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How to build a simple, scrap wood upholstered footstool

An upholstered footstool is one of the gifts that I made for Pip for Christmas this year, in my quest to have one room in this house completely finished up. This is part of how I made it–I say part, because I think I deleted the building part of the pictures…oops! It is so simple though, you really don’t need anything but a picture to put it together. And I used scrap plywood and miscellaneous supplies from my sewing room, so it was free.

See what I mean? This was a very easy project. I had put together the bench part before I started on the living room built-in, but I finished the rest of this in the midst of my general-Christmas-madness-combined-with-starting-a-major-project brilliance. I will once again beg all of you to remind me that I should not start major projects during the holiday season next year!

I left the edges of the plywood unfinished–I just filled some spots where there were little voids in the ply with wood putty and sanded really well. Two coats of primer and 1 coat of my white. I did do two thin coats of polycrylic since I had it out already for the living room built in. I really like the smooth finish I end up with when I use it.

Here are the steps I used to upholster the top.

January 12, 2013

Living Room Built-In {post 6: Make A Pocket Hole Plug Jig & Pocket Hole Doors}

If you use a pocket hole jig to assemble cabinet doors, you are left with holes on the back of the door that can be seen. This may not bother you, and I decided it didn’t on Pip’s built-ins for her room because I didn’t want to deal with it and it wasn’t going to be seen by many. For the living room built-in, I decided I needed to do something about them. Using the plugs that Kreg makes is an option, but Kreg intentionally leaves them long so you can trim them for an exact fit. I decided that if I needed to trim them anyway, I’d do it a little cheaper. Here’s my DIY pocket hole plug jig.

Here’s a picture of one of the doors I put into the built-in for the living room. I actually didn’t mean to construct them this way…I meant to do it the same way I constructed the drawer fronts on Pip’s closet organizer. But I remembered that after I had already routered the edges on all the 1x3s I used for the rails and stiles. Oops. Constructing them this way makes it more difficult to assemble the door perfectly square and end up with cuts that meet exactly right on the corners.

One door was perfect and it was the one I did second. For that door I assembled 3 corners, and then used the clamps in the picture to square up the door before screwing in the pocket holes for the last corner. To make sure the door is square, you measure the diagonal corners–each measurement should be the same. If not, adjust the clamps until they are. The one that I did first, and didn’t square it up with the clamps before attaching the last corner, did not turn out exactly square…I had to shave off the top edge. Next time I construct a door or drawer front that is going to be inset, I’ll plan on making it a little oversized so I can shave it down to perfect (thanks for that hint Dennis!)

Now onto the pocket hole plug jig. First step is to take a piece of scrap and drill the pocket holes into both ends. I used my miter saw to shave off some of the ends of the boards after I drilled the holes, so that the screws could move freely without catching on the wood. Don’t take off too much though, then the screw falls right through the hole (I did that the first try…). Put screws into each pocket hole. Read More…

January 6, 2013

Living Room Built-In {post 5: How to install crown moulding}

Ahhh, crown moulding. How I covet thee. I want to put it everywhere in this house, but it seems so hard!! This was my first attempt at any kind of crown. Up until now, every built-in I have done has been capped off with casing (I think…or it is base…either way, it hasn’t been crown). I’m pretty happy with how it turned out on this project, so I’m not as afraid to give it a go in other places now. Here’s how I went about it!

First I did some research after I discovered that I wasn’t sure which way was up. If you read my little rant, you already know that apparently other people don’t know which way is up either. I had a little bit of a sticky situation though…I didn’t have much room before I hit a corner, and the crown I had picked out takes up more room depending on how you put it up. Lucky for me it worked out.

The research said that the bottom of crown most times has the more decorative elements. Also, the crown should take up more space on the wall than it does on the ceiling (that is what saved me from having to apply mine upside down–it gave me enough room before I hit the corner of the wall). This is all in general–it might not be applicable in every instance. Just don’t ask anyone who knows anything about crown to come into your house and you’ll be fine either way (I crack myself up sometimes).

Anyone interested in coming in and refinishing my floors for me? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? (Who can name that movie?) Look how scratched up they are–and I want them a much darker color now. Uggh. I don’t look forward to that project.

During my research, I read this article from DIY Network.com where they put base moulding on upside down before the crown to build it up. I loved it, so I did the same thing on mine.

But it kinda ended up being a good thing I had planned on this. I originally had a top to the cabinet that was separate that I was going to add between the cabinet and the shelves. Then I made a big mistake and had to modify the plans, but the separate top was 1.5″ thick and I already left 2″ of clearance at the top. That meant there was only air to attach the crown to on the cabinet and that wasn’t going to work. The upside base gave me something to work with!

December 28, 2012

Living Room Built-In {post 4: Coping Base Moulding}

I have attempted to cope moulding in past projects with limited success, so I was a little leery of how well it would go this time. It was one of the things I was determined to learn because I would like to put in crown moulding on the entire first floor eventually, and from what I read, it sounds like coping is a necessary skill to make it look good year-round due to expanding and contracting of the wood during seasonal weather changes, and from walls that may look perfectly straight, but are not (so you don’t have a perfect right angle to split in half and you have to figure out what angle you DO have–not fun I imagine). I am here to tell you that you can master this skill in very little time with the right tools!

In case you happen upon this post without seeing the project I am talking about, here is the built-in I will be referencing in this post

First I want to show you how I put the Living Room Built-In right next to the wall to make it look built in without removing any base moulding. In previous projects I have removed all the base, cut the base so I could slide the cabinet next to the wall, and reattached the moulding around the cabinet. If you want to go that route, you can look at Pip’s built-ins or the laundry room built in and see what I did on those. It will involve this:

There is a LOT of moulding to remove on the wall where this built-in resides. I dreaded the thought of having to pull it all up, so…

I originally planned on using a Dremel MultiMax like they do in the video “Cutting trim from a wall” so that I didn’t have to remove all the moulding. But in the end I decided to do something a little different so that I could move the cabinet if needed in the future.

I traced around a scrap piece of the base on the back corners of the cabinet and cut it out with a scroll saw. I should have erred toward cutting it out a little shorter than my base because the cabinet sits on carpet and causes the base around the cabinet to stand proud from the base already on the wall due to the carpet height.

Did you follow that??!! It wasn’t a big deal–I had a small hole that I filled with caulk–you’ll see it a little farther down in the tutorial.

So now it slides right up to the wall and can be moved along any point of the wall and still look built-in once the moulding is applied to the front and sides. However, now the only way to apply the moulding to the sides is to cope the wall end to fit over the existing wall moulding. Here’s an example of a coped joint from Family Handyman if you want to check out their instructions. Maybe you can get good results with a coping saw–I couldn’t. Then I found this YouTube video and now coping is possible for me! Read More…

December 26, 2012

Living Room Built-In {post 3: The Reveal}

First we had a flurry of activity around here to get the Living Room built-in finished before Christmas hit, and now I’m settled in by the computer with a flurry of snow accumulation happening outside, as I write up the reveal post for the Living Room built-in (we think about 6-7″ right now and it’s still falling). I’m breaking from my regular format and doing the reveal before all of my write ups on the process this time, for no other reason than I want to My goal was to have everything done but the doors before we had Christmas at our house, and it ended up that the entire thing was done! Yay!

Befores and afters:

December 12, 2012

Living Room Built-In {Post 2: The Plans}

With the holidays quickly approaching, now is probably not the ideal time to jump into a new project, but that doesn’t appear to have stopped me before! I am knee deep in a new built-in for our living room. I’m finding that I am getting quicker with all aspects of a build– finally. But I added a new feature, which always means I procrastinate completing that part. Since this cabinet and shelves will be visible from both sides, I wanted to recess the back panel by rabbeting a groove. That meant I got next to nothing done today as I avoided the garage and the router table. But first: the plans.

I made myself draw it out to scale this time. Remember that I am sometimes surprised at how my projects look when I’m done because I planned it all out on scrap paper. Not this time! (Hopefully anyway)

I started the rabbeting today and ended up using a straight bit and table with fence, rather than using a rabbet bit with a bearing. Mainly because I already had a straight bit AND I’ve already used a router table. Can you imagine how many more days I would have procrastinated throwing in using a router hand-held for the first time? Yeesh.

Remember my disclaimer: Use these plans at your own risk because I’m always changing them. I think I am already changing the 1×8 to a 1×6 for the top face frame. The plywood cuts better be right, because I’ve already got them cut out (but not assembled) for this one.

It will be interesting if I get this one done before Christmas. I think I will be done with everything but the doors, but we’ll see I’ve still got Christmas shopping to do!

December 10, 2012

Living Room Built-In {Post 1: The Befores)

On Dasher, On Dancer, On Prancer and Vixen, on Skil Saw and Kreg Jig and…oops. Kinda got side tracked from Christmas! The last few days I jumped into my next project. Let’s face it–I’m finding it difficult to find the ideal time to start and finish these projects, so I’ve got to learn to do it in less-than-ideal time frames. Like during the Christmas season–the most ~~stressful~~, uh, wonderful time of the year!

This project has been on the docket for awhile, and Hubs has been pushing for it to go to the #1 spot for several months now. I wasn’t feeling it, so I kept putting it off. I’ve done a few built-ins now, and they all kind of have the same feel to them, and I wanted this one to be a little different. I studied some of my pins for this area on my Pinterest board and wrote up some plans (coming in the next post). We’ll see how it goes. Instead of vanilla, this one may be french vanilla (Is there really a difference between those two flavors??)

Here’s the area before.

Don’t envy my bookshelf styling. I can’t really even give you a tutorial on getting the look yourselves…it’s really just a gift. A gift that my Hubs wishes I could return

Plans to come soon!

December 1, 2012

Scrap wood heart collage

I’m getting closer and closer to having ONE room in this house that is completely and truly done!!!! I can’t wait for that day Pip is really liking her desk hutch, but the project I am writing about today is one of her favorites for her room and it turned out a lot easier than I imagined. And it used up a lot of scrap plywood I had been accumulating–high fives all around! Here is the scrap wood DIY heart collage I put up on one of her walls:

I started this back in the summer and then procrastination hit…sometimes it is the silliest things that throw me off the finish line for a project. Picking out the pictures is what did it this time! I had a niggling of a feeling of wanting to do the picture-picking-out last weekend so I jumped on it, and now the project’s got a check mark next to it on my to-do list.

This used up a surprising amount of scrap 3/4″ and 1/2″ plywood. I wanted both sizes because I thought it would add some visual interest to the picture collage. Most of them are 4 x 6, but a few were smaller because it was what I had left. Read More…

November 28, 2012

Adding a hutch to a desk {The Reveal}

If all I had done was add a hutch to a desk, then the reveal post would have come about much sooner. But before I could add the hutch, I had to paint the desk:

The desk was a dirty, yellowy, whitish color and the handles and horizontal metal inserts were a brassy, gold color with worn, white parts on them.

I didn’t sand the desk down. I bought some bonding primer at Lowes (hope I don’t regret not getting the Sherwin Williams version I’ve heard others use–I was already at Lowes and got lazy…). I also skipped the polycrylic topcoat I’m fond of using and bought a semi-gloss finish in the paint instead. I didn’t get the really smooth finish I’ve come to love, but I did get done with the project a little quicker, which I also love.

Repair a chair. Paint the chair. Recover the chair seat. Spray the chair bright pink. Discover bright pink doesn’t work. Repaint chair white.

The chair needed help in two different spots. It was pretty wobbly before I put in the pocket hole screws, but now it’s solid. I had to put the pocket holes on the outside because of the funky assembly on the inside.

And spray paint the handles and horizontal metal inserts a nice, brushed nickel.

I washed the hardware with some soap and water, dried it well, and primed it with some Rustoleum regular primer in gray (because I accidentally grabbed gray). I used Krylon in brushed nickle as the color and I left off the topcoat for this project.

But now it is all done and in her room! Here’s a before photo to refresh your memory about how the room looked, well…before! I didn’t purposely take such awful before shots, I wanted the Hubs to take the desk down so I could paint it, but I needed before photos…and it was at night. Flash photos + no natural light =no good

I love the brushed nickle spray paint! Look at the difference in the hardware.

It’s coming along in there. I’m working on a couple more projects for her room right now that I’m hoping to have done by the weekend. Now that I’ve said that out loud it’ll get jinxed somehow

Here are all the posts in the series:

Adding a hutch to a desk

Adding a hutch to a desk {post 1}

Adding a hutch to a desk {post 2}

You might notice that the drawers in the plans didn’t make it into the hutch. That is a sore spot for me at the moment, since I did some incorrect math in my head…I was dreading going out in that garage in the cold, I procrastinated for a few days over the long weekend, finally went out and got it done, took it up to her room, and discovered they weren’t going to work as is. Sigh.

If you’re ever in need of feeling better about how your own projects are going, you know you can always depend on me for a mistake or two!

**This project (and all my plywood projects on here to date) are made using PureBond Plywood because I’m concerned about the air quality in my home.

November 2, 2012

Adding a hutch to a desk {post 2}

Boy was I ever rusty in my woodworking skills for this build!! I’m glad I am here to show you that multiple mistakes during a build can still result in a usable piece of furniture…

First off, my plan. Wherever did I think that I could fit the amount of shelves I had planned for is beyond me! I had an extra cut out that the plan called for. You know how I have warned you that using my plan “as is” is probably not advisable? I had a good laugh at myself as I was laying out the pieces on the garage floor for a dry fit!

Which reminds me–I really, really need to get a workbench made so I can quit using the floor.

Where would one more shelf fit??!!

And then I realized that I was going to have to figure out how high I wanted to make the first shelf, because it was going to be permanent and not moveable. I had not figured that in–I wanted it to all be adjustable. BUT this will not be attached to the actual desk because the desktop is formica. In order to keep it square I need to have it fastened in the middle. This ended up being a monumental decision–I went back and forth on it. Right now she doesn’t need a ton of head room for that first shelf, but I want this to work for her as long as she is at home. I went with the shelf being at 17.5″ (16.75″ once I added the face frame) so that she can fit a bigger monitor under there if need be someday. (I was really irritated with myself for making that such a big decision because it ate up precious time! Sometimes I can be so indecisive.)

Then I got to use another of my birthday presents–my brand new Kreg Shelf Pin Jig. Love it.