How to Build a Modern Cable Railing Bed | Building Plans + Video

*This post is sponsored by SawStop and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Remember a few weeks ago when I shared the waterfall edge plywood nightstands I made for my sister? (P.S. you can get the free building plans HERE) I mentioned that she was downsizing into a smaller home and needed new furniture to fit the new space. I told her I was happy to hook her up with a new bed to match her nightstands but the one catch is, she would have no say in the design. 

DIY Slide - Rule Wood Desk Calendar

 

*This post is sponsored by DAP Products and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Like I'm assuming many of you do, I love making handmade holiday gifts for my friends and family. Last year I made several wood candy machines and the year before that was easy DIY mancala game boards. 

This year, I found some gorgeous 3/4" x 3/4" hardwood square dowels / rods at my Home Depot. They were only labeled as "hardwood" and didn't differentiate between the species of wood. A group of darker colored, redish rods caught my eye and I was pretty sure they were mahogany. 

Holiday Gift Ideas for Tool Lovers and DIY Fans

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Holy cow! How is this year going by so fast? How is it already December? I have a confession: I am a horrible procrastinator. I haven't bought a single Christmas gift yet. 

My twin boys are ten years old now and that means they are still super easy to shop for. We draw names for the extended family, so that means we only have a couple people to shop for there as well. My husband on the other hand, he's the tricky one. He's a super handy guy and possibly loves tools as much as I do. I combed through HomeDepot.com and made a list of gift ideas in every price range. Truth be told, it's really just a collection of my favorite tools and gadgets and several new items I'm itching to buy for myself. 

If you have a tool lover or DIY fan on your holiday list, keep scrolling and feel free to add those things you've been needing to the shopping cart as well. 

Ryobi 3/8 Inch VS. Ridgid 1/2 Inch Impact Wrench Head to Head

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

Alright guys, it's been a while but it's time to talk tools again!

Unless you do a lot of mechanical work or heavy duty construction, you might not be familiar impact wrenches. Easily confused with an impact driver, and impact wrench has a  male stud as opposed to a  female collet or chuck. They are designed to accommodate sockets, not bits. Traditionally, impact wrenches were pneumatically powered and often found in mechanic's shops. 

I own a couple impact wrenches and I actually use them WAY more than I thought I would. They are extremely powerful tools that can be used for a number of different jobs.

DIY Modern Plywood Nightstand | Video Tutorial + Building Plans

*This post is sponsored by Kreg Tool and The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

My sister is getting ready to move into a much smaller house and needed some new furniture to match the new home's more petite scale. Good thing she has a sister who loves to build furniture. 

I've been wanting to try a project with a continuous grain, mitered edge design that kinda creates a waterfall effect. It's traditionally a more advanced technique, but since I've been using my Adaptive Cutting System from Kreg  more and more, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to test this tricky design element out. 

NO WELD Metal & Glass End Table | Brazing Aluminum

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I know. The idea of welding is scary. I think professional welders encourage that idea to keep people away from it and keep paying them for all their metal fabrication needs. The truth is, my husband taught me how to weld years ago and I was SHOCKED to learn that it's not nearly as hard as it looks. It takes lots of practice to get the feel of it and produce pretty looking welds, but it's not too hard to get two pieces of steel to stick together. Now, even with that being said, I'm sure many of you are reading this and saying "I don't care what you tell me Elisha, there is no way I'm ever going to try welding". Well, there's good new for you my friends. You have other options. 

Have you ever heard of brazing aluminum? Admittedly, it's is a lot more limited than welding and doesn't work on steel, but brazing gives you the option to join metal together without having to purchase an expensive machine or have lots of technical experience. I've been wanting to experiment with different materials lately, and that's what I just did on this modern aluminum pipe and glass end table. 

Outdoor Sofa with Hidden Storage | BUILDING PLANS

*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. I have been compensated for my time and provided with product or payment in exchange. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I know building outdoor furniture in September may sound crazy to you, but here in the desert, our weather is just starting to get nice. In fact, its a bit too warm for my taste during the day, but the evenings have started to cool down a little, which means it's time for grilling and entertaining outdoors again. Even though I built us a cool wood and glass outdoor table a couple years ago, we've never really had someone comfortable to sit on the patio. I figured it was time to build a outdoor sofa / couch, but I had a couple requirements. 

Let's think about it. Patio sofas are great, but what are the downsides? The cushions are ALWAYS dirty. No one wants to sit on dusty, or wet upholstery. Also, have you ever had an unexpected wind storm sweep in the blow your cushions into the pool? When I started to sketch up the sofa design, I knew it had to involve some hidden storage for the cushions and pillows.