Tag Archives: DIY

Wednesday October 11th, 2017

just diy | make a cat friendly armrest-scratch post for your couch

This project is really very simple. The concept is to make the outside side of the armrest much taller so as to have space for a lot of rope for your cat to scratch on.

Before you start this project, you need to do is to measure your couch.

You’ll need: 

  • 3 pieces of plywood (actually you can use whatever you like, I prefer plywood because it’s easier to drill, cut etc)
  • Rope (prefer a thin one, it’s easier to wrap)
  • Wood glue
  • wood screws
  • Drill

The process: 

Glue the pieces of wood together. If you are alone, it’s best to let dry and then screw the screws. You don’t need to drill the wood before. The screw itself go into the wood just fine.

if on the other hand have someone to help, then you can screw right after you’ve glued the pieces. After you’re done with the main construction, you are ready to start wrapping. Glue first, then rope, glue again, the rope and so on and so forth.

onyxodromio

There’s also a video i made, but there’s a big chance you won’t understand a thing, because it’s in Greek. You can try though! 🙂

Sunday April 10th, 2016

A big company in Xeirotechnika Athens

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This was the second time I was invited to participate in Χειροτέχνικα to host a DIY workshop. The first time was last October were we made a cement vase while this time we also made a vase (really, vases don’t really mean anything special to me, it’s just a coincidence) with wood and glass bottles. And you know, DIY is better with friends so I invited my friends ikariastore.gr and  Black+Decker for help and they came to my assistance!

Black+Decker brought all the tools we needed while ikariastore.gr brought for us the necessary glass bottles (filled with traditional ikarian lemonade and orangeade I <3 Ikaria) to complete the project.

 

First thing we had to do was to drink the refreshments and get to know each other!

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Then we had to cut the wood. Yannis from B&D was there to help, so both of us showed the participants how to use the saw. xeirotexnika3xeirotexnika4xeirotexnika5xeirotexnika6xeirotexnika7

Then we had to glue the wood together and create the Π shape. xeirotexnika7b

Some pieces of wood needed a little sanding. xeirotexnika8xeirotexnika9

Then we had to open the holes in the wood, with holesaws. xeirotexnika10xeirotexnika11xeirotexnika12xeirotexnika13

At this point I need to say that I finally had my cards printed! Design by mr Belias of course. xeirotexnika14

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A! Flowers! xeirotexnika16

We finished the vased, put our flowers in and took a “family photo” 🙂 xeirotexnika17

Special thanks to Yannis from B&D. We’d still be there if it weren’t for him. xeirotexnika18

And of course, special thanks to my man who took pictures of the whole thing and made us look good!

Sunday January 10th, 2016

Before & After: The Über buffet

BUFFET

I don’t even know where to start with this post. When we first met, it was in a garage. I saw it, it saw me, we looked at each other and decided we were made for one another. But only when he came home, walked in to the hallway I realized our differences. It was too big, too tall and anyway my house had some objections. Imagine, it was about 15cm taller than the tallest furniture of the house and looked really mismatched. It was as if it’s real place were the entrance of a music hall or something.

buffett_before

Anyway, I had it at home for about a year and a half, not knowing what I would do with it. Until 3 weeks ago that I finally used my saw. I totally flipped and cut it’s legs!!!  Took me ten minutes and it was what I should have done from the start. I found a perfect place for it, under a window in the living room and then started the process of deciding on how to paint it.

It was a tough decision to make. When you have such a piece there are so many things to do. Anyway, I went for grey and gold because I wanted to decrease it’s rather big volume but also keep a little of the glam (pretty sure it had a lot it in the past 🙂 )

The procedure was rather tiring. The plywood was in very bad shape and I had to use a lot of putty in order to even the surface. The following pic gives a clear image of the putty use.

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I had to prime it of course (2 coats)

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And then it was finally the time to paint it! 🙂 I wanted to have a matte – chalk like finish so I decided to make chalk paint. (Annie Sloan is so expensive :/ ) I found a recipe and went for it! I gave it 2 coats of the paint and let it dry. I used paper tape from one side to the other, in order to define the part that I wanted to make gold and then spray painted it. All handles and decor were removed and also spray painted. Final step was the waxing which you do to protect the wood, but the product I found was not so good so I need to do it again at some point.

Before I let you see all the pictures, I just wanted to tell you that I am very proud for this specific project. It was one of my biggest challenges yet, and for my taste I think it was the best thing I could do.buffet3buffet4buffet5buffet6buffet7buffet8

Thursday January 7th, 2016

The pinboard: TV, Netflix and decor

As many friends said on Facebook, “Netflix is here (Greece), Goodbye life”. So, if we are to become couch potatos, let’s do it in style. I have gathered for you tv furniture and in general wall units that include the “devil box”, also known as Television. No, it’s not that we’ll stop watching tv. We’ll be watching Netflix though, and this makes us less losers. 😛

1 – Ooohhh! Design furniture and all. I found it here, although it’s out of stock. If you are a DIYer though, you can try to make it.

tv1

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2 – Half geek – Half intellectual.  2 in 1. Do you want to impress your friends? You shut the doors and say with pride “I don’t own a TV!”. Then your friends leave, your open the doors, you switch Netflix on FOREVER and never see your friends again. You send them a letter telling them you left for Machu Pichu and not to expect back soon. tv3

3 – Wood & Cement The basics. After that you need a tv, connection to the web, a couch, a fridge and an account for e-food. You don’t have any friends. 😛

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4 – I really like wood as a back ground (with or without the TV). Let’s see some implementations

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Source

5 – Ok, I only put this for fun because it’s really amazing but also really expensive! These rich guys from Copenhagen  do cool stuff like this. I am sure that these people don’t have Netflix. Most probably they call the actors at their place for live performances.

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6 – Here the TV is appreciated as art apparently. I think it’s a little confusing, but nice. Source here

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Cheers !

Tuesday September 22nd, 2015

Space In[sta]vaders

Είσαι σόσιαλμυδια φίλος; Είσαι λίγο geek; Σου αρέσει το instagram; Σου αρέσει η ποπ κουλτούρα; Σου αρέσουν πράγματα όπως το pacman, space invaders, super mario bros, star wars κλπ; Τότε αυτό είναι το ποστ για σένα. 😀

Δεν έχω κάτι να εξηγήσω ιδιαίτερο βέβαια. Απλώς τυπώνεις τις φωτό σου από το instagram (εγώ τύπωσα από δύο timeline, το δικό μου και του Κ.), τις κόβεις και τις κολλάς στον τοίχο. Μπορείς με ένα μικρό search να βρεις πολλά σχέδια από space invaders έτσι ώστε να βασιστείς για το σχεδιάγραμμα. Με την κορνίζα που αφαίρεσα για να φτιάξω αυτό δεν ξέρω τι θα κάνω, αλλά όλο και κάτι θα μου’ρθει.

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