The Hall Part 3 - Building the mirror and coat rack

When we first moved into the house, we found a dismantled dining room table in the attic. It was made of veneered wood but the wood under the veneer looked pretty nice. I am not sure but it might even be oak. I saved not only because I save everything but because I knew I wanted to use it in a project some day. Another thing that the house came with was an assortment of mirrors.

I thought that this was the perfect project: to build a sort of built-in mirror / hall tree for the front hall. I began by sanding down the wood, removing most of the rough spots and all of the finish.

I made a very simple frame and then stained and finished it in much the same way that I finished the rest of the wood in the house. For the mirror frame finish, I used tung oil instead of the typical varnish though.

What is nice is that the finish allows the character of the wood to come through but there is also quite a bit of distress visible from its former use as a table top.

I mounted the mirror in the frame and then mounted it to the wall with butterfly anchors. Two screws are also installed, top and bottom, through a stud in the middle of the wall. It is very sturdy and isn't going anywhere.

I used brash washers and screws for mounting so it has a simple yet classic detail.

I was originally fretting over getting expensive fancy hooks from one of the restoration companies but couldn't choose so I ended up at Home Depot and bought something inexpensive instead. I installed two hooks on either side of the mirror for coats and two double-hooks at the bottom for keys and umbrellas.

I am ultimately happy with the hook choice. Hopefully this will keep stray jackets off of the furniture as well!

I finished out the room by hanging one of the prints that I made last summer. It is great to have this room finished!

The Hall Part 2 - finishing and painting

The finishing work was fairly simple. Like the rest of the woodwork in the house, I have it stained and varnished. I chose the colors for the hall some time ago but it took me a while to sort through the hundred or so cans of paint in my cellar to find the two that I chose.

There are two colors, though they are very close shades of gold. I painted the area below the chair rail a little darker than the color above the chair rail.  

Overall, the hall looks great and it is nice to have a finished entry to the house.

The Hall Part 1- You would think such a small room wouldn't be such a big project

I don't know why I waited so long to start this project. It is a small room and should be pretty quick, right? The problem is: when I did the wood cleaning and refinishing throughout the rest of the house, I quickly learned how difficult it was to strip doorways. Though this is a small room, it has two doorways. I also knew that I wanted to create a built-in mirror/coat rack in this room so it would take a bit more time. 

 After we moved in, we bought a wardrobe and placed it in the front hall to store coats. Before moving it in, I had taped an outline of where I wanted a future mirror to be. Of course, when I pulled out the wardrobe, the tape, from ten years ago, was still there.

The room had other issues too. There was pealing canvassed walls and cracking plaster that needed repair. I decided not to fuss with these elements all that much and just did a plaster patch and repaint over the papered and plastered areas.

The wood in this room was much like the rest of the wood ocne was in the house: splattered with paint, poorly stripped, dirty and all around crappy-looking. I spent quite a bit of time with the denatured alcohol and steel wool cleaning it all up.

The door was a particular challenge because it has quite a bit of detail. I cleaned out the lambs tongue molding and made some minor repairs to the door. 

I then stained all of the wood and this room in much the same way that I stained the wood throughout the rest of the house. I followed up with a varnish over everything.

Rounding the Corner on Beadboard Work

It was a big week in Chicago this week. The Cubs won the World Series, deyed the river blue, and had a big parade. I work on Michigan so it made for a fun work day. 

I also felt that it was a good week for work on the house. The weather was great, I got the garage cleaned up and it can now be used for parking cars instead of staining wood, and I did a lot of work on the beadboard. 

I was able to finish all but two small sections of beadboard this week. It looks great and will be nice to finally get to the scraping and painting. I don't hold out a ton of hope that I will get much done before it is too cold but I am crossing my fingers.  

The trim for where the beadboard meets the friexeboard also arrived this week. I started priming that and will paint it this week so it can go up soon as well.