How To: Single Panel LED Sign

Morning everyone! Welcome back to my blog Rustic DIY Projects! This week's project is pretty much almost exactly like the post I put up a few weeks ago with one key difference, this only uses one panel and not four. Since I plan on selling these one day it occurred to me that maybe not everyone wants a big giant LED sign on their wall and that maybe they'd prefer something similar but just a little bit smaller. So I decided I'd make a single panel sign with a navy theme. I also took better pictures detailing the process on this project so hopefully that'll help fill in the blanks on any questions you may have had left over from the last project. So without further delay let's get into it.

Cedar Block End Table

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog Rustic DIY Projects! This isn't a "How-To" like all my previous posts were, rather this is just a cool project my father made for me during one of his visits that I felt compelled to share. A few years back I wanted to make an ottoman with a removable flip-top that could also double as a makeshift coffee table. It was a pretty neat idea but I never really went anywhere with it and it got lost in my pile of "started but never finished" projects. However I did put a pretty cool top together using some scrap cedar 4 x 4's I had laying around the garage before I mothballed it. What I did was take the cedar 4 x 4s, cut them into perfectly square cubes, glued them all together, cut them all in half to create two different tops. I then took one of them to a local miller and had them use a drum-sander to even out the top and bottom. And then!.... I just left that one completed top and the other incomplete top in my garage for two years and didn't do anything with them...

How To: iPhone Dock

Hey everyone! Chris here and welcome back to Rustic DIY Projects! I love when I'm able to make something that not only looks cool and serves some sort of decorative purpose but is also practical as well. That's why I really liked this weeks project. I made this a while back but I've finally gotten around to making a post for it. This right here is an iPhone charging dock I made out of some scrap walnut and some ultra high molecular weight polyethylene sheeting (yup, that's what it's called). I use it everyday and it looks great, here's how I made it.

How To: Lantern Wall Decor

Hello and welcome to this weeks installment of Rustic DIY Projects! This week's project is something slightly out of the ordinary. While looking up the inspiration for additional wall pieces I happened to come across something pretty cool looking. It appeared to be some sort of lantern mounted to some boards of wood resembling a picketed fence going up an incline with some shrubbery hanging over. Now this actually wasn't a wall decoration at all (seemed to be more of a table top decoration) but that doesn't mean I can't turn it into one. And I had the perfect spot to put it right over my living room TV underneath the stairway. So I played around with the idea, made a few unscripted changes and this is what I got as a result, hope you enjoy!

How To: LED Sign

Evening everyone! I'm back with another installment for Rustic DIY Projects! So today's project is an LED sign I made for a patient at an assisted care facility I volunteer at. This isn't a conventional project in the sense that it will be very hard to reproduce without the help of a CNC machine (which is what I used). I found out my patient's interests then carved out related images on some 1/4" birch plywood then made a frame to seat them in and a box to house the LEDs. I don't expect many people to go out and try replicating this however it's something interesting I made so I decided I may as well share it. 

How To: Dog Feeder

Hey everyone! After two years I'm back with some more DIY projects. I apologize for the long hiatus but I took a couple years off of posting on my blog while I turned my attention to some more pressing matters... But for right now I'm back with some of my latest projects. Today's addition is a dog feeder I made for my friend and coworker. But it's not just your average run-of -the-mill dog feeder, it also comes with a hinged top that opens up to give some inside storage space to put your dog food. I also installed a small clasp on the front so that my dogs wont just lift up the front end and eat what's inside, spilling their water and food bowls in the process... Here's how I made it!

How To: Industrial Sofa Table

Hey everyone and welcome to the latest installment of Rustic DIY Projects!  A few weeks back I had some empty space behind my couch that's been bugging me so I decided I would make something nice and useful to fill it up. After some brainstorming I came to the conclusion that the most practical use of this empty space would be to fill it with a sofa table. Now I've never made a sofa table before but after glancing over at my coffee table literally four feet away I figured I may as well go with an industrial style table to match it. I also wanted to incorporate a somewhat natural feel and appearance to it so I bought a slab of scrap mesquite for the table top. After a bit of work and some help from my dad this is what I got. Hope you enjoy this week's project, an industrial sofa table made with some mesquite and 3/4 inch galvanized piping! Photos courtesy of my friend with great photography skills, Iris Marquez!