Table top
This table's been in the family for quite a while. It started as a rescued counter-height art table with wheels and a weird linoleum top. Then I gave it a paint job, replaced the top with a pine board, and chopped off the legs to make a table for my then toddler.Here's the newest version: coffee table with solid oak top with reconditioned and repainted body and added shelf. Cat sold separately. Sorry I didn't take more pictures but I was on a quick schedule and didn't take time out to shoot process pics.
Desk hutch/bureau thing
You will see in the fist image below that the cat and I use an old kitchen table as a desk. This table was one of my first refinish job that really propelled me toward woodworking (thanks table!)(actually thanks goes to my mom who first bought the table and later gifted it to me when she moved). It could probably be refinished. I have not been kind. But that's for another time.
The upside to using a table as a desk is that I really don't need the whole surface and can comfortably use the back half for my stereo. The downside is that it looks, well, blah. So I made a simple, yet functional, hutch/bureau thing. It's pretty rare that I use paint on projects (vs natural oils and shellac), but I used some rescued and recycled cedar that was in less than perfect condition so the paint helped hide some of that.
Thirteen going on Undead Hunter
A young lady that I am close with turned 13 this fall. I wanted to give her something that she would cherish and keep forever, and while you might expect I'd make a jewelry box or a hope chest, that would only prove that you've never met this young woman. She shares my dark sense of humor and love for all things macabre (as do her parents, whom I adore), so instead of something traditional in the expected sense, I went traditional in a whole other sense, a very (very very) old world sense: a vampire hunting kit.
The original idea was to simply offer one or two wooden stakes. Maybe whittled, maybe turned. I wasn't sure. As I really started to sketch this out, it quickly grew into more. The eventual plan was to create two stakes, a mallet, and a coffin shaped box to house the set. Up first are the mallet and stakes. The mallet is made of very old (and weathered) oak. The stakes are made of maple, one birdseye maple, the other curly maple. The monogram on each was transferred using laser paper and heat, and then completed using a wood burning tool. All three were finished with Dutch Oil and many coats of shellac. I finished the stakes before sharpening them so they would have that raw wood contrast in the points.
As I said before, the plan was to build a coffin shaped box for these items to live in, but the more I sketched and planned, the was a seed of doubt that I would be happy with the construction based on the materials I wanted to use. I visited Hobby Lobby to pick up some details for the box, some metal corner protecters, hinges, and a latch and by the time the math was done, it was more economical—in terms of both time and money—to go with a pre-made box, of which Hobby Lobby has many. So, no, not only did I not make a coffin box, I also did not make a box whatsoever. I've made boxes and will do so again, but for this project... I didn't. Simply put the box I found was outstripped my expectations for a box I could make for the same cost—I mean this box has leather straps, protected metal corners and such—and it was 50% off. So there.
On the outside the box looks cool; no doubt. The inside however proved a different story altogether, because now I had a space—a completely empty box—in which the stakes and mallet could fit, but HOW would they fit? I won't lie, I had fun doing this, but it was a challenge. The box isn't square— and by that I mean most of the angles aren't really 90°, and most of the sides aren't really straight—so I ditched my rulers and dug out my calipers and got to work creating spaces for each item, adding glassware to the project to help round out the kit. There's a pull-out tray where the stakes rest (and a 'hidden' drawer in the side of the tray). Under the tray theres spaces for the mallet and the glassware.
Every measurement, cut and corner is unique in this thing, which is why I take deep pride in it's execution.
The finish is unique as well as it had to match (for the most part) the outside. Black spray paint, layered with stain (which contains turpentine so it activates the spray paint, allowing it to be thinned, moved and effectively aged), and shellac to dry the whole thing out. The resting surfaces (where the stakes, mallet, and glassware touch the box) are all covered in black felt to reduce wear and rub-off.
Finally a monogramed bit of wood affixed under the lid to finish the whole thing off.
