Sunday, August 02, 2020

Whew!

     I finally completed assembly of the somewhat-complicated set of shelves that will, if all goes as planned, wrap around my dressing table and add more storage in my room.
     The design is something I have been fiddling with for over a year.  I started measuring and cutting wood over a month ago.  Dodging rain and working in terrible heat and humidity, progess has been slow.  Eventually I had everything cut, and this last week I routed grooves for the shelves and cross pieces, and yesterday, I started assembly.

     Had to recut a couple of cross pieces; I changed the plan on  the fly, messed up the new measurements, and had to revert to the original design (shallow dados in the verticals rather than full-thickness notches where the cross pieces connect.  But it worked out.

     It still needs to have the offset added at lower left, and both of the verticals need to be cut to clear the baseboard.  Then it will get cleaned (pencil marks mostly wash off with methylated spirits), planed, sanded, finished (probably linseed oil again) and then taken apart into a few subassemblies so I can bring it in and put it together in place.  Maybe another month of spare time in all that.

3 comments:

John in Philly said...

"...messed up the new measurements..." I understand that one perfectly. :)

Blackwing1 said...

Hope you don't mind if I make a request for you (or roomie) to take a picture of the work-in-progress? I'd love to see a photo of the actual shelving before it goes into place.

I shared a picture with you via e-mail years ago of the floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall bookshelves I built in a room of our tiny little house; it looks like you're filling up a similarly small space with the most efficient storage area you can fit into it.

Thanks, and you can feel free to delete this comment without offense on my part if it's too intrusive a request.

Roberta X said...

Blackwing1: Right now the shelves are assembled and kind of jammed into the limited open space in the garage. I may be able to get a snapshot.

They're pretty utilitarian. Some of the wood is salvaged from skids and packing crates. It's going to get smoothed and finished but the dents and dings will remain, as will at least some of the stenciling and other marks.

I am trying to make the best use of space I can. Roseholme Cottage is about 30% smaller than my previous (rented) house, if not more, and Tam and I have a lot of stuff. The house entirely lacks a linen closet, the first home I have lived in for years without one, and the regular closet space is very limited. The next project after this one is planned to be a large wardrobe cabinet for Tam, possibly with a TV stand incorporated into it.