Building with pallets and reclaimed wood.

I'm kind of in love with the 'Ana White' web site, so many free plans there's bound to be something for everyone and I love that they're so adaptable, it's my go to website for inspiration.
This Rustic console table from Pottery Barn caught my eye, as it did for many others so I had to have a go at building it myself with my reclaimed pallet wood

Pottery Barn Rustic Console table.

The plans I followed are here

While my interpretation may not be quite as catalogue ready as something from Pottery Barn I'm still quite thrilled with how it turned out, especially considering the pallet wood I used needed a heap of planing and sanding to make it useable.
The perfect place for my 'Charlie Bear' Wosley to sit. The pallet wood 'Welcome' sign, scrap wood 'Home' blocks and the scrap wood lamp were all past projects of mine - click on the links to go to them.

alt="pallet wood, DIY furniture, Wood console table, DIY"

Rustic console table using scrap pallet wood

alt=" DIY console table, Pallet wood, Wood furniture, DIY table"

Pallet wood sideboard

alt="Wood table, DIY, Pallet wood, Scrap wood, Woodworking, Sideboard"

Pallet wood furniture

Sharing at

Under the table and dreaming
The dedicated house 
Savvy southern style

Scrap wood table lamp

Finally!
I have one project finished. yay!

And here it is

I made a different table lamp a while ago (check it out HERE) and have been itching to make another one. Originally I was going to make one similar to my last one but use square blocks of wood instead of circles but then I cam across this small hunk of naff looking wood

Maybe some people would have chucked it on the burn pile but I instantly knew what I wanted to use it for even though it had obviously been drenched in creosote at some point in the past.
So I got the orbital sander out and got to work on it, followed by the detail sander.

It didn't actually take too long to sand. In fact I had to stop myself going too far (it's soooo addictive) because I wanted to leave some darker areas so i got different tones with the finished colour.
Next part involved that monstrous looking drill bit!
I found a drill bit that was a tad wider than the lamp wire and long enough to drill through to about 1" from the base of the wood. Once I had that bit drilled I then had to drill an upward angle from the back to meet the drill hole going through the middle, then I threaded the lamp wire through and pulled it out the back.
Here's the pendant sitting on the top.

Next I gave it 2 coats of Antique Oak wood dye and one coat of clear satin Varnish.
Then came the lampshade. I bought a cheap one from 'B&Q' (I checked the charity shops first but no luck) and blinged it up with the fabric flowers I made.
I am now addicted to making fabric flowers, there are numerous tutorials online so I haven't done one here but be warned - once you start you won't be able to stop.

So there's my new table lamp. Easy to make, cheap to make and that makes it all the more interesting to look at.

Enjoy!

Linkin up to

Joy2Journey
The Southern Institute 
My 1929 Charmer 
Sew can do

Scrap wood lamp.

A short while ago I had a go at transforming the base of an old lamp I had. To cut a long story short it all went Pete Tong and I made a mess of the whole thing. Not to be too badly put off I salvaged the guts of the lamp (the wire, the elements etc) and scoured the net for a lamp base tutorial that I thought I could make.
Enter 'Not just a housewife' and her fabulous tutorial for an MDF lamp. I had some leftover MDF, the salvaged lamp guts, a jigsaw to cut the wood and pretty much everything else I needed so thought 'let's give it a go'.
This is the end result:

I love it! My only regret is that a) I painted the circles in Gloss paint and wish I hadn't - it's too thick and too shiny & I prefer NJAH's end result, and b) I wish I'd done more than 3 different sizes of circles.
The tutorial was very easy to follow and I pretty much followed it to the letter. The tip for running the lamp wire through the base was a brilliant one and gives it that tidier look from behind.
I used narrow plastic piping through the centre of the lamp and it worked just great and gave the lamp more stability.
When it came to fixing the element to the top small circle I used 'Fixsall' glue. This glue is better than any craft glue I've used and I use it for pretty much everything, but be warned it's super strong. It's not a superglue, it's so much more than that and IMO so much better.
Begrudgingly I did buy the shade. I had tried to recover a smaller one but me and spray adhesive don't get along and it was a complete disaster. I was going to give it another go but I'd ran out of my first choice of fabric and then I spotted this one for sale at 1/2price (£7) at Homebase so bought it - after ALOT of umming and arring.
So there you are, my £7 lamp now sitting happily on my handbuilt side table in the front room.
I think this one from 'Not just a housewife' will be my next lamp to make.
Enjoy and Thank you 'Not just a housewife'

This post is linked to:-

'Ginger snaps Wednesday'

'2805'
'Three Mango Seeds'