dil·i·gence:careful and persistent work or effort

Proverbs 13: 4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Going out on a ledge

I'm not usually one to do things twice, but I decided early on in this project that I wanted the material that tops the half wall to be something special.  I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for someplace where I can get a one-of-a-kind hunk of gnarly repurposed wood.  Like an old, weathered barn beam or something.  But, since I figured the search for such a material might take a long time, I needed to top the half wall with something else in the meantime.  So, following YHL's lead, I picked up a super affordable 1x10" pine board.  Ain't she perfect?

I had the fine folks at HD cut it to length for me, and my Dad router-ed (routed?) the edges to give it a nice, finished look.  Then, I slapped on a couple coats of MinWax stain in Jacobean and topped it with 3 coats of polycrylic.  If you remember back when I redid our kitchen table, I've had issues with the poly in the past, but I'm happy to announce that this time it went on flawlessly!
I left the board 2 inches longer than the wall for a slight overhang.  Of course, we didn't want anything hazardous, because the last thing you want to do is slam your hip into a piece of lumber as you navigate through the house with a laundry basket or something.  But, there has been none of that.  :)
It hangs over about an inch on each side, too.  The wall is built with 2x6s, and if I was a super duper carpenter lady, I could do the math and tell you exactly how much overhang there is on the sides, but I always get tangled up with the actual dimensions of lumber vs what we call them (ex. 2x6 is not really 6" wide, but then there's 2 pieces of drywall, and of course the 1x10 is not really 10" wide, either).
On the other end, I just butted it right up against the wall. 


Oh, and here's a bonus project!  This HVAC in our kitchen ceiling used to be a shiny brass.  I pulled that sucker down and gave it about 7 light and even coats of ORB.  Goodbye eyesore, hello gorgeous!


So, there you have it!  One (small) step closer to our goal!

Last night, I committed to both the paint color and the backsplash tile and dropped some moolah at HD.  It felt great!!

xo,

Emily

3 comments:

  1. That ledge looks beautiful Emily! You really achieved a flawless finish! And I love adding a new texture and finish. And those lights catch my eye every time I see this room - a great choice! I love this project!

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  2. Emily- That looks wonderful. I think it is the perfect finishing piece and even though it wasn't exactly what you had imagined it does a nice job as is. The grate looks a lot better painted, too. You have come a long way with the remodel. Can't wait to see your paint color! xo Diana

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  3. Holy cow!! Does that look GREAT!!! What a DIFFERENCE this makes! When did you decide to do all this???

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