2nd Bedroom Closet Re-Fit

A couple of months ago, when we had the second bedroom empty to work in the attic, I did some work on the closet. Before it had a weird pole running the wrong way, front to back instead of right to left, just like the master bedroom used to.

I took out the pole, added some bracing and hung a new rod right to left. 

Above the rod I added some supports for a shelf, the tricky part being the angled wall and cutting the piece to fit there. At the time I didn’t have a piece of wood for the shelf and so this was left unfinished.

Finally I got back to it and started by priming the entire closet. I added the shelf and trimmed it out at the front with a piece of pine. It turned out a little thicker than I would normally make a shelf, as I used thicker support pieces and wanted to cover the ends of those.

Then I put on a coat of white paint on everything; walls, shelf, trim and door to the attic. It’s a big improvement, both in functionality and appearance.

And now we know: what I wish I knew was why they installed the bars like that in the first place, it’s not in the least functional and entirely possible to orient them properly.

Kitchen Shelf and Face Frame

Along with my trim painting, I did some patching of the face frame on one of the kitchen cabinets. This area around the microwave has always bothered me, there was a small gap in the frame that I never got around to filling.

I finally cut the little piece of wood, patched and painted it. Big improvement...that no one else will notice, but still glad it’s done.

In the cupboard above I decided to add a partial shelf, all sorts of stuff was being put on the cutting boards making it hard to get them out and put them away.

Using ¾” particle board with a laminate finish and ¾” oak strips as support I built in a partial shelf. The edges and trimmed out in thin oak strips as well.

Now that it is patched and painted, it looks like it’s always been there. Functionally it’s made a big difference aswell.

Finally, I got a pretty new rug for the kitchen

And now we know: over a year later and I’m still finishing up those small things in the kitchen, there’s probably still more to come…

Door Frame Trim

When our house was built every room had a door. The doors on the main level are now gone, but the hinges holes and jambs remain as an unattractive reminder. Tom doesn’t even notice stuff like this, but it bothers me so I decided to patch them. 

I cut down some plywood and used it to fill in the jamb. Then I added strips of oak along the front to trim it out. 

Once it was patched, I covered the seams in wood filler, sanded and repeated this until it was smooth. 

Finally I put on a coat of primer and a couple of coats of paint.

I won’t bore you with photos of more white trim, but I did also finish painting the trim in the den, the powder room and the kitchen. Only 2 more doorways on the main floor and I am done painting all the trim...just in time for replacement of the back windows leading to more trim needing painting!

And now we know: for this door I used a layer of ¼” plywood with shims behind and nails through both. I think this might crack the wood filler over time, so for the next door I’m going to try using 2 layers of plywood, cut to the exact thickness so we’ll see how that method works.