How to make a charging station

Hello DIY Friday!  This week I thought of an easy but practical project.  We all have cellphones and camera’s and they need to be charged.

So why not contain the clutter of wires and phones in a nice stylish way?  I found inspiration in a programme I watched recently called Pure Design.   So I made a cellphone charging station.

You will need the following:

• A box of your choice

• Ruler

• Pencil

• Utility knife/ Jigsaw

1. Choose a box that will fit all the gadgets you would like to store and charge, as well as reflect your room design.

Wood box

On the back of the box, use a ruler and pencil to mark where you will cut the hole to run the cables.
Use a utility knife (if your box is made of cardboard) or drill  the lines of the hole you are cutting (if your box is made of wood like mine). Continue scoring the lines until you work your way through the box material and pop out the hole.

Looks like a mouse chewed that hole!

I made a hole with the drill and when I used the jigsaw to make a nice size hole Kirsten came in the room and my eyes were off the target for a second.  My hand slipped and resulted in a bigger hole!! Anyway, such is life!

Now paint the box in your desired colour and finish.

I decided to go for a leafy look.  I used actual leaves I picked up outside.

Stick leaves on box

This proofed not so successful.  The leaves kept falling off while I painted.  Long story short…I had to re-paint it by hand. Put your gadgets in the box and feed their cables through the hole and into a power bar.  Below is the finished product.

Inside box

You can use the plastic rings of bread bags to keep the cords from slipping through the hole.

Finished product

Also see I finished the wall art with a border.  Some of you might remember the artwork on the wall made with toilet rolls. This is how it looked before:

Before border

I think it looks much better now.

Today was a yellow day.  I love yellow.  Dear Aunty Ruth from 1in1out gave me these lovely tulips to brighten up my day…and indeed they did.  I also managed to get a great yellow jacket for R50,00 at a sale today!  How’s that for a special!!

The yellow tulips made my day!

I like the charging station.  However I think the box is a little too big and I want to re-paint it without the leafy prints on it. Just plain.  I will post the pics when I have re-done it.

In the meantime, I will enjoy my low-cost (R0,00) project!  If you’re planning to try this one…please send me the pics!! Have a great weekend and be safe!

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Growing on the walls…

I mentioned in our bedroom makeover before that some of the walls still needed art.  Read about it here.  So this space has been like this for ages while I decide what to do with it.

Empty wall space

So I recently came across an interesting recycling project on the Internet that totally excites me!  I love re-using and recycling so this project is right up my alley!  Check out this great wall art:

Recycled toilet roll tubes into wall art

This comes courtesy of http://noisypitta.blogspot.com.  It is gorgeous and brilliant!  I have been saving all of our toilet tubes for weeks and I can’t wait to start on this project.

Here follows the step by step instructions: (I saved these pics from the web last year and for some reason I cannot trace it back to the source. Unfortunately I cannot give credit now as I do not know who owns it.)

1. First collect all the toilet roll tubes

Toilet roll tubes

2. Flatten the tubes and measure 1cm spaces in between.

Measure and draw lines

3. Cut the strips with scissors

Cut the strips

4. Glue the pieces together in the pattern you like and keep them together with paper clips or pegs while they dry.

Glue strips together

5. Spray paint them in the colour you prefer.  Be sure to do this in a ventilated area.

Spray paint the unit in the colour you prefer

6. If you have a mirror you want to incorporate in the design, spray it the same colour.

Completed recycled art

I have inserted the picture in our bedroom shot to envisage how it would look:

Vision for bedroom wall

I think ours will be slightly different as I want to let it branch over from the corner to the other wall.  I also want to paint the wall a different colour and maybe paint ours white.  I am also still deciding whether I should use a mirror.  You know by now I don’t like spending a lot of money on projects like this.  So I will scour around the site to see what I can find.

I am super-charged for this project and itching to get started.  However it has to wait for a while we host my parents who are visiting from Paarl.  It is so nice to have them here.  The kids are really enjoying having Ma and Pa over.  Ashley and I already made use of our ‘babysitters’ and went to see the new movie: ‘Ek joke net’, last night.  Great for laughs, and proud to see our friend, Solomon Cupido in his 2nd movie for the year!  (Also see him in ‘Superhelde’ that was released in April 2011)

I will post the progress of this project as soon as I can!  Hope this inspires you to start your own!  Please comment and send me your pics…would love to see them!