The Inglenook

The next project I worked on was the inglenook.  I actually started this before my trip to Mom’s and finished this past weekend.

As always with anything I work on, I started planning in Word.  I knew I would be working with standard sizes of strip wood, so I played around with possible configurations:

The first design used 3/8” strip wood.  It just didn’t look right, and I couldn’t quite get everything to fit properly.  The second design used 1/4” strip wood; I got the right number of squares in, and it fit around the bench better.  There were some further slight modifications after cutting out and testing against the fireplace, and below you can see my final patterns ready to go.  You can also see the cut to accommodate the molding on the fireplace mantel.  Once again, I glued my wood to the paper backing (except for the bench end), as it made things so much easier.

I used miniature baseboard and crown molding, as well as standard bass strip wood and 1/8” wide railroad lumber. I cut each of the little squares from my strip wood, then sanded all the edges at an angle, using my sanding twigs.  I had also tried my mini files and regular sandpaper, but the sanding twigs were by far the easiest to use for this task.  The hardest part was holding those little squares down while I sanded.  By the end of the process, all the finger tips on my left hand were sore from pressing down during sanding.  As I finished, I stored them all in a spray bottle cap.  The floor of my workroom is notorious for eating things unlucky enough to fall onto it, and I didn’t want to have to make any extras! 

Then all the wood was stained, and I glued it down, before finishing everything with two coats of satin varnish.

After I got everything glued in (of course), I decided I wasn’t happy with the bench. 

There was too much grain in the wood, and either that or the floor pattern made it look like it is wider at the right end than the left.  (It isn’t; it’s strip wood—all one width, all the way across.  I even measured to make sure.)  It was now glued in and wasn’t coming out without doing damage.  So, I used some of my real wood mahogany scrapbook paper to create a veneer for it.  Better, I think.  The right side still looks odd, but I really think it’s an optical illusion from the floor pattern. (Sorry for all the dusty bits.  I had been testing my valance wall, which required some sanding, and it was apparently shedding sawdust.  Where is the maid when I need her?) 

 The bench backs and the right-hand side of the inglenook also make use of the mahogany scrapbook paper.  While the bench on the right-hand side has much less grain than the original left-hand bench, I may still veneer it, so it matches the left bench better.  I will not be finishing the end or adding an armrest, because, technically, this is just a cross-section of the bench.

And there we have it.  The final thing I will have to do before adding the valance wall is put a curtain on the window, as I know I will never be able to get that hung once the valance wall goes on.

Oh, and I made 21 more books, for a running total of 48 so far.  I originally estimated 100 books for the bookcase.  I was very, very wrong.