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This project idea was hatched when we had to remove the metal bathroom shelf above the toilet to prepare for installing new flooring in my parents’ bathroom. By doing so, it became clear that the silver metal had seen better days. The bathroom shelf was really rusted in places, especially along the shelf poles. In all honesty, it looked like it needed to be thrown away and replaced.  However, it’s not unusual for an over-the-toilet metal shelf unit to cost…

Whoever thought it was a good idea to give coasters a metal lining did not test their product before marketing it. I must be one of the few fools to buy them without realizing how awful these coasters would actually work. I just thought they looked nice. However, if there is any condensation that drips down onto these metal-lined coasters, the coaster will get stuck to the cup, and will rise with the cup when it is picked up. But…

Today I assisted in refinishing an old wooden table that my mother in law wanted to modernize for the grandkids’ play room. We used an electric sander to remove the shiny varnish from the entire piece of furniture, and then wiped off the dust thoroughly with a damp rag. Then we used a mini roller and painted the top with gray chalk paint and wiped it to give it a distressed look before it fully dried. For the sides and…

This is a project that I completed a couple of years ago when we bought a new mattress and I didn’t want to throw away the old one. We needed a couch (and a bed) in the basement, so I did some googling and found instructions on how to make a sofa from a mattress. 8 hours and $10 of supplies later, we had our new l-shaped couch: Since it was made from a queen mattress, it is also comfortable…