Twin beds part III: the finish. Or at least most of it.

Whelp, should have seen that coming. Who would have guessed, starting a new job and going to school meant there wasn't much project time around here for a while. But I managed to get some time this weekend, and I'm still not that much closer to getting anything finished. Turns out having someone else pick out the finish didn't save me any time on these. In fact, the girl picked a color I couldn't really find, so I had to get creative which even added some time.

And it's not like they picked crazy colors either. The boy went with red, and the girl just wanted pink. Plain pink. Apparently not a lot of paint companies have a plain pink furniture paint, but fortunately getting red for the boy meant I could use some white I already had and hopefully make a pink she found acceptable. That sounded a lot more acceptable to ME vs paying three times for pink matte than I paid for red glossy.

And whew! The red we went with is REALLY RED. Like, fire engine red. It works for the boy, since he wants pokemon sheets (ugh) to go with it.

Since I had white in the same paint type already, I hoped I could mix them and get an acceptable pink. What's more, I wanted to make enough that I didn't run out in the middle of the bed and have to try and mix more.

You know what would be good for a project like this? Those old folgers coffee cans that every dad seemed to have in his garage when I was a kid. I don't have any of those, but I do have some empty espresso cans around so that will have to do. It made me feel super-yuppie but gave things a lovely coffee smell.

Time to mad science some pink.

The blog motto: "Hey, that's not terrible."

Thankfully it worked. And something I learned: adding an extra complementary color can tone down the color you've created by mixing two other colors. The first mix was way too hot pink. I dropped a splash of blue in to make it a little more eyeball friendly, it worked great.

That is definitely pink

I've gotten the boy's bed entirely painted and polyed, and I'm trying to find the time to finish the girl's bed by next weekend so they can use them. It sounds like they already have mattresses ready to go, I just need to get them both completely finished before I break them down and take them over.

I also have some initials I was going to put on the headboard, but they might have to wait at this point. I'm writing this as a break from the actual paper I'm writing tonite; it's only an 8-10 pager, but I already cranked out a 5 pager last night and I admit, I'm starting to feel a little stressed about it. The longer one isn't due for a week but based on this week, I'm not going to have a lot of Mon-Fri time to get it done by midnight next Sunday, so here I sit for a while longer.

Twin beds part II; getting things together

Wow, that was easy. I can't believe something like a screen door ended up taking nearly a month to get together but I can have two twin beds together in basically a couple of days. Well, at least they're ready to paint at this point.

 

With the head and foot boards done, all I had to do next was trim the 1x4's to size for runners, and pick up two more 2x4s to split and attach so I had something to put slats on once they're cut. Like I said, easy.

I glued the split 2x4s on and let them sit overnight before adding some 2" wood screws. I clamped a scrap of the trimmed 2x4 on each end to make sure they were centered and would fit into the joints I had cut out.

I've only cut slats for one frame, I was more itching to get things together.

With those done, I clamped both beds together as a dry fit, and screwed the runners in once I confirmed I had things how I wanted them. Two twin beds took up more space than I was expecting, but it's still workable.

I wanted to prime them both before I put the colors on but like an idiot, I didn't put a drop cloth down before they were together. Getting one down was a bit of a challenge and the extra time it took meant I had to stop after priming instead of getting the furniture paint out. Ooops.

So now we've come to the part of every project where things grind to a halt as I have to finish each bed to the exacting standards of my children. There's going to have to be some disassembly and labeling too, to make it easier to get everything back together at the in-laws' house when they're done. That might make for an interesting next post.

Floating shelves for the boy

2x2 project number 2: getting the boy some shelves for even more flat surfaces for him to put his crap on.

I try not to be the parent always talking about how much better my kids have it than I did, but man oh man do my kids have it good. Without going into detail, let's just say our kids are not wanting for experiences or chances to explore what life has to offer. And the boy already has tons of trophies and medals to show for it. But along with the ridiculous amount of toys that show up any time the grandparents/uncles visit, all the trophies and medals are starting to clutter up his space. After stepping on some putting him to bed the other night, I thought it was time to make something to help get them out of the way for now.

Hence a pair of floating shelves, using all scrap from the media stand. 2x2's for the frames, boards for the actual shelves. Plus a few dowels to hang medals off of.

After the painters canvas I was pretty much down to some small scraps of the 2x2, so the two longest pieces dictated how long a pair of shelves would be. And I had scrap 1x12 and 1x10 to decide how deep they are, with leftover 1x3 to hang over the front. I was going to try and box the frames in completely but wasn't 100% sure the materials would be there. So I went simple instead. The frames would go into a stud, and I'd just lay the boards over them.

Getting a plan with lots of scrap to sort through.

I really need to clean at this point.

Kregged the 1x3 on with one edge needing a bit of a squeeze

Test fit from beneath

I added the dowels to one side of the bigger shelf to hang medals from, which had to get painted to match the rest of the frame. And since I was painting I lacquered the boards, leaving them natural.

Everything steady? Seems good...

Okay, think these will work for now.

This is my favorite part, obviously.

Getting these on was easy once we had decided how high and where to place them. They're each in one stud, with a drywall anchor too just in case. The shelf boards each got one screw in the back to keep it on the frame. Easy. I actually like how leaving them un-boxed turned out with the contrast and think these look good for now. They might not be permanent by any stretch but will do the job, and they'll be easy to replicate if he wants more later.


The last thing I want to do is just keep adding surface area for the boy to clutter up, but these are good for small stuff that's more for display vs playing with. Plus it's keeping his desk a lot clearer, just in time for school to start. Anyway, I think I've used up about all of my scrap now, so maybe I can actually get around to cleaning up which I keep putting off to do more of these small projects.

Pulaski Day is project day

Pulaski Day is primarily a Chicago holiday, named for Casimir Pulaski. Whether or not you get it off can depend on where in the area you work, but I've had it off since I started working on the south side and I love it! No complaints about an extra day off in March, regardless of who it's named for.

Last year I used it to get started on my patio table. This year it dedicated to getting a desktop together for the crib and getting ready to put it on so we can call this project complete. Of course this is after seeing Logan, since I couldn't get out of the office Friday to see it. Unfortunately, it was an idea a lot of other people had too, including the couple in front of my with their approx 15-month old. What? Oh well. I still really love a random day off.

This project has been great to work on a little bit at a time. I find myself really looking forward to carving out an hour here or there to work on it and it's gotten my excited about what else I have in mind for this spring and summer. Which is great, b/c if I was reading "Good Clean Fun" without something to work on I think I would have gone crazy.

Digging through boards at Menards today really drove that home too. Even if I did end up getting more expensive boards b/c the cheaper ones were all in lousy shape. One thing I would do very differently if I re-did the projects from a year ago - start with better boards and put them together with more care. So I don't mind paying $50 instead of $20, especially on a project for the kids. They looked good once I trimmed them and line them up on the crib at least.

Trimmed but not cut to fit yet.

I know there are better joinery techniques I could be learning and using for something like this, but some simple kreg joints and wood glue work for me. Clamp 'em up, get the screws in, and leave them alone for a while and they'll be good to go.

CLAMPS!

And inspiration has struck...

Leaving them alone is difficult though, b/c looking at the leftovers, and at the boards...do I have enough to add a lower shelf to the desk? Hmmmmmmmmm, I just might. Might want to put a cable grommet in there too in case things are still using power cords by the the time the kids are using this for homework. And suddenly I just added more work to something I thought I could finish today. Not sure how that happened. Still, I should have known better. Still have a lot of sanding, staining, and sealing in my future anyway.

A cut here, a saw there

I'm still under the weather but I had a few minutes to myself this weekend and I took a stab at getting the crib opened up so it could accommodate a desktop.

This crib was supposed to be modular: you can take the front off and have a daybed. Or you can take the sides off and with replacement rails have a full-sized bed frame. The only drawbacks are, we can't buy the rails for a 5-year old crib model, and with a wall out it's not overly sturdy. Plus, I didn't want the straight wall out, I wanted the curved wall out. So the reciprocating saw came out to play.

I figured four cuts would do it, and hoped that leaving the rails attached would give the remaining "U" shape additional stability. Two cuts in, things were looking okay.

Things ended up working fine. I like that so much I might just try to line up a desktop with the bottom of the rail instead of placing it lower for the kids. They can always find taller chairs to sit at it with. What I'm not going to like is having to sand and paint this entire thing to finish it, but since I'm still hacking crap up it might be weeks before I have a chance to do that anyway. Is it summer yet?

Who has time to turn a crib into a desk?

I’m getting surprisingly sentimental about some aspects of parenting, but getting rid of our crib does not strike me as anything to get emotional about. In fact, as we move the girl to toddler-friendly bed I’m excited to have the chance to re-use something that’s still pretty solid but outlived its initial usefulness. Excited, but also unsure of when exactly I’ll be able to get to work on this thanks to budget and time concerns. Oh well. I’ll find the time somehow.

If it's in the shop, it probably won't stay this way for long...

There is plenty to do though. This was not a terrible crib, but it’s been puked on, chewed on, and moved through three different locations, and at this point even with a few newborns in our social circle no one’s too keen on taking it off our hands. So I’m more than happy to have lots of steps ahead of me to convert it to a desk for the kids to use for art projects, and maybe even homework as they get older. 

Uh, yeah, lots of cleaning to do first. Years' worth of puke in there.

I somehow managed to keep posting while taking a class, teaching a class, working my normal full-time, and keeping family time going, so I’m sure I’ll find ways to work on this and the handful of other projects I want to work in in the foreseeable future. I just have to remember to take some pictures while I do to keep things interesting.  

I stole this idea

I don’t remember where I saw this idea, but at some point early on in having kids, I saw an example of someone using an old toy to create some cool bookends. They cut the toy in half and re-attached them to the bookends, which I thought was a neat way to incorporate something unique into a room. But our oldest was young enough to not really be into anything at the time, so the idea just kind of sat somewhere in my exhausted brain as I tried to survive kid #1, and then #2. 

Well it came bubbling back this weekend when I saw a seam in the middle of a dinosaur kid #1 had buried in the sandbox. Suddenly I had the perfect toy to try this on, just waiting to be ripped in half and put back together as something new. And if it was buried in the sandbox odds are it wouldn’t be missed, but it might add something to an already dinosaur-themed room.

Getting the basics together was simple: tear the toy in half, trim the plastic lip off, chop some spare boards to get a pair of L-shaped bookends together. Easy so far.

plenty of materials around to use...

Paint the bookends blue, the dinosaur white, and add some black highlights to create a little visual interest. Okay, getting slightly trickier but still not difficult.

I weirdly liked how these looked sticking off the box I used to paint them on.

Finish the bookends with poly coat and attach the dinosaur halves…okay, this part was a challenge.

After several glues and cursing, I think these are done.

Sometimes the biggest challenge of a project like this is matching up what’s in your head with what’s happening in-front of you. This was pretty close but getting the toy halves lined up with each other across the bookends and then getting them to stay still was a bit challenging. They kept sliding down from where I had them lined up.

That’s what happens when your level of OCD is higher than your skill level. It can be rewarding to just see how things come together as a project happens, but the quiet voice in my head reminding me about that is usually drowned out by the much louder inner monologue focusing on “WHY WON’T THIS #$*%ING STAY WHERE I WANT IT TO?!” When that happens it’s usually time to get out of the shop for a while.

The boy snuck into the garage at some point when I had the pieces drying so he wasn’t surprised when I gave them to him, but he clearly was looking forward to having something new to display. Now in the issue of fairness I have to wait and see what toy of kid #2 I can destroy in the name of DIY…