Powder Room Prep

I did not get nearly as much done this weekend as I wanted to! My table saw is revving high, so I spent some time fixing that. I wanted to start on building a vanity but didn’t have as much wood as I thought. Then I went to use my router and the colette was broken. On top of that was the cat puke in my shop…so overall not too productive.

I did spend another hour sanding my mum’s kitchen unit on the deck.

Mostly I’ve been planning out the renovations to our tiny powder room. Here are the sketches I did of the space, it is only 3’x5’. 

I’ve decided to do a floating vanity and a wall of accent tile. I’ve ordered the tile, bought the faucet and light, and last month I bought a sink/counter unit in white porcelain. 

The plan is to do this in June. We are having our 2 front windows replaced, so while Tom has his computer moved out of the den, I will redo the powder room and replace the den carpet with cork tiles.  I already have all the materials ready, now I just have to build the vanity.

And now we know: tile companies can actually compete cost wise with the big box stores…very surprised with the great pricing on this tile.

Test Fit of the Kitchen Unit and Some Sanding

Progress is slow around here, its weird, I felt lazy this weekend and I am almost always ready to work on projects.

Now that weather the weather is nicer, I took the kitchen unit over to my parent’s house to do a test fit. And when I say I took it over, I mean I made my brother pick me up, jam all the pieces in the car and then help me carry them! I still have to sand and put a finish coat on it, but at least now I know it fits, and I know how much needs trimming off the top to fit it flush to the wall.

Once I got it back home again, I did an hour of sanding outside. I’ve not missed sanding, it is so messy and my husband looks at me like I have the plague.

And now we know: well the unit fits…which is good. And my Dad is going to let me take off the baseboard…which is very good!

A Second Test Dining Room Chair

At the end of March I built that test dinning room chair, but was not happy with the design. After some more research into dining room chairs styles to see what I liked, I re-designed and came up with new plans.

All the previous issues are addressed; the back rail is angular not curved, the seat is an inch less deep and it is an inch higher from the ground. 

I worked off the previous chair frame, keeping as much as I could and cutting new back rails. I cut an inch off the side pieces of the seat and added blocking to raise the front legs. 

Unfortunately, my crappy webbing job on the previous chair meant I didn’t even have enough to do 2 strips in each direction. Since I didn’t have enough to double over the ends where the staples were, the pressure of people sitting had caused them to fray. Now the back only has one vertical strip…it’s really not very strong. 

This time I did add an extra layer of fabric between the webbing and the foam which helped support the foam much better. 

Here is the comparison between the 2 test chairs. Overall I am much happier with the proportions of this 2^nd chair, but I still think it lacks something to make it unique. I need to think on it…tufting the back? Contrasting colour piping? Or something in the construction of the chair? 

And now we know: it was definitely worthwhile to make both these chairs. I now have comfort and proportion part nailed down, it’s just the aesthetic I need to fine tune.