Military crate into sofa table

Military runs through my roots on both sides of my family. My mother served in Wisconsin National Guard and the Reserves and I myself served in the United States Army. I have several uncles, cousins, great grandparents, and friends who have served as well. Last summer I was out antique shopping, which is a favorite past time for me, my mom, and my daughter to spend time together. We went into the little western antique store here in my little mountain town, and in the back room sat this dusty old Howitzer artillery crate. I saw it and had to have it. There was literally no leaving until I had that box! I didn't quite have a plan for this old guy yet, but I knew I'd find something special for it. 

I and my husband are brand new home owners and we haven't quite acquired a whole lot of furniture yet. I decided that this old crate, that was collecting more dust in the corner of my entryway, was going to become a beautiful display piece. I decided it would become a sofa table. 
Hubs and I had a few things to pick up at Home Depot, our usual DIY hub, so while I was there I picked up 4 screw on table legs and 4 plates for the legs to screw into. 

I started off by cleaning up the old crate. I vacuumed out the cobwebs from the inside and swept off the dust from the outside. And since I really like the character and the patina look to the wood, I left the box untouched. For the legs, I actually distressed them a bit by adding dents and scratches to the wood. I then added a coat of Minwax Weathered Oak stain to each leg. The color came out looking like a grey old wood, which matched my crate perfectly!

While the stain was drying, I went ahead and flipped the crate over and screwed the four plates onto the bottom corners. I left about 1/2 inch between the edges and the plates. 

Once the legs were almost completely dry, I wiped off the access stain. I then secured the legs to the bottom and that was it! 

I actually think it turned out amazingly! 

Just a little history on the box: it is a Howitzer artillery shell crate. This particular crate is from the Vietnam War. It held 2, 105 mm cartridges. The closure clasp is the original and it is very rusted, so I think it will stay closed. The date printed on the crate is September 1966.  

Wisconsin Tribute

As most of my followers know I'm a Wisconsin native. I was born and raised in south central Wisconsin on a small farm, in a small farming community. We had raised everything from chickens, ducks, and turkey's to beef steers, rabbits, and horses. While growing up I was active in 4-H and FFA, and even spent my sophomore year in high school serving as the Green County Dairy Princess. But with all that comes my love for my state, and you can't be a true Wisconsinite if you don't have love for the Milwaukee Brewers, the Green Bay Packers, and the Wisconsin Badgers. Well needless to say, I'm a die hard Wisconsin Badgers fan through and through!!! So, I found the perfect way to pay tribute to my favorite team that's 20 hours away.

While my husband, daughter, and I were shopping at Home Depot (of course right? Where else) we came across the a shelf of stone pavers that fit together for patios, or sidewalks, or what have you. Well, my husband noticed that one particular set of stones were in the shape of Wisconsin.

As you can see it looks just like Wisconsin, with the exception of the missing Door County thumb! So, I got the instant idea to take it home and paint it and use it as a decoration in my garden!

I kept things fairly easy and inexpensive as well. I went to Michael's and bought a small can of Krylon in black, a set of nice camel hair craft brushes by Artist's Loft, and some gloss enamel in white and red by Americana. 

I started things off as anyone would normally expect, I spray painted the entire paver black.

I sprayed it probably a total of 3x to get a nice black color.

I then free-handed the "W" onto the stone with the white enamel.

and filled it in with the white enamel also. (horrible picture. Sorry)

After waiting for the white to dry, I then free-handed the shadow look around the "W" with the red enamel. 

I think it turned out really nice and is a great tribute to my favorite team in my front flower garden. If I could change anything, I would have probably painted the whole paver Red, kept the "W" white, but did the shadow in black. All in all though it was a extremely easy and it was all under $20!

Gutter Shelves

So I was talking to a good friend of mine back in Wisconsin awhile ago, and he was telling me about these shelves that he had built for his son's books. He said they were super easy and inexpensive. All he used was rain gutters! WHA?! Well I actually ran across a pinterest post on the rain gutter shelves. My daughter is 2, so even though they are plastic and kind of flimsy, they work for her for now. They actually have been up on her wall for awhile now and I honestly am not sure if it was the greatest idea. They serve their purpose for now until daddy and mommy can come up with wood to make some real shelves. We use them to hold books that our little peanut can't quite look at on her own. She has a fascination with ripping the bindings off of her books and also ripping the pages out. They are perfect for a few books but not as many as this little girl acquires. Every time we go to the store she gets a new book.... That's a lot of books!!! ANYWAYS! I bought all of my rain gutter pieces from Home Depot (go figure). I threw a fun twist into her gutters though by painting them silver and adding silver glitter spray paint on top. 

I bought 2 center junctions, 4 corner caps, and 2 gutters which my husband had to take the skill saw and cut each in half. 

I then assembled the pieces together and glued the junction pieces and caps with PVC glue that my handy husband already had on hand. 

I painted each with silver Rust-oleum spray paint for plastic. Once they were dry, I sprayed the outside with silver glitter spray which I actually picked up from Michael's for another project. 

I had to let these guys sit in my garage for a night to dry out completely and to get that spray paint smell completely off of them. Don't need my little girl breathing in spray paint fumes! 

The next day my husband and I hung them in my daughter room with regular self tapping screws. We also used our handy little stud finder/leveler. After they were up and secured tightly, we put her books on, and I even hung a nice pair of decorative lights on the bottom and called it good!