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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Bench and Bookshelf

I need a new camera. BAD! But, I managed to get these pics. This bench was a recovering project. The cream in the fabric matches the cream in the wood. But before I recovered it, I dipped the fabric in linseed oil and made it an oilcloth so it could withstand the rigors of the kitchen table. Then I stapled the heck out of it on the the original cover. Fun, fun. By the way, anyone who wants to make oilcloth, it takes at least a week for the cloth to dry. But it's very durable after. (Even though it still smells like linseed oil.)

And this bookshelf is what my hubby and son made for my daughter's bedroom. (Which is coming along quite nicely! If I ever get a camera again, I'll be sure to post.) But this shelf is something I wanted very badly for her room. I wanted a reading corner (still needs seating there) that would also look nice. So, the shelf is actually 4 ft wide x 6 ft tall so it could display all her beautiful children's books. The art on the covers of those books is so fun and often gorgeous, I always felt it a shame to just show the spines of the books. So we made it big enough to be a display shelf as well as a book shelf. I can't tell you how nice it is. Perk 1, she reads more (which means we all read more). Perk 2, she keeps her books cleaned up (don't know why this helps her do it, but it does. No complaints there!) Perk 3, I get a functional piece of wall art and the books don't hide. I'm thinking a bean bag chair or two would do the reading niche trick. Any suggestions?

6 comments:

Sundee said...

This may sound weird, but actually I got the idea from Mom. What if you do one of those big, fluffy dog-beds instead of a beanbag chair? They are super comfy and washable! Costco, baby! (Mom hates bean bag chairs for good reason...)

Andrea said...

I love them!! Both of the projects. You continue to amaze me with your creativity and determination to follow through with your ideas. Beautiful!

jomymother said...

The bench and shelves look great Summer. The green fabric really changes the look of that bench. And thanks for the mini tutorial on oil cloth. I've never done that before...or even thought to do so.

Washington Hills said...

Agreed. LOVE the green fabric on the bench!!!! Does Sophia just love that bookshelf? Perfect. For what it's worth, I think the dogbed is kinda cute, smile.

The Tiff-girl said...

I saw an adorable kid's sized recliner style chair at Target the other day (except it didn't recline, it just looked like a recliner). My kids thought it was super fun.

On another note, I love the bookshelf. I would do that too if I thought my kids would keep the books on the shelf and if we had any books left that still look pretty enough to display. They love books, but man are they hard on them...

The Tiff-girl said...

I had another thought: you could just put a cute little oval rug on the floor in front of the book shelf and a few large-ish square or circle shaped pillows for sitting or lounging on.