How to Save a Paint Brush

When I am painting, I am usually working on more than one project at a time. As I am waiting for one piece of furniture to dry, I am touching up or starting another. This process is never pretty. Multiple colors of paint cans, some open, some covered, lay about. They are joined by various jars of waxes and stains, along with an assortment of artist brushes and paint brushes. Quite often, in my artistic flurry, I leave a paint brush unattended and fully loaded with paint, only to suffer a slow death. Before long, I find its long tapered handle covered in a cement of dried paint and its soft bristles hard and virtually immovable. I confess I have ruined quite a few brushes this way. So, I was thrilled when I found this simple tip on Pinterest.

 All you need is Murphy oil soap, and of course, your dried up paint brushes.

This brushs bristles had dried together with paint and it was unusable.

  I soaked my brush overnight and in the morning...it was like new!!! I then used this all my brushes and no matter how old the paint on them was, they all cleaned up beautifully. I now use Murphy oil soap to clean my brushes daily.

Find beauty in your day!

Debbie

Categories: a, brush, how, paint, save, to

Carpentry Services To Help Improve Your House

You step on the floor and you hear it creak. The same thing happens whenever you open your door. While these sounds may look like these appeared from a horror film, the real thing is that your house is starting to require some types of carpentry services. Find out some of these services to help bring your home back in ideal shape.

If you are going to make a search for it, you would realize that there are many carpenters in your town or city. And each of them maybe specializing on just one type of service. Listed below are some of the services that you may want to hire.

1. Custom remodeling services

At some point in the time you are living in your house, you will start to look at it as something very boring. Perhaps because you are alchoices looking at it day in and day out and you just want to have something fresh to stare at. That is what a custom remodeling service is all about. It gives a new life to an otherwise old or beat up house. A carpenter can do everything for from the design to the demolition part of it and up to the finishing touches of coloring your house. All you need is to come up with your own idea on what changes you would like to see in your home.

2. Cabinetry services

Does your kitchen need some sprucing up too? Usually a whole new set of beautiful cabinets will do the trick. And if you have the right design for it, you can turn a simple cabinet into something that can be considered a work of art. But of course you need the services of a good carpenter to achieve this. There are certain carpenters who specialize on this job, called cabinetry, and most of the time they would only accept such projects. Of course a cabinet will do wonders not just in the kitchen but the bedroom and your home office as well.

3. Roofing

Do you have leaks or some parts of your roof are starting to fall apart? You are only as safe as your roof can make you safe that is why it is important that you let a skilled carpenter examine your roof and do the necessary repairs or replacement of the whole roof if needed be.

4. Room additions

Are your kids growing up too fast that each of them need their own rooms? Or maybe you just want to setup your own home office? A carpenter can work on the room additions for your as long as there are enough space for these.

5. Home entertainment center

You just bought the biggest TV in the market but you realized you do not have the right furniture to place it on. A customized entertainment center is a nice piece in your house, particularly in your living room or entertainment area, to place your TV and other electronic gadgets such as component system, video game consoles, and video players. You can design your own entertainment center and then just contract a carpenter to turn it into the real thing.

These are just among the basic or common carpentry services that any homeowner would certainly have a need for. What is really important is for you to select the right kind of carpentry specialists who specialize on the kind of home carpentry project that you have in mind.

Categories: carpentry, help, house, improve, services, to, your

TV Stand with Pivoting Door to Hide Electronics

The tv stand is finished! I played around with the floorplan a lot in Sketchup  (my go to program to make design decisions because it is fast and designing in 3D gives a much better understanding of the space)

I am still not entirely happy with the tv placement - it kinda screams hey! look at me! ... but with the space that we have, I think its a good option.

Utilizing one space for the office and living room, I wanted a sense of division which was created by the sofa, sofa table and lamps.  I also didnt want to block the window, putting the tv on an angle in the corner seemed the best option for the layout.

For now, this is where it will stay ... at least until I change my mind ;)

We wanted something super simple, not huge ... I feel like all tv stands are ginormous! So we decided to design and make our own ... I talked earlier this week about the door to hide the electronics and David managed to surprise me by his innovative pivoting door design, hes a keeper I tell you!

Here is how it moves ...

Pretty neat, huh?

The base construction for the tv stand was pretty simple but the pivoting door took a little more time to get just right

We topped it off with 2x4 (1" thick) shelving - we wanted something a bit heavier since it has to support the tv.

The screws and seams were covered with wood filler, once dry the whole piece was sanded to get all the rough spots - holes were also drilled for the hardware on the door at this time

I primed with SW wall and wood primer

lightly sanded with fine sandpaper

and gave it two coats of SW pro classic (perfect for painting furniture because it gives a hard enamel finish while being water based) in a custom mix of big chill with a little anew gray (both left over from other projects) with XIM extender mixed in to help level out brush marks.

I painted the top piece and the door separately to access all of the corners - once the pieces were dry, they were attached and the hardware was added.

And that was it!

Baskets fit well underneath to hold extra remotes and dvds

and a view with the door open ...

and I one of Annabelle  - she approves because her window seat (the green ottomans) are now back in place

The top piece $23 and the thin door $10 made this piece a little more expensive than anticipated ... the total for the wood was around $65

We sold our tv stand when we moved to CA, so it is nice to see the tv off of the ground!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Categories: door, electronics, hide, pivoting, stand, to, tv, with

How to build a cordless drill storage charging station

Categories: a, Build, charging, cordless, drill, how, station, storage, to