Tag: compost

Compost Creation

This happened two weekends ago in a day of productive fervor. Then I was too tired to think about it.

We copied John of YHL and made a compost bin out of old pallets–our pallets are waaay older than John’s which either makes us vintage and cool or janky and ghetto. Take your pick (I encourage you to pick the former). Yes, after raking the front and back lawn and taking the leaves to the dump, I noticed a pile of pallets behind an old building. We snagged a few and were frankly a little paranoid about getting in trouble. Cops out here are bored and always looking for something to do.

inspiration! or PINspiration!

Unfortunately, our ancient pilfered pallets came in an interesting variety of shapes and sizes (including a cute and useful mini pallet) so the finished product looks much less polished than our PINspiration (yep, I went there). Also it doesn’t help that the photo looks like I took it on my cell phone… Come on camera, I know (at least I thought) you can (could) do better.

We attached the sides and the backs with (surprisingly expensive) L brackets at the top and bottom. You can spy one there in the photo. We had a hinge leftover from our other pallet project (they sell them in pairs but we needed 3 for the room divider) and we hinged the mini one for a kind of door. It’s a little wobbly and eventually we’ll strengthen and stabilize it with a second hinge.

All in all the project came in at $8. I thought $2 each was steep for L brackets but what do I know?

As for the stuff inside it, I didn’t really research composting so… if I’m doing anything wrong, world, please feel free to let me know. Inside the heap are lots and lots of leaves, some of them I’d raked into a pile a month ago and didn’t bag up… smelled like potting soil when I shoveled it up to transfer, which I think is a good sign. Also included is some paper, kitchen scraps (vegetables and coffee grounds) and a leftover half-bag of real potting soil. And I mixed it up well.

So… what do you think? It’s nice keeping some stuff out of the trash can…

Advertisement

Sneak Peeks

Yes, that’s a plural “peeks” up there. I have many projects on the docket and hope to complete several of them–gotta build up the momentum. This also helps remind me to take “before” pictures. Now that the whole house exterior is painted (more on that another day) I can do some “fun” and necessary projects. Okay, not all of them are necessary.

This dresser:

Snagged this dresser at Goodwill for a “landing pad” to place next to the front door. It’s not this blurry in real life, I promise. I’m going to prime it and paint it a deep gray, using leftover paint from the master bedroom or guestroom (the colors of the 2 rooms are slightly different. Honestly thecolor will depend on how much paint we have left of each color). It used to have a third drawer but it got broken at the last second after we’d gotten it into the house in transport so I’m going to remove all the drawer components and use it for a shoe corral. This will be especially helpful during the winter months when nasty, wet, salty (from the de-ice product) shoes must stay by the front door for the sake of clean floors. The drawers will be helpful for storing winter gloves, scarves, hats etc and freeing up space in my closet and Doug’s wardrobe.

This fireplace:

I’m going to paint the inside of the fireplace teal to mimic the front door (which isn’t currently teal but will be as soon as it warms up enough to leave it open for long periods of time so the paint can dry… Which means next spring). I haven’t decided if I should continue storing the records here (they do look kind of cool, but too short) or go the candleabra-in-the-fireplace route. The fireplace is non-functioning so we can’t build a real fire in it, so painting and styling it is the way to go!

A compost bin:

Totally ripping off John’s method from YHL, this weekend we hope to build a compost bin out of pallets. It will be an upgrade from the cardboard box we’re currently using, and a great place to put our leaves after we rake. Another thing to check off the list before snow and ice set in for the next few months.

A mobile:

For my friend’s baby room. Since they didn’t know the gender of the baby until she was born, most of their stuff is a tasteful green and yellow. Time to dial up the PINK! I found a ton of awesome inspiration projects on pinterest, and it’s hard to pick just one. Maybe i’ll create a hybrid, or put my own spin on one! Can’t wait to get started!