Drawer Assembly

By simply using a table saw to rip 1/4" grooves into the side panels for the drawer, I am able to assemble the drawer together snugly. I notched the edge of the side panels to create a male piece and then grooved out the front and back of the drawer to create the receiving female part as shown above.



By also ripping an 1/4" groove 1/2" from the bottom of all sides of the drawer assembly I can now easily slide in a panel for the drawer bottom.



Wood glue in the grooves, assemble and clamp to let the glue set overnight.



I picked up some heavy duty drawer brackets from your local-national bulk hardware store and I now have a finished nightstand.

New Nightstand

As you can see from the photos, the close up of the panel on the right is from the new nightstand using 3/4" furniture grade birch ply. The pic below is a close up of a panel from the prototype I built using pine ply with a birch veneer. The birch ply consists of 1/8" sheets of birch veneer glued together to form one 3/4" solid sheet of ply. This is an excellent material for building furniture or cabinets and for my purposes and technique it adds an aesthetic quality.

Finished Prototype for My Nightstand

Here is the final product for my nightstand. As you can see I recessed the drawer instead of my wife's preferred flush mount. It is very sturdy and solid. I used pine plywood with a birch veneer instead of all birch ply since this is a prototype. The next nightstand, which will be my wife's, will be built with an all birch veneer furniture grade plywood. The layering of the birch veneer will give it a bamboo like quality that I am looking for.

Nightstands construction

This is the beginning stages of my nightstand. Right now I am only building one to make sure I have all of my ducks in a row. Like my previous piece, the bench for the hallway, I have ripped down 1 inch strips of furniture grade plywood and stood them on edge then glued and clamped them together. I alternated the strips, 20 inch and 18 inch strips, to build individual panels, i.e. the sides, top and bottom, so they will interlock with each other when assembled.



Below I have started the base assembly notching and interlocking four 4 inch strips and attaching them to the base. After a night of letting the glue set I will join all of the pieces together and begin the drawer assembly.

Peeps

I love this photo from 20x200. It's called "Peeps" of course, by Katie Baum.
You can get it right here.

puti trees

I'm loving these prints by Nod Young a designer based in Beijing.
These are titled "the puti trees" and are an interpretation of 2 poems from the original zen classic. I found these on printpattern, but you can buy them here.

I'm still on the lookout for art work for our dining room. Could these be the solution? I have it in my head that a painting needs to go there, but maybe a few prints instead...

elephant print

Brandon just saw this print on trays and glasses at IKEA. I'm madly in love with it. I wish they had it in fabric. I would use if for a cushion. I want Brandon (carpenter) to make a long shelf for the bedroom for my yoga books. I'd like to paint it white and put a cushion or pillows on top. If anyone has seen this in fabric form, let me know.

Base! How low can you go?

The base of the new bench has been assembled and I am currently working on the platform for shoes located beneath the bench top. Above is a pic of the base in construction. I utilized my previous method for construction with pegs and glue. I seem to be adverse to using anything but wood and glue. The legs are 18" high each and I used a regular handsaw and 3/4" chisel to notch out the tops to slide the 1"x 2" piece of oak through with 2 pegs each. Previously when drilling the 1/4" holes for the 1/4" pegs I used a regular drill bit but this time I decided to use a 1/4" spade bit instead. My reasoning was that with the drill bit the pegs were very snug and difficult to insert so I went with the spade bit which bores out the holes. It made it very easy for the pegs to slide in and a bit loose making the base not as solid or stable. I adjusted and learned my lesson. No more spade bits. Tomorrow I'll post the pics of the next phase of the bench assembly. Thanks and check back soon.

Which way to go?

I've begun building the bench for our hallway. Above you'll find the top which I have already assembled and still planing down. Inspired by several designs I've come across but still wanting to continue and push my own design from the previous benches I built (see dining room), this top is a new direction for me. Purchasing a 4' x 8' sheet of oak plywood for $45, I ripped it down in 8' x 1 1/4" inch strips. I stood the strips up in a jig I built (retrofit the previous jig) and glued the strips together, clamping as I go. A good couple hours of sanding with a course grit sandpaper on a belt sander and then a little while with the fine grit on the palm sander should smooth this bench top like glass. With the left over ply wood I am utilizing the same technique and building smaller boards for shoe cubbies underneath. The striations will go in the opposite direction though. I love the lines.

bench coming soon

This is the area that Carpenter is referring to. Our entryway has a narrow jog in the wall that makes it perfect for a long bench.

Carpenter has actually started building the bench and will hopefully start posting photos soon. (hint hint)



The coat hooks are great for visiting guests and dog leashes...
You can have your very own here.

Sitting the bench.

When entering or leaving our condo I often find myself on the floor lacing up my boots or taking them off. Since we have a slim cove in our long hallway entrance, I plan on building a bench for this area making it easier and much more welcoming for any visitors. The idea is for the bench to fill this 96"x16" space and to have built in cubby holes to place our shoes. Below are some design inspirations I have been looking at in which I may utilize one or many ideas and incorporate them into my design.


I like the space this one allows underneath but I feel it may be too boxy for my intentions and make the hallway feel claustrophobic.


I really like this design because of the multiple cubby hole space that is incorporated into the design and not as big or clunky.


I know this doesn't have the shoe cubbies we are looking for but I really like this design and think some can be added and still maintain it's sleekness.


I'm not so sure about this one but I love the simplicity of it's manufacturing. Soon as I saw it I realized how easy it is to build.

All these benches can be found at Design Public.

pillow talk

I had grand plans for pillows to put around the dining room. I had downloaded patterns and fabric colors and I did little layouts. Then I figured out how many pillows I actually needed. 14.

The day I came up with this number, Carpenter and I went to Ikea to look at picture frames. The economy won on this one. I ended up buying pre-made pillow cases and pillows from Ikea. Then I had enough Marimekko fabric left over to have 1 side of 3 pillows sewn with this fabric.


It is a cozy place to sit and have cocktails...I must admit.


And the great thing about bringing in color with the pillows is that I can change the look later on by swapping out a few.

wall art part 3

I have a lot of wall space in my dining room. I've been dying to have something to break up all of that soft gray. Carpenter was kind enough to hang these today before jumping on the road for a job out east. (thank you)


I got these prints from Good Shape Design
I'm totally loving the partridges. Plus it's nice to have a little splash of red. And the tree is mighty cute, as well.

Dog decorating

No we are not remodeling a room for our dog.

Riley gets a bit stressed out when we have guests sometimes. As our guests were leaving the other night, we noticed Riley decided to do a tiny bit of decorating himself.

This is also a sneak peek into a later project. I'm not sure if the bathroom will be phase 3 or 4, but trust me, it needs some love.

wall art part 2

This is in our living room which I've only blogged about on one other occasion, because the living room is phase 2 of our remodeling project. We are still in phase 1. This was actually the first thing we hung on the walls. Carpenter hung it about 3 weeks ago (although I bought it months ago) and I just couldn't stop staring at it. I was just so happy to have something on the walls.

Now that it's been up for awhile I still look at it a lot. I must just like the print.




And the orange in it is brought out by the orange on our fireplace.
We got this print from 20 x 200. Get on their email list. It's a bit hit and miss, but when they email you something you like, jump on it. The good stuff can sell out in a matter of minutes.

re-use modern

If I needed a dresser I would be all over this one. Zoe Murphy, a young British designer prints on used mid 20th century modern furniture. She has some fun wall prints, as well.


see more here

wall art part 1

Hurray! We are finally starting to get stuff on our walls. It's weird that somehow they make it an seem like a real room. This is especially funny considering the things we don't have in our bedroom.

A few things still lacking in our bedroom: nightstands, doors, proper lighting and a rug.

I ordered these prints from Binth a million years ago it seems, but it took us forever to get around to getting frames. The prints with matting were 12.25" square and so we ended up ordering 12" frames and trimming.


note: since this photo was taken, carpenter has hung them straight. :-)





I didn't even realize this at the time, but I apparently had an animal theme going. From right to left: octopus, chicken, dragon. Check out more prints on Binth.

cushion love

Our dining room cushions are finished! Actually they have been finished for a bit, but I'm just getting around to sharing.

There are actually 3 cushions covered in Marimekko fabric. We have a family friend that is just great at sewing anything. (I'm very envious.)

On the back wall (the longest wall) the cushions are 3 ft deep. Our plan is to line the whole wall with large pillows. I want the fabric to be upholstery fabric again. I just need to decide on colors and patterns for all the pillows. We have a little fabric left over. Plus I want to do solid black, solid red and then add another pattern with an additional color I'm also considering adding a long, black square bolster along the back on the long cushions.



The benches are super fabulous. My hubby made them and we decided to paint them black. It just brings everything together more.



He made the tables also and I love them! I don't love the stain color though. The stain I picked out was pretty light and pretty neutral but when he went to stain them the color was completely different. It actually looked gray...silvery gray. Very weird. We were in a crunch since we were having people over. Carpenter decided at the last minute to stain them the color of our trim, which is the color of our floor and very close to the color of our timber ceiling. A bit much...So the tables will already be getting a makeover.

The worst blogger ever

Hello peeps.
Yes. I am the worst blogger ever. I'd like to blame it on work, yoga study, my trip to India...or the election. Go Obama!!
But the reality is that I'm just not that good at this. With that said, I will be posting again in the next few days.

There are actually changes to report! We are actually starting to put stuff on our walls. We have cushions on our benches
and have a plan for bedroom doors. Hurray! Stay tuned!

dining room happenings

There is much happening with our dining room. Sorry for the delay on updating the blog.

So here goes. No more canned lighting (in the dining room, anyway.)We now have more dining room appropriate lighting. We love it. It totally changed the mood of the room. Dimmer switch to come soon.


We went with a West Elm item to counter balance the price of our fabric. I love the foo foo contrast of the lighting against all of the brick and timber in our condo.


A little reminder of the fabric I ordered for our benches.


It just arrived from Finland. Yea! And it's now in the hands of a fabulous seamstress.
The fabric is called Kirsikka from Marimekko.

We also got our chairs to go opposite the benches.




They are bent plywood chairs from CB2.

And of course our fabulous benches and tables are compliments of my husband. He is staining them this week so they will be all ready for our new cushions.

Marking things off the list. I'm loving it!

Here is where the dining room stands at the moment.

When it is finished we will rent some lights and take better photography of our finished projects.

Contents of Tables

1. 4x4x30 1/4 piece of red oak, pre-sanded and routed out 3/4" for the table supports; pictured here

2. A carefully chosen piece of 4'x8' red oak plywood. I dug through the stack to find an exceptional grain with great repetition and color variation.

From one piece of plywood I was able to assemble three table tops. I sandwiched pieces together with glue and belt sanded the sides for a clean finish with an excellent pattern.

3. The base was assembled with 1x4 oak pieces notched, sanded then pegged to the 4x4 post. Angled pieces were then fit into the routed top of the post as supports for under the table.

Finally I assembled the table top to the base by flipping the tops over then aligning and squaring off the base upside down on top of the table top. Below are final pics of the first table.



I am quite excited about actually placing these in our dining room. Art Director and I can then decide how to finish the set, whether we stain or just prime and seal them. One final sanding is still needed but I don't want to do that until we come to a finish decision.
Look for the final color reveal coming soon.