Reveal Monday: Coffee Table

A while ago I told you about my "new" coffee table  and how I stained the top and began painting the bottom. Just to refresh your memory, here is the during (two old coffee tables pieced together)

AND the after...

Oh. Hi Soph.

Lets ignore the fact that while I was priming the shelves from our hutch, I got a little primer on the top's edge. Shhhh. Any suggestions on how to get primer off of stain? I know, don't paint on your stained coffee table top. I have had this foolproof method of covering the table top with a cut open trash bag, it fits perfectly kinda well. I will probably still use that method but I will be more careful. 

Because I am not having as much time to do projects as I have in the past few months, I am going to be posting reveals of projects only on Mondays. And hopefully, every Monday. I even have a few forgotten projects that I will try to sneak in. 

Is anyone else really bad about getting true before shots of projects? I could have sworn I took one of my hutch, but I can not find it anywhere. Booo. Oh well, I will be sure to take an "in progress" shot. Maybe. It's so ugly, it may not deserve a before. We will see. 

Here are some more living room shots with the new table...

Link Parties:
Mod Mix Monday

Progress Week Days 2-4

Let's be honest, 3 of those days were Memorial Day Weekend and I didn't do much but walk and go to BBQs. Oh yes, I did stain my coffee table top (from my pieced together coffee table) It stinks. I almost cried. I used Minwax Bombay Mahogany and it came out bright red. My mom talked me off the ledge (over the phone) and I decided I would try another coat. Worst case scenario I would sand it and paint it. So after two coats it still looked like it belonged in a room with a duck wallpaper border (not that there is anything wrong with duck wallpaper borders, just not for us.)

Bright. Red. Horrid. This picture was taken after I had sanded it a bit (hence the light spots.) I had used the polyshades 1-step stain for the first two coats. As a first time stainer I thought it would be easier. I didn't love it, it was sort of gunky. So for coat #3, I went with a different color (dark walnut) and used the plain ole Minwax wood finish stain. The picture doesn't show much difference, but here it is...

I think I like it more? One more coat and I will know! Otherwise it's getting painted white like it's base.

Before 

Primed

I'd also like to give a special shout out to Sophia, who is now having a growling dream next to me, but spent the day "helping" me. 

Thanks Soph.

Daybed Love Seat

I have just finished my 3D design course at school. For our final project, we had to create a chair from found materials and it had to be life sized. Since this is my second time around with the whole school thing, I have learned not to make projects that I can't do anything with, if I can help it! So, I decided the newly built chair would be for Sophia. DUH!
So I took the day Saturday to drive around to find a discarded something to make a chair out of. He said we could start from a chair, as long as we altered it. I ended up finding this bed at EcoBuilding Bargains for pretty cheap. It came with the headboard, foot board and the side rails, and was in decent shape. WOOO! I should have turned around and re-donated the side rails, because they attacked my arm in the car later that day, boooooo.

Headboard

Footboard

I brought it to my parents garage to butcher it. I needed to cut the foot board in half (and fast, my dad was out for a bit and I was afraid he would convince me my idea was not thought out yet, he would have been correct.) So I cut the foot board in half for the "arms" of the love seat with an electric jig-saw. Cut first, ask questions later.

It was not as simple as I had originally thought. The top of the "arms" hit above the square leg, I needed them to sit flush. Thankfully, my dad came home and intervened a little bit. He helped me decide where on the arm's legs I should cut. I wanted the end of the leg to be tapering in, not out. I don't know why, just did. I cut them off with a small coping saw, because it was a small cut and I felt that I had a bit more control that way.
To attach the sides to the headboard, I used the existing slots (where the rails would go into) and cut slots in the back of the sides to biscuit join them together.

We let the sides set in place overnight.

Then, we used scrap wood, cut at a 20 deg angle, and screwed to the inside front of each side and to the inside of the back legs, to screw the seat to. It made the whole structure much more "sound." We routered the front end of the plywood seat, to soften the edge. I also cut down the arm posts, they were just too tall, and sort of screamed "this seat used to be a bed." The finials on the back were loose. I started looking for new ones but didn't find any soon enough, so they are loosely placed on the posts. Maybe they will stay, maybe they will change, who knows?
The structure was done. I had not like the color/finish/floral motif on the bed to begin with, but now that it looked really bad. My dad suggested just painting over the floral layer of wood, but I couldn't do it half way. So I primed & painted my heart out. I decided to leave the top of the arms wood, I would like to stain them a bit darker. But, for deadline purposes, that will happen later. I made a little seat cover out of drop cloth, not perfect but it works! Another addition I would like to make is a layer of foam under the fabric. We angled the seat for proper lounging, so I also want to add an upholstered, angled back.

My prof was impressed with it, I was especially proud. It took me a couple days longer than I would have liked, but I am glad I took the time I did! What do you think?

Before-ish

After

Linked to:






 

Painful Hutch

We have this hutch.

But it Looks So Comfy....

After a long day, I often think of how nice it would be to come home and sit on one of these...

I know it's not cute, it's scale is sooooo off, but, how can you look at that and not think "ahhhhhhh." It has cupholders and the seats recline/swallow you whole. The only thing it's missing is a wine fridge (that would obviously open from the top! I always tell my husband he is getting a man cave in our next place and it will have seats like this. He doesn't seem that enthused about it, I AM! Where else can you put these monsters and be able to enjoy them without anyone ever knowing you actually bought them??? Maybe one day I will share a picture of his swan chair...That's right, we have swans in our bedroom. I cringe at the thought of it too, but he loves that damn chair.

Why We Live Where We Live

When we bought our place, we were thinking we would live there for 2, maybe 3 years. Tops. Hello 4 years, nice to see you! Yep, 4 years later, we are still here!

Here is why we like it:

Floor Plan

I always find, looking at a floor plan makes it easier for me to visualize a space. I wanted to share with you a simplified floor plan of our condo (with furniture in place.) I know, we have far too much furniture, but most of it is for storage, which we desperately need. We have plans to rearrange our bedroom furniture (and possibly get rid of a dresser.)

Goooood Morning!

I have a few houseplants. Not as many as I would like, but I used to be better at killing plants than keeping them alive. So I am slowly building my indoor garden. I was starting to think I needed to add more soil to the plants, I didn't know before that potted plants lost soil over time. Now I do. I really didn't want to have to buy soil or dirt, but it seemed like I would have to. UNTIL, I read this super cool article on Apartment Therapy that would solve two problems I have! I only make coffee at home a few days a week, but, I am always throwing out the coffee grounds which seems wasteful. Not anymore! I am going to add them to my plants.

Has anyone done this? Any words of wisdom or caution?

Happy Wednesday!

I posted about Christina Watka's installation at Twelve Chairs Boston. Somehow, she was able to make this amazing installation

even more amazing. Christina created a stop motion video with an amazing original music composition by her boyfriend (and my cousin) Andrew Halchak. I think the installation looks so alive, watching it grow with music makes it even more alive. Enjoy!

Make Them Think it is Daytime!

Many years ago I heard/read (I don't remember which) a reason for painting porch ceilings blue. In my opinion, this is one tradition, like toile, that should never fade away. The reasoning was: people believed (I don't know when it started) that to keep the ghosts & evil spirits (Haints) away, they would paint the ceiling of their porch sky blue or "Haint Blue". The sky blue color would make the ghosts believe it was daytime and they wouldn't haunt the residents. It is such a pretty and simple tradition to carry on. Once I heard this story I started noticing porch ceilings more and more, the minute I buy a house with a porch the ceiling is getting a Haint blue color! But, for now, here are some pretty images of porches...

Southern Living

Evolving Color Palette

Before we moved in, we chose a color palette for our condo. My parents have BM Powell Buff HC-35 in their front hall at their house. I have always liked it, so we chose that as our neutral.

What We Moved Into

We were very eager beavers when we purchased our condo in July of 2007. We were moving in together for the first time, and had BIG plans of what we would do to make this our home. We have done a lot, but this thing called the recession has gotten in the way a bit. I just wanted to share some "day we moved in" pictures with you all! Enjoy the 1980's...Terrible light fixtures/fans, odd off-white color on the walls & tile that makes you question why mauve was ever "in." Don't even get me started on mirrors.

Front Door

Oops! x2

I have had a rough week. Well, not really, just 2 projects that have not yet succeeded.
This is fail #1:
I am painting my black bedroom furniture navy. This piece is a leg of a table that is new to our bedroom so started off stained wood. I took it apart, sanded it, primed it, 2 coats of paint on almost every surface. I kept hoping the second coat would darken it up, then I was hoping it would dry darker. Neither happened. It's bright-freaking-blue. So back to the store I went, with a new color in mind, one coat later, I am happy!
These are the legs, new on the left, old on the right.

Holy Roller

I have heard rumors that some people have used mini 4" sponge rollers to paint rather than brushes. I have always painted furniture with brushes, I can get the paint fairly smooth, but not perfect. Now that I am on a furniture painting kick again (I think it is a nice simple way to update a room's look) I decided to try a roller. Well, then I forgot and painted a table with a sponge brush...

Ceiling Sourcing

My job, today, is to source. It may just be a generational thing, but, when it comes to sourcing (pictures, materials, etc) my dad is not your man, I am your girl.

We have designed a garage-->family room conversion (don't worry, they are adding on a much nicer garage) for a client. The new family room will have a "tray ceiling." After our clients thought about it, they decided they were going for more of a "cathedral ceiling" look. I am not partial, design wise, to either one. My only hold up with a cathedral is insulation. It is very hard to squeeze in the correct R-value into a cathedral ceiling. In fact, the term "squeeze insulation" makes building science nerds, like myself cringe...DON'T EVER SHOVE INSULATION INTO ANY AREA, any insulation material's R-value is only valid at its recommended fluff depth (that is my technical term.) If anyone has more questions about that I am happy to elaborate, but for, now onto the fun stuff. We came up with a insulation value solution by making a lesser pitched roof on the interior of the roof to give it a cathedral ceiling look while allowing for plenty of insulation up there. Problem solved?

Before we went too far with determining how beams and load values work out, we decided to make sure there is no communication barrier. So I am searching for picture examples of each (my job IS fun!)

Some cathedral & tray ceiling examples

Truss Roof

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Well, it was worth a shot! After we got rid of our TV armoir (I only have a picture of the bottom part and Sophia's butt, sorry!)

Little Table

For our wedding gift, my Grandmother brought me to her favorite auction house to choose some pieces I liked. She stayed for the auction and called me the next day. She had won two tables for us! Woohoo! So, I went to pick up my tables and only one was there, wah wah. The table that was still there had a good shape but was not nearly as cool as the missing table :( So I took the not as nice table home.
A few weeks later, the auction house called to say my pretty table had been returned! Someone had taken it by accident and was nice enough to bring it back. And the best part was it looked 1000x better. They had cleaned it all up. We took it home right away and use it as a front hall table. The poor ugly table, it stayed in my parent's garage for a few months. I brought it to our house to put our toaster on so it was off the counter. It REALLY didn't work with our overall taste. Finally I had enough and decided to paint it. We had a nice-ish weather day that I used to sand and prime it outdoors.
I got a little too excited and started to sand it before taking a 'before' shot. The top is definitely not original to the base. It had a lot of damage on it and only a light coat of stain.

Banquette Follow Up

Last week I wrote about my newest dream of banquette seating in our dining area. The only thing getting  in the way of my dream is $$$ (isn't that always the problem?) I am sure I could figure out a low cost way of achieving this look by scouring stores and websites (CraigsList, EcoBuilding Bargains, goodwill, etc.) But, we already have 6 chairs for our table, so why not try and use them? So I started moving furniture around!

Before

Things That Make Me Smile

Last night I read this post from AtticMag. I have always loved banquette seating, so I was really excited they featured some well done ones. We have often recommended them to clients for multiple reasons, the main reason being space. A chair needs about 36" to be able to, comfortably back the chair up or for someone to walk behind it, while a banquette only takes up about 18". I have considered doing some type of not-built-in banquette in the corner of my eating area.

As Is (in all honesty, the table is usually pushed against the left wall)

Spring Birds

Since spring teased us here in New England last week with warm, sunny weather then SNOWED this week, I am looking for some spring-y items for inside. Over the last few years I have started a mini bird collection. In all honesty, I found a super cute bird beer bottle opener when we first moved in.

Some Inspiration

Things have been crazy busy at work. The kind of crazy busy that makes you love what you do. So, not a whole lot has happened at home this past week. I do have a large scale 3D project due at school tomorrow, I found some inspiration here. I have returned to school to continue my bachelor's degree. My first time around, I made a LOT of art projects that either sit in a closet or have since been thrown away. Not anymore. I am really trying to create things that I can keep and use for at least a little bit.
Some capiz light fixtures to oooo and ahhhh over...

World Market I LOVE World Market, but, I live very far away from one :,(

Quiet for Japan

While tonight I celebrated my husband's and my Irish heritage listening to Irish music,

Tomorrow I respectively honor and donate the ongoing struggle of the people of Japan,

.

 Thank you to Ever Ours & Utterly Engaged for organizing this fundraiser.

Have a safe Friday...

Details from our Wedding

A little over six months ago, we were married in Castine, ME We tried to keep everything simple, I was the third  and last of my sisters to be married in Castine. I knew it wouldn't be a stress less weekend for my wedding planning mom, but we did try to keep it as low key as possible. We were going to have all of our family and friends in town, so how can it not be fun? We enjoyed every second of the weekend. It was chilly the two days before the wedding but the day of turned out to be PERFECT weather. We really lucked out.

I just wanted to share some of the details/scenery from our wedding day!

Little galvanized buckets held flowers on the side of chairs lining the aisle