Homemade Potato Bin

1aRecently I decided we needed a new potato bin for our kitchen. I wanted a small one to set on the counter. I shopped online but couldn’t find one made the way I wanted. I talked it over with my husband and he suggested we build our own potato bin. Together we designed the new potato bin. We gathered the supplies over a couple weeks, but it took my husband only a few hours to make the bin. I’m pleased with our new potato bin. It looks a lot better in reality than in the photo, it has a rustic charm sitting on our counter.

Wishing you all a successful week.

 

Edited in:
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*My potato bin is large enough to hold 10 pounds of potatoes.
*My husband didn’t use any stain on the wood inside the bin. We worried that the potatoes might pick up chemicals from the stain. I wiped the inside of the bin out with bleach water to hopefully deter any molds or mildew on the wood and then I let it air out over night.
*I added an open top plastic box as a drawer to keep the potatoes off of the wood. My main reason for this is that potatoes don’t all age at the same speed and sometimes one may go bad and ooze a stench of nastiness. I can’t imagine ever being fully successful at cleaning the stench out of the wood.

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Handmade Bean Pot Cord Loom

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Sunday morning I woke up wanting to make some knitted cording, but I wanted it to be smaller than my Knifty Knitter cord loom makes. Some days I’m not real patient and Sunday morning was one of those times, so ordering a new loom wasn’t an option. I didn’t feel like going shopping, so I decided to make one of my own. 

Making a loom is somewhat simple if you have the right materials.
We have finishing nails which work well for loom pegs.
And after an hour of brain storming and rummaging through my craft supplies, I settled on a wooden bean pot candle holder for the base of the loom. I figured it’d be easy to drill and put nails in.

My husband is a good sport whenever I have an idea for a new creation. He’s always right there to help. I rely on his knowledge of what I call ‘Guy Stuff’ when it comes to using power tools or building anything.
We went straight to work on it at 5 am…

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The finishing nails were originally 2 inches long and way too
long to use, so my husband cut them down to about 1 1/8 inch.bpcl2

I drew around a penny and drew a star in the middle to
use for a pattern for the placement of the nails
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We marked where the nail pegs go.bpcl4

First drill or bore out the center hole to 1/2 inch,
then drill small holes for the nail pegs,
Lightly sand any splintery or rough spots,
make sure the center hole is smooth.

Carefully tamp the nail pegs in place.

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It took about 30 minutes to get my little cord loom made.
I got some yarn and began to use it immediately.
I was pleased to discover that the upside-down bean pot shape fits
in my hand almost perfectly & made looming the cord more enjoyable.

My new cord loom turned out better than I’d hope
(and saved me some money too. I like that. 😉 )

I hope your weekend was a pleasant one.
Wishing you all a week of successful
and fun creating & crafting.

🙂

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