Friday, April 01, 2005

Steve's Craftsmanship

As we continue working on our kitchen, I thought I'd post pictures of the furniture Steve has made for the house. He uses all quarter sawn white oak, mortise and tenon, as well as fuming rather than staining in the arts and crafts style. Below you can see a coffee table he made. It also shows a view of our living room, which is finished as much as it's going to be for now. Steve plans to make a light for the living room out of wood and art glass. I like to say, if you don't like wood, you won't like our house. ;o)

In the living room, we stripped all the woodwork and repaired the plaster using plaster plugs and skim coating. It was a first attempt and is not perfect. We still need to refinish the floors in the house also.

Steve made this Dining Room table-not the chairs- they are still to come. He also stripped the coffered ceiling. When I met him, he was just finishing it. I helped him sand it and stain it. I was very impressed that he had done all that work. Because our kitchen is "in transition," we eat at the dining room table every meal. Who says people don't use dining rooms anymore?

You can see the teak medicine cabinet he made on the bathroom post. Next on the furniture agenda: a plate rack for our kitchen and a light for the living room. I'll post some pictures of design ideas for the light later on.

10 comments:

Emerld said...

OMG! That is so beautiful! I really wish I had come to your place when I lived in Chicago! I love that front room!

Anonymous said...

Wow is right. Beautifull funiture and I love the color you choose for the walls in the living room there. So warm and cozy.

BTW, not to worry about the hens, I have their entire pen covered, there will be no roaming for them.

Do you have a yard? Check this out. http://home.comcast.net/~kkskinner/chickens.html

Jocelyn said...

Thanks for the kind words. I needed it this morning because Steve had a bunch of stuff come in at work and has to work the next 2 weekends...and not on our kitchen I am afraid ;o(

I will check out the chicken site too- very intriguing.

The Bishops said...

That coffee table is great. Looks like you get some nice light in that room too.

John said...

Beautiful furniture.

I have a question though:

"He uses all quarter sawn white oak, mortise and tenon, as well as fuming rather than staining in the arts and crafts style."

What is fuming? If you mentioned that somewhere and I missed, I'm sorry. If not, I'd love to know.

Thanks!

Jocelyn said...

Hi John- I may have posted about this before but I am not sure where.

Fuming is the process coloring a wood with ammonia fumes. Basically, you build a tent of sorts that contains your piece of furniture and put bowls of concentrated ammonia in the tent. The fumes color the wood. The darkness/lightness of the color depends upon how long you fume it for.

It's an old arts and crafts way to "stain" wood. It does not hide the wood like stains tend to do-pretty cool really.

Next time Steve is fuming a piece, I'll do a post but it may be a while.

Jocelyn said...

one more thing about fuming: The tanin in the wood reacts with the ammonia fumes (30% ammonia hydroxide available at blueprint supply stores) and stains the wood naturally-it penetrates the wood about 1/8" so it is not easily scratched etc...and best of all it doesn't hide the grain!

Anonymous said...

I am inclined to think that Steve inherited his carpentry talent from his great-great grandfather, John George Schahfer, who imigrated to this country from Germany and was the creator of the very collectible "Hoosier" cabinet. John George was a very accomplished cabinet maker and would be as proud of Steve's workmanship as we are. Keep up the good work. The house is looking great!

Anonymous said...

My dining room table was a coffee table located in the living room, which I extened by placing a non-used closet door atop it. Seven "adults" had to sit on the floor as we read from the one hagadah we had that we assembled with a glue stick.Family rooms with the family eating in the kitchen have long become passé, and the eating space is redefined as the dining room furniture. A dining room is not just a place for the family to congregate to eat, but also to entertain, and throw formal dinner. Furniturehomedelivery.com

Anonymous said...

Good feature! Dining Room Furniture looks fantastic.