Outdoor furniture and garden crafts are great projects to hone DIY skills. Slight imperfections are at ease with a rustic aesthetic; weathering can add character. Over the years I have discovered that adapting design to suit your skill level usually improves the outcome. If you get ambitious, then you need to stretch those skills – and acquire more power tools (which makes you happy, happy, happy, if you are a tool geek).

Search the CPL catalogue with subject keywords “outdoor furniture” for a fine list. The three books below come from different areas of the collection and offer different perspectives on the topic.

Outdoor Furniture: Timeless Woodworking Projects for the Yard, Deck and Patio is a new title in our woodworking collection. Projects, including benches, tables, chaise longue and serving trolley, are built with traditional woodworking techniques specifically designed to produce furniture that will withstand the elements. They offer tips for choosing the right wood, joinery and hardware, and finish.

There is a pattern for each project and detailed step-by-step instructions with photos and illustrations.

In Garden Mosaics: 19 beautiful mosaic projects for your garden (2009) authors Biggs and Hunkin work with all types of mosaic including vitreous glass, slate, marble, pebbles and broken china. The projects range from easy-to-make house numbers to a more demanding tabletop design inspired by an Italian herbal dating from the 14^th century.

Junk Beautiful: Outdoor Edition (2009) demonstrates the repurposing of flea market finds for furnishing garden and patio. Author Sue Whitney, founder of Junkmarket, is a crusader for creative reuse.

In the book she offers some inspired contraptions: an old pipe and gauge is attached to a battered red scooter. A weathered bucket hung from the pipe holds the ice that chills the wine that makes the company mellow.

Friday: Back indoors, looking at fancy ways with walls.

Gardening is a messy process that requires storage for gloves, tools, seed, left-over compost – the list goes on and on. Frequently, these are grubby items that are better stored outdoors than in. Since space and storage are almost always problems for apartment gardeners, if you can get double duty from furnishings, that's a good thing.

I have a small collection of Chinese pots accumulated over many years and they have been put to work in different ways. I wrote in an earlier blog about my water fountain made from a medium-size pot.

For another larger pot, I built a slatted top to create a storage table which holds gardening paraphernalia inside and supports beer and sandwich on top. Here's how.

The top is made of 1 x 4 cedar. Cedar is durable for outdoor use, easy to cut with hand tools and not too heavy to manage. Choose lumber with a smooth surface for painting. The top was designed to create a small overhang, but not too much - space is tight.

Using a handsaw and a mitre box, I cut a 45° angle into the corner pieces to prevent bruises from sharp corners. I attached these corner pieces to the supports underneath to prevent the top from shifting or being accidentally knocked off by a clumsy thigh (guess whose?)

Before assembling the pieces, I painted all sides, using the dining-room table, covered with a painter's drop cloth, as a workbench. I chose a favourite eco-friendly milk paint - colour basil - which is available at Faveri’s.

The top was assembled with screws from the underside, using a 1.5 inch, number 8 wood screws or, to generalize, screws long enough to penetrate two thicknesses of wood securely, but not long enough to penetrate the top surface.

To level the finished tabletop and keep it from rocking, I attached small adhesive bumper pads to the rim of the pot wherever it dipped. These are the same ones that might be attached to the corner of a cupboard door to keep the door from smacking the frame of the cupboard each time it is closed. They come on a sheet and are available at building centres.

This type of top could be constructed for any large attractive pot. You might find that other dimensions of lumber, such as 1 x 3 or 1 x 5, will produce better results for the pot you are working with. In my experience, cedar stock at building centres varies. The Cedar Shop offers a good selection.

Monday: DIY books on outdoor furniture from the collection.

Intelligent Design- Part II

Design Futures (2011) examines key factors with potential to shape the design and architecture of tomorrow. “Designers seem to move between two worlds, creating in the now yet anticipating the future markets in which their products will sell,” says author Bradley Quinn.

The Rotor House concept created by Luigi Colani features a cylindrical core that contains a bathroom, bedroom and living room. The space-saving unit rotates the room out of range when not in use.

How handy could this be? If you haven’t made your bed, rotate it out of sight. Same for the spouse or children with whom you are arguing. Good stuff.

A kitchen designed by a French design studio converts food and water waste into a fresh resource and harnesses wind and solar energy to power equipment. Bonus – the stainless steel and enameled green surfaces look really cool.

Quinn describes mega materials which underpin revolutionary innovations – smart plastics, soft concrete, inflatable membranes – and shows examples of products which use them.

At the end of the book, his interview with David Shah is heartening. Shah is known for his expertise in identifying emerging consumer trends and his predictions are counter-intuitive to the high-tech content of the book.

He says we are living in a participatory culture where consumers are “wresting control of their own lifestyles and purchasing decisions from marketers, celebrity-based media and insensitive corporations.”

He also predicts a future with growth in the DIY design movement inspiring people to make more things themselves. As well, he sees a new frugality where consumers are more likely to try and make things last longer.

Now that’s a good-news day.

Fountains create focal spots for balcony, garden or deck. The symphony of sound is relaxing and softens the edges of neighbourhood noise.

When searching the catalogue for information on building a smaller fountain in a pot, subject keywords “tabletop fountains” are most helpful. Here are the books that caught my eye.

Tabletop fountains: 40 Easy and Great-Looking Projects to Make (1999) by Dawn Cusick offers clear information about the mechanics of the fountain along with design tips and examples.

She builds a patio fountain from plain clay flower pots (p. 64). Three pots and saucers of different sizes are arranged inside a very large saucer so that water cascades from the largest to the smallest. The arrangement is capped by a spider plant and saucers are lined with polished stones. Very effective.

I also liked the face mask fountain (p.76) and stacked squares fountain (p.89).

In Tranquility Fountains: Projects for a Serene Lifestyle(2002), the Global Meditation Table (p. 52) is an arrangement of two stone-filled trays with water spurting through the holes of a salt shaker located in the middle of the smallest tray.

Copper & Wind chimes fountain (p. 84) uses copper tubing to channel the water in a serpentine design with wind chimes made from the same tubing to stir in the breeze. Another clever arrangement is the Waterfall fountain (p36) built with slabs of slate.

In Creative Tabletop Fountains(2002) by Marthe Le Van, projects include a Peaceful Pagoda (p. 45) made from ceramic bonsai containers and the Seashore Memory Fountain (p.69) where the water is channeled through a large sea shell.

Simple fountains for indoors & outdoors(1999) offers instructions for working with bamboo and wood to create spouts and dippers. One of the loveliest fountains is featured on the cover: a pottery jar that spills water into an antiqued copper basin filled with polished rocks.

I also found inspiration on the web.

Don Vandervort’s Hometips shows a classic Japanese design with bamboo and water plant. Garden Gate magazine offers a clever arrangement for a small patch of garden.

Sunset features a very pretty fountain made from a tall ceramic garden pot. This one would work for either garden or balcony.

Among my favourite sounds of summer are the gurgle and splash of water. I love fountains and discovered a few years ago how easy it is to make your own. I would say "as easy as child’s play", except we are talking water and electricity, folks; it’s not a good project for the young ones. Think of it as the adult equivalent of wading pool and bucket and enjoy puddling (safely) around.

The goal is to take a pot of water and pump a bit of it through a plastic tube so that it falls and tumbles back into the pot in an eye and ear-pleasing way. You could create a fountain for the cost of the pump and tubing, using garden and kitchen equipment on hand.

Equipment Basics

• Water pump. For a small fountain, a small pump (costing $15.00 or less) will do.
• Plastic tubing to fit the size of the pump outlet. You can find this in the plumbing section of stores like Rona and Home Depot. It will cost about $5.00. Take careful measurements and remember that it is the outside dimension of the outlet that fits the inside dimension of the tubing. Better yet, take the pump with you when you shop and ask for help from the staff.
• Clamp to secure the tubing to the pump (less than 50 cents).
• Waterproof pot or container.
• Decorative object/spout to channel the water.
• Stones, pots or dishes to bounce the water around.

My water fountain is made from a Chinese egg pot which I bought from a grocery store. (I love the dragon.) The cast-iron fish came from Canadian Tire (or maybe Zellers) and was designed to hold a tea light. The slatted wood ledge where the fish sits came with the pot. Originally, it covered the whole top and was used to stack the pots one on top of another. I cut it in half with a hand saw.

Inside the pot, a saucer sits on top of a liter-sized plastic yogurt container filled with water (could be stones) to keep it from floating. A cream jug, turned on its side, rests on the saucer. Plastic tubing from the pump is fed up through the slatted wood ledge, through the back of the fish and out the mouth. The water pumped through it falls into the cream jug, bounces onto the saucer and splashes back into the water in the bottom of the pot. The slatted ledge conveniently organizes the electrical cord from the pump as well as the tubing.

The fun with making a fountain comes in arranging the bits and pieces to bounce the water around. You can use rocks and plants to hide the working parts of the pump. The flash of the camera has revealed the tubing at the back of my fountain and you can see how it works. Without the camera’s power assist, the working parts are not that obvious. Kind of like red eye.

FRIDAY: More on fountains - books and blogs.

I have a bedside table that I bought from a co-worker more than 25 years ago. It was part of an undistinguished set that included a mattress and bed frame. When I got the set, the finish was tired and worn.

Initially, I painted it a pretty violet shade, a colour chosen from my quilt. Then I moved to another house and bedroom and repainted the set a soft green to complement the floral print of a new duvet cover.

Somewhere along the line, I parted company with the bed. Perhaps it left home with one of my children – I can’t remember. But I still have the night table, which is one of those small flexible pieces that can be tucked into any room. It’s a keeper.

About ten years ago, I repainted it again with a finish that I will probably keep for as long as I own the piece. The finish looks perennially fresh and fits as an accent with any style of décor.

The source of my inspiration was (and is) a lovely old book in our collection at Central: The tiger rugs of Tibet by Mimi Lipton (Thames and Hudson, c1988).

According to Lipton, the origin of Tiger rugs is speculative and their history may date back more than 1000 years. Tigers enjoy a prominent place in Tibetan art and culture.

Tiger rugs have distinct types. Some depict one or two tigers; others are abstracted designs from the markings on the pelts. The finish on my night stand is based on the latter type.

Although tiger rugs are still being made and sold, I have not often seen them in Calgary. I recently spotted a small one at Tibetan Trom in the Eau Claire market. The shop had a copy of Lipton's book on hand as a resource for shoppers. You can also find tiger rugs online.

To create the finish for my night stand, I used water-base enamel paint. After painting the background colour, I drew the pattern on lightly with a marker and wrapped it around the edges of the drawers onto the sides – a pleasing effect. Then, I painted the stripes with black enamel. The casters were added many years ago to improve height and mobility. Recently, I replaced the handles with spiffy new ones from Lee Valley.

The powerful tiger continues to inspire contemporary artists. Check out the enchanting table in cast bronze by Judy Kensley McKie. I saw it first in American Craft magazine at the Central Library (November/December issue, p 30) and followed the trail online.