Oh my goodness! I have projects going all over the house right now. Thanks to the puppy, who seems to have some beaver in her genes, we have had to completely redo our entire house. Gone are the days of nice furniture, at least for now. The puppy has managed to eat, chew on or otherwise destroy quite a few items, including walls! Hopefully, she will outgrow this phase in a year or two. In the meantime, we will be living with funky, cheap and free furniture.
As an example, our "new" ottoman. Well, more specifically this is an ottoman, storage bin and game table combination. It is amazing what one can do with a couple of free pallets. Okay, maybe not amazing, but fun and funky.
This project cost less than $30 which is right up my frugally-minded alley. It consists of two pallets, scrap 2x4 pieces of lumber, scrap plywood sheeting, baseboard trim, screws and swivel casters. The bulk of the expense happens to be in the casters. The pallets, lumber, paint, and plywood were freebies from various sources. It is amazing what you can find on the side of the road, Craigslist postings, the local landfill or the Home Depot culled lumber bin.
Assembly was rather simple. I cut off the thin cross pieces on one side of each pallet so I could stack them together, sandwich fashion. Between the top and bottom pallets, I cut scrap 2x4's to fit the "notched" areas down the sides of the pallets. Using my handy dandy pocket hole jig, I affixed each layer together with screws and finished the assembly off with locking caster wheels. The whole contraption was topped with a scrap piece of plywood and trimmed with baseboard moulding. A little paint from the dump and a couple of cute bins from Ikea and this little baby is complete!
Hopefully, the destructive puppy won't eat this as she has everything else. However, if she does, we won't be out much money - just time. All the while continuing her introduction to human manners; namely, don't eat the house!
Next project on the list, a puppy proof couch followed by a sleeper chair and a wine bottle rack. Oh and a wall mounted, drop-down table. Fingers crossed!
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