productive thursday night

I had a very productive dollhouse night last night! Feeling good going into the weekend. (On the downside, that makes this a very long post. Apologies.)

I made mucho grande progress on the fridge. Chickity check it. It's really coming along. Here's the Cliffs Notes...

From this:

To this...

Picture a couple of crisper drawers on the bottom shelf.

I also spent some quality time with my star-player, the putty knife. Tore up every last popsicle stick on the first floor. I was originally hoping to salvage them but you gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Cork it is. I had been dreading it because of the brick-removal fiasco but they came up in no time, only about 20 minutes invested there.

I really want a piano/library/study room, and that can only happen if I forgo having a formal dining room. And stairs. Small price to pay. So I've decided to have an eat-in kitchen. To make the most of my square inchage, I designed a banquette and I started construction last night. I'm just using 1/8" and 1/16" basswood since I'll paint/upholster it in the end.

I love having the right tool for the job. For once.

 

That ridiculous 3" penny is a souvenir from Washington DC when I was 10. I think it might make a cool table top.

I think this will be pretty special once I trim it out and upholster it. Probably leather. Maybe tufted?!

So that was last night. In other news, some smaller projects have included:

The piano bench. It was plain wood, just stained and poorly glazed. I thought it needed a leather seat, and maybe something else:

Ah, yet another crappy picture. It shows the wire detail at the base of the legs though. I've gotta read the manual to the camera (you know, in all of my free time. HA!)

I decided to make it look 'well-loved'. (Note the butt prints)

I found these shell beads at Michael's on sale, 8 for $3.49. I think they'll make pretty amazing picture frames.

I have a ton of this cheap n' cheesey dark glazed wood furniture. Mostly they're cabinets and credenza-ish, dresser things with a few benches/side tables. All a little different, but way to similar for me. I love the ecclectic look, I'm notsomuch into matchymatchy. I found a piece with a hideous octagonal cutout. Looked like a vanity for the bathroom to me. So I upgraded it. I was originally going to start in the bathroom, but then decided to hit up the kitchen first. Which has now turned into doing the whole lower level first (kitchen and piano-library-study room).



Cheap brown furniture. Yawn.

I added a coat of silver paint on the drawer fronts since they had been glued before being glazed, the stain didn't take uniformly and looked pretty busted. I changed up the hardware from 'bulbous wood nipple' to 'hand made chic crystal' drawer pulls. I filled the ridiculous octagonal cutout with a mirror, and filled the smaller lower cutout with a leather panel. I took one of the too-small-side-tables from the set to make a settee (probably more of a stool but I work in healthcare, so 'stool' doesn't sound particularly chic or luxurious to me). I covered the seat in the same leather from the vanity, and added metal and cork to the bottom of the legs for details' sake. And because I'm a sucker for punishment. I think this came out awesome and it looks great with my bathroom fixtures.

 

I love the way these little swarovski drawer pulls turned out!

Shitty photographer strikes again!

There are little teensy cork pads under the legs of this thing.

Shazam.

I haven't showed the color palette/overall look for the kitchen yet, because I'm not entirely sure at this juncture. I know hope I'll have cork floors with an inlay border (God-willing), lots of mixed metals... copper, silver and brass. Labradorite countertops (pardon me while my litlte heart flutters just thinking about them).... Okay, I'm back. Lots of blues, too. I'm thinking about nixing the charcoal brick on the back wall. Work smarter, not harder, right?! While I like the idea, I'm afraid it'll fail in execution. I'd really prefer something pre-mounted on mesh instead of laying over 1,200 teensy bricks individually. Since there's a deadline looming and all. I found these! I love love love travertine. They're a little thick, but who cares? They aren't going on the floor.

 

And then there's these. Over the top, but crazy beautiful:

 

I think these glass tiles would help tie all the mixed metals together, but would they be too much? I love the warmth of the travertine since everything in the kitchen so far involves cool colors. Dilemma. Guess I'll have to order samples and wait until I have my floors and countertops.

I saw a wall done in this giant black subway tile once, and I can't stop thinking about it. I'm hoping to eventually achieve something like these, but bigger in scale:

Anyways. That was yesterday. Gotta go back upstairs and finish the banquette.