THE MAKING OF A BENCH

Once again I had to show you the after first.

There was really no before, as far as furniture goes.

This one was made from scratch.

Continue on and I'll take you through the process.

Hope you enjoy.

First, you start with this.

A very large pine tree.

It's bigger then it looks in this picture.

After the trees were taken down, they were sent to the sawmill.

They hung around for a few years to dry out in my dads shop.

Then they were chosen for said project.

My bench.

Here are the boards before they were run through the planer.

This is what they look like afterward.

You choose your boards, then glue and clamp.

Or should I say, my dad glues and clamps the boards.

I designed what I wanted and he did the building.

This is the top of the bench after the boards are glued together.

 Here are some of the boards ripped for side pieces and support pieces.

This is what the end pieces look like.

My dad suggested putting the ends on a foot.

I love the look.

This is the bottom of the bench with ends,

supports and side rails all put together.

This is the seat just sitting on the top.

The edges still have to be rounded and a lot, and I mean a lot of sanding to be done.

That was one of my contributions to the project.

Lots of sanding to make it smooth for all the bottoms

that will be sitting on it.

The piece has now been moved to my house

and is ready for the staining process.

That's my other contribution.

The finisher.

I decided to stain the bottom portion of the bench a dark walnut.

But I wanted something different for the top.

I love all shades of blue and I use it everywhere in my house.

So I knew a blue bench would look good.

I got a few looks when I told people I would be doing it blue

(You know what I mean). But I went with my idea anyway.

This was a semi-transparent stain by Olympic called, Rivers-Run.

I ended up putting 3 coats on there to get the color I wanted.

Then topped it with 3 coats of polyurethane. 

I brought everything inside to put it together.

That top is so heavy it took two people to carry it in.

I forgot to mention the bench is 9 feet long.

 Turned it all upside down and screwed that baby together.

While it was upside down I wrote a little info about the bench for future generations.

Here's a close up of the finished bench.

I had gotten tired of all those big chairs and thought a bench would be a great change.

It will end up allowing more people to sit around the table

at our family meals and gatherings.

 As I said, I designed it, but my dad built it.

My dad can build anything and has built a lot of the furniture in my house.

This man is 91 years old.

91-people and still goes down to his shop everyday.

What a blessing.

Hope you enjoyed my walk through of how this bench came to be.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6

Feel free to leave a comment.

REFINISHING AN OLD CHEST

Usually I would show the before of a project

before I show the after, but this one turned out

so good I wanted it to be the first picture you saw.

This is a chest that a friend gave me that had been his mothers'.

Maybe 60-70 years old.

This is the before picture.

It had once been stained and his mother had

painted over that.

Being that it is so old I don't think it had been

primed before it was painted.

Here's more of a close up.

As you can see the paint was cracked and peeling.

But I saw potential.

After scrapping, sanding, more scrapping and more sanding

I was finally able to start priming.

For some reason I failed to get a picture of the piece before

I started the priming. Just let me say, it

was a lot of work.

But anyway, here are the drawers all primed and ready for paint.

Here they are painted and ready for the antiquing step.

I took off the brass hardware and just washed

them in warm soapy water.

Here they are all cleaned up.

Here are some close up shots.

I thought the antiquing would show off the details of the chest.

Quite a bit of fancy details.

Fancy feet on the front.

More detail.

Another shot of the full piece.

I decided to put it upstairs in the kids bedroom.

Those are the kids piggy banks.

But there you have it, my new-old chest.

The Lord is my light and my salvation-

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life-

of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1

Feel free to leave a comment. I love to read them. Thanks

Green Tri-Table

I ran across this interesting table at a thrift store.

Of course, I bought it.

I had never seen anything like it.

It still had it's little brass feet.

Since the top was the only part that needed help

I left the bottom stained and just painted the top.

Please ignore the lovely cords.

And the slightly fuzzy picture.

I painted it a bright green.

Then went over it lightly with walnut stain.

Lastly I topped it with polyurethane.

 Pretend those cords aren't there again.

A little closer look.

Yummy dog treats available for sweet Molly.

If anyone knows anything about the style of this table

please let me know.

...perfect in beauty,

God shines forth.

Psalm 50:2