A kitchen cabinet we did for a rustic country cottage with some onsite pine stock. The entire assembly can be detached from the wall using six screws. Finished in butcher block and poly surrounding the sink. Sink is top mounted, siliconed, and strapped. Tile is sandstone and mixed pencil tile. The counter frame is spruce with laminated pine and spruce on the top. Doors are pine and spruce framed, finished in polyurethane. Handles are natural pieces of mountain ash. Total cost of materials including taps, $150. The stool was a fun extra because we were designing chairs for another project: spruce, a dark stain mix on the legs, finished in poly and topped with a waterproof satin finish.
Lots of leftovers? That’s what often happens around the wood shed. It’s Halloween and after a good harvest this KD (kiln dried) bench made of 2×6 ends makes a fine place to set out treats, or put on costumes in the hallway.
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No nails or screws involved. The legs are cut at 10° and “picture framed” with some left over 2x4s. The surface is a patchwork of boards cut square on the chop saw. The dimensions are 42″ wide, 16.5″ deep, and 18″ tall. To even the surface, a 3.5″ planer was used to give it an old fashion look and feel. Sanding was at 60 grit and the sharp edges were sanded round. The ends of the bench top were planed thinner so the top doesn’t look like lumber.
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The top is pegged to the frame with eight hardwood dowels. Some artificial aging was added with a fine tip torch. This also highlights some flaws and grain. Because this is construction grade wood, cracks and knots must be ground out or someone sitting on it might get a sliver. Then the bench is coated in a mix of thinner and poly sealer to give it a soft, safe finish. The mix has no gloss and protects the wood with a rubbery durable coat that preserves the touch of real wood.
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Budget: $0. and the end result is a strong, rustic piece that can serve multiple purposes. The legs and frame were originally made for another project, but didn’t get used. They were test legs, but very strong and can easily hold several people standing on it. The corners of the legs are under the center beam, with a direct transfer of weight through the center and down through all four legs equally.
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#10-31-19 will host a bowl of candy on a leaf-covered, spooky porch tonight, for the convenience of neighborhood ghouls.
…and for our web visitors, here’s a peek of the fall colors around Prairie Bench…
Kind of sounds like a menu item…? This little table is an experiment with live edge hemlock planks and steel 26″ hairpin legs. A retro-rustic combination. The planks were cut on one side and glued. The legs were squared at the most aesthetically pleasing positions, checked and rechecked, then screwed into place.
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The surface and edges were sanded with 80 grit and many of the big band saw marks were left on to show the history of the piece. A very light mix of poly and paint thinner was used to create a dull finish that’s easy to clean. It soaked in well and set to prevent cracks and splits, especially along the grain edge.
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The goal was to create a small enough table for an apartment dweller and give them the best virtues of rustic wood with retro hairpin legs that have become fashionable again. It starts to give the appearance that the table top is floating. However, unsatisfied, we wanted to accent the air gap and make the table a little different. Out came the old barn wood and we found some 1/2″ cedar slats that could be trimmed and beveled to slide into the steel wire legs.
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A tracing was made of the inside area with an extra 1/4″ to make each cedar slat slightly larger. Then each slat was run down a saw blade to make a groove. Finally, the slats were sanded and the groove was shaped into a channel. Some slight trimming to even the angle on the top of the slats was required. Now they drop in, or can be removed. Not sure if the slats serve a purpose, but it makes for an interesting bistro table with the top appearing to float above the legs. It’s also easy to fix a wobbly table with hairpin legs–just pull the narrow tips slightly apart and the table sinks down so all four legs are touching.
#08-28-19 is 27″, or 68 cm tall without floor savers, 42″ (106 cm) long and varies in width around 21″ (53 cm) and finished in poly. The natural edge can make finding the best position for the legs difficult, so measuring a rectangle that fit within the widest and the narrowest area seemed to work, as well as some long gazes.
This is a simple cedar slat box with a pine frame, cut in two, hinged, and mounted with two steel L-brackets. The L-brackets are mounted to a wall stud above and below the case. A small hole is drilled through the top and bottom of the case and two steel removeable pins secure the case to the brackets. Pull the pins and the case can be taken down and displayed on a flat surface.The style is to be old farmhouse. All the surfaces are sanded smooth and there is no finish. The case will age and darken over time naturally. A simple gate latch holds the door.Pegs were plotted on a pencil graph using a square. Two more cedar slats create a couple shelves. A detachable ring case rests inside. The dimensions are 63×24 cm (25″x 11″) and 17cm (6.75″) deep when closed. Plumbing o-rings fit perfectly on 1/2″ dowel as a stop. The cedar slats are only 1/4″ thick so the 1.5″ pegs are cut at a 5° slope and glued in place. This keeps necklaces against the backboard.The ring case uses 3/8″ dowels cut square and glued in place. A recycled picture stand is glued to the back and folds flat to tuck in a slat on the larger case.The cedar is dry but still quite light in tone. Over the years the unfinished wood will age and start looking like a barn door. This piece is unnumbered and created as a fun test.
We live outdoors, but some brothers like the cave life. It’s a good idea to mark their territory with a warning. With our friends at Sawitall.net, we did a couple test runs with a rustic man cave sign.
One is a wild west font and the other looked good with a rough edge and some bolts.
Man Cave Signs
White Pine finished in polyurethane and water-based paint.
24″x 8″
#02-28-16 MC 1 & 2
(2/2) On display at the Urban Man Cave in New Westminster.
