Tools

Furniture Flipping Market Coming Soon!

A few years ago there was a lady who commented on one of the posts on Furniture Flipping Forum, my FB group, that the original poster should try Retique It. Since I have a “No self-promotion” rule in the group, I messaged Michele and asked if she was the CEO of Retique It. She told me she as, but I was curious and asked her for a link to her product that she was promoting in my group. Honestly, I usually just delete and tell them we have the rule. But I’d seen the product mentioned once or twice before and I wanted to know what it was. So she gave me a link and I went exploring. Michele offered to send me some of the product to try and I said, “OK.” I tried it and liked it and have been promoting it every since. If product is good … Read more

Typesetter’s Drawer Upcycle – Essential Oils Decorative Rack

We found this typesetter’s drawer for just a few dollars about 6 years ago and just never did anything with it…until last week. I have a challenge in my Blueprint member’s group that consists of 3 things: Clean up/organize your workshop. Make your workshop pretty. Do something special for yourself. I’m joining my members in the challenge and I’m: Cleaning up my office (workshop already done) Making my office pretty Cleaned up the typesetter’s drawer, stained and mounted it on the wall  of my master bedroom hallway.   Here is the “BEFORE” of the typesetter drawer: We decided to take it to the car wash and spray it down – normally you have to be very careful when getting water on old wood because it could warp. But I decided it was worth the risk since it looked like the back had already been exposed to moisture (rippled). Besides, I … Read more

Does Your Paint Get Goobers?

This week we’re talking about your paint, not about local painting companies philadelphia , but how to keep it from drying out, having flakes of rust in it, and having those annoying little things we call paint goobers. Do you know what I’m talking about with paint goobers – the globs that can form in there when the paint starts to dry out? I have cans of paint that are three, four, five years old, and they’re just as good as when I first got them. So let’s talk about the paint we use for our projects. You’ve probably heard several things about how people care for their paint, so let’s run over those real quick. We have some people that store their paint upside down to keep the air out of the can. I don’t do that because I don’t like paint on my lid. And to me, it’s … Read more

Damaged But Not Destroyed

We tend to toss rather than fix, don’t we? Let’s reconsider. Let’s look through a better lense when considering what to do with an item. It’s so amazing to see an upcycle, redesigned and/or repurposed piece of furniture, decor, or whatever. I’ve seen it. I’ve done it. And I want to see you see it a do it too. This former book table shelf plywood and 2x4s homemade thingy was on Craig’s List. It was terribly scratched up by the owner’s dog. The lady was super apologetic about it when I went to go take a look. I even considered saying, “No thanks” to her when I saw how beat up it was. But I took it anyway and stored it for over a year waiting for time and inspiration to tackle it. Whenever I have a new product, method or technique I want to try out, in my mind’s … Read more

Brushes Matter

Let’s Talk Brushes Over the years I have collected so many different kinds and I thought I would share some of my favorites with you. I don’t think I could do anything the way I do it without them.  I bet you have heard it said that it’s not the paint brush, it’s the painter. While there is some credence in that, you know, I could probably take any paintbrush and get any job done, but how much frustration would I go through because I don’t have the right brush? Years ago when we bought our house, I had a friend come over to help me paint my mom’s apartment, which is now my workshop. When we were painting it, a friend came over and she was quite an experienced painter. She said, “Get yourself a nice paintbrush. You know, you could paint this with the brush you have, but … Read more

Which Sander is the Best? – Product Review by James Thomas

Choosing the Right Sander NOTE from Val: We’ve had more than a couple of dozen inquiries as to which sander is the best, so James Thomas from TheToolSquare.com offered to give us a run-down. I’ve included photos and my Amazon affiliate links of each type of sander before each description. They are not my recommendations, only for reference. For James’ recommendations with links, you’ll find them at the end of this article. Here’s James… Craft markers and artists use a variety of power tools to create their artworks, and one of the most common power tools is the sander. The sander uses sandpaper, attaching it on the base of the power tool to smoothen the edges of a material that the artist is working on. 

There are multiple types of the sander, and one should be familiar with these devices to use them more efficiently. When someone masters the use … Read more

Love My DIY Home