Small Wood-work Projects

Our daughter Abby designed a coat-hanger holder for me as a Christmas present one year, when she was about six or seven.  Her Dad helped her to make it, and Abby painted it.

(I should have thought to put some hangers on to the rail, I'm sorry!)

This is 20 years old now, and it is one of my favourite things.  So handy!  We fortunately had a spot for it in the laundry and I have never had to fight with a mass of jumbled hangers since!

Abby's Dad is not necessarily the handy-man type, so I reminded him a few days ago of how nicely he had made this with Abby - and asked him if he would be interested in joining me in more woodwork projects?

My reason for asking was that I had just seen this adorable little girls kitchen on a great DIY Blog I came across:

How cute is this?!  I'd really like one!  And, as far as I can see, totally do-able for most of us.

(Go to the Young House Love Blog (highly recommended) to see more photographs and to read the simple directions.)

Looking around on the same great Blog, I came across this dollhouse that I'd also like to make:

Isn't it great?  It's a bright and funky interpretation of a classic.  Instructions for this house and furniture here and here.

Another project in Blog-land that recently caught my interest was this coffee table...

Which reminded me a little of these rescued-wood items I saw for sale at a Home Show recently:

These hand-cut, sanded and painted chunks of wood would make an interesting small project too.

I like the idea that Sarah, over at Cursive had, of giving these white wood rocks with a message hidden inside, listing the reasons that make that person special, along with a card listing what she wrote.  I imagine that you could drill a hole into the rock and slide in a rolled note, then plug the hole with putty.  Interesting, attractive and meaningful too!

Or perhaps you could type up your message on thin paper and decoupage it to the 'rocks'.

This image (using these wood rocks) comes from here.  I like the gold paint splotches on the simple vase..

If you like sanding and painting (or covering) small blocks of wood, then this idea from Martha Stewart for some children's play blocks could be a good project.  (You can see the 'JOY' blocks that Abby made in a similar manner, in the Patches of Heaven Blog banner above.)

These colourful painted blocks, decorated with paint markers, are here,   Simple, quick and fun!

Grand-parents would love these original artworks, recorded on wood with a wood-burning tool and coloured in with watercolour paints.  Directions to make this interesting keepsake box (and some better photos) are here.  

This would be a fun project to do!  (I still like colouring in :)

Perhaps I should ask for a jig-saw or a router for Christmas...