the Pallet project

Holli - "Mom, we're going to do a project from Pinterest over Thanksgiving"

Me - "Can't we just do nothing?"

Holli - "No"

Then about a week before she came home I saw my neighbor had a pallet laying next to his truck.

I asked him if he could get us 3 more.

In the mean time Holli came home and Kirby, Holli and I ran some errands including a fabric store in North Raleigh.  I just wanted to stop there 'for a minute' to get some feather pillow inserts.

An hour and a half later we had a huge piece of foam 80"x27"x5" and some fabric for making pillows for Holli's future Pallet sofa!

We also saw a couple pallets outside of the store and asked if we could have them. They said yes and we loaded them in the car.

We quickly learned that pallets are different sizes and we needed four to match pretty well.

Our new find did not match the one from my neighbor.

Holli and Kirby took a little trip in the car around town looking for more pallets. They traded their original pallets for some that would more closely match each other.

Is that stealing?

I think it's trading.

Now the 4 pallets needed to be cut down to size.

We just happen to have builders working on our screened porch ceiling. So of course Holli got them to cut our pallets!

We started small by making a couple pillows first. 

Then we moved on to covering the big piece of foam.

The challenge was getting it ON the foam!

It took a team of three.

Thanks Amanda S!

At this point we loaded the 4 pallets in the car

along with the foam cushion

and the 2 new pillows

and headed back to Nashville.

At Holli's house we finished the pallets with six 3" locking swivel casters

and a few metal plates to hold it all together.

A little drilling then nuts and washers and bolts

The pallet boards are all different sizes

so the center caster had to move in a row.

The finished product!

Those crates at the end were a nice little discovery while Holli and Kirby were on their pallet hunt.

Thanks to Pinterest and the blog

Under the Sycamore

for the great idea!

Check THAT off my list Holli!

Daniel graduated from high school over 10 years ago so it was finally time to paint his Cary Imp Green walls a different color!

One of the walls has a floor to ceiling world map and I think the whole family wanted to keep it that way.  Holli and I are always brainstorming decorating ideas.  We came up with a great way to incorporate the world map while still making the bedroom a welcoming place for Daniel to "come home" to and friends and family to feel comfortable in.  

We decided that since we have all been blessed with trips outside the United States, we could print photos of those adventures and hang them on the wall.  Black and white photos in black frames.  So many ideas, so much to do to make the ideas a realty!

So, a few weeks ago Jeff painted the other three walls a color called Bagel.  Then last Saturday when it was so beautiful outside, I took on the task of converting an antique door into a head board.  

 I scrubbed it.

I scraped it.

 I even found the brass door knob plate under all that paint.

 I got down to the wood in some spots and kept two shades of cream and some white visible in other spots.

 I found a can of green paint called Twig in the garage.

perfect.

I mixed it with some glaze and painted it on.

I rubbed it off.

Within minutes I was sanding some areas to reveal the wood beneath again.

I love how the green mixes with the dark wood.

a nice surprise.

Jeff and I used the existing hinges to hang the door on the wall.

SUCCESS!

Really, the only thing missing from this project was Holli.

We're a great project team.

Just like my mom and I used to be.

In fact, I inherited my 'you can do anything' attitude from my mom and dad. And I'm happy to pass it on.

I also like to surprise people and check things off my list.

So Holli,

SURPRISE!

check the painting and the headboard off the list.

I hope you're pleased.

Next up...the photos in the frames.

not to mention

 the lamp

the rug

the windows

the quilt

baby steps....baby steps...