Furniture

We are having some visitors from out of town this week, and so, I’ve been mounting a bit of a blitz to try to get the guest room looking a little more presentable. In typical home renovation fashion, if you want to do one thing, you must do another first. In my case, I wanted […]

New Workbench

It’s been more than three years since I took down my workbench and started on the basement renovation. This weekend, I finally installed the table top on the new one, which is built into the cabinets beneath Pembroke. Here it is cleaner than you will ever see it again. I had thought I would get […]

Base Cabinets Stained

This week, I made the face frames for the base cabinets, and I just finished staining them. I must say, despite Andrew’s warnings that it would not go well, I am impressed with the results. Here they are drying, or setting or whatever stain does: The stain is Old Masters Red Mahogany gel stain. I […]

South Base Cabinet

Now I’ve finished the second base cabinet carcase. It’s another massive piece of furniture, measuring almost five feet high by two feet by two feet. This cabinet is sized to take handily our 3-in-1 printer, and hopefully our laser printer as well on the upper shelves. Below waist height, it will have three drawers – […]

North Base Cabinet Carcase

Happy Canada Day! I finished assembling the carcase for the north base cabinet. This went so smoothly, I almost thought I knew what I was doing! It’s a pretty big piece of furniture, measuring almost five feet high and five feet wide, by 16 inches deep. Needless to say, it’s got to come apart again […]

Base cabinet

This week, I managed to get the first cabinet out together. This will be one of a pair of cabinets that support the north section of the layout. The bottom of the cabinet will have three drawers, the top drawer has slides that lock open, and my plan is to create a lid for this […]

Top Cabinets Finished

The top cabinets finally got finished this evening, and they look better than I’d imagined. Indeed, it’s pretty amazing how close they come to looking like the original design. The face frames are mostly poplar, with a couple of plywood panels thrown in around the corner. For strength, they are assembled with dowels and glue. […]

Top Cabinet Carcasses Installed

Last night I finished installing the angled top cabinets in the corner. These were originally going to be just a single large cabinet, but it turned out to be more efficient in terms of material to make two cabinets. For some reason, which I shall have to investigate, the smaller of the cabinets is a […]

A Tale of Two Cabinets

Last night I got the second of two cabinet carcasses screwed to the wall and the ceiling. This took much longer than expected; indeed, I’d thought I would be done by Friday night, and I was finishing up at midnight on Monday. Well, as usual, I learned some stuff, and I’m writing it down here. […]

Cabinetry

For much of December, when I wasn’t over-eating, I was working on the cabinets that will go around Pembroke. They’re a long way from finished. Indeed, there will be six cabinets, and only two carcases are assembled so far. However, progress is happening and accelerating; hopefully I will get the first two cabinets installed tonight […]