Catching up on some Dadmin

I’ve found myself doing more small DIY jobs rather than larger projects recently, probably something to do with having a young family and finding the time. Here are some updates from some jobs that don’t quite warrant a post in their own right.

Our garage door was in desperate need of repainting (I should’ve taken a before photo) and I had some leftover wood stain that I thought I would try before investing in some new paint. The first coat looked pretty horrible as it was very uneven and you could see the brushstrokes. So I picked up a cheap wood grain tool which, judging by the videos online, looked really easy to use and gave a nice effect. I was a bit dubious of how good it would look but I thought I’d give it a go as an experiment. It left a few drip marks give I was using a wood stain that really wasn’t designed for use on metal but I’m pleasantly surprised by the outcome and I think I’ll leave it as it is and not need to fork out on any paint which is a bonus.

We have a magnolia tree in the garden that needed potting into something bigger. I used a couple of small pallets from my stash and turned them into a new planter. All I needed to do was cut each pallet in half, add a few extra pieces for the base and screw it all together. This was super quick as I had pallets without any gaps in between so there was very little I needed to do to alter them from their original state. Definitely something I’ll bear in mind when I’m next on the lookout for some more pallets.

I also made some extra kitchen storage using leftover units from our utility that weren’t used. I just bought some drawer slides and a bit of MDF and put it all together.

And one last very small job was making a very small bench for my 2-year-old son. It was super simple to do but it’s really useful as he uses it as a make-shift table when we’re in the garden as well.