The Newest Vegetable | A DIY home improvement and green lifestyle blog

Pallet Shelf and Nautical Wall

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Monica

I’ll just cut to chase:

After updating the bench with a new cushion cover and relocating it, I wanted a way to make the bench blend in more with the media room. Jeremy received the octopus/squid art for Christmas and we had not yet found a place for it. The art is printed on plywood, so it compliments the wooden bench. I also have my ship art (that I made here) so I decided to seek out other elements for a nautical themed wall.

The barometer and weathered pulley are from an antiques shop in Annapolis. The barometer is British made. It’s difficult to tell if it is working properly or not, but the hands have moved (on their own) over the past few days as the weather has changed (it reported that today was windy and cool). There was a larger, way cooler barometer at the shop, but it was $235 while this one was $35. The man at the shop estimated that the more expensive barometer was WWII era. There were several pulleys at the shop but I like this one best because it is wooden and metal. Most of the others were completely metal, and more rusted. This one is weathered, but not damaged.

While selecting pulleys Jeremy and I brainstormed how to display the pulley. Hang it by the hook? Lace rope through the pulley and hang the rope from the ceiling? Then we decided we could display it on a shelf. Then Jeremy got the crazy idea to make a shelf from a pallet.

You might remember last week I mentioned that a pallet was one of the many things crowding our garage. Now that the garage was organized, Jeremy decided to put the workspace to use. He started by lightly sanding the rough pallet with his orbital sander.

Jeremy sanded the boards just enough to smooth them out, but not enough to remove the great texture that’s pictured. I liked that you could see the blade marks from when the boards were first sliced. After some sanding, Jeremy just chopped off a section of the pallet to form a shelf.

Here is the sanded pallet shelf, ready to be treated. In this photo, the top left corner of the shelf has already been treated with Behandla polish from IKEA. We purchased this sealant for my table in the craft room. It seals and protects the wood without needing to be sanded like varnish. It is also less toxic.

Jeremy gave the shelf (top, bottom and sides) a coat of the sealant. As you can see, it brought back the rich colors that were “lost” with the sanding.

To hang the self, Jeremy inserted a small 2×4 block into the shelf. He pre-drilled three screw holes into the block for mounting. Then Jeremy attached the block with three of the original pallet nails through the top of the shelf. I held the shelf in place while Jeremy screwed the block into the wall. The center screw is in a stud and the other two are in drywall.

To hide the mounting mechanism, Jeremy wedged in another piece of wood from the pallet.

The pallet shelf is rugged and weathered like the pulley. I love that the shelf is imperfect. A shelf like this would be great for an entryway. Below the overhang you could mount some hooks for jackets or keys. Jeremy likes the shelf because it cost zero dollars.

We’re really happy with how everything turned out. There are so many interesting things happening in that corner of the room. All the different wood tones bring a warm element to the cool greys, blues and greens in the room. The nautical theme continues a little onto the mantel, where the ship art still resides with our vases of stones from the beach. Definitely still keeping my eyes open for an anchor or small ship’s wheel to add to the wall. A wheel would look awesome over the mantel.

What do you think or this nautical arrangement? Totally love Jeremy’s pallet shelf?

Linked up to:

Long Overdue Garage Clean-Up

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Monica

The garage is not a room I like to show guests on “the tour”. It’s where Jeremy’s car lives, and where we hope to have a workshop. Over the past 3 years the items in the garage have varied, but most of the time it looks like this:

Okay, I will try to identify most of this mess. As you can see, Jeremy’s car was not in the garage during the photos, and the mess is more spread out than normal because Jeremy was starting Phase One of the clean-up. We have the original cloth seats from Jeremy’s car, a broken IKEA dresser, a work bench, lots of tools, car cleaning stuff, a basketball hoop backboard, extra drywall and wood, a disassembled photobooth (maybe someday I will blog about that?), brooms, more car parts, ladders, trashcans, a pallet, and a not yet installed garage door opener. I am sure there are more items lurking around, just not featured in these photos.

So, Phase One was primarily sorting through all the items in the garage. Jeremy finished disassembling the photobooth, and organizing the wood into a pile. We put away items that should not have been in the garage. And the best part? We made a huge pile of items for bulk pick-up. The saddest item was of course our old mattress. I tried selling it on Craigslist and donating it, but no one wanted it without the box-spring. So, to the dump it went. The best part about bulk pick-up? For our county you sign-up online and list the items to be picked-up… and they keep track of the pick-ups. So, in 2006 the previous owner has 4 mattresses and an entertainment center hauled away. For some reason that entertains me. After Phase One the garage looked like this:

Actually, this was before we moved out those trash items for bulk pick-up (see the backboard and the white dresser?) . Even still, this was an improvement over those original photos. Our next order of business was to get items off the floor and put away.

We spent about twenty dollars at Home Depot on these various hooks. Interesting note about the grey “U” hooks – the instructions say to soap-up the threads for easier installation. We did and it was super easy to hand-screw them into the wall, even into studs, without pilot holes.

We used the two big heavy-duty hooks to hang this 11ft ladder, and a “U” hook to hang the snow shovel. The metal brackets were used to hang the saw horses. Getting those items off the ground (and in some cases, out of the laundry room) freed up floor space. On this wall I moved Jeremy’s car items – ramps, blocks, jack, filters, cleaning supplies. Eventually we want to build shelves to house some of these items.

I used the other two “U” hooks to hang these brooms. This side of the garage needs more work. That ugly blue “shelf” was left by the previous owner. As previously mentioned, we want to build shelves, which would make this shelving obsolete and we can get rid of it.

The back wall of the garage is looking especially nice (not pictured: the pile of wood). Jeremy was finally able to clear off his tool bench and make use of the pegboard. My grandfather gifted Jeremy his Craftsman tool chest, which has more than enough room for all the tools we currently own. We’ve filled out the drawers nicely so far, but still have some organizing to do.
How do you like that pegboard? We wanted to keep our most commonly used tools out and accessible.

There are still a couple of items left on our to-do list:

Building shelving
Install garage door opener
Purchase a fire-safe cabinet to house all our paints/solvents/oil/etc
Clean/treat the floor
Make drywall repairs
Improve insulation

Although that list seems long, it is definitely more refined than “Clean the Garage”. Hopefully with a few more improvements, the garage will be a pleasant workspace, instead of a dread place to dump junk.

What cleaning and organizing activities have you been undertaking? Any major overhauls you’ve been avoiding?

Dual Flush Conversion

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Monica

A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I converted the toilet in the hall bathroom into a dual-flush toilet. After reviewing our utilities, we saw that the one bill that hasn’t decreased over the years was our water bill. We hoped that converting our most used toilet into a dual flush toilet could help save more water (and monies).

Jeremy did the research and decided on the One2Flush drop-in converter kit. You can read about the kit and installation instructions here. Jeremy chose this kit because it comes with both a button and a handle. We thought that the double button would be more obvious to guests that this is not a “normal” toilet. With the handle, Jeremy worried that people would not realize that half-flush was an option. Another reason why we chose this kit is because it claims to fit most toilets and completely replaces the rubber flap. The flap is replaced with a piston mechanism that flushes the water out with an increased force. This allows the toilet to flush effectively with less water.

The first step was replacing the rubber flap with the silicone seal that connects to the piston mechanism. In the first photo you might notice the ridges on the sides of the pipe. These ridges prevented the seal from fitting securely on top of the opening. A loose fit means that the toilet will keep running. Jeremy used his dremmel to shave down the sides of the pipe and make it smooth. Then he was able to secure the silicone seal and install the rest of the kit.

Here is the final installation. On top of the seal is the piston mechanism. On this device is where you can set the water levels for “full” and “half” flushes. We have them both set to their minimum. This mechanism connects (via the yellow hose) to the button or handle. Other reviewers mentioned that a kink in the connection hose causes the toilet to not flush properly.

After the installation was complete we let the tank refill and tried a few test flushes. The button was not as responsive as we had hoped, and the full-flush always left the toilet running. After adjusting the pieces and trying to refit the silicone seal, we replaced the dual button with the handle.

We positioned the handle vertically, again to cue our guests that something is different about this toilet. We’ve been using the toilet like this for the past few weeks, and I have no complaints. The water level in the bowl is less than before, and we already had “low flow” toilets. There hasn’t been any clogs or issues with the half or full flushes. I think that the piston mechanism is making the toilet work better than before. Jeremy is still unhappy that the button did not work. The button’s malfunction may be because everything is too cramped in the tank (causing the hose to kink). This conversion kit works with a lot of the preexisting components of the toilet. There is another kit that replaces all the parts of the tank, and may make more room for the button mechanism.

During installation we filled and empty the tank several times, and there were a lot of test flushes – so, we don’t expect to see any water savings until our next bill cycle. Since this toilet is using less water, we’ve been prioritizing its use. Perhaps if there are noticeable savings we will convert our other two toilets.

Anyone else have experience with dual-flush conversions? Did you just decide to buy a new toilet instead?

Continued Clean-Up

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Monica

Last week I posted about the little bench cushion revamp. Moving the bench to the other side of the media room left the corner by the window looking like this:

The first order of business was cleaning up the items on the shelf. Jeremy replaced the chunky green surge protector with a smaller, off-white one. He was also able to replace the ethernet wire and coaxial cable with shorter ones. The other wires were cleaned up with a few twisty-ties.

Hard to believe something so simple could make such an impact. While the wires are still not ideal, it’s much cleaner than before. We did some brainstorming about how we could possibly do a little built-in cubby for the routers. This is the only access we have to the internet, so we don’t have any options for moving the routers to a hidden location. But the shelf is hollow, so we could possible build-in a nook for them. We’ll see if those ideas come to fruition.

The routers are sitting on these cool wooden owl bookends Jeremy found at the thrift store. It’s a weird combination of bookends and shelf, which connects the two owls. The shelf has some cool carvings, which I forgot to capture before covering them with electronics. The shot above was the best I could do, without moving everything. Since we have our horse bookends and built-in bookcase we didn’t need these owls for books. using the bookends with the routers makes the mess feel more contained.

At the end of the shelf, I placed our music books (sheet music and guitar tabs). Then we brought over the keyboard to make this music corner complete.

Plus, the keyboard helps hide those two remaining wires. Do you think it looks better than before?

I don’t know if it is the new arrangement or the bright sunshine coming through the window, but everything just feels so much lighter. All I need to do now is update the keyboard’s cover with fabric that matches better. Did I mention I have a fabric problem? And the ladies at the quilt shop are enablers.

A Little Revamp

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Monica

We have a lot of problem corners in our house. That is, things get placed out of the way, in the corner, to live indefinitely.

One such area is this corner of the media room. On the shelf we have our routers and such, our remote charger, batteries, etc. In front of the shelf is a bench that became the drop-zone for Rock Band guitars, real guitars and their accessories. I decided it was time to move the bench, and deal with this mess a little.

I moved the bench into the empty corner of the room, where we put up the Christmas tree. This bench was in my father’s house, and thus holds a lot of sentimental value. Although the dark wood doesn’t really match the other elements of the room, we don’t want to alter it. For now, we’ll work with it as it is, in the space where we can use it.

The real problem anyways is the cushion. The cushion is from the photo booth Jeremy built for our wedding. Our colors were hot pink and black – hence the fuchsia velvet of the cushion. When Jeremy started deconstructing the photo booth, the cushion moved to this bench, because it is the same length.

The foam was however too wide. A great trick for cutting foam is to use an electric carving knife. Just draw a cutting line and the knife will move through the foam smoothly, like warm butter.

I chose this fabric to compliment the other green tones downstairs. I suppose it gives off a little winter-sweater vibe, but I love how graphic it is.

To construct the cover, I use the same type of techniques as when making bags (like messenger bags). Check out the book Sew What! Bags for excellent instructions. Basically, you cut rectangular panels for each side of the cushion, leaving 1/2″ for seam allowance. For the bottom of the cushion, cut two panels so that they overlap in the middle. This is where you will insert the pillow/cushion.

The new fabric helps the dark bench blend better with the room. The hot pink was just screaming, “Look at this weird furniture that doesn’t fit in anywhere!” From far away, you can hardly tell the fabric is patterned, it just looks lime greeny.

Here’s a better close-up. New cushion, bench and other colors of the room. The cushion fabric picks up the lighter green tones of the paisley in the fireplace vent covers. I have some art ideas to help further tie the darker colors all together. Hopefully more about that soon (we’ve got some serious thrifting to do).

And as for the other corner of the room?

Still a hot mess. We’ll share our ideas for how to fix that later.

What clutter projects have you been tackling? What elements of your home need a revamp?

Linked up to:

Foyer Curtains

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Monica

In August 2011 I made some magnetic curtains to hang on either side of our front door. A year and half later, they’re looking pretty rough:

The curtains are slightly too narrow, letting light creep in along the edges. At the top the backing has pulled free, due to the strong magnets. We want curtains covering these windows for a few reasons, mainly: to protect the bamboo floor from concentrated sunlight and prevent fading; and privacy from people looking into our house. I originally chose this fabric because it tied in the blue of the living room walls, and the wood tones of the floor and furniture in the living room. Now I’ve lost interest in the fabric, and the curtains’ poor performance gives me reason to replace them.

Jeremy found me these super strong magnets to hang the curtains (since the door frame is magnetic). The magnets are so strong though that many pulled free from the glue that was holding them to the curtains. The back of the curtains is a light vinyl, chosen because it blocks out the light, and offers a little insulation. Also, it’s white, so form the outside you see white instead of patterned curtain (just like with our blinds). I picked up exactly the amount I needed from a JoAnn’s remnant bin (an excellent score). So, I disassembled the curtains so I could reuse the backing.

This time I approached the construction differently. I decided to employ my quilting skills and my binding tool to attach the new fabric to the backing. I cut the fabric an inch wider than the backing, making the binding 1/2″ wide. Then I stitched along with edge of the binding with a zig-zag stitch.

By attaching the backing this way the curtains will lie flatter than the old curtains. I was also able to maximize the area, making the curtains wider and longer than before. Oh, and I love the new fabric! Jeremy was unsure at first, but I think it is growing on him. The colors are rich and bold, and still tie everything together. Blue, brown, tan, greens and off white – these colors are found in the foyer, living room and media room.

This time I traded the super strong magnets for the adhesive magnets – from the fireplace vent covers project. I cut inch-wide strips and stuck them to the top and bottom of each curtain. I don’t trust the adhesive, so I also stitched the magnets on each end.

Much better! The wider curtains, with magnets on top and bottom, stay in place better and are not letting the light creep through. I was worried about the strength of the magnets, but the curtains have not fallen since we hung (stuck?) them a week ago. With the larger curtains I wondered, would it be even better to make long panels to fill the entire space on either side of the door? I think that would look really cool, and be an easy way to make a big impact in a foyer. Alas, I will not pursue this plan because we’d rather get a new door(s) without windows.

With some extra fabric I made a throw pillow for the couch. Now you can better see how the colors all work together. The brown and blue birds are a match for the couch and blue throw pillows. My only regret is that I didn’t have enough leftover to make two pillows! Oh well, I love the fresh green mingling with the darker hues upstairs.

Have you reworked any projects lately? What did you modify? What did you learn the second (or third) time around?
Linked up to:

Manic Mondays – Serendipity and Spice

What’s Going on Back There?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Monica

On Monday we posted about our utilities and what we’ve done to cut the cost. We mentioned our BGE SmartMeter, which allows us to view our energy usage online. The BGE website also has tips for how to save monies. One that we hadn’t considered before was cleaning the back of the refrigerator to help it run more efficiently.

We pulled the refrigerator away from the wall – uncovering filth on the floor and a lot of dust on the back of the fridge. This dust can clog up the coils and cause the fridge to run inefficiently. We read some posts online about cleaning the coils. People were removing panels off the back of refrigerators to clean the coils. The back of our fridge warned us to not remove any of the panels. We certainly did not want to electrocute ourselves or unplug the fridge. So, I just did my best to vacuum the back vent. I also cleaned that gross mess on the floor.

That’s better! We haven’t cleaned back there since we got the fridge in July 2009. So, that was long overdue.

Is our fridge running more efficiently? We’re not sure. We haven’t noticed – and I think that’s a good thing. There have been times where we have heard the fridge running from our bedroom. Since we have cleaned the back vent, we haven’t really noticed the fridge at all. When I have noticed the fridge running, I definitely think it is quieter.

Anyone else having cleaning adventures? Tricks for making appliances run more efficiently?