Another building project for Mrs. OBIO

[OBIO]

Today, my dear, darling, blue-eyed pain-in-the-neck...I mean, wife....asked me to build her a modern, simplified version of this...not the bed, but the drapery box thingie.

Google Image linked below....wow what a freaking long URL link.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=draped+bed&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=832&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=vXW23mi2YQkDFM:&imgrefurl=http://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/furniture/Furniture/The-Bed-Part-4.html&docid=uOP3dyVdUFA7mM&imgurl=http://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/furniture/Furniture/images/Louis-XVI-Bedstead-Gilt-Frame-with-Tapestry-Panels-and-Cur.jpg&w=450&h=800&ei=hj_DTtrtFoH50gGTpYztDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=369&sig=105454321913074154666&page=3&tbnh=150&tbnw=84&start=49&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:24,s:49&tx=65&ty=129

So, off to the store we go to buy the drapery needed for this project. Luckily my dear, darling, blue-eyed pain-in-the-neck...I mean, wife....isn't afraid of discount shopping. We were able to buy one pair of nice long drapes, two luxurious valances and a long (something like 220 inches) deep merlot swag/scarf thingie. Just around $55...which is just $10 less than I spent to buy the lumber to build a super strong queen size platform bed...who would have guessed that fabric would be more expensive than wood?

I had the lumber left over from building the platform bed a few weeks back...so no more money had to leave the bank account. And even luckier, my father-in-law had some pieces of oak quarter round trim and some small frame molding that he wanted to get rid of....so I was able to grab that for the project.

Got all my goods together and carried down to the basement, turned on the Dave...a radio named after the original owner, Deb's grandfather Dave....and built the sucker. While the basement was warm and dry, it still kind of sucks trying to build a project like this on the basement floor...using hand tools, even the mitered corners for the trim was cut with a hand saw and finished with a wood rasp.

The drapery box headboard thingie is now balanced across the top of a 40 gallon plastic tote with the first coat of poly-based stain curing. Another coat or two, followed by a good week to fully cure, and it will be ready to hang from the ceiling above the head of our bed with lots of pretty, lustrous drapery hanging from it.

Most days I love my dear, darling, blue-eyed pain-in-the-neck...I mean, wife....to death......today, I'm not so sure.

OBIO

PS: a quick side note on Dave, the radio. Deb's grandfather passed away like 17 years ago...and the radio has been passed from one family member to another....sitting in garages and basements unused all that time. Then it was given to me back in the spring. I was using it while painting an apartment. I unplugged the radio..and it kept playing. The Duracell batteries that were in the radio were still had enough juice to power the radio for about 20 minutes. They were the last batteries that Deb's grandfather, Dave, had put into the radio before he passed away. They don't make batteries like that anymore.

[crashaz]

Makes ya a good husband Obio!! A handcrafted work..... kudos to you!! :salute:

[SSI01]

Very impressive OBIO. Dad was a carpenter for over 30 years and could handle virtually anything mom threw at him. I must have inherited some of his talent as the home we finally left in VA to move down here to upon retirement had my handiwork all over it. I love the confidence they seem to have in us to handle anything that comes down the pike - the hard part, sometimes, is doing it up to what's in their mind's eye. Sounds like you've got yourself a fairly well-equipped workshop - that sure helps.

[av8erjm]

Have you possibly checked IKEA

[Daveroo]

hope that thing dont fall on ya in your sleep

[OBIO]

Sounds like you've got yourself a fairly well-equipped workshop - that sure helps.

A well-equipped workshop? I wish. I have a circular saw, an electric drill, 3 hand saws, a collection of wood rasps, a ton of drill bits (most of which are really old and dull).

What I do have are memories of watching my grandfather build things using hand tools and the pride that came from crafting tables, cabinets, benches and such using ones own muscles and sweat. When grandpa was 9 years old, he quit school to go to work with his dad to help feed the family. Great Granddad was a carpenter and builder and there were no power tools back in his day. Grandpa grew up working alongside his dad, building houses, barns, chicken coops, cabinets, tables and chairs using nothing but hand tools. When power tools became available, Grandpa stuck with the way he had been doing things all his working life. As he got older, he began using power tools for some things...but insisted on doing all the detail work, the finish work by hand.

OBIO

[SSI01]

That's the mark of a pro. Dad started his carpentry work when there weren't any power tools, I never saw him use a power saw, it was always a good combination saw. He had all the usual hand tools for someone his age and with his level of experience. He once told me one good thing about being a carpenter was you could rough in a home and then watch the plumbers, electricians and sheet metal people come in and do their work and watch how they did it - then do the same thing for yourself.

[aeromed202]

Don't let her watch anymore of those Victorian era movies. I steered mine away from making me buy/build 4-poster and foot board type beds cause I'm well over 6'. Can't say the same for every other piece of trim and furniture I've had to fabricate over the years. "You know how to make this don't you?" Sound familiar?

[Daveroo]

when i was 12,,,,i started going to work as a plumber with dad and grandpa,,we were plumbers,,and when it was time to topout a new house..they used mostly hand tools....hand drill with a "keyhole saw to make the hole larger for the 3 and 4 inch vent pipes and second story waist lines,,and most of thime they framed and sheeted the roof before the plumbing was even roughed in,so you did the below floor "roughin,and topout all at once,,all done with hand tools,,,my dads arms were HUGE,,,mine werent bad..but his were huge.....he was 6'2" as a senior in high school wieghed 230 pounds and wore a 28 waist pant,i was 6'5" and 220,with 30" waist at grade 12 myself,,,im like 60 now?

but my point is..all hand tools even a ratchette screw driver,it was about 18inches long and had a slider like action...man that thing would distroy skin if you slipped

[SPman]

Oh no - not the four poster bed......

The missus has been dropping hints, and I've been busy dropping the dropped hints somewhere else.....

It's a real bugger having been a carpenter for 30 years (who has also worked in a cabinet and joiners shop for a few years......and having a barn full of tools.......)

Good on you Obi - devotion above and beyond the call of duty....

[OBIO]

I didn't build a four poster bed...now way...I hate footboards and not real fond of headboards. After we moved into this new place at the beginning of October, I built a platform thingie for our mattress to go onto. Our old box spring (I mean OLD) had given up the ghost and I wasn't about to spend $130 for a new "foundation" made of thin wood and carboard. $65 worth of lumber, screws and stain and we have a platform bed that I could probably park my mini-van on.

The thing I just built is a three sided box.....60 inches wide (the width of a queen size bed) and a foot on the sides. It's 6 inches deep. It will mount on the ceiling (and stay there I HOPE). From the back edge, there will be a long set of drapes hanging down to act as the "headboard", around the three sides of the box will be a couple of shimmery, tassled valances in a neat gold/green/bronze color. Then hanging down on the sides, behind the valance, will be a long deep merlot red scarf that is 220 inches long.

It's a modern version of those draped ceiling box thingies they had back in Medieval times so that the heavy drapes could be pulled around the bed to help keep it warm and to give folks more privacy. Like that, but just decorative...not at all functional.

This was all Deb's idea.

My idea was to make a thin (maybe 2 inch thick) light weight padded headboard and hang it on the wall. Would have been easier (and CHEAPER) to build and easier to hang and no worries about it falling 8 feet onto my face during the night.

But what a man wants and what a woman gets are miles and miles and light years apart.

OBIO

[aeromed202]

A the late great Rodney Dangerfield once said, "...the women's clothes go on the wooden hangars, he men's clothes go on the wire hangars."

[OBIO]

The project is done, mounted to the ceiling and has the drapes installed.

52398

Gives our bedroom that 5-Star Hotel Room feel....or makes it look room in a high class brothel....whichever. Hopefully this will be the last project Deb comes up with for me to do this year.

OBIO