DIY 20 Minute No Sew Tent

I've seen some great pins on Pinterest for DIY tents. Here are some of my favorite tents and forts I've seen:

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This is the basic tutorial I followed for my tent with a few modifications...
 I was able to create this project for $0 because I already had all of the supplies on hand left over from other projects. Here are the supplies I used:

• 2 old curtain panels
• 3- 3/8" dowel rods
• 4 pieces of scrap wood approximately 2" wide x 4' long
• Piece of ribbon cut to desired length
• Drill with 3/8" bit and 1/4" bit
• Staple gun
• Painter's or masking tape

Step One: I taped my scrap wood pieces together to insure that the holes would be placed in identical spots on each of them. First I taped the front pieces together then the back pieces, making sure to space the holes of all of them at the same distance and to make sure my scrap wood pieces were even in length.

Step Two: I drilled pilot holes into the pairs of taped wood with my 1/4" bit to make sure I didn't split the wood with my larger bit

Step Three: I separated the wood strips and drilled the larger 3/8" holes. I used my dowel rods as guides to make sure that the holes were evenly drilled. I made sure that the dowel rods were snug fitting but had just enough room to move since I wanted to be able to fold the tent closed.

Step Four: I fit one end the dowel rods  through the holes I had drilled for the front and back of the tent.

Step Five: I slid the first curtain panel onto the dowel rod then placed the back pieces of wood onto the dowel. I used light pressure to push down on the strip of wood to make sure the dowel rod was fully wedged in. Then I repeated the process for the other side with my second curtain panel. At this point I had two panels that were attached on one end and not attached to anything on the other end.

Step Six: I started with the first panel and and using my staple gun I stapled the excess fabric to the  the sides of the tent (where the wood strips are). Then I overlapped the second panel making sure to gather the excess fabric so that the curtain didn't sag and stapled it to the wood. Once I finished you couldn't even see the staples (I pulled back some fabric to show it for the picture). And the staples are flush against the wood so I don't have to worry about them catching on clothes or skin.

Step Seven: I added a piece of ribbon about 2 1/2 feet long to the back side of the tent as tendion to make sure that the tent would fall all the way open.

And here is the finished project!

Morning snack in her new tent

It would look great with some fun colored fabric or even ribbon ties instead of staples but I was determined to make it a zero cost project and used what I had on hand. The whole process only took about 20 minutes to put together and my daughter loves it!

Chalk Paint China Cabinet Redo

I bought this china cabinet from the newspaper eight years ago. When Hubby and I were getting married we needed a few furniture items and Craigslist wasn't around back then (I know I'm showing my age) so we scoured the newspaper and found a dining room set that we could afford and it included this china cabinet. From the moment we bought it I've been wanting to redo it so here we are 8 years later and it's finally done.

When we first purchased the cabinet it had hideous metal lattice within the windows and glass door. We were quick to remove those but it took me a lot longer to work up the courage to repaint this bad boy. I knew it would be a very involved process and really wasn't sure when I'd be able to commit a large enough chunk of time to do all that needed to be done.

Several years go by and Pinterest enters my life making this project seem doable. I had read a lot about chalk paint and thought this would be the perfect project for this makeover. I tested out my chalk paint formula here before I committed to using it for this gigantic project.

Here is how I did it:

Step 1. I started by mixing my chalk paint. I decided to use Plaster of Paris for my base because it was cheapest and worked well on my other chalk paint project. I mixed roughly 1 part plaster to 3 parts water until I got the consistancy of pancake batter. It is very important to make sure there are no lumps otherwise you'll have white chalky spots in your paint. Then I added 3 parts paint to the Plaster of Paris mixture, stirring it continuously while pouring. I also found that I had to continue to stir the paint and plaster mixture as I was using it or it became clumpy. This mixture will start to dry out in about 2 hours so make it in small batches throughout your painting process.

Step 2. I taped off the windows and glass door to give myself less work later on and then I got started with my first coat of paint. It was a billion degrees outside (okay really only like 99) but I'm in the south now so I'm pretty much guaranteed a hot and humid day from now until October. And I knew I would not be able to paint this thing at 9 months pregnant so it was now or never.

I painted outside and used low VOC paint but since I'm pregnant I wanted to wear a mask too

After my first coat of paint

Step 3. I ended up doing 3 coats of paint on each piece. The paint dries very quickly and by the time I had finished the two pieces they were dry enough to start the next coat again. That made it much easier to get this project done in a timely manner. I let the final coat dry for 24 hours before I tried moving either piece.

Step 4. I removed the tape and started scraping paint off the glass. The best way to do this without scratching the glass is to put your scraper (is that a real word?) in a very damp cloth. It worked like a charm at taking off all the paint splatters.

A scraper wrapped in a wet cloth to remove the paint from the glass

Removing paint from glass

Step 5. I finished it with Minwax paste finishing wax. I will not be setting hot or cold food/drinks directly on it so I wasn't worried about rings but I was worried about scratches from my toddler and soon to be baby. If you're painted a piece that will have lots of items set on top I would recommend two coats of polyurethane (the directions are very straight forward but it is smelly). I opted for the Minwax because I had read good things about it and it seemed fairly simple. This step helped me achieve that glossy furniture look since the chalk paint alone is a matte finish. It definitely gave me an arm workout and I couldn't help but think of this the whole time. I spread on a thinnish layer of the wax then buffed it off with an old tshirt. After you finish waxing your piece, if you see some white spots (especially in the corners) that is just some built up wax that dried. I took my fingernail or you can use your scraper wrapped in a dry cloth to very gently scrape it out. I did not scratch the finish at all doing this and was able to buff the remainder of the residue into the piece.

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After one weekend of very hard and hot work I am thoroughly pleased with my new piece!
Here are some other painted pieces that I love from Pinterest and a few more chalk paint tutorials for reference:

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