Upcycling Projects
Wood accent wall
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My helper and I built this wood accent wall from tongue and groove oak lumber I found at an auction. The wood was in rough shape but we cleaned it up. Randomly stained and treated it and then mounted it to lathing.
Beverage Cooler
Planter
Turtle Bath
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This multi-functional piece is built from a stainless steel serving trough and pressure treated cedar. The trough took several cutting blades to remove from a school lunch room table. It's been framed and mounted in the cedar with silicone caulk. The legs on the piece are removable and can be customized at bar height or closer to the ground for a planter. If you have a turtle, this would be an excellent habitat.
Office Cabinet
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I'm not responsible for the original build of this cabinet but at what point can you call something your own? It would have been easier to construct this from scratch.
When I got it, it had been in storage for a few years. Probably because it was embarrassed to be stuck in the 80's and not in a good way. The oak had a whitewash pickling effect done to it that really didn't work, and the interior spaces needed some reconfiguration to be able to function with a more modern purpose.
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Obviously the entire cabinet was refinished inside and out. With considerable effort I removed the pickling whitewash, stripped everything back down to the original natural oak wood and then used a walnut gel stain and top coat to breathe some life back into it.
From the beginning, the plan for this was to use this in an office corner and give a printer a place to live without being an eyesore. The printer is now tucked away on the right hand side of this cabinet. In order to do that I had to remove shelves and reconfigure shelves. Relocate the middle divider piece which meant the doors and drawers all had to be resized, repaired, and remounted. I added heavy duty drawer glides along with a small wood half-shelf to the opening on the right to support the weight of the printer. I had to and then swapped in some newer hardware to finish things off.
Rustic Dresser
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Sometimes these things are just accidents. I didn't plan on this dresser but when I saw it I decided it would be nice to have. It needed some help though. The wear and tear of normal use were showing. I got it home, cleaned it up, fixed the drawers, painted the hardware and finally used my favorite walnut gel stain and top coat to finish it off.
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We put this in my very ungrateful daughter's room. She really didn't want it and nearly cried when we put it there but now she's mad I didn't include it in the projects so to placate her I've chosen to add it here.
