Picture frame completed

I finished the frame and I am happy with it. It is big and makes the old one look a little anemic but it looks just right for the wall. I am glad I didn't go larger with this thing (my first instinct). Now I have to get my ass in gear and finish stripping the closet door. Unfortunately, it looks like winter is coming back to Chicagoland this week - hopefully it doesn't get too cold.

I should also probably add a couple pointers about hanging large artwork on picture rails. Generally, the hooks on the back of your artwork that you use to hold cable or chord should be attached to the side rails. This is always stronger than the top rail where joints can brake and the entire picture (and mat and glass) can end up on the floor. I am using 1/4" loop hooks that are about a 1/2" long (into the wood).

People have also asked about how you minimize the hanging angle. You can't eliminate it totally but the higher up that you mount the chord or wire hooks on your frame, the lesser the angle will be on the wall. I am using hooks at about 3" from the top of the picture for this one and due to the weight and size, the angle is minimal. On smaller pictures, you can get as close as an inch from the top rail.

Final choices for the picture frame

The picture frame is almost complete and I cut a mat for the photo last night. Of course, the wife weighed in while I was working. She thought the white mat board was "too white". Needless to say, I'll be going to the store today to get some ivory board and cut a new one. We looked at it in the room - it is amazing how different things look when the flash is off (which is typically how the room looks in the evening). You can also see the size difference between the original photo and the new one.

Finishing the picture frame

The assembly and finishing of the frame is finally progressing. It was a little tricky because I had cut the angles a bit off. Wait, I set the miter based on my metal square. Believe it or not, the metal square isn't cut at 45 degrees. What??? Anyway, it is more like 45.5 and 44.5. So I had to re-set the miter and re-cut the pieces before assembly.

I sanded everything smooth and the frame was ready for finish. I was originally going to put a few coats of tung oil on the frame but after a test application on a scrap of wood (I always recommend doing this), I realized that the wood was a bit too light. Instead, I started with some mahogany gel stain, to make the mahogany look more like mahogany of course. I then put on my first coat of tung oil. It is looking pretty good and I might have this project wrapped up by the end of the week... ...If I can find some glass for the frame.

They really should have a T-shirt for it

This weekend was the huge Toms-Price Warehouse sale. For those of you that don't live in Chicagoland, Toms-Price is our local purveyor of all things Stickley. In fact, I believe they sell more Stickley furniture than any store in the country.

We've never been to the sale and it was pretty remarkable. We'll have to come again the next time they do it. The furniture, which is usually well beyond our means, was still priced beyond our means but at almost reasonable prices. We have been looking to add chairs to our dining room set and I am always trying to convince my wife that we need this:

Needless to say, the only dining chairs they had were not in our finish or leather color but they were on sale at the bargain-basement price of $250 a chair (usually, they cast about two and a half times that). They also the dream chair (with the ottoman) but unfortunately we did not get the $2500 tax rebate we'd need to afford it.


Our visit to the sale was not in vain but it made me think that they should have t-shirts. You know, like those ones you see in just about every tourist shop. "My mom went to _ _ _ and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". This one could say something like, "I went to the Toms-Price warehouse sale and all I got was this lousy _ _ _". Instead of the dream chair, we came home with this:

It is a "big girl bed" for my daughter. Very Arts & Craftsy, huh? Anyway, I'll have to set it up next weekend when we get the mattresses. It is not even in the same league as the dream chair but it made my daughter ecstatic. I guess this makes me feel just as good as I would if I were lounging in the dream chair. Well, maybe not.


The rest of the weekend was beautiful and I spent a good part of Sunday in the garden. I couldn't help myself, I had to start moving plants around. I moved the lilac to the back corner of the yard and moved another out front. I also shifted around a few other plants to make room for an herb garden. I planted a bunch of marigold seeds I harvested from last years marigolds as well. I also have a landscape plan. I'll try and write about it in the next few days.

The garden is looking pretty good. Though the garlic seems to be going crazy, I am going to try and hold off planting anything else for a few weeks. I also made some more headway on my picture frame. I didn't do shit with it all week but hopefully I can get it sanded and start finishing it this week. Note that since I cleaned the basement and made an actual shop that the woodworking is no longer happening on the carpeted and finished part of the basement.

Picture Frame

The highlight of the weekend was a trip to scenic Schaumburg, Illinois. We make this expedition once or twice a year to visit Ikea and to buy $200 worth of stuff we don't need. Now we have another reason to travel out there: Rockler Hardware.

I have never been to the store but needed to get some table-top mounts for the table I have been making. For woodworkers, this place is about as close to heaven as I can imagine with good stock of all sorts of hardware, finishes, tools, etc. I picked up the things I needed and a few things I didn't. I am inspired to make more use of my tools and it is nice to know that I have this resource not too far away.

It is still a little cold to start stripping the final door for the bedroom so I found other stuff to keep me busy. One project I started was a frame for a photograph that I had enlarged. I bought some mahogany some time ago and started cutting it down the other day. I spent some time in the morning reconfiguring the shop because it just hasn't worked for me. I made a bit more space for the table saw and can now actually use my workbench/desk as such (instead of a place to just gather clutter).
I am getting a little better with the cutting - though I saw some guides and jigs at Rockler that would definitely make this go easier. Last Father's Day, I got this saw. Maybe this Father's Day, I'll have to lay down some hints.
I am making splines to attach the frame at the corners and cut out notches in the back to receive glass, mat, and photo. It is 30"x36" and should be dramatic in the tiny bedroom. It will be a simple frame but I think it will look nice.
I'll work on assembling and finishing it during the week and will start cutting the mat for the photo next 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.