The Kitchen Reno: Wood for New Cabinets

Yay! This is the start of the kitchen renovation, okay more so this is the start of the cabinet construction. We spent a fun filled hour at Home Depot getting 5/8” melamine sheets cut so they would fit in our car…or sort of fit.

This is only about half of what we will need (5 sheets) but a) I want to test out my construction method before I buy too much and b) our car wouldn’t fit much more. All this lovely melamine is currently waiting in our living room for me to cut it down to size so it will fit down into our basement.

Also in our front room but hidden under the couch is the red oak we purchased from the Wood Source. These board will be cut down to be the 1 ¾”  face trim on the cabinets. I wanted a hard wood as it will be stronger to support the hinges and drawers as they will get a lot of use. 

And now we know: the guy at Depot uses the air compressor to clean the saw dust off himself. Very innovative.

Sofa Repairs

Our lovely cat seems to enjoy destroying the sofa in our front room. She sharpens her claws in the corner and picks out the upholstery tacks that outline the arms. Needless to say, the sofa is beginning to look worse for wear.

While Tom was out of town, I took the front section off and repaired the damage as best I could. All the tacks got removed and I cut ¼” MDF to the shape of the arms. After adding a layer of batting, I covered the MDF with fabric and nailed it back onto the sofa. 

In some areas the fabric had loosened with time (or gotten holes from someone’s claws) so I pulled it tight again and added some more staples. It looks a lot better, hopefully the layer of tin foil I added under the fabric will deter the cat from future clawing.

And now we know: it is a lot easier to flip a couch onto its back that to get it back upright. I had to phone a friend to help me get it back upright before my husband got home.

Ottoman Progress

After getting all the wood I needed, I cut the remaining pieces for the ottoman frame and started assembling the base.

 The drawer is also assembled and both pieces are ready to be painted.

The top is going to be tufted so after cutting a sheet of plywood to size, I marked where the buttons will go. Once I was happy with my spacing, I drilled holes in the marked spots.

And now we know: there are 3 or 4 typical patterns for tufting, I chose a diamond!

The Start of an Ottoman

First, I sewed this lovely string of bunting and finally got to see it in action at the shower I threw this weekend.

Then I started working on building an ottoman for the back room. Currently we use a toy chest as a coffee table, but more often than not we put our feet up and it is not real comfortable for that. Here is the sketch I worked up for the design, it will be 24x38” and mimic the proportions of the sofa.

Working with pine I already had, I cut the feet and bottom rails. Unfortunately I then realized I did not have enough plywood or wide enough pine boards for the rest of the design, so progress was limited.

And now we know: check the wood stock first!

New Swing Cushion

The previous owners left behind a nice outdoor swing that we have on our deck. Unfortunately the first year we lived here we left the pillow out during bad weather and had to throw it out. Since then I’ve been looking for a new one, but apparently it’s not easy to buy a cushion separately from the swing frame.

Finally I broken down and sewed my own. Here is the cat helping me with the fabric.

All it took was a few metres of outdoor fabric and some foam. It’s much more comfortable to use the swing now.

And now we know: this is one of those projects that was easy and cheap and you wonder why you didn’t do it earlier