Handmade Furniture and Other Bits of Progress

I feel like we haven't accomplished ANYTHING on the house lately.  Not true though - we have.

During the rush leading up to the Christmas holidays, I felt like I really didn't have anything new to report.  But as I tallied up all the small projects we've finished over the past couple of months and especially during this holiday, I've realized that we do have lots of small projects to share.

We've installed two handrails; one for the big people and a lower railing for the little ones.  Stella Jane uses hers every day.

In the mudroom, we managed to build and install some hooks on boards made of reclaimed wood found in the barn attic.  The were covered with layers of pink paint that I lovingly scraped off.

I even managed to hang some artwork.  (But haven't yet managed to remove the blue painter's tape that helped me position the pieces...)

 A large chalkboard now hangs in the pantry.

I improved upon the mirror that I made several years ago for our old house.  It's made of antique trim we found in the barn.  (Yes, that attic is a gold mine.)  The mirror is now properly mitered and joined and has a piece of mirror cut to fit that is glued in place.  It's ready to hang and it's huge.

We designed and built a coffee table for the living room.  The wood is exterior wall studs from our old house (circa 1860) and has a fantastic patina.  Here it is in the shop:

And in the living room:

We designed and built a similar table for the front entrance using the same lot of wood.  (Yet to be styled...)

The shower glass and curtain rod finally went up in the kids bathroom.  

    

Outside, the stone mason worked until mid-December, when it got too darn cold to do any more.  He nearly completed the third side and so will be back at it in the Spring.  It looks beautiful and we couldn't be happier with the work he's done.

Lanterns were installed where the screened porch will eventually be.