shelf

Here is our newest furniture addition that Ehren built for me this weekend.  I gave him all the dimensions and how I want it to look and it took him about half an hour to finish it.  Seems like for such a quick job he could be making lots of pieces for the house. :) The longest part about it was the staining which I love doing so I worked on that this Saturday.  I really wanted it to look light to kind of match our kitchen cabinets but even just the pre-stain liquid made it turn darker.  The stain I started with was making the bottom 2 shelves really red and I didn't like that because our kitchen cabinets are more natural/yellowish tone.  So we got another stain, a really dark one and I went to town with that on the 2 shelves.  Now I like how it turned out because it's dark enough that the redness doesn't show much.  I left the top shelf with just a sealer on to keep it as light in color as possible and we really like the look of it.  It has some dents and stuff because it is very old wood but it makes it look cool.

I just love creating our own piece of furniture/art for the house.  It always means so much more to me than anything else we buy in a store.  So this is kind of an early birthday present for me. :) I still have to find some storage baskets/trays for the top shelf where kids can have their homework/Awana(church books)/and miscellaneous crap that I can just put there and at the end of the day or week they all put each item where it belongs.  Somehow a portion of our counter top in the kitchen becomes a collection of toys/things from all around the house in a matter of one day so now, they can collect in the "crap baskets" and not on my counter. :)  We'll see if it helps, but at least I like getting a bit more organized.

It is funny how doing one project almost always leads to another, or at least you start thinking about a new one.  So I have at least 3 other projects in my head right now which I'd love for Ehren and I to make but I know, one thing at a time. :)