Planters for the Front

I've always liked the look of houses in the neighborhood that had planters along the front. I didn't think I would ever put them in because I didn't feel that strongly to spend the money on the materials and time but last year, I was given a bunch of cedar from a nearby deck demolition and the idea came to me to use it for this project. 

I designed the planters around existing 36" planter containers I found on clearance at a garden store. The idea was to create a box that I could just drop these planters into, making them easy to care for and change out when needed.  

I don't have the highest degree of carpentry skills but I certainly have enough for some simple boxes that could hold the planters. It took less than a couple hours to cut down the wood and assemble all of the boxes.

Once assembled, I painted them the same color as the exterior trim. I was initially going to leave them exposed but decided they looked a little too rustic that way and the painting was in order. Between the finished cedar and stainless steel anchors used to hold thigns together, I think these should hold up for a long time.

I mounted the wooden boxes with three 6" strap anchors each, screwed to the back of the box and then mounted with a cabinet screw to the face of the porch. 

The porch is broken into 6 sections across the front, with 5 of those sections having windows and one has an opening at the stair. I centered each box on each paired section.

I chose a simple array of trailing and upright plants for the boxes so that purple sweet potato and vinca plants will trail down the front of the boxes. In the center are blue "cathedral" salvia plants that will be bushier and taller. I've used all of these plants in the past in containers in the garden so I know that they will do well in the sun up front as long as I keep them watered.

I am happy with the overall look and the planting and mounting took about a half hour to complete. All in all, with time for paint to dry, It took two days but relatively little time for the project. 

I am looking forward to seeing how they fill in over time. I've spent quite a bit of time in the front garden this year, since the painting and work is just about complete out front. It has taken a beating during the siding repair and painting so it hasn't looked "right" in a couple years. It is nice to have at least a small part of the place looking "finished".

Adirondack Chairs - Part 5 (you didn't think there would be a part 5, did you)

Butterflies are everywhere around the Tiny Bungalow. It was an awesome day today so I took my usual position in the back yard, turned wood shop, and spent a couple hours making some foot rests for the Adirondack chairs I made a few weeks ago. They are really incomplete without them. There wasn't a kit for these so I downloaded a photo, drew up an idea and made templates.
And went through the same procedure as the chairs: cutting, sanding, assembling, except that this was much easier and took much less time. I think it took a total of 2 hours for everything.


I just hope that the weather continues to stay this awesome so that we can enjoy the chairs outdoors for a few more weeks... ...at least.

Adirondack Chairs - Part 4 (final installment)

It was a busy weekend in the OP. I got the storms hung and also finished the Adirondack Chairs. It is sad. The process on the chairs has taken about a month to complete but I've only spent about 9 or 10 hours on the project. I guess this is average for all of the house projects and explains why things seem to take so long.
The chairs came out o.k. I give my craftsmanship about a C. One leg is a little off on one of the chairs and the spacing of the pickets is not quite even and I didn't line up all the screws either. The connections of the arms to the back rest is a little strange too. I'd give the overall project a B. The chairs are sturdy and they are comfortable and you don't even notice the crooked leg when they are sitting on the lawn. We'll see how they hold up.

I think the folks at Rockler can take a little fault for my "C" though. I always thought of myself more as a C+/B- when it came to carpentry. I really think the templates could be better and aligned to different sizes of wood. The fact that there is not a lot of tolerance for errors would be nice if it were noted as well. I also wouldn't recommend taking this on with a hand-held jig saw. Though it can be done, a band saw would probably be more accurate. Needless to cay, this C+/B- carpenter doesn't have one of those.

The DVD that came with the kit was good but obviously this guy was an expert and made things look way too easy. They really should have had a moron like myself putting these things together so that you can see all the crap that is confusing and can go wrong.

This said, If you are a slightly better than average carpenter, I'd recommend this project and the Rockler templates. I'm guessing that the chairs came to about 45 bucks each (which I think is pretty reasonable) and I always enjoy the puzzle of figuring out stuff like this. I am now going to design and build a side table and foot stools to go with these - hopefully they won't take a year to complete.

Adirondack Chairs - Part 3

My plans to do some much needed work on the garage were delayed but the weather was so incredible, I had to get something done. Since it was so nice, I moved all of the wood for the Adirondack chairs outside and started sanding. The overall project was pretty uneventful but I accomplished the task and was cleaned up after only a couple of hours. I didn't think this was too bad. Now I just need to block out a day to assemble.

I've been adding some more curiosities to our garden. I installed my terracotta Brancusi a few weeks ago. If only I had more pots...This morning, my daughter was in a creative mood so we decided to build a Chinese Crane and nest in the front yard to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. We used left-over cedar from the Adirondack chairs. This otherwise would have become kindling so I think it is a good use.

Adirondack Chairs - Part 2

Cutting, cutting, and more cutting. Overall, the cutting took about 2.5 hours. The templates were pretty good - except for one. There was one where two pieces were linked together, kind of like a yin and yang sign. Unfortunately, I am not that good with a jig saw and in order to get the tight corner, I had to ruin the "yin". I guess it is o.k. since there was enough wood left over to make it again.

Overall, there is a little more waste than I would have wanted. I guess for 12 good-sized pieces of wood, a small box of kindling isn't so bad though. I will likely have to wait another weekend before I can get to the next part of the work. Boy, I hope I can finish these before mid-August.

Stay tuned for the next post: Sanding, sanding, and more sanding.

Adirondack Chairs - Part 1

It had to be over a year ago that I purchased the plans and directions from Rockler on how to build my own Adirondack chair. I even went out and purchased the cedar that I needed to do two chairs Here it, several projects later, and a pile of wood still "decorates" our front porch. I still haven't gotten around to doing the chairs.

Since the weather was not conducive to any outdoor work, I figured it was about time I broke out the directions and got to work on the chairs. They will be better looking on the front porch than the pile of wood sitting there right now.The directions are pretty self-explanatory. You lay out a series of templates on the wood and then cut everything out with a jig saw. So far, so good. It only took about an hour of work to do the cutting for one chair. I'll pick up the project again tomorrow morning and see if I can get something accomplished before the end of the weekend.

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.