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So, after 2 years of using a free Craigslist loveseat in our living room, I decided it was peeling too much to stay anymore. As is traditional in my house, I dismantled it. I saved the pleather and foam for future sewing projects, stuck the frame in my garage with the intention of using it to make a shelf, and then turned my attention to what to put in its place.
Thus was born The Coffee Seat: a bench made out of a coffee table. Now, I am under no delusion that I invented the concept myself, nor that it's novel in any way. What made the Coffee Seat special in my personal history of craft projects is that I thought of it, bought the coffee table at the ReStore, and in two hours had a completed bench. I invested $15 in the coffee table; the rest of the supplies I had on hand!
In the end, the Coffee Seat spent about a week in our house. The neighbors put their old loveseat on the curb and we were immediately smitten (mainly because Bower had made it perfectly clearly he's a loveseat-or-bust kinda dog.) Thankfully, my sibling came by for a visit and immediately declared that the Coffee Seat would make a perfect bench at the end of their bed. So, it moved a few blocks away to my parents' home, we adopted our trash couch to fill the void, and I satisfied my curiosity of what it would take to turn a coffee table into a seat! Trash Couch Photoshoot: "Quality from the Curb"
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Here's a secret I probably shouldn't share, but I'm going to anyway. Why? Because the more of us that do this one little thing, the less stuff that ends up in the landfill. Secret: Most chairs and barstools are ridiculously easy to recover. I'm not kidding! 9/10 chairs, just flip them over, unscrew 4-5 screws, and off pops the seat. Then, with some fabric (something sturdy, preferably), a stapler, and a bit of finesse, you have a new look for an old seat! The main thing to look out for is if there's too much fabric on the cushion to go cover it with the new fabric, in which case you just need to grab a flathead screwdriver and pry out the old staples and remove the upholstery. Heck, if you get that far, you could always add more foam to the seat if you need it to be cushier! When stapling on the new fabric, be sure to start by anchoring it on each side before moving around the entire perimeter. That way the fabric is pulled taut in every direction and you avoid a big bunch of material when you make it around the circle (or square). Here's a barstool I recovered before it hit the floor in the ReStore. I timed myself refinishing it, and including the time it took me to track down my supplies, it took a mere fifteen minutes. My favorite part of this project is that the new fabric came from a couch that wasn't up to ReStore standards. We had to let the couch go, but I squirreled the cushions away knowing that someday the perfectly-good-pleather would come in handy.
I'm telling you, it's too simple!
-Kali Brokaw  Sometimes we get strangely mundane donations at the ReStore. A while ago, we received a bunch of solid-core doors from the Franciscan Sisters. When I say a bunch, I mean a BUNCH. We're talking 50+ doors, all of them weighing at least 40lbs. While we have sold a fair number of them, we have yet to clear them out. There's only so many people in this town with heavy-door needs. Now, an obvious use for a thick door like this is a workbench top. I didn't really need a workbench, though. What I really needed was a garden bed. I have a ton of plants, but I rarely get to enjoy the literal fruits of my labor; the rabbits are happy to do that for me. I've known for years I wanted a really tall garden bed to keep my produce safe, and these doors helped me do just that. It turned out so well, my parents asked me to make a pair for them as well!  All you need to do this yourself is: 2 solid-core doors 4 36" 4x4s A box of 3" deck screws Weatherproof paint Drill/driver Circular saw For my garden bed, I knew I wanted it big and deep so I could throw all my yard waste from the winter inside before I topped it off with dirt. My parents' beds, though, I made half the height so we didn't have to use as much fill. To create the two beds, I used four doors in total, ripping all of them in half the long way, and then halving two of those pieces to make the ends of each bed. Really, you could make yours any dimensions your heart desires! Essentially the doors are just thick pieces of plywood. Before putting everything together, I painted the pieces with exterior paint. I don't have a real idea of how long it will hold up, but so far so good. It's been in my yard for about a year at the time of writing this, and so far the only change is that it's dirtier than it used to be and there are a few spots where the veneer is peeling up. A fresh coat of paint should fix that. To assemble things, I used 4x4s at each of the interior corners. I laid them out on the ground, then rested the long sides of the bed on top of them and screwed them together. When determining how far in to set the 4x4s from the edge, I measured the thickness of the door and used that as my guide. That way, when I screwed the short sides of the bed to the 4x4s, the edges all ended up flush.  Standing the bed up in my yard was tricky because I did it by myself, but with some careful maneuvering I propped up the long sides with the 4x4s attached and the unattached end caps between them. I eyeballed squaring things up, then screwed on the ends. Once everything was together, I touched up the paint and waited for it to dry. Then the real work of filling it began. I took all my yard waste and shoved it inside, added dirt, waited for it to settle, added more dirt, waited for it to settle, added more dirt, waited for it to settle, and then topped it off with some mulch. A few sweet potato slips later, and I have a beautiful raised garden bed!
by Pam Hartwell My project started with a very tall wall (14’) in the room where people enter my home. My home is a 1906 farmhouse where I grew up, and then it was my mother’s home most of my adult life. In the early 1970s the old farmhouse got an addition and the front room was designed to fit a piece of furniture that my grandfather saved from a home he was working on. The piece was a 9’ tall dark mahogany, carved wood, marble topped, mirrored sideboard with heavy religions themes.  After my mom died, I needed to make the home my own and decided the heavy and very large piece was not my style and put it up for sale. It was clearly a statement piece and I wanted something with similar wow factor, but also more modern. I also knew I wanted a couch on that wall to look out at the wall of windows that it faces. What a great spot for one of those gallery-style arrangements of art! I love eclectic art and working at the ReStore allows me to constantly be building my collection. I also had some posters I had dumpster-dived years ago, some beautiful carvings made by my great grandfather, and art made by my mom. Variety of mediums is the key to a good gallery wall; I had paintings, yarn art, pencil drawings, ceramic pieces, flat and bulky wood and plaster carvings, and lots of different styles of frames. Here are the materials needed to complete this project:
Gather Your Art Pull all your art together and lay it out. Look at how it goes together and think about the pieces that you want to highlight; I chose 4 rectangle pieces for each or the corners to create a sense of order. At this point I curated out some pieces and sought new pieces for a nice balance of shapes, sizes, and a variety of mediums. Make sure each piece is clean and ready to hang with either a wire mount or command strips. Command strips are great for ease of hanging, but if your piece is rough or dirty, it will fall. I knew we would be sitting below these pieces, so I made sure the really heavy carvings were secure with nails in studs (I marked them with pencil lines and the help of a stud finder).
Once you have decided what you want, make paper cutout copies of your art. Transfer the shape of the artwork to newspaper by tracing around the frame and then cut out the shape. I also decided to use fat sharpies to make basic drawings of each item on the newspaper so I would know what it was when I had it hanging on the wall. Plus it was fun! Start hanging the newspaper on the wall using mounting putty. Use 1-2 pieces of putty near the top of the newspaper art and be careful not to rub the newspaper on the wall, especially if your wall is light colored. I decided I wanted 4 square or rectangle larger pieces to anchor my corners, so I started with those and worked my way towards the center. I decided to leave at least 4 inches in-between each piece to help with uniformity. I also decided a few pieces would go outside the blue tape. The great thing about the newspaper art is that I could move things easily. Once you have all the paper shapes on the wall, another set of eyes is good. I had my daughter helping the entire process and my boyfriend chiming in with ideas. Once we had all the newspaper art hung we spent a day looking and adjusting. Hang the Art Use the newspaper as your guide by figuring out where the nail needs to be on the art then mark it on the newspaper. It will often show through because newspaper is thin, or you can lift/fold the newspaper so you can mark the wall before you take the newspaper down.
I hung the art from the outside in, but if I had it to do over, I would recommend hanging from the inside pieces first and move out as you can always expand your space on the outside edge, but not in the middle.
Gallery Wall 2020, Pam Hartwell
 If you've been shopping at the ReStore in the past year, you've likely seen these wardrobes. This excellent donation from a local business has been a staple on our salesfloor for a while. Now a few of them are playing a role behind-the-scenes! We needed some aesthetically pleasing storage space in our meeting room, and I knew the wardrobes would do the trick. The first thing I did was take the clothing rod out. Then, I had some short pieces of lumber on hand that served perfectly as cleats to hold the shelves. For a more detailed step-by-step on how to install simple closet shelves, here's a nice blog on the subject: https://www.ana-white.com/blog/2014/06/easiest-pantry-or-closet-shelving From there, it was as easy as cutting plywood to size, hauling the wardrobe to its destination, and filling it up!
The room they were going in was not quite big enough for three wardrobes, but by stealing the doors off one, cutting them to size, and attaching them between the other two wardrobes, I solved that conundrum! A plank of plywood topped everything off and gave us some more vertical space.
If you've been looking for some quick, easy storage solutions, these wardrobes are an awesome, sturdy solution. I've also been eyeing them up for potential garden tool storage. I think they might be just the right size to hold dormant rakes, spades, and post-hole-diggers during these cold winter months.
You could probably hang clothes in them too, I suppose. -Kali |
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY - LA CROSSE AREA
Providing Families with a Place to Call Home
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit founded on the conviction that every family should have a decent, safe, and affordable place to live. We partner with homeowners and the community to build decent, safe, and affordable housing.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit founded on the conviction that every family should have a decent, safe, and affordable place to live. We partner with homeowners and the community to build decent, safe, and affordable housing.
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