McLampshades: Burlap, Felt and a Little Lace to Make them Feel Like a Lady

     In a continued effort to make my bedroom not look like the last 20 years of random accumulation threw up all over it, I reconstructed my bedside lampshades.  My hope was that they'd match the I-got-all-this-crap-for-almost-free-and-I'm-pretending-it-looks-rustic-and-farmy look that I seem to be going for these days. 

     First, I grabbed some extra burlap I had sitting in a basket in the corner (yes, that really is where it was) and traced my lampshade on them.  I cut it out, leaving about an inch extra on each side of the "pattern" and hot glued that sucker over the existing shade.  I pulled the extra inch on top over the frame and glued it down on the inside, same on the bottom.  BURLAP LAMP SHADES BAM!

     But that didn't quite meet my need for pretty things, so I whipped out some felt and lace and decided to make some little flower things.  This is how you make little flower things:

Click Photo to See Text

     So after spending 15 minutes burning the heck out of my fingers, as is normal whenever I touch a hot glue gun, I had a bunch of little flowers.  I weilded the treacherous hot glue gun again and glued them to the lamps, stuffed some lace-y crap in it to make them feel like a lady, and BAM!  New lamps!

     I'm pretty psyched.  Not quite finished with them yet, as I'm trying to decide what color to make the bases, but I was too pumped not to go ahead and post them.  I'm going to start gluing these little flowers to everything.

McHeadboard: Made Entirely of Pallets from the Trash

     One of the benefits of my fiancee working where he does is that I have a never-ending, all-you-can-eat buffet of wooden pallets to craft with.  Today's obsession was born our of inspiration on Pinterest, a truck bed full of pallets, and a desperate need to make something using power tools.

What I Started With:



     I spent the better part of an hour wrestling with the pallets, using hammers, needlenose pliers, and MY BARE HANDS to rip them apart.  I felt like some kind of awesome, wood-hating bear.  Once I finally got all the boards I wanted, I lined them all up hot dog style to equal six feet.  I rummaged through the garage for some 1"X4" and whipped out the circular saw and went GZZZBZZZZZZZZZRRRRZZZZZ until I had two pieces that were 1"X4"X6'.  Grabbing my (roommate's) trusty drill, I laid the two 6' boards across the pallet pieces and screwed about 70 screws (seriously) through to the pallet pieces.  I added a couple of legs and VOILA! Rustic, but super awesome headboard for my room.

BASK!  BASK IN THE FANTASTIC!



Cost:

Pallets: Free

1X4: Free

Screws: 6$

That's some inexpensive ambiance right there!  I feel a need to make everything ever rising up inside me.