Happy Canada day, everyone! It might not be the nicest day out there, but we are pretty frigging lucky to live where we do, not to mention a blog post on Canada Day! Grab a cold one and nestle in. I haven’t posted in awhile but I’ve been busy as balls! My daughter has recently been relocated (forced) into her new room because she has a little brother moving in. We are patiently waiting for him arrive (he is due in 6 days!). It has been forever since I built anything for our house, so instead of saving a shit load of money and buying things from Ikea, I decided I’d spend triple the amount of money and build everything for my daughter’s bedroom. It’s more special anyway in my opinion. I built and painted her a new bed, some floating shelves and a dresser. Her new room turned out pretty frigging cute if you are asking me! Maybe even magazine worthy if I started my own magazine (do people still buy magazines?). Lets just dive right into the build. We all know you’re here for my photography skills…
Hold on tight
First, I built a box for the mattress. I must have been sipping on a cold one taking this picture. If I’m being honest, I measured it wrong and cut one piece too short. Back to the depot I went and if you are wondering if I had a plan for this… I did not.Next I started to work on the headboard. I didn’t want the bed to be off the ground just in case she falls out. Her mattress just sits inside.I got in deep concentration and rounded over all the corners so she wouldn’t take a sharp corner to the face or end up getting stitches… This was mostly done for my safety.I trimmed everything to the same length.I test fitted all the rails before I glued them together.
Once I found the right spacing, I glued and nailed everything together. Looking back, I should have screwed them.I sanded everything down to 220. Great lighting, eh!?
I used little spacers to make sure both sides were equally spaced.
Next, I took it apart and brought it up to Everly’s new big girl room and she went right to sleep! She has slept in it every night without any troubles (knock on wood), but who wouldn’t want to snuggle in to this cute room? I also built and installed the floating shelves. If you want to see a lot of holes in a wall come over and look behind these. It is not pretty.
Okay, one down, one to go. This one is the dresser. I had zero plans for this (except for one Pintrest picture my wife sent me) once again. I didn’t calculate how much wood I needed. I just went to the depot and thought to myself “This should be enough”. It wasn’t, but I was pretty close considering I wasn’t sure how it was going to look.
One down, one to go. This is Everly’s dresser.
I bought some woodI glued some wood.I cut some wood.I sanded some wood.
Trimmed wood to length.I measured some wood for the side panels to length. If I was going to do this again, I’d choose a better plywood.I rough cut everything to size with my jig saw.
I glued and clamped the panels in.
Looks a bit like a dresser.I used some scraps to figure out the proper spacing for the drawers.
Not bad.Next I started working on the drawer boxes.
There are many ways to build drawers. I chose this way because it was the first video I watched on YouTube.
I milled all the drawer fronts using my planer and jointer. It’s way cheaper to buy rough cut lumber.I used playing cards to give the same reveal for the drawer fronts. Going for a straight.I found the center of the drawers for the pulls.This jig helps make everything perfect. It’s my Dad’s. I’m not sure if he knows I have it but he can borrow it anytime as long as he returns it.I recessed the holes for the drawer screws to go in.Test fitted a pull. It looked nice.Hot damn.Next I needed to work on the dresser top. I cut some rough lumber.I jointed one edge. This tool is a wedding gift my grandfather got us. Isn’t it awesome?!I planed some wood down using my grandfather’s planer (he knows I have it).I cut it to size.I glued them together first.I sanded everything to 220 and than white washed the entire thing.I waited a day and put a satin coat of polyurethane on.Boom, Bob’s your uncle (or Dad).
I’m pretty happy with how this turned out! I hate installing drawer slides, though. Son of a bitch I get frustrated. There is something to be said about buying the cheap ones. Come to think of it, it could be the installer. Regardless, they can screw right off. Anyway, I have lots of work ahead of me this summer. I’m going to be a mason apprentice in a week or two for KeyStone Masonry so I’m looking forward to learning lots about that trade. I also have a bunch of orders to fill and a baby on the way. It should be a low key summer. Have an awesome day and summer everyone!
