It’s now the…what? 14th week of January? 🤪 We’ve been slammed with snow and ice, gone crazy from school snow days, and got very lucky when a falling tree narrowly missed our garage. Playing outside lets us breathe in some fresh air, but the freezing winds off Lake Michigan also mean we live in one of those places where the air hurts your face.
Inside, where 4 humans, 2 dogs, and 1 cat live, I wish very much for open windows with summery fresh air. Until then, however, I’m doing what I can to add some nice, fresh smells around here.
I found some dried eucalyptus online and decided to use that in our master bathroom. I have fake eucalyptus in a vase by my sink, but I knew I couldn’t put the real thing there because our cat eats everything. Also, we’re low on counter space and I didn’t want to add another vase. So, I decided to hang this dried eucalyptus. The bunch I purchased came with a nice bit of twine for hanging, but I wanted something a little fancier than just a hanging bunch.
What I came up with ended up looking pretty and was SO easy to do! You could make these out of any size embroidery hoop, with as many wooden beads as you can fit. You could even paint the beads different colors if you wanted. Or you could hang the hoop with twine for a more rustic look. There are many things you could add to the steps below, but here’s the quick and easy way I did mine!
Supplies:
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embroidery hoop (mine was the 8 inch inner ring from this set)
wooden beads (mine were the biggest ones from this pack)
Step 1: Prep the eucalyptus and test the beads. I used the largest size beads from the pack I purchased – the 3/4 inch beads, I think. The hole size in these beads was perfect for inserting the eucalyptus stems so that they stuck tight but could still be removed if needed. I first plucked off the leaves from the bottom 2-3 inches of the eucalyptus stems. I also scraped down the places where the leaves connected to make sure the stems would fit through the bead holes. I ended up prepping all but 2 of my eucalyptus stems, because you want some extra for the last step.
Prepping the stems.
Step 2: Glue wooden beads together. Taking my embroidery hoop, I tested with beads until I figured out about how many I would need. Be sure that the beads at either end sit on top of the hoop, not on the inside, so that the eucalyptus will stay straight rather than bending around the hoop. If your end beads don’t sit exactly on the hoop, all you have to do is move the beads a little up or down on the hoop, depending on your placement preference, until everything lines up right. I ended up needing 8 beads.
Keep in mind that your holes will go up and down. To be sure I glued them all together straight, I did 2 at a time. I only had to use one small dot of hot glue to stick 2 beads together, and I pressed them tight until the glue dried. Once I had all my beads paired up, I set them on my counter to make sure they’d be straight. Then I pressed more small dots of hot glue between each pair to connect them all together.
Glueing beads together.
Step 3: Connect bead ends to the hoop. Next I held the strand of beads in place over my hoop and glued one end bead to the front of the hoop. Then I did the other end. Again, make sure the holes aim up and down (according to how it will hang) when attaching to the hoop. To be really sure the beads stayed on, I went all around the backsides of the end beads with glue to really secure them in place.
Glueing beads to the hoop.
Step 4: Insert the eucalyptus. With my eucalyptus already prepped, it was easy to push each stem down through the bead holes. I cut a few shorter to add some depth to the look of things, now that I was arranging the eucalyptus in place.
Stems inserted.
Step 5: Glue eucalyptus to the bottom stems. Remember how I didn’t prep a few eucalyptus stems? I cut these into lengths long enough to cover the exposed, naked stems that stuck through the bottoms of the beads. It took one whole eucalyptus branch plus a little bit of the last one. These short bits I glued onto the empty stems, gently pressing to make sure they stuck. The last long bit of eucalyptus I just tucked behind the beads to fill out the the finished look.
Adding to empty stems.
That was it! I took the finished piece up to my bathroom, tapped in a nail where I wanted to hang it, and hung it by the hoop at the top.
AFTER: Eucalyptus wall hanger!
I really like how this fills in an empty space on my walls (which honestly are pretty cool on their own, and you can find that tutorial here). The eucalyptus hanger looks pretty, adds an organic touch to the room, and smells lovely!
Was this one of the first projects I did in our house? Yes. Have I blogged about it yet? No. 😜 But now is the time! I wanted to be really sure this desk would hold up, and 2 years later it’s still working great, so I think it’s safe to say this project is a good one!
When we first moved in, we knew we wanted to convert this small bedroom into an office. It’s right off our master bedroom, and the closet for this bedroom was perfect to make our master closet bigger by breaking down one wall and closing off the wall of our new office. That was a whole project in and of itself, but having 2 solid walls meeting at a corner meant I had a lot more space to work with for a big office desk.
BEFORE: Small bedroom corner.
BEFORE: Small bedroom closet door.
Once done building my wall back together, I ended up making a cool faux-brick effect over where the closet door used to be. (I have a tutorial on how to do the brick look here.) This forgave any less-than-smooth finishes in my construction process. 😆
The room ready for a new desk!
Before I started on my desk and shelving plan, I tore out the carpet and put down new flooring. And I painted the walls with a blue pretty close to the original, just to give it a fresh coat. Then, it was time for my desk.
Do you have to completely makeover a room before building this desk and shelves? No. But it is important to have the flooring you want first, since the desk legs will rest on the floor for support. Since it’s attached to the wall, nothing moves once you finish building this!
Supplies:
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Step 1: Measure and plan. Your measurements will be unique to your room, of course, but you can plan things out like I did. This first step might take time, but once you have this plan, everything is easy to follow from here.
I wanted to use 1×10 wood for the shelves and 2×10 wood for the desk. So how long did these need to be? My long wall was now 10 ft long running from the corner right to the window, so I decided to stop a foot short of the window to leave some room there. So, the desk along that wall needed to be 9 ft long. My short wall was a little over 7 ft from the doorframe to the corner, so I decided on 6 ft for that side.
How many 1x10s did I need? I figured one piece for each shelf would be plenty wide to hold books and things. I wanted 2 shelves running the full length of my long wall. Then I wanted another shorter shelf below those to separate the space between my husband’s area and my area. And for the other wall, I wanted a set of 3 shorter shelves that would kind of mimic the part on the long wall that would have 3 shelves. I decided to make all these shorter shelves 20 inches long.
Shelf total: I needed two 1x10x10-ft boards. Plus, I needed another 1x10x8-ft board for my 4 shorter, 20-inch shelves.
For the desk itself, how many 2x10s did I need? I stared at the empty floor of our office for a while before deciding that three boards deep would be a good size for the main, long part of our desk. This would give plenty of depth for computer screens and whatever, but it wouldn’t jut out too far into the already-small room. So, I needed 3 boards at the full 9 ft. But for the shorter, 6-foot side, I decided on just 2 boards deep to leave more space in the room. This would be more like a side desk anyway, so it didn’t need to be as deep. So, I needed 2 boards at the 6-foot length. (I planned to stagger how these boards all met in the corner, but I figured having boards at the full lengths to start would be safe.)
Desk total: Three 2x10x10-ft boards and one 2x10x12-ft board.
How was I going to hang the shelves and support the desk? I went over a lot of options and ended up wanting an industrial look to complement what I planned to do with the wood. Because the room was small, I knew I wanted everything to look as simple and sleek as possible, like the desk and shelves were open rather than on bulky, built-in bases.
For the shelves… After shopping around, I found these metal pipe shelving bracket sets. To make sure my wood wouldn’t stretch too far without supports, I decided to do 4 sets along my long wall and just 2 sets for the smaller wall. The nice thing about these is that I could space them really however I wanted, so I could find my studs and hang these pipe brackets, then run the wood of the shelves however far they needed to go beyond where my studs were. I needed 6 sets.
For the desk… I decided to get big shelf L-brackets and connect them to my studs, then set a 2×10 on top and connect the wood from the underside. These brackets would connect to the board closest to the wall and also the middle board, since I bought brackets that were 14 inches long. I ended up needing 8.
To give the middle board extra support and to hold up the front board at all, I wanted pipe legs to match the pipe brackets of the shelves. I decided on 28-inch pipe legs to make the top of the desk come to a comfortable 30 inches (once the 2-inch desk boards were on). I ended up needing 5. And to attach the front board to the middle board, I planned to use 2 mending plates near either end to hold them together.
This was where I had to think through the corner where the desk’s boards would meet. I came up with a staggered plan that I drew out like this:
Rough sketch for staggered corner plan.
This meant my long back board would go the full 9 ft of my desk. My staggered middle board would be short this by the width of my 10-inch board running along the 6-ft wall. (REMEMBER: Wood measurements in stores are approximate, so a “10-inch” board isn’t really 10 inches wide.) The front board would be short by the width of two 10-inch (approximately) boards on that 6-ft wall. Then, the 6-ft wall’s back board would be approximately 10 inches shy of 6 ft. The front board would be short by 2 widths of the approximately 10-inch boards.
Underneath this staggered pattern, I would use my shelf brackets to form a strong corner support, plus a few pipe legs underneath. This was also where one of my mending plates would hold the middle and front board of my long side together. (It’s a busy corner under there, but the only thing visible is the legs!)
SIDE NOTE: You could cut the corners at 45-degree angles to meet at a nice 90-degree corner. Or, you could run one wall’s boards all the way to the corner and then make the other wall’s boards shorter to make the corner. Personally, I liked this staggered look even if it was a little more complicated. 🤷♀️
“What else do we want?” I asked myself…and my husband, who likes bells and whistles. 🤣
I bought 2 sets of keyboard tray hardware, one for each of us. We decided on 28-inches for the length of our trays, so I added another 8-ft 1×10 to my shopping list for good measure.
And wouldn’t it be nice to have a few grommets in the desktop so we could run cords down to hide? Yes, so I bought desk grommets. And because Amazon suggestions get me every time, I also bought a few power grommets with USB ports. (Ok, I might like bells and whistles too.)
I also decided I wanted some hidden storage. To accomplish this, I figured out how to make a kind of hidden cabinet under the desk between my husband’s area and my area. This would also help support the long side of the desk – the desktop’s wood could rest on top of the cabinet. The plan I came up with meant I needed 4 pieces of 2×10 that would be 28 inches tall to fit under the desk and act as the sides of the cabinet. I’d leave the back against the wall open, but for the front I wanted a cabinet door made of 2 pieces of 1×10 with a narrow 1×3 in the middle to be decorative – all being a little less than 28 inches. I’d also needed 2x4s to attach and brace the whole thing together, and I could rest 2x10s or 1x10s (whatever I had leftover from my other cuts) across these to create a shelf. I could have planned for a normal cabinet door with simple hinges, but no. I apparently thought I needed a challenge that day and opted for folding shelf hinges that would flip up the cabinet door and lock so we could use the it as extra table/desk space.
(The above extras are completely optional, of course, but now I’m happy I added them!)
Step 2: Cut the wood. Fortunately my dad let me borrow his truck to bring all my wood home. In my garage, I marked by boards at the lengths I’d decided on and then simply cut them down as planned:
2 boards of 1×10 cut to 9 ft (top 2 shelves, long wall )
4 boards of 1×10 cut to 20 inches (bottom long wall shelf, 3 short wall shelves)
1 board of 2×10 cut to 9 ft (desk back, long wall)
1 board of 2×10 cut to 8 ft 3 inches (desk middle, long wall)
1 board of 2×10 cut to 7 ft 6 inches (desk front, long wall)
1 board of 2×10 cut to 5 ft 3 inches (desk back, short wall)
1 board of 2×10 cut to 4 ft 6 inches (desk front, short wall)
2 boards of 1×10 cut to 28 inches (keyboard trays)
4 boards of 2×10 cut to 28 inches (cabinet sides)
2 boards of 1×10 cut to 26 inches (cabinet door)
1 board of 1×3 cut to 26 inches (cabinet door)
2 scrap boards of 1×6 cut to around 12 inches (for bracing and connecting the cabinet door’s pieces)
6 scrap pieces of 2×4 cut to around 18 inches (for bracing and constructing the cabinet)
Because I trusted my plan from Step 1, all this went pretty quickly.
I wish I could say I had a method to my madness for where I drilled the 2-inch grommet holes with our hole saw, but I kinda just put a few on either end of the back long board, figuring we’d want a few each. I also drilled a few on the back board of the narrow side of the desk in case things needed to be plugged in over there too.
Step 3: Sand. My cut ends all needed to be sanded, as did my grommet holes. Also, I wanted to get rid of rough, harsh corners wherever we’d be most likely to touch against the corners of the desk. I accomplished this by sanding things down to slightly rounded edges at the ends of the boards that would be the ends of my desk. I really, really sanded the front boards along the side that would be the front of the desk. I also paid careful attention to the front corners of the keyboard trays.
This wasn’t too difficult, though time-consuming.
Step 4: Stain/Paint/torch the wood. Yes, I said torch. I wanted to try something to add interest to the desk, so I took my kitchen torch and went over what would become the tops and frontmost sides of the front boards. I also torched the little 1×3 that would add a decorative touch to the cabinet door. I traced the wood grain where I could and used long strokes, painting with fire, so to speak. I love doing this to wood, and it leaves a neat effect.
Torched front board.
For the middle and back boards of the desk as well as the shelf boards, keyboard tray boards, and remaining cabinet wood, I used a charred wood accelerator, which is a kind of aging stain. This stuff is really cool and leaves a different texture and finish than normal stain. I applied this with a roller, which I also think adds to the finished look as opposed to a brush. I applied this to the tops and bottoms of the shelves especially, since we’d be able to see the undersides of the higher shelves.
Rolled on charred wood accelerator.
Or, if you want, you could paint the boards or stain them normally. To each their own. 😆
Step 5: Mark the walls. Before I started screwing into my walls willy-nilly, I first marked where my studs were. I used a stud-finder and then a level to draw a light line down my walls. I made sure to start the line pretty high up so I could use it for my shelves later. For now, going around my walls, I marked on my stud lines at the 28-inch point. This was how high my shelf brackets needed to be placed so that the back boards would rest on the brackets at the same height as the front boards where they’d rest on my 28-inch legs.
Step 6: Attach the shelf brackets. I had 8 studs that made sense for placing desk braces, so I used 8 from my pack. I could have used the whole pack, I suppose, but that seemed sufficient.🤷♀️ Starting on my shorter wall seemed easiest, so I held my first shelf bracket in place over the first stud at my 28-inch mark and screwed the bracket onto the wall. Then I skipped a stud and went to the next one, repeating the process to hang the next bracket. Then I moved to the stud nearest the corner and attached another. So, 3 on that short wall.
Moving to the longer wall, I again selected the stud closest to the corner and attached another bracket. This bracket very nearly reached the other wall’s nearest corner bracket, kind of forming a square against the corner. I knew this would help support the staggered wood of my corner pretty well. I then skipped a few studs and secured another bracket. And in the middle of my long wall, where I knew my cabinet would be, I attached another bracket just to help hold the weight since the cabinet wouldn’t have a back. Then, I moved a few more studs down and attached another bracket. Now at the far end of my long wall, near the window, I attached one last bracket to support that end. This gave me 5 on the longer wall.
Step 7: Connect the desk boards in place on the brackets. I have few pictures of this step because it went pretty fast once I got rolling, plus my hands were full! But, I’m glad my husband thought to take a picture as I was attaching the last board!
Before I did anything, I prepped my pipe legs by screwing on the end flanges and measuring to make sure the assembled legs were 28 inches. I wouldn’t attach these legs yet, but I wanted them to prop up the wood as I went.
With the legs ready, I brought my desk boards up to the office and made sure to start with my longest, 9 ft board. This was the board with the holes for grommets, so I made sure the side with the holes was closest to the wall. I lifted this semi-awkwardly onto the waiting shelf brackets on the long wall, shoving it to fit snug into the corner. Then, I started in the middle and knelt down to screw up through the bracket into the wood. After just one bracket was attached, I knew this was going to work because it was really, really secure on that one bracket. I then easily went along the board and screwed through the other brackets into the rest of the wood. First board on!
To make sure things lined up, I next went to the other wall and started with that back board. I made sure the corner end was pushed tight against the long wall’s back board, and then I started at that corner bracket and screwed it on. Moving to the other brackets, I quickly secured those too.
Going back to the long wall, I got ready to attach the middle board. Since the shelf brackets were 14 inches under my back board, this meant they stuck out to also support the middle board. Easily enough, I held the middle board tight against the back board with its end snug against the corner formed by the side board, and I screwed this middle board into the bracket too. I did this all up and down that middle board. BUT, I also grabbed a few of the legs to help support this middle board. I didn’t attach these, but they reassured me that the board wasn’t going to fall.
Next, I went to the shorter wall and took that second board, which would be the front board on this narrower side of the desk. This was my pretty, burned board. I set it on top of the exposed ends of the brackets and supported it in place with one hand while screwing it on with the other. Again to be safe, I placed a pipe leg under either end of this front board until I was ready to attach it later.
All that was left was the last, front board. First, I knelt down and screwed the mending plates to the bottom of my middle board. I did one near the corner and another near the far end of the desk by the window. This at least would give me something to set the front board on, but I wanted to make sure not to leave the full weight of the board on the jutting plates, just in case it was too heavy. Instead, I positioned more pipe legs under where the front board would sit.
Then I lifted the front board in place and carefully set it on both the mending plates and the pipe legs. I continued to hold the board tight against the middle board, and I knelt down by the corner end and screwed through the mending plate to secure the board. I next went to the other end and did the same with the other mending plate.
That held all the boards connected and in place, but I knew the legs would be necessary to really support the weight.
Placing the long front board.
Step 8: Attach the legs. First, I went to the far end by the window. I had 2 legs waiting there, one under the front board and one under where the middle and back board met. I wiggled these legs a bit so that they each were positioned about 6 inches in from the end of the desk. I made sure the front board’s leg was centered on the underside of that board, and then I screwed the top flange into the bottom of that front board. Next, I went to the other leg and screwed that into where the middle board and back board met.
Back leg at end of long wall.
Back in the corner, I wiggled a propping leg under where the 2 front boards met. I was able to screw the flange into both of these boards so that this leg helped support both front boards. Next, because the middle board of the long wall had the least support at this end, I placed another leg centered under that middle board.
Corner underside with mending plate, legs, and shelving brackets.
Finally, I went to the far end of the shorter desk and attached a leg under the front board, making sure to center and space it the same as I’d done with the long wall’s front board’s leg – 6 inches in from the end.
That was it! Five legs, and the desk was assembled.
Step 9: Attach the keyboard trays. I could have saved this step for later, I suppose, but it helped to visualize where we would be sitting in relation to where I would place the shelves. To attach these, I started with my husband’s space and made sure to come down at least 6 inches from the corner so it wouldn’t be too close a fit against the side desk. I tested by holding the hardware under the desk and pulling the slide part out. When I was happy with how far it would extend from under the desk, I marked the screw holes with a pencil against the underside of the boards. I then attached this first side’s hardware, making sure to measure so it would come out straight. Then, I measured to make space for my 28-inch board that would be the tray, and I held the other side’s hardware here and marked again with a pencil. After double checking my measurements to make sure everything was straight, I screwed that side’s hardware in too.
For my side of the desk, I kind of just figured out how far from the end I wanted to sit, then positioned the tray hardware there. I made sure to match my husband’s side as far as how far back the hardware was positioned so they would look the same. Then I screwed them in place.
Keyboard tray hardware installed.
Lastly, I pulled out the hardware slides, took the 2 boards for my keyboard trays, and rested them on the hardware. From there, I could simply screw them on from the underside. Done! (Ok, I actually added the boards later, but I don’t know why I waited. Doing it at this point would have made more sense.)
Step 10: Position and secure the pipe shelving bracket sets. To better visualize how this would work, I assembled all 6 of the shelf bracket sets first.
Shelf bracket sets assembled.
Then I had to think about this a bit. I knew I would have to set the long top boards in place before totally building the shelves because there would be no way to get the boards in place otherwise. So, I started by figuring out the two ends of the long wall’s shelving first. This way, I could lift a board up and set it in place on the lower of the 2 shelves, then place the higher shelf in place. Then I’d be able to install the middle 2 sets of shelf brackets around the board.
Starting in the corner, I found my first stud line and set one of the pre-constructed shelving bracket sets here. I used my level to get it straight up and down, and then I screwed the bottom flange onto the middle board where the pipe met the desktop. Now it was kind of like a tree, “planted” onto the desk with the tiers of pipes sticking out towards (but not yet secured to) the wall. After climbing a ladder, I started at the very top tier of the waiting pipes and flanges. After making sure that two of the flange’s holes went over the stud line, I used a pencil and marked where the third hole of the flange would be. Then I pushed aside the pipe and flange and quickly drilled a hole, then installed a wall anchor where this third hole would be. Moving the pipe and flange back in place, I screwed the flange to the wall.
I repeated this for the other 3 lower tiers. I don’t know that the wall anchors were necessary, considering most of the screwed went into studs and the base was screwed into the desk wood, but it seemed a good idea to make sure these things would be as sturdy as possible.
That side done, I moved to the window side of the long desk and repeated this at the stud nearest that end.
Once these ends were up, I played around with exactly where I wanted the 2 middle shelves to go. I ended up spacing them so there would be equal distance for my area and my husband’s area, and I put them about 18 inches apart – that would give my 20-inch shelves an inch overhang on either side. I marked on the wall where the lowest flange would need to be screwed in. BUT, I didn’t install these shelving sets until I had my top boards in place.
Shelf bracket sets installed at either end.
Instead, I moved to the shorter wall and stared at it until deciding that I didn’t want to connect these shelves to the desk at all. Since the pipes came out to the middle board, I would have had 2 pipes weirdly connected to the front of the narrower desk there. So, I ended up taking off the bottom sections of these 2 shelving sets, instead only wall-mounting the shelves. I measured to make sure these shelves would start at the same height up from the desk as the long wall’s shelves, and then I marked at this height on my stud line nearest the end of the desk as well as the next stud line over.
Once on my ladder, I again figured out where my wall anchors would need to go. I drilled for these and pushed in my wall anchors, then started at the bottom and attached that lowest flange to the wall. Then I did the second tier. Because I was tired and I wanted to be sure I was doing this right, I left the top tier off and started on the other shelf brackets to make sure it all lined up like I hoped. I screwed the 2 bottom tiers into the wall, took a break to take a picture, and then secured the top tiers to the wall too.
Fortunately, the whole thing was straight and level. Cue sigh of relief.
Installing the short wall shelves.
Step 11: Attach the boards as shelves. First, I started with the 2 long boards. On my ladder near the corner side of the desk, I lifted the first board up and tilted it so that it fed down through the window side’s space of the third tier from the top. I had just enough space to push it far enough so that the corner end could fit down on the third tier of the corner-side shelving set. I slid the board a little until it had equal spacing at each end. Next, I repeated this for the top shelf’s board, resting this one on the second tier down. At last, I had 2 shelves!
Now, I quickly installed the rest of those 2 middle shelving bracket sets. This was easy enough. I fully assembled each set, then slid them into place under and around the top 2 shelves. I had to lift the shelves a little bit to get the flanges under and behind the boards, but that was easy. I first screwed the bottoms into the top of the desk to make sure they stayed put. Then I screwed the tiers in, adding wall anchors because these didn’t line up with my studs.
After that, it was really easy to set the 20-inch boards in place on my shorter shelves.
Shelf wood on!
When I was happy with the overhangs on either sides of the boards, I took a bunch of pipe-fitting U-brackets and fit them over the pipes along the undersides of the shelves. These screwed in easily with little screws, and they held the shelves in place so they didn’t slide around. (REMEMBER: Just make sure that you buy at the right size brackets to fit over your pipes’ size. Mine were 3/4 inch.)
Closeup of U-bracket.
Step 12: Build the cabinet. Keep in mind that I knew this would be mostly hidden, so I didn’t worry about my construction looking too pretty. LOL.
Basically I took 2 of my 28-inch tall 2×10 boards and stood them under the desk to act as the side of the cabinet on my husband’s side. I made sure to space these about 8 inches away from that nearest keyboard tray hardware, figuring this would be a good way to make equal spacing from each of our sides. Next, I grabbed the other 2 of my 28-inch 2×10 boards and positioned them the same way, this time using my side’s keyboard hardware as a guide. I stood back and eyeballed this, and that looked like pretty good positioning underneath the middle shelves above. I wanted to be sure that the cabinet door wouldn’t stick out farther than the desk’s front, so I wiggled the boards back a bit to allow room for the future cabinet door. It was obvious that 2 boards wouldn’t cover the full depth of the desk’s 3 boards, but I liked that there was room along the back wall to let light from the window through and also to allow cords to run back and forth here. It also gave me wiggle room if I was off with how far the cabinet door would stick out.
I took a pencil and traced lines where the 2x10s met the underside of the desktop, and then I pulled all the wood out to more easily assemble the cabinet in the middle of the room.
Measuring the distance between my marks, I set up my 2x10s again so they stood like the sides of my cabinet. Going quickly down to my garage, I took some scrap 2x4s and cut 6 pieces at a max of 18 inches long. These I took back to the office and placed along the floor on the inside side of either cabinet side, and I screwed the bracing 2x4s into the 2x10s to hold them together. I did this for either side at the bottom, and then I placed one along the back side to connect the 2x4s of either side. (See below)
Next, I went about halfway up and screwed a 2×4 into either side, after quickly making sure they were level. I also put one across the back, like I’d done with the base. This would create a base on which to set a shelf, so I checked the measurements and then went down to the leftover 2x10s I had in the garage. I cut 2 boards that would fit across the cabinet’s shelf space, and after a quick sanding, I took these back up to the office. Setting them on the upper 2x4s, I screwed them on as a shelf.
With all this built, I carefully pushed the cabinet under the desk to line up with the pencil marks.
Cabinet base in place.
Cabinet shelf installed.
By this point, I was not thrilled with myself for planning a flip-up cabinet door because I was tired. Also, the hinge hardware was a little wider than I’d realized, and I had to add little scrap pieces of wood onto the fronts of the 2x10s before installing the hinges on the front sides of the cabinet. I also added little strips of 1x2s along the tops of the cabinets where they met the underside of the desk, just because it looked nice finished off that way.
Folding hinge attached and trim wood.
Once the hardware was on, I got to work on the last piece – the cabinet door. I had already stained the two 1×10 pieces and burned the decorative 1×3 strip. Flipping these over to the backside, I made sure they were even and square. Then I took my scrap 1×6 wood pieces and set them with one at the bottom and one at the top, making sure they stretched evenly over all 3 boards. From there, it was easy enough to use little screws and connect these 2 crossing boards to the 3 cabinet door boards underneath.
Next, I found a little shim and set it on the floor in front of the cabinet. Then I set the cabinet door on this shim so the door would have a little gap over the floor and be able to move without scraping into the floor. I shifted the door so that it was evenly positioned in front of the cabinet, sticking out about 2 inches on either side of the cabinet to hide it. Very lightly, I used a pencil and drew a little line on the front side of the desk to mark where the cabinet door needed to be positioned.
All that ready, I moved the door and flipped up the hinges to the locked position. Then, I set the cabinet door on the hinges and lined it up with the pencil marks on the door. I made sure the top of the door was away from the desktop far enough so the door wouldn’t scrape the desk when it opened and closed, and then I crawled under the cabinet door and screwed it onto the hardware.
Underside of cabinet door.
Holding my breath, I unlocked the hinges and folded the cabinet door back into place. It worked! (See below for the cabinet door in the “table” position.)
Step 13: Bells and whistles. Taking my grommets, I went around my desk and popped them into the holes. For the power grommets, I first fed the cords down through the holes, then popped them into place.
AFTER: Long wall finished and table/door flipped up!
DONE! This was a lot of work, but it turned out better than I had planned. I’m glad its not too bulky for our small office, and it holds a lot of computer equipment, cords…and Legos. The top shelves ended up being used mostly for Legos. LOL. But, I managed to squeeze my own books onto a shelf on my side, so…oh, well. If I ever want more shelving space, I could always add another shelf on that top tier.
AFTER: Corner finished!
Lego shelf. LOL
BONUS: Much later, we decided we wanted a drawer for pencils and whatnot, so I ended up making a floating pullout drawer on the short side desk. That project got it’s own tutorial, so you can find that at “DIY Hanging Office Drawer” on my blog.
Here’s my last DIY project for the year on the last day of 2023!
Once the charm of Christmas is over, I remember how much I dislike the early darkness of winter. (I can practically hear you people making jokes about my name, but trust me – I’ve heard it all. 😆) In my younger/single days, I often left up white Christmas lights all winter to make my living spaces more cozy despite the cold, dark nights. Now, I live with a husband and 2 small children who can’t remember to turn off a room’s “big lights” for anything. So, cozier light is harder to come by these days.
BUT, my girls do enjoy candlelight, and flameless, LED votive candles are a great, safe way to add touches of coziness scattered about where my family is least likely to leave on the house lights. Plus, I get the extra fun of figuring out cool holders for the candles…
Enter my second use for the pop bottles from my last project. I used the top halves of pop bottles to make Christmas bells, and now I found a use for the bottom halves – candle holders!
BEFORE: Empty pop bottles.
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Step 1: Cut bottles in half. If you haven’t done my last project with the top parts of the bottles, then take new pop bottles, wash them, and cut them to whatever heights you like. I’d already cut mine a little lower than halfway down, so those were the sizes that I had to work with. But you could make them as tall as you like, or even cut them at an angle so that the “backs” of your candle holders will be tall with shorter “fronts” to show more light. Really, you can cut them any size or design you like!
To cut the bottles, I found it worked best to stab a knife in to make hole, then use scissors to cut around the bottle. Again, I made mine in as straight a line as I could…especially since I didn’t think of the angled idea until way after. LOL.
Cut bottoms of cleaned bottles.
Step 2: Rim with hot glue. As you’ll see in the following options, there are a few ways I made candle holders. But for each option, I started by rimming the tops of the cut bottles with hot glue. This adds some texture, keeps the cut tops from being jagged or sharp, and makes a “melted glass” looking edge.
Hot glued rims.
And now you pick how to finish!
Option 1: Paint the rims. For a few of the bottles that had flat bottoms, I simply used a paint marker and colored over the cooled/hardened hot glue. I used a metallic gold paint pen, and I like how shiny and pretty this made the rims, leaving the rest of the candle holder clear to see the brightest light.
Glue painted gold.
I filled the base of the bottle/candle holder with a bit of coarse sea salt, partly to look pretty and partly to help the base be heavier. Setting a flameless votive candle in the center, these were done! You could fill your bottoms with different things for these candle holders, since this option leaves the insides most visible. I might change things up and replace the salt with pebbles at some point. Or beads. There are lots of options!
Option 2: Glue the sides and roll in salt. For other bottles with flat bottoms (these were SmartWater bottles), I spread hot glue on small sections at a time and then rolled that side over a plate covered with coarse sea salt. This used a lot of hot glue sticks, but honestly these surprised me in the end and were my favorite.
Rolled in sea salt.
Once the salt was stuck all over (some gaps are fine), I took these candle holders down to my workshop and used a clear gloss spray to coat them. This helped hold the salt in place and also added a crystal-like shine to the salt.
With these dry, I took them back upstairs and again poured some sea salt into the base of each candle holder. (You can’t really see what’s inside these options, so the salt was fine just for adding weight.) Setting a flameless votive candle in the center, these were done too!
Option 3: Make a cork base. The bigger, 2-liter bottles had bottoms that were very obviously pop bottles, so I wanted to hide these bottoms a little better. One way I did this was by using wine corks left over from another project. First, I took a knife and cut them in half, lengthwise. Next, I used hot glue and spread it on each cut cork’s flat side, then pressed the cork against the bottom of the bottle. I did this all the way around the 2-liter base, using 17 halves of corks.
Adding cork base.
Because I only had enough corks left to do a smaller bottle, I did one of those the same way. (I guess we need to drink more wine 😆) But I like having a little variety between the sizes with the same style option, so these 2 together look nice. Once all the corks were on, I again poured in sea salt to add weight to the base. This especially helped on the 2-liter-sized candle holder, since the opening was bigger and you can really see what’s inside. I put more salt in this one than I had in the smaller candle holders, and it looked nice against the cork.
I ended up using my gold paint pen on the top, glued parts of these candle holders as well, just because I liked how that looked better than leaving them plain.
Painting the top of my cork candle holders.
Option 4: Faux moss wrap. On another 2-liter bottom, I went around the top again with a thin bit of glue, then quickly dipped the top in salt. This rimmed the top with texture and a bit of sparkle. I didn’t need to spray these tops with gloss since there wasn’t much salt on there.
Next, I spread hot glue over small sections and pressed on faux moss to cover the bottle’s bottom. I decided to go all over with the moss, leaving only the top exposed where the salt/hot glue showed. This ended up looking woodsy and wintery, and it really looks better in person than in my pictures. I used green moss, but you could do this in different colored mosses too!
Adding faux moss.
Again, I added some salt to the base for weight, then placed in a candle.
Option 5: Cover in petals. I’ve had these white flower petals for forever and finally had a use for them! Starting at the top of a 2-liter bottom, I put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of a petal and stuck it on so that the majority of the petal stuck up above the edge of the bottle. I continued to do this with petals all the way around the top, overlapping them a bit and gluing them down onto each other if they stuck out too much.
Adding petals.
Once the top layer was on, I went around with a lower row of petals. Then I did another lower layer. Finally, I heavily glued on petals around the bottom.
Petals done!
This petal-covered candle holder already looked pretty, and once I got a votive candle inside… 😍 This one ended up being my second favorite. …I may need to scrounge up more petals and do more!
That was it! I like the variety I ended up with. They looked cool without candlelight inside, and I’m SO glad this plan worked out and they look even cooler with candlelight shining through! 😆
AFTER: A variety of candle holders!
(Left to right) Options 3, 2, and 4.
(Left to right) Options 1, 2, 5, and 3.
Candle holders in action…
I’m sure there are many other things you could stick on the outside of these candle holders too! Beads, sequins, wood sticks – what else can you think of?
One IMPORTANT note: The hot glue might deform the plastic bottles a little bit if too hot. Since I was covering the bottles anyway, this wasn’t much of a problem. But it’s a good reminder that you MUST use flameless votive candles, because real fire will absolutely melt these and be a serious hazard.
I found flickering, LED votive candles on Amazon, and you can buy packs of them for pretty cheap…so I’m certainly making even more candle holders in the future. 😜
Anyone else singing “It’s beginning to cost a lot like Christmas” a lot this month? 😆 As far as new Christmas decorations are concerned, I’ve been trying to rein in the spending or at least make what I can myself. While shopping for gifts on Amazon, however, I found a beautiful set of old-looking Christmas bells to go across a hallway or over a mantle. Price tag: $130. So, no, that was not going to happen. But the more I looked at them, the more I began to form a plan…
The star of this project? Pop bottles. (Many of you probably call them soda bottles, so bear with my Michigan terminology. lol) This whole project technically cost me nothing because I used scrap materials, leftover paint, and a spare tension rod. I guess you could say I lost out on the $0.10 I could’ve gotten for each bottle if I’d recycled them, so maybe I’m down $1.50. But $1.50 is certainly better than $130! 😜
BEFORE: Empty bottles.
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Step 1: Collect and clean pop bottles. You want to use bottles with rounded topsides, not angled like Coke bottles. Since we don’t drink a lot of pop in our house, I begged for empty bottles after Thanksgiving parties and started collecting them. 😂 I also used a pack of smaller SmartWater bottles to get a variety of sizes. I ended up with 15, which is about perfect for the space I wanted filled.
First, I rinsed out the bottles and caps, and then I pulled off the labels. The SmartWater bottles in particular had a lot of adhesive still stuck on, so I used some Goo Be Gone and wiped it all off.
Getting goo off.
Some of the 2 liters had scraps stuck on, but I pulled them off best I could and gave up on the rest, so don’t worry too much if you can’t get it all off.
Step 2: Cut the bottles to bell shapes. I tried a utility knife and a little hacksaw before finally using a sharp knife and scissors. For each bottle, I found a spot a little past halfway down and pushed the knife tip through to create a hole. Then, taking the scissors, I cut around the bottles to cut the top “bell” part free from the bottom.
Cutting bottles.
Try to cut as straight around as you can so the bottom of the bell will be level and even. I tried to think of ways to maybe draw a guideline around the bottles, but I figured I’d be able to cut about as straight as I’d be able to draw anyway. 🤷♀️ I tested by setting the cut “bell” tops on my counter. If they were tilted too much, I knew which spots to cut down. If there was a gap around the bottom, I trimmed the other places to even it out.
Bottles cut!
Step 3: Hot glue the bottoms. I didn’t love how jagged the bottoms of the bells were from cutting, plus I wanted them to look more like old metal. I ended up taking my hot glue gun and adding a ring of glue around the bottom of each bell. This almost made it look like melted glass (…which gave me an idea for later, so stay tuned for another project using the leftover bottoms of the bottles).
Hot glued rims.
Step 4: Spray paint black. I wanted a base coat on my bells so that they’d look dark from the undersides. And, a black undercoat would add an aged look to the bells under the metallic paint of the next coat. Also, I wanted the tops and caps of each bell to be black.
I prepped my craft room by placing some flat cardboard on my turntable, and then I set the bottles on top. I sprayed the bottles all over with one good coat of the black, then let them sit to dry.
Painted black.
Step 5: Cover caps and spray paint metallic gold and silver. Since I wanted the tops to stay black, I took some painters tape and wrapped the tops of the bottles to cover them. Then I divided up my bottles and decided to make 6 silver and 9 rose gold. ( I used rose gold because that was what I had already and I like how it looks a little coppery, but you could do straight gold instead.)
I spray painted these one color at a time, making sure to get them all over as best I could. I also held them by the taped tops and lightly sprayed on the insides, mostly around the rims, which will be most visible from below when these are hanging.
Caps covered and bells painted.
Step 6: Remove tape and add loops. I let the paint dry and then brought the bells upstairs to finish them up. Gently, I pulled off the tape. Then I took some rope/ties and decided what lengths to make my loops for hanging the bells. (I was going to use twine but didn’t have enough, so that would be a nice option too.)
I wanted the bells to hang at slightly different lengths, so I decided on 3 different lengths for my loops. I cut 5 short strips at about 4 inches, 6 long strips at about 10 inches, and 4 strips between those 2 lengths at about 6 inches.
Loop strips cut.
Taking my hot glue gun, I added a blob of glue to either end of one strip at a time, then pressed the ends on either side of the bell’s cap area. This made a nice loop at the top of each bell. I tried to vary what length of loop I put on which size bell, but there was no rhyme or reason to it.
Loops glued on.
Step 7: Wrap cap area. I had a lot of extra gold tape from another project, and I really like how this easily added a different look to the tops of each bell. I was worried about the tops of the bells looking too much like pop bottles, and this tape worked great to pull my whole plan together by making the cap area look like the attachments for the bells.
Basically I just wrapped the metallic gold tape around the bottom of the cap, making sure to also cover the ends of the loops.
Gold rim added.
Step 8: Prep the tension rod. I could have just spray painted the rod black or gold or silver and been done with it, but I wanted to wrap mine in a strip of burlap fabric to add to the rustic-but-cozy look. First, I put the tension rod up across my entryway hall to be sure it was the right length, nice and tight. Then I cut my strip of burlap.
Burlap ready.
Next, I used my hot glue gun and stuck the end of the burlap around the end of the tension rod. Twisting the burlap loosely around the rod, I glued it again at the other end to hold it secure. Finally, I went back around the burlap and glued it together where it gapped too much and the rod was visible.
Step 9: Add the bells and hang. I planned the order of my bells by setting them along my counter. Once happy with the plan, I gently pulled the rod back free and held it up with one hand while using my other hand to slide the bells’ loops along the rod into place.
The really nice thing about hanging this is that it’s SO light. I was able to hold the whole thing while climbing on a chair to stand tall enough to reach where I wanted this in place. I pushed the rod in place so it was tight, made sure it was level, and that was it!
Bells hung.
Step 10: Customize! The bells looked pretty cool alone, but I felt like the whole thing needed a little extra pizzazz. There are all kinds of ways you could customize this decoration to finish it off. Adding LED lights would be cool. Wrapping a small garland of greens would be pretty too, or some red or green ribbon. I had some fake poinsettias and decided to add a floral pop of festive red. I simply climbed back up and stuck the stems through the gaps in the burlap, and for a few I wrapped the stems around the rod to hold them in position.
Florals added.
Done!
AFTER: Christmas Bells!
Now, fingers crossed that my plan for the bottle bottoms goes this well…
At the risk of spoiling Christmas gifts, here’s how I took plain bowls and decorated them. This was a pretty easy and fun way to make gifts for people, so here’s a Christmas gift idea if you’re looking!
BEFORE: Plain serving bowl.
I first heard that you could decorate these bowls using markers, but I experimented and didn’t really like the stroke marks that markers created. Instead, I used acrylic paint pens, and these worked much better to get brighter, sharper color and smoother, more “liquidy” strokes. What works best might depend on what kind of bowl you use – wood, ceramic, etc. – but these were made from bamboo fiber materials, and acrylic paint pens worked best for me to get the results I wanted. 🤷♀️I really like these bowls because they’re eco friendly, the lid stays put and doubles as a cutting board, and they come with two serving utensils, so you’re giving someone a nice set rather than just a plain bowl, too.
I got it in my head that I wanted to do mosaic patterns around the bowls, and this was probably more time consuming than if I’d drawn/painted normal pictures or shapes. But I think the end result looks pretty cool, and it looks a little fancier than just drawing straight flowers on a bowl (something I’d done first to 2 other bowls).
So here’s how I made “mosaic” art on these decorate bowls!
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Step 1: Sketch the plan. In order to be sure my design would be evenly spaced between top and bottom as well as matching up as I worked around the bowl, I took a pencil and outlined my basic plan. This was way easier once I flipped the bowl upside-down, and that’s how I worked with the bowls from then on. Just remember the bowl is upside-down if you’re drawing pictures and want them to look right once the bowl is flipped back over. 😜
Sketching my plan.
Step 2: Outline. Once my pattern was sketched in pencil, I took a black acrylic paint pen and carefully traced my pencil outline. Then, once sure of my boundaries, I began making my little lines all over to create the “mosaic” look of my design. This is what took time, but it was easy and fun to cross and zigzag and divide my lines to make cool mosaic patterns.
Adding black outlines.
Step 3: (Optional) Fill in mosaic around your main pattern. I gave my black a little while to dry to make sure I didn’t accidentally wipe it as I painted my next step on the bowl. It was also at this time that I carefully scratched a black line and found that it did scrape off a bit, but I’d already planned for this (more later). Just be sure, as you’re adding color, to not drag your hand or scratch over your design – it might smear or scrape off.
Anyway, while the black dried, I stared at the bowl a while and decided I wanted to completely cover it in a mosaic look. But I didn’t want to add more black lines for fear it would just look like I left those blank. So, I took a gold acrylic paint pen (it came in my same acrylic paint pen set) and went to work making lines and patterns all around my main design. I also outlined along the black sections to make them stand out.
Adding gold mosaic lines.
I was careful not to cross onto the black outlines, but wherever I goofed I could easily paint back over the gold with black to fix my slob spots.
Step 4: Add color. Satisfied now with my overall mosaic base, it was time to add color. I decided to use red, orange, yellow, and a light peach – again, all from that same paint pen set, so there are lots of color options! Completely at random, I started filling in the mosaic little squares and rectangles with one color at a time, working my way all around the bowl. I started from darkest to lightest, but I don’t think it really matters how you choose to apply the color.
Adding color.
I noticed that, if I accidentally went over the black outline with the lighter colors, this would lighten the black a little bit. But, it wasn’t super-noticeable and seemed to darken again as it dried. If any slobs were too bad, I painted back over them with black. (My 5-year-old told me I did a pretty good job of staying in the lines, which is nice to hear from such an accomplished artist.)
Color done! Needed some black touch-ups.
Step 5: Spray on sealer/gloss. In order to give the paint as much time as I could to set and dry, I left the bowl overnight on a high shelf where nothing (ahem, the cat) would touch it.
The next morning, I carefully lifted the bowl and carried it to my better-ventilated craft room to spray on some high-gloss, clear sealer. I used a spare paint can on top of my turntable, then rested the upside-down bowl on top. This way, I could spray from the top of the bowl to the bottom evenly while turning the bowl slowly all the way around.
I did a very light first coat to make sure it didn’t run my paint or leave drip trails.
Ready to apply the sealer.
After the first coat dried (about an hour), I touched it to be sure and also found it was now much more difficult to scrape off any of the paint design. To be sure, though, I gave the bowl another good coat of my gloss spray, again making sure to cover the whole upside-down bowl.
That was it! This wasn’t a particularly difficult craft project, but you can make any design of your choosing to cover these bowls. And with the protective gloss on, they’re sure to stay pretty for a while. I wouldn’t submerge the bowls in water or soap or anything – certainly not a dishwasher – but these bowls would work great as serving bowls for nut mixes (especially with the serving utensils), rolls, popcorn balls, or anything that can be easily wiped out of the bowls after use.
AFTER: Decorative “mosaic” bowl.
Now to make 4 more before Christmas! Wish me luck! (And follow me on Instagram to see how they turn out…which I’ll post after Christmas, so I don’t spoil the rest of my gifts. 😆)
