FINALLY!

I know I had promised this post last week, but I've finally gotten around to it. Better late than never I suppose. In a recent post, I had said that my next project was the Love Story Map. I got the pictures printed off and here is the finished result:

I think it looks great. The total cost of the whole project was less than $5. You can't really beat that for something so personalized.

Our laundry is in our kitchen. We had an icky looking hamper sitting in the kitchen floor. When we got a dishwasher, my husband had to take out a couple of cabinets to fit it in. There was part of a cabinet left, but we didn't know what to do with the empty space. We had tried to cut down the original door, but, with the way it was made, that was an impossibility. I decided that I would get a hamper the size of the opening and get rid of the tall black hamper we had. 

I had been looking everywhere for a basket with the dimensions that I needed for the cabinet space. The leftover space is just way too narrow for anything a store would carry. Then I saw these custom boxes. I knew that was the way to go.

                                     

I didn't have a cardboard box that was the right size. I had to take a larger box and cut it to size. I used a ton of packing tape to hold it all together. The twine and the laundry bag came from Dollar General. The twine was $1 for 200 feet. This box took 3 rolls of twine. The laundry bag was $3. 

To get the twine to stick to the box, I used regular 'ol Elmers glue in the squeeze bottle. This took a lot longer than I had anticipated, and my arm got really tired. Ha ha. All of the other boxes I have seen wrapped in twine were nowhere near this large. The finished product in its new home:

 Now for the pièce de résistance. Since we built the new patio, I had been dying to get a deck chair to lounge around on. I was soooo looking forward to spending summer days relaxing in the lounge chair reading a book and working on my tan. I did the thing I'm becoming so good at...I went to Pinterest. lol There I found this DIY. I knew my husband could make it for me, so I asked him if he would make it for my Mother's Day present. Luckily for me, he obliged.

We deviated from the DIY a bit. The legs that they used looked completely unstable to us. When we went to Lowe's they didn't have 1x4s so we had to get 1x3s. I'll try to give a complete "parts" list:

12 - 1x4s 8'

1 - 1x2 8'

2 - 2x2 8'

1 - 2x4 12'

2 - 2.5" hinges

2 - 1.5" hinges

framing nails

drywall screws

We did use a decking board for the legs that was a leftover from another project . You can use pieces of 2x4 if you want or whatever you have handy. He made the frame 6' by 2.5'.

He cut the pieces of deck board with a slant on one side then screwed them to the inside of the frame.

 Next he screwed the 1x3s to the frame. There was a little bit of space between each board. You can decide how much space you would like. Next he got started on the back. Use the 2x2s to make a frame for the back. Then use the 1x2 to make the brace for the back. The smaller hinges hold the brace to the back of the chair, and the larger hinges hold the back to the frame.

Instead of using little blocks to keep the back at the different height settings, my husband took a chisel and made notches in the frame. It is a lot more sturdy than small blocks screwed to the frame, and it looks great.

The finished product is wonderful! I love it. My husband did such an awesome job. We still have to stain it and buy a cushion. The total for all of the supplies was about $30. The ones in stores sell for hundreds and don't look as well made as this. He had this finished in an afternoon. I was enjoying my lounge chair before sundown.