I hope all of you are having a wonderful Valentine’s weekend filled with yummy food, some adult beverages, and being snuggled up super comfy. Here, the husband had a horrible bout of food poisoning on Friday so ours was spent trying to get him back to normal and happy. Nothing a good hearty soup, some homemade chocolate malts, and the NBA dunk contest on TV can’t fix :)
For today, I have a project I’ve been on the edge of my seat to share with you guys…the inaugural project of our Home Depot Gift Challenge!!! Each month, one of our 12 bloggers picks out an item from their local Home Depot, assigns who that month’s gift should be for (spouse, friend, parent, child, etc.), we all make a gift using the chosen item in some way, then we wrap it all up and include yet another item from Home Depot in the wrapping! Cray, cray I know.
**This challenge is not sponsored in any way by Home Depot, we just love them and pretty much live there so we’d thought this would be fun…**
The chosen item for this month was a copper plumbing fitting and the recipient was our spouse/partner, you know, considering we were revealing our projects on Valentine’s weekend.
I was inspired by a cool set from Anthropologie which I shared in last month’s First Week Favorites and was going to use all copper pipe but didn’t want to mess with cutting the sections, so I used copper connectors and stained wooden dowels instead. Funny thing was that halfway through making this, the husband told me he’d like to have a magazine holder by the couch, not knowing that that very item was in process :)
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Supplies for Copper & Wood Magazine Holder
(4) 1/2″ copper tees
(8) 1/2″ copper elbows
1/2 yd. thick wool or felt fabric (3ish) 1/2″ x 48″ round wooden dowels
fabric glue
jig sawwood stain (optional)
After staining my dowels (dark walnut) and letting them dry overnight, I measured how high, wide, and long I wanted mine to be (16″h x 7″w x 20″l) then made cuts with a hand saw and then a jigsaw once I could get the husband to hold the dowels for me. Yeah, the jigsaw was obviously much easier. Your cuts don’t have to be exact as the ends will be covered up about 1/2″ when slid into the fittings which is nice. They fit tightly inside the fittings so I didn’t need to glue them anywhere, although there was one dowel that was an oddball, he took the stain different and didn’t fit as snugly as the others, but whatevs.
I made sure to cut my felt wide enough so that any books or large magazines he’ll have won’t hang out, but it can be as wide or slim on the frame as you want it to be. I rolled the end over a dowel then marked where to glue so that it was snug but still gave me room to slide the dowel in after it was dry. The felt didn’t want to stick together at first so I used the dowel to press on it for a while, then placed a heavy book on it until it dried.
Once the glue was dry on both ends, I carefully slid the dowels through and reassembled, done and done! This little guy can fit quite a bit of stuff! The side braces keep it from pulling together which I was worried about.
Super easy project and you could paint or stain the dowels in any color you want and use whatever fabric you want! Now, for my gift wrapping, I disassembled it, used a roll of basic brown painting/builders paper to wrap the box, then tied this red cording on it with the tag.
There are some seriously cool projects the other girls cranked out this month, check out all of them below and make sure and watch for our next challenge on March 25th!!!
fabric glue
felt fabric
scissors
wood dowels
copper fittings
jigsaw
wood stain
Emily, I love the combo of the copper and wood! Super cute project!
That combo is so addicting ;) Thanks!!
SUCH a cool idea! Turned out perfectly!
He loved it too :) Thanks Kristi!!
Great project, Emily! I love how you mixed materials – the copper/wood combo looks great together! I’m sure your hubby was very happy with his gift!
I loooove that combo Amy! Thanks!! And he did!!
This is SO great Emily!! I love the wood and copper together. Hilarious that your husband mentioned he wanted one while you were making it, lol. Awesome project!
I know, right?!? It made me so happy when he said that! Making my way through everyone’s projects today, they are all so cool!!
I like yours better than the one from Anthropologie! This really turned out great!
You are sweet Roxanne! Thank you! I really wanted to get the sewing machine out for this project to practice but just didn’t have time. If I had, I totally would have tried it with some leather too :)
Oh I LOVE it!! See, now you were smart to use wood instead of having to cut all those copper pipes. ;) Ha! I love it, and I bet your hubby does, too!
He loved it and said “And I just asked you for one of these!” It may or may not be beside the loo instead of the couch at this moment ;)
Haha! Oh, men. ;)
I definitely need one of these–my magazines are everywhere! Awesome idea and it looks amazing.
Thanks Cat! You could probably even finagle a double like the Anthro inspiration is too by just sewing another piece of felt on.
This is something that I would love to make. I love the stain for the wood, even the oddball piece. Well Done!
Thanks Carmody! I wish all of them had come out like the oddball actually :) I think he was a dowel of oak or something while the rest was poplar.
Emily! This is so amazing! I love every bit of it especially how you gave the dowels a weathered look.:) Such a great idea and perfect for the living room. Thanks so much for organizing. Can’t wait for next month!
Thanks Shannon! It may or may not be located in our bathroom now instead of the living room :/
This is really awesome Emily. I was laughing at your Valentine’s Day cause its pretty much exactly like mine LOL. My hubby was sick with the flu and watching the NBA dunk contest too. Men. :) I love your project though, great job!
Ha! That’s crazy Shelly! I think we need a makeup Valentine’s next weekend :)
I love this project. I think the colors look great! Love the wrapping too :)
Thanks Kat!!
This turned out awesome! I so love the wood and metal combo! And what a great idea for the Home Depot challenge, so creative and I can’t wait to follow along!
Hi Amanda! Thank you! I can’t wait for the next projects :)
Wow! I just love this! Great idea!
Hi! Thanks Gilly!!
What a cool magazine rack! I love the combination of wood and copper. Thanks so much for linking up to Your Designs This Time! Have a great week :)
One of my favorite combos :) Thanks so much Katie!
This is great! Ive been on the hunt for one of these for a while. May just have to make one now! Addin’ it to the honey-do-list. Thanks for sharing @Project Inspired(d) link party.
It’s so, so, so easy Jamie!! Would love to see it if you make one :)
Super Duper cool that you and the ladies get together and create your own projects using the same item! I’m jealous. All are very nice, very nice indeed. http://www.thatblackchic.com
Thanks Michelle!!
This is so cute! We have so many magazines lying around this is the perfect way to organize them. I hope your hubby is feeling better… so nice of the NBA to schedule All Star weekend over Valentine’s Day. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Talented Tuesdays. I hope you can join us next week.
The magazines everywhere drive me crazy! Something had to be done. And yes, he is better..it was all just conveniently over Valentine’s weekend :/ At least they don’t put the Super Bowl around then ;)
Gorgeous! Love, love, love it!
Hi Alexis!! Thanks!!
Wow, Emily! This is SUCH a creative idea! I love how you mixed in the wood dowels alongside the copper fittings. It definitely makes it a more doable project for other people to take on. What did your husband say when he opened it up?
Thank you Carrie!! Well, he was a bit befuddled at first since it was dismantled in a box but once I showed him how it went together, he was so happy-surprised since he had just asked me for one :) It was such a great reaction!
Such a great idea! I love the combination of wood and copper. I always struggle on gift ideas for guys so this is perfect!
Anything to corral all their magazines Chelc! Thanks!
This is so cool! I think I need to make one of these for my son’s room! It’s a great mix of industrial and high end! I’d love to have you come and link up with us at our new link party, The Creative Circle
Thanks Angela! Heading over now!
This is such a cool & creative project! Please consider sharing it at the #HomeMattersParty – we’d love for you to link up your blog posts!
Ha, don’t you mean you were inspired by THIS tutorial? Looks like she’s got you beat, by a couple of days!
Ha! That’s crazy Amy, hers is so pretty out of all copper! And what a cool blog!
You did a fabulous job, Emily!!! Love it!! :)
Thank you Kendra!!!
Well this turned out absolutely fantastic! Woohoo! I looked at that thing and didn’t have a clue. Amazing! Thanks for sharing it on Found & Foraged!
Ha! Thanks Kyla!! That little guy was easy, this month’s gift is proving to be wayyyy more difficult for some reason :) And I heart Found & Foraged, thank you for keeping it going!
Love this idea! Love the whole copper trend~ great job! Thanks so much for pinning to the P3 Party Board! You are being featured on my blog & social media tomorrow!
Kim
Thank you so much Kim!!!
Copper and Wood? YES PLEASE! Thanks for sharing with the Pretty Preppy Party!
Best combo ever, right?! Thanks Heather!
This is a great way to use extra pipes. I can see this fitting into a waiting room really well. Maybe just paint the pipes the colors of the walls, then have the fabric be something noticeable.
I love this project! What a great idea – I have way too many magazines laying around!
Thanks Meg, it takes no time at all!!
Such a great idea! Just found you via BHG and love this project!
Hi Michelle!! I’m so happy you’re here!!
I’ve always wanted to DIY a magazine rack. Love the way yours turned out! Will have to try this. Pinning!
Thanks Jelica!! It’s crazy easy!!!