When we planned to invest in the kitchen of our dreams, switching from gas to induction was high on our list. We wanted a high-efficiency home, and energy efficiency is still one of the leading considerations when we are updating or upgrading fixtures and appliances. 

Back in 2018-2019, there were a number of induction cooktops on the market, but not nearly as many options as today. We chose the 36″ Contemporary Induction Cooktop by Subzero-Wolf. It wasn’t a sponsored product, but I learned about the product line by way of writing for the home improvement industry. Press images featuring induction cooktops are eye-catching and scream high-end. SZW was sharp.

There were several reasons induction was right for our home:

• Our cooktop is in the kitchen island
• We have barstools alongside the island, within arm’s reach of the cooktop
• Putting gas burners within reach of anyone sitting on the barstools is just a bad idea
• Glass-top electric cooktops stay hot for a long time
• It’s easier to clean a glass cooktop than a gas range
• Only the part of the burner in contact with the pan heats. The cooktop cools and can be touched within seconds of being turned off.
• And, as already stated, we embrace high-efficiency technology so if I were to choose between a glass-top electric cooktop or an induction model, induction won.

Getting the kitchen cooktop installed didn’t come without its share of hiccups, naturally, but we are thrilled with how it turned out. It’s one of the best choices we made during our kitchen renovation. Not to mention, if you’re checking out this post following the wave of criticisms against gas ranges and are reviewing alternatives, you’ve come to a good place.

How Are Induction Cooktops Installed?

Induction cooktops often sit atop the counter, especially if a customer is replacing an appliance; however, most models also come with the option of being recessed into the countertop so that they are completely flush. The cooktop and its frame fit on top, just like a drop-in sink might sit atop your counter.

I mean, ours is cool, but the innovation doesn’t stop there. You can install induction beneath many types of countertops as a hidden induction cooktop. The under-counter induction cooktop design is the wave of the future. Imagine having your hidden induction cooktop under granite – you have more counterspace when you’re not cooking, and all the burners you need when you’re cooking a feast.

While this may only raise your induction appliance ⅓”-½” off the counter, once I realized that our Subzero-Wolf could be recessed, there was no going back in my mind. 

We began to imagine how easily crumbs would gather around the perimeter of the frame. It became clear that it might be harder to contain spills. Or worse, spills on the countertop might go underneath the cooktop frame and into the kitchen island drawers. A recessed, smooth work surface would not only look great, but it would make life easier.

How Do You Recess an Induction Cooktop?

Recessing any cooktop is best accomplished by the countertop company at the time you are replacing your countertops. And while this should be a reasonably simple ask of your salesperson, be sure to discuss it early in the planning process.

Induction cooktop manufacturers who offer recessed installation should provide full specs for the product that can be relayed to the countertop company. From what I gather, countertop companies usually obtain a template so that any height clearances and curved radiuses are made exact to the cooktop product.

Our Subzero-Wolf induction cooktop did NOT come with a template, much to everyone’s surprise at the 11th hour. Furthermore, upon reviewing the design guide that came with our cooktop, the countertop company was concerned that they did not have the proper blade for the CNC to cut a tight 7/16″ outer corner radius.

To work around this and accommodate our request, I brought them the entire cooktop and they created a custom template for our job. They also ordered a special tool so their machinery could accommodate the tight corner angles. Still, it was a one-shot that the custom template and cut would work, or we would need to order a new piece of countertop quartz.

Once it was cut (they did it!) and the countertop was installed (it was perfect!) our contractor was able to position the induction cooktop into the recessed space. One thing I was not prepared to navigate, was that the recessed ledge was a little bit too low. The induction cooktop did come with rolls of high-density foam that, with the help of our contractor (no, we did not DIY our kitchen remodel), we attached to the inset ledge to raise the induction cooktop slightly until it was perfectly level with the countertop. I am still waiting to see if this foam compresses under the weight of the cooktop. In 4 years, it has not.

A black silicone caulk was installed around the edge of the cooktop to seal around the entire appliance. No moisture can get between the countertop and the induction cooktop. The black silicone blends in perfectly with the black glass appliance.

How Do We Like Our Subzero-Wolf Induction Range?

Induction heats FAST. There’s nothing quite like cooking on someone’s gas range and realizing the shortcomings of gas while you wait for water to boil. Induction heats water in a fraction of the time, is consistent, and has made cooking more efficient. I’m not a chef but I do enjoy cooking every day, and I can sear and still achieve the same type of cooking performance as I did with a gas range.

The glass induction cooktop has outperformed our expectations in many ways; however, we sometimes find that the sensors don’t react to our finger when we are looking to turn on or adjust the burner temperature, which can be annoying, but it’s a minimal complaint.

If I could choose a different product, I’d probably select an induction cooktop with two large burners. Ours has one large burner and four small burners. The GE Monogram that I also considered in 2019 had a second larger burner, and it was silvery-white, but it couldn’t be recessed.

If and when we have to upgrade products or the countertop, I would readily switch to an invisible induction cooktop to achieve all the benefits of a flush and easy-to-clean cooking surface. My one call-out is that it should be an “anywhere” invisible surface so that you don’t have to think too much about whether or not you’re placing your pan directly on the invisible burner.

Just secure the pumpkins upright with a fence post or length of rebar, and use string lights to illuminate them from within. By day, adorable, but lit up on trick-or-treating night, they serve as a wayfinder and cast a spooky glow. 

Tools and materials you’ll need:

• pumpkins
• serrated knife
• knife
• jigsaw
• 2″ hole saw (optional)
• spoon
• metal fence post or length of rebar
• strand of outdoor white holiday lights
• outdoor extension cord

1. Cut and Gut the Pumpkins

Use a knife or jigsaw to cut away the top of the pumpkin, as you would for any jack o’ lantern carving project. Give the lids a fairly wide diameter because you’ll be drilling a second hole in the top to remove the stem. 

Clean the seeds and guts from inside the pumpkin. (Make some roasted pumpkin seeds, obviously.)

2. Remove the Stem

To make the pumpkins stackable, you’ll need to remove the stem. Select one pumpkin that will keep its stem. This pumpkin will be placed on the top of the totem, so its stem will be the final cap on the totem pole.

You could cut the stem out using a knife or a saw, or, like I did, use a 2” hole-saw bit on a drill to cut the long stem out of the top of the pumpkin.

3. Create a Hole in the Bottom

Use the hole saw to cut out a hole in the bottom of the pumpkins, too. With one opening on top of the pumpkin and one on the bottom, you will be able to thread the pumpkins onto the fence post.

4. Carve Your Pumpkins

Get creative with your pumpkins and carve faces, your house numbers, or a word – like BOO! Carving with a jigsaw makes the job easy, but if you’re using regular knives, use a serrated knife for the most speed and accuracy. Plan to put the heavier pumpkins on the bottom of the totem. 

5. Position the Stake and Attach the Lights

Anchor the fence post or piece of rebar by pushing its base into the ground. Then, wrap the post top to bottom with the strand of white lights. Make sure that the electrical plug access emerges at the bottom and can reach the outlet or an extension cord.

6. Stack Pumpkins, Large to Small

Thread each pumpkin and its lid down the fence post over the lights. Place the heavier pumpkins at the bottom.

7. Turn on the Lights!

Enjoy your customized pumpkin decoration and celebrate the season. They’re appealing during the day, but really show off their effect at night!

More Halloween DIYs:

• Faux-broken glass makes it look like your windows have been shattered
• Halloween tombstones
• Black noodles for Halloween Mac & Cheese
• Creepy eyeballs in your windows
• Sew webs on your pumpkins for unique decor

This project was originally created for DIYNetwork.com in 2015.

They’re easy enough to make – perhaps easier than carving a jack-o-lantern. It just involves weaving black yarn through holes drilled into your hollow pumpkin. Learn how to make your own spider web pumpkin in the below tutorial.

You’ll need:

• serrated knife
• jigsaw
• spoon
• cordless drill with 1/8″ bit
• pumpkins
• black yarn
• fine-gauge wire
• plastic spiders

1. Clean Seeds Out of Pumpkin

Use a knife or jigsaw to cut away the top of the pumpkin. Remove the seeds and guts from the pumpkin.

2. Drill Holes for Web

Use a 1/8″ drill bit to make holes through which to sew your spider web. Spider webs are naturally irregular and unique, but to create a uniform circular web shape, mark a center point on the pumpkin and drill through it. From that point, drill evenly spaced points on the same plane upwards and outwards in various directions. Keep each hole on the same plane 1” apart. Think of it as if you were plotting points for a dot-to-dot asterisk.

Once you’ve created all of the holes, clean the surface of the pumpkin so that the holes are more easily visible.

3. Stitch Circles

Tie a 3- to 4-foot piece of black yarn to a piece of wire (it’s easier than trying to thread yarn through the end of a needle).

Loop the yarn in and out of the holes you made in the pumpkin in a backstitching pattern to create the circles that form the spider web.

Remember, it doesn’t matter what the inside of the pumpkin looks like. Weave the yarn around until your line runs short, and then cut a new 3- to 4-foot piece and continue. The inside will look quite tangled as you work, even though the exterior stitching looks neat and organized.

4. Stitch Straight Lines

Backstitch more lengths of yarn in straight lines to visually connect the circles. Selectively extend several lines beyond the circles to emulate the irregular appearance of a real spider web.

5. Attach Plastic Spiders

Attach plastic spiders to the web. You can use a dab of hot glue if they don’t easily snag into the fibers.

Top off the finished pumpkins with their lids and a few fake spiders then show off your crafty pumpkins.

More Halloween Projects You’ll Love:

• Make it look like your windows have been shattered
• DIY Halloween tombstones
• Make black noodles for Halloween Mac & Cheese
• Create backlit, creepy eyeballs in your windows
• Make a DIY Halloween Totem Pole

This project was originally created for DIYNetwork.com.

But really, how much do we like having white walls?

The few things that went through our heads when we decided to neutralize the walls to a single, uniform color. I thought you’d like to have answers to those questions now that we’ve lived with it awhile:

“Would we get bored of lack of color?”

Verdict: Nope – I still really like that anything goes with white. We’re free to play with as many colorful accents as we want and embrace those we love the most. We added a colorful boucherouite Moroccan rug to our living room, and pink pillows to the couch, and it all works really well together.

“Would it get dirty?”

Verdict: Not really, but kids definitely make their mark. We wash the “most touchable” spots with a soapy cloth or an off-brand magic eraser. If you have white trim, you know what I’m talking about; it just gets dirty. We can also tell where the kids put their feet on the walls when they’re on the couch or playing in bed.

“Would white paint brighten our home?”

Verdict: Absolutely. Nothing quite like sunshine flowing into a light-colored room (it’s especially good through the fall and winter when our sunshine is limited). The house was previously beige (so much beige) and the memory of that is still stifling.

“Is it cozy? Because I like cozy.”

I don’t know if I can answer that. There are days and moments when the lighting can make it feel more sterile and less warm than a colorful room, but then the light will do something wild like this against the stone wall of the fireplace and I’ll forget that it ever entered my mind. We’ve added a lot of light wood accents via furniture, cabinetry, and even vinyl adhesive maple wallpaper. They all help add warmth to the white, but it’s still less intense than colorful wall paint.

“Will we regret not choosing some other shade of white paint?”

Verdict: Not a chance. In this consistently white-walled craze, it can be easy to overlook the magic of filters and Photoshop. Beauty shots of rooms online are color corrected for natural lighting. I happen to side with the stance that white is white. Natural daylight and the light bulbs in your fixtures will make a big difference in whether your space looks white-white vs. white-yellow vs. white-blue. LED lights have come a long way and smart bulbs especially make it easy to adjust the coloring to suit the area of your room and the fixture itself.

If you want white, Snowbound is a good white. But there are probably also a few dozen other “good whites” at the paint store. I’m not paid by Sherwin-Williams to promote this white. All brands have good whites. But yes, if you need a recco, this is a good white.

(Side note: I’m terrified that our new kitchen island is going to be a 30 sq. ft. drop zone.)

20 Things is my tried-and-true game, really. I probably “play” it solo once a day, sometimes more. It’s most effective in that moment when the mess around the house is getting out of control but there’s only 6 minutes before a conference call, or 5 minutes while dinner finishes in the oven, or 2 minutes while I’m waiting for the school bus to appear. I do modified cleaning really well in a time crunch.

Quick, wipe down 20 windowsills
Real fast, clean up 20 things that have gathered on the sink top in the bathroom, or the counters in the kitchen.
Go, pick up 20 things each, kids. You can all count to 20 now, this is great! And if you don’t know where it belongs, just leave it.
Easy, go put 20 toys from the bedroom floor back where they belong.
Hey kid, are you strong enough to carry a stack of 20 kids books back to its shelf?
Find 20 Things you’re ready to donate.

Occasionally, when time allows, 50 Things. 100 Things. This level of ambition is usually reserved for after 8pm, in the basement, with a podcast and wine. I’m telling you, stuff gets done.

Anyways, with this being the summer of major construction, no vacations, and limited disposable income, I thought it’d be a good idea to formalize a 20 Things to-do list for tasks (both chores and projects) that I’ve been meaning to finish around the house, but typically take longer than your average pause to re-stack children’s books.

Let’s see if I can get it done before September:

• stain the step on the side door
• build a little library
• haul free mulch
• improve art room yarn and thread storage
• clean dryer vent
• sand and refinish dining room table (chairs if motivated)
• sand and refinish living room coffee table (bought it from someone in the neighborhood so long ago that my youngest was a newborn and I drove it home on the stroller)

• paint doors on the hallway cabinet
• assemble Sam’s baby book (by his 3rd birthday?)
• paint and assemble birthday camper birdhouse (weird bullet that only makes sense to me)
• transplant groundcover
• finish installing the trim in the bedroom closet (hi, 2013)
• perler bead crafts (goodness, does anyone ever use them *all*?) (update: 2023, we’ve finished 400 projects and still not made a dent in the jar of beads)
• beautify the kid’s play kitchen

• wash the basement sink
• convert the simplex clock to quartz
• wash gutters (the grimy outside more than the inside)
• extend the garden at the kid’s bedroom window
• haul soil/regrade house
• figure out how to display our collection of vacation shells, stones, glass treasures

There are more than a few reasons that it made sense for us to go this route, and so far it has been worth it:

1. First and foremost, I don’t know a whole lot about remodeling an old kitchen, despite how many times I’ve watched Rehab Addict. Our professionals do it all day every day, and have a much more technical approach to designing a highly functional home. They’re confident in their recommendations and able to explain every detail. Could I have replaced cabinet doors? Yeah! Could I have mimicked the existing floor plan and replaced with new cabinetry? Maybe. Could I have done it really, really well? Probably not without Photoshop.
2. We needed a fresh perspective because we were toying with the idea of losing walls and adding windows. It’s been nice to have someone advising on that process, especially when it involves making sure the house won’t fall down.
3. There was a very specific plan we had in mind after living with the space for years, but who were we to say that it was the best plan? Turns out, our plan wasn’t the best – the designers took our vision and tried it, and could quickly to point out issues when they aligned our idea with real measurements. From there, still using plenty of our input, they pieced together all kinds of CAD floorplans, narrowing it down to 5 really good options (yes, 5!). Their vision was thoughtful to the design of our mid-century ranch, and worked harder to make the most of the space available. Sometimes it’s hard to “unsee” what we thought it would be, but the plan we’re working with now is the difference between “great kitchen” and our “dream kitchen.”
4. We want to get *done* and not have this project linger on for years and years, as would have been the case if we attempted to do it ourselves between other full-time jobs. Last time I checked, it was almost impossible to focus on anything with preschool/toddler-aged kids underfoot, and not that I’ve crunched the numbers, but the cost of our contractor and designer is probably similar to the daycare service we’d have to employ to babysit our kids if we went at this solo. The faster, more perfect kitchen wins! And then we can get on with our life.

The inquiry process actually started in 2016 when I met with a local “kitchen and bath design center” that seemed reputable but made me feel as though I was buying a Bluth kitchen. That in-home meeting was impersonal and apathetic, and discouraging exchanges that followed over email made me lose not only lose trust in them, but question who I could rely on in the remodeling industry. It set us back a few years.

About a year ago in 2018, our intent to remodel the kitchen was revived when our daughter befriended the child of an interior designer at school. I’m pretty sure that we introduced ourselves to each other, and then I immediately folded my hands into the shape of a heart to signal how perfectly this young friendship timed to my own home improvement needs. The introduction led us to hire Robin Muto Interiors based in Rochester, NY, and it was such a treat to get the project started again with fresh vision and thoughtful direction. (Robin’s studio/art gallery/home goods store AXOM Home are on Anderson Ave. right next to the Brainery and across from Barrel of Dolls, friends! You should stop in, because her space is super inspiring.)

I’m still weirdly nervous to share too much detail about the design because everyone’s a critic, but the construction that begins next month is going to result in a big, open, birch and colorfully-designed space, with a huge island, cool tech integrations, high-end finishes, giant porcelain tiles, and big, beautiful, windows. We’ll lose a closet but gain a mudroom. We’ll connect the indoors to the out, and open the kitchen to our dining room. These are all improvements that we’re genuinely excited about, and we’re really proud and feeling lucky to be investing in our home in this way.

P.S. I should note now that our designer isn’t doing this as some kind of sponsorship, I just really want you to know she exists because she and her team are seriously good.

P.P.S. Also, I’m selective when it comes to formal partnerships, but Legrand, Kohler, and Sherwin-Williams were natural fits for this remodel. So excited to have their support!

Make Your Own Salt Art

watercolor paper + glue + salts + watercolor paints >> salt art tutorial on HGTV.com

Create Beautiful Pour Art

canvas/scrap plywood/cardstock + washable craft paint + pouring medium >> pour art tutorial on HGTV.com

Craft Your Own Scratch Art Boards

cardstock + crayons + acrylic paint + dish soap >> scratch art tutorial at HGTV.com

Try Bubble Painting

paper + bubble solution + food coloring >> bubble painting tutorial on HGTV.com

Do the Spin Art Thing

salad spinner + paint (yes, I used our actual spinner and no, it did not destroy the machine) >> spin art tutorial on HGTV.com

Transfer Colors With Bleeding Tissue Paper

watercolor paper + spray bottle with water + specialty tissue paper (no, regular gift wrap won’t bleed its color enough) >> bleeding tissue paper tutorial on HGTV.com

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Outdoor Living Room: Before – 2013

The screened in porch wasn’t included in the square footage of our home, but turns out, it’s one of our most lived-in spaces! The previous owner had it outfitted with a patio table and chairs, as well as heavy-duty bamboo rolling blinds. In fact, this picture is from our first time seeing the house. Not bad, but a true throwback.

The Outdoor Living Room Became Integral to Our Daily Routine – 2013-2015

We found the screened-in patio to be a practical space for outdoor living from Day 1 [at the time had one kid and one dog]. We’ve been told in more recent years that the woman who had lived here “was never outside,” and “surely never used that room,” which may or not be true, but would help to explain why it was in pristine condition before we rained our messy life all over it.

Within days of moving in, we had removed the blinds, and stationed one of our barn wood wedding tables as an indoor/outdoor dining table. We surrounded it with the few chairs we owned. Used it heavily. Ate on it nightly. Worked at it daily. It was great for our former dog, Cody, who could stay contained but outdoors if we left the house for short periods of time, and a great place for us all to enjoy the nature that sweeps our backyard.

We Made a Plan to Improve Our Backyard Lifestyle – 2016

We’re still unsure whether we built the patio big enough (our sole tip to any of you looking to build something like this… go bigger) but the stonework we added outside our screened in porch was the first improvement we did to make our space even more liveable. This post shows how we planned and installed a large flagstone patio.

The flagstones were sourced from a New York quarry and sold at a stone yard owned by a timber company nearby Rochester, NY. Once the patio had been installed and officially checked off our list, we began planning with other ways we could continue to elaborate on the space. We got chaise lounge chairs and formal chairs for the rustic wedding table, which now lives on the patio.

Over the next year or so, our tribe grew, our foot traffic in the room accelerated, and despite vacuuming, we destroyed the indoor/outdoor carpet. We also began to slowly tear and puncture the screens. To replace the screens, we knew we’d have to disassemble the frames (and sand and repaint them, too), and it quickly became apparent that it could be a good time to open up and re-concept the space.

The summer that Sam was born in 2016, we experimented with ridding the room of the screens altogether. The simple hardware holding them in place made it easy for us to temporarily remove them so we could experiment with the flow of traffic and airflow and observe whether pollen and leaves were a total burden.

We liked it without screens. Removing them for a year was a nice way to experiment and see if we could live without them, and how we might navigate the space if there were no walls guiding our pathway. Common Qs:

Q: Would it get snowy? A: Yup. It drifts in under our 36″ eaves and is often a few inches deep around the perimeter of the room. It doesn’t get snowy by the back door though, and to be honest, snow would drift through the little screen holes during big storms, too, so it was never a truly dry space.

Q: Would springtime pollen make us crazy? A: Yes, but with the screens gone we could easily use a blower to clean off any excess that was building up on the tabletops, chairs, etc. We still had to vacuum the floor quite a bit. This was all easier than vacuuming the vertical screens, which is what we had to do a few times every year to keep them cobweb and free of heavy yellow pollen.

Most often asked Q – don’t screens keep out bugs? A: Nope. The door to the screened in porch was open so often, that the flies and mosquitos were always inside, and that was really frustrating since they had no easy escape route. Without the screens, we can keep the fan on and there are virtually no bugs driving us crazy.

Removing the Carpet and Refinishing the Concrete Slab Base – 2017

One year later, shortly before Sam’s first birthday in 2017, I casually announced that I’d had enough of the gross carpet and wanted to tear it up. And as you do, 4 hours later, it was gone, cut into strips, and wedged into the trash bin. It was a dusty, dirty mess at this point. I was partially expecting to find mold beneath the carpet knowing how many times we’ve had to spray it off, or clean up spilled lemonade, etc, but there was no mold, only lots of old-old-old thick and crumbly adhesive. Our indoor/outdoor carpet that felt vaguely like astroturf was glued down, and we were pretty relieved by that. In its wake, we were left with a big slab of concrete in remarkably good condition considering freeze/thaw/weather cycles.

At this point, Pete and I had either been given bad advice and told that it would be hard to sand away the glue, or maybe we just assumed it ourselves.

Every night for a week, we took extra efforts to remove the dried adhesive that was affixed to the concrete thinking that make the surface easier to refinish. We pedaled along on our hands and knees with different expensive glue removal solutions and a wide variety of razor blades with ergonomic handles and varied widths, though still to end up with 45 hand blisters a piece. It might be vaguely satisfying to scrape anything with a perfectly angled razor blade, but believe me, if you’re scheming a project like this at your home, skip the pain and suffering and just jump right to the stripping the concrete with a rented grinder before you spend weeks trying to manually remove dried adhesive. You’re welcome.

Just for kicks, and because I’ve been storing this boomerang to share for literally years, enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

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Pro tip: Don’t spend days removing old adhesive from concrete with razor blades. Just rent a grinder. #2017 #outdoorliving #porchmakeover #merrypadathome #throwback #blisters

A post shared by Merrypad by Emily Fazio (@merrypad) on May 29, 2019 at 7:24am PDT

Despite all efforts and blisters, there were still spots we couldn’t clean well enough by hand so we rented an industrial sander for 4 hours, and took the rough surface to smooth in one clean pass of the grinder. The wheel left us with the perfect, smooth surface on which to lay tiles.

Sourcing and Transporting New Stone – 2018

All this time, I held on to the memory of a very thin 1/2″ flagstone sourced from the same quarry and at the stone yard, and slowly started to scheme a plan where we would connect the covered and open patio spaces by extending the flagstone up beneath the covered porch.

From 2016, when I first found and photographed the flagstone at the stone yard.

At some point between when I ordered the original flagstone from the stone yard for our outdoor patio, and set out to buy the 1/2″ material on the covered porch, operations changed at the business, and the stone yard was unmanaged.

The main reason that I wanted to get the flagstone from the same source was that it was cut from the same quarry and more guaranteed to match the stones we had already used. It was also quoted for me at $3.50/sq. ft., whereas the other local stone yard priced a similar product at $8/sq. ft., and when you’re buying 300 sq. ft., those numbers really begin to matter.

I had a really difficult time getting in touch with anyone who could take our money for the 1/2″ flagstone that was still sitting [visible from the road] behind a locked gate at the stone yard, and I finally lucked out after sending a handwritten note to the company (a recommendation made by another blogger friend – thanks!) and triggered them to call me back.

When they finally called, I drove to the stone yard same-day, bought it all, and hauled it back to the house. The stone yard is 45 minutes from my house, and though it was thin stone, it was still very heavy so I divided the load between two car trips, juggled pre-k pickup, 80+ degree temps, and employed every single muscle in my body to load the stones into the minivan, and then out of the van back at home. Twice. (Hattie supervised the second trip.)

 

 

 

 

 

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Definitely deserve after hauling 300 sq. ft. of flagstone divided between two minivan loads 40 miles to and from and to home in 86-degree heat. Also, you can’t convince me that minivans aren’t incredible. #homeimprovement #diy # #flagstone #bluestone #wotd #myway #rochesterny #icecreamplease #andabeer

A post shared by Merrypad by Emily Fazio (@merrypad) on May 31, 2018 at 12:10pm PDT

It sat stacked, organized by size, around every single tree next to our house for several months.

Planning the Stone Pattern

No professional ever will tell you that this is the way to organize patio stones for a simple installation, but Pete’s a design whiz and made us a roadmap in Photoshop so that we could:

1. configure the patterns so that the seams and joints were intentionally in a random pattern
2. plan out how the few larger stones we sourced would be balanced by the smaller, more plentiful-sized stones
3. design a layout that required minimal stone cuts
4. … and minimize waste… because even when you order 10% extra stone or tile, it’s always a little bit nervewracking if you’re running short
5. make installation *faster*

Simply put, he created a perfectly to scale model of our porch, and then made individual rectangular layers in the file that represented each flagstone size, at the same scale. From there, he created a puzzle that looked like this:

Completed and printed, it served as our master plan and by the end of the project was covered in blood, sweat, coffee, beer, and dirt.

Other Logistics

Many things came into play as we considered the when and how to install the flagstones on the solid, smooth concrete slab.

We had to factor in removing the vinyl siding, and then decide if the stones would look weird butted up to the underlying cedar shingles. We needed to add trim around the top edge once the siding was removed. The outlets that were positioned to be flush with the vinyl also needed to be considered, as did the cedar shiplap ceiling. We were relieved when all of this worked out just as expected, but it’s worth noting that putting in something that seems like an ordinary flagstone tile floor came with a lot of extra manual labor and creative thinking.

It me. Taking down the first wall of vinyl and insulation on an apparently hot-hot day when it didn’t matter what weird outfit I wore.

We saved the vinyl siding to reuse as part of our kitchen renovation because we’ll need to add in siding where we decided to lose a window. We patched the nail holes left by the cedar shingles for now, totally relieved that they’re in excellent condition (and curious if the rest of the house is as perfect beneath the vinyl). Eventually, the shingles will get painted.

Crown molding extends along the open edge of the patio, but had been removed from where the shingles meet the cedar ceiling back when the vinyl siding had been installed. There was a lot of scrap wood stored in our basement, and we happened to find enough pieces of matching molding to install it along the top of the walls, including these extremely small and precise miters that trim out our windows and the door.

I removed the vinyl that wrapped along the columns on the porch to expose the original painted wood, and Pete cut out the two pieces that framed out our old screen door. No going back now!

The cedar ceiling was cleaned to mediate some of the black mold spots that we believe formed over the years when air circulation was hindered by the screens and former window coverings. They look exceptionally great now.

Installing the Flagstone Floor – still 2018

The stone installation came together pretty easily once we mustered the energy to start such a big project. We didn’t exactly make it easy on ourselves, though, because began doing it on the same afternoon that we brought Martha home.

Following the aforementioned Photoshop pattern made install very easy, mostly because I could grab the right-sized stone, hose it off in the sun, let it dry, and then bring it to Pete when he had the base mortar ready to go. The stones were laid in a smooth bed of mortar right atop the existing concrete slab – we ditched the notched trowel because the mortar was pretty damn thick. We also used the same mortar to grout the stones as we went along for simplicity, rather than using a different grout product to finish the seams. Pete’s layout didn’t require many cuts until we got along the outer edge of the porch, so the bulk of the stonework was done in just a few days (over two weekends). When we did need to make cuts, I used the cordless cut-off machine that Stihl gave us when they sponsored the repair of our front steps; the cut-off machine is still-and-probably-always one of the coolest tools I own, and really works like a dream for these little zoom-zip type of flagstone cuts when you don’t want to deal with starting a gas engine. Battery-operated tools are the best.

Determining how to wrap the edge of the slab with stones was one of the design aspects that held me back from getting started on this project earlier, but we decided to go simple by mortaring lengths of flagstone onto the edge of the slab. The block foundation beneath isn’t as visible or as noticeably unmatched as I expected it would, and the finished surface is perfection. We added that edge, and then overlapped the horizontal pieces of stone so that they were measured and cut to overlap and match with the depth of the vertical edge.

Really feeling now like this is the perfect archival piece that we’ll be glad to look back on in many years, even though it’s probably longer than anything else I’ve written in years. The shingled walls are still unpainted until our kitchen is done this fall, but I’ll be sure to add a few more photos of it once the space is “officially” feeling done – 2016-2019 is a long time for a project to take full-effect but I’m glad to show this in a way that doesn’t make it look like it was done in a single weekend. (P.S. Martha’s a real full-grown dog now: @MarthaMyDog, and the Berner, Cody, shown further up the page is in our past.)

The environment became something I didn’t like, but I wish it hadn’t driven me away. My own blog took a backseat, and to some degree it was for good reason (sanity and bandwidth with a young family) but now, when I look back on the site, there’s lots of good stuff missing. So much of the neat work that I did for HGTV and DIY I’d still love to link to from here. I’ve done lots of mini home improvements that have changed our home in functional and notable ways, too. My old home and lifestyle was very well-documented, but I wish I had somehow found the time to share more details of my amended life along the way, too, just for myself.

I’ve always been some kind of journalist. Not in the sense of published lit, but I’ve always collected and assembled visual journals in some form. Lots of photos. Captions and notations. It was during and after college I found it easy to write in a free-flowing manner, especially when stifled by core curriculum and working at a job where I wasn’t happy. Creative writing became an outlet that was great for a long time.

I still print and collect photos; they’re individually labeled and organized quite simply by season in basic photo boxes (I print about 1,000/year). I have photo albums from my middle- and high-school years that documented snapshots of every single day, chronologically, even when they were just minute details. It feels natural to get back towards some iteration of that with more frequent posts, loose project overviews, general notes that make it easier for us to recall what we were doing now, whether it’s next winter, or 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

Our kitchen is a huge overhaul that’s scheduled to begin in July, so that gives me a month to catch you up on it and fill in some gaps in the timeline to improve the overall journal. This is a cool little life we’ve carved out for our family, and I don’t want to let myself forget some of the small details anymore.

See you again soon.

An honest attempt at growing leeks

My daughter and I start our leek seeds (“Hattie’s Leeks”) on Valentine’s Day. We started early after noticing that the ones at Wegmans were about 2.5″ in diameter – exceptionally large. Leeks, man. We can’t seem to grow them quite like the Wegmans farmers. 2017 was our first year planting them in our own garden, and though we’re bound by a May-Nov outdoor season, part of our fail is that we’re always behind the curve when it comes to starting these guys.

At harvest, the leeks are typically only about the width of my thumb. Still good, but I hope to improve upon it, which is why I’m looking to you for tips. If your tip is move to Ireland, I would love to, but cannot. Take your tip elsewhere. There’s gotta be a better way to improve our success rate and the size of our plants with a little more careful scheming.

Our seedlings usually start out well enough. We have excellent germination rate in nothing more than a simple windowsill greenhouse with the occasional heating pad nestled underneath. Hundreds of seedlings are several inches long when I thin them the first time, though brittle as blades of grass. Needless to say, due to their fragility, not all make it to the next stage of planting.

None of them make it as wide as a pencil before they’re transplanted into the ground mid-May (zone 5). Maybe that’s a myth and not to be expected in my environment, but it’s a bit of advice that I read somewhere, and it stuck with me.

Last year, 100 transplants into the garden only yielded 13 “full grown” leeks. It was nothing more than novelty planting, and it offered my daughter some ownership and responsibility, so it was fun to observe and foster them. In the end, made for a couple good meals.

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A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Nov 2, 2017 at 12:03pm PDT

Tell me a little more about how growing leeks from seeds has worked for you?

The Mystery of Homegrown Onions

ONIONS ARE A HEAD SCRATCHER. After putting 100 onion sets in the ground last spring in well-draining, loose, thoroughly composted soil, the sets sprouted healthy greens. How fun! I nabbed some of these spring onions for meals, expecting fully that within a few months (~August by the calculations written on the store packaging) we’d have 100 actual full-size yellow onions waiting to be harvested.

As often as I poked into the earth while weeding around the plants, I never felt a significant change in the size of the root bulb. The greens continued to grow, and then wilted off in July, indicating–so I thought–harvest-time. They were still teeny, so I left most in the ground just to see if they might still grow a little more.

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A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Jun 13, 2018 at 6:22pm PDT

August rolled around and the weird thing was, most of the onions had shot up new greens. What? Is that normal? I waited until October when we expected our first frost to harvest them. Not surprisingly, considering that I could easily tell that the plants were still tiny in the ground, most were still not much larger than a marble. A couple were as big as a golf ball. I kept the good ones that didn’t feel squishy/rotting, and reserved as many of the greens as I could because they were still curiously in good condition amidst their encore performance.

Do greens shoot up twice in the fall, if the bulb isn’t growing?

Then, it gets even more curious. I missed a few tiny onions when I was clearing the bed in October, and in April, noticed that the leave-behinds had shot up new greens. Do onions survive a hard freeze? Were they hibernating? This is such a weird little, mostly insignificant experiment that we’re overseeing in Garden 2019. (I live 45 minutes from the Onion capital of the World so growing onions is something I really have to figure out.)

This year I grabbed another 100 sets to give it another go. Did not over-compost the soil. Did thoroughly fluff it. Did not set the onions deep in the dirt.

Red, white, and yellow onion sets planted in the garden.

Greens are happening after 2 weeks. More to come. Send advice.

Our maiden voyage into the world of homemade pumpkin butter began with a single pie pumpkin. It yielded so much spread that we’ve frozen it, and will probably be chipping away at our stash until the snow melts. Cozy things!

What you’ll need:

• 1 pie pumpkin
• brown sugar
• maple syrup
• cinnamon
• allspice
• nutmeg
• cloves

If you’re thinking this is going to be laborious, think again. You’ll use an oven, and then you’ll use a slow cooker, so it’s just about as hands-off as any recipe could be.

Start with your pumpkin:

Put it on a baking sheet covered with foil.

Preheat oven to 350.

Then take a drill bit or a sharp knife, and bore a few ventilation holes in the top of the pumpkin. No one needs a pressurized, explosive pumpkin inside their oven (that would make this a bit more uh, hands on).

Bake it for an hour, whole, much like you would cook any other relative of the squash family. You’ll know it’s ready to come out when you can easily poke through the skin with the prongs of a fork.

Remove the pumpkin from the oven and slice it in half. Remove and toss the seeds, and then scoop the flesh into the slow cooker.

In a separate bowl, I mixed 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and 1 tsp each nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. Added a pinch of cloves, too. You’ll be able to go back while the butter is cooking to add more spices. Exact quantities vary by preference (and the size of your pie pumpkin, too).

Mix the spices in with the pumpkin in the slow cooker, and bake it on low for 6 hours. Open up, take a whiff and a taste, and add more spices or sugar if you desire. It’ll be dense, and no surprise, it tastes a lot like pumpkin pie. 5-STAR PUMPKIN GOLD. Try not to eat it by the spoonful.

Once cooked, I packed mine 1 cup at a time into freezer bags, squeezing out the air and letting it squish flat, just like freezing pesto. As I thaw ones that I’ve already frozen, I try to use the butter within a week’s time so that it doesn’t begin to go bad in the fridge. Perfect on all breakfasty things. Enjoy!

Though easy and inexpensive to implement, they’re impacting enough to make me do a double-take if I’m coming home in the evening. At a glance, it looks like the windows have been smashed.

You could add the detail to any window, but I vote for highly visible spots like a pane of glass on your garage door (if backlit), or a pane in the front door, or a transom window, a window facing your neighbors (guaranteed to alarm them) and especially hit the spots that your Trick or Treaters are bound to see (and put a real-creepy-something on the other side of those windows).

You’ll only need two things:

• a roll of matte transparent contact paper (~$5)
• scissors

Unroll the contact paper, and trim it into various triangles. Don’t get too worked up over the shape and size of them initially, but aim to have a variety of triangles, some of which can be upwards of half or 3/4 the length of the longest edge of the window. if you’re dressing up a BIG window cut pieces that are larger. For smaller panes, go smaller.

When you’re ready to crack some glass, clean the window surface well, and then peel the backing from the contact paper to reveal the matte adhesive. Stick the triangles one at a time to the window. Align one straight edge of each triangle against the frame of the window, and layer as you work your way around. How shattered and affected the glass appears depends on how many triangles you add to each window – the triangles will represent shards that are left in the window frame, and the glass left uncovered by contact paper will render as the part of the window that was broken away.

Easy as could be! Once the holiday is over, the contact paper can be peeled off without any adhesive residue.

And this, which shows how the fence used to be completely overgrown, making the back half of our property completely unusable:

And even our “new” outdoor living room (a long post about its evolution is sitting as a rough draft):

We’ve had a busy few months (and if you follow me on IG, it’s 99% garden related). Shorter, colder days and a new back-to-school routine will hopefully give me more time to write again (I really miss it).

Though brainwaves related to these projects are still mostly unpublished, these are some of the things we did in our 5th year at home.

1. We moved the fire pit.
2. Changed the play-flow in our yard by opening up the rustic fence.
3. Started a compost pile.
4. Installed flagstone veneers to the covered porch (peek shown above).
5. Removed the siding on our covered porch to expose the original cedar walls.
6. Wouldn’t it be so great to have the back of our house fully landscaped? On the list. Lots of scheming has been done.
7. Met with a kitchen designer; we could be gutting and remodeling as early as next Spring.
8. Transplanted lots of pachysandra.
9. Installed underground electrical fencing for Martha.
10. Lost a white birch tree, a sassafras tree, a tiny pine, and a bazillion branches.

If you’re here for the first time, here are 10 projects we’ve done around this house in previous years that we still adore:

1. Painted the barn
2. Built a bigger garden
3. Installed a big flagstone patio
4. Created my own walk-in closet (I started with my closet, but we’ve done it to all bedroom closets at this point)
5. Upgraded our fireplace to gas
6. Installed a giant projection screen in our living room (movies and video games at max size)
7. Created an art room in our basement
8. Installed hardwood floors
9. Painted our kitchen cabinets (a good makeover, and the paint has held up really well)
10. Improved storage in our entryway

Things that tire Martha: wiffle balls sunshine lunchtime late night #diy projects @marthamydog #bernedoodlesofinstagram #flagstone #exteriorremodel #outdoorlivingroom #bestfriendgoals #helperdog #marthamydog

A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Jul 11, 2018 at 10:33am PDT

She’s a Bernedoodle (F1B, to be precise, which means her mom’s also a bernedoodle, and her dad’s a red standard poodle). 75% poodle, with a little of our favorite Bernese Mountain Goober mixed in. Great news: She doesn’t shed, and she likes our backyard deer friends just as much as her predecessor. :)

Cody would have loved her, and Martha certainly loves us. You’ll see her from time-to-time in our projects and frockling through the scenes on @merrypad, so give her a little boop and say hello. She has her own Instagram too (@marthamydog), just a place to journal her cute puppy self without cluttering other places. A side project, so to speak.

Hello, silly girl.

There’s a definite intimidation factor when it comes to buying a chainsaw, especially if you’ve never owned one before or you’re not sure you know what to do with one. For me, even the most ordinary maintenance requirements seemed above and beyond what I was capable of performing.

One huge advantage of battery-powered tools is that they require significantly less maintenance than their comparable gas/oil counterparts. It doesn’t mean that they’re maintenance-free, but it takes out a lot of the guesswork and complexity. It’s most common that you’ll need to know how to maintain the chain itself, so that’s why I recapped the process in this short video (totally SFW!):

• How to check chain tension on your chainsaw
• How to remove and reinstall a chain
• How to tell if your chainsaw needs sharpening
• How to sharpen the teeth on a dull chainsaw

Last summer’s trip to STIHL in Virginia Beach was more than a factory tour and throwing axes (nailed it), it was a hands-on experience that allowed us the opportunity to test a full range of outdoor STIHL equipment, and learn how to properly maintain it.

The STIHL Lightning Battery System® line of products has been featured in a few previous posts on this site. You already saw me using the MSA 120 C-BQ when I showed you how to make a Swedish torch fire log, and I used the TSA 230 STIHL Cutquik® cut-off machine to cut flagstone when making repairs to my front steps. My goal is still to demystify user questions and concerns about the tools. If you’re considering buying a light-weight, low-maintenance chainsaw, they have a few good ones to consider.

Knowing whether or not you need to sharpen your chainsaw is critical, and if you experience any of the following “symptoms,” the above video will help show you how easy it is to get your chainsaw back to like-new condition.

• The saw isn’t cutting as “effortlessly.” It should slice like it’s going through butter.
• The saw is burning the wood, creating smoke; the chain is working too hard, needs to be sharpened.
• The sawdust is powdery and dense, like sand. A sharp chainsaw will always produce sawdust that looks more like wood chips or pencil shavings, like this:

Looking for something bigger? You shoulda seen the log I trimmed with that saw.

J/K. That’s just part of a cool outdoor display that the team had for us to see at STIHL. Pretty impressed that anyone could wield it with accuracy, since I could barely heave it off the tabletop.

Always remember to wear protective workwear when you’re maintaining and operating a chainsaw. Remove the battery before performing any maintenance on the tool.

I included this DIY clock–and 7 other easy DIY ideas–in a new photo gallery on HGTV.com.

You know it’s time to repair your entryway stone steps when it’s become instinctive to warn guests to watch out, look out, careful! don’t step there, please don’t fall. Our tangled length of caution tape weathered 10 consecutive seasons and was still was holding up better than the crumbling, deteriorated flagstone step of our 1950s home.

The flagstone steps and stone details were original to the construction of our home, and the spots that took the most foot traffic were really beginning to show their age. The stone had not only begun to splinter and crack, but it was also loose (sitting atop the mortar unsecured) which seemed especially hazardous for anyone not paying attention to their footing. Recipe for disaster.

Finding flagstone that would work for replacing these steps was the easy part–we had leftovers from the summer when we installed a large patio on the back of our home–but cutting them down to fit the depth of the step was the challenge, and the real reason this repair never seemed to get done.

When we installed the patio, we worked with a friend who is a professional landscaper; he’d bring along his gasoline-powered professional cut-off machine to trim stones down to size as we needed (and it was a really, really big intimidating saw). We don’t readily have access to him or the big saw though, and other ordinary homeowners don’t have those types of connections either, so when I visited STIHL last fall and went all heart-eyed at the TSA 230 STIHL Cutquik® cut-off machine, the team was (surprised about my heart-eyed interest but) really receptive to me wanting to get my hands on the product.

FWIW, we weren’t there to be testing cut-off machines as much as we were learning about the Lightning Battery System® line of products, but between presentations and tours, we were lucky to get a lot of exposure to the variety of products manufactured by the company. STIHL makes just about everything for outdoor care. And, FYI you already saw me using the MSA 120 C-BQ if you caught my post on how to make a Swedish torch fire log; that’s a real good chainsaw.

So yes, I’m already a fan of battery-powered tools, but a battery-powered cut-off saw? I questioned a lot.

I certainly liked the idea that it was a push button start (nothing complicated about it) and was fully-powered by a battery (no gasoline/oil/mixtures; boasting a “Caring for Nature” seal) and consequently, positioning it as a low maintenance tool when compared to its gas-fueled counterparts. Despite the big 4-lb. battery, it’s still super lightweight, weighing in at a total of 12.3 lbs., compared to 20+ lbs. for the gas-powered cut-off machines.

Would it be easier to maneuver? Less intimidating than a pull-start? (Can’t attest to how it feels compared to the big guns, but it’s absolutely less intimidating. Put on eye protection, push button, WHHHHRRRRRR.)

Would it be as loud? (It’s loud enough to warrant ear protection but not *as* loud as the machine we borrowed for the patio, which could wake the neighborhood. I mean, I was cutting through stone so there’s going to be some loud noise. That said, the tool has a maintenance-free brushless DC motor that makes for low noise levels and reduced vibration.)

Powerful enough to get the job done? (Spoiler alert, yup it was. The tool’s AP 300 battery will operate for ~18-minutes, depending on the type of material you’re destroying.)

Could it cut through flagstone that’s multiple inches thick? (Yes, our stone was 1.5” and the tool could cut up to 2.75” on the 9” blade.)

STIHL obliged with my desire to test the TSA 230, even though its uses are more limited for ordinary homeowners. If you find it interesting, definitely visit the TSA 230 product page on the website or get in touch with your local STIHL dealer to learn more.

When I was initially learning about the tool, it seemed like a sure winner for homeowners and landscapers who just need to do a few ZIP-ZIP-ZIP cuts without the hassle of pull-starting the machine with every use. It’s not an everyday type of tool, but one of convenience that’s worth having for specific projects. However, when I met with the local STIHL distributor for product training, I was surprised to learn that they also did a lot of business with emergency responders and fire companies who have been embracing the TSA 230 because it’s small, easy-to-store on fire trucks, and super quick and easy-to-use when the occasion arises and time is critical. It’s a less intimidating tool to learn to use, requires less maintenance, and is still amazingly powerful. Perfect alternative for these crews, and a product that homeowners with a penchant for DIY improvement and maintenance will value too.

So, back to our sad stone steps?

I started by removing the damaged stones. They were no longer attached and lifted right on up.

Beneath the stones was a layer of sand, which sat atop a layer of mortar.

To loosen the mortar, I used the cut-off saw to create some notches in the material to break it up.

Once the base beneath the old stone was cleared out, we were able to confirm measurements for the new stone steps, and measure cuts on pieces of 1-1/2” thick flagstone. Using the metal tip of a pen, I scratched the straight line onto the surface of the stone (no marker or pencil, because it would have washed away with water spray). Why the water? It keeps the blade cool, and also keeps the dust at bay. Makes things a little muddy, but still probably the “cleanest” circular type saw I’ve ever used.

The machine itself ran like magic. So lightweight, ergonomic and easy-to-hold, I’m eagerly awaiting another opportunity to put this tool to use. To use this tool–and other cut-off machines–for stonework, start by scoring the stone across the line you etched. Creating that shallow guide line will serve you well as you continue to make the cut.

On the second pass, cut a little deeper. On the remaining passes, depending on the thickness of the stone, forge deeper at the start of the cut and again at the end of the stone, envisioning that you’re leaving a bridge through the center of the stone to connect the two halves. Taking it slow and going a little bit at a time reduces the chance of the stone fracturing in the wrong spot. Still, as cautious as I was, each cut only took me 30-seconds. So awesome.

Every day is like #earthday when you opt for battery-powered tools. They’re kinda my fave, that’s no secret, but thanks to a partnership with @stihlusa, now I can cut flagstone like butter What are we up to? I’ll fill you in soon but I COULD NOT WITHHOLD MY LOVE for the TSA 230 cutoff saw. We had a really awesome day putting it to the test. . . . #tsa230 #stihltsa230 #stihl #sponsored #theysentthetool #flagstone #landscaping #diy #newtool #tutorialsoon #batterypowered # #ecotools #earthdayeveryday #

A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Apr 21, 2018 at 4:13pm PDT

With the stones clean and dry, mix and lay your mortar on the step. We had two stones to replace that needed to level with stones that were still secure and intact, so we diligently leveled as we went to make sure everything was aligned.

Use your finger to point and smooth the mortar between the stones on all sides, and also use a damp sponge to remove mortar that squished onto the surface of the stone.

We blocked off the stairs with some scrap wood and let the mortar sit undisturbed for a few days.

The finished step? Hopefully, it’ll last for another 67 years!

It’s amazing how easily you can get a project done when you have the right tools. Thank you again to STIHL for making this possible.

Y’all! Still addicted to the quilts. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Last summer, I created a colorful design to produce a 50″ x 50″ modern barn quilt; this new one would be a gift for Mother’s Day. The original barn quilt (def the OG, or OGBQ) has officially seen all 4 seasons–fall, winter 1, and winter 2 were especially perfecto–and I knew reusing paints from the original palette would be nice for my parent’s house which is surrounded by trees and accessorized by gardens blossoming with every color in the rainbow.

Step 1: Assemble Supplies

Barn quilts are remarkably simple to make, and aside from a saw and a drill, all you’ll really need is patience and a few supplies:

• 1x6x8 board
• 18″x18″ piece of plywood
• circular saw
• ruler/tape measure
• straight edge
• pencil
• (12) 3/4″ screws
• paint samples
• painter’s tape
• paint brushes
• polyurethane/weatherproofing sealant
• hanging hardware (these brick clip products are great if it’s less than ~30 pounds; if it’s heavy, consider anchor bolts, wood screws, or masonry screws if you’re anchoring to brick/concrete.)

Step 2: Source and Cut Lumber

The wood I used was white spruce harvested and planed from trees that fell on my parents’ property. Assuming you’re buying your own lumber, you can easily make a barn quilt the same size out of one 1x8x6-ft board.

To determine the measurement of my square, I first stacked three 1×8 boards next to each other, side-by-side, and measured them as 21.5″ wide. To match the height, I then trimmed the three boards to be 21.5″ in length. Pushed together when side-by-side, they now form a perfect square.

Next, cut a piece of plywood into an 18″x18″ square, and use 3/4″ screws to assemble the barn quilt. Attaching the screws through the backside, use no fewer than four screws for each board. Attach the hanging hardware after you’re done painting so that while you’re painting, the wood sits flush on the table and is not wobbling all over.

Step 3: Choose Your Pattern and Color Palette

Whitney has a real eye for designing barn quilts, not just fabric quilts. The colors! Her refreshing take on heirloom quilting patterns! They’re familiar while being completely re-concepted with consideration for modern design (and my love of the rainbow). I should point out that she’s available for hire if you want your own custom design too.

Step 4: Draw Your Grid Template

This barn quilt design uses a 6×6 grid as a guide for painting, and dividing the face of your barn quilt into this same grid with light pencil lines is the first step to making this project easy. And please be smart and measure twice, mark once.

You’ll notice that I left a lot of natural wood exposed on this quilt. I prefer them that way because I think wood’s pretty, and this particular wood was thoughtfully preserved by my Dad himself, not just any ol’ 1×8 from the hardware store.

Most traditional barn quilts are painted across the entire surface, but if you want the entire surface painted, consider blanketing the boards with a solid coat of primer and white paint before marking your pencil grid lines and adding color.

Step 5: Tape and Paint

Painting the detail, as I’ve eluded, is where you’ll need to muster all of your patience. To match Whitney’s color palette to specific paint colors, I used a paint app to match back to a certain brand. Most of the colors were close matches, and for a few colors that didn’t have an automatic match, I went and found paint chips from other brands. For each color, I bought a sample pot of tinted color for <$3.

Painter’s tape is the true workhorse in this project, and you should plan to use a lot of it. Fresh painter’s tape prevents the paint bleeding and helps to make nice, crisp lines. When you start, you’ll be working in various areas of the design, filling in colors on opposite areas where paint lines don’t collide.

Prepare to apply several coats of paint in each space, and remove the tape before the paint has completely dried to get a sharp edge. You’ll need your first pass completely dry before you tape off and paint additional spaces, which is why this project takes a bit of time. This was my start, below, presenting as random colors with no rhyme or reason. Computer, camera, earbuds, ruler, dowel? Lots of cups? Doll bottle? Check, check, check, etc.

Finishing the paint on your barn quilt and removing the last pieces of tape is a really rewarding moment, so hang in there.

Step 6: Weatherproofing (Optional)

As for weatherproofing, I’m not convinced that a handpainted barn quilt wouldn’t look fantastic with a bit of natural wear from wind and rain, but I did apply a coat of water-based poly to this piece so that my mom’s art would be a little more protected. If you’re looking for serious durability, consider coating your piece with a heavier-duty transparent weatherproofer, such as the weather seal you would apply to your deck. Remember to cover the cut edges of the boards with a good coat, too!

When all of the painting is wrapped and the polyurethane’s dry, attach the hardware of your choice or affix it directly to your structure using long lag bolts into studs. We used 5″ bolts to attach the 50″ quilt square to the studs through our barn’s siding (in the background of the below photo), but this piece is lightweight enough to hang off a strong D-ring, as tested when I staged it against a tree in our yard.

To see more from the group of bloggers who joined the #WoodArtChallenge, poke at these links:

1. Reality Daydream
2. 100 Things 2 Do
3. House Becoming Home
4. Anika’s DIY Life
5. My Repurposed Life
6. 3×3 Custom
7. One Project Closer
9. Chatfield Court
10. Create & Babble
11.  Hazel & Gold
12. Jen Woodhouse
13. Sawdust 2 Stitches
14. Wood Work Life
15. Remodelaholic
16.  Evan & Katelyn
17. Jaime Costigio
18.  Pneumatic Addict
19.  Bower Power
20. Lazy Guy DIY 
21. My Love 2 Create
22. Addicted 2 DIY
23. Her ToolBelt
24. Shades of Blue
25. Ugly Duckling House
26. The DIY Village
27. DIY Huntress
28. Mr Fix It DIY

We’ve been making our own Swedish torches for a few years after having noticed them for sale–in exchange for real money–at local stores. “I have a chainsaw, I can totally make those,” I thought, and that’s how it started. This firepit accessory is one of the most in-demand products we’ve “manufactured.” Starting a campfire has never been so easy.

Use a Swedish torch as an easy fire starter.

When you make your own Swedish torches, remember to cut a variety. Cut some that are thin and others that are thicker. That way, you have some options for when you want to burn for one hour, or something that will burn for many hours.

Honestly, if I have one tip for you, it’s that if you have a tree taken down, ask the crew to leave pieces of the trunk in manageable lengths and use those to create your collection of Swedish logs. If you ask nicely, they might even knock a bit off your bill since there’s less for them to muscle away. This project is best for those occasions when you have big, unsplit logs, and when the logs have a diameter greater than ~10″.

Cut the Swedish torches while the wood is still green, and then let them dry in a sheltered spot until it’s campfire o’clock. One-time burn logs like this are ideal for small fires. They ignite easily and burn from the inside with great air circulation and very little maintenance.

Step 1. Choose Your Chainsaw

Start by familiarizing yourself with the world of chainsaws. I’ve been a long-time supporter of battery-operated power tools because they’re lightweight, easy to use, considerably less intimidating, and you don’t have to futz around with the oil/gas mixtures.

The STIHL battery-powered chainsaws perfectly meet those expectations. The product I’m using in this tutorial is the MSA 120 C-BQ which is part of the Lightning Battery System® line of products. With a ¼” STIHL PICCO saw chain, it’s marketed as a product that can make 100 cuts on a single charge, depending on the size of the branches and logs you’re powering through.

I’m also sporting appropriate protective workwear for my hands, eyes, ears, and legs, and wearing long layers because any amount of chainsawing usually means I’m probably going to be showered in splintery wood chips.

STIHL’s MSA 120 C-BQ used to cut a Swedish Torch.

Step 2. Stand Your Log Upright

Turn the log on its end. If there’s any doubt that it won’t be balanced (be wary of very tall logs, or narrower logs) put cinderblocks around the base to help it remain upright and stable.

Step 3. Make Shallow Cuts Across The Top of the Log

The cuts you make need only to be 3-6″ deep across the diameter of the log. Let the weight of the blade and rotating chain do the work.

If the blade doesn’t reach all of the way across the log, switch sides and repeat the cut from the other side so that it’s an even depth.

Rotate your position and cut additional “pizza slices” into the top of the log.

Cut a “pizza” into the top of a log to create a Swedish fire log.

Pro tip: There’ll be a bit of sawdust stuck in the crevices you cut. Don’t make any extra effort to clear the tracks, because that sawdust makes for great kindling when you are ready to start your fire.

Overhead view of a DIY Swedish torch.

Step 4: Drop the Log On Its Side

Topple the log so that it’s on its side, and use the chainsaw to slice off the last 7-10″. The few inches of solid wood beneath the “pizza” cuts will increase the length of time your log burns. A “thick crust” cut will render a longer burn time. A “thin crust” is good for smaller fires.

Trim your Swedish log to length.

Step 5: Repeat to Make More Swedish Logs

Once cut, you can tip the log upright again and cut another Swedish log from the wood that remains.

Make your own one-burn fire log.

How to Light a Swedish Torch

• Position the log with cut edges upright.
• Place a small pile of kindling on the top center of the torch. That’s where the magic’s going to happen.
• Ignite the kindling, and watch the ashes fall into the center of the cut log. If you left sawdust in the crevices, it’ll ignite and quickly spread the flame.
• The Swedish torch will burn quite evenly from the inside to the outer edges of the log. So cozy, so easy! Stockpile them when the opportunity strikes, and you’ll always be ready to start a campfire.

Swedish log torch

DIY Swedish fire torch