DIY Picnic Table and Updated Plastic Chairs

Sorry I have been MIA lately, it took me 3 days to get this post together!  Life has been getting in the way of my blogging but the projects are still happening behind the scenes so stick with me, I'll get back in my weekly groove soon!

In a previous post I talked about all the Summer projects I was hoping to do and I showed you that awful picture of my backyard.  In case you forgot....

Yikes!  You can't really see it in this photo but off to the left I have a concrete patio with a canopy over top.  It's nothing special right now but it's a place to sit and relax on a hot day (if we ever get one!).  Last Summer, we had a nasty little squirrel that literally ate all of our patio furniture.  I wasn't about to go buy new cushions for it to eat again, so I decided to re-purpose some stuff we already had laying around.  

I got my inspiration from several places.  I liked the colors used in these projects found at Cheeky Kitchen and Where The Mermaids Mur Mur and I liked the idea of using a door and making a table out of it.  

This photo had no destination, just a picture that I found on Pinterest.

My disclaimer on this post...I mentioned life has been getting in the way of blogging...well that also means during the making of this project we didn't do a good job of documenting the project and keeping track of the website we found to make our table.  Sorry!

We had an old door that used to be our front door.  It was so big I thought it would make a great table.  Several of the "door to table" things I found on Pinterest had no destination website so we searched Google to find a tutorial.  We found a great one!  But I didn't save it...

We went to the store and bought the legs of the table.  They were about $20.  The rest of the wood for the bottom, we had.  We also bought some brackets to attach the legs, which were around $10 total.  The most expensive supply was the paint.  I used two cans of spray paint primer and two cans of the blue I painted it.  I would say we spent around $50 in supplies when all was said and done.  Here's the before and after:

Not bad right?  My favorite feature is the box you see above.  I can't take credit for the construction.  Chris, my husband that has to do all the manual labor behind my projects LOL, took care of all the building and he made this box that fit into the space where the window used to be.  I may put a garbage bag in it and use for trash or I may store salt, pepper, napkins, etc.  We'll see!  Since we can't find the tutorial we followed, if you'd like more detailed instructions, just ask, I'm happy to provide them or answer specific questions.

Next...you see those brightly colored chairs around my new table?  They didn't come from the store that way, I painted them!  They started out that dull, taupe color.  You know the ones, everyone has them.

First, I cleaned all the chairs and let them air dry.  Then, I primed each of them with plastic spray paint primer.  There is specific primer just for plastic so make sure you get that one.  There is also specific paint for use on plastic but I didn't like the colors.  So I used regular indoor/outdoor spray paint in gloss and I bought two brandst, Krylon and Rustoleum.  I originally did that because I couldn't find all the colors I wanted in one brand.  After trying both, I had better success with the Rustoleum brand, but results may vary so be prepared to test!

A word of advice, let your paint dry thoroughly in between each coat.  I got some bubbling that you can't see in the pictures but I'm not too happy with it.  Normally I'd freak out about a flaw like that but they are outside and may be a wreak by the end of the Summer so I'm not going to sweat it.  Also, I set up shop in my garage to spray because of course it decided to be windy the day I was working on this.  Even though I was inside, dust still managed to end up on the chairs, so save a project like this for a day when it's not windy!

Each chair took two coats and in some cases, three.  I went through A LOT of paint.  Six chairs, one can of paint each, each can was $3-$4.  I spent well over $20 in paint.  Maybe more, I lost track, I went to the store so many times for different things.

Over all turning the door into a table gets a PIN.  It was relatively easy with the help of Chris and I'm happy with the end result.  If I had to do over again, I probably paint the table instead of spray painting it.  I think it would have turned out a little nicer but for what we are using it for it's fine.

In terms of the chairs, I'm on the fence.  I'm not 100% happy with how they came out and buying all the primer and spray paint ended up costing more than I would have liked.  If I had to do the chairs over again, I would probably stick to one color and waited until I found the paint on sale. BUT I do like how everything looks together so it gets a PIN with modifications :-)

Up next, I'm going to be featuring some recipe tests from two guest bloggers, Joanna and Kristina, stay tuned!

Now Accepting Guest Bloggers

I'm excited to announce that Pin or Pass is now accepting Guest Blog Posts!  I certainly have enough projects to keep this going but I thought you might get tired of hearing just about the stuff that I like to do so I thought I'd open up the floor and let some of my fellow Pinners share their experience.  

If you would like to submit a guest post, please email me at jcalero1015@yahoo.com and include the following information:

• A link to the original writer/pinner - we need to give credit where credit is due
• Pictures of your project at various stages
• A brief summary of how it went, obstacles that came up, etc.
• How much you spent and where you got the supplies from
• A rating of either PIN or PASS and why

Ideally if you could refer to one of my old posts and send me something that was in a similar format, that would be perfect but I can do some writing too.  

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and be sure to share this opportunity with fellow Pinners!

I can't wait to here from you,

*Please note:  Submitting a guest blog post is purely for your enjoyment, guest posters will not be compensated for their submission.  Pin or Pass maintains the right to choose which guest submissions get published.  Guest posters should also be aware that all posts submitted and published will be used throughout Pin or Pass's social media accounts so please do not submit a post if you are not comfortable letting us share it!  

Kid Projects from Pinterest

For those of you that don't know me personally I have a 3 1/2 year old little boy named Giovani, we call him Gio.  I also have a 10 month old little girl named Julianna, we call her Juju.  As I surf Pinterest I always have an eye out for cool things I can do for them or with them.  Here's a few of my finds:

The Busy Binder
Gio is the busiest child you will ever meet.  He can barely sit still so going to restaurants is nearly impossible.  When I came across this idea for a Busy Binder I thought it could be the perfect solution to keep him busy while we are out and about.

Originally found on A Girl and a Glue Gun

 I did this project before I started this blog, so I don't have exact costs but I do remember where I got everything from.  Read through the original blog where this idea came from to get details on everything she did and how she did it.  I went to the dollar store and got stuff to make the eye spy game you see in the pink pouch, I bought the 3 bags of beads and some little plastic animals.  I also bought some flash cards there.  I bought the zipper pouch at Walmart and I had the binder already.  Everything else I got online or from things I had at home.

In my binder I included, the eye spy game, flash cards, coloring activities and some of the little plastic animals I bought.  Here's my end result:

Within two minutes of using it he destroyed it.  All the coloring pages were used, flash cards were every where and he was trying to pry open the zip on the pouch that held the eye spy game.  On top of that the binder ending up being really bulky with everything in it so it really was a pain to carry.  This may work for some kids, but definitely not for us and I didn't like lugging the binder, so this one gets a PASS.

Crayon Carrier

I tried a much smaller project to take on the go with us next.

Originally found on Simply Frugal Mom

The original Pinner used a First-aid box, but I used a wipes case.  I added a pack of post-its and crayons.  I had everything I needed to do this one at home and it's much easier to carry in our diaper bag.  Here's the end result:

 This one was easy and it works well so it gets a PIN.

Please Knock  

I am crazy when it comes to nap time!  It's my time in the day to catch up and get what I need to get done.  On top of that my kids are kids that need schedules.  When they get off, they are miserable.  Maybe not right away, but at some point in the day it catches up with you and it's not pretty!  With that said, everyone who knows me knows that between the hours of 12 and 3 you don't call my house phone and you certainly don't ring my door bell!  For those that don't know, like neighbors, post men, UPS drivers, etc., I needed a gentle reminder.  I found this little beauty on Pinterest and needed one!

Originally found on Pinterest from the Etsy story Simple Blessings N Life

As cute as this was, I didn't want to purchase it so I made my own.  I bought a magnetic picture frame from the dollar store so it would stick to our front door.  Then I just used some photo paper and printed this on my computer.  Here's what I got:

This picture is kind of hard to see but it says "Please Knock, the kids may be sleeping and if you wake 'em, you take 'em."  It's perfect and all for $1...best part about it, not a single door bell ring since it's been up = AWESOME.  The idea gets PIN and I'm happy with my variation of it!