Julian's Fall Decor

Hello everyone! I would like to welcome you to my first blog post ever!  After all these years of Amber trying to get me to "help out" with the blog, I would find some way of getting my way out of it.  She finally got me interested when she said that I could write about all my DIY projects.  So here it is, my first DIY project blog post.  It's partly a how-to for the DIY project I made, and partly a glimpse into my thought process behind this DIY.

I have always been really big into decorating the house for the holidays.  The season that has given me the most difficult time has been decorating for Halloween/Thanksgiving.  There has always been a fine line as to when is the right time to pull down the witches hat and throw up the pilgrim.  So this year I decided to look for universal things that would show the greatness of the season and not limit it to just one holiday.  While looking on Pinterest, (that's right, I am a man and I am totally addicted to Pinterest. Think what you want but it is your one-stop-shop, you can start by looking at cars and before you know it, you are looking at ideas for your kid's 20th birthday party...I digress),  I was looking for some inspiration and I came across this really nice looking rustic box used as a centerpiece.

So I went outside to take a look at some of the scrap pieces of wood I have collected over the past couple of months.  I narrowed it down to a piece of 1x6 and a piece of 1x4.  I typically like using Pine because it is a soft wood, not that expensive and stains really nicely when trying to get that rustic look.  You can pick up these same pieces at your local store for about $5 a piece.

After I selected the wood I decided to start building.  I decided to use the 1x6 as my bottom piece and the 1x4 as the side pieces.  After much debate negotiating compromise, we decided that it would be best on the buffet and I based my measurements on that.  I cut the 1x6 piece to 17 inches, so that when I added the side pieces, I would get a total size of about 19 inches.  Since I wanted the cut parts of the wood to be visible on the side of the box instead of the front I cut a 4 inch section from the 1x6 to account for the side pieces.  

After doing that on both sides I then took a piece of 1x4 and drew a line with my square to let me know where to cut the 1x4. No need to make things complicated and use a tape measure when just a simple alignment and square will do the trick. 

Now that I have all the pieces of my box cut out I was time to put this baby together.  By using some wood glue and a brad nailer I would be able to create a box that would feel sturdy and last for years to come. 

When the glue dried I wanted to give it that old rustic look so I grabbed some stain that I had picked up at Lowe's.  I picked up a Mission Oak stain by MINWAX that was a stain and polyurethane in one because when applied with a brush it gave it that old world feel...that feel like this box had some cool stories to tell.

After the stain dried, I had one more piece left for this box to be complete and that was some handles.  I mean, if you are making a rustic box, why not throw on some rustic handles as well.  It not only adds functionality but also gives it that sweet kick of personality and charm.  I decided to go with some handles that I got at...wait for it...Lowe's!  They were only about 2 bucks a piece and came with the hardware to make installation a breeze.  

So now that I finished this sweet box, what am I going to put in it? I typically like to look for garlands that have all the things I am looking for.  One reason is they are less expensive than buying the pieces individually, and two, some designer out there thought they looked good together.    Amber and I went to Kirkland's several days later and came across the mailbox garland.  I liked the various colors and it provided me with enough material to have some left over.  

My toes are apparently making their blog debut as well.

Now here comes the best part, this is where the creativity and personalization (is that even a word?!) part come in.  Instead of just shoving the garland in there and calling it a day I like to cut all the pieces of the garland and work with smaller pieces arranging them how I think they will work best.  

From here, you just take some good sized candles to take up a bulk of the space and start getting creative.  After the first couple of leaves and berries everything started falling into place.  (If you start losing vision and just getting frustrated, like I did, take a step back let is sit for a while, and then attack it again.  Remember, this is supposed to be fun!)  When it was all said and done, I added a runner for the buffet to create a separation in color and I am really happy with the way it came out.  

Well that concludes my first blog post! I hope you enjoyed it because I've got more DIYs coming soon!