Inexpensive and cool dorm shelving

Within a couple of months, using coupons and watching for sales, I bought six plain wood crates at Joanns (http://www.joann.com/wood-crate/xprd74816/.

I stenciled them first, inspired by this blog (http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com).  But I couldn't quite get the paint to flow, so I used a sharpie to first outline the stencil, but I did use a ball-point pen to trace around the printed stencil.  This is a perfect activity to do while watching some TV, like catching up on Breaking Bad.

After stenciling, I stained them with Minwax, color Jacobean.  I might have gone lighter and used the Dark Walnut, but I like the grey tones in the Jacobean. After staining them, I let them dry overnight, and then I waxed them with Briwax in Dark Brown. You could also use a polyurethane, but I wanted the finish of the wax, plus I had some already. Pretty cool, huh?

We don't know the space where these would go yet, but we could get some planks of wood to stretch between a couple of the crates, as well as add some casters. I will do a follow up blog once they are in the final position.

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Painted Dish Towels

Like usual,  I want a custom look at a cheap price and painting fabric is a good solution.

Tools & supplies:
sack cloth dish towels (I got mine at Target)
acrylic paint (I like Martha Stewarts)
fabric painting medium (comes in a bottle, like the paint)
tape (masking or painting)
paper plate
stencil
round sponge brush
iron
Pandora station: Amos Lee

1 - I made my stencil using a coated piece of cardboard, like a cereal box. It worked fine for the first color, but it was starting to get a little mushy, so then I taped it w/ painter's tape and made sure the paint dried on in between each color.

2 - Wash and iron the sack cloths.  Then tape one down onto some layers of newspaper.  Taping the cloths down keeps them from shifting.

3 - Place your stencil on the cloth, where you want it.  I used the bottom of the stencil and lined it up with the bottom of the cloth.

4 - Squirt some paint onto a paper plate, I mixed a couple of colors together to get the different colors I wanted.  Then squirt in the fabric medium, see the instructions on the container to see the ratio. It doesn't need to be exact.

5 - Using the round stencil sponge brush, hold the stencil with one hand, and then paint with the other.  Don't get the brush too full of paint.

6 - Move the stencil if you need to and paint again.

7 - Carefully remove the tape from the cloth and hang the cloth to dry, the instructions say to dry for up to two days, but in this Arizona heat, I dried them for about four hours outside on a clothesline.

8 - Follow the instructions on the fabric medium to see how long to heat set the paint with an iron, as well as to wash them again.

That's it!

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