Craft day

What I knitted while taking a break from blogging...

My first experience of amateur restoration. The first and the last, I think. (Guest post by Marina Zabrodina)

This is a guest post by an illustrator Marina Zabrodina. You can find her previous guest posts here and here.

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So, I decided to give second life to the bedside table rotting in a shed, that was lucky to get my eyes on it on one sunny June day...

Here it is:

It was very old... made at least seventy years ago of solid wood and plywood (I think).

This is what I needed to do to give it a decent look and make it usable:

• to sand the surface and remove the old paint as much as possible,

• to replace the rear wall that was rotten and partially eaten by some bug,

• to replace the bottom,

• to replace the shelf,

• to replace the lid,

• to put a few wooden patches over the holes for the the door hinges on both sides, 

• to patch and sand the cabinet,

• to paint it,

• to put a wooden patch on the door,

• to patch and sand the door,

• to paint the door

• to re-make the drawer,

• to decorate the surface by using pyrography technique for the drawer front, the lid and the shelf, 

• to decorate the door with a piece of tapestry,

• to replace the missing handles,

• to hang the door on the hinges.

That was the exact plan. Thank you for reading the list)

Then everything went not according to the plan at all!

I would like to start with showing the pictures of the dismantled cabinet.

This is my favourite picture

Let's continue if you are still reading. I sanded the cabinet first, and then painted it right away with the oil enamel. I do not know why. I would prefer not to admit that, but the pictures would give me away :)

This is the back. I coated the inner side of the cabinet with the enamel and stained the outer side.

Then I made a shelf and stained it.

Then suddenly I remembered that I had a plan, so I started working on the patches.

I patched the door too (there was a hole there)

Then I made new bottom and new drawer:

I will admit that I got some help with the handle :)

Then I spray-painted the cabinet with a matte paint. By the way, it stuck to the oil enamel well. I think it worked out for me that I brush-painted the surface first as my skill level of spray-painting was rather poor. 

I painted the door and glued a piece of tapestry on it:

I installed the shelf, then finished the bottom and glued the lid on the top:

I hung the door (ok, I admit that I got some help here too, as I was out of inspiration at that point :)

A few details:

As you can see, the cabinet is far from perfect. I achieved my goal to make it usable, though. Now it lives in my home. It does not look new, but that is acceptable for a cottage style cabinet :) 

It was my first experience. If I've known what I know now, I would do it differently and changed all wood instead of patching it. 

Here is "Before and After" picture:

In the house:

Thank you for looking!

Marina Zabrodina

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Before and after

Before and after. Fireplace.

A few years ago we've moved into a house that needed total renovation. We've changed everything: kitchen, two bathrooms, all bedrooms and the outside of the house. There could be many blog posts about "Before and after"! At that time I was very busy with my off-line life and did not even think of taking pictures...

We have moved again... This house does not have as much of what needs to be changed. However, some changes are needed to be done for sure. We started with a fireplace.

We needed to put our tv over the firplace just like we had it in our previous house. Otherwise we just did not know what to do with it. Also, we did not want that tile on floor, as it seemed to be dangerous for a child to fall onto.

I did not take this picture. I did not have time (I never do!). My husband starts his projects unannounced and works fast :)  I had been lucky to find a video of this house on a real estate web-site before it has been removed. This is the only screenshot that I managed to take.

The fireplace was not built in one day, so I managed to take the pictures of the process!

It is working! We tried it only a couple of times. This was the first time. The second time was when we put the tv up. Our tv was bigger than the recessed space for it. That was unlucky. The heat would melt it if we would use the fireplace. However, we are not going to turn it on anyway, as we do not want our child to burn his hand. It is there just to be and look good :)

A tv hanger is nowhere to be found in the stores! We had to order it online.

Yes, my husband did the fireplace himself as he is a licensed gasfitter