Yardstick Table

If you're following our journey of life after the Valley Fire, you might think that I am going a bit bonkers with this project thing. Mr. TBG thinks I am, anyway. I told him that he is going to be thankful when we finally get our new house and we don't have to either (1) spend a ton of money on furniture or (2) use cardboard boxes for tables (we actually did that when we first got married & lived in Australia!). He just looked at me and said, "Well, either I will be thankful or we will have enough stuff to open a shop!" Ah well, it is what is keeping me sane these days...and helping me stay patient while we experience delays in the building process due to red tape. And...Mr. TBG is actually a super good sport and helps me with lots of these projects...this is one of them...my YARDSTICK TABLE! Talk about trash to treasure! This table was given to our family after the fire, and it needed a little TLC! I think you can see why:

It was warped, yucky and moldy...and so we removed the top, sanded and cleaned it, repaired a broken corner (I forgot to take a photo of the repair, but I just squirted some Gorilla Glue in the cracks, clamped it down, and let it dry for 24 hours - good as new!), and I gave it a coat of black chalk paint.

The next step was to slightly distress it with the sander and wax it. Then Mr. TBG cut a new plywood top, and we set out to attaching the yardsticks. This can be a bit tricky! Here's my advice for this part:

Lay out your sticks in a pleasing order. Some of them will be thicker than others, and this may determine how you place them.
Mark the top of the plywood with lines so that you know where to drive your nails. We used a nail gun, but I think you could also drill small pilot holes and use paneling nails. Hands down, though, the nail gun is going to be easier. Your sticks will most likely be a bit warped, and when you use the nail gun you can press your sticks down and instantly attach them in the right spot!
Use your straightest stick first; it will act as a guide for all the others.
Measure, measure, measure as you go...make sure that you are keeping the sticks straight!
Use glue on the backs of your sticks. I tried both tacky glue and Gorilla Glue. Both are fine but the Gorilla Glue is much stronger.
You may wish to clamp the ends of the sticks down until the glue dries (since the nails aren't along the edge, the ends may "lift".

I thought we were all done when the top was done, but Mr. TBG had the great idea to create a ruler "handle" for the drawer. I did this part all on my own - just cut and glued a piece of molding to the back of the ruler, then glued that to the drawer. The molding was a FREE scrap from our local hardware store! Mr. TBG is going to enforce it with a few nails when he gets home this weekend. I just love the new handle, don't you?! LOVE that ruler - Coca Cola used to give them away! You can see that we also added yardsticks around the edges to cover up the edges of the plywood.

And there you go! From a rickety, moldy old table to a great conversation piece! I just love it as a display area for our memory jar...yes, that is a G.I. Joe arm and a little china cup in there...all sorts of little bits of love that were left in the ashes from the fire...read more about all that here!

Of course, as much as I love our new table, I'll never love it as much as this photo of JAG and CAG, which I grabbed on my way out the door...little memories of a home that was...and will be once again! <3

Update 3/10/17! Here is this cute little table now that we've moved into our forever home. I have it in JAG's room (well it's his room when he visits us occasionally while taking a break from college life!)