Large Alcove Shelves - painted

Just to prove I haven’t been slacking, here is a photo of what the large alcove cupboard and shelves look like now:

I haven’t fitted the top shelf and support, yet, as we are having a new fuse box fitted in March and I’ll only have to take them out again. I also need to repair the white paint on the walls and wait a couple of days for the paint to harden before piling the shleves with TVs, books, etc.

The thing I learnt most over the weekend is that I’m lousy at getting doors to fit. The ones at the end are wonky in so many directions, even though I made sure everything was square. I can live with that for now, but I might have to redo them at a later date. It has made me revisit my plans for the kitchen, though, as I was planning on making face frame cabinets, but now I’m not so sure.

Art on Demand

I’m going to spend today doing the final fitting and finishing on the alcove cupboard and shelves. Amazingly, when by rights I should be thoroughly sick of the whole DIY thing, I’m really looking forward to March 5th, when I start on the kitchen rebuild and do the Apartment Therapy cure on the sitting room to pull it all together. Things are stacking up in the kitchen - we have two cookers in there at the moment, my fold out ironing board arrived yesterday and there’s enough wood lying around to build a galleon. But at least I have a plan.

I spent a few merry hours last night looking through the Tate’s collections for inspiration for the type of piece I would like to hang above the fireplace in the sitting room. As I have been building the shelves, an image has been growing in my mind of a large black and white etching. While I was willing to pay some serious-ish money for a limited edition print if I found one in a gallery that I liked, I actually stumbled across what I think is perfect at the Tate:

Yup, it’s a Jackson Pollock. I love the energy in it and I think it will lift the sitting room way out of the twee-cottage danger zone it could easily slip into if I’m not careful. The Tate have a great service whereby you can order prints of things from their collection at the size you want (custom prints), but this one was actually already in their Art on Demand section, which works out a lot cheaper. The image above is how they say it will look at the size I want (BIG!) with a plain black frame and ivory mount.

I love it, but I do have to check with the other resident of the house that he likes it, too. Fingers crossed.

Apartment Therapy Spring Cure

The AT Spring Cure starts on Monday, 5th of March. I really want to join in, but have been wondering how best to do this.

A complete deep treatment of the whole house? As I’ll be building the kitchen at the same time and the house will be full of bits of wood and wotnot, that doesn’t seem very practical.

A one-room remedy on the kitchen? Again, not a good idea, as it will be a building site. Besides, as I know what I’ve got to do, I don’t really need the cure process to get it done.

So, I have decided to join in with the aim of completing the finishing touches on the sitting room. Most of my energy will be going into the kitchen, but as that’s mostly heavy duty carpentry and plumbing it will be good to have a more decorative project going on at the same time. So that means arranging knick-knacks, hanging art, making cushions, refining my landing strip, etc. Sounds fun!

I’m on track for finishing the big stuff in the sitting room by March 5th. Work is very busy at the moment, but one of the benefits of working from home is that I can grab a saw and make progress during the brief lulls. I plan to get the shelf supports drilled into the wall today, so the whole large alcove should be finished by the end of the weekend. Phew.

We have light!

We now have new lights in the sitting room - I got the wrong end of the stick and the kitchen lights are actually being done next month along with the rest of the electrics (although Pete did put the kitchen light onto dimmer switch, in case we feel the glare of that lonely bulb too much).

This is the sitting room ceiling now:

The difference it makes to the room is amazing. So much more cheerful, and it also seems much, much bigger. I’ve arranged with Pete that he’ll come back to do all the kitchen stuff mid-March-ish, so I’ve now got to buckle down and get this room finished and start on the kitchen. My plan is to finish off the sitting room by March 5th (or the big stuff, anyway), which is only two weeks away. I might leave off painting until the whole downstairs is done, though, as I’m sure much more mess is to come.

New Lights

I’m holed up in my study at the moment, very excited, because the electrician is downstairs installing our new lights. For years, the total extent of our downstairs lighting has been this:

You can see the one dim kitchen light at the back of the photo. That has made things especially hard - you can’t see to wash up after dark, and whatever you are doing is cast into shadow. So we are having fifteen halogen spotlights installed downstairs - on dimmer switches - which should make the world of difference. It’s also amazingly luxurious to have something happen to the house that doesn’t involve me doing all the work. I’m just making coffee and tea and decisions.

Another bonus is that Pete (the electrician) had to take up a floorboard in the bedroom to get access to the ceiling space and, after pulling back the carpet and removing some hardboard, we discovered that we actually have very nice floorboards upstairs. They’d need sanding and varnishing, but are very attractive. But that’s a project for another day.

(Wood)Work in Progress

I have finally made some progress on the near-mythical large alcove shelves. I got the mdf cut on Monday and over the past two evenings I have made this:

It’s all pretty sturdy so far, although I have strained the tendon in my wrist again and sawn off a bit of my thumb to boot. I hope to get the internal shelves in and doors on by the end of the week and spend the weekend doing the trim and the shelves above.

Sofa webbing - before and after

Mission accomplished! With some help from Jim, I have redone the sofa webbing, and learnt a new skill to boot. Before, the springs were mostly unsupported and it looked like this:

Now (after learning how to use a webbing stretcher - a pleasingly simple tool), it looks like this:

Not a bad job, even though I say so m’self. It could be a one-person job, but it was good to have some help. The hardest part was taking off the old webbing and prising out all the tacks. It’s now all covered with hessian and the right way up - and is very comfortable.

Little Chair Fabric

I have discovered the little flower on my camera, which allows me to take close-ups, so finally I bring you a decent photo! On Friday, I went charity shopping with a friend and stopped off at my favourite fabric shop to get some fabric to reupholster the little chair in the sitting room. I wanted something fun, as it’s a fun little chair and I got this fabric and braid:

I also picked up a fabric remnant to make some pyjamas: