Saturday, August 18, 2012

My triple play

In my last blog entry I mentioned that I was tackling three projects for the weekend.  I actually finished two on the weekend and the third on Tuesday night.  I had to do a slight modification and buy more paint so that took an extra day or two.

First Project:  Padded top for wire dog crate
We have four dogs.  All very different breeds and very different dog-alities.  (Do dogs have a person-ality? I think not.)  Two of them are crated at night.  They need their own rooms as well as that down time to just be. Fondue has a plastic-type crate and it sits next to the piano.  He is a Jack Russell Terror (no misspelling here, although he is much better since he is on Prozac) so his crate is a small one.  Meshach (no, we don't have a Shadrack or an Abednago, just Meshach) has a large wire crate since he is a Blab (bloodhound lab mix) breed.  His crate is near Fondue's and behind the tall table which serves mainly as Mindy's desk. Oftentimes, Mindy will set shoes, bookbags, papers, and such on Meshach's crate.  Mind you, this is a cage crate with the appealing black metal cage look.  It doesn't happen often, but things have fallen through the wires. I thought an upholstered top would be nice to fasten to his crate. I already had a piece of wood that was a little bigger than the crate.  Then I bought two pieces of foam and some material at Hobby Lobby and headed home.  This was a no brainer.  I simply trimmed the wood to slightly bigger than the crate, glued the foam on top, then wrapped the fabric and stapled it.  Here are a few pictures.

 
I figured it wasn't a piece that will be sat on so I didn't feel I needed thick foam or anything too fancy.  Here are a few pictures of the stapling of the fabric.  Again, nothing fancy in the stapling job or the selection of the material.

   
Here is the final reveal.

So far, so good.  I also hammered in a couple of staples to the underside and attached it with zip ties so the top doesn't float around.

Second Project: Adding a shelf to the linen closet
This one is nothing big so there are no pictures.  My friend gave me a shelf months ago to add to my linen closet.  This weekend I cut two cleats and screwed them to the wall.  Then I measured the existing shelves and cut the new one to the same length and put it in the shelf resting on the cleats.  Nothing exciting but certainly a project that is part of my triple play.  Once I get the linen closet cleaned and organized with the new shelf, I may post a picture.

Third Project: Creating a scarf hanger.
I sort of have a scarf collection.  I have scarves from India, Morocco, England, Kenya, Thailand, as well as from the Bourbonnais and Chicagoland areas.  I think it is a great accessory to have.  I have a few different ways I wear them and have a Youtube video that shows 24 ways to wear a scarf. Some of these are repeated but this is where I get different styles. I would hang my scarves on a hanger folded in half or on some scarf rings that I have accumulated. They take up a lot of room, yet they are colorful and I thought it would be nice to have them out kind of on display.  This was my first inspiration but I didn't like the fact that this was a rusty old wrought iron fence piece that would be displaying my scarves. I don't want them to snag on any rough spots.

So I started to think about a wide ladder and using that as a hanger.  I purchased a piece of wood for the rails and then a couple of dowels.  I measure the space where I would hang it in my bedroom.  Here are some pictures of the construction.

     

And the finished project: a scarf ladder.


These are most of my scarves.  I have one in my closet and two in my laundry room still.

Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. I really love having the crate top on Meesh's crate. It helps so much! Thank you for making it.

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