture foot, just to keep it up off the carpet a little.

 I flipped the door over and used some metal brackets to screw the door headboard into the posts.

 

I set up my bed frame and got it ready for the headboard.

 Then, I found my cute helper who loves to use power tools.  :)

 With her help, I attached a scrap board towards the bottom of the posts.  My headboard was going to be wider than my bed frame, so I needed a place to attach the frame.

 I cut some blocks of wood to act as spacers and then screwed the frame into the board.  I added those blocks because I didn't want the frame and mattress to be too far under the door.  I was worried about my guests banging their heads on the headboard.

 Here she is, all ready to have the box springs and mattress put into place.

 Once it was all put together and the bed was made, I loved the bright pop of green even more.  The character of the door definitely shines through and I love that the fence posts found a new life instead of just going in the trash.

It's time to invite some out-of-town friends over!  This bed needs some weekend visitors!

I've linked up to these linky parties!  Go check them out!

Bottlecap Bunting

Yesterday, I shared my Fourth of July decorated mantel with you.  After adding the barnwood American flag, branch star, and accessories, I wanted a little bit more color.

I decided on a small bunting for the front of the mantel made out of vintage bottlecaps.  A few weeks ago,  I was explaining to my girls about how drinks used to come in glass bottles, not cans.  That got me thinking about all of the different types of soda of years past.  A cold glass bottle of fizzy soda just feels like a hot summer day, so I started looking around for some bottlecaps.

Apparently, they can be quite collectable.  I found mine on ebay through this seller.  They were all unused and most had a cork liner in the cap.  I wasn't interested in their collectable value, I was just looking for some fun colors and typography styles.

I bought a length of twill tape at the fabric store and hot glued my bottlecaps on to make the bunting.  Super simple.

You could really take this idea and go a lot of different directions.  Maybe for an older person's birthday you could use bottlecaps that would have been popular during his or her youth.  I could see making one for my husband with his favorite kinds of beer.  If I had thought of it sooner, I would have used the idea for my sister-in-law's POP themed baby shower.  Hmm, I bet I'll be making more versions of this one in the future.

Pipe Fitted

 

Last week, I shared my Powder Bathroom Reveal and you could see my towel bar made out of plumbing pipe and parts.  I wanted to quickly share how these were put together.

It really couldn't have been much easier.  We just took some rough measurements in the bathroom to get an idea of an approximate size for the pieces.  Then, we went to Home Depot and scoped out the plumbing aisle.  We knew we needed flanges for attaching to the wall, then we just got some straight pieces that would work for the length and depth.  We bought three 90 degree turn pieces for the "corners" and a screw on cap for the toilet paper holder.

We ended up getting a combination of black pipe and galvanized pipe to get the sizes we wanted, so I gave them both a coat of flat black paint once they were all screwed together.

They're sturdy, functional, and fit very well with our industrial/upcycled/funky/farmhouse vibe.

I have a much larger house project that used the same plumbing pipe, but I need to get some good photos before I share that.  Just trying to keep you on the edge of your seats!  :)

Powder Bath Reveal

Here she is!  Our powder bath has been mostly done since we moved in, but we finally finished her off with a few accessories.  I couldn't wait to share some pictures.  I'll follow up next week with all of the details.

 

 The shining star of this bathroom is our custom vanity.  We repurposed an old wood wall cabinet into a vanity by cutting some holes for a drop-in copper sink and the plumbing.  We made a base out of plumbing pipe and cut some barn flooring boards (leftover from our kitchen shelving project) to lay across the pipe as a shelf.

 

 I loved that there was still hand painted labeling visible on one end of the cabinet, so I made sure to position it so that we could still enjoy it.  It's so cool to think about the history of this and try to imagine who wrote those words.

  

The sink and vanity definitely get a reaction when visitors pop into the restroom.

 

 On the small wall adjacent to the vanity hang a piece of subway art that I made for my husband a couple Christmases ago and a vintage Coke crate that's being used as a shadowbox.  The subway art has names of the streets surrounding his college alma mater.  The Coke crate shadowbox holds tiny pieces with sentimental value and lots of our girls' treasures.

Check back next week and I'll share all of the details on how we made the sink and other fun accessories! 

Update:  You can find the tutorial for the wall cabinet turned vanity here.

--Source List--

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Armagnac

{our entire house is painted with colors from the HGTV Urban Organic Color Palette}

Copper Sink: Simply Copper

Hammered Copper Mirror: Tres Amigos

Overhead Light: Barn Light Electric

Trash Can: Home Goods