After.
Dear Husband,
Yes, I am mad.
And grouchy.
And irritable.
It's sort of sweet (in a weird way) that you cleverly acknowledged my mood in your email.
I'm smiling now.
Thank you.
The table top frame. Tim used a smooth surface, it reminded me of formica. He screwed 4 pieces of wood into the larger board. The pieces stood out from the board about an inch & a half.
Tim used a higher grade of concrete, I am not sure exactly what it was.
Pouring some of the concrete. This picture shows one mix that did not have enough water and a more correct mixture.
Tim smoothing the concrete. Once the top was smoothed it dried (I think 'cured' is the technical word) for several days. The top of the table had a more unique hand troughed looked. The bottom was more uniform and smooth. We used the bottom side as the top side of our table.
This table is actually 3 boards pocket screwed to a base. The base was made of 3 old stair banisters from my parents house and then one turned leg to match the other three (my grandpa turned the 4th leg for me). We used 2x4 for the rest of the base.
After taking the table top out of the mold Tim sanded down all the edges using a hand sander that looked like a big rock (how is that for technical?)
To install the top to the base, Tim just applied gobs of silicone to the table base and then the guys set the concrete on top. The table is HEAVY...it won't be going anywhere!
After installed we did several coats of a sealer on top. I don't know what type of sealer it was. Tim also mentioned that some people top it off with beeswax, we haven't done that yet, but might try.
Thanks for the tutorial Ahsley! I love the sleek, modern look of the concrete paired with the white, wood turned legs. I am so going to work on convincing my husband to consider this for our dining table.
To see Tim's instructions on making concrete countertops go here.
To see more of Ashley's blog and home go here.
I came accross Autumn's post on Design Dump this week about her DIY deer head and had to give it a try. The template suggests using foam core but I lost my patience with my exacto knife and gave up opting for poster board instead (foam core defintely looks better if you have some time). Download template here.
Pink Eye 101:
Warm compresses spell relief.
Being on house arrest (so not to infect other unsuspecting eyes) really bites.
We have, however, built a four-foot marble tower in our spare time.
In our other spare time we're really loosin' our marbles.
I always thought I'd like to try using pink somewhere in the house.
My verdict...it ain't so pretty.
This time I actually used this frame for its intended purpose (with the addition of a little white spray...of course).
Or even what Joi did at Nuestra Vida. Just a little white spray paint and viola!
To enter:
You'll remember I found this thrift store lamp for $5.00 along with this other lamp.
Couldn't stop there.
I picked up these yellow pillow cases on clearance at Crate and Barrel last season!
Then on a recent browsing trip I noticed they are selling them again at full price.
I then borrowed this saw from a neighbor to cut out my design on the two corners.
I normally like to use a thick piece of foam but because I knew I would be nailing tacks in it I wanted it to be thin. Instead I purchased this 3/4 X 1-1/2 wood and cut it down with a hand saw to my dimensions. I simply glued it to the back of my headboard with wood glue so when I wrapped the material around it, it looked more substantial and thick.
I don't have any fancy clamps to secure the glued boards in place but I discovered that food storage cans full of wheat and rice do the same job nicely.
Should look like this.
This in not the same headboard but I've had so many questions about how I attached the headboard to the wall I thought I'd show you an example of a different headboard I've done before. 
Now for the "damn-it" tacks.
This is about 1/4th of my mistakes.
