Another completed project: wood plantation shutters

I had a difficult time taking pictures of the shutters against the daylight, but I adjusted them a little, so hopefully you can see the finished product.

The shutters in the living room have been made, painted and hung. Finally! And the next project is a rod for my lace swag curtains.

After Jay got the shutters finished, he's been painting the stairs.

Update: the transom window

It's slow going, but one more thing was finished over the weekend.
We selected the great old window before the doorway was closed over, and Mr. Wonderful made the opening to fit. He took out the original imperfect glass, cleaned it and reglazed - and the living room side here is painted white like all the trim.



We left the kitchen side its original old layered paint color, but he sanded it. I wish you could see how great it looks up close. Maybe I'll try a close up photo on a sunnier day.

Top section of the china cabinet is finished!

Since you're here, you can now see the finished top section of the china cabinet wall above. Awesome, isn't it? Here are a couple of pics of Jay putting the latches on the doors. There are plenty more pics, and I'll get those up soon.

South Wall - will be custom china cabinets

Here's are pics of the south wall in its early stages.

These photos were actually taken in March, and I'm just now posting them, because I want to keep the project all together so you can see the progress. And it was progress, even though it didn't always seem like it.


Jay put up tongue and groove beadboard that will be the backs of the cupboards.


The dog hates the air compressor and nail gun, but I worked with him, using It's Me or the Dog techniques (Animal Planet, people) and a lot of cheese, and now it only takes me pointing at him to keep him quiet. Pretty cool.










I selected one of the colors that are in my two-tone parchment walls for the beadboard. I didn't want the color to distract the eye from the items in the cupboards - and there will be a variety of colors.







Pam Crooks and her hubby gave us several cupboards when they remodeled their kitchen. Jay removed the doors and went to town refurbishing them. They'd be white anyway, so paint didn't matter. We figured out how to space them across the wall - leaving open spaces which he could then later fill in.



It seemed like we painted and puttied forever, coat after coat. He had already filled the holes where hinges were. And sanded. And sanded.



Here's Jared putting one on the wall. Everything's a major decision - how high? how low? What kind of doors do we want?





i knew I wanted the doors to look like those on an old cabinet - in fact we had my dream pictures to work from.

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE

Custom China Cabinet Story

Pam sent me a picture of these cabinets when they were in her kitchen.




Lots of painting.



Here they are fastened to wall, but with gaps between. There was more wall than cupboards that would fit evenly in the space.


So then Mr. FixIt does his magic and gaps the space between.





As soon as the top board and trim go up, they'll blend right together.


Here I'm painting the top board and he's figuring out the filler and trim.

These photos are wacky out of order - you can tell because I've already shown you those finished inset walls on the right that aren't yet finished in these pics.

The Hutch Story

Because I'm me, I used to have two china hutches. I know, excessive. When we downsized I gave my daughter one of them. All along I planned to use the remaining one, which holds a LOT and simply paint it to go with my cottage look.

It's a great hutch and I liked it a lot.

I wanted a really long table in our now really big kitchen, so I began a tentative hunt. My husband shops for salvage building material at Habitat for Humanity, and I was along with him one day when I saw a table the perfect size. All the furniture that day had come from model homes and was spankin' new.

New is good, if it doesn't LOOK new. Yeah, I know.


So anyway the table was part of a set with yellow-flowered fabric chairs that were so not my thing. I asked if they'd split the set. This was on a Saturday. The manager said if they were still there on Wednesday, they would sell me the table alone. I went back on Wednesday and snapped it up.


I called Jay and he suggested I give the matching hutch a second look. I didn't think it was my style the first time I saw it. But I looked again. Wow, Broyhill. A really nice piece. "Why not get one that doesn't have to be painted and the back removed and all that?" he asks. "And it matches." Well, I'm not all about matching either. In fact, that's not a plus for me. But I decided okay and even talked them down to a cheaper price.



My wonderful husband had to make two trips with his pickup over the next two days to bring both pieces home. Yet more stuff in the garage where my car used to fit.



"Well, " says I. "This hutch has mirror in the back, and I had my heart set on red bead board."

"Okay," says Mr. Wonderful. "I'll take out the mirror and give you bead board."

"And," says I. "It has glass shelves, and glass shelves aren't my style. I need painted wood."

"Okay," says Mr. Wonderful. "I'll take out the glass and make wood shelves."

"And it's white, but it's not the white that goes with the rest of the kitchen. It's not MY white."

"I knew this was coming," says Mr. Irritated. "You mean to tell me I talked you out of the old hutch that needed the back replaced and painting and into a new hutch that was perfect -- just so I could replace the back and shelves and you could paint it?"

That pretty much summed it up. The rest of this story takes about two months.





So I painted the table and hutch fudge chocolate brown. A yummy color. And then I took a candle and rubbed wax over all the corners and edges. I then painted it three coats of white. My white.

And then, with a great deal of elbow grease and determination I sanded off the places where I wanted the brown to show through for a distressed look. I actually love it.



Unfortunately it doesn't hold near as much stuff. :-(

And then there are the awesome knobs. Note the reproduction glass knobs I found. (The wood ones had to go.) I bought them during the refinishing process and tucked them away until the hutch was finished.

CLICK TO ENLARGE to full awesomeness



I never saw them again. Not even after hunting and tearing the room apart. They're somewhere safe I have no doubt. So I bought them again.

And it's now finished. Well, except for a teeny weeny coat of acrylic or polyurethane, so the finish doesn't get scraped up.

ha ha. That was a joke.

Oh, and my son and daughter-in-law got my old hutch. They already had the table.

Still need to touch up the trim where it's been filled.

Whose Big Idea Was This?

So. Time comes to block up the doorway, and we've already decided on a transom window between the living room and ex-dining room/new kitchen. The kitchen gets wonderful morning light, and I hated to completely block that light from the other room. A window will let light through, circulate air (if we open it) and just look cool.
Note all the junk on the china hutch on the other side of this wall! LOL

So from the kichen side, I saw the wall being framed and said, "Hey, there's a spot for some inset shelves. Since a wall was removed I lost display space for collectables. Jay the Builder thinks the idea is okay, so he whips it together.



I got the bright idea of painting the backs the color behind the cabinet on another wall and staining the shelves red. It was a lot of work painting/staining them separately and then him putting them together. I really didn't like it. I guess it's not so bad to have one goof out of so many good accomplishments, but this was an eyesore goof.



So. I shall paint them. Taped them, found a can of green I liked - there's loveky old cracked green paint in the old window, so this will be a much beter look.



So. The first green is way too dark. I mean way.
So. I take some of the color from the opposite wall and blend it in to lighten it.


Two greens later, this is the right color. I still have more to show you now that's it's finished.


But that's the story.
And look all the junk is gone on the other side of the window.

Progress on the Window/Wall/Shelves

Not sure how to title this exactly. This is where a doorway once was. It's now recessed shelves for my vintage spice tin collection, and a transom window to let light through to the living room.
It's looking better and better!
After I saw the window in there, I thought I should have stained that wood green instead of red. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, ya know?
Jay scraped and sanded the window frame, but I don't think I'm going to paint it/ It's really cool, with old crazed paint. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

living room side of old doorway

WAY BEFORE
Here is the living room with a cabinet in from of the doorway.
This is the same doorway as seen from the dining room on the other side.
The one that is now drywalled over



Here you can see through to the dining room.


It was an arch, but they took that out and made it into an opening for a transom window and filled in the rest.


And all the work is happening in the kitchen, so this still looks pretty much the same except the wall has been patched, there's woodwork around the kitchen doorway, and the wall is ready to paint.

BEFORE AND DURING

This was taken from the living room looking toward the stairs and kitchen doorway. The doorway is now a lot wider. The banister has been removed, carpet removed, old tile removed, and new steps are in place of the old ones.



This after the bigger hole was cut.