Entries in furniture (7)

Saturday
Feb082020

a table and shou shugi ban

The shop display room needed another table.  I went to my favorite diy furninture designer Ana White's site and looked at plans.  So the first table was a bust.  Even if I had gotten it completely square, it was not sturdy enough for the life it would have led with the boyos.  Think knives, cutting boards, and many knife crazy people.  It was not going to work.  So, it is now in the leather shop being a surface that we do not have to worry about knocking over.

I looked further and decided to use her farmhouse console table as a go by.  I used the dimensions we were needing.  I added another shelf.  Instead of running to the hardware store, I used wood from other projects.  Not bad if I say so myself.  It is not perfect.  I learn something new every time.

One of the new things I learned was the shou shugi ban technique.  It is a Japanese wood burning technique that is used to preserve siding.  But of course, people have taken it other places.  One of those is ax handles. 

How does that piece of information relate to this table top?  The top was used as an experiment and an example of shou shugi ban for people who may want it used on there ax handles.  That very in thing right now about throwing them while drinking.  Some of these people like how it changes the grip on the handle.

I sanded the top whole down to where I wanted it.  Then I burned the top.  Sanded it a bit more so the charcoal would not mark anything else and oiled it.  I am very pleased with how the top came out.

I stained the bottom with a vintage white stain.  I was planning on coming back from my travels and applying polyurethane.  It is in use already.  I might get a chance.  I might not.

Would I build another of these tables?  Yes.  It would be better too but I know I would make different mistakes.

Saturday
Feb022019

The monster has arrived!

Ziggy Monster has arrived.  About a week early.  Because he is a pound smaller then most of the babies that have been born into this family, he seems very small to me. 

I did well though.  I had gone to the thrift store to look for clothes for him.  Babies just grow so fast when they are small I thought why not.  I had found a elephant printed onesie.  It has been the only thing that has fit.  He will be coming home in it.  

With him being a week early, most of the projects I am doing for him are not done.  I enlisted Koda Bear's help to sand this morning and I got the cradle put together.

All the edges are sanded so even though it is not stained or polyurethaned, it can be used.  It does not rock very well because I just had a circular saw to cut all the corners.  The boyos took a grinder to it and helped me with the hand holds.

The cradle can be picked up but there is a hope that it will be able to be swung.  I felt the hand holds might be a way to do that.  Because it sure does not rock very well.  I will see if the Tall Short person wishes for me to stain and polyurethane it.  It will be up to her.

Friday
Dec282018

I built a bed that has storage!

What can I say but I am very proud of myself.  I built a bed.  A storage bed at that.  Now, I am going to give credit to Ana White

I used her plans up to a point.   They were very straightforward.  I was going to put a different headboard and footboard on this base of the Hadley bed because I wanted the storage but liked those pieces on another of her plans better.  But I was putting this bed within the above loft space.  There was not room for a headboard and footboard!  How disappointing.

Since I was doing this by myself, I had to do some jury rigging to be another pair of hands.  All other hands I would have asked were driving.  The Tall Short Person is here.  I would say moved in but not unpacked.

I was left with most of the lumber precut.  The thought was that if the lumber was precut, I would able to have an easier time with the time constraints I was under.  Not that I cannot run a saw mind you because I ended up having to make more cuts.  The cut list was a bit off and I also cut all the backing for storage out of some quarter inch plywood I had had for another project.  That plywood was well repurposed here because I really did not need all those boxes.

It was then just a matter of me putting everything together.  I used both nails and wood glue while I listened to the last three months of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me pod casts that I have missed.  They made me laugh which was a good thing.  

It just took time and patience.  I wore myself out two days running.  Make myself sick worn out but I have not really mentioned that to my here family.  They do not really read the blog so it will not be noticed.  My away family does read the blog so all of you shush!  I got the job done.

I did run out of 2 inch finishing nails before the bed was all put together.  I had a box of 1 1/2 inch finishing nails.  I used to use these nails all the time when I was small.  I do not remember them being this fragile to a hammer.  I must have bent six.  And my hammer's handle was split so I could not really get the leverage to pull them out.  I had use a hacksaw.  It was a bummer.

Once it was done, I covered it with a colored poly.  If I had more time, even though some of the trim had been purchased primed, I would have sanded much more.  The time constraint got in the way.  The poly dried in time for me to put the mattress and linens on the bed before my Beloved and the Tall Short Person walked through the door from their cross country drive from Oregon.  That was the goal and I made it.

I would do this again.  I will probably never buy another bed frame.  To move this one, may take a chainsaw to cut it out of this space but I know how to run one of those as well.  I have an old box that my Dad built before I was born.  I wanted a dollhouse so bad for my doll Sara when I was small I drew on the insides to make it one.  It may become a step.  I have no problems getting out of this bed but I do feel a step would make it easier getting in.  For Koda Bear too.

The next build is a co-sleeper or cradle for when Ziggy Monster is here in about a month.  I had a friend as if I sleep.  I starting to wonder.

Tuesday
Mar062018

teak table

What can I say about last week?  It is over.  I am healing.  I got some rest and I continue to try to not over do.  That is so hard for me!  I did finish one of the projects that was taking so long. 

I have dining room table that I love.  But sixteen years of life, it needs some care and attention.  I have never refinished anything in my life.  I found the above teak table on the side of the road.  Someone wished to get rid of it.

This is how it looked in the beginning.  Scratched but not gouged.  There is one place in the top with a divot.  It looks almost like a bb was pressed into it.  It was made in India but it is solid teak.  I decided if I was going to learn to refinish this was a good place to start.

I took about eight hours to sand the table.  Even as I was sanding it, I realized that the original finish hid the beauty of the wood.  I did go back and work on the legs more from here.  I also went back and resanded everything again after the table sat overnight.  The humidity in the air brought up more of the grain.

Then I stained it.  The top is a Jacobean and the legs are a New Colonial.  The top stain color gives some black without it being black to it.  I thought this might hide dirt and crumbs a bit better.  The New Colonial stain actually makes the wood look very similar to what it looks like naturally when covered in finish but you can see the wood.  I really think the original creators used a colored polyurethane to finish the table.

Four coats of polyurethane went on the top.  Three on the bottom.  I sanded between layers. 

It is just a beautiful thing.  And the top is so smooth.  My Beloved told me I did a wonderful job.

I really enjoyed refinishing this.  I now know I can refinish the dining room table.  A Pottery Barn table that was purchased for about half off.  Actually more.  If I were ever to replace it, it would be because it dies a gruesome death somehow.  In this house, that is not out of the question.  Next time, I am building my own table.  It will be probably the same shape and size.  Maybe a touch larger.  

This table?  I do not have a place for it.  I am going to sell it.  It is four feet long, 18 inches high, and 14 inches wide if anyone is interested.  If you are interested, email me.

Thursday
Jun012017

ottomans

I have been noticing that when I do my hand sewing, I never seem to know where to put my feet.  My chair is lovely for my joints.  Yes, it could do with some refinement and I think I should sand some of the sharp edges off but it works on my hips.  I feel like I should build another.  I will paint turquoise or red when I do.  But my chair was needing an ottoman.

I looked at different types online.  I wanted something I could build or make.  I also knew I needed softness.  The cube shaped ottomans appealed both in terms of price, size, and softness possibilities.  

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, I picked up two pieces of upholstery fabric.  Each one yard.  It is enough to make two ottomans.  I cut six 18 inch by 18 inch squares of each and started stitching.

I will say the stitching on the stiffer fabric was easier then on the softer fabric.  But not terrible.  I fashioned a t shape from all the squares and then sewed that together so I had a cube with one side still open.

It was cheaper to buy inexpensive pillows then the amount of polyfill I would need.  Six standard pillows fit into each of the ottomans.  The cashier thought I was having guests over.

I pinned that last opening and hand sewed the edge together.  I bent every single straight pin.  The squeeze clamps the boyos use in knife making actually worked much better.  If I were making many of these, I would invest but instead I borrowed.

Now there are two lovely ottomans.  

The blue one sits by my sewing chair and is quiet lovely.  The brown/grey one above sits by my Beloved's rocking chair.  It gets used quite often as well.  Not bad for an afternoon of work.