Non-Wedding Related: Episode One

From time to time there are things that happen or projects I've done that just need to be shared.  And though this blog isn't specifically a "wedding blog" it has turned into one.  So I feel bad blogging about things that aren't wedding related, like you guys might get bored or wonder what the heck I'm talking about.

But, I'm going to take a chance here, and hope that you won't stop reading my blog!  I'd like to think I offer you plenty of wonderful things that are wedding related, that you couldn't leave if you wanted to.  =]

Anyways, here is a project Mr. T and I worked on last spring and into the summer.

My dad was there the day his friend tore down a 100+ year old barn, and he brought back a truckload of old, dirty barn wood.  Immediately flashes of projects started going through my head, and I was itching to come up with something my dad and I could make.  At first I had grand ideas about a gorgeous dining room table, or even a coffee table with matching end tables.

But a year went by and the wood was gathering dust out in the shop.  Around that time, Mr. T and I started dating, and what do you know...he knows his way around a woodshop!  I still wasn't sure what I wanted to make, but I wanted to take advantage of the hidden potential that wood had to offer.  Once we had been dating for awhile, and knew we would be getting engaged and moving to MN together in the summer, I decided we needed to make a bed.  My parents thought this was interesting, because at the time we weren't engaged and it was pretty early on in our relationship.  But Mr. T and I had been talking about it, and we knew we'd end up together and that this would be "our bed" instead of just mine.  I recall talk of how this would be the bed our little kids would run to in the middle of the night when they get scared.

There's no way I could even try to give you a step-by-step tutorial, because a.) we kind of made it up as we went along, and b.) I am way bad with all the technical mumbo jumbo it would require to describe what we did.  But I can show you some pictures I took along the way.

Here is the inspiration for my sketch.

I believe I found this on Walmart's website.

This is what the wood looked like before we spent many, many hours (days) running it through the planar.

It came out absolutely gorgeous, and had way more character than we could have imagined by looking at the old dirty boards.  I love the grain, and how the worm holes stayed.

The headboard, glued and clamped, waiting for the top to be glued on.

The finished bed with our brand new mattress set, after many hours spent sanding it smooth and applying three coats of polyurethane.

Our bed, new mattress set, and new Pottery Barn bedding in our house in MN.  Don't you just love an excuse to buy new things??

If I had to pick a favorite thing about this bed, it would be either the sideboards or the wide top to the headboard and footboard.  Or maybe the trim at the bottom of the footboard and top of the headboard.  I just can't decide! 

You can see in this picture the tops were attached with 1 1/2" dowels.  It's pretty neat that there isn't a single nail in this bed.

It was a great opportunity to work with Mr. T on a project.  We really butted heads sometimes because I'm super opinionated when it comes to things like this.  He also likes to say that I "know everything" or pretend to anyways, and that got on his nerves sometimes.  But overall, it was great and we have a lasting piece of furniture to show for it.

There is still a large pile of barn wood at home that I'd really like to make a matching dresser and nightstand out of at some point, but for now the pieces from my bedroom set match well enough.

Any other woodworkers out there??  How about projects you and the boy can do together?