the password is—enter!

You truly just
don’t know
HOW
important

enter

is–
until you
don’t have it!

A-MAZ-ing what that key does!  And a sticking Backspace & part time Shift key are problematic too.  Ugh.

 

–♠ Did I mention this was all due to a DISTANTLY tipped-over, small glass of cranberry juice that went airborne.  Like a ballistic missile–target keyboard.
Direct Hit.

One newly replaced keyboard, 5 days, $152—and I’m ENTER’ing away now!

Enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter (’cause I can) enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter, enter away!

While things have-sort of-settled down & my mother readies for MAJOR surgery-

I’m getting to work on a few projects!

I’ve been wanting to do something with this pair of Corinthian capitols
for a while.  A N D- I have some “scrap” wood on hand.
Architectural stuff is always a fun project, soooo . . .
how about a pair of PILASTERS!

I cut my boards to length for a 6ft total height, then ripped them to 6″ wide on the table saw.
THEN, I ran them through the router table with a lrg cove bit to give the sides a little extra detail.
BUT, I created stops to control the end detail.

Lastly- I created a pair of plinths to overlay the bottoms and added a detailed cap. . .

. . . sanded everything and got busy putting all the pieces together!

The over-laid plinths & cap were just glued and nailed in place.
The Corinthian capitols were joined by pocket screws.
And you can see by the back stamp they were made in Italy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two things of note here-
1. The capitols are made of composite materials.  The face side is actually some type of refined molded wood (like MDF?) and can be stained.  The “fill” is a highly compressed wood chip & glue mixture.  Super strong and a whole lot cheaper than carved wood!
2. You can see my pencil marks that indicate stopping points for the router table. 

The finish may totally shock you—it’s Rust-Oleum Metallic spray paint!  Aged Rusty Metal, specifically.  Because of the mixture of materials, I was going to default to a shabby-chic white painted finish, but I wanted a dark base to show through, and this can was still handy from the previous project. . . and look at the outcome!

Don’t ‘cha love a HaPPy AcCiDeNT!
So I’m callin’ this

fini!

Stain would NOT have brought the varying materials together
so consistently, but this metallic spray paint DID!
AND looks like STAIN!!!

And THAT’s an easy WIN
I’ll take- all day long!
Catherine

 

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omg! A project!

Stealing an hour here, a half hour there,
I’ve gotten to work on a few projects!

A broken rocker, a vintage folding table, a really old school chair,
a broken kitchen chair, I cleaned up a small, very simple old dough bowl…
and REdo a REpurposed 2-tiered stand.

I was SO happy just to get to work on –something!

–Summer 2017 was the last one my mini-me-niece asked to spend with me.
She’s older now and would rather hang out with her friends—
I say with a pouty bottom lip, they grow up too fast.

* She went to the gym with me all summer.  We played, goofed around, annoyed & harassed each other, experimented with all kinds of vegetarian dishes–and she wanted to work on a few projects with me!
*Gosh, I hope she still favours me above all others.

She discovered pinterest that summer and saw something she wanted to try making.  We dragged through my stashes for interesting parts.  We cut up and sectioned parts of a bed post, and I happened to have some wood rounds.  I made all the cuts, and gave guidance on how to put the parts together, but she did everything else and had her own ideas for what she wanted.  She seemed pleased in the end, and loaded it with mini cupcakes for a family bbq—and then wanted to sell it for the money!  That’s my girlie!

Unfortunately, it never did sell, and I think she’s long forgotten the project–so I pulled it out of my antq mall space and painted the whole thing just plain ole white.  It actually looks awesome now, and I’m not sure if I should tell her about it.  But it’s back in the mall for sale again!

She primed and painted all the parts, and I helped her create a fanciful top with chandelier and lamp parts.

I helped her drill center holes to join everything together with a wooden dowel and wood glue.

The wood rounds were sanded, then I ran them through the router table with a 1″ round over bit.  She sanded away with a variety of my sanders.  I think she found them all kind of fun!

I can’t find the picture showing it all loaded up with cupcakes,
darn it, and it looked really cool!

Catherine & Aleigha

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my “Adirondack” chair

This truly was
a FUN project—
but challenging.
It tested my carpentry skills throughout.  I cut MORE compound cuts 
(explained way below)
over the last 2 days
than all of last year!

THIS carcass used to look much like the chair below.  Just not nearly so nice as it came to me.
(a be-gloved, take a long hot shower at the end kind-of-knock-down chair!)

–

I actually only wanted it for PARTS, and the man giving it to me volunteered to knock it down (because it was gross).

Oh, I didn’t get off scott-free—I still had about 2K tacks to pry out.  Back in April.

Adirondack chairs don’t LOOK that complicated–but looks can be VERY deceiving!  Lesson learned.

Back in April,

–

sitting in the warmth of a beautiful, blindingly sunny Spring day, listening to the birds chirping

and prying out all those tacks—I was struck by how interesting the frame was and the idea of an Adirondack chair hit me.  For the Nellie’s Barn Sale.

I had a loooong and ambitious project list for the sale, so the chair only got a little of my time here & there.  The frame needed a LOT of reinforcement and repair and I needed to stew on the HOW-to of doing this.

Friday, with only 6 days left to packing-driving-off loading & setting up–I stopped everything else to give this my full attention.  I’d already been thinking about and formatting the seat slant, I just needed to commit and cut the wood.  The first of MANY challenges I would face.  

I used a lot of OLD deck boards.
1- because they were well dried for stability.
2- because it’s going to be an OUTDOOR chair.

I ended up creating the seat structure in pieces because of the numerous angles and cut outs–and because I didn’t have any BIG enough material at hand!.  Then I used my pocket screw jig to join them all FIRMLY.

I quickly realized that it’d be advantageous to sand & paint at each step!

-Saturday-

This was one L-O-N-G day of construction.  A day of compound cuts.
8am-9pm  with nary a break, and I was exhausted.

The slatted back—
CURVED at the top and STRAIGHT at the bottom.
The outdoor-use deck boards were only ¾” but not long enough to “force” the “twist.”  So I cut a lot of angles and doweled the boards in place at the bottom before nailing at the top.
I also ran ALL edges through the router table to restore the factory-rounded over edges.  Hence the 13 hour day.

The “worst” was fitting in the boards at and below the wings.  WoWza!
I patted myself on the back for my level of perseverance & tenacity, quietly thanking a lot of carpenters who generously shared their knowledge with me along my travels.
That hands-on learning helped me problem-solve these issues with confidence.

–

AGAIN- I sanded and painted before moving on.

Consumed by the challenges, I guess I forgot to take progress pictures for you to follow along- sorry.

∗ Incidentally- I worked on the back before the seat because of all the angles and doweling.  I needed that open space to work.

The seat—

I secured the 3 seat supports in place with 3″ countersunk screws.
I glued in plugs to conceal the screws then cut them flush.

The seat is wider at the front than back, so, MORE angles.  I started with the front-most board because of all the notches.

Both of those notches are ALSO compound cuts—the frame they abut is curved.

–

Okay– so without the progress pictures to share, you now see a “finished” chair.

A  D E E P  27″

Too deep- actually.
Normal would be 17″.
I fetched our 5’10” neighbor-lady to gauge the situation from a taller standpoint.
Yep~ still way too deep.

I grabbed a back cushion from one of the deck chairs–it made a huge difference.
It also changed my FINISH direction.  I planned on a navy & white cabana stripe theme, and an accent pillow!

So NOW I’ll stick with a clean white chair & stained seat.  Today I’ll go in search of a stylish back cushion!

Above is the “before I skirted the sides.”  See why?

I ripped leftovers to skirt the sides and a face plate,
plus a transition piece for the curved bottom-front.

Here are the detail shots-
hope you like LOVE IT -as much as I do!
Catherine

sorry about the length of this post—

-here are some details-

-and here’s an early FAIL.  The fully stained seat did NOT look good!

And you can take a seat in it this Friday & Saturday at
Nellie’s Barn Sale!

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garden candles!

–

A friend’s long-time family farm house is being sold–

circa 1870’s.

They invited me to come see some of what needs to be cleaned out, and–

do I want anything?

Seriously–

did you REALLY need to ask?

 

Like these old porch posts.
On the whole—No Interest.
HowEVer, in parts—yes, yes & Yes!

I liked varying SECTIONS of the turnings–and cut them up to capture 3 of them.
I thought they could be aMAZing as

garden candlesticks!

–

–

–

Below shows my vision—

Do you see it?

I cut them up, cleaned them up, sanded them, and clear-coated one set.

I also had a big shock/surprise working on them.  They are ONE piece of wood—NOT boards glued together then turned.  But to stabilize the solid wood from twisting-wracking-cracking out, the posts are totally augered out!  Hollow!

HOW did they do that?  The posts are 8ft in length!  I’m still trying to figure out how to just drill a hole from top to bottom through a lg newel post for a project!

And here’s MY INTERPRETATION of the cut posts made into

Garden Candlesticks!

Plus—they’re just COOL!   ; D

–

I’ll be selling them at Nellie’s—in sets of 3!

The sets range in height from  21½”–17″  &  30½”–26″

and will accommodate a  2″–3½” column candle.

–

Catherine

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life. (aka~multi-tasking)

–

We’re in the countdown to Nellie’s.

23 days away.

My project list is ambitious—and loooong.

I’ll have some pretty AWEsome things to sell! (even if I do say so myself)  But they aren’t all finished yet~YIKES!  So I’m crazy busy!

Can I offer you a few pretty FILLERS?

Things are flowering again and greening up—YaY!

THIS is my kind of Purple ♥

~and those yellow “flowers” are back, ugh.

Yes~ Spring has Sprung!  But the clean up has to wait for the show.

Here’s a tease of just a few present projects—

I’ll share shortly!

–

–

But this guy-

he waits for no one

and nothing!

(he’s my surrogate dog)

Catherine

 

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a door bookcase

The neighbor was at it again.

Clearing things out of the house AND “modernizing” their 1880’s house.

How I HATE that.  If you want modern—buy modern.

HOWEVER– he gives me all that OLD STUFF as he strips it out– !!!!!!!!!   And I DO love that!

–

I had several ideas in mind for this door, but. . .

In the end, I needed to remember I was in desperate need of display pieces for Nellie’s, so one particular project rose to the top of the list. . .

a door bookcase!

It WILL be for sale, but it’s going to be a workhorse until it does.  Our space is on a PRIME corner –but– it’s also on a slope.  A double-edged sword.  SHALLOW, flexible pieces will be key for the short spans of level ground.

So THIS is the latest casualty from the neighbor’s ongoing project.  A small closet door from a bedroom with a sloped ceiling.  It had a window in it that was broken.  A window- how strange, huh?

70″ tall × 24″ wide

window over 3 panels

You can see in the pictures that I was already playing with the placement of shelving with some previously created corbels.

◊ Shelves at each panel would have LOOKED ideal—but they would be really short.

◊ 5 shelves in total would have been ideal—but , again, SHORT shelves.  SO 4 SHELVES IT IS!

AND- h o w  to deal with that window.

1st- the door needed to be squared from the wonky “angles” to conform to the ceiling.  And while it was laying flat on the sawhorses, I added cove molding.  I also dragged through my antq ceiling tin for a piece to fill the window—I thought it could be a good look overall AND for the show!

∗ I’m short on progress pictures because my phone was busy streaming music–I got sick of the radio’s same/repetitious 12-song playlist.

I mixed some leftover paints to create a gray’ish shade of green I REALLY liked to paint the front of the door (love happy accidents).  ONE color looked flat so I went back with some white accents.  A N D  waxed everything for a soft hand -and the depth waxing brings to paint!

This DOOR BOOKCASE will be 360° of visibility during the Nellie’s Barn Sale so I painted the backside too.  Just the white—for a clean look. 

I swear, painting took longer than construction, but I LUV the simple outcome!

With this color combo, it’s got a very “Farm-ish” style.  I can totally see it in a kitchen corner showing off some Stone Ware, greens, and a great old cook book collection.  But I can ALSO totally see it in a bathroom loaded with towels and apothecary jars filled with toiletries!

Catherine

~on to the next project!

–

–

*it was hard to get accurate color pictures of the pretty green-  : ( 

∗ I need to plug the screw holes yet—

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back to those frenchy tables

THESE tables, that the neighbor gave me.

That I DEconstructed right away and am REcreating one into a sofa table.

I’m still working on that project, just not consistently because I’m juggling MANY projects for Nellie’s.

–

OMgoodness~ I swear, someone got paid by the screw putting this table together.

68 screws held this table together × 2 tables!

I now have a GOOD supply of screws on hand!

After taking everything apart—I decided to make shelves from the aprons.    I started with 3 -the 4th needed repair.  I cut the ends of each on a 45° miter and added sides.  I primed them, gave them a really sloppy paint job and over-sprayed the bottom edges with a darker shade of green.

THEN a twist!  I coated them in stripping solution just long enough to wreck the paint, and clean them off with a pressure washer.

They looked A-MAZ-ing!

Until I clear coated them.

It “washed out” the distressed effect and I don’t even have a picture to show you the difference.

I’m SO bummed.

–

I cut tops for each following their contours, and routed a simple edge detail to dress them up.  Gave them a very light stain and clear coat.

I know I said “SHELVES”

and they DO look great clustered together, but, I think they would also be pretty fabulous used as

a Bed Corona!

Catherine

 

A N D  they too, will be going to Nellie’s Barn Sale!

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closer to finished~and OMG!

Some projects just “come together!”

THIS is one of THOSE!

And I’m totally

in love with it!

—too many exclamation marks ?

I DID decide on tin for the back boards—but found myself struggling with, “What COLOR goes with RUST?”

I dug through the random quarts on the shelf and pulled a few that could be mixed to create something.  I landed on this shade of a Dusty, Muddy, Coral-y, Pink’ish color.  And it looks great with the Rusty tin!  Like how Pink & Orange are complimentary to one another!

I took great pains to “interpret” the antique tin to each section and love how the pattern lines up with all the shelves!

It turns out the bookcase needs some repairs—it got roughed up in storage.  So I guess it’ll end up being one more way these two disparate pieces will be brought even closer together.  *The “dots” are from the countersunk screws–they’ll be plugged today before painting.  And I’ll REstain the top darker.

And THIS is one more piece ready for

Nellie’s Barn Sale!

Catherine

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a window hutch

I found this cabinet

-looong ago-

on a curb.

Gutted and REbuilt it into a simple bookcase!

Offered it for sale–it didn’t.

Stashed it away until now– I have a new idea!

Let’s build on top of it!

–

How about adding a top HUTCH

with an awesome arch-topped window frame!

I ripped some boards to 6″ wide, cut them to length for a base and sides.  I mitered the top of each side to receive and support a cleat.  I cut 5 cleats and attached with 3″ screws for the extra strength—you’ll see why soon!

 

◊ I secured the base, sides, and cleats with counter-sunk screws.  I’ll conceal them with glued-in plugs and sand flat for an “invisible” connection.

 

I ripped 2 pieces of ¼” veneered plywood to 6″ wide for the top.  It’s just THICK enough to give a strong top, yet THIN enough to FLEX to the arched shape.

Starting with the OUTSIDE piece—I pre-glued each cleat, then bent and nailed the veneer at each cleat.  I used a belt sander to knock down the little bit of overhang to a flush/flat edge.

I laid the “hutch” face down and got out 5 clamps.  Pre-glued the cleats again and flexed the veneer into place.  I clamped the veneer at each cleat till things set up, then I nailed it all secure.

NOW the pictures to show you the process~

 

 

 

I left the 2 outside clamps on over night–just in case!

 

Today I’ll sand, prime, and paint.  And I’ll decide on a back board—I’m considering ceiling tin!

I’ll have to take another look at the bookcase finishes too—so the 2 pieces “connect!” 

Catherine

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frenchy-styled tables

Look what someone gave me~

and look what I’m doing with them!

–

I deconstructed one immediately—the legs are the START of a whole new table—a sofa table OR buffet!

–

O-M-G!  I think someone got PAID BY THE SCREW based on the MASS amount holding this table together!

Usually, I find these tables easy to make.  But this one was more of a challenge BECAUSE- the legs were not TALL enough. (side table height~sofa table height)

–

The 1st adjustment was to cut a TALLER apron to gain back the missing height.  THE 2nd was to use some scrap cedar 4×4 to fill the difference.  I cut off most of the extra form on the band-saw, then a belt sander to shape the stiles the rest of the way in place.  I also doweled the two parts together.

The next picture I hope will help you see the rough shape (in front)  vs the fine-tuned shape (background).

Next—let’s add drawers to that big apron.

Y E S– I have a drawer collection too.  And 3 of those 4 matching drawers looked like a pretty good candidate!  Perfect in height and spacing.

Ordinarily, I would rip wood for a normal face frame–top and bottom rails, and connecting stiles.  I thought it prudent to leave the board/the apron WHOLE for more structure because of the “filler” leg stiles.

I used 3 different saws to make the cut outs for the drawers.

◊ The initial board/apron was cut on the table saw to width.

 

◊ A circular saw for the top & bottom rails for the straightest/smoothest cuts.

◊ A jig saw for the shorter sides/stiles.

◊ A hand saw to finish off each cut clean to the corners.

–

I suppose I should back up here and show you my very “sophisticated drawer-planning.”

This was last week, there’s more progress since

and I’ll be back soon with all of that.

Catherine

◊ For those of you who didn’t know-

Here’s a simple diagram of a face frame.

I struck lines at each joint to show you their junctions.

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