Arlington Handyman

Monday, March 6, 2017

Boys’ Shared Bedroom Makeover Plans

Loving this Star Wars themed boys' bedroom plan! Check out the post for all the details.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve had several previews already (via Instagram “stories”), but I’m currently working on making over my older 2 boys’ shared bedroom.

First, a little history. When Aiden and Jake were 5 and 3 years old, we moved them into a room together at our old house. I gave the room a makeover and it was documented for a series of short segments on HLN (which you can see here). We moved to our current home shortly after that, and I transferred everything over exactly how it had been in their previous room. I did add some wall decals and a Lego table, but otherwise the basic layout was the same. We learned pretty early on that this setup just wasn’t functioning well for them. The room was always full of clutter, there was a lot of unused space between the foot of the beds and the dresser, and the room lacked decent storage and organization. Also, the walls were majorly scuffed up and needed to be painted. We finally decided after 3 years of living here, it was time for a makeover. Here are the plans (sources linked within the image if you hover over it, and also below.) Affiliate links are included.

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We’re going with a Star Wars theme, and the main color scheme will be orange, gray, and touches of navy blue. (The striped closet will stay!) I’ve already painted the walls “Gray Owl” by Benjamin Moore (it’s my favorite light gray, and we have it in a few other rooms in the house too).

We’ve also ordered these beds and assembled them, plus I ordered a rug, window shades, a chandelier, and I am working with my favorite mattress company. Aiden’s cheap IKEA mattress just isn’t cutting it anymore, so we are upgrading both of them, and I’ll share all about it very soon. The desks sourced in the moodboard are for inspiration only (they’re super expensive). We will actually be making over a pair of Mid Century desks that my dad scored for us at an auction for $5.00 TOTAL. (Including one for Jonah, which he will get when he’s a little older.)

For real time updates, be sure to follow my Instagram stories, and of course I’ll be updating here too in the coming weeks.

Overall, the boys are super excited about their new room, and I’m excited for a space that will function better and be more organized. We’ve already rearranged the beds and made room for new desks and a bookshelf which will accommodate some toy bins and Lego storage as well.

And I do have to mention that the theme of the room was inspired by these amazing handmade quilts gifted to the boys by my very talented mother in-law. She made them for their birthdays last year and they will treasure them forever. Here’s a shot of one of them.

Check out this awesome handmade Star Wars quilt, plus boys' bedroom makeover plans!

Check back soon for progress!

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

The post Boys’ Shared Bedroom Makeover Plans appeared first on Erin Spain.

from http://bit.ly/2mwriRX

DIY_Express

Friday, March 3, 2017

Husqvarna Silent City North America

This year’s Husqvarna Silent City North America event was hosted in Miami and provided a lot of information about what the company is planning for 2017 and beyond. We had Clint DeBoer from Pro Tool Reviews attend for us, and he had plenty to say about the event. First and foremost, Husqvarna covered their take on green space maintenance and the role Husqvarna plays in this expanding market. The focus this year is clearly on battery powered landscaping equipment and how it contributes to the potential for future urban planning and development. In fact, the whole purpose of the Husqvarna Silent City North America event was to illustrate both the concept and proposed solution to this emerging industry.

Husqvarna has well over 300 years of innovation and history behind their company. While they may have started producing muskets back in 1689, they are more well-known now for their outdoor power equipment. Most recently, they have really taken the battery powered OPE market by storm. This event showcased their newest robotic Automower technology—something they’ve had on the market for over 20 years. It also allowed a sneak peek at some of their newest cordless products, including chainsaws, hedge trimmers, blowers, and string trimmers.

Of note, one of the key features of the event was to promote and show off the new Husqvarna Fleet Services system. Combining hardware, mobile apps, and software, Fleet Services is a scalable system that allows Husqvarna tools to “talk back” to users. The system provides tool monitoring, inventory & personnel management that really helps any size business work smarter. Fleet Services will launch later this year as a scalable subscription service.

Of course, the best part of Husqvarna Silent City North America would have to be the tool testing portion. At Museum Park in Miami Beach we were able to get our hands on the latest Husqvarna power tools. We also got to check out what a solar powered landscaping trailer looks like and see how it maintains and charges batteries for cordless landscaping.

Check out more photos and details from the Husqvarna Silent City North America event from our friends at Pro Tool Reviews.

from http://bit.ly/2loFe0p

DIY_Express

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

DIY Pallet Shed

You can often find pallet sheds for free on Craigslist so start searching then get to building!

Recycling pallets to build projects is a sustainable activity, just make sure your pallets are chemical and nail free before using them. We actually recommend you shop for new pallets as often times used pallets may be contaminated without you even knowing it.

Butch Bridges built this shed from pallets and there are a lot of people out there who want to save money and recycle and wish to find clean pallets for cheap that they can use in their own home improvement projects. Here is his project with more detailed information on how he built it.

A mini-industry has popped up for anyone with a pickup truck that is willing to find pallets and sell them.

The tools you need to build with pallets include:
Crowbar
Sander
Circular Saw
Recip Saw

Having all of the above tools will make quick work of stubborn nails and damaged pallets. You shouldn’t mess with old pallets that have rusty nails as it can be extremely dangerous, and make sure you dispose of any unused pallets before someone steps on them.

Have fun!

from http://bit.ly/2luHz5p

DIY_Express

How To Remove Water Stain Circles from Wood Furniture

We’ve collected some great tips for removing water stain circles from wood furniture. We’ve got a clear cut choice of which tip works best for us, but try them all and decide for yourself.

Laura and I enjoy entertaining guests and even if you set coasters and napkins out, drinks will end up being left on wood furniture. Our dining room table is perfect for the small room and is a piece of furniture given to us by Laura’s grandmother. It’s not an antique but we treasure where it came from as well as how it functions and looks.

Unfortunately it has been marred by many wet drinks and before we invest in having it re-finished we searched online for other alternatives to remove the water stain circles.

The most common remedies that required the least amount of investment of time and money we found were:

1. Toothpaste technique
2. Mayonnaise and Ashes
3. Baking soda and water (or toothpaste)

We thought we’d give all three a try and here are the results.

Toothpaste Technique

A white toothpaste is required for this so leave the gels in the bathroom. We have Sensodyne handy so we dabbed a bit of that directly on the water stain ring. You don’t need much at all. Some people recommend letting it sit for awhile but because this works via abrasion and not water extraction we went to work on the stain after only a couple minutes.

We were amazed! As we gently rubbed the toothpaste along the line of the stain we saw it immediately disappear or lighten. You don’t need to scrub very hard or for very long to see results. In fact scrubbing to long and outside the area of the stain could cause an even larger mark as it wears away the finish and top layer of wood.

Mayonnaise and Ashes

We heard much about this technique but to be honest neither of us smoke and therefore didn’t have ashes easily available. Cigarette ashes seem to be the ash of choice to be mixed in mayonnaise.

Apparently this technique relies on the mayonnaise somehow extracting the remaining water from the table as well as light abrasion due to the ashes.

We tried the mayonnaise sans ashes anyway and to our surprise it also worked! We let the mayonnaise sit for 3 hours but some recommend sitting it overnight. As we wiped the mayonnaise off the water stain was definitely less noticeable and we didn’t do any scrubbing as we had done with the toothpaste.

The water stains in this table have been there for at least 9 months so we thought it unlikely that there was any moisture to extract at all from from the table.

Baking Soda and Water

We mixed a 2-1 ratio of baking soda and water in a small metal bowl then proceeded to use a rag to gently scrub along the water mark line. Again the stain quickly started to recede. Not as dramatically as with the other two techniques but it definitely made a difference.

We experienced with a bit more baking soda for a thicker rub but that didn’t seem to do much to help. As with the toothpaste it doesn’t take much to see a difference.

Conclusions

In our opinion all 3 of these techniques work but the standout to us was the toothpaste technique. Next time we’d like to try a baking soda/toothpaste mixture as well as mix some ashes with the mayonnaise to see if the results are even better.

We’ll still have to polish and refinish the table to bring it back to it’s original luster but for now we are happy with at least regaining a table with much lighter stains.

from http://bit.ly/2luxxB8

DIY_Express

Create Storage & Intrigue With A Secret Door

Secret doors fit the bill for what our whimsical childhood dream house would be like. Whether it be turrets, underground tunnels, tiny elevators, or hidden passageways, we all smile with delight at the thought of finding a real-life home with even one of these attributes.

You can buy a DIY kit from Murphy Doors and build your own secret bookcase door.

But what if it were possible to easily create one of these scenarios — a secret doorway — in almost any home?

While stumbling around Pinterest the other day we came across the above photo, which brought our mild infatuation with secret doorways to a fever pitch. Who wouldn’t love to change out a standard doorway with a bookshelf, china hutch, dry bar or a layered pantry? And who doesn’t love a good challenge that could result in one of the coolest finished projects ever?

In our home, a secret doorway would be absolutely stellar in our dining room — we already plan on doing a large built-in for entertaining and extra storage on the wall with an actual door, so a flush cabinet or bookcase would perfectly camouflage the doorway to our master bedroom, which is off of the dining room. That way, when we did have people over for dinner parties or holidays, we wouldn’t have to answer questions about where the door leads or have people mistake it for a coat closet or bathroom.

Since our house is old and therefore nothing is standard, we’re confident this would be a pretty intricate DIY job combining components for our built-in as well as making allowances for things like building out the door frame to create an adequate pocket for the shelves without crowding our bedroom and the electrical very near the existing door frame. There are plenty of great how-to’s on the great World Wide Web, as well as companies that manufacture standard-sized as well as custom units.

Just thinking about the possibility of having our very own secret doorway gets us pretty excited. Where would you use a secret doorway in your home? As always, let us know what you think!

from http://bit.ly/2lW3t50

DIY_Express