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"Red Hen Home"
I know I should be updating on The Handbuilt Bedroom, but it’s too grey to take pictures in my son’s room right now. Instead I thought I show my new kitchen acquisitions…I have stools!
Although our previous home did have a bar of sorts, we never had any bar stools because it would have been too crowded with the table right next to it. In this home, though, the island is perfect for some extra seating.
I scoured Craigslist for some stools I could paint, but never did find anything with enough “pizzaz” for me—or that came in a set of three—or that was the right price!
I had about given up on the hunt, when I walked into Pier 1 and saw these beauties: the Weldon stools.
They come in both bar- and counter-height–although I personally think “counter-height” ought to be 26” rather than 24”—and they come in a whole bunch of great colors! I fell in love!
I couldn’t choose a favorite…can’t you tell??
Thanks to a 20% off coupon, they came home with me.
The kids love them, and even I will take advantage of the extra seating now and again…especially when there are warm cookies on the counter!
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Not a paid advertisement…I just like the stools!
Continue Reading →So the goal is to build all the furniture for my son’s bedroom, as explained in Part 1.
Here’s a reminder of where we started:
I listed all his bedroom furniture on Craigslist: headboard, frame, mattress, bedding (including the pirate quilt I made—that was hard to part with!), dresser, desk, and chair. It sold all as a set, so he ended up with a bare room pretty much overnight!
That was OK by me, though; it’s much easier to paint an empty room!
My boy wanted stripes, and this was the quilt we were able to agree on for the basis for his room.
The first thing to get painted, though, was the CEILING! In this house the walls AND ceilings are all the same beige. I am NOT a fan of beige ceilings, so someday they will ALL be painted!
It’s amazing how much a just changing the ceiling color lightened up the room (I used Sherwin Williams Eminence Ceiling Paint in Creamy).
We decided to pull the green out of the quilt for the wall color. Again, we were trying to lighten things up a little (color is Sherwin Williams Super Paint in Rice Paddy). Sorry for the cell phone picture here!
Next step was the give the walls a little character. I taped off a wide stripe and painted it the same white as the room trim…
…the I used MORE tape to divide that large white stripe into some smaller stripes. I looked really good climbing around the room with three rolls of tape on my arm, like bracelets!
And this is how it turned out! I have to tell you that the paint bled LIKE CRAZY on the red and blue stripes, and I have no one to blame but myself. You can get good results if you really seal the edges of the tape well with a plastic scraper or credit card. You get GREAT results if you do that AND paint over the edges of the tape with your base color. You get lousy results if you skip step one, even if you do step two. Ugh. I had a lot of touching up to do…
…but you can’t tell now!
Next step….I promise I actually BUILD something!
Continue Reading →We’ve been in our new Washington home for almost five months now. Our home has four bedrooms on the second floor, and one bedroom on the main level of the house. Looking forward to the day when my parents will visit, I knew that I wanted the main-level bedroom to also function as a “guest room,” even though my teenage son occupies it most of the time.
This is what his room looked like for the first few months after we moved in. Not too special, is it??
The furniture was transferred out of the never-quite-completed “pirate” bedroom in our Utah home (below), and it was put together for a different son! You can see, though, that a thirteen-year-old boy might not be as excited about the same decor.!
So I had a brain-storm. Obviously I have been on a bit of a furniture-building kick (that may be an understatement), and I said to myself, “How would it be to build all the furniture for my son’s bedroom??”
Oooh…challenge extended….
…challenge accepted…!
There has been some tricky navigation going on between me and my son…I want him to have a room that he can enjoy, but something that also will be suitable for guests…AND it has to be something that I can get excited about working on!
So one of the first steps was to decide on colors so I could tackle the painting. Stripes were a must, as well as healthy dose of red.
I bought and returned three quilts/comforters before I came across this one at Home Goods, which we could both agree on!
With that as a start, it was time to start painting!
Stay tuned for part 2!
Continue Reading →A few weeks ago, a new plan appeared on Ana White’s page for a Woven-back bench, and I was smitten!
I promptly e-mailed my friend for whom I have built a table, buffet, coffee table, and the gray bench, knowing she was on the look-out for a bench to put outside at her new home…I’m nice like that. She fell in love with it too, so I had an excuse to build!
The construction of the body of the bench is pretty straight-forward. One tricky part is that the back pieces are cut out of a 2×4 to have an angle to them, which makes the back much more comfortable! I traded homemade bread for another go at the band saw, like I did for this project.
I’m thinking a Mother’s Day band saw sounds nice…
Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that piece, but I was pretty proud of myself for cutting them, so you at get to hear about it anyway!
The beautiful woven back was challenging, but fun!
I’m learning that for these angled pieces, it’s easiest to cut one angle, hold the piece in place, and then make a pencil line where the other angle goes.
Everything fits better, and I make fewer mistakes that way!
I had NO desire to drill ninety-eleven pocket holes to hold all these short pieces together…
And that may be (in some measure) due to the fact that while drilling pocket holes, I caught a still-spinning drill bit in my jeans just behind my right knee. I was left with a good-sized hole in my jeans, but thankfully a much smaller one in the skin behind them!
…so after dry-fitting everything, I used glue and 2” brad nails to hold it all together. Then I could slip everything back in place.
Ta-da! I took a picture of it and sent it to my friends! I’m geeky like that.
The most frustrating part?? Running out of boards to finish the seat! But I still posted a sneak peak on Facebook!
My friend wanted a dark walnut stain. I learned another lesson…staining all those short pieces BEFORE assembly would have been a good idea! There were a lot of little corners to get in to.
One change I made to the plans was to add a 2×4 cross brace under the middle of the seat (it runs perpendicular to the seat slats, and attaches by pocket holes to the front and back frame pieces). When my 100-lb son sat down and it made an ominous creaking sound…I decided a little extra support was in order! Now we can both sit on it, and it’s quiet as can be!
It looked so inviting, I thought I’d “break it in” for my friend and have a little snack out on the bench on a beautiful day…
…but I took too long snapping pictures, and one of the local wildlife got to my snack first!!
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Thanks to Elizabeth & Co. for featuring this project!
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In case you were wondering how I got started on my table-building spree…I’m here to tell the tale!
Our new home has an actual dining room, and I’ve spent WAY too much time dreaming and wondering and imagining what kind of table I’d like to put in there…
I fell in love with this look first…
…as well as this one.
The Pottery Barn table (above) particularly made my heart go pitty-pat. I love the fact that it is large enough to seat eight people (since there are that many of us), and it also extends to seat even more. What I didn’t love was the price—anywhere between $1700-$2500, depending on if you were in store, on-line, or standing on your head (meaning…there is no rhyme or reason to it).
I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I’m just too cheap frugal.
So I decided to try building my own table. I had wanted to try building something for a long time, and surely this was my golden opportunity! It wouldn’t extend, but I figured the money I would save would make me feel better about it!
So I started with this one:
…and then I sold it.
Then I made another:
…and another:
I sorta-kinda joked with my husband that if I could only build and sell five or six tables, I could afford the Pottery Barn one! But really, I was having so much fun building tables, I couldn’t bring myself to stop!
After building three of the same style table, I decided to make some small changes to get closer to that PB one I loved. And this is what I came up with.
I followed the measurement of the PB table almost exactly. I wanted the maximum possible room between the legs for the people sitting on the sides.
I swapped out the super thick top with breadboard ends for a thinner version. I used three 1×10’s and two 1×8’s, and skipped the breadboard ends.
I liked the pretty little brackets that detailed the legs on the PB table, so I made some of my own.
I don’t have a band saw, so I had to be nervy and make my husband ask a new neighbor if *I* could borrow theirs 
…but I made homemade cinnamon rolls for payment!
Here are my pretty little brackets…aren’t they cute??
You may recognize the bench from here. I liked how its curves complemented the table, even though I didn’t choose to keep it!
The chairs were purchased from World Market when they were on sale. The kids are jealous that their dad and I get the GOOD chairs! Especially since they don’t actually have chairs yet; I’m still on the hunt for those!
So that’s my version of the PB Solomon dining table. It doesn’t extend. But it’s solid wood and cost about a tenth of the price to make (and that’s on a good day).
I’m sure you’re all dying to know…are you keeping the table??
Well….no.
Oh, go ahead. Roll your eyes if you want to.
But remember how I said it was fun to build tables?? Well, it IS! And I keep having new ideas I want to try out, and you can’t just keep building tables if you also aren’t selling them at the same time…
So I sold it.
We got to eat Easter dinner at it first.
But now it’s gone.
My husband thinks we should put a revolving door in the dining room.
He may be right!
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Continue Reading → I seem to be “in the middle” of SO many projects in my own home, that I can’t quite bring myself to blog about any of them! So what do I do? I run off to the Ruffles & Rust Inspiration House on Saturday to get ideas for MORE projects!
It’s such a fun idea…the gals behind Ruffles & Rust teamed up with a new home builder to fill a brand-new home with all sorts of treasures. For five days, you could go drool over the house and it’s contents (not really; they discourage drooling), and EVERYTHING was for sale! Including the house!
Come visit with me…
This was the sight that greeted you when you first entered the house <sigh>. So many lovelies!
This was probably my biggest temptation in the whole house. I think it would look amazing in the office (yes, that’s one of the projects I’m still in the middle of), but I figured I couldn’t figure out where to put it AND my card catalog.
An Underwood typewriter! I have one of those; it makes me happy!
Loved the grouping of gold-framed chalkboards…and the theater seats!
The chippy metal table and child’s chair made my heart go pitty-pat…
Even the pantry was decked out! How fun to get to decorate a house where you don’t have to find places for “real-life” things…like FOOD!
I love the look of the pretty tray on the counter. I could do that…except it would shortly be buried in mail, homework, and—dare I admit—crumbs!
Love this little egg holder! I wonder if I could make a reasonable facsimile??
Great chippy table, but my favorite thing on it were the cute egg cups!
One room was decked out as a home office, and it may have been my favorite. It was just very chic!
I thought this organizer board was cute, and easy to recreate.
I loved the bookcase; it has sides made out of what looks like hardware cloth.
What a pretty master bedroom! I have a weakness for sleigh beds, although my tall husband would never go for one!
This sweet dresser is so feminine and pretty.
Another bedroom was decked out in pink, white, and gray. I would love to find a pair of wooden beds for my girls’ room someday!
The boy’s room had this cute little alcove that was perfect for a desk of sorts.
The whole room had a nautical feel. Loved this bed!
…As well as the Ladder to Nowhere!
Even the bathrooms were full of treasures. The bottles on this little shelf were such a pretty green color. I have some aqua bottles, but no green! I’m feeling left out!
The next bedroom was for a dog lover! There were several dog beds for sale.
I am admittedly NOT a dog lover, but I loved this painting!
Every night the house had to be re-stocked as items sold, and so they were pulling items from the store. The “Market” sign is one of mine. It was fun to see it there! I spotted one of my canvases as well.
The garage was stuffed full of goodies for sale. I have a weakness for cubbies…
…I especially loved this piece. It may have been a mail sorter? I have no idea what I’d do with it; I just love the look!
And I loved this short little armoire with the baskets on top. Someday I must have an armoire, just so I can put baskets on top of it!
Continue Reading →Hope maybe YOU found some inspiration in these pictures! My project list is growing by leaps and bounds!
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Thanks to the Ruffles & Rust team for all their hard work and imagination!
I’ve had this little project completed for a while, but it wasn’t my favorite, so I haven’t gotten around to posting it.
I built this bench based on plans that are in Ana White’s book The Handbuilt Home. I made mine a little longer to go with a table that has yet-to-be blogged about as well!
It’s just a simple little pine bench that is made special by some decorative cut-outs. I hand-drew my curves out on a piece of paper, cut them out, and then traced them onto my wood. I cut out the shapes with a jigsaw.
Would you believe I still have the piece I cut out for the leg? It was just too cute to throw away!
I had in mind that I wanted this bench to be aqua, but on the day I needed to buy paint, the line was SO LONG at Lowe’s that I picked up one of their pre-made sample pots instead of the color I wanted. I got “pale aqua” instead of “aqua.”
And it’s an OK color…just not the one I wanted!!
I distressed and glazed it, but I still thought the color was a little anemic for me. I mean, if I want color, I want COLOR!
Yes, I know it’s just paint and I could re-paint it…but it’s hard to get up enough ambition to re-do a project you just did!
So you guessed it………… I sold it….
On to the next project!
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Continue Reading → I hope you’re not tired of these tables yet! This is the third farmhouse table I built, although it is trifle smaller to fit in a smaller space. I think this one is just about 62” long. I also built a 48” bench to go along with this table, and I think they look so cute together!
It’s kind of fun to have an empty dining room so I can have revolving dining tables!
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Dining table is a modification of the Ana White Farmhouse Table.
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Continue Reading → Even before we moved to the Seattle area, I had heard from my little sister about a delightful little tourist-trap of a town called Snohomish. Isn’t it just lucky that our new home is only 10 miles from there?
One of our first outings then, naturally had to be to check out all the fun shops that line the main street of town. There are several that are definitely worth a visit, but one of my favorites is Ruffles & Rust. So one day when I was feeling particularly brave (it doesn’t happen that often), I asked one of the proprietors if maybe…possibly…if it wasn’t too much trouble…would they be interested in having some of my wares in their shop?? When she said YES, I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day!
Although I dropped off a few things (just to test the waters) last week, I had to go back to take a few pictures of what MY things look like in their delightful store! And of course, I have to share 
Here are a couple of my ever-popular “Biscuits & Gravy” signs…
“Lemonade”’ and “I Love You Like Cupcakes” make an appearance…
Here’s one of my great big beadboard flags…
One of my “extra” chalkboards perches up high…
Here’s a “You are the Bubbles to my bath” canvas. You can’t tell, but “Bubbles” and a few of the bubbles are glitter-i-fied!
I made two folding tabletop chalkboards like the ones from That’s My Letter. These turned out so cute; I’m in love!
One thing that made me laugh was seeing my little chalkboard easel next to the Flea Market sign—because I made my own version of it last year! It made me do a little bit of a double-take!
There were a couple of things that I couldn’t find, and I hope that means they have sold to someone who will love them like I do!
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I do love selling through my Etsy shop, but there’s just something about a brick-and-mortar store, you know?? Don’t miss Ruffles & Rust if you’re in the area!
Continue Reading →I think I posted three times last week, but we all knew I would never keep that up!
I have busily been working on a batch of new signs which are going on display at Ruffles & Rust in Snohomish, on consignment. I am so excited to have my work appear in an actual store, for the first time! So cross your fingers for me…or if you’re in the area, drop in and rave about them, even if you don’t buy anything, OK??
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In my spare time, I have been working on a new bench for some of my favorite people (they commissioned a table, buffet, and coffee table previously).
This is Ana White’s Providence Bench, although this one has a top made from three 2×6’s rather than four 2×4’s, ala Shanty 2 Chic.
I was supposed to stain this bench gray…and what a disaster that turned out to be! I have been a faithful Minwax fan, but there’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about Rustoleum stains, so I decided to try the “sunbleached” color.
Can I just say….ugh!
Where the gray “took,” it was a lovely shade, but everywhere else the wood turned a very unflattering yellowish-orange shade. I was not impressed. Subsequent attempts to alter the color with additional coats of stain (first Rustoleum…then Minwax) did not impress it in the least.
So I resorted to my old friend…paint.
While I left the some of the gray-stained wood showing, I dry-brushed white and gray paint in layers over the orange. I finished up with a glaze of ebony stain (Minwax brand, for sure), and it highlighted all the carefully contrived distressing I allowed my 11-year-old boy to give to the bench (it was the highlight of his day, honestly).
I was nervous that the new owners might be disappointed in a painted finish rather than a stained one, but they don’t seem to be!
Whew!
And you know what? I think it looks pretty fabulous myself!
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