I needed a few more stripes!

It feels so good to have our garage sale done! Our neighborhood sale brings in lots of traffic so we got rid of so much stuff. The rest is bagged up ready to donate, I love taking empty bins back downstairs. I might need a few more days to get the garage back in order, but I am close.

Well, my latest project involves stripes, which I love and can't get enough of. I decided to make some art with a frame this time. I have been wanting to learn how to use power tools especially saws for wood working. So I picked a small project to start. I wanted to make something for above my laundry room cabinets. It has been raining for a week and my laundry room does not get great light so the pictures were not looking too good. So this piece is currently living above a bookshelf in my family room, it may get moved around a bit.

Ok, so I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of MDF and had them cut it so size. I also picked out a piece of 1x2.

First I painted my MDF white then went to my sample paint stash and picked out some colors. I choose a yellow, teal, gray and white.

I decided I wanted all different width stripes. My board is 19" wide so I planned out the size of each stripe. The sizes went 2", 3", 1.5", 4", 2", 3", 1.5" and 2". I taped off the first set of stripes then just free hand painted the second set. I was afraid if I taped over the newly painted areas it would pull off the paint. I didn't have any delicate painters tape. Also I am impatient and didn't want to wait for the paint to dry before starting the next colors.

I used my 3 colors but added white so I had a light and dark version of each color.

I had my hubby help me with the cutting since he has experience with the miter saw. I cut my 4 pieces then stained them. I was trying to use stain I already had but I didn't like how it turned out so I did end up going out to buy some Minwax stain in the color Walnut.

This is my first attempt at making a frame and is probably not the best way but it did work in the end. Plus I knew it was going up high so no one would be able to see it up close.
1. I glued two (out of 4) of the corners togethers 2. I wanted to elevate my MDF, plus I needed something to glue it to so I cut a 1/2" piece off the end of a 4x4, then cut that into 4 pieces. I glued those pieces into each corner. (I hope that makes sense, I forgot to take pictures of that) 3.  I glued the other two corners togethers and put glue on top of the square wood pieces. That way the MDF would be glued in place.

Here is a picture of the back with everything glued in place.

One of my corners was not perfect. I may have cut one piece too short. To make sure the whole piece was secure I did what any good wood worker would do, I pulled out the glue gun. My Dad is an amazing wood worker and I am pretty sure he is cringing right now.

The glue gun did work great though. I glued along the seam between the wood and MDF all the way around.

I love the colors and the stripes, it makes me want to make more with different designs. You can see the pretty big gap in the lower left corner. Oh well, I will do better next time.

I needed something that added color and height above my shelf and this works great! The project cost $12 for the materials not including the stain and I have two more pieces of MDF for future projects.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Our weather is supposed to get a little warmer this week and I can't wait. I will just be happy with some sunshine though. I need to get out in the gardens to clean things up.  My to do list is already piling up this week. Are you a list maker? I don't know what I would do without my lists.


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