What Has Eight Legs & Holds Art?

Why an octopus of course! I know I haven’t shown y’all this pirate bedroom I’m always going on about, but the fact of the matter is I'm not quite finished with it.  Any normal person would be done by now, but the truth is I keep thinking of other things that would go well in there and I want to wait until it's all done.  It is so close to being finished.   
I got to thinking that my nephew needed a place to hang his art work and there are so many wonderful ideas out there, however I came up with this idea out of my own crafty little brain.  Mostly because I needed an excuse to play with my new overhead projector that I purchased off of craigslist, also because I wanted something to take up plenty of space on those red walls.

I began by finding a silhouette of an octopus on line and tracing is onto a transparency. 

I turned a half sheet of bead board paneling to the wrong side and traced the silhouette using my handy dandy overhead projector.  

Next I drilled several holes at different places on the board to accommodate the sharp angles. A skill saw can't make those sharp turns and drilling the pilot holes at the onset kept me from stopping during the cutting.

I cut out the octopus with a skill saw and sanded the edges with a detail sander. 

I painted the octopus with a blue sample I picked up at the Lowes’s that I watered down to achieve a more transparent wash than a solid paint job.  I dry brushed over the blue paint with a bit of off white. 

Lastly I used small screws to attach silver bulldog clips.  I had to use a split washer to keep the screws from coming out the back, plus it keeps the clips from spinning. 

I had to search the store room for the smallest screwdriver I could find, so it would fit through the clip itself.  Luckily I had one on hand.  I secured one clip for each of the legs and I was done. 

Major cuteness I think and I can’t wait to show you guys how it looks on the wall. 

Come back for the last pirate room project and the big reveal.  I promise it is almost finished, and if I’m lying y’all can make me walk the plank. 

UPDATE: Here is the finished product up in the finished room, what fun this was. 

Top That! Table Top For A Curbside Rescue

Greetings and salutations everyone, I am so excited the warmer weather is finally here.  I spent the day Friday working on a few projects that have been bottle necking on me because of the cold weather.

I had Good Friday off and my plan was just to put on some work clothes after breakfast and finish a project or two and then back inside by the afternoon for some house work. Looking back that may have been a bit ambitious, because I didn’t drive the last screw into a board until nearly 8 o’clock Friday evening.  All I can say is I thank my lucky stars I have an understanding husband. 

I started by working on the top for a night stand project for my nephew’s room.  This was a file cart that I rescued from the curb in my neighborhood to narrowly avoid what was sure to be a terrible fate at a land fill.

At the first sign of warmer weather I spent the day spray painting several pieces.  I disassembled the cart and gave it a good wash down.

I painted it using Valspar, High Gloss in Indigo Cloth blue.  I tried to keep my coats light and even and ended up having enough paint to give the inside, which no one will see, a coat of paint as well. 

I searched high and low for inspiration on what to use for the top.  I thought about melamine shelving, or a plywood top decoupaged with some kind of pirate map, but I wanted this to grow with him as he gets into the "tween" years.  So I decided on a wood top that I could stain.  Now sit down for my confession y’all because they may revoke my blogging card after this.  I didn’t make the top myself.  I chickened out of using my Kreg Jig and went for the premade table top section at the Lowe’s. 

I cut this table top to size on the table saw, seen here sitting next to my new Keter work table that I just love. 

I then cut two pieces of 1x2 that I used to create two rails that I screwed to the underside of the table to drop down inside the cart and hold the table top in place. 
 

 

The finishing sander came in handy to smooth the top and sides, and I purposefully dug into the edges to give it a worn look. Really and truly I was more concerned with not splitting any little heads on sharp edges, than I was about the decorative effect.  

I decided on a white wash finish.  I wanted to be able to see the wood grain, and have something that would pop against his red walls.  I mixed some trim paint that I had on hand with equal parts water and brushed the finish on the underside of the table top to determine if this was what I was looking for. 

 

When the paint was dry I gave the top a light sanding and put on several coats of a Wipe-On Poly. I lightly sanded between each coat, and applied 5 or 6 coats.

I absolutely love how the wood grain really came through.  This is going on my list of favorite techniques.

Here is his bedside table all finished in my carport.  I can’t wait to get everything in his room.
 

I know the 6 year old doesn’t read this blog so I would show you the lamp I purchased to go on this table in his pirate bedroom. But his mom has a Marta On A Mission icon on her iPad so I shouldn't risk it.  You'll just have to come back and see the room all put together.  I have a few more projects to complete before the reveal.  

UPDATE: Here is the finished project in its new home. 

We were all really pleased with how it turned out.  Especially our kindergartener.