DIY Entryway Table

Shane has done it again, folks! This time, he's created an entryway table for our front door. He used the usual oak wood, stained with the typical red oak color. It turned out phenomenal. It really adds a lot to our empty hallway/entryway! 

Shane began, as he does with all his projects, with a design on the computer. Unfortunately, I don't have that design as I publish this post. But I'm sure Shane would share it with you if you are interested. 

The cuts

The next step is always the cutting. He actually had some wood left over from our last project - the bookshelf I believe - so we didn't have to shop for as much wood as usual. 

It's coming together!

He likes to use wood glue to help reinforce his projects, and these long clamps help a lot.

Right here, you are beginning to see the finished product. Shane was able to route the edges of the top piece to make a nice rounded edge. All that's left to do now is sand, stain, and lacquer. I was so happy to be able to help Shane out by doing all those finishing steps, virtually by myself! I love when I'm able to assist with his 'manly' projects.

Normally I'm just in the house baking cookies and pastries instead :) Or out in the garage keeping his company by chatting his ear off.

I'm sure that happened during this project as well.

The drawer Shane made was actually quite simple, and didn't take him long to finish. He also routed the edges of it to match the top of the table. 

Just the other day, I finished sanding, staining, and finishing the drawer and now we have ourselves a finished product! 

So, this was a very broad description of the table-building process. We will probably try posting something a little more detailed, kind of like an actual tutorial. I'll have to enlist Shane's help to write that one up.

Now Troy and Aly, we're excited to read about and see pictures of your TV stand and your coffee table! I think you are both blog authors on this blog. And remember, these posts only go out to the women in the family. If you boys want to continue seeing these on a regular basis without me having to forward them to you, please chime in.

DIY Upholstered Bench for Dining Room Table

This post is a little different from my usual sweet deliciousness. In fact, it has nothing to do with food at all! It really became quite the project...when we had to almost start over completely! But I'll get to that later on in the post. 

So we had an old, big and bulky coffee table that we got off ksl for $15 or so. We've been using it since our time in Wymount Terrace, and it has worked great! However, it just wasn't meeting my standards for furniture in the living room, especially since Shane has been building all this nice dark oak furniture; it just didn't match. I found the idea on Pinterest to reupholster a coffee table. After some thought and planning, we finally decided to just buckle down and try it out!

The first step was to elongate the sides by adding an additional piece of scrap wood. Shane took responsibility for that step. We also drilled holes in the top of the table where the upholstery buttons will be placed, later in this tutorial.

Next, I stripped and stained the legs using leftover red oak stain from our other furniture. Unfortunately, the legs here are not actually oak, so the match isn't perfect. But it still looked a whole heck of a lot better already!

I did most of my shopping for supplies using coupons at JoAnn, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby. I bought this 1-inch foam, and just doubled it up for the top. (Shane was especially concerned about having something soft to put his feet on while sitting on the couch). Spray adhesive works just fine for this, and is quick and easy.

The next step was to stable the under-bedding fabric on top of the foam. This was my chance to practice folding in the corners. Perfect corners was another "must" for the table. I basically folded one end into a triangle and left it under the adjacent side, leaving one single crease right on the corner of the table.

Finally, I placed the fabric over top of the bedding by stapling it below as well. The corners were perfect.

The last step was to thread the strong thread through from the bottom, up through the foam and fabric using an upholstery needle. Then simply thread the button and pull it back through. I did that to all 12 of the buttons before I flipped it over to secure them in place. To do this, I pulled the string very tightly and tied it in a knot using a miniature nail to keep it from being pulled back through the hole.

Below was the final result! I felt like I had done a great job...except that it completely looked like a toddler-twin mattress on stilts. I guess we hadn't thought it through enough to realize that the table was definitely about the size of a mattress, and with the chosen material and the buttons, all I could see was mattress! This thing was a monstrosity at this point. I placed it in the guest room so I wouldn't have to look at it. All the while, Shane wanted it out so he could put his feet on the nice padding :)

Eventually, we had some friends over and we told them about our predicament. They came to the conclusion that if we did decide to cut it in half lengthwise (which was one of the ideas we were throwing out there), that it could work perfect as a bench for our dining room table. Especially since I had already reupholstered our dining room chairs in the same color blue, and painted their legs and backs a rich brown as well!

So after Christmas break Shane used his brand new circular saw and got to work. I took out all the staples and removed all the foam and material from the table. Then Shane simply cut the thing in half and screwed it back together, being sure to reinforce all sides...a lot. 

I then started the whole project over and did everything again. This time, I cruised through it since I had already done the same thing a few weeks previously. We only used 2 rows of buttons this time, and I only padded the top and not the sides, and it looks fantastic! It goes great with the table. 

Now, not only do we not have something soft to put our feet on while sitting on the couch, we actually have nothing at all! But don't fret; we will come up with something. If anything, it freed up a lot of space in our tiny little living room!

(From the Phillippines) Manila "Overnight" Cinnamon Rolls

[Baking tip for overnight rolls: yeast rolls won’t rise in the fridge, so let them raise prior to refrigerating.]

Manila “overnight” Cinnamon Rolls12 rolls

Dough:

1 potato peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1½ tsp. salt
4½ c. flour
1 c. sugar
1T. Yeast

¼ c. oil
1 large egg

Spread:

½ cup soft butter
2 tablespoon cinnamon

1 c. Sugar [brown or white]

Frosting:
2 c. powdered sugar
3 T  whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

1.      Peel and cook potato with ½ tsp. salt and cover with at least 1 inch of water.  [You’ll need 1 1/4 cups of potato water for recipe.]  While it is cooking, combine flour, remaining 1 tsp. salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl. 

2.      Drain the potato, save 1¼ cups of the potato-cooking liquid, mash potato and add to measure cup of water.  Add ¼ cup of oil, when not super-hot, and add egg.

3.      Pour into flour bowl and knead till smooth and elastic…add flour if you need to. [Mine was to point of all being off the sides of the bowl and in a ball and I didn’t add flour.] Grease the bowl and let the dough rise till double.

4.      Grease a 9 x 13 pan and roll out dough to about 12 x 18 inches. Spread ½ cup butter over the dough. [I used olive oil, due to lack of butter here] but it turned out good.  Combine 1 cup sugar and 2T cinnamon [I used brown].  Spread evenly over the dough and roll them up.  Cut into 12 pieces and place in pan.  Make sure to seal ends of roll.

5.      Cover and let rise till double in size.  At this point you can refrigerate for morning or bake.

6.      Bake 350 degrees for about 30 – 40 min.  [I baked those 30 min, but you know your oven.]

7.      While warm, swirl frosting on each roll with back of a spoon.

8.      Enjoy!