Category: Mid Century

Apartment living, cedar lumber, Coldspring, Mid Century

Hairpin Leg Cedar Desk and Shelves

Karen

Have you ever held onto something for a long time time just waiting for the right time to use it? I do, probably too often, but this time I am so glad that I waited.

In 2014 my dad gave us a load of cut cedar. I thought at the time I would never use it all, but six years later we are almost out of cedar. We have used the cedar A LOT. Just a few things we have done are:mudroom bench, cedar shelves, and cedar shutters for the 8th and M house.

One of the last large slab sections I had I knew would make a nice coffee table or desk. I even found hairpin coffee table length legs at a garage sale back in 2017. I shared a whole post about the slab of wood, the short legs and my plans, but my heart wasn’t in it. I knew if I finished it then I wouldn’t have a place for it and would have to sell it. So, it all hung out unassembled in the shop. For.Three.Years.

I had three table height legs that I pulled out of a burn pile at our deer camp and really wished there had been four. I even showed you pictures of the three in that old post. This past spring Mr. Math was using his tractor to level the ground around the burn pile when he unearthed the missing fourth leg. I knew the slab of cedar would get to be a desk but I still didn’t have a home for it. I also had this photo saved and have an orange chair like the black in the photo. The site where I found it is no longer active.

In February a relative asked me to start looking for furniture for him. I knew immediately that the desk and chair would have a home.

Mr. Math added plates to a crack in the wood to make sure it would be sturdy and hold up and attached the legs.

I love how it turned out.

I also made a great find on the 90% off shelves at Hobby Lobby. These two shelf brackets for $4.99. They were missing the bolts and boards but a couple more pieces of cedar will go well with the desk.

All together I have a little over $10.00 in everything that is in this post.

It is going to look great in an upcoming apartment bedroom for a young man.

I hope your week is going well.

Blessings,

Karen

cedar lumber, Coldspring, DIY, Mid Century

Hair Pin Leg Winfall

Karen

I have a thing for mid century stuff.  I particularly like hairpin legs.  I never really cared for the Formica topped version of the 1950’s atomic, futuristic, sharp angled tables but I love the bent metal legs mixed with natural elements.

The photo above showed my screen when I searched Google Images for hairpin legs.
Two times in the last month hairpin legs fell into my lap thanks to The Social Planner.

At an estate sale my buddy, The Social Planner found this set of four coffee table legs.  It was Sunday afternoon.  They were getting ready to wrap up.  I am not sure they knew what they were.  I got them for $2.00.  For the set.  .50 per leg.

The coffee table legs are going to get a slab of cedar for a petite coffee table in the guest shed.  It is under construction now.



The next set, my buddy found in a trash pile at our little cabin in the woods!  There are three table height legs which isn’t that unusual. It was common to have three legs in hairpin tables.  I wish I had a picture of her climbing into the pile to get them out.  The photo below shows a three legged table off Etsy from Winespirations.   I wish I had a wine barrel lid, but I think I will have something even cooler if I am just patient.


See the giant fallen tree below? Mr. Math is going to cut a section of this tree (called a cookie) for me to put on top of theses legs.  The diameter of the trunk is 34 inches. I am not sure where it will end up when finished.  I may be selling this particular table.  It is going to be a fun project.


I sprayed all of the legs with a rust arresting spray paint then flat black paint.  The will last forever if they aren’t allowed to rust.


Above is the difference between the legs once they are cleaned up and sprayed.

This is going to be a long process with lots of coats of poly, but I am looking forward to have something to do each evening that is pretty mindless.  My life is about to have another twist in the road that even I did not see coming.  More later.  For now, the weather here is beautiful, the garden is growing, and it is dry enough to paint outside.  Now if only the gale force winds would stop.  Oh well, we can’t have it all.

Didn’t Mr. Math do a stellar job on the south pasture this weekend?  It looks like a golf course.

I hope you had a great weekend. 

Thank you for following along on our journey.  

I love hearing from you,

Karen

Coldspring, family, Fun with friends, JJ Lane, Mid Century

The Guest Shed

Karen

One of the reasons we bought this beautiful property we live on is so that we can share it with our families and friends. We have done what we could with our home to allow for more overnight guests.  We have a sleeper sofa, a Murphy bed in the craft room, a queen bed and a a crib in the guest room.  The house holds a lot of folks.  More than once it has held 20 + young men.  (We stayed with friends those weekends… that was too much of a good thing.)

As our family and friends have come to visit we have realized that we need a separate space for visitors.  I even see us heading out to the guest house when our friends with a lot of kids or when both of our kids come with their families because we are early risers and noisy.  We also have an early riser dog. She is noisier than we are.

 This is my idea for a guest house:

I call her the guest shed.  I have dreamed about redoing her since 2015 although the colors have changed, I still want that mid century vibe.

The previous owner used this space as his woodworking shop and “man cave”.  He installed a sink, hardwood flooring reclaimed from a gymnasium, and cabinets.  He also built a wood burning stove that is the craziest looking thing ever.  


It needs a good coat of high heat paint. ( Can you tell he was a welder? )

 We are going to add a bathroom to the space, move the sink location, set up a kitchenette.   More on the bathroom later.

The vibe is going to be mid century-kitsch. The walls are going to be a really pale turquoise, there will be plenty of red and white.  Think light, bright and airy.  


I have collected some fun mid century furniture and a mint condition chrome UFO light.  The light was still in the original box, unopened.  I am smitten.  When it is on the pin holes look like UFO lights- yay for mid century atomic.  That bulb thing on the light is a pulley to adjust the height of the light.  There is a frosted glass light diffuser that attaches to the bottom of the light. 

I picked the light and two mid century walnut framed low slung chairs up at a garage sale for $2.00 each. No lie.  $6.00 dollars total.   ( Here is the post about the finds at the garage sale.)


At that same garage sale I got a porcelain cast iron sink to use in the kitchen.  ($5.00). The sink is stained and there are a few worn places but overall it is in great shape.  It is getting a coat or three of epoxy.


 I also have picked up a vintage kitchen upper cabinet set that are getting painted white. 


Before I can get started we need to replace the shop board along the back wall that is all full of holes for tools and paint the walls then install a drop ceiling. 


 This is what we are planning to use.


After the dropped ceiling is in, I am going to use the same stuff we used on our garage apartment to restore the floor without making it look brand new.

I have a double modified to be a queen sized iron bed going in along with the funky dresser and a chrome 1950’s table and chairs that are currently kicking my hiney.  Mr. Math did a much better job than me, but the back of them still isn’t done. Soon I will share what we learned from this process.  There were lessons learned!


I am so excited about this fun, funky, kitschy, bright space we plan on working on this summer.   It is going to make me happy to just walk in.  As soon as it is all finished I think we are thinking putting it on air bnb when we don’t need it for guests.  With the huge Houston area Boy Scouts camp going in down the road I think there will be a need for parents who want to stay nearby.