Wyldestone Cottage: My First Projects

Thank you for your patience. I have been super busy unpacking, sorting and daydreaming of how to finish my new home. It hasn't left me much time or energy for blogging but I am trying to rectify that. I wrote a post on my other blog that will give you an idea of how things are going reno wise. This post is just to showcase a couple of my projects.
The first one I covered on the other blog but want to repost here.( Skip ahead if you have already seen the kitchen cupboard redo)

The Shirley Metal Kitchen. This was donated to me by David. It is an old (1940-1950) metal kitchen sink and cupboard unit. As you can see, it was seriously rusty and decrepted looking when I first saw it.

EWWWWWW!!!!!

I thought for about a nano second, that I might keep the original sticky paper that was on the shelves, just to keep it original looking , but decided against that when I saw the fifty year old dirt under the edges of it. Out it came!

I then spent a few hours sanding the whole unit down with various grades of grit, until the rust was all gone. Then I gave it a good washing with TSP and hot water, followed by a good long hosing down. Once it was dry, it got painted with 2 coats of self etching primer inside and out.

For some reason the colour I chose isn't showing up in these pictures at all, but this is the cabinet with two coats of sage green colour ( which mysteriously looks exactly like the military green tarp that its sitting on).

I found these cute handles at Home Depot. I guess over the years we have changed the standards of how wide our handles are for cupboards. The holes in mine were for about a two and a half inch spacing, but all the handles I found were three inch. So unfortunately, I had to ( get David) to drill an extra set of holes to fit the handles.

So, its pretty much done now. I want to build a small wooden frame for it to sit on as the doors catch on the ground, then as soon as the kitchen is painted, it will be installed.

My other project was the handmade couch that used to be on my boat. This couch had been hand crafted to the boat in such a way that it didn't have both sides finished or any support in the back leg area as it had been fitted right onto the structural ribs of the boat. I had spent a small fortune recovering the cushions on it and wanted to salvage it if I could. It's my goal to keep as much of the boat alive as possible and incorporate it into the cottage.

My friend Todd who knows alot more about refurbishing furniture than me came over to help me with this one. He cut some wood to fit on the open right side of the couch and added some structural wood to the back so it can support people sitting on it. I'm so grateful to him for his help. I love my couch and it fits right in my beduion tent room. I have a ton of stuff that needs doing, so this isn't quite finished yet. I still have to sand the edges of the new wood and verathane it so it will be the same colour as the rest of the wood. However it is usable for now and I will get to it when I am verathaning other projects

I LOVE this chair. I found it at the flea market a few weeks ago and couldn't afford it but bought it anyway. It was just too perfect for this room. It is very low to the ground and is covered in a persian sytyle rug. It is very comfy and it's where I sit to daydream.

The other wall in my room holds my bed. I hung up a curtain in front of it that I can close when sleeping .

I found this old brass tray a few years ago that had been abandoned outside. I haven't made any effort to polish it yet but lucked out at the same flea market and found these wonderful carved legs to support it for only ten dollars.

This item is one of my pride and joys. It's a sand pendulam. I bought it in Glastonbury England about 5 years ago and it has spent most of that time in storage. I was so happy to stumble upon it the other day and get it set up. The black tray sways and swivels causing the pendulam to create spirograph type drawings in the sand. As my house gets rocked around by passing boat wake, it moves on its own without me having to give it a push. I love seeing what designs show up from the natural movement of the house. Its very mezmorizing to watch.

I will post more pictures from my beduoin room at a later date. Right now its the only room half-assed set up and is my staging area for unpacking and sorting. I haven't begun to find all my treasures yet, so it is a room in progress as I try out different things to see how they fit in here.