a cute little airplane

Do you like my little wooden toy plane? I have no idea where it came from, but when cleaning out and organising the casita I found it among my toy collection.

(Doesn't everyone have a toy collection?)

I have lots of collections. I basically collect anything I like the shape of, the colour of, plus anything I think I can use when doing junk art or repurposing. Behind the little airplane you can see a collection of tea pots and creamers and a collection of clothes hangers among other things.

This is one corner of the workshop which holds timber bits and pieces on the shelf, painting bits in the cupboard and tools on the pegboard.

I like this little corner. I like lots of little corners around our place. The theory is, if I like enough corners they add up liking the whole house and yard.

I pretend not to notice the bits I dislike till I can actually do something about them. Till then I focus on the pretty/cute/interesting bits that I like.

z

what happened to the drawers?

So what happened to the drawers when I decided to make over the tallboy into a linen cupboard?

They became hat and coat racks of course!

First some destruction was called for. I got out the hammer and clobbered the drawers till they came apart.

I then removed the timber knobs and filled the holes. I gave them all a light sand and went through my paint pots to find colours that were similar but not the same. I painted them all in shades of greeny blue.

Yeah, for those who're observant, there are only four drawer fronts there. There is another one but I didn't need it for the project I was working on. It'll appear somewhere else later on no doubt.

I used different hooks - these hooks were sent to me by a good friend in the USA (we can't get them here) and they're perfect for hats.

I put the hat racks up high and the coat racks underneath. I had to stagger them in order to fit them on the mud room wall. You can see where I had to put the electrical cable over the top one. Ugh. Not pretty, but here in real life, as opposed to decorating blog-land, things like that happen.

The coat racks have mismatched hooks collected from tip shops over time.

I'd originally planned to paint the entire mudroom antique white. Now I'm not so sure. I'm starting to like the rustic timber look.

I'll paint the pine lined ceiling white and I'll probably repaint the two house walls to match the outside of the house. But I'd already started undercoating the left side wall (with the window and sink) back when I was sure I wanted it all white. I guess I'll paint that wall to match the other two. That will leave one weathered timber wall. It'll be a feature wall.

I love the way the coat and hat racks look on the old timber anyway.

I also found a home for my crystal dripping tap wall art. Its been in the casita since I made it cause it needs somewhere out of the wind. I added another hat hook to it and voila, another handy spot for a hat!

This one's on the wall I have to paint (plus you can see the terrible paint job someone did on the toilet door!) so it'll stand out more. But that also means it'll have to come off one day. I hope I never have to take the other ones off. Ever.

...Am I the only one who manages to twist the top off screws?

z

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stubborn? never!

Wayne likes to read.

Wayne likes to read all the time.

Wayne has tons of books.

We don't have enough bookcases for all the books Wayne has.

I like to read.

I have some books.

I also have a Kindle which has tons of books on it.

I prefer to read on the Kindle as its light, easy to hold, easy to read and I will never run out of books while I have access to the internet.

I bought Wayne a Kindle for his birthday in January... He had told me repeatedly that he did not want a Kindle, that he would never use a Kindle and that I better not ever buy him a Kindle.

Did I listen?

No.

Obviously.

Cause I used to feel that way about Kindles. I liked the feel of a book, I liked the smell of ink on new pages, I liked turning pages. Then I bought a Kindle cause taking 15 books to Greece with me on holidays just didn't appeal to me.

I love my Kindle.

When Wayne ran out of books to read before Christmas he was grumpy. He was reduced to reading cereal boxes. He even read some of my books and that's saying something. He wanted to read Game of Thrones (I have the box set) but found the type too small to read comfortably.

So I bought him a Kindle Paperwhite (like mine, cause I love mine!) to surprise him. I got him a case for it, I even put Game of Thrones on it.

(Ulterior motive: The books are so long I figured he'd be hooked on both the Kindle and the series by the time he finished book one!)

He flat out refused to try it reminding me how often he'd warned me not to buy him one. It sat on his bedside table gathering dust for weeks. He kept finding books to read: the dregs he'd overlooked on his first pass over the bookcases, what he could scavenge from friends, whatever, as long as he didn't have to give up his principles and try the Kindle.

Then the day came... He was desperate. He asked me to show him how to read the Kindle.

He's been using it non-stop ever since. He takes it everywhere with him.

He hasn't said a thing to me, but I heard through the grapevine that he loves it.

Men.

What can I say?

z

tallboy makeover

Long time in coming, but its finally done! The second chest of drawers makeover.

Again, I'm sharing a before pic that isn't the exact tallboy I made over, mine was 5 large drawers and two small top ones... but you get the idea. It was almost exactly the same as the before pic. Pine, boring, plain. After has some class to it with its fancy base and pretty colours.

It was a pretty major job for me as this was the first time I'd attempted something so big in terms of modifying an existing piece. I've done tons of modifying before but most of the time my modifications are the type you can knock up with a few nails in a few hours. This one took a few weeks to complete, and a couple of new toys to play with.

This old chest of drawers came to Wind Dancer Farm with Wayne when we moved in. It used to be part of his bedroom furniture which included two matching plain chests of drawers (see the first one made over here) and a wardrobe (started but not finished). Since I made Wayne his own walk-in robe (here and here) I've been using his items for my own clothes.

Yes. He needs a room. I make do with a wardrobe and 2 chests of drawers.

What's wrong with this picture?

Anyway, I hated their pine plain-ness and the way this particular chest of drawers had the propensity to drop drawers off sliders everytime you wanted to get a T-shirt out. Hence the makeovers.

Firstly I had to put a bottom on the chest, thus the next few photos are of it upside down, so don't get confused. There was no need for a bottom when it was just drawers. I used an old piece of bamboo flooring a friend gave me and attached that to the frame first.

I drew the fancy front design on a piece of paper, drawing only half, folded it in half and cut it out. I traced it onto the piece of pine and cut it using my jigsaw. I then got to play with my new router and do the edge.



I used glue and a couple of nails to fit the fancy front onto the base.

I had to create a frame for it to sit on, to lift it off the ground enough for the fancy front. A normal person might have made the frame first, then cut out the front to match the raised frame, but I'm no normal person.

Its very makeshift. I used a combination of pine pieces and particleboard pieces to get the right height on my frame.

Note: this blog is all about making do and making up. Do not try this at home. Google how to do things properly!

You can see where the old base board of the chest had two cutouts. I had planned to cover those with trim but ended up keeping them visible. They kind of add a design element to the base.



Turned it right way up... It was looking good!

Those little cut outs I mentioned earlier created little gaps for dust (and mice*) to get in, so I glued a couple of scraps of thin plywood to the back of them.

*Not that mice will have a hard time getting in as there are no doors!

You can never over-do clamps!

Next I added some trim to the back edge of the melamine bottom brace and some dado trim to the front to create finish the edges. I added some leftover bits of skirting board to the sides to cover the hodge podge of the frame. I also added a piece of pine under the drawer space at the front to serve as an added precaution to the drawers falling out!

I gap-filled my heart out.

Then came the easy part: painting.

I'd thought yellow would be a nice colour, cheerful, clean... I bought a small pot of a colour I picked in the paint store.

Too pale.

I played artist and darkened it up using warm yellow and some warm red. Hmmmm...

It actually looks nice in the photos but trust me, in person it was gag-worthy. Kinda like the colour of raw fat...

Out came the trusty, tried and true aqua/green I used on the kitchen doors. Maybe not original, but hey, if all else fails, go back to what worked before.

I added a couple of the leftover knobs from the kitchen makeover as well while Romeo oversaw progress.

The makeover wasn't without its failures. You can see where I ripped off paint when I ripped off masking tape on the melamine bottom brace. But nice trim!

Eh. No one will ever see it... Once its full of stuff, which it will be forever more.

Here it is in the guest room. Ignore the blurred background of all the crap stuff I removed from the old cupboard (the one that now lives on the front porch). Some of this stuff will be finding a new home soon as part of the cleaning up and organising regime.

We don't have pretty matching sheet sets and doona covers... and I can't fold fitted sheets.

Now you know my shameful secret.

My grandmother would roll over in her grave.

I'm now thinking it needs doors as I'm not liking it all on display... so in-your-face. Fly wire or bird wire in the doors to soften the un-colour-co-ordinated linen...

One day.

For now I kinda like the way it looks and the old cupboard on the porch. I'm happy.

z

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