In Progress

50 degrees and showers this morning. Nice enough to have coffee and tea on the porch, and enjoy the antics of the many, many birds at the feeders. They can be a quarrelsome lot!

I seem to be working on multiple painting projects at the same time. I need Larry's help here and there on them, so I just move from one to another as I wait for him to have time to help. Here's some of what's keeping me busy right now:

This little rustic table is actually finished. Yay! Larry jad to give it new legs and build a drawer for it. I cleaned it up, sanded and waxed the wood, and added a cobalt glass knob since the table's edge was blue.

I have been working on this secretary for 2-3 weeks, off and on, and it still needs work. I guess I'm about 1/2 way with it now. The drawer and lower door don't want to close properly since being painted so both will get some planing and then painted again.

Repainting has been the name of the game with this one. First I thought it might be cool to paint the inside a light aqua. Bad idea! So I painted over that awfulness with white--and a pink bleed came through. That meant shellacking it a couple coats to prevent the bleed-through of the old wood stain, then painting yet again, another 3 coats. Why did I think this would be a quick project!

Another interesting thing happened when I painted the door over the shellac. It crackled! I like the look so it stays just like this.

More of that pink bleed on the lower door, which had to be given two more coats of shellac. Tomorrow I'll try painting it again. At least this is on the inside.

Here's the secretary before painting. It is, I believe a 1930's reproduction of the older, oak secretaries, and had several issues. I hope the paint is bringing it back to life--and Larry's work is bringing it back to good, sturdy condition.

Another joint project. Larry put new shelves in this one, and added a base. I have painted sides, but will leave the door as it because I think it looks pretty cool. I'm still painting the inside.

Another project that I don't have photos of is a small sewing machine table that had no sewing machine in it when we got it. We took the top off, removed the pieces that supported the machine, and put the top back on to convert it to a table. It has a door on the front with spool holders, so cute. Larry put a bottom in it (it didn't have one, as the machine would fold down inside). I've started painting it while he works on the door so that it closes properly.


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