Test Dining Room Chair

Our dining room chairs are falling apart. They’ve lived a good life for the price we paid at garage sales. When I tried to repair a few with extra screws, the wood just split and the chairs became scrap wood.

So I’ve decided to build a new set of dining room chairs. It won’t be fast, by the time you take into account our trip to Europe and all the weddings this summer, I won’t have many free weekends. My goal is to get the frames build, sanded and stained by end of summer, leaving me the fall/winter to upholster (which I can do inside).

I’ve been working on a design and decided to build a tester chair to see how it feels to sit on. The back rails are curves and the front legs have a slight angle to them.

Using 2x4’s, 2x6’s and scrap 1” pine, I build the frame of the chairs. The hardest part was cutting the curve with the jigsaw.

From there I used leftover webbing to create the seat and back. I did not have enough to do 3 strips in each direction, so I did 2 instead. I JUST had enough and wasn’t really able to pull it tight with the stretcher.

From there I put on a layer of 1” foam, 2 layers of batting and then the fabric. It feels a little thin, but I think that is in large part to my using the cheap softer foam. For the real chairs, I plan to use the denser stuff.

And now we know: there are definitely flaws with this design:

1) The seat is too deep, the foam took up less space than expected

2) Around the perimeter the foam falls through the frame where there is no webbing, there should be another layer between the webbing and foam

3) It’s too low, again the foam took up less space

4) I’m not sure I like the design of the back rail, that curve…

Painting the Kitchen Ceiling

Recently Tom asked me if we should hire someone to paint the kitchen ceiling while we have them in to do something else in the house. It’s something I’ve been putting off but if HE notices then it must look really bad and I should get on it!

It’s hard to tell in the photo but the patching was really evident in real like. A coat of primer and a coat of ceiling paint later and it looks much improved.

While I had the rollers and paint stuff out, I also put a coat of the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs…that I never got too when I did the stairs like a year ago.

And now we know: I was putting off the kitchen ceiling cause from the look of it I though it would need more patching. Turns out it looks fine with just the paint…I guess my patching during the reno was better than I thought.

Basement Wood Rack

A few months ago I got a shelving bracket system sale. The plan was to get some of my wood off the floor and better organized. Here is the corner of the basement where I planned to install it.

This system screws into the wall…but our basement is concrete block and since it cost a lot of money to fix all the holes, I’m not about to create any new ones. It took me a while to figure out the best way to hang the brackets to support all the weight of the wood.

In the end I used 2x4’s and built a rectangular frame with a brace in the middle. From there I hammered it in place so it was sitting on the floor and touching the underside of the ceiling framing. I screwed it into the ceiling at the top and built triangular supports at the bottom to keep it from falling forward. There is no wood on it yet but it feels pretty secure.

The brackets start at 36” off the floor so my router table can tuck underneath when I’m not using it. 

And now we know: The internet is great, I searched for free-standing wood racks to get some ideas for the design and there were so good options.

Part 4 of a Kitchen Unit for my Mum

First thing this weekend was to finish installing the face trim. Just the ¼” thick pieces along the bottom were left and I glued then nailed them in place. In this location a couple of nails with wood filler won’t be noticeable.

  Along the gable ends I added vertical trim as well, to mirror the front edge.

Next thing to do was build the bench that will sit on the right side adjacent to the kitchen door. I cut pine down into 2.5” boards to make the apron and angled bracing. For the leg I used a 1 ¼” piece, same as the face trim. Everything was glued and pocket screwed into place. The top is a piece of ¾” board cut so it overhangs the apron by 1” on both sides.

Then my brother came over for a look and thought the leg looked too ‘fragile’, that people would be afraid to sit on it. I could see his point and beefed up the leg with another 1 ¼” piece attached on an angle to the first leg. The other 2 sides will be secure to the wall and the gable end of the unit. 

Finally, I cut the shelves; 2 for each cubby and 1 for the angled corner section. The boards were 15 3/8” deep, so I left them at that size and cut them to the right widths.

Since I have a ‘client’ for this piece, I need them to pick a finish. I made this fun sample board of options for all the clear options; satin, semi-gloss, oil based, etc. It’s hard to see the differences in a photo…but I like having all the samples next to each other!

At this point I am done construction of the unit. Sanding, finishing and installing are left to do, but I can’t sand until the better weather comes. So for now this project will be on the back burner until spring decides to show up.

And now we know: having a client makes the process slightly different, I feel like I can’t change things on the fly and have to run stuff by them. I don’t think I like it as much, not having complete creative freedom.

Part 3.5 of a Kitchen Unit for my Mum

Only 3.5 as the only work I got done this week was gluing together the pieces I already cut and jointed! Since I only have so many clamps (and we were in Montreal for most of the weekend) I clamped a piece, left it for an hour, clamped the next, and so on.

The top is looking good; all the edges are in place except the angled piece along the front.

And now we know: I’m definitely going to need another of those large orange clamps for when I install the unit

Part 3 of a Kitchen Unit for my Mum

Progress on the kitchen unit continues and this weekend was all about preparing the pieces for assembly. My Mum wants a natural pine look, which means no stain or paint and no visible fasteners. I find even wood filler can be noticeable in a natural finish. To that end, I decided to use dowel joints for all the visible areas. The backs and bottom I took the easy route using screws and pocket joints.

First thing, I drilled all the dowels for the face frames and the trim around the top. Since the face frames overhang each side of the gables by ¼” it took some creativity with the dowel jig to get the holes in the right locations. I ended up forgoing the attached clamps for my own and measuring all the locations. This was time consuming but effective and 95% of my holes lined up on the first try. 

Once all the vertical pieces of the trim were jointed, I cut the horizontals to trim out the bottom shelf. Everything is cut to size and in place but I now have to go back and glue it all piece by piece. 

For the top I’ve been having some issues getting the 2 pieces of pine to fit together nicely while fitting onto the piece. It took much more adjusting than I though it would. I finally got it almost right, drilled the dowels and glued the joints. I guess we’ll see next weekend if it still fits nicely on the unit.

The pieces to trim out the top are 1” pine by 1 ¼” and I wanted it to be consistently wide all the way around. In order to achieve this on the ends, I rountered out a groove so it sits properly on the gable yet is still the right width at the ends.

I also ran into some frustration with my table saw; it only cuts up to 24” width. Usually I can work around it, cutting the negative side between the guide and blade, but this time the wood wasn't straight at both ends. I ended up building a little extension piece for the saw, this was not super effective or as accurate as I would have liked.

And now we know: I need to either find extensions for my table saw or invest in a new circular saw. Mine is old and heavy, leading me to not be very comfortable using it, so I don’t!