Tutorial – Squirrelly Girl DIY

DIY Embroidered Pegboard Hello Entryway Sign

September 20, 2018 JessyRo

I have been seeing embroidered pegboard everywhere and I’ve been dying to do a large scale piece somewhere in my home. After stumbling upon a few inspirations, I decided to do a big entryway sign with hooks to hang by my back door. I never use the front door and there is no closet near the back so this would provide a fun piece of art and a place to hang my coat at the end of the day.

This one did take a while plan but the project when fast. Since I’ve already done the hard part for you, you have no excuse not to give this one a try! Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this gem.

Things You’ll Need

20” x 30” Pegboard
1” x 2” Pine Board – 8” long
1” x 4” Pine Board – 3” long
5 Small Metal Hooks
Paint
Yarn
Wood Glue
Frame Materials – List and instructions found here

I had found a cute hello welcome hook board featured on Apartment Therapy and knew this is the way I wanted to incorporate pegboard embroidery into the house. First major change was that I wanted a script hello instead of blocks. I tried to figure out the best way to translate it to pegboard and then I found this great sign on Magic City Thistle. The look she had was perfect but it was too large. After much trial and error, I sized it down to fit on the space I had. Here is the pattern all worked out for you! Click here to download the pattern.

Now that the planning is done, it was time to start crafting! I started with a 2’ x 4’ piece of pegboard and cut it down to 20” x 30” to fit my wall. When you do this, make sure you are marking your measurements between the holes. You don’t want to cut through the holes or your edges will be messy. I will also throw off the number of holes you have to embroider in so the pattern will probably not match up. I painted mine white for a nice neutral background but pick whatever colors work best with your interiors. I did layout my hooks along the bottom to make sure I had the correct amount. I got smaller hooks so 5 was perfect but I could see doing less if you got a larger hook.

Next is time to start embroidering! I used scrap yarn I had laying around that wasn’t very thick so I doubled it up to fill it out more. A specialty, thicker yarn would be really fun for this project too but I just wanted to use up what I had. Tie off a large knot on the end of your yarn and start from the back. You’ll see on the pattern that I left 3 rows of holes along the bottom for the hooks and one row of holes along the three other sides. Double check your starting point because it’s the worst to get halfway through a project like this and realize the whole thing is off by a few holes. I often did a line of them in one direction and came back and did the cross on my way back. That seemed to help me keep count of the pattern. I also had a printed copy of the pattern in front of me to mark off what I’ve done. Just take your time and follow the pattern.

Once your all done with the embroidering, it’s time to add some stability to this sign. Peg board is kind of flimsy on it’s own so I knew I would need to add some support to it before attaching the hooks to it. I ran a 1” x 4” across the bottom length of the board and 1” x 2” around the remaining edges. The thicker board along the bottom is so I have something soiled to attach the hooks to. Attach the boards with a good quality wood glue and make sure you clamp them until they dry. You may notice some wood glue filling in some of the pegboard holes after you apply the clamps. Just take a wet q-tip and removed the extra glue.

Layout your hooks so they are evenly distributed along the bottom and attach with screws that came with he hooks. I finished the sign off by attaching a wooden frame. This is the same style that I use on my canvas art and you can find instructions for them here. The only difference is that I did add a few nails around the outside to attach the frame to the sign. I wanted to make sure it was secure since people would be hanging things on it. I used 4” long screws to attach the sign to the wall, drilling them directly into studs. I did a screw in each corner so I don’t think this thing is coming off the wall any time soon!

I am so in love with this sign & it turned out exactly how I wanted! I love that you could change out colors and get a totally different looking sign. The possibilities are endless but the result will always be great! Enjoy!

Tutorial

Refinishing My Basement Stairway: Part 1

June 25, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

If you follow my Instagram, you know I’m in the process of updating my basement. I want to create a cozy and welcoming living room space for friends and I to hang out. The one major eye sores beyond the wood paneling and drop ceiling was the basement stairs. These were open wood stairs that I’m sure were pretty standard in ranch style homes in the ’80s. You can tell that they were installed strictly for function and there was no attempt at making them look nice. Being original to the home and over 30 year old, they had 10+ coats of paint and in there current state were dark chocolate brown. They were obviously ugly and frankly kind of scary with no outer railing when it came to small children (or adults after a few glasses of wine). I knew I wanted to make them safer and of course prettier!

My original plan was to paint the steps charcoal and the sides white thinking there was no way that I would ever get to the original wood to be able to stain. I was shocked when I took a palm sander to it and easily was able to get to down to the wood on the edges. At that point, my heart was set on staining the steps and I was going to make it happen. I’ve done a fair share of stripping and refinishing wood on furniture project in the past so I felt confident I could hand this. As always, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

After prepping the space, I eagerly applied a thick coat of CITRISTRIP, a paint and varnish stripping gel that is safe for indoor use. This was crucial since basements tend to be poorly ventilated areas. Apply the stripper to the steps and leave for up to 24 hours for the gel to work it’s magic. The longer you leave it, the better it will work. When your ready to remove the stripper, use a stripping tool and work with the grain of the wood. It will hopefully come off in chunks of gooey mess. I don’t know how else to describe it. Haha! There will be a slight residue after you remove the stripper and this can be cleaned up with Mineral Spirits and an old rag.

Since I didn’t want to be stranded in the basement for hours, I had to awkwardly start at the bottom and work my way up. I would stand on a step, then applying the stripper on the stair below. It sucked and was so uncomfortable. DON’T DO WHAT I DID! Break the steps into odds and evens. Do all of the odd steps first, leaving you every other step to stand on. This way you can still work bottom to top but you can actually face the step your working on. Once you’re completely done with the odd steps, go back and do the whole process again on the evens. It might take a little longer but it gives you better control and puts you in way less of awkward positions. Trust me, you’re back will be thanking you!

I ended up doing 3 rounds of stripper and I still had a pretty solid layer of a light blue/gray paint. At this point I spent 8 hours hand scrapping with a razor blade and was able to get most of the paint off. It was terrible but I was so close at this point that I couldn’t give up!

That was followed with LOTS of sanding. Starting with a very course sand paper and working finer, I sanded until I removed as much of the paint as I could. Sadly, there were still some small areas that I couldn’t get the paint but you don’t notice them too much when it was all said and done.

Next I ran painters tape along the edges of the steps and wrapped them with resin paper to protect them while I worked prepping and painting the sides. The sides were in really rough shape. They had lots of dents and groves that I smoothed out with wood filler.

They also had huge gaps along where the stairs met the sides. This area I ended up filling with printable window, door and trim caulk. Some of the gaps were so big that I had to do multiple passes to fill them. The process was easier then I expected and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Finally I was ready for paint and stain. I did all of my painting first since the steps were all wrapped up. I used a paint made for floors and porches to hold up to the foot traffic it will receive. It took 4 coats of white paint since I was going over the dark brown but if covered pretty well. I stained the stairs a dark walnut color which helped hide some of the paint I couldn’t get off the steps. I finished with 3 coats of Minwax One Coat Polyurethane in a satin finish over the stain, then stepped back to admire my beautiful work!

All in all, I probably spend 40 hours on this part of the stairs project and I would do it again in a heartbeat. None of it was particularly fun but I’m ecstatic with how well they turned out. It literately took a major eye sore in the basement and made it a focal point.

You can see that there is a partial wall going up along the outer side of the steps and that is part two of the steps project. We’re also adding risers in and updating the hand rail. I will continue to share all of the progress as we finish up these beauties!

Tutorial

Simple DIY Canvas Wood Frames

June 15, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

Wall art and canvases can be so expensive so I like to make my own. I save a little money and get exactly what I want so it’s really a win-win! I usually do quotes or sayings on simple stretched canvases that you can pick up from your local craft store for a few bucks. Adding one of these simple wood frames around any canvas art will really help step up your wall art game!

Things You’ll Need

1.5” x .75” Pine board
Saw
Drill
Sandpaper
Wood Glue
1.5” Finishing Nails
Wood Stain or Paint (Optional)

Creating the frame is so easy! I used pine board because pine is very inexpensive and I love the grain it has but you could do this with any type of wood you’d like. You need to start with by cutting down you board into 4 pieces. Two will be the height of the canvas and the other two will be 1.5 inches longer then the width. For instances, the canvas I was framing was 24” by 30” so I cut my pieces 24” and 31.5”. This is so the horizontal pieces are long enough to cover the ends of the vertical boards. I cut these at home with a saw but many home improvement stores will make simple cuts like this for you for a small charge. Just remember to bring your measurements with you!

A big step that I would stress not to skip is pre-drilling your nail holes. The board is so small that putting a nail straight in may split the wood especially if you use a larger nail. I did not drill on the first frame I did and it doesn’t look great. I managed to get a few nails in just fine but I split the wood on a couple. Learn from my mistakes… pre-drill your ends. Haha! I just did two small nails on each corner to help hold it together and I only drilled the ends on the horizontal boards since that was the wood that I had the splitting problem on before.

Next step is to assemble the frame. Apply a small amount of wood glue to the end of the vertical board. Line up your horizontal pre-drilled board on the end and gently nail in your small finishing nails. You will want to make sure the nails you have chosen are long enough to go into the both pieces of wood. If you only get 1” nails, there will only be 1/4” in the second piece of wood and that won’t offer you much stability. Repeat on all 4 corners until the frame is complete. At this point, I like to tape the joints to help keep them tight until the glue dies. I just used some painters tape I had but I’m sure masking tape would work well too.

Allow the frame to sit the recommended drying time on wood glue bottle, then remove the tape and finish with your desired look. I love the light wood so I left mine completely natural. You can really customize the look with a little stain or paint to match the art and your home’s decor. After you frame is all finished, you can place the frame on the canvas. The fit will probably be tight and need some persuasion to fit. This is not a bad thing. If it’s tight on the canvas, I’ve found you don’t need to attach the canvas to the frame because it will just stay put. Not only is this easier and looks nice then having to nail the canvas to the frame, but it makes it easy to change out canvases if you want to switch up your art! If you’re anything like me, things are always changing!

So easy, right?! I’d love to see how your frames turn out if you give this project a go! Feel free to upload a picture of your own wooden frames to my Facebook page. Happy building!