Finding Beauty in Old Wood

Table top

Isn't this pretty? What I thought last week was a pink elephant has turned out to be a really nice check out area for the shop.

We decided not to try to move the 700 lb elephant down to Rick's workshop and to try and work with it where it sits. Remember it from my last post?

Big blue work table - aka the Pink Elephant

A little sand paper and paint went a long way on the base. And a lot of sand paper and muscle provided by my son went a long way on the top. It had been abused terribly with paint, oil, grease and lots of dents and holes.

Before polyurethane

One more of the pretty wood top

All finished

I think it turned out nice and it will be really useful. All these years it had been up against the wall and we had completely forgotten it had storage underneath. This is going to be where we keep our shipping supplies and I'm thrilled to get that stuff out of the studio and out of sight.

More next week...it's moving right along. 

Shop Update 8/23/20

Ranch Dressing - the shop - is finally cleaned out, cleaned up and newly painted. We even have new lighting...which is going to go a loooong way in heating this space in the winter....my word they are HOT. Next comes a dimmer switch. I should have remembered this from the gallery.

We finally got everything out on Friday with the exception of the 700 lb. steel desk that was previously used in a substation and then as my husbands worktable. Only because it's too much of a hassle to move, he's building a new one for himself and I am keeping this one as my checkout counter and for shipping supply storage underneath.

Shop before painting...grey, dusty and in some places...dirty!

I have wanted to use this color somewhere in my house for a year now but I just don't have the right space...so I am thrilled with it in the shop. I went with a neutral grey/green in the gallery years ago, but I don't have to be quite so serious here, thank goodness!

And, this is what it looks like on the wall.

A few final details inside and we will start moving things in.

More to come...and hopefully soon!

Worktable Wednesday: Not Black or Red

Hugging Bear Border Floorcloth awaiting leather rug fringe

If you will remember a couple weeks ago, I showed you some sketches in my journal of a new floorcloth design that got it's start from a standard design shown on my website. When I left you, the decision of what color rug fringe was left to the customer and we were all on the edge of our seats waiting...well, I would love to believe that...LOL...

After learning that there is NO black in the room although some black furniture exists in the adjoining bedroom, I suggested that we go with brown instead. There are lovely brown picture frames in sight of the future rug position and they need to be tied to something else in the room...so we switched out the black for brown and added turquoise to pick up that color from the shower curtain.

We are going with brown leather rug fringe with the rough side out for a soft look.

Brown leather before it's cut into fringe

Tomorrow I will begin cutting the leather into fringe. What do you think about using the rough side out? I haven't done this before but it looked like the obvious thing to do this time...and how do you cut YOUR fringe? Scissors, utility knife or rotary cutter? I have used all three.