Keeping busy in the cold weather

It’s been cold here – very cold. Contrary to what you might think, Chicago has relatively wimpy winters. This year has been the exception. The nice part about all the bad weather is that I can keep working on the bedroom.

My plate is pretty full and I have several projects going on. After a short argument with my wife, I gave in and did not run out to Toms Price and buy a new Stickley night stand for the bedroom. Inspired by some of the woodworking I’ve seen on the houseblogs, I decided to build one instead.
I came up with a design (actually, I came up with several) that had a mission style appearance and would fit nicely next to the bed. I simplified it, simplified it some more, fretted for hours about how I would put it together and I finally have something to show. I’ve cut all the pieces except the top. I am particularly proud of the tapered legs. I am not a woodworker and I actually made a jig to cut them all the same. I am sure that you woodworkers out there are not impressed but when you spend more time making a jig then you do the actual product, I consider it a big deal.

I won’t be using any fancy joinery on this one - baby steps. Instead I got some ball-head screws to hold most of the pieces together. I will blog more on my furniture-making exploits once I get some sanding done and start assembly. Who knows, a trip to Toms Price may still be in order.
We also made a decision on the border in the bedroom and it arrived yesterday. It is from Trimbelle River and is a forget-me-not pattern. Now we just need to experiment with some colors and paint the border. This scares me more than the furniture project.

Finally, I got my photo of Mt. Lushan enlarged and will be making a frame for it out of some mahogany I bought (by the way, that's my leg-tapering jig sitting next to the pile of mahogany in the basement). The colors in the photo were my inspiration for those on the walls and the Asian view fits the style of the room pretty well. I can’t wait to start that project – probably by April.

Seriously though, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on the bedroom. I picked up all of the toe molding and then all I have left is to strip and re-finish the closet door and I am done.