The china cabinet between the dining room and living room is finished so the wall paper border was installed and the stencils were painted.
China cabinet
Month: January 2021
New-Old Kitchen Storage
I wanted an open shelf storage unit for dishes above the dishwasher. We had 4 old shutters. I had already painted one side of two of them. At first I was planning to use the shutters for the sides and wood for the shelves, then I saw an idea using the shutters for shelves to stand plates upright. We went to the ReStore and I found 3 lovely pieces of wood. . I put in shelf supports and stained the wood Spring Oak. Cup holders hang from the shutter.
I still had two more shutters which I used to create a shelf unit beside the desk. The shelf brackets were found in our ‘stash’.I spray painted them bronze to give an older look. Five vintage knobs (again from our ‘stash’) finished the look.
There was a deep space between the refrigerator and the wall. We took two louvered bi-fold doors which we separated for the shelf sides. Steven found two hollow closet bi-fold doors which he cut up for the shelves. We ‘hung’ the shelves on the brass picture molding hooks which I had purchased for the living room.
Built-in China Cabinet between Dining Room and Living Room
The original house had built-in bookcases on each side of the doorway between the dining room and living room. On the way to church, we found the top of a hutch along the street. Steven removed some of the drywall so we could give it a built-in look. He is in the process of repurposing a wood counter top we had removed from an old cabinet that had been in the dining room. He recut it and is gluing two pieces together for the top. He will tung oil the top after it is sanded.
Inexpensive air cleaner
We saw instructions on making an air cleaner using 4 filters, a square of cardboard, a fan, and duct tape. We had a quiet 20″ x 20″ fan we had picked up along the street. We purchased the air filters and taped. It seems to be catching a lot of dust already.
Dresser antiqued for First Floor Bedroom
We needed a small dresser for the first floor bedroom. We had this cream colored dresser with beautiful drawer pulls. I repainted to match the wall paper and then added a burgundy top and details.
Old Pie Safe Restoring
Steven’s mother gave him this old pie safe many years ago. I found it in our crawl space and thought it would look great on the right side of the kitchen sink window. Steven agreed so I did a lot of scrapping.
Original Baseboard Trim
We saved all the old trim when we ‘deconstructed’ the house. The dining room trim had all been painted several times and I scraped and stripped it after which I restained. The living room trim had been left original. The base is in three parts. The wide basic baseboard is installed first and then topped with a curved trim piece. After we finish tung oiling the floor, quarter round will also be installed.
It is a slow process for Steven as we choose the best pieces to be used in each place and he miters the fit for each. The circumference around the china cabinet we are building in was the trickiest. After he cuts and installs the butcher block top, I will reinsert the glass shelves and reattach the doors.
First Floor Bathroom Window and Shower Curtains
The shower curtain is from a previous home and the window curtains came with the house.
Old has Become New Again
The antique loveseat we had been given had very worn cushions. The tufted back was too difficult for me to tackle so I chose to recover the cushions. We found a soft green that picked up the green in the old fabric and coordinated with the rest of the decor. I recovered the cushions.
It felt boring so I took the fabric from the worn cushions, cut away the most worn portions and made new pillows. I found green corduroy in my stash for one side so I could get 4 pillows instead of only 2. One pillow is smaller because the old cushion was extremely worn. I also made two pillows from fabric I had left from recovering the larger sofa. Two pillows on the sofa are reclaimed pillows used in a previous apartment. They were bleached to remove the old dye and then stained with tea.
