I’ve Been Framed 2.0

We’ve already shared how we take existing frames and turn them into mirrors on the cheaps (read up on that here and here). Now we’re going to share how we make our own frames from scratch. We have a lot of stuff we’ve been meaning to frame and hang over the years, but we never got around to it. A few weeks ago, we found this in a thrift store:

Bradley had a nerdgasm. We scooped it up for $10, then chortled and mouth-breathed all the way home. This is the purchase that sent us into a frame-making frenzy. We had some solid oak boards lying around that we thought would be perfect for the job. It looks a little worn and aged — sort of like driftwood. Check out the texture:

We got a bunch of these from Lowe’s for $50, and that was enough to make 5 frames.

The wood was a little rough and had some splinters along the edges, so we started by sanding each board to take the grit off.

While I sanded, Bradley set up the table saw to cut a channel:

Think of a standard picture frame you’d get at IKEA or Target. If you take it apart, you have the frame itself and the glass, plus some sort of backing made out of cardboard or masonite. The glass and backing sits inside what we’re calling the channel.

Bradley ran the end through and then pulled it back out to see if the channel would be deep enough for both the glass and the backing to sit in:

We have more than enough room for everything. So Bradley went ahead and cut the entire length of board. There were some clingers left, so he used a chisel to slice them away:

After that, it was time to cut the board down to size.

We used a miter saw because we need to cut 45-degree angles for the corners.

We simply made a cut with the angle facing in (like the photo above). Then we moved the miter saw blade to 45-degrees on the opposite side and made the next cut. The angles on each cut of wood face in. Once the cuts were made, we could simply piece together the frame:

We have two short cuts and two long cuts. If you want a square frame, just make all the cuts the same. If you want a really long, skinny frame (for a floor-length mirror maybe?), just make the long cuts super long. This is the beauty of DIY frames — the possibilities are endless and the cost is low.

With our frame roughly pieced together, we marked each corner with a pencil:

We made a line to indicate the center of the joint. We didn’t actually measure it out — eyeballing it is good enough for our purposes. This is super important to do because it shows us where exactly we need to make our cuts with the biscuit joiner.

Each joint was also assigned a number 1 through 4, and we marked either end of the center line with that number. We’re doing this so we can take the frame apart and piece it back together later.

The next step is to make cuts with our biscuit joiner. For this we need biscuits:

Not the nummy tea-and-biscuits kinda biscuits, but little football-shaped wood chunks that hold two cuts together. (Sidenote: Bradley’s Dominican coworkers these “cookies,” which is beyond adorable.)

This is how biscuits work:

…except they’re on the inside of the wood. Not following? Lemme break it down for ya:

• Each corner consists of 2 pieces of wood butting up together.
• We make a slot in the butt of each piece of wood.
• We spread wood glue in each slot.
• We put the biscuit in one of the slots. It should fit so that half of the biscuit is sticking out.
• We butt the ends together so the biscuit sits halfway in one butt and halfway in the other butt, thereby joining them. BAM! Biscuit joining!
• Heh heh biscuits in butts.

This is the biscuit joiner Bradley picked up a few weeks ago at the Grizzly warehouse:

It’s a Porter-Cable. He chose it over the others because it has a few more settings than its rival Dewalt. It’s slightly more pricey, but also seems more durable.

See what Bradley’s pointing at there? It says FF. That’s the dial for setting biscuit size. We have to make sure and use FF-sized biscuits or they won’t sit in there properly.

We double-checked. Then triple-checked. And then we made our cuts:

Bradley dangled the piece of wood off the edge of our workspace, with the end he’s cutting facing him. He used his hand to hold it firmly in place. Later, Bradley said, “Don’t do it that way ever.” Why? Because the wood isn’t clamped and could move around. So there you have it: use a clamp, not your hand.

Next step: we line up the red line on the tool with the center mark we drew on the wood.

Once it’s in line, turn the joiner on and firmly push it into the wood. This is what the cut looks like when finished:

We made all our slots first and then moved on to the gluing stage:

We gave each slot a good schmear of wood glue. (Schmear. Always schmear, never smear. That’s the New York in us.) Then we popped the biscuit in the slot

And pressed the ends together. That’s it. We let our newly joined rectangle dry for a few hours. Once dry, we came back to tidy up the joints. For this, we needed wood filler and a putty knife:

A lot of people skip the filler step, but we think it’s worth taking 5 minutes to do. It makes the difference between a frame that looks cheap and a frame that looks fancy. This is what the joint looked like before filling:

We gave it a schmear of wood filler:

Then we pressed it in so it fills the crack:

And finally, we scrape all of the excess off:

Just say no to crack:

We let the filler dry for about 15 minutes and then sanded the joints to make them as smooth as possible:

The next step is crucial. Under no circumstances should one move to the finishing stage without first completing the hammy-posing stage. We take this stuff seriously, people:

Being serious all the time is exhausting.

We really need to lighten up. And learn to use auto-focus properly:

In case you missed it, Bradley’s fingers are doing kind of a weird Dumbledore thing (Level 5 nerd status achieved.) That’s because he stained our frames and didn’t wear gloves:

We felt like experimenting with the finishing, so we tried a few different stains on some leftover wood craps. White made the oak look pink. Black seemed too heavy. Grey looked chalky. So Bradley tried something new.

• First, Bradley stained the entire frame white and immediately wiped it all off. That way the white stayed in the cracks and gaps, but not on the entire surface.
• After that, Bradley lightly stained the surface brown. Emphasis on the lightly. If he used too much stain, it would stain right over the white in the cracks and defeat the whole purpose. So Bradley used a cheesecloth and barely dipped it into the stain. He also took care not to apply pressure at all. Just a light swipe of the cloth gently across the surface.

We really dig the result:

We ordered the glass and it showed up a week ago. Next on our to-do list? Cut mats with our new mat cutter:

Then we’ll be ready to hang up some art. Kinda. We still have to redo the walls in most of the house before we can hang anything. Minor details.

We’re spending our weekend plastering and working on tree trunk side tables, so we’ll be back with more updates soon. Stay tuned for more DIY dorkery!

—

We weren’t paid, perk’d, hugged or high-fived for any of the brands we mentioned in this post. We do it just because.

I’ve Been Framed.

ETA: we don’t get many trolls around here, but when we do, we refer them to our comment policy. Please check it out below.

—

We realized a few days ago that we completely forgot to post about this frame we found in a thrift store several months ago:

It’s from the same shop where we found our lighting fixture. If we’d had more time to look around, we’re pretty sure we would have walked away with much more. That place was a vintage goldmine. It seems fitting that we walked away with a gold frame. It’s 24″ tall x 35″ wide, and we paid $15 for it.

If you look closely, you can tell that this sucker is plastic. Flip it over and you’ll see a barcode and a sticker:

I didn’t know they made plastic frames in Italy, but that just made it seem so much more fancy. Right away we knew we wanted to paint it a fun color and turn it into a mirror for the half-bath we’ll renovate eventually.

We picked up a can of Valspar’s avocado spray paint in satin finish.

We were really intrigued by the can. We’re loving all the new spraypaint cans that companies are coming out with — they have triggers or super-wide buttons so you don’t get finger fatigue after every coat. Our verdict so far? Rustoleum’s trigger can is our fave because we like the way it’s held and because there isn’t much overspray. Valspar’s is OK. We like the twist cap and the big push button, but there’s so. much. overspray. It seemed like half the can ended up on our grass. We didn’t love it. And we downright hated the color:

As soon as the first coat was down, this is how we felt:

We were thinking the green would be fun and cheerful and cute. Instead, it looked bland and blah and boring. It’s less avocado and more pea soup. It’s just not us. At all.

I hopped in the car, made a beeline for the hardware store and returned with this:

White. Gloss. Made for plastic.

We felt so much better after the first coat of white.

Oh, and while we’re reviewing spraypaint cans here, check out the overspray from our can of Krylon Fusion:

We didn’t love the can itself (finger fatigue happens), but we loved the results. The paint dries fast and looks fab.

The back of the frame sits really close to the wall so you can’t see behind it when it’s hanging, but we gave the flipside one coat of white just in case:

And here’s how it looks now:

While Bradley worked on another frame project, he called up a local glass cutting company. I mean, literally. Here he is on the phone while sanding a frame:

He doesn’t get any I find his multitasking fascinating:

He ordered 4 pieces of glass and 1 mirror, all custom-cut. Once the mirror arrives, we’ll be ready to hang this beauty.

Cost breakdown:
- 24″ x 35″ frame = $15
- White spray paint = $6
- Custom cut mirror = $15

Total cost = $36

We’re big fans of DIY when it comes to frames and mirrors. They’re way overpriced in stores. For price comparison, check out this very basic 30″x25″ framed mirror from Home Depot. It’s similar in dimensions but it’s boh-ring, and it costs a whopping $264. Our total cost of 4 cuts of clear glass and 1 mirror was $37.37. Boom.

If you’re ordering custom glass, we have a few tips to share:

• Go local. Just look under “glass” in a phone book or Google. You can save on shipping and your order is less likely to arrive broken.
• Get clean cuts. That means the glass company scores and cuts the glass, but they don’t polish the edge. Companies charge more for polished edges and bevels — but neither really matters since you won’t actually see the glass edge in the frame.
• Paper your mirror. We talked about this in our last post about DIY mirrors. To keep your mirror protected, paper the flipside after you frame it.

More updates coming up. Stay tuned, peeps!

Green Plants (Black Thumbs)

I love plants. Sometimes I love them too much and I smother them. Sometimes not enough and I starve them. I have a black thumb and will kill pretty much anything that isn’t a basic philodendron (which reminds me, oh crap, I’ve been meaning to water the three I have upstairs!).

A few days ago, we went to Lowe’s and I picked up these beauties on my way out:

Succulents. I have the worst luck with succulents, but I love them so. These tiny plants are supposed to be super easy to take care of (we’ll see about that), and I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t have anything to plant them in, so I picked up a couple of fishbowls for $1 a pop:

We love seeing the whole plant — dirt and all. It’s a nice change from the basic white planters we have all over the house. (We usually go with white planters from IKEA because they’re cheap, durable and neutral enough for any room.)

Right after we planted these puppies, we Googled to make sure we didn’t absolutely need to drill holes in the bottom of the containers. Turns out, we can skip that step if we pour a little activated charcoal at the bottom of the dish, then pile the dirt on top of that. We picked up a small container of charcoal at the pet store — they have it in the fish/aquarium section — and replanted them. So far, they’re doing OK.

Cost breakdown for this easy-peasy plant project:
Small fishbowls = $2 for 2
Plants = $5
Dirt = $6 for a big bag
Charcoal = $9 for a small container (I used maybe 1/10th of the container)

Total cost = $22
Cost per plant = less than $4 each

Not too shabby! In other plant news:

Our day lilies are back! Now here’s a plant even I can’t kill. They come up on their own, I never have to water them and they die because their time is up — not because I forgot to change their soil for 3 years.

 

Fab.com is only kinda sorta fab.

Let’s just get this out of the way: we weren’t paid, comped, perked, hugged or high-fived for writing about Fab.com. We purchased everything we talk about in this post with our own moolah, and our opinion is biased only by the fact that we are very cheap & very picky. That’s how we roll.

Let’s also get this out of the way: Bradley doesn’t give a crap about flash sale sites, but I’m obsessed. So when someone sent me an invite to Fab.com, I signed up and found myself completely hooked. It’s sort of like Gilt Groupe meets The Foundary (two other obsessions), but waaaaay more well curated from a designer’s point-of-view.

I basically stalked the site every day, and then one day I found a couple of things that even Bradley agreed were too good to pass up. So we put in an order and a month later — yes, a full freaking month later — we got a box in the mail:

Cuuuuuute branding! I loved the stickers on the box and the gorgeous heavy paper cards inside. But, uh, I was a little peeved that it took an entire month to arrive. Are they shipping from the moon? I would totally understand a week or two — but a month is kinda ridiculous.

On to our purchases:

That is what Fab.com described as a “100% recycled leather kangaroo desk accessory”. It features a couple of pouches to hold whatever random stuff needs containment. Think pens, keys, paperclips, loose change, etc. The pouches are large enough to hold an iPhone and charger. The mouth is made to hold post-its or stamps.

I’m a sucker for anything that can get me organized, so I was sold. I snagged it in a cheerful yellow for $22. The MoMA Store sells it online for $38. With shipping, it ended up being just under $28.

Worth every cent. I can’t say much for the quality of the leather because it doesn’t look much like leather after being painted. It feels really durable, though, and the rivets aren’t flimsy. I ended up putting all of my pens in one pouch and using the other as an iPhone holder while I work.

Here’s where things get a little more meh. We found and loved these two prints from Rococco-LA. Here’s what they looked like on Fab.com:

Source: Fab.com

Source: Fab.com

Now, when I see “print,” I think screenprint. And these 11×14″ prints two are pretty sweet screenprints, right? We got both for just under $58 including shipping. They arrived a month later (boo, hiss!) and this is what we got:

We’re super disappointed. For starters, they’re not screenprints at all. They’re just prints as in from an inkjet printer. Sure, they’re on fancy archival paper, but I wouldn’t pay $58 for something printed on a frikkin’ inkjet printer. I could do that at home.

Also, both printouts are suuuuper pixelated:

It’s hard to photograph, but the images are really blurry and low-quality printouts. And the colors are nowhere near as bright and bold as what we expected. Even the black looks really washed out:

The worst part was that one of the “prints” arrived rolled up in a cardboard tube. It’s all bent and warped from being crammed in there.

We’re trying to flatten it out by setting stuff on it, but there are ripples on the paper that aren’t going to come out.

The octopus lady doesn’t look so bad at a distance:

All in all, we were super happy with the kangaroo and super disappointed with the crappy prints. We feel like the kangaroo was a great deal since it’s a good quality product that’s exactly what they described on the site. We think the prints were misrepresented and we can’t even return them since fab.com listed them as nonrefundable. The fact that it took a solid month to ship our purchase was also really lame.

Will we ever buy from fab.com again? Probably not. But one of us is going to keep checking in every day to get ideas and inspiration for stuff we can buy elsewhere.

While we’re in the office, check out the organized closet:

At the bottom: some home workout gear.
On the shelves: IKEA boxes holding all kinds of crap that, until recently, was scattered through the house.

I even whipped out the label maker to get everything looking crisp:

Not gonna lie: I love that label maker like it was my first-born child. I love it so much I named it Martha and gave it a whole drawer all for itself. Yep. Totally normal behavior there.

Goodwill Hunting

We’ve got a little celebrating going on right now at the Bye Bye Brooklyn casa.

The Futurama birthday song is my favorite birthday tune of all time. Bradley’s been singing it to me all weekend for my big three-oh. I’m still getting used to the idea that I’m no longer a twenty-something. It’s not so bad — just different.

To ring in the big day, we decided to take a break from the renovating and go shopping instead. Our area has a lot of antique and thrift shops, and I’ve been begging Bradley to go there with me for a solid month now. On Saturday, he took me to 5 shops, one after the other, and we ended up finding a lot of things we didn’t know we needed.

Our first stop was The Rising Sun, which is located in a beautiful historic building.

Look closely on the counter and you can see my Contigo coffee mug that I raved about in another post. That thing goes everywhere with me. I’ve told Bradley I would like to be cremated and have my ashes placed in it someday. Not kidding.

The owner is a really sweet guy who grew up in our area. He gave us a lot of info on where to go and what to check out. We have a lot in common. All 3 of us wanted to be astronauts or anthropologists when we were kids. And we have a love for bones:

That’s an ice age era sloth bone. Too expensive for us, though, so we settled for just drooling over it momentarily.

Bradley fell in love with a pair of old driving goggles.

Meanwhile, I looked through 2 floors of stuff to find something that felt like a good fit for the office. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I wanted some yellow accessories for the office.

I loved that old circus poster — I could totally imagine it leaning against the exposed brick wall — but, sadly, it was way out of my boo-zhay. And then I spotted these:

Earlier that day, Bradley had suggested getting a coffee maker for the office. I thought he was joking, but he insisted. He knows when I get in the zone, I hate being interrupted and I especially hate running out of coffee. So he thought it would be a good idea to set up a little coffee maker or French press. That way I can keep the creative juices flowing and not have to wander too far if I need a refill.

When I saw the four yellow cups, I was sold on the idea. I nabbed all 4 for $10. They already make our house feel bright and cheerful:

Now all I need is a yellow French Press to match:

Source

Our next stop was a big red barn that we pass on our way home from Brooklyn:

It was too dark inside for me to get any decent photos, but they have some on their website if you’re interested. We loved the setup of the place — 3 floors of antiques, all very neatly organized and staged — but we didn’t find anything that felt like a good fit for our home. It’s definitely one of the least cluttered antique shops I’ve ever been in, though, and well worth checking out.

After that, we headed over to a Goodwill, which was a total bust, except for these 2 finds:

L: Ringo Starr’s Goodnight Vienna, R: Pink Floyd’s A Saucerful of Secrets.

A full moon. A flying saucer. A giant robo space man. Ringo Starr in a silver lamé  space suit. Are you jealous yet? This may well be the best 50 cents we’ve spent in a long, long time.

We plan on framing these puppies and hanging them up somewhere in our house.

Next up: Timeworn Treasures, where it was also too dark to grab decent photos. When we walked in, I wasn’t sure I would find anything I liked. The whole store smelled like potpourri, which is a huge turnoff for both of us. “It smells like a grandma’s bathroom,” is Bradley’s exact quote. Still, we forced ourselves to go in and ended up walking out with the most incredible find of the day:

Bradley found this chair hidden away in a corner of the store.

It’s solid wood, with cast iron fittings that adjust the height and angle of the seat. There a little spray paint action going on on the back:

It’s rusted and scuffed and stained.

But it was love at first sight seat. Not only is this chair super cool in a steampunk kinda way, but it’s extremely comfortable to sit on. So we negotiated the price down to $64 and nabbed it for our office.

I also nabbed these B & L blocks for $4 a piece:

A $14 greenish-yellow lantern for a bookshelf:

And 3 fist-sized shells for $3 a pop:

Our final stop was Fleming Antiques & Lamps:

One of our lamps broke during the move and Bradley needed to pick up a replacement part. These ladies know their stuff — they had us in and out with the right piece in a matter of minutes.

But not before I picked up what I really came in for:

I fell in love with these vintage bookends , but initially passed on them because the $45 price tag was non-negotiable. I thought $45 was kinda ridiculous for something so small, but I’ve been talking about them nonstop for weeks now. I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t snag them, so Bradley got them for me for my birthday. (He also got me a sweet canvas carpenter’s apron from Lowe’s. Thanks Bradley!!)

Even though I loved the way they looked, the owls seemed way too dark to me. I kept wondering how they would look if I painted them a lighter color. They could look super cute and retro. Or I could totally ruin them and screw up something I already thought looked great. After a lot of hemming, hawing and begging Bradley to make the decision for me (he didn’t, the turd), I grabbed a paint brush and went for it.

We had a gallon of creamy white paint we purchased for the office walls.

The exact color is Olympic C151-1 Horseradish, and it’s a low-VOC mix so there wasn’t much of an odor. Which meant this lady could hang out with me on the porch while I painted:

Is there anything in the world lazier than a pug? I’ll go ahead and answer it for you: no. There isn’t. The end.

In case you’re wondering why we named her Jabba the Mutt, I’d like to present you with Exhibit A:

Source

I rest my case.

I was super nervous the entire time I painted. My hands actually shook a little when I started, and I was biting my nails in between coats. It took a solid 3 coats to cover up the deep brown wood, but the final product was exactly what I imagined.

The lighter color really makes the details in their feathers pop. And they look less weathered and old and more retro and whimsical.

It’s amazing what a huge different a little paint can make.

My new bookends will look fantastic in our office. We’re not sure right now whether we’ll use them as actual bookends or just put one in the office and the other in a different part of the house (guest bedroom, maybe?). They’re too cute to hide sideways. But we’ll figure that out once we get to the decorating stage of the office. For now, we’re OK with all of our new finds living in boxes in our dining room. They’ll have their moment soon.

As for me, I’m planning on having a moment of my own: I’m spending the rest of my birthday hanging out on the porch with the pup and dreaming about drywall and paint chips and finishing off the 2 rooms we’re working on. Back soon with more renovation adventures!