Creat Wood working: front

Showing posts with label front. Show all posts

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Porch Update The Front Door

Hi there... I hope you have had a wonderful Fathers Day! I thought Id give you a little update on our front porch progress. Were not quite to the fun decorating stage yet, but were getting a lot closer!

The porch remodel has actually been a lot of work, but its exciting to see it shape into something that is more our style and hopefully more fitting for our house.

BEFORE

AFTER

You can probably get a better view in the first photo above, but the very first thing I did was tear off the shutters. I know its a little shocking, since it does give a much simpler look, but they were non-functional and certainly not original to the house. I love how it opened up the porch.

Next we replaced the light fixtures with these energy efficient lights that Lamps Plus sent. I spent a lot of time deciding what color scheme I wanted to go with... I alternated back and forth between nickel and black, but in the end, I felt nickel was the best choice, especially with our nickel colored barn lights in the back. These light fixtures are very lightweight and let off a surprising amount of light.

Justus actually rewired to accommodate these fixtures... its hard to tell in this picture, but he lowered them a good few inches so that they were more in proportion with the door frame.

One of the biggest changes for me was painting our front door because it has always been a bright red. I wavered between black, green and gray and then after being inspired by this picture, realized I could bring in a dark color that would still be in the green family. I loved the idea of a color that would match our green metal roof, but wouldnt be the exact same shade. I went to our local Benjamin Moore store, picked up this swatch and knew it was perfect. The color is Essex Green (semi-gloss, exterior).

Our front door is original, including the wavy glass. We have a storm door as well, which had gold hardware. After reading about Rust-Oleums Universal Hammered spray paint here, I found it in the color Titanium at our hardware store and set out to spray paint the door hardware to match the nickel lights. And once again was reminded why Im terrified of spray paint... I have never once had a successful spray paint story (user error). It stuck, it chipped, you name it... it had to removed with paint thinner and then I let the expert (Justus) spray them the second time around! It was a great, affordable way of changing out the color though.

This weekend I finally picked up a plant for the round galvanized tub from Lamps Plus that I chose to use as a planter. And now heres a confession... instead of the tub sitting, Ive been using it for every imaginable thing around our place. My most favorite thing to use it for is weeding in the garden... the handles are so sturdy and its just a perfect all-around size. So I think Im going to have to order another because Ive already been missing it (smile).

I planted a Mini Penny hydrangea in the tub, which is a compact hydrangea that is re-blooming.

I also spray-painted the number plate beside our door and then this weekend gave the siding a good cleaning. Ill be giving the porch floor a fresh coat of paint this week, but it will remain light gray.

The other side of the porch is still a construction zone. Were framing in the columns so they are square, and I am so, so excited. Justus made some great progress this weekend though and Ive been working behind him with wood putty (smile).

Happy Fathers Day!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Fine Curved Front Drawers Without Dovetails 12 2007

Curved front drawers

After picking up my December (DECEMBER ???) 2009 Fine Woodworking today, I was inspired to go back to the DCF Blog archives to revisit what appears to be one of my first actual posts in December 2007, Curved Drawer Front Joinery. Our method was pretty much the same as the FWW cover story that starts on page 34 of the current issue. I agree with pretty much all that Mr Varju says and I particularly liked his dowel sizing jig ... We, on the other hand, had the added complications of curved drawer fronts, drawer fronts overlapping the case sides, and undermount runners. We got through it all ok though Marks last day working here (the closing on the sale of his house) was about a couple days short of finishing this project and I had to final fit the fronts, make the side appliques and mount the hardware my own self personally ... Mark did a great job on the parts and he definitely completed all the hard work on this piece, and he is now making furniture on his own in southern New York State. Hes got a website and you can see his work here. Click the photos below to enlarge them ...

We started this piece with a sketch which I cant find, and a CAD drawing

And then we made a mockup

Once Mark got the case together and put the runners in, then we had our drawer sizes.

Mark did his typical dovetailed backs and then cut the laminated curved fronts to fit inside the drawer sides with a jig he made for the tablesaw. He next determind his drilling angle and set up the jig below on the drill press with a 1/4" brad point.

The piece on the right is just a stop; the holes appear to be a test piece for some Euro hinges

Next he clamped the drawer to the bench, clamped the front in place, extended the holes and glued and pinned them.

All that was left for me was to hang the boxes and fronts on the undermount runners,

fabricate and install the diamonds appliques for the sides, finish the piece and

take the photograph. The feet look a little strange in the photo above because I had to cut the image from the dingy,dark, background paper using photoshop ...