This project is a great example of me promising my wife I'd get something done, while making zero promises on the timeline. And boy did this one drag out...
Around Christmas of 2024, my dad unveiled his version of these while we were visiting and my wife instantly wanted similar versions for our house. She's been slowly making over our living room, meaning she gets ideas and I do the work. Y'all know how it works! Anyway, we took measurements and dad gave me these designs to work with.
As it turns out, the operations and maintenance director for our local school district is a super talent fabrication (Iron Innovations on FB), so I hired him to build these for me. Not only did he nail it, he barely charged me anything for labor. He lives one road over from a young woman who does power coating, so I took them from his shop to hers and she did her magic.
Once she was done, we had to decide on the wood. Originally, we tried to rehab old barn beams from the farm, but it was going to resemble a butcher block more than furniture grade boards due to the deterioration of the beams. So we audibled and got our hands on some red oak out of the same wood lot here behind the house. My dad then did all the wood work. He planed the rough sawn boards, glued them up, sanded them, then beveled all the edges and built shims so you could see the beveled edges. Once he was done, it was my time to shine.
I used to work at Sherwin-Williams and that's how I found out that I have a weird gift: I can custom match stain with the best of them. My wife wanted these to blend in between our red oak trim and the white oak fire place. In 20 minutes, I'd nailed it with a blend of Minwax Cherry and Mocha.
Once had her approval, it was production time. Heavy application of stain followed by 4 coats of Minwax Helmsman polyurethane made for a great looking finish.
And here's the finished product.
The wife is happy, even if it did take a year from design to finish! The TV stand makes a great addition to the room and really ties it all together. Not only did we get new furniture, we built our own heirlooms.
Around Christmas of 2024, my dad unveiled his version of these while we were visiting and my wife instantly wanted similar versions for our house. She's been slowly making over our living room, meaning she gets ideas and I do the work. Y'all know how it works! Anyway, we took measurements and dad gave me these designs to work with.
As it turns out, the operations and maintenance director for our local school district is a super talent fabrication (Iron Innovations on FB), so I hired him to build these for me. Not only did he nail it, he barely charged me anything for labor. He lives one road over from a young woman who does power coating, so I took them from his shop to hers and she did her magic.
Once she was done, we had to decide on the wood. Originally, we tried to rehab old barn beams from the farm, but it was going to resemble a butcher block more than furniture grade boards due to the deterioration of the beams. So we audibled and got our hands on some red oak out of the same wood lot here behind the house. My dad then did all the wood work. He planed the rough sawn boards, glued them up, sanded them, then beveled all the edges and built shims so you could see the beveled edges. Once he was done, it was my time to shine.
I used to work at Sherwin-Williams and that's how I found out that I have a weird gift: I can custom match stain with the best of them. My wife wanted these to blend in between our red oak trim and the white oak fire place. In 20 minutes, I'd nailed it with a blend of Minwax Cherry and Mocha.
Once had her approval, it was production time. Heavy application of stain followed by 4 coats of Minwax Helmsman polyurethane made for a great looking finish.
And here's the finished product.
The wife is happy, even if it did take a year from design to finish! The TV stand makes a great addition to the room and really ties it all together. Not only did we get new furniture, we built our own heirlooms.
