Ana White and a dumpster dive

Have you heard of Ana White? If you haven't, we need to fix that. She's a mom and home maker from Alaska who has a serious gift for DIY building projects and writing (check out her new book!). I have absolutely loved crawling through the archives of her site and daydreaming over the literally hundreds of free plans. And the Momplex is epic. End of story.

While I lack the basic saws to do many of her projects, she did inspiring me to take on a restoration project. Don't be creeped out, but I salvaged this piece from beside a dumpster in a nearby apartment complex. I drove through there completely by accident and spotted this crazy thing. Sorry the pictures are all going to be a little bad, I'm still snapping photos with my 'dumb' phone and the evening light doesn't help.

What we have here is a nasty old gutted couch frame. The metal cushion supports are rusty and broken (reinforced with what looks like a cut up t-shirt tied into the frame, now molded and absolutely gross) and the wood itself is very worn and a little funky in spots. I chose not to dwell on that and instead put on my breathing and eye protection, work gloves and pulled out all the metal with a pair of sturdy needle nose pliers. After all the millions of staples, hooks and brackets were gone, I broke out the power sander and went over every square inch. The next day, I had this:

Much better, right? Figuring out what grit sandpaper to use was trial and error, but fortunately it's pretty cheap and I know I'll use the extra. Power sanders are magical, by the way. I found mine on clearance for $20!

The next step was to get some cedar toned deck stain and sealant and voila! Now all I have to do is get some lumber for the seat and I'll have a fantastic bench for my backyard! I keep wondering about maybe making a fire pit to put this bad boy next to...

So thank you Ana White for your inspiration - you give me confidence!! She has the alphabetical place of honor on my Home Projects blogroll to the left so remember to visit her site and look for her at the book store.




PS - Coffee table to go with it made from stacked pallets? What do you think?