February 2014 ~ Magazine wood working

Monday, February 24, 2014

A LIL CHIPPY MAKES A GREAT SHABBY chippy french nightstands

I just finished up a fun pair of bedside tables.

(FRONT LEGS) - I bought a broken antique table, ... okay let me start that again.

I paid money for a dozen little pieces of wood that used to be a table with pretty legs.

There was no top and in the end I was fortunate that I found all the other pieces but

I didnt know when I handed the money over.

(CABINET) - The body of these nightstands were a part of a cute set I purchased on Craigs list.

Not my usual playground but they worked perfectly for my plans.

The ceramic and metal knobs I brought back from our time on vacation.

The drawers have a great decorative arched detail on the face.

(BACK LEGS) - I finished these cabinets off with another set of legs on the back side

from a simple Bombay stool cut in half.

You can also find a side by side before and after pic here.

Sharing at:

GOLDEN ERA DEJA VU night stands

Déjà vu, from French, literally "already seen"

You maybe thinking you have already seen these night stands

Even thinking it was just a few days ago

Well the truth is I found another perfect set on our thrift shop hop

and came home to work on them right away.

So yes you are seeing something very similar again but with their own magic.

Im calling this set *The Golden Era Pair*

because of the warm caramel color showing through

from the maple colonial finish, and a hint of gold edging on the kick.

In person they are rich like honey!

The hardware is from the twenties, and unfortunately I didnt have matching swing handles

for the bottom drawers but you barely notice.

They have been painted with 50% Old White & 50% Pure White.

I get asked a lot which ASCP white color I use most of and the answer is ....

I use them both equally.

In the olden days, you know before ASCP I used a custom mixed creamy white color

that could be used in both pure white decorating and off white decorating.

Mixing the 2 ASCP whites at 50% achieves that same perfect mix.

So if you cant decide which white is for you, try mixing them.

******

Vintage Chest of Drawers

This chest/secretary thing is so unique! It's been sitting in the garage forever!

I was almost so fed up with it, I almost put it to the curb! (Do you ever have so many irons

in the fire that you just can't be bothered???!)

Well, glad I didn't. I just decided to get to it and slapped on some white chalk paint.

Then I thought I would try some artwork on top by using that cool staining technique

I used on the french provencial dresser awhile back. Here

OK. Obviously the before. This is a solid mahogany which the manufacturer covered in this

horrid orangey lacquer finish. Look what was on top!!!

This beautiful mahogany wood top!! So I chalked out a hibiscus flower, got out my stains, and went

to town!! I just used a combo of stains. Some I left on for a few minutes, and others I wiped away quickly. This is just a fly-by-the-seat-ofyour-pants type of thing. You really can't follow exact

directions. It's like painting. You just do it. Make sense??? Yeah, well, that's all I got!

All finished. And a few coat of semi-gloss poly

The final version. Mahogany is so pretty when it's finished correctly!

More pics.......

Sunday, February 23, 2014

FURNITURE APPLIQUES trumeau mirror

I finally made over my very own Trumeau mirror.

It has been stashed in my work room moving from place to place for years.

Trumeau mirrors are French wall mirrors originally manufactured in the 18th century.

The French word trumeau describes the space between windows.

Trumeau mirrors were originally intended to hang on a wall between windows,

providing a decorative element and to bring more light to the room.

The mirror is almost always rectangular and sometimes includes a decorative portion at the top,

with the mirror below it. A genuine antique trumeau can cost between US$2000 and US$20,000.

My trumeau is probably from the 1950s and was fairly flat with the perfect area to add a great applique.

What I needed was the right motivation and that came when I found the right applique.

The applique I used on my mirror is a reproduction that I bought from a storage unit sale.

Here is my Trumeau mirror in all her glory and Im in love!

Another idea for appliques is these plastic decorative pieces that you find at thrift store.

With a jigsaw and some caution you can cut them apart into fancy applique pieces.

Please be careful!!

**NOTE**

When you are cutting plastic with an electric reciprocating blade,

the plastic melts from the friction and can fuse back together as you pass through it.

If you are not comfortable with a jigsaw try checking out small hacksaws or rodsaws

at your local hardware store. Both these options are manual hand tools.

While you are there pick up some new blades for your knife,

cause you need to trim the rough edges. This kind of plastic can not be cut with a knife.

Only use it to shave the rough edges!

Some rough sandpaper (80 grit) can also help to smooth the edges.

These are light enough to glue to a project but small nails could be used with pre-drilled holes.

DO NOT try to drive a nail through the plastic without drilling first. They will break!

Here is how 2 of these pieces were used.

MAKE YOUR OWN STENCILS sheet music dresser

I have a trick for you to make custom stencils, any size, shape, and inexpensively.

I dont have time to run to the craft store or wait for an order to come in the mail and because I

work on larger projects I like to be able to make my own stencils to fit the right size of my projects.

HOW TO:

** I print out a simple graphic on regular paper the size I need.

** Then I cover the front and back of the paper with strips of clear packing tape.

(This makes my stencil thicker and water/paint proof.)

**The final step is to cut my stencil out with a shape knife and get to work.

YES IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE!

I recently used these fancy Fleur de lis stencils to finish off a sheet music dresser I did.

Be sure to stop in to see whats new in shabby chic white hardware available at firstfinds.

The Etsy shop is filled with all sorts of vintage hardware.

There is over 1000 pieces of used hardware to choose from

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Scooby Snacks Keep the Shop Moving Along

Over the last couple of days Ive gotten a few chances to spend an hour or two in the shop at a time. Never able to do enough for a full post but moving along step by step on getting the saw horses closer to the finish line. First I spent hacked another leg shape out, I would like to think I can just plow through all four of them in one sitting, but hand cutting them with a coping saw is pretty taxing on my tennis elbow, its better if I take my time and do them one at a time. Cut one out, do something else for a bit, cut another one out, switch jobs again. This method of work does a few things for me. One it cuts down on how beat up I feel after a day in the shop because the variety of switching it up cuts down on those nagging, repetative style nuisance injuries. And two, it helps keep me interested and inspired while Im working. I think ahead constantly, I cant help it, and sometimes when I do that I become so jazzed about the plans and ideas that I feel like I have to do something about them, because if I dont Ill obviously forget the solution I came up with. Making huge sweeping cuts with a coping saw is not the fun part of the piece to me. I love joinery, always have, so accomplishing the joinery is the fun part. I use that as my reward.

"If I finish getting this leg cut out, then I can move on to those mortices for a while" ---- you see, just like a scooby snack!

So after getting the second leg cut out and shapped, I took the scooby snack of working on the top of the horse. This did mean something exciting for me, I got to take the new dado hand saw I made out for a real drive for the first time. teaching myself how to use it was fun, getting it started was the real challenge but once it was going, plowed right down to the bottom. I think the only thing that may have made it easier is if I had set the blade to cut on the push stroke instead of the pull. It seemed more intuitive to use it that way. I wil try it for a few more times before I make the decision to change it around to what is probably the more traditional direction.

Either way it was cool to have success with it. Even using my table saw this is always how Ive liked to cut dados. cut a line down either side and hog out the center with a chisel. Now that my new router plane has arrived cleaning up the bottoms is going to be even easier. (that puppy did arrive this week too, all three cutting blades and the guide fence intact, just have to use a litle elbow grease to clean up the surface rust and sharpen the blades and were completely in buisness)

The I laid the cut leg out in the completed dados and marked where the thru mortises needed to fall. I the struck the marks with a chisel to score the lines. and took a brace and bit to each of the corners. Then I flipped the board over and struck the chisel again to connect the ouside corners and scribe the line on the back side. I then took my largest brace bit and bored out the center. Chisel and mallet later . . . I had a few nice mortises to fit the tenons on the legs through.

My only complaint is that this construction grade pine is so awful dry it splits cracks and chips out small divits around the mortise. Now I did not worry too much about being careful to avoid these things while I was doing this, one I have not surfaced the tops yet, and when I do that it will help with these issues. and two these are just saw horses man, they dont have to be overly pretty, they just have to work. I do have one thing I will have to repair, There was a knot right where one of the mortises fell, and I had to try to bisect it in chopping the mortise, ofcourse the knot fell out and now there is a pretty sizable defect about like my pinkie finger to fix.

Im still measuring my options with that, cutting a wood dutchman appeals, but then there was the epoxy treatment that Chris Schwarz was talking about on his blog...I could come up with another crazy idea between now and when I need to decide something, who knows.

Anyhow, before I move any further, I will have to cut out another leg or two, Scooby snacks away!!

Cheers!

Oldwolf