June 2015 – The Reaganskopp Homestead

Posted on June 28, 2015January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 9 Comments

Faux Galvanized Metal Finish

Tutorial on how to faux finish galvanized metal

The exterior of our home has lots of galvanized metal finishes. Our outdoor lights, conduit porch railings, galvanized accented DIY trellis and planter boxes all have that metal finish. It was a no-brainer to continue to use the galvanized finish to accent our street numbers on the porch and mailbox. However, when I started researching modern looking metal numbers, oh holy hell! The cost! Even if we bought the most basic metal numbers* off Amazon. We were looking at close to $40.00 for four numbers! I can not imagine if you have one of those long street numbers and wanted to place it in more than one location. Enter faux galvanized metal finish to the rescue:

Galvanized Metal Finish: Super Easy Faux Finish!

Materials

Craft Paint* (Cheap is fine here. We are painting numbers, not the Sistine Chapel)
1. Silver*
2. Black*
3. White*
Brush*
Wooden Numbers: We used 5″ numbers in a sans serif font (For a modern look). I am just going to tell you now that I can not, in good conscience, give you an affiliate link to wooden numbers. They are WAY cheaper at a local craft store. Think $1-$2 per number before the usual 40-50% off coupon.
Finish Nails: For hanging.
Paper towels or an old rag

Step 1: Slap it On

Yep, just paint a layer of straight silver. The wood is going to soak it up, so you might have to slap a couple of coats on.

Step 2: Mix and Match

Mix two different shades of silver, one lighter and one darker. The easiest way to do this is take a whatever surface you are using to mix paint (cardboard, paper plate, actual palette) and make two small pools of silver paint. Maybe 1-2″ in diameter. Then added 2 drops of black in one and 4 drops of white in the other. Mix and repeat if the colors are not about two shades off from the original. Always remember paint dries slightly lighter!

Step 3: Pattern Time

I had a chance to look at some pressed galvanized metal containers while I was at the craft store picking up the wooden numbers. You might take a gander at the floral section and see if they have any galvanized metal buckets. I always find faux finishing easier if I just saw a real life example. In case you can not find a real life example here is a decent picture from Andrew Beeston of what we are trying to achieve:

The easiest way to get the angular light and dark patches is to dip your brush and use the flat side to press into the number. I did the dark first and then went back and did the light color… Or maybe the other way around… It really does not matter except that you want hard edges and overlap, not a wet paint blend.

Step 4: On No! We don’t have pictures!

Yes, I failed to adequately document this last step, but it is sooooo easy. Once your layers of paint have dried you can do this final step to soften the paint strokes of step three and give it a bit of a weathered look. Pour a tiny bit of black paint out and mix it half and half with water. Quickly brush the black all over the surface of your letter. DO NOT PANIC, that you have just completely ruined your hard work. Count to 10 and then wipe the black paint mostly off the surface of the letter. It should just leave the finest glaze of darkness over the silver paint and knock off a little of the shine. Remember that galvanized metal is not super shiny!

If, for some reason, the black stuck to much just repeat the above step but with a watery silver. Remember that in faux finishing you can always just repaint any mistakes!

Step 5: Clean Fresh and Modern

Since the numbers weigh next to nothing we were able to simply use a single nail to affix them to the mailbox and porch. We choose to orient them in a straight vertical line to give a fresh, modern, vibe.

Posted on June 26, 2015June 26, 2015 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Love Wins

Marriage equality photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/8592147315/

We do not often write posts of a personal nature, but we just feel so amazing that the USA has come through for all of her citizens. Every family deserves love, respect, and protection under the law no matter your personal feelings about their life choices. It makes us happier to raise our family in a country that respects individual’s right to choose their life, on their terms.

Photo from Torbakhopper on Flickr

Posted on June 25, 2015January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 18 Comments

Modern Art: Concrete Style

I have a confession, I have never been a huge fan of modern art. Having studied the theory and history behind a larger portion of 20th century art I have an appreciation for the merits… but the aesthetics… meh, not my thing. Let me tell you, that was not a popular opinion in art school. However I have a modern house, with industrial decor. This has changed my viewpoint. It takes a lot more work to integrate a classical oil portrait with our furnishings. In fact, I felt like we needed some modern color in our rather neutral decor instead of some classical portraiture.

If you follow me on Pinterest (you should!) then you would have noted the love affair I am currently having with concrete. I was reading a post about making a faux concrete counter top using a product called feather finish when I came up with the idea to make some modern art that would incorporate concrete finishes. Color and concrete say what?! Adam was confused when I tried to explain, but luckily he was the kind to just go with it.

A few Michael’s coupons and a trip to Home Depot later you have my DIY take on modern art.

Modern Art: Concrete Style

Supplies:

Canvases*

Gold Leaf Sheets* or a Gold Leaf Kit* (which includes the sizing and sealer)

Adhesive* (also called Sizing*)

Sealer*

Feather Finish* (HINT: Ardex has partnered with Henry to make a feather finish you can get at Home Depot, but here is my Amazon Affiliate link if you want the real thing shipped to your door)

Paints*

Brush Set*

Step One: Lay it out there

I picked out four pre-stretched canvases (we had some on hand and used a 40% off coupon to grab the others) I laid them out for the space. There is a fourth around the corner not shown in the above picture. It is an awkward space, as the windows are not centered, so I used the two smaller canvases to fill out the area. After deciding a layout I thought would look good I laid them out on the table in a similar, but closer, fashion.

Step Two: Om Om Om Ombre

I started with a base ombre of 4? colors. I tend to just add paint mix and repeat so four is just a guess from looking at the finished product. These particular colors were a base orange mixed with a touch of blue (to darken) and then yellow & white (to lighten). I wanted a rather choppy look and did not bother to blend wet edges well. If you want a very smooth ombre pre-mix all your colors so that you can blend in the wet edges.

After the ombre was dry I brushed some black in feathery horizontal strokes. This step is not shown, but really just consists of slapping some black on the canvas and moving it left and right till it feathers out at the edges. You can practice on a piece of cardboard to figure out how much paint and pressure you need.

Step 3: Concrete Answers

I probably should have planned this step out better but I was just so damn excited to work with a new medium that I went right to mixing up the feather finish. I followed the directions which were 2 parts mix to 1 part water. I thought “Hey! Let’s make this easy, 1 cup water to 2 cups feather finish!” Okay, huge mistake. I made about 100 times more than I needed and it was quickly too thick to do what I wanted. Check out the huge amount:

Feather finish by Henry and Ardex — Why yes that is a plastic spoon from a Christmas Party…. And I made this in June… Horde much?

So my suggesting is to just mix it the consistency of pancake batter. You are using this for decoration not construction strength. After re-mixing my feather finish I used a very old putty knife/multitool to feather the concrete on in bands that matched the style of the black paint.

Step 4: If You Like It Then You Better Put Some Gold On It

I took a step back and was really feeling the look, but wanted to tie some of the other room finishes into the final piece of art. In comes the left over gold leaf I had from the lamp shade redo. I thought it would tie that and the wallpapered bookcase into the open concept dining room. I laid out the sizing (If you need gold leafing tips you can read more here) in the same pattern as the paint and concrete. Once it had set I laid on the gold leaf and covered the areas with sealer to keep the leaf from tarnishing later.

Sizing in loose brush strokes to prep for gold leaf — If you wonder about the numbers in the back of the photos, I always figure why do one DIY project at a time when you can do two or three…

All in all, I love the color and texture mix. It adds visual interest and ties the various spaces together in the first floor of our home.

Posted on June 21, 2015January 20, 2019 by Adam — 37 Comments

Building a Salvaged Wood Headboard

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of wood. After building string art projects for the boys, crafting a few salvaged wood coffee and side tables (post forthcoming), building a chicken coop capable of passing human occupancy code (also a future post), and saving some beautiful walnut hardwood flooring from the construction dumpster next door, I had managed filled both our porch and crawlspace with stacks of “one day I’ll do something with this” wood. So while Brianna was in Seattle for her cousin’s college graduation, I figured it was finally time to get crafty!

The one room in our home where we have done absolutely NOTHING to make the space more “us” is our bedroom. Shocker, right? We spend a third of our day (and on a good day more than that) in this space, and it’s easily the blankest canvas outside of the stairwell – and even that has an industrial pop to it! (Yes, another future Adam post) For about a month following our move into the house, every time B and I would head to Target we’d find new bedding on clearance, and with Cartwheel, we’d walk away with a King set for around $25-$40. So great, we’re got some funky lamps we made with Edison-style bulbs and a few sets of bedding. Not a single other piece of hardware or decoration…. For two people that run a craft blog, this is a sacrilege!

King bed on blank wall — Lots of Wood + Empty Bedroom Wall Space = Prime Project Opportunity

Brianna and I had built our own bedframe prior to moving in, and it’s got a very rustic/industrial feel to it. Big, stained, thick lumber with 3/4″ hex bolts to hold it together. I wanted to stick with this look and feel and take it vertical. Project decision: Headboard.

Time to measure (or Google)! A standard king bed is 76″ wide. Great, one dimension down. Up next, height. This is really up to you. For me, 36″ looked good. I wanted the headboard to start at the top of the mattress, and for the space, 36″ up looked like a good place to stop. Dimension two: Decided. The end result was going to be a 76″ x 36″ headboard. Now, to see what wood I had…

From building the chicken coop (or “palace” as many of our neighbors have proclaimed), I had a few scraps of 3/4″ sanded pine plywood left over. Each piece of scrap was 48″ tall, but the widths of the pieces varied: 10.25″, 12.5″, 27.5″ and 36″. Luck should have it that 12.5 + 26.5 + 36 = 76; a perfect backplane for a kind headboard! I trimmed each piece to a height of 36″, laid them side by side, and began to lay out the pieces of scrap and salvaged wood in a perfectly haphazard mosaic arrangement.

Did I mention that a lot of the left over wood was painted, marred, chipped, slightly twisted, or naturally weathered? I incorporated failed projects that were painted orange, blue and white, lumber I’d left out in the rain, thin lumber used as makeshift paint stands, and a few pieces of furniture grade wood purchased for endeavors never embarked upon as well. Each piece of lumber was dimensionally 1″ (meaning an actual thickness of 3/4″). I tried to mix textures and colors fairly evenly throughout, made cuts when necessary to fit the salvaged wood onto the backplane, and in the end came up with the following general layout:

I’d kept Brianna in the dark about what I was doing while she was away. In fact, I’d taunted her by telling her that she’d have to wait to see until she got back in 4 days. After much begging for a preview, I finally gave in and sent her the above photo. While she didn’t know what I was doing, she said loved the look of it already. Great feedback for this stage of the project, but there was much more to do.

Next step? Staining!

Using left over stains from the (to be written) Edison bulb light fixture project, I chose pieces out of the pictured layout to stain different colors. I used Rust-Oleum Dark Walnut and Minwax Early American stains and allowed for varying set times before wiping off the stain with a cotton rag. When doing this, I wanted to make sure each piece of white wood got a good dose of color. The end result?

Staining wood for salvaged headboard — Not too shabby, right?

Now remember that at this point nothing has been attached to the backplane. I’d gone back and forth between wood glue, liquid nails, and 1-1/4″ finishing nails to accomplish this goal. In the end, because I was terribly impatient, I opted for the physical nail option. So I pulled out my good old Porter Cable pancake air compressor and my 18-gauge brad nailer nail gun and got to work. The nice thing about finishing nails is that they have a relatively strong hold and leave virtually no visible holes with this type of wood finish. After 5 minutes of nailing, the headboard was complete. All that was left to do was move this baby upstairs and mount it!

Getting this thing upstairs, especially by myself, was quite the task. The finished product weighed in around 75lbs, and while that weight is more than manageable, at 76″ x 36″ it is terribly awkward to carry up a turning flight of stairs without hitting the first floor ceiling. Nevertheless, I finally made it to our bedroom.

Knowing how much the headboard weighed, I now had to find a means to mount this baby to the wall. After a bit of searching through different options, I chose to use an 18″ French Cleat* capable of supporting up to 200lbs. Why the extra support? With four boys, I envisioned at least one of them with a misfiring neuron doing pull ups on the headboard while playing on the bed. The french cleat cost us just under $9 from Lowe’s and was the only out-of-pocket expense for the whole project.

I followed the provided installation instructions for mounting the wall portion of the bracket while making sure to hit at least one stud in the process. In some cases you should be able to hit two studs over a span of 18″. The particular cleat we used came with a built in level thereby making installation a breeze! I then mounted the second part of the cleat to the headboard in the same horizontal position. Once everything was securely fastened, it was time to hang this sucker on the wall.

Not bad for $9 and a few hours effort IMO. The headboard really transforms the space and finally adds the first bit of personal touch to what is really such an important room in our home.

Posted on June 18, 2015January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Small Chick Order: How to Pick your Breed

Do you have any idea how many breeds of chickens there are? Neither did we… Selecting the perfect breed of chicken is not easy. It is even harder to find the perfect small chick order. By small, I mean less than 10 ordered online! Picking out the breed and finding a place to order only 5 chickens involved a variety decisions, discussions, and research. I’ll be honest it was a painful process. Well, at least for me. Adam just kinda went with whatever I thought we should have. Way to dodge the responsibility for bad chickens there!

I actually felt overwhelmed by the variety of chicks and underwhelmed by the choices of where I could order from. I finally broke it down into some easy steps that let us come to a final choice of Easter Egger (Hybrid) chickens from Efowl.com. If you follow these steps then this will really help narrow your selection if you choose egg laying chickens. I will fully admit to just glancing over the meat breed selections, so keep that in mind if you use this to help narrow your breed.

1. Do you want chickens for eggs, meat, or both?

We wanted egg laying chickens. That cut our selection a ton. While I am not entirely opposed to killing my own chickens I am entirely opposed to plucking a chicken. Hello?! I find chopping vegetables to be more prep work than I want to do in the kitchen. What are the real chances I am going to go out back and catch dinner? Um… None…

2. Alright we chose egg laying chickens turn to page 52. Oh wait, this isn’t a choose your own adventure! Here is the real question: What size chicken do you want?

The following are stats for hens:

Bantams

Full Grown: 1-2 lbs
Eats: 1 3/4 lbs per week
Pros: Need less space in the coop, eat less
Cons: Fly, small eggs, may need special consideration in cold weather

Standard Sized (Light Breed)

Full Grown: 4-6 lbs
Eats: 2 1/3 lbs per week
Pros: Many options for breeds, good for warm weather
Cons: May need special consideration in cold weather

Standard Sized (Heavy Breed)

Full Grown: 6-9
Eats: 3 1/2 lbs per week
Pros: Large eggs
Cons: May need special consideration in hot climates, eat large amounts of feed

You can get plenty of detailed information, but this gives you the initial stats. We wanted a non-flying bird. Ain’t nobody got time to clip wings and we can’t let them fly around the neighborhood. The lighter breeds seemed like a good compromise. Decent egg size, but we didn’t have to make a huge coop or invest a ton in feed. Our climate is fairly mild so they should be fine all year round.

3. Rank the following in importance:

Resilience/Health
Temperament/intelligence
Egg Color
Looks

Having trouble ranking? Guess what?! Me too! That is how we ended up with Easter Eggers. They are hybrid chickens, meaning I could never mate them and get more Easter Eggers. Seeing as roosters are not exactly okay in the neighborhood I doubt we will be breeding chickens anytime soon. But guess what else this means?!: They tend to be healthy, with even temperaments that are good for kids, and have eggs in blue, green, and rarely pink/brown. The looks are up in the air… Which is the only thing I didn’t get with this breed. It was important to me to have a nice resilient bird. I have no clue what I am doing! I need a good healthy bird that can withstand a few mistakes on my end.

Let’s say that maybe looks ranked higher. Have you seen a Polish breed like a Golden Laced Polish?! Crest Yes! Or what about a beautiful feathered leg variety like a White Sultan? Or the long legged beauty of an Egyptian Fayoumis? Yeah… If you are in it for the looks then pick a beautiful breed. They are out there, but the Polish tend to be flighty since they can’t see. A white sultan requires lots of grooming to look that good, and an Egyptian Fayoumis… Not going to be happy penned in our back yard. For us it was more work for the beauty. Maybe after we know what we are in for we can try a fancier breed.

If you are in it for specific egg color most websites will break down their chicken selection by egg color. That makes it pretty easy.

Intelligence is just up in the air. I scouted many a forum post at backyardchickens.com and read plenty blog posts my favorite being the ones at Northwest Edible Life. I figure it is like Amazon reviews. If most everyone says it is a smart good chicken breed it probably is. There are always going to be the 1 star reviews.

4. Finally and maybe most importantly how many chickens do you want and where do you plan on getting them?

Depending on the time of year and how many chicks you want you may find yourself S.O.L. Locally sourcing (craigslist and auctions) are the way to go for a small number of chicks, but takes time and often limits your choices. The internet opens up a lot of options for various breeds, but guess what?! You want 5 chicks? Suck it. Most hatcheries have a minimum order of 10-25 chicks. They have good rational reasons such as needing to keep the chicks warm etc. So if you want a small chick order (fewer than 10 chicks) your options are slimmed immediately. You will have to look at some of the specialty websites and choose from their selection. We looked at the following (these are not affiliate links, just places we checked out)

Meyer Hatchery

Pros: Order as few as 3 chicks
Cons: Had lots of customer service complaints

My Pet Chicken

Pros: Minimum order is 3 BUT…
Cons: Minimum order is based on your zip code ours was actually 7

eFowl (Don’t Laugh at the name)

Pros: 3, 5, & 10 chick special orders
Cons: Not all breeds are available at the special order sizes

The reason I say these options may be the most important factor for ordering is because we lost out on the Easter Eggers on Meyer and My Pet Chicken. Literally, I had a cart full, went to lunch, came back to buy them and they were sold out of female chicks until July…. If you want a certain breed, at a certain time, in a certain sex, and you only want a few. Good Luck! It would be way easier to look at the choices available from the various websites and choose from there.

Finally, you can always ask other chicken owners. I asked a former co-worker of mine for advice and she was heartily behind the Easter Eggers for the reasons supplied above. It is always good to get an experienced chicken owner’s opinion. If you don’t know any there are plenty of chicken forums to read like I mentioned above. Good luck selecting you breed!