From our family to yours….
Merry Christmas!
Hope your home is filled with love and laughter this day, and always!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
Christmas Mantel…for now!
Yesterday I finished up my most recent batch of Christmas signs, and I wondered what to do with them—other than stacking them against the wall! I’ve been trying to do a little decorating, but my mantel is giving me a little trouble. It’s my first year having one, and I didn’t seem to have much in my “stash” that felt right for me…and I have no desire to go out and spend a bunch of money on something new right now.
So…I played with the signs!
You know what? I kind of like it! A mantel full of good wishes for the season!
What do you think?
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Still accepting custom orders until 12/15. E-mail me at redhenhome@gmail.com.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Grand Rustic X Buffet
The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving were SO busy….
I was working on three huge building projects.
Finishing up another table (pictures to come)….
Building another woven-back bench (this time out of cedar…it smelled SO good)…
and working on this buffet for the new owners of the Grand Truss Table.
I kept thinking that when we got back from our Thanksgiving trip, I would have a day or two to just DO NOTHING.
Who was I kidding??
When I got back from Thanksgiving, it really hit me….there’s only THREE WEEKS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!
I’m seeing all these homes beautifully decorated for Christmas and all these holiday projects, and my house was still stuck in fall mode!
So I started hauling out the Christmas boxes, and at least for one day…I “Christmas-ified” one little corner of the home….
This buffet is a modification of Ana White’s Rustic X Buffet. I used 4x4’s for the legs to match the chunky style of the Grand Truss table, which is why I’m calling it a “Grand” Rustic X Buffet! The horizontal cross-pieces are made from 2x4’s to match the extra thickness of the legs, and the top used one extra 2x6. I also changed the measurements to make this buffet 72” wide.
The finish is two thick coats of Minwax Special Walnut stain, followed by an over-glaze of black for some extra depth. The visible hardware is all decorative.
This will go to its new home this weekend…hopefully I can get some of the rest of my house decorated by then!
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Monday, November 25, 2013
Checking In / Christmas Signs
I received an e-mail from a sweet blogging friend last week wondering where I was! I know I have been a little MIA this last week. I had some self-imposed deadlines on some building projects, and I’ve been spending every minute in my garage!
I thought I’d share a few of the new Christmas Signs I have been working on. Another symptom of how busy I’ve been is that none of these have been listed in my etsy shop (ugh!)…but then, these are BIG, HEAVY signs, and I worry that no one would want to pay the accompanying shipping charges! However, if you’re local, all of these signs went either to Ruffles & Rust in Snohomish, or to Seaworthy Home in Pacific Beach, WA.
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is a Pottery Barn knock-off, and it seems to be the favorite with people on my Facebook page!
The big signs are REALLY big—almost 2 feet square. It was fun to learn a new skill in framing them in.
I made some smaller signs with my scraps….
This “Let it Snow” sign is my favorite of the smaller signs.
You can see the difference in sizes in the “Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas” signs. The white one was by far the more popular one.
This one was super fun to make…it’s my version of this pinned sign. Mine’s a little more rustic looking, I think.
I already have a “special order” for one of these signs for my sister, and I’m trying to decide which one I might need for myself! Which one would you choose?
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
Vanity & Dresser Refinish
Thank you for all the kind comments about my daughter’s bedroom makeover, both here and on Facebook! It was so fun to get to work on this with her. She is always my sounding board for the various crazy ideas I have, but this time she was truly invested in the project!
One of our first steps in her room remodel was finding some new furniture for her to use. The $100 junky particle board set I bought four years ago (at her request, make no mistake about that!) was promptly sold—for the same price I paid for it! There’s just no accounting for tastes, is there??
We scoured Craigslist for a vanity/dresser set, and finally came home with these for $150:
Only $50 more, and this time it was actually decent furniture!
Well, you can see the finish on the top was in REALLY rough shape. But structurally everything was sound, and the veneer was in very good condition…a couple of chips here and there, but nothing major.
The “to-paint-or-not-to-paint” question was discussed at length, but Naomi eventually decided on “not.”
Since she wanted a darker stain, I decided to use my favorite miracle product, General Finishes Gel Stain (no, unfortunately they don’t pay me to say that) in Antique Walnut.
You can see how I used it in my card catalog refinish here and a bedroom set here.
The great thing about this gel stain is that you DON’T have to completely remove the old finish. Rough it up, yes—but if you’re going darker, you don’t have to go down to bare wood. You can see how I lightly sanded the bottom half of the side of the dresser below.
I did have to do some more serious sanding on the top of the vanity. Where the poly finish had worn away over time the colors were very splotchy—so I had to do a little more work to get everything back to the same tone.
But oh, look at what a difference ONE coat of gel stain made!
I ended up using two coats on everything, followed by two coats of General Finishes Polyurethane.
And oh, I think it was worth it!
The handles are original, I just cleaned them up a bit a lot!
And I recovered the vanity bench in a fun yellow and white chevron.
Have you ever used gel stain before? What did you think of it?
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