Wood

One Girl and A Hammer

Thanks for stopping by again. I hope you have had a great week.

I haven’t been as busy this week, but have been seeing a lot more of my friends lately which is always nice. We are 11 days away from the New Year. It has been a wonderful year for me, God has been so faithful. I haven’t set any resolutions for next year, but have a list goals that I will achieve. I have 16 so far, and I’m sure there will be more added along the way. For some insight into my goals, one of them is staying up all night and watching the sunrise.

Enough about my goals. I took a pallet crate, dismantled it with a hammer; and recycled the wood for a breakfast bar. As you can image thousands of pallet crates go to waste, ending up in skips and landfills.  The Waste & Resources Action Programme reported in 2010 4.3 million tonnes of timber were wasted. Can you imagine how much wood that is and the number of things that could have been made? Its saddening how much we waste.

The story of how I got this palette crate is bit shameful, but I got what I was looking for the end. On my drive to work, I always take the route down Northumberland road, if you’ve ever been down Northumberland road it is beautiful; think big grand houses. So one of the houses are having work done and I had spotted a palette crate for a few days but was rather embarrassed to pull up and take it. One morning courage struck me and I parked trying to fit the crate into my baby sized car, but the crate was too large. I then spotted builders working at the house next door and they had crates scattered all over the drive. I started walking over but was hesitant, looked in and then walked back. I then turned around, peering into the drive and when I was spotted I asked for one of the crates. I’m sure they must have thought I was crazy. They said ‘yeah, but it’s heavy.’ That was fine by me. I hobbled back to my car with the crate hoisted against my waist. As you can imagine they watched me go all the way back to my car to try and fit this life-size crate of nearly my height back into my baby car. Thank God it fit otherwise I would have been too embarrassed to take it back.

I thought it was going to be an easy process to work with this crate and that I could just dismantle it simply. When I went on Youtube people were recommending all these fancy tools to dismantle the crate. 1.  I didn’t want to buy a tool that I would never use again and 2. We’re working on a budget here. In the end, I took my strength, my foot, a hammer and dismantle the crate by force. 

I then chose 3 planks of wood with the most detailed veneering, sanded them by hand to take away the splinters and rounded the corners.  Cut shorter planks to the three main slates together. I reused the nails that I took out hen dismantling the crate. I stained the wood with balsamic vinegar. For the first coat, I mixed the vinegar with water, but then decided against it for future coats; and just applied it directly to the wood. I couldn’t tell you how many coats I did, but when I got to a good shade of brown I sponged red watercolour paint onto the wood. I left it to dry for a day or two then oiled the wood down. 

I haven’t assembled the wood onto the wall as yet but thought I would give you a visual of what it would look like. I’m nearly done with my kitchen now. I just have to change the taps and the lighting. It won’t be ready by the end of December like I had planned, but some progress is better than none.

Join me next time when I’ll reveal the Surprise DIY artwork. Have a great weekend!

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Lebus Furniture Revamp

 

Welcome back to Nik-Cre. I’m so glad you stopped by again.

This week we’re working with retro antiques, teak wood, sandpaper, turpentine and danish oil. Yes, you may be a little bit confused; but these are the ingredients of my upcycling project.

“It’s nice, but I really want one with legs.” This is the sentence I voiced over and over in my mind as I browsed the thrifts shops of Coventry. I didn’t want a standard Chest of Drawers, the big rectangular block sitting snug against the floor. I wanted one with leg, that would stand up off the floor. Six months later I found my match and for a good price too.

The British Heart Foundation Furniture and Electrical store are brilliant. If you’re looking for something old or new, affordable, vintage, modern, retro, antique; you name it they have it.  £15 was the price of this Teak 5 Drawer Chest, on splay bracket feet.IMG_20171230_111833 It came in great condition, no cracks or restoration work. All that needed doing was the sanding away of that hideous red varnish. I found the same Chest, with 6 drawers on Harrison Antique Furniture for £250. I’m sure you’ll agree that I found a bargain with this one.

The Chest I purchased is an original antique piece, as you can see from the plaque in the image. I did a little research and Lebus Furniture was set up by Louis Lebus in the 1800’s. His business began in a small shop in Hull, and as it expanded he later moved to London.Lebus Furinture Plaque After Louis Lebas died, his son Harris took over the business. Their pieces are largely recognised as being part of the Arts and Crafts movement. One of the reasons I feel so connected to this piece is because Lebus opened a factory in Tottenham, North London. Tottenham is my birth town, but it is also where I went to church for seven years before returning to Coventry. This is a piece that ties together both of my homes.

Upcycling this was a pretty simple project. I began by sanding the body of the Chest, working with sandpaper on a sanding block to firmly hold the paper in place. You can use a power Sander if you want too, I found mine left circular etching in the wood which I didn’t like. Sand until the wooden surface is smooth and has removed all traces of varnish. img_20180101_154908.jpg

I then took out the drawers and removed the knobs so that I could also sand these down. After sanding, I wiped all the surfaces down with Turpentine, to remove excess dust. If you have White spirit you can use that as well. Initially, I wanted to paint patterns on the Chest like the images you see on Pinterest. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like it and it would be ruined. A colleague recommended that I oil the Chest down with Teak oil, but I couldn’t find this so I purchased a tin of Danish oil from Wilko. The Danish oil brought out the natural colour of the Teak and helped to restore warmth to the Chest. It also highlights the grain in the wood showing the contrasts of light and dark brown.

As you can see the Chest came with its original Brass circular knobs. I changed these out with white and gold porcelain knobs, I got these on eBay from Knobbles and Bobbles. These new knobs really add a touch of royal elegance to the piece. This Chest lives in my bedroom, I’ve gone for a natural wood theme up there so the Chest matches the blinds, the cork flooring, and a lovely structural beam.

 

Lebus Sanded
Lebus In Red Varnish
Lebus Revamped
Lebus Revamped Side View

I hope you like how I’ve upcycled this Lebus Chest and brought it back to life. Let me know what you think in the comments, and to receive regular updates please follow me. Join me next time for a gentler project, as I ‘make life- rooms, into living rooms.

Nik-Cre