Rolling Pin with Silverware Hooks

 

This one is pretty neat! I intended on making curtain hold backs out of silverware to use in our kitchen, but since we don't have a window there that requires curtains, I had a bag of old silverware sitting around, just waiting for a project. I had seen some photos of bent silverware hangers attached to boards floating around Etsy and decided to attempt my own. After creating, my dear husband nailed them to an antique rolling pin, which we mounted to the wall as an apron hanger. Yay!

Each type of silverware required a different process to bend into the right shape. The spoon was the easiest, simply banging flat with a hammer, hooking into a table mounted vise, hooking the handle into a hand-held vise grip and pulling up on the handle to create a hook.

The knife was also pretty easy, but the blade was pretty thick towards the handle, making it hard to control what angle the blade bent at to form the hook. It was also squeezed into the table vise when bending with the hand-held vise grip, but bending the blade, not handle as was done with the spoon.

The fork was definitely the most work. I started by trying to simply bend the tines with a pliers while the fork was hooked into the table vise grip, which was ridiculous. So, Mike taught we how to use a blowtorch- yes, I used blow torch! Each fork tine was heated until red hot and then bent into a curve using pliers. It probably took 6 or so heating sessions to get everything in place. Then, we hit the fork with a hammer until the tines were flat and even with the others, instead of some sticking out and looking silly. The handle was bent into a hook using the same process as the other utensils. 

Mike then drilled a hole into each utensil (careful not to overheat your bit!) and nailed the pieces onto the rolling pin. The silver wall mounted hooks were purchased at Lowe's, for the pin to sit on. We screwed in the Lowe's hooks, set the pin on top and voila!- a vintage, kitchen themed hanger for my aprons!

Some tips if you try this at home- make sure your silverware is all silver, not just silver plated. This will make it easier to bend and have a prettier finish. We scraped off some silver coating when bending the fork, leaving an ugly black finish behind. I colored over it with a silver sharpie to try to hide it! :) Also, we bent the utensils over the curve of the table vise "grabber" area so the hooks had the same size and shape. Make sure to bend the handles backwards, to show off the pretty pattern on the front. (When completed, you see the back of the eating area and the front of the hooks.) Once hung, the rolling pin kept spinning so the hooks were touching the wall due to the weight. This was fixed with a dab of hot glue on both wall hooks to secure the handles and a dab on the inner handle area to secure the large middle rolling part.

What do you think? Worth an hour and $15?

Coffee Station Beginnings

I wanted a dedicated station for coffee in our dining room, but was having trouble finding the type of table I liked (vintage-y or dark wood, counter height, and ample storage space, kind of like this) for a good price. On my way into town during a blizzard, and obviously not driving as cautiously as I should, I saw a potential table in the window of a used furniture shop and decided to stop in the next day to take a look. It was only table height and didn't have much storage... but it was only $50 so I bought it! Eventually it will get moved to the living room as a sofa table after we find the perfect coffee station table, but it will work great in the dining room for now.

We have that same honey oak wood on our floors and cabinets, which is already way too much orange, so it was decided to re-stain the tabletop to a dark wood. I unscrewed the top, stripped the old stain off, cleaned and sanded the wood, beat it up with an assortment of hard objects for a worn look, stained, sanded, stained, sanded, sealed, sanded, re-screwed, and changed the knob. And here is the finished result:

The knob is from the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I bought 10 or so for about $.25 each. The others are currently being used as a face on a snowman. :) 

Here is where you can see some of the different marks made by beating the table up, using a hammer, screwdriver, wire brush, bag of nails, etc. The stain settles in the indents, leaving a darker color.

I want to put overhead storage shelves in, but as this won't be our "forever" table, I will wait for now. And yes, we do have a coffee station before a kitchen table. C'est la vie!

What do you think?

Christmas Dog

Until I get a few project complete, here is a few cute (and naughty) pictures of our one year old dog, Jax:

Oh what a nice dog in front of the Christmas tree!:

Wait, what is that?:

Less then 12 hours after putting the tree up, Jax destroyed three ornaments and multiple branches of holly. Within one week, eight ornaments were chewed up, including a glass one. At least he is sorry about it.:

I would be mad at him, but he is so darn cute!:

And really like the snow!:

What a cutie!:

*In case you were nervous, Jax was fine after chewing up the glass ornament. The Christmas tree now gets sprayed with smelly dog deterrent everyday to keep him away from the festive snack. :)

Fabric Christmas Trees

Look how cute these are! I was wanting a few tall Christmas trees to set on the fireplace mantle and couldn't find any that I liked in the stores. They were all too short or too shiny. So, I made my own.

Supplies needed:

• 2 small tomato cages (like this)
• At least 3 poster board sheets (thick paper sheets in the largest size you can get, like this)
• Masking tape
• Hot glue
• Fabric of your choice (I used 2 feet of green fleece, about 1 foot of cream flannel, and 1 foot of textured cream upholstery fabric.)

First, flip the cages upside down so the largest ring is on the bottom. Decide how tall you want the trees. I cut off the bottom ring of one cage to make it shorter that the other. Tape where the wires are connected to the ring; this is to keep the sharp wire edges from scratching wherever you set the trees. Then, tape the three ends together to make a big cone, like this:

Lay the tomato cages down on the poster paper, long side down. Tape down the long wires as you roll the cage across the paper. The paper wrapped better by putting it at an angle, which left some corners hanging off the bottom. Just cut those off and save the trimmings.

Once completely wrapped and taped on the inside, seal the seam by taping along the edge. Use the paper trimmings to patch any gaps left by the paper not being big enough. This is what the inside and outside should look like.

Cut a long strip of fabric (long enough to wrap around the bottom of the tree) and glue the strip to the outside bottom of the tree to hide the paper bottom. Then, start a movie and cut out hundreds of fabric petals. :) I made them about 1 inch wide and 2 inches long. It will go faster if you fold the fabric before cutting, so you can get multiple petals in one swipe.

Once cut out, start hot gluing petals in rows all the way around the tree. I made one tree mostly green with a few cream petals and one mostly cream with a few green petals. The picture below shows the bottom fabric strip, and beginning of gluing. You can also see where I used magazine sheets to fill in tree holes when I ran out of poster board. (I only used two sheets instead of three.)

Keep gluing petals on until the whole tree is filled. Overlap a little bit to hide the straight tops of the petals and hide the paper. Once you get to the top, fold a petal around the tip and glue to make a nice cone top.

This is what you end up with. (The cute trees, not the cute dog.)

This project cost less than $15 total to make two trees, especially since I used discounted fabric from the remnants bin at Walmart and cheap tomato cages, because no one buys tomato cages in November.

Here are the trees on the mantle, next to TJ Maxx reindeer. So cute!

 This, my friends, is a My Neighbor's House original. Yes, I came up with this idea all on my own... and it actually worked! Haha!

Thanksgiving Fireplace Mantle

When touring houses as prospective buyers, one of the first details that caught our eye was the fireplace in our now home. The whole house is covered in icky honey oak trim, which is not my style, but the living room was redeemed with a really nice dark mantle. We will put a TV on the wall some day, but until they go on sale (Black Friday), I had free rein of the entire space.

The ceiling is pretty high, with a long slope, so tall items were needed to balance. I have been trying to find a way to use a few old windows for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity. A Ben Sollee poster and plant also add height. The poster also hides the outlet and cable hook-up you can see in the upper right corner of the photo below.

There are a few fall touches: two pumpkins and a cornucopia. I plan to change the mantle out with each major holiday/season. A long metal candle holder from our wedding and three rectangular peach candle holders from our honeymoon sit in back.

This is my favorite part! Cute little birds sit in an antique bird cage. When I first put the display up, the bird on the perch kept falling over so it looked like a hanging bat or a sad dead bird, which is not cute. A twist-tie solved the issue!

Lastly, a metal G from Anthropologie and one of our engagement pictures in a bike chain frame sit in front of the poster. I originally wanted to put the "G" above our bed, but it is heavy and I am afraid it will fall off in the middle of the night and knock one of us out... The frame was a going away gift to Mike when he had an internship in Indiana for a month last summer. He put it on his bedside table at the hotel. :)

I'm happy with the way the mantle turned out but already excited to decorate it for Christmas!