Meadowcrest Cottage

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Fall Wooden Scarecrow

This past weekend after working so hard on finishing up my transoms, I was ready to do something I really love. Many years ago I used to sell at craft shows. I would sell many sewn items like country doll, wreaths, and painted wood items. I always loved painting. Though I live in Florida and it is 90+ degrees I wanted to get in the Autumn feeling. I decided to make a scarecrow light for my foyer.

I had to break out my band saw that has been stored in the corner of my garage. It has not been used in over 20 years. After I cleaned it up and blew all the spiders away, I flipped the switch and it ran perfectly!

I cut and sanded all the wood pieces, gathered up all my supplies, sat down in my sewing room, put a great movie on, and went to work.

This is the end result. Isn't he cute?


Sunday, September 5, 2010

Foyer Light Redo

This is my foyer light as it has hung for the last 13 years. I used to love brass, but now I am really into the oil rubbed bronze look. I decided to paint this brass light.



I took it all apart.

I bead blasted the brass to etch it so the paint would adhere better. ( My husband has every tool imagineable)

I love this Paint! I have painted hinges, switch plates, and light fixtures with this.





And this is how it looks now.

TRANSOM GLASS PART TWO "THE END"

Happy Labor Day! I am linking up to Susan's
Between Naps On The Porch




A couple weeks ago I decided to add transom glass in my large openings from the foyer, living room, and dining room. I posted the before and after pictures of the glass in the opening from the dining room that leads to the kitchen. After three weekends I have finished all three openings and wanted to share the final results. I tried to take pictures as I went along to give an idea of how it was done. I am not giving any measurements as they probably would not pertain to anybody else's encased openings.

One of the main reasons for adding the glass transoms is that in the future I would like to add french doors to the openings. The bottom of these transoms are at 81 inches which is a finished opening size for a standard door.

I started with a 2x4 cut the depth of the opening minus the width of the 2 1x6 boards which is 3/4 inches each, and another 1/4 inch so that the final facing boards would be set in 1/8 inch on each side. ( I know, this is all Greek) Just look at the pictures..



I did have to rip my long 1x6 boards on my table saw so that they equaled the size of the encased 2x4.



I am making a long box. Except for the screws that I used to anchor the cut 2x4s, I used my neumatic nail gun everywhere.





Just one more piece of a ripped 1x6 to add to complete the box.



Now I cut 1x4s and enclosed the space above the box like a window.





Now I added door stop moulding to one side of the opening. I measured and found the middle of the 1x4 on all sides, top and bottom and marked it. I nailed the moulding approx 1/16th of an inch back away from it towards the outside. I did miter these pieces in the corners to give a finished look. This is the one side where the glass will lay against.



Ok, I am sorry. I got so involved I forgot about the rest of the pictures. I measured the smallest opening of the width and length and went down to my favorite glass company and had them cut the glass 1/8 inch smaller. They did this while I waited! I put a little silicone adhesive against the door stop moulding and layed the glass against it. I then nailed the other side of the door stop mouldings around the glass. (I already had the moulding cut and ready to install at the top of the ladder. This is probably why I did not get the pictures.)

I filled all the holes with wood filler, sanded it all with fine sandpaper, primed all the wood with 2 coats, and painted it all with semigloss white paint.

I took thin wood screen moulding and cut to the lengths on each side of the glass. I glued them on with silicone adhesive on each side of the glass to look like mullions.