Thrifty Flag Stand

I have a fabric flag on a wooden pole; it's the kind that you hang outside your house on Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Veterans Day.   Since we just moved, the flag was rolled up and propped in a corner of our house just waiting for a home.  For reasons which I will elaborate on in tomorrow's post, it called to me to remain in this part of our house but to be elevated to new heights and to become a focal point.

To become a focal point, this flag with a 4' pole needed to have a stand.  As I was contemplating where I could get a flag stand, I turned around and encountered the stuff I put aside to donate to Goodwill.  Amongst that stuff was a floor lamp with a broken switch.  It has been lately used as a hat stand in my husband's office. 

This floor lamp was constructed with several sections of metal tubing that screw together.  That's how they get a tall floor lamp in a short box.  Here is the floor lamp partially deconstructed:

I think there were four sections of metal tubing that make up the pole.  I chose to keep two sections. 

Now, the wooden flag pole is the same diameter as the lamp pole.  That meant I couldn't slide one inside the other.  After considering several options, I decided that I needed some PVC pipe with an inside diameter just a tad larger than the diameter of the flag and lamp poles.

This meant a quick trip to Home Depot!!  I love Home Depot!!  And I have a gift card to Home Depot!!

I decided to take along a small section of lamp pole to make sure I got the right thing.  In order to do that, I had to cut the cord that runs through the lamp:

Which I did.  Then I pulled the cord out from the plug end to get it out of the way and because my husband said he wants to keep it.

See that short length of metal pole?  That's what I took to Home Depot. 

I found the perfect size of PVC pipe and it was only just over a dollar for 10'.  I asked an orange-aproned gentleman to cut the pipe to 7' and 3' lengths.  I had already measured and determined that 7' would be the perfect length to slip over the lamp pole and to slip the flag pole into. 

On the way home I figured that I might need to paint the PVC pipe but that I would see if I could just turn the pipe so the writing was on the back side.

That's exactly what I did.  Here is the finished product!:

I now have a flag stand for my flag and can keep it on display year round.  Which is nice because I'm patriotic and because my three boys are all serving our country in the Army. 

God Bless our Troops!  (just had to add that because I'm proud of my boys)

So there is my really neat project that cost exactly $1.39 because I already had the flag and the old floor lamp.  How's that for thrifty?

Please come back tomorrow to see why I needed a flag stand and why it needed to be elevated to new heights . . .

Cindy

I'm linking up to the following parties:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Tuesday's Treasures

The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday

Fingerprints on the Fridge's Feature Yourself Friday

The Tattered Tag's Keep It Simple Sunday

Not Just Another Coffee Filter Wreath Tutorial

There are so many great tutorials out there in blogland showing how to make a coffee filter wreath so I didn’t want to do another.  My favorites are at Dearest Home, On Ruby Lane’s using a rubber stamp on the filters, oo-la-la and Manuela at The Pleasures of Homemaking.  Manuela made a square wreath that I just love.

Instead of showing how to make the wreath, I decided to give some tips for making the project much easier to do. 

Tip #1 - I bought a package of 200 brown coffee filters ($1.29 at HEB in Austin) and used them all.  Some of them didn’t separate easily so I separated a bowlful before beginning to hot glue them to the wreath form.  When the bowl was empty, I just filled it again.  This saved a lot of time that separating one and gluing, separating another and gluing, etc. would have taken.

Tip #2 – Anyone who has used a hot glue gun knows about hot glue burns.  Whenever I use my glue gun, I always, always have a bowl of ice water nearby in which to dip my poor burned body part after touching the hot glue. 

Tip #3 – Tip #2 doesn’t help me avoid burns, it only helps when I get one.  After burning myself two times in the same place, I decided to use the end of a spoon to hold the hot glue-drenched coffee filter down to protect my fingers.  You can see how I did it here:

I borrowed Erin’s idea at It’s a Wannabe Decorator’s Life of using jute upholstery webbing in the place of ribbon. 

I love how the brown coffee filters that all look alike come alive when made into the wreath and the light casts shadows all over.  Isn’t it pretty? 

I hope some of my tips help save other burned fingers.

Cindy

I've linked to the following:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia Tuesday's Treasures

Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday

Lucky Star Lane's Lucky Linky Tuesday

Nikki's Nifty Knacks Gettin' Crafty on Hump Day

Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell

Kitchen Stool Slipcover Tutorial

The kitchen stool slipcover tutorial from my August 17 post was requested so here goes:

This is the stool that I wanted to slipcover.  I used some left over drop cloth fabric that I already had. 

This crude sketch was what I hoped to accomplish. 

First I made a pattern of the top of the stool.  I added about a ¼ inch all the way around for a hem.  In hindsight, that was not enough because the thickness of the fabric makes the top of the slipcover fit too tightly on the stool.  I should have added ½ inch all the way around.

I cut a circle out of the fabric for the top of the slipcover.

Since I wanted the sides to be about 3 inches long, I cut a 4 inch wide strip to allow for seams.  To determine how long I needed to make the strip, I used geometry.  The circumference of a circle is p d (pi times the diameter).  To make it easier, just measure the finished diameter of the stool, which is the distance across the top of the stool, and multiply it by 3.14.  I used that distance and added about an inch for seams.

I sewed that strip around the edge of the circle and this is what it looked like.

For the ruffle, I wanted about an inch to show but because I was doubling it, it had to be 2 inches plus the seam allowance.  I cut a strip about 3 inches wide.  I folded the strip in half the long way and did a pleated ruffle as I pinned it to the edge.

After I sewed the ruffle to the bottom, I ran a top stitch along the seam to keep the seam from unraveling.

Here is the finished product. 

This was my first foray into slipcovering but it was an easy project.  I hope someday to slipcover one of my sofas but will probably do a chair first.  I have to thank all the wonderful gals in blogland for sharing their slipcover projects and their tutorials. 

Cindy

Brass Lamp Redo

Well, I decided that I really needed to try spray paint on my old brass lamp.  I got married in the mid-80s when brass was really hot and originally had lots of it.  I’ve gotten rid of most of the brass stuff I’d collected through the years but I still had an old brass table lamp.  I saw this picture in a magazine and figured my old brass lamp would be perfect for this transformation:

Of course, I forgot to take a ‘before’ photo but just imagine this primed lamp in brass. 

It was pretty dusty from being stored in the garage since our move in July so first I used TSP to clean it.  The brass actually looked really pretty after being cleaned but TSP took the lacquer finish off so it would have been needing constant polishing.  (I like to sound like I know what I’m talking about, but really, my husband is the expert on finishes of all sorts so he was the one to tell me this.) 

I didn’t use any sand paper but I did use a metal primer, Rustoleum Primer Sealer, for use on metal and all sorts of other finishes.  I gave it one really good coat of primer.  The cap on the primer was black so naturally I thought it would be black . . . but it wasn’t.

After sufficient time for the primer to dry, I coated the lamp with, I think, three coats of Krylon Cherry Red gloss.  I made sure to spray into all the nooks and crannies of the lamp.  I even got up real close to it make sure I didn’t miss anything.  I also sprayed the finial that goes on top of the shade. 

I let it dry overnight then used Minwax dark walnut stain.  As I said before, my husband is the expert on finishes and has lots of different stain colors on hand.  I picked the darkest, non-red wood stain.  I applied it heavily it to the lamp and let it sit for about a minute, more or less.  Then I wiped off the excess while still allowing it to stay heavily in the crevices and lightly on the rest of the piece. 

My husband told me it’ll take about a month for the oil-based stain to dry and cure thoroughly.  In the meantime, I’ll make sure it’s out of the way of traffic.

I’m very pleased that it turned out just as I hoped it would!  And it’s a real close match to the original in the magazine picture, don’t you think?

Thanks for stopping by.

Cindy

I'm linking up to:

Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party
Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell
The Shabby Chic Cottage's Transformation Thursdays
The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday.