Anthropologie on a dime

I love looking at Anthropologie's At Home items. They are so classy, simple, and just my taste. I kept looking at these printer's letter stands, and I even went to my nearby Anthro to take a closer look. They are reasonably priced at $28, but when you are on a tight budget, even that is too much for unnecessary home items. I decided to make one myself! You need:

Wood letter (found at craft stores, usually)
1x6-6 foot piece of pine (hardware store)
sand paper, medium and fine grit
wooden dowel (craft stores), 1/2"-3/4" diameter
drill and drill bits (word of advice... try and match your dowel size with a drill bit... otherwise you'll be doing lots of sanding!)
wood stain
wood glue
brushed nickel metallic spray paint

First, cut your wood. The nice guys at Home Depot cut my wood for me! I brought my letter with me to the hardware store to get a good idea of what size wood to use. My letter, from JoAnn's, used a piece of wood 7 1/4" long. The base for the letter stand was square, so 5 1/2"x 5 1/2". Did you know a 1x6 isn't actually 1 x 6? Yeah.

I got four sets out of one piece of wood!

Sand the edges really nice, making sure you sand in the direction of the grain. I didn't on some, and trust me, it makes a difference.

On the base pieces, find the center. I just drew lines from corner to corner to find the center.

I didn't want to drill all the way through the base, so I marked on my drill bit with tape where to stop. Then I drilled into the center of the base.

Next, I stained the top wood pieces. I used a deliciously dark mahogony stain for these.

I ended up doing only one coat of stain. This was the hardest part: waiting! It was rainy here so the stain took FOR. EVER. to dry.

Next, I found the center of the BOTTOM of the stained pieces and drilled about 1 1/2" into it. Again, I marked my drill bit with tape. I probably should have drilled these pieces before I stained, but oh well!

For the next step, cut your dowel into 3 pieces, each measuring about 12". You can go shorter if you want!

Next, I worked some spray-paint magic. Brushed nickel spray paint is my new best friend. I painted the letter, a dowel piece, and my base piece.

When everything dries, use your handy-dandy wood glue to keep your dowel in your base. Make sure it is plumb and level. Plumb= vertically straight, level= horizontally straight :)

I added a little wood glue to the back of my letter and placed it in the middle of the stained piece. Wipe away any glue that squeezes out with a moist q-tip. I put a book on top to weigh it down for a while to make sure it stayed.

Put a dab of wood glue on the top of your dowel and slide that letter piece on top. Again, make sure it is plumb and level!

Let it dry, and You are DONE! Great new home decor for a fraction of the cost.

What did the original look like again? That is pretty darn close! (the & was purchased at Kohls on clearance for $2!)

My cost breakdown:

$2 for wood (my piece had a damaged area, so it was discounted)

$2 for 2 dowels (enough for 4 stands)

$5 for stain

$3 for spray paint

$1 for letter (coupon!)

Time spent with husband (priceless)

_____________

$13 or $3.25 per printer's letter stand!

Not too shabby :)

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