Slimming it

Here at the Darling Duckling, post-moving chaos still reigns supreme. However, we're working hard on remedying this shortcoming. We've installed wall cabinets in the laundry room (here) and are well on our way to an actual dressing room for our clothes (here and here). Another project on our ever-growing list of things to do and projects to tackle is additional storage for our library/study/man cave.

Since the room we delegated to this task isn't the largest (but it's beautifully light and bright) we shelved our books high and wide and discovered a sliver of room for a buffet or dresser. However, most of those were too deep and visually cramped the room's lightness making ti feel tight and chockful with furniture.

That's when we discovered the versatility of wall cabinets. Browsing the local reStore we found a wall cabinet excatly 60 inches wide that would fit our space perfectly, offering storage space whithout hogging all the space.

We strapped it to the top of the Jeep and brought it home. We attached feet (read about that here), then flipped it over and admired our handiwork.

[It really fits like a glove - in this picture it's pulled away from the wall and it's trying to fool you into thinking that it's about 10 inches too long]

Since none of the boards at the store were the right width, we grabbed the widest we could get (12 inch) and added a narrower board (6 inch) to make up the difference. We attached them to each other with metal brackets screwed in from underneath and a dab of wood glue for extra strength. The seam was minimal and after some wood filler and some sanding almost invisible.

We replicated the shape of the shelves above it and used the same stain on it for a cohesive look. It's Minwax's "Provincial" which is a beautiful dark brown with a hint of warm red. Husband initially tried "English Chestnut" and boy, did that turn out orange. "Orange you glad" we only bought a small tin and changed plans after the first try :o)

In order to set it apart from the shelves and to protect it from the inevitable water ring from a drink (and other smaller catastrophes) we decided to seal it with the same waterbased sealant we are going to be using for the floor in the dressing room. Husband's been really good about applying coat after coast with a bit of sanding thrown in for a silky smooth finish.

Today I'll re-attach the door that came loose and attach handles and we're all set to move in our board games and get rid of another stack of boxes. Hurray!

One (wall) down, three more to go

No, no! No more demolition! I swear!

Husband and his sidekick Little Man who is now a self-professed "Master" at power sanding finished the first wall of open shelving in our library.

While I'm not the greatest fan of this shelf solution preferring chunky built-ins all trimmed out and of glamorous old world charm (which would have left enough room for the beautiful wallpaper border ...alas, it wasn't meant to be), this is starting to grow on me.

[After: Wall o'shelves and cabinet in place]

We opted to use the studs in the center for the shelf brackets rather than spreading them out; this way they look actually centered on the wall whereas following them to the outside of the shelves would have made them look out of balance in relation to the shelves.

Husband insists on using the Dewy-Decimal system to sort our books thus (and since we have a metric ton of books to begin with) they are lined up neat and tight with no spare room for neat decorative touches. It's a man's world, baby! No room for frills!

Thanks to the double feature of the wall you are also getting a sneak peek of tomorrow's post on the wall cabinet turned dresser! Wheee!

The Man Cave aka our library

Husband and little man have been working diligently in our libary that is slowly turning into "The Man Cave". While there won't be any wall space left for poster of dubious artistic value and other dorm-style masculine paraphernalia thanks to our sheer wealth in books, it's definitely the one room where man reigns supreme ... and I don't mind at all, especially since I got to pick the wall color.

One caveat I tossed at my men before they got too carried away was the question of storage. Not only do we have a bunch of books, we also have a slew of board games that need to be contained. We agreed that a regular dresser would occupy too nmuch visual space and make the room appear even smaller what with the shelves loaded with books and reaching the ceiling, so we had to come up with another solution.

A trip to the local Habijax store offered us a clever solution: a wall cabinet! Wall cabinets aren't as deep as base cabinets and dressers and still offer plenty of storage. Just by adding legs and a countertop we could create exactly what we needed for this room.

We bought the 60'' long cabinet, strapped it to the roof of the Jeep and took it home.

[Step 1: An upside down cabinet with tools and the first leg of four!]

We picked up 4 wooden legs at the big box store (I forgot whether it was orange or blue) . These already come with a screw attached so all you have to do is drill a hole into the cabinet where you want the leg to go and screw it in. A bit of woodglue helps firm up that joint. There are plenty of leg designs available - husband settled for a simple chunky square leg (I'd have picked a curvy turned leg but I guess that's the girl in me) . If it hadn't been for the very tall base modling I'd have simply screwed the cabinet to the wall and skipped the feet, creating a floating cabinet and avoid having to clean around legs.

[Step 2: Flip cabinet over and maneuver into place]

You can see how perfectly it fits into the space. There's maybe 1/2 inch on either side to spare!

After that, the men decided a change of order was in order and started working on the shelves that they were going to install about the cabinet.

They moved into the back yard, broke out the saw horses and power tools

And went to work!

Studs R' Us

While that's usually my nickname for HGTV, I thought it'd also make a great title for this wonky blog post.

You see, my husband's design plan for our library/study includes semi-floating wall shelves rather than the book shelves we've been using for the past couple of years. By adjusting the size and spacing of the wall shelves he's hoping to maximize the wall space we have to accommodate as many of our books as possible. Yes, there are that many and yes, finding a house with an extra room to host our extensive library was our mission this time last year.

Since I consider the library also the Man Cave, husband gets a bit more free reign in the decorating department. I'll probably have to give up the cool Victorian mural (*sigh*) but if the husband is happy, I'm happy too. Give and take, baby, give and take. Husband decided he wanted l-brackets with wooden boards for shelves stained a darkbrown to match our floors and for a rustic manly vibe.

One of the first things on his to do list was to locate the studs in the walls and plan out the hardware. Armed with level, ruler, pencil and a studfinder he went to work.

Yeah ... this is how it should have worked. "Should" being the magic word, unfortunately. In a twist of fate some previous owner(s) decided to forgo the expense and effort to restore the original plaster walls and to simply cover them up with modern drywall, all neat and tidy and comparatively inexpensive. This, however, makes the work of your studfinder gadget nigh impossible. The poor thing is now confronted with a layer of drywall, plaster, lathe and behind all of that, the studs.

Our little brave studfinder just couldn't figure it out. We either had no studs, studs 2 feet wide or studs every 2 inches. So we winged it in a crude and brutal manner - with nails.

Yes, we did. We banged nails into the wall in 1 1/2 inch increments turning my beautifully painted wall into a Hellraiser-ish nightmare (remember Pinhead?)

Each possibility - hitting plaster, hitting just lathe (because the plaster had fallen off) or hitting a stud - came with a very distinct hammering sensation and there was no mistaking it for anything else when you managed to find one rock-hard stud.

After some patching, priming and painting the building of shelves can commence!

Sneak Peek

Here's a first peek into a room I haven't talked much yet: theeeeee library!

That's because for the past couple of weeks it's been delegated to official downstairs storage lair for odds and ends, cabinets and appliances and general disaster zone. With the kitchen progressing beautifully, there was just enough space for me to squeeze in and try out the color we'd picked out for this room. The one requirement for it? It had to go with this

[source: Bradbury & Bradbury]

It's so pretty I'm gonna die! (Remember Agnes, the littlest girl with the unicorn obsession, from "Despicable Me" - I really dig her)

Here it is in action

[source: Bradbury & Bradbury]

It's my own personal Kohler faucet. You know, the one from the commercial where there lady whips out the Kohler faucet in that high-end architect's bureau and demands they design a house around it leaving the star architect stumped? Yeah, that kind. I want it, I want it and by God, I will find a spot for it! The library struck me as the perfect spot for it.

[Painting in progress]

Back to the library. The color's name is "Sweet Woodruff" - a light silvery sage-y green that looks simply lovely on the walls and makes a great backdrop for the frieze from heaven. Husband has his heart set on floating wood shelves for the library so it'll be peeking out from between glossy stained wood and books. Can't wait to see everything in its place!