It started as a simple, heavy-duty, chunky outdoor shelf, but it quickly became a project that couldn’t exist on its own. It was just too ugly. Because of the opening underneath it, all of its structure was exposed and it needed to be masked. I decided to use the decorative little fence I made just a few days earlier to cover up the massy pillar. As to that concrete post it was all attached to, it was part of a farm gate, I guess. It has a hook on the side and the area it adjoins to was a country…

Like a full-size fence, that one also comprised pickets, rails and posts. It was made of scrap wood, but not any wood – those very offcuts came from the building of a real fence. 13 mini pickets in total, 4 of them were longer and served as posts that could be set in the ground. Rails were simplified and they were just perforated steel band straps. Each picket was fixed with screws in 2 places, allowing the fence to be set on a slope. It even came with a setting tool that made the pounding down a little easier and…

It was a beautiful, bamboo chopping board, unfortunately, due to the heat and moisture, it cracked along 2 lines. I didn’t want to reglue it because it looked perfect for some small projects and experiments. I made what I needed in my household – a simple coaster and a soap tray. There was still some crack-free board surface left to use, but I stopped at 2 projects and put the board aside for a while. I started from the coaster, as it was a more urgent thing to have, using a template that I made in the past. I had…

This box is made out of 100% upcycled materials, the walls and the bottom of this box are veneered chipboard sheets, reclaimed material that came from an unwanted piece of furniture. Solid timber corners were made in the past, using a router and 2 common bits, I made a few of them and they were put aside and waited for the right project. They were originally a single board used on a construction site. The bottom rails were off-cuts from another project – basically just scraps. Everything is glued together – which makes the box 100% metal-free. Even during the…

There are a few advantages of using half-lap joints instead of mitre joints in picture frames. They’re easy to make, they’re strong and don’t require any reinforcements, their appearance is attractive, there are no inconsistent and widening gaps in joints over time and they’re easy to clamp during the glue-up process. The timber used in the project was reclaimed, I cut it to size and planed it myself. Here’s how I made these 2 frames: The preparation of the timber was as usual: rip-cutting, planing and cutting to a rough length. I had to adjust the size of the smaller…

I am not sure if I can call it decking, it’s just a platform lying directly on the ground. All the boards are connected with a steel banding, so I guess I can call it a platform. Of course, decking can be laid on the ground, but usually not as directly as mine. In most cases, there is weed control fabric below a layer of gravel – decking sits on top of these two. I made it cheap, using scraps of pressure-treated wood. No fabric, no gravel. I don’t like using fabric, it allows drainage but sooner or later weeds…