It’s done finally! We DIY’ed it.
You may recall that Sarah did me a solid and helped to point me in the right direction. We knew that we needed something a bit more airy than the previous chunk of veneer that was in the room. Heffe and I agreed that our favorites were IN ORER, 1, 5 and 9.
We loved 9. So, with it as inspiration, we set out to design and build our own. I got it into my head that I wanted a worn weathered look, but short of finding the perfect amount of 2x2s in the wild, or burying them out in some sunny backyard for 23 years I was going to have fake it. We picked out the woods and the dude made me do all of the hard work like routing and sanding. (It was actually a really easy job.)
I used a weathered oak stain made by MinWax, but only after taking a nod from the awesomest show Salvage Dogs and first torching it. That part was wicked fun. We picked out a little plumber’s torch, Heffe nerded over all of the options, and finally decided upon a little propane fueled flame thrower that would do the job just fine. It was $25 and it’s a pyromaniac’s dream come true. We will not let the little boy of the household anywhere near it.
While we intended to build a top too, but I fell in love with the glass top so that we can look down into our table and enjoy our torch job! I was so pleased that after we set it up in the living room, we took a walk to the grocery store and I suggested to Heffe that we bring it with us… cause I wasn’t done simply staring at it. That, my friends, is the weird karmic power of accomplishment that DIY induces. It’s practically euphoric.
Follow along with #HeffeHouse journey via Instagram:
You guys did great! May I suggest a lacquered tray to protect your glass from being perma-smudged.
Haha.
Perma-smudged is a reality that we accept, but I’m definitely into a tray.
:)
You did a wonderful job! Now…what’s the next project?
Thank you Vivian.
I’m not sure what is next.
There was talk of a banquette for the dining room, and I really should finish the bathroom. I think we decided against painting the mantle after all.
I feel like we’ve been in this “maybe we are going to move” limbo – and that makes it hard to commit to making personalized updates to a rental.
What do you think we should do next? Style the bookshelves?