storage bench with pallet top

A long time ago, in a land far far away on one of my visits to the tip shop, I found this little cabinet. Like the one I posted about previously, this little guy was made as a base to a wardrobe. A small wardrobe. This is the only 'before' pic I can find (not one of my best, I confess).

It didn't have a top at all, had a couple of big cracks on the sides and the drawer was broken. In fact it was a real mess. But I liked the shape and handles, and was already thinking bench and shoe storage.



My vision was that one day I'd put a new top on it, give it some new paint and make the drawer into a door.

It sat in the casita for about a year. Maybe more. It held all kinds of junk for a while. It stood on its side a fair bit trying to look inconspicuous... It hung around gathering dust and possum poop (thanks to the resident possum, Mr Ponsonby who has since been relocated, and turned out to be a Mrs anyway).

Eventually I noticed it again and decided it was about time to do something with it and regain some space in my workshop. Especially given I'd pulled apart and repurposed the old shoe cabinet/bench.

I started off by giving it a coat of paint. At the time I was experimenting with greens so I painted the body green, but the handles were painted in a creamy yellow so I stuck with that for the door. I put a shelf inside the cabinet and painted the inside a slightly brighter yellow.

 

I pulled apart the broken drawer keeping the front. I had to fill the dovetail joints with bits of timber and gap filler to make it into a door rather than the front of a drawer. (Sorry, no pics of that.) I attached a clip closer and hinges so it now opens downward.

I'd always been itching to make something out of pallet wood (I've used pallets for many things but never made anything out of the wood) so I went and collected a couple of pallets from the 'free' pile outside a hardware store.

To be honest, I'm not sure they're totally free, I was told they were by a friend and I chose to believe her, but whenever I've taken any I've always felt rather sneaky about it. Whatever... most of the 'free' pallets are broken or made of really cheap wood. Obviously. They'd never throw out good pallets.

Anyway, I got my pallets home and started pulling apart the only one long enough to make a top out of. I split most of the bits of wood I got off. In the end I got enough better pieces to create the top.

It wasn't easy. I see so many pallet wood projects and I wonder how people do what they do... either they're getting much better quality pallets than I got, or they're just plain better than me!

I finally pieced together a top with as few gaps as possible, matching warped boards together like a jigsaw puzzle. I joined the wood together using 2 slats of wood underneath to hold them together and to give them added strength. (Did I mention this was crappy timber?)

Once that was done I sanded it back really well. It looked great.

 

Only problem was I wanted a weathered timber look, not a brand new look.

So I looked around for some steel wool to put in vinegar and resigned myself to waiting for the requisite rust to age the timber with.

I couldn't find steel wool. I think I used all I had patching up holes around pipes in the wall in the kitchen! (Apparently mice won't chew through steel wool. At least I hope they don't!)

Well, that was the end of that idea. What else could I do?

I got out my artist acrylics and mixed up a watery solution of burnt umber (a colour you hear about a lot on my blog), grey and black. Grey cause weathered wood is always grey and black cause nails holes always go black.

I slopped the watery solution over the wood and let it soak in a bit, then wiped the excess off with a clean rag.

Not quite right yet.

I got out undiluted colours and painted them on and wiped them off, leaving darker areas. I dabbed black over areas of the wood, especially around holes.

 

I love the way it turned out.

When it was dry I put 3 coats of satin polyurethane on it to finish it.

Finally, I distressed the cabinet a bit in areas where it would normally get wear and rubbed in some burnt umber to give it an old appearance. Not that it wasn't old, but the paint was new and burnt umber is like the accumulation of years of dirt.

Funny how I refresh something, make it nice and clean, then make it look grimy before putting it in my house... I wonder what that says about my personality...?

I'm still not entirely sure about the colours. I didn't want just another white or cream cabinet and I had this colour mixed up and thought it would go well with the creamy yellow. An antique colour mix I thought. Do you think I achieved it?

z

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cabinet door chalkboards

Once upon a time I had an old footlocker/wardrobe base which went with the wardrobe Wayne brought with him when we moved in together. Our ceilings in the bedrooms are too low for us to use this as intended (as a base for the wardrobe) so it sat on the front porch for a couple of years as a kind of 'hold all' for anything we weren't sure what to do with.

Since it didn't have a proper top, I did a mosaic on it so it would look pretty on the porch while it held Wayne's boots. I had five old, crazed, oblong tiles and a ton of plain white ones. I used the green tiles (funny, guess I was always attracted to that colour!) in a staggered pattern with the white around them. I colour matched the green tiles and did one coat in that, then topped it with white which I distressed to show the green through.

 

Wayne made spoon handles and a wire closer for the doors (not pictured, sorry).

When I had to move back to my old house in Fentonbury for a while, it made an appearance there...

but it spent the majority of its life on our porch outside the mud room. Here it is in its prime, before the accumulation of crap useful items seeking a permanent home began to accumulate.

Then Wayne started using the cabinet as a bench and sat on the corner while pulling on boots, breaking the chipboard top... pieces of tile everywhere... It wasn't worth salvaging so I did what any reasonable person would do, I kept the doors and chucked the rest out.

In fact, its still in the junk pile waiting to be taken to the tip...

The doors became my first experiment with milk paint.

I bent the spoons a little more to make them into chalk holders.

I do like the textured effect of the milk paint, but I can't say I'm a convert...

All in all, I'd say the latest incarnation of the (leftover bits of) cabinet have turned out ok.

z

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accidental stripes

You know how sometimes things work out in ways you never expected? Well, that's how it turned out with the striped blind in the kitchen.

One morning soon after I installed the blind I went outside as the sun came up and noticed the way the stripes in the blind and the stripes on the enclosed porch side sort of matched. It was totally accidental - when Handyman was enclosing the end of the porch he used some of the old bits of timber from the front of the house where the window was put in. The new timber is unpainted, the old timber is the light yellow the house was originally painted.

I kinda like it.

I'm considering painting the enclosed area two colours - the antique white I used on the posts and the white pepper I used on the house and the handrail slats. It'll be way more subtle than it is now, but it might be interesting.

Then again, it might be stupid and it'll be a ton more work...

So, what else's has been happening?

Well, the office floor is half sanded. I've finished a couple of projects and am close to finishing another. Plus I've started on the costumes for the movie we're making at work.

Other than that, I've been having a quiet time.

ha.

More later. Check back soon.

z

not quite what I'd planned to do...

I had a plan.

I was going to do a ton of stuff while at home this week.

I was going to empty the office and sand and polish the floor. And the small hallway floor. And paint both spaces. And finish a couple of projects.

But I told myself, this was not the time to start new projects. I had to concentrate on the office. And hallway. The floors. And walls.

Well... I started on Sunday. It took me two days to empty the office of furniture. Mind you, I had to move it all somewhere, right? The living room seemed the most reasonable spot for it all.

Again.

Plus, I had to set up the old coal burner (my old pc) cause the new whiz bang laptop has gone to hospital. I think it had a loose cable in the hinge area which caused interference when I moved the monitor... which, by the very nature of a laptop, you do often. Not good.

Actually, it wasn't just that... I've also got a sore back. Since last week. Just in time to do the hard work I'd planned. Great.

No wonder it took me 2 whole days to empty the office. No need to push myself too hard, right?

Being Superwoman, I've been working through the pain and not let it stop me, just slow me down.

I also spent a fair bit of time shopping on ebay.

Ugh. I just couldn't stop!

I need an intervention... I shouldn't be allowed near ebay...

Still, I'm getting there. I think. I'll let you know soon.

z