Adding the work table to My Room

Way back in April 2015 I was trying out the new peninsula configuration in my project room. I liked it! And I was ready to make it permanent. Then a year went by. Yup, life happened and I lived with a work table that wasn't level, had rough edges that caught fabric, and wasn't fully supported so you couldn't lean against it. 

But it finally perculated up to the top of the project list and we got to work making it a fully functional space.

First we had to remove the back legs from the bed stands. They're pretty Queen Anne style legs that stick outside the wall dimensions of the stand. Not a big deal when left as a stand alone unit, but it kept the stands from fitting against each other fully when back-to-back. 

Hammer and chisel came in handy

In doing this small bit of demolition we learned something nifty about these inexpensive stands that we purchased from our local Habitat For Humanity Restore - they're not only solid wood, they're cherry. And extremely well constructed. Those legs were screwed, pegged, and glued. Took a bit of work to get the darn things off. They were also designed to flip and do exactly what we were doing - turn them around to reduce the profile. The peg holes were even already drilled. Nice!

Reattaching the legs

So now the cabinets fit together with only a small seam.

Flipped rear legs

 Since I didn't want them left stained we took them outside to sand and paint them.

Cooper is so helpful

I'm going for a light, creative vibe in the project room so I've opted for lots of color in there (see the armoire I've already finished). But since I don't want it to look too terribly young, I've avoided primary colors. Flat finishes also help with this which means sample pots of paint come in handy.

The legs/trim are grayish-purple (purplish-gray?).

We decided to do away with the split top and start anew. So Chris bought some cabinet grade poplar plywood and edged it with oak.

Plywood top waiting for its coat of paint

Then I got clever (darn that Pinterest again) and asked him to build another top that would actually go under this one. A sub-top if you will. With appropriate gapping I'd have a space to store flat stuff like my cutting mats and rulers.

While he was doing that I stained the remaining floor molding for the room. We finished the window trim last summer but never got around to the floor trim. Now was the time!

Black to match window trim

So once again the room was torn apart. *sigh*

Everything into the middle!

 And we quickly installed the trim.

Love those nail guns

Then we got back to working on the table.

With sub-top

With both tops

We cut up some wooden table legs that we had laying around and used them as the support posts. Painted grayish-purple to match the legs on the bed stands.

Detail of support

So now my flexible cutting mat slides away easily and can be quickly grabbed when I need it. Same with my various cutting rulers that don't fit into drawers.

So easy to store stuff now

I've got to finish the drawer hardware and figure out how I want to store things in the cabinets. I'm also planning to paint the sides of the cabinets with something fun. The unpainted dressers in the room need coats of paint too (I'm going to leave the china cabinet all grown up and unpainted as it's a nice antique). I'm also figuring out how I want to cover the freezer room doorway. I'm thinking a sliding screen door that I can use to pin up project ideas or fabric as I work on stuff.

SaveSaveSaveSave