Cupboard Doors

I am no finish carpenter, and I don't have a great eye for detail or "the final product." But I get by.

I made the cupboard frame, so I had to make the doors, too. I took some 1"x2"x8' pine and cut a                              groove along one egde, cut the pieces to the dimensions of the door, then mitered them. For the center of the door, we used composite board. We painted them to look like the ceiling.

I nailed the boards to the back face of the door, put corner brackets, hinges, and handles on. 

Here's the first one in place. I use clamps to hold the door in place and also to put a spacer in at the bottom to  show me where the bottom should rest.

The final look. 

Jenn's coming up with the cupboard idea did us a major favor. We have a small bedroom, if you haven't noticed. We had our "stuff" jammed all over the place and it was very cramped in here before we renovated. Now we can store extra clothes, camera stuff, whatever in the area above our heads, which otherwise would be entirely wasted.

Hanging a Door On a New Jamb And Hanging a Headboard

I hate dealing with doors. I hate dealing with hinges. I hate dealing with chisels. Here we go. 

First, taking a tip from my brother, I use the old door jamb as a gauge and I clamp it side-by-side with the new one. 

I mark where the hinges will be on the jamb.

I can't cut a straight line too well, either, so why not use a metal guide to help while I score the wood and start chiseling?

 Let's start taking some wood out. Carefully. Here I remember Mr. Hackett's words: "You can take wood away, but you can't put it back." He was my shop teacher from 6th to 9th grade. He said lots of things like that, and "there are two ends to every board." I usually took them to be metaphorical.

Now I check the hinges with the door, which is still being finished, and make sure it all looks good. I have bored the holes already and set the screws after clamping and measuring the distance between the door and the jamb along the hinges.

We got our mattress in the room and then set out to put up the homemade headboard. We bought a "French Cleat", with a capacity of 200lbs, to hang it. I figure that's safe/

Putting the wall part on was easy because it comes already furnished with special screws that don't require an anchor to be set first.

Voila.

Jennifer about to sleep in our room, on our new bed, for the first time since May.

More Finishing Touches

Trim around the lights above the bed is in.

Shelf next to bed is in.

Getting Closer To Being Done With Our Bedroom

Some baseboard moulding, heat duct and grate, and some door frame moulding (around the closet) installed. 

 

Extra flooring tiles added underneath the shelf. This is where reading lights will go. We purchased some under-counter lights from Ikea for the job.

I made a PVC conduit to get the cord for the lights to the right place (where the power is).

This is all I will see when I look up from my pillow. The conduit runs the cord for the lights into the closet where a power strip is waiting.

Side-By-Side Comparison Of Paint Strippers

I liked Peel Away so much that I got more. But while browsing the racks for that, I came across two other items that grabbed my interested: Klean-Strip and CitrisStrip in aerosol. I decided to try both on the same subject.

15-minute Klean-Strip, just after applying . You can see it where the foam is. 

CitrisStrip, immediately after being applied. 

Klean-Strip works fast, as usual, and cuts all the way to the wood. 

The glop that comes off of the subject when you scrape the  Klean-Strip off. 

Close-up of the CitriStrip after a few minutes.

CitriStrip after about 30 minutes, the recommended wait time. 

CitrisStrip does not go as deeply as Klean-Strip. You can leave it on longer, but I was not sure that would work so I applied the product again after scraping. 

CitriStrip after a second application. 

All told, Klean-Strip works fastest. I liked the aerosol application because it was not as messy, and oddly enough did not seem as caustic or volatile and smelly as it's counterpart in the gallon can.

CitriStrip takes a little longer and removes a little less but is not caustic or smelly at all.

Both are easy to apply. For $8/can each, I think it is a toss up. I'd like to give the CitriStrip a second chance by letting it sit longer, but I ran out of it. I ran out of both products, actually. I was able to do one whole side of the door but not the panels. Use it sparingly if you buy in this medium.