A dad-to-be has already built his unborn child their very own bespoke sleeper cot - having fashioned one out of a Jack Daniel's whisky barrel.
Harry Newman, 25, and his partner Kayleigh Arber, 26, are expecting their first child this November, and like many excited parents have been busy getting things ready for the new arrival.
But while some dads are nipping out to stock up on nappies and onesies, Harry decided to take a more creative approach, having turned his hand to upcycling to breathe new life into an old whisky barrel.
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Harry, a maintenance engineer from Cambridgeshire, told LADbible: "After finding out we were going to have our first child I decided I wanted to hand make something rather than just buying a standard item off the shelf.
"I trawled the internet for inspiration on a cool alternative to traditional baby furniture and found something similar to this.
"All my life, I have been hands on. I have learnt many skills and have been inspired by my dad and I'll be passing them all on to my children in the future.
"Other ideas I had at the time for the barrel project was a toybox with a hinged lid or even a nice planter for out the front of the house but I decided on a day time sleeper cot for the baby.
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"With everything going on at the time, I needed something to enjoy and take my mind away from daily life and this fitted the bill perfectly."
Harry and Kayleigh plan to use the creation as a sleeper cot during the day, and hope it'll have 'a good spot in the photo album' as their son or daughter grows up.
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Harry continued: "The project from start to finish took around 50 hours, mainly after work and weekends at the time. The majority of the work was sanding and prepping.
"The barrel itself is made from 1" oak so with a good saw and blade, cutting was no issue. Lining out the inside with material took around 5-6 hours and a few attempts to get how I wanted it.
"The project overall was pretty straightforward but everything took longer than normal as nothing is straight or flat. The barrels are charred on the inside before they are filled with alcohol so cleaning all of that was probably the worst bit of the job!
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"Also ensuring that it was clean and sealed properly and using wood treatments that were water based to avoid a high VOC content to ensure it was child friendly which in turn required more coats than a standard solvent product.
"The overall cost was around £90. Most of the materials were reclaimed and up-cycled which kept the cost fairly low. I managed to find a UK company online that made custom baby mattresses to any size so that was pretty helpful too."
After the project turned out better than he expected, Harry shared photos of the build online, where it's proved such a hit that strangers have been trying to get in touch to commission him to make one.
He said: "My mates thought it was pretty cool and have since asked me to make them a beer chiller out of one! So maybe that's another project in the pipeline, but we'll see.
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"Since posting on a few pages online, people seem to be going crazy for it. I've had messages from people outside the UK asking whether it's for sale and whether I can make them one.
"On one page, the post had around 1400 likes and over 100 shares within 24 hours, ranging from West Virginia and Kentucky to Lithuania. It's now up to around 3000 likes and 200 shares and it's still going up daily."
As for what his partner Kayleigh thinks?
"I could tell a lot of time and effort has gone into it and I think it's great," she said.
"I'm just hoping we have a boy now though otherwise I feel a few alterations are needed!"
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Featured Image Credit: LADbibleTopics: Baby, UK News, News, Daily Ladness, Dad, Parents, Community