Mass Wood working: the

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Monday, February 24, 2014

THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF MRS P white bedroom display

The Passionate Home and 4 the love of WOOD have teamed up for the summer to have some fun and

to bring you a grand story told through the Passionate Home store displays and shared through 4 love

of WOODs blog and both of our Facebook pages ... The first install can be read here.

And so The Great Adventures Of Mrs. P. continue ...

Carrie and I took another adventure this week with Mrs. P.

We decided to take a look inside her drawers and create her bedroom right in the middle of the shop,

with a glimpse of her taste in beautiful clothes and classic jewellery.

Ill bet if you have been in The Passionate Home you never saw all these amazing pieces.

I didnt see them until Mrs. P stepped through the front doors.

I personally have a white rabbit living at the end of my hallway and when I see him watching over

things it makes me feel a bit child like and happy. It doesnt matter how old we

get we can still remember how good it felt to have magic in our lives as a child.

Being a figment of my imagination Mrs. P must have great taste in furniture,

and this vintage solid oak cabinet with crystal door knobs doesnt disappoint.

Let me show you a close up of the ornate top ...

Every Sunday night after dinner Mrs. P carries all her candles one by one and sets them up

in the bathroom where the water runs for her long soak in the tub.

Im usually fighting for the remote on Sunday nights, how about you Carrie?

A local artist dropped off some new items while Mrs. P was visiting and I couldnt

help but include one of their lovely pink rose book marks with her bedside reading.

As soon as you have a chance please come into The Passionate Home and check out the

new bedroom display and see if you can see Mrs. P hanging out close by.

Our summer displays will only be lasting a week or two before we set out on another adventure

to discover the life and world of Mrs. P.

Thank you for following along and keep watching for our next journey.

We dont even know where Mrs. P is taking us!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

THE LONG ROAD TO BEAUTY black antiqued chest

This black chest started out as a second hand find George found last month.

It was one of those projects that went south right away.

I decided to get a better handle on the milk paint.

I did learn how to mix it better for the sprayer.

Over the course of that evening the paint started to flake ..... EVERYWHERE I had sprayed it!

This photo of the original drawer handle shows what was happening pretty well.

If you look closely its not chipping shabby chic style its flaking everywhere.

Fortunately I didnt spray the sides, which ended up saving me some time later.

I moved on to the hardware.

I didnt care for the style or placement of what came on it,

so I filled those holes in and found the right spot.

Searched high and low for a nice complementary set of 8 handles that would work.

But only found 2 sets of 4 so they had to be matched up.

In came the oil rubbed bronze paint by Rustoleum.

Now back to the drawers, measuring and drilling new holes.

Ill show you how nicely they turned out shortly.

Next thing needed was to remove the broken apron and do some repairs,

Before adding new legs bought at Windsor Plywood.

The milk paint was adhereing to the top surface better,

and was looking pretty neat with all the chipping and flaking that still occured there.

With a great amount of sanding and poly I got it to this point, and very happy with it.

So I decided to match up the sides to have the same look, but without using

the dreaded milk paint.

I used a black wash with regular paint and poly.

After a month of having it sit on the side lines it was now time to deal with the

crappy flaking paint on the drawer fronts.

So one morning I sat in the shade and hand sanded every inch of them,

before masking off the top and sides to get it ready for good ole primer.

and then a beautiful smooth black spray job.

New handles added,

a bit more poly and wax,

And she is shining like never before.

I did try out some distressing but both George and I liked the sleek black look better.

It has a great antiqued effect on the sides and top,

and with the wax and poly it is so soft and smooth.

She would make an excellent TV stand in someones living space.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Small Gift Boxes continued The Hackberry Box

Hi Everyone,

Well its Tuesday and its time to get back down to the wood shop and do some work.

Picking up where we left off-its time to work on the lids for the gift boxes and possibly refine the designs a little bit so were going to work on the hackberry box first.

This box if you remember wasnt my favorite of the lot. The wood is very soft and friable and it tears the second a tool is applied to the surface. And the color wasnt at all interesting. I turned it into a small calabash shape and left it for the weekend to think about it a bit.

I decided to leave this box alone as it has a good shape for its size and the color isnt the worst thing in the world. It does need a well thought out lid to take it from a small wooden box to something that is eye pleasing and useful.

I looked through some books and decided to make a Raffan-style lid for it. Raffan boxes are named after Richard Raffan, the Australian wood turner who popularized this style and is well known in the wood turning world (you can see his webpage and his box style at http://www.richardraffan.com/node/105). The boxes have lids which tend to be rounded, often employ a flange-like structure at the base of the lid, and often feature short, triangular-shaped finials on them.

I think a Raffan-style lid is what the box needs and so Im going to give it a shot.

Here we go:

I have a lovely scrap piece of maple in the shop and I thought the color would work well with the box so I proceeded to make a turning blank and place it on the lathe:

A split second after I gently touched the wood with the tool, it promptly split off a big chunk of wood. So this had to be discarded and I started over again:

I looked around the shop and I didnt immediately see anything that would work for the lid. As I was beginning to do the wringing of hands-knashing of teeth thing, I spotted a small block of linden wood and decided to make the lid out of this. Its the right color, and its thick enough for what I needed it for:

So I placed it on the lathe and turned a small tenon on the top:

And flipped it over to turn the tenon on the underside which will fit into the box:

And since linden wood is soft, that took all of about 2 minutes to do:

Once that was finished I flipped it over again and began to shape the top of the lid:

First I trued up the edge:

And then took it off the lathe and set it on the box. Its wide enough to proceed:

This lid is going to have a finial on the top, a rounded center, and a flange on the base. The first thing I did was to remove the wood between the two lines on the lid in the photograph:

And this step produced this shape. Next I rounded off the sloping area and rounded off the edges of the flange:

And I took it off the lathe to look at it again. The finial needs to be created next:

Here you can see the finial on the top. I turned away some of the rounded section and flattened it a little-I thought it was beginning to take on that hand-grenade shape I seem to be famous for. This gave me material to turn the finial. Here it is with a finial:

I then smoothed the edges and narrowed the finial just a little and then sanded it. Hmmm, it doesnt look half bad.
Im going to stop with this box and look at it for another day or so and then determine whether to discard it and begin again or to finish it off.

The next box to deal with is the cedar of Lebanon box. As its really hot here, Im going to stop here momentarily and go inside and cool off a bit. Be back in a few minutes.