First Steps to Building a Chair

I would really like to replace the turquoise chair in the back room with a pair of chairs. Couldn’t you image it as a nice little reading corner with comfy chairs and the windows on both sides? Unfortunately the kind of chairs I want are expensive, about $400 each. Not really in the budget right now. Instead I’ve been playing with plans to build some. Here is the first version:

Since it is hard to judge the comfort level from a plan, this project seemed to need a trial version first. $14 of cheap lumber later, I started constructing the frame. Immediately it became apparent that cutting the back angled pieces out of 1 piece of wood with a jigsaw or circular saw was not a fun idea. It was too imprecise for my taste and there was too much room for error. Also the circular saw was a hand-me-down and is ancient and I took it as a bad sign when smoke started appearing almost immediately…. I already have an idea of how to better design this part.

And now we know: I’m glad I did a trial version this time, I think the chair is a little low to the ground, even when the 3 or 4 inch cushion is added. I am still undecided if they are too big overall, at 24” wide and almost 30” deep, they see really large. Though there is the width of the cushions to consider.

New Throw Pillows for the Back Room

Over a year ago I sewed some covers for the 2 throw pillows that live on our sofa in the back room. At the time I picked up some pretty fabric that toned in with the cream and blues and was happy with them.

But suddenly they started looking a little bland, then I found a post online showing how to use striped fabric to make herringbone and then I found a nice red and white strip that was just the right scale. So I decided new covers were in order. Herringbone on one side and striped with a button on the other.

I think the room needed the extra colour and contrast on the sofa.

And now we know: always measure both pillows, even if they look the same size. Turned out one was an inch bigger and I will now be buying another form for the new cover.

Updating the Front Room Bookcases

We inherited these 4 old bookcases – 3 faux wood with gold trim that came with the house and 1 lower one from Tom’s aunt. Soon after moving in I painted them all white with melamine paint.

Over the past couple of years out book collection has grown and we’ve run out of space on our hand-me-down shelves. I chose to add an additional shelf to each of the 3 tall bookcases. To start I adjusted all the existing shelves so the openings were more evenly spaced, including drilling all new holes as the existing ones are never in the right place, and ensured they were aligned all the way across. I then cut 3 new shelves, sanded, primed and painted them.

Installation involved drilling more screws and then re-arranging all the books so they look good. A small and easy project after the table building adventure.

And now we know: they no longer sell melamine paint, I won’t miss the smell…

Done, the Table is Done

I am so happy this table is done. After the bad stain of the previous weekend I went out and got 4 more different stains, all of which we hated. So I decided to forgo the stain and leave it natural. I set to removing the dark stain which was a LOT of sanding, so much sanding that my shoulders were aching at the end of the day. The inset middle part of the underside I left stained dark, it would have taken forever to remove the stain from all those small areas and in truth it looks nice with the contrast…not that anyone will really see it being that it is underneath.

After the marathon sanding session, I put on a couple of cost of polycrylic finish in a semi-gloss and left it to dry. Monday night I assembled the legs, glued/screwed the cross bracing in place and the table was done.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. It is solid and has a nice even surface with a nice sheen to it. Even Tom is happy, he had gotten irritated with the top being on our dining table for 2 weeks (there was no where else large enough to put it) and gave me a deadline of Tuesday to complete it by. I met the deadline but did not appreciate the pressure he put on me. In the end I am very pleased to have done this, I think I learned a lot and proved to Tom that I am capable of producing nice stuff.

And now we know: looking back this felt long but was only a little over 2 months and I only worked on it for maybe half of the weekends in that time. Summer has so many other commitments that a project like this gets dragged out.

Table Progress

This weekend was 3 days of almost non-stop work on the table. I cut the cross braces and started to work on attaching the legs to the table top. Because of the weight of the table top, I wanted the legs to be removable so it would be easier to relocate when we eventually move. I decide to use a strip of wood on each side of the table leg and have a bolt run through all 3 pieces. It is hard to describe but requires a hole to be drilled though all 3 in the same location. This proved hard to do. I had already attached the 2 cross pieces before realising the drill would not fit into the space. Out came the crow bar to pry them off, then off I went to cut new ones as the old one were destroyed in the process.

After struggling for a couple of hour to get holes that lined up on all the pieces and were straight, we went over to Tom’s grandfathers for help. I though he would use his drill press and quickly bust out the holes but since I had already started; he helped me do it manually with a vice and a drill.

Once that was done I spent Labour Day doing final sanding and even put a coat of stain on the legs and underside of the table. Unfortunately it looked terrible. The stain was so dark that all the grain of the wood was lost. It seemed pointless to buy expensive wood then finish it so you can’t see it so next weekend I guess I will be removing stain.

And now we know: always test stain and don’t bother buying expensive wood if you plan to stain it really dark