God smiled on me!

It’s been a tough year.

Barely a project to work on–
mom’s cancer care is my full time job.  Any little project I can find time to sink my teeth into is—a—jOy!
Sure, I’ve found a few cool things to stash till my “comeback,”  but God truly smiled on me over the weekend!

Sunday morn-  slow start-  perusing fb mrkt place, found an 80’s side table with 4 BiG turned legs.  $10.  G o t  it.

–

On my way home with said table—WHAAAAAA???  No way—uh uhhh!

U-turn on a dime.  Jaw dropped, a few eye rubs-  like-  am I really this lucky right now??  A look upward—”Thank You Lord, you knew I needed this, huh?”
A vintage Victorian sofa and a (not matching) chair!

Now, I understand MOST people wouldn’t see my find as a treasure–but it REALLY IS, and I’m thrilled beyond measure!  UNfortunately- I had a wheel chair and now a big clunky table in the car.  How the heck am I getting THIS in here too?  Where there’s a will~there’s a way!

(I’m sort of more like, “Where there’s a will~I want to be in it!”)

But I was determined!  I moved, shifted, shoved, and shuffled until I could fit at least the SOFA in my Santa Fe.  Half IN- half OUT with the tail gate open.  The chair remained on the curb with my teary apologies and promise to “…come back for you!”  I drove the back streets to stay out of traffic.  Plus, I’m sure I looked like an episode of “Sanford & Sons.”

Back to the house intact, I off-loaded and gawked all the more at my inCREDible luck!  ROUGH shape, a LOT of work to do, but everything’s there!
Just a guess, but- looks like someone stripped it to reupholster, but quit at the daunting realization of the job & repairs.  I can appreciate, but–I CAN DO IT!

Since I had to run back out for the groceries that were forgotten in all the excitement, I decided to live up to that promise and went back for the chair–it was still there waiting for me!  I fully expected someone would have snagged it on my heels.

Another appreciative upward “Thank You for the gifts, I’ll do You proud!”

The fundamental detail differences between them–
NOT a pair, but both are still AWEsome!  And they were FREE!

I’ve got a lot of work to strip them further.  I’ll remove ALL of the springs, the remnants of fabric still hanging on, and the HUNDREDS of tiny tack nails.  I’d ultimately like to strip the wood and leave it raw.  Just a waxed finish!

I’m already picturing the sofa in a thick-nubby linen OR a soft mohair–and guess what?  Under the ugly floral of it’s (???) 2nd life are the remnants of a soft pink’ish-brow MOHAIR!

I’m also picturing it with a caned back to really show off that soft curve-linear form! ♥♥♥

Are you with me?
Can you see it?

Catherine

And now some inspiration!

* It may have originally looked something like this–

If it had to be fully reupholstered again, I like these simplistic elements–

But I LUV the idea of a caned back!

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she thinks I’m a magician?

Sure- I do love to REcreate and REinvent some crazy stuff, but,
seriously, it’s come to this?

“I have this broken rocker and thought of you.
I just know you can do something with it!”

Um. . . thanks. . . ?

 

Rocker treads eat up space
-that I don’t have so much of-
so I hung it from the rafters in front of my wall of paints thinking it would be out of the way until I figure out what to do with it.

Honestly- I was thinking to just part it out into other projects, but, I don’t know yet.

I hit my head on that dang thing more than once.  One time, SO hard I saw stars.  And had a headache for a day.

 

When I get mom and all her things settled each day, I’ve been -trying- to give myself time in my studio, where so many projects await my attention.  OMGosh, it’s just nice to be IN my studio.  And even with my loooong absence–I’ve had enough of that rocker.

Do I take it apart, or to another level?  Hmmmm. . .

Have you ever seen a rocker for 2?  A rocker and a half?  A chaise-rocker?
What if I deconstruct part of it & just REmake it into something… W I D E R?

 

¹  The LEFT side was the broken and missing parts side, so I removed that side’s legs & rocker tread and made the numerous repairs.  I gave the re-glued and clamped parts 24 hrs to fully set up.

²  I used heavy card-stock paper to make a template of the right side seat contours.  I ripped some leftover 2×6 lumber for the width & thickness to create an extended seat.

³  I flipped & copied that contour to the new left side, cut it out with a jigsaw, sanded, created pocket screw joinery for some areas, and pre-drilled for 3″ screws at other joints.  I also had to REshape how the 2 fronts join together. 

Above you can also see I REdrilled with a 1″ mortising bit to REfit the legs and rocker tread.  What you can’t see in these pics is that I also pre-drilled for large dowels to join the legs together for stability—
aka STRETCHERS.

Until I was able to go buy the appropriate size dowel, I just moved on to prepping and painting.

I added extra supports for the seat (& the new padding).

I heavily padded, then upholstered the seat.

I was actually a little disappointed.  I only wanted to have an upholstered seat TOP, maintaining all the wood edges and frame.  But when I had to put screws into the front for support (even though I could have counter-sunk & plugged them) I nixed it for the ease of a wrapped seat.

During the week I was able to get a couple 5/8″ oak dowels.
I shaped/tapered the ends to fit snugly into the mortised holes.  These dowels are now the stretchers that tie the legs together and bring stability
to the chair.
The last thing was to run & apply welting for a clean finish.

–

Here it is at the antique mall!
That seat is really comfy seat!

A Rocker & a half
—jury’s out, huh?

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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