Just the Right Size

 

 

A friend asked me to make a table for her back entry.  Her door enters right into the kitchen and all the "stuff" ends up on her kitchen island.  She wanted a table 9" x 24" to fit in a small space near the door.  The plan is that all the :stuff" will end up on the table allowing her space to actually cook using the island!

Here it is:

It is very tall and thin so it really needed something to fill all that space - the X was my friends idea - I think it turned out great!  The top is oak stained with Minwax English Chestnut stain and the bottom is pine painted with Porter Paint's Copper Penny, distressed, rubbed with the English Chestnut stain and then everything is finished with Minwax Polycrylic.

New and Improved

As I mentioned in a previous post I refinished an old maple table for my Aunt Cris.

She took it home and sent me some new pictures so I thought I would share!

 

Just to refresh your memory here are the BEFORE pictures:

 

Here are the AFTER!   A very nice change!!

A Quick Fix

Nate and Emmy bought new appliances for their kitchen and wanted a shelf for their microwave.  Here is a before and after:

 

 

Lot's Been Happening in my Garage

I have been very busy in my "Garage" for the last few weeks!!

Here is what has been happening:

 

 #1

This isn't very exciting but it was lots of work.  Now I have a wonderful organized workshop!

Our garage was filled with garage sale items and lots of lawn equipment, golf clubs - you name

it so I got organized, had a very successful garage sale and now I have this:

A place for all my tools:

 

Plenty of space to store wood and projects:

And best of all the rest of the garage is empty, so there is room to move my work tables around when I am working on projects, but they can be easily folded and put away when we need room for all 3 cars in the garage - everyone is happy!!!

 

 

#2

 

In my last post I showed you  the bench I made for the back hall.

Here is the hall before and after:

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER 

 

 

#3

 

The other project that I have been working on for a while is refinishing my Aunt Cris' table.  It is a maple table and was finished with the spray on maple finish like many pieces of it's age as you can see from the before picture.

 

BEFORE

 

 

 

 

AFTER

  Here are the pieces all ready to go. I hope to get a picture of it all put together

in her dining room when she gets it home!

Here is the top looking good spread out on my ping pong table!

The table is drop leaf with three drop in leaves.

 

 

Here is the bottom painted a satin black.

 

 

OK - So now we are up to this week!!

 

It has been an exciting September for our Bell Choir with three grand babies being born.

You saw the box I made Madelyn and here are three more.

Two little boys have been born and I thought Paxton's big sister needed one too!!!

 

 

 

#4 

 

Now for today!!!

I have been playing around with building a trestle table for some time now.

I have found lots of inspiration on the web - two blogs in particular:

Ana White

and

Shanty 2 Chic

 

I have also looked at the tables in Pottery Barn, Arhaus Furniture and Restoration Hardware.

So . . . today I decided to build.

I have the bottom done and now I need to build the table top.

 I plan to make it approx. 72" X 36".

I am excited about how it came out so here is a preview.

I laid some boards on top to get the idea of a table top.

 

 

It still needs lots of sanding and then I think I will paint the bottom black

and stain the top a brownish gray!!   What do you think?

 

Well that's all for now.  I will be working on a project for Emmy this weekend and

then back to the workshop next week!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

An update for my back hallway!!

My back hall is always a mess :(  so . . . I designed and built this bench to use back there!  I will be back in a few days with pictures of it in it's new home!

 

 

 

Baby Boy Book Crate

 

I made this rustic crate for a baby shower gift last week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonkers for Boxes

 

I'm back!  

August has been a fun and crazy month starting with a relaxing 2 weeks at a cottage near Lake Michigan with my family and my sister's family.

Sam started 10th grade at a new school this week and this coming Sunday Doug with compete in an Ironman Triathlon. 

I have managed a little time in the garage so I thought I would share some pictures. 

My good friend, Robin, came to visit me last week.  Her church, through donations and lots of volunteer hours, built and furnished a house for a family who lost everything in one of the southern tornadoes this past spring.  One of Robin's many jobs on the project was to furnish the house and she was in accessory mode when she was visiting me!   Robin loves to shop - I mean loves to shop!!!  She was having a blast finding all kinds of things - she wanted pretty but also useful items.  When I could shop no longer I suggested a few thing I could do in my workshop!   First she needed something cute for the dining table so I suggested the box I made a while back with the succulents:

 

 

Then she wanted something to go on the entry table for mail, keys etc.  so, we came up with this:

 

 

 

It came out so cute - I love it!

Next was something for the family room to hold the tv, dvd & cable remotes:

 

 

 

We had a great visit - a little bit of shopping and a little bit of building all for a great cause!

 

I am working on another box today for a sweet little boy - pictures will be coming soon!