Selecting a Stain

Dear Readers,

Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long! I was out of the country and cut myself off from the outside world. Never fear though, I am back, and ready to continue chronicling my saga with our dining room table.

The last time I wrote, we had gotten to prepping the pipes for the base of our table. While Tyler and I were doing this, we were also in the process of selecting a stain for tabletop. If I haven't said it already, Tyler and I usually have very distinct taste. Tyler likes bright, bold colors, while I gravitate towards dark jewel-tones or neutrals. Tyler likes modern/abstract art, whereas I prefer more traditional landscapes. Needless to say, our decision to buy anything is a lengthy process.

In anticipation of this, we bought no less than SEVEN different stains with the hope of shortening the journey. Yes, seven. We started out with six, and added one more at the end. We figured the more we started out with, the more quickly we'd be able to figure out what we wanted. Here are the first six we bought:

(Minwax Classic Grey, Minwax Early American, Minwax Golden Oak, Minwax Picked Oak, RustOleum Sunbleached Wood, and Minwax Weathered Oak)

I immediately like Minwax Early American the best, but held my breath waiting to hear what Tyler thought. Miraculously, he liked it best too! I think the way the stain highlighted the knot in the wood sold him. Hooray!! Early American gave the wood a very rich look, and we thought it would contrast nicely with the dark pipes below. To be 100% sure about our decision, we further tested our selection by using a double coat of stain, AND by purchasing one more stain - Minwax Dark Walnut - just to make sure we didn't want to go any darker.

While I liked the dark stain, Tyler thought it was too dark, but we both liked the double coat of Early American (on the right), and finalized our decision!

P.S. If you're interested in using one of the stains we didn't use, please feel free to leave a comment asking for it!

Prepping the Pipes

Once we got the pipes home, they had to be prepped for assembly. During our time at Lowes, I'd discovered iron pipes leave a black, sooty residue on your hands. So, I did a little research to figure out how to treat them to prevent any further "shedding". Some bloggers recommended using steel wool to scrape the pipes, which would eliminate the residue and allow paint to adhere to the pipes more easily. Others recommended simply washing the pipes with water and dish soap, claiming that this would be enough to clean off any grease and soot. Being prone to laziness, I decided to go with Method #2.

And vwah-la!  I had pretty, shiny, CLEAN pipes!

I would make a few warnings though:

1) While cleaning the pipes went smoothly, several of the longer pipes (pic #2) were wrapped with labels/clear tape. Fortunately, Special Goo-Be-Gone solution isn't necessary. The glue will come off after some persistant rubbing under warm water. You just need to exercise patience -- not always my strongest suit.

2) After washing the pipes, make sure you dry them off thoroughly with a towel before letting them sit to air dry. I missed a few droplets of water, which earned me some small, albiet noticeable, rust spots.

3) Lastly, I have yet to spray paint the pipes, which may make the "lazy" way actually the harder way, but I'll keep you updated. Spray painting should happen this weekend.

Playing with Pipes

The first excursion during our foray into table-making was a trip to Lowes. We had drawn up a number of potential leg designs for the base of our table, and figured we'd sit in the Plumbing aisle at the store to figure out which design actually looked best. First, we thought about doing a simple four-leg frame.

Then, we considered adding a cross-beam for extra stability.

We even got crazy enough to think about forming the pipes into two Y-shaped supports. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of this design, so you'll just have to trust me. It looks cool! After considering all of our options, we ended up going with the second. We thought that four legs might be too plain, and the Y-design required too many parts, adding to the cost of the table. Option #2 was a nice compromise.

So, back to the aisle at Lowes. It was quite the scene - the two of us sprawled out on the concrete floor, debating which T-bar, union joint, or cap to place where. Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to bring a camera to snap pictures of the hilarity/mess.

Hopefully, at this point, I've made buying pipes sound somewhat fun, because it really was. However, I do caution you that this phase of the process was not without its bumps. A table base made of pipes requires many pieces, and most hardware stores, even the big ones like Lowes, do not keep numerous pipes in stock for such projects. While we did get most of the pieces we needed on the first trip, we were missing several key components. Therefore, over about a week and half, T and I made 4 or 5 additional trips to Lowes to pick up the appropriate pieces. Grrrrrrrr.

TIP: Make a special order for the pieces that you are missing the first time. This will save you a bunch of gas and time.  =)

***Next Up: Preparing the Pipes.

Living in a Factory

As the title explains, I live in a factory. Hopefully, it's obvious that I don't live in a working factory. There are no machines chugging down the hall or neighbors yelling, "Quitting time!" However, the building was used as a gingham factory during the early 1900s and was recently purchased and converted into apartments. T and I are the first tenants to live in our apartment, and we LOVE it. T likes to say it's the nicest place he will live in his whole life. While I beg to differ (I am quite confident in my totally-rad house spotting skills now), his statement speaks to how fortunate we feel about living where we do. It's awesome and I cannot imagine us moving any time soon. Isn't it pretty?

Before we moved in, T and I already had most of the essentials we needed to join households. We had 2 beds, 2 couches, 2 TVs, way too many dishes and cookware, etc. Of course, there were a few items we had to buy (hurray Ikea!) and we received some generous donations from T's aunt and parents. (Thank you!) The one, key item we didn't know what to do about was the dining room table. Again, I scoured the internet, but everything that we liked was WAY too expensive (ie: Restoration Hardware).

The next best option was (obviously) to make it ourselves. T was enthused about the idea, and we set a plan in motion.

First, we explored the option of making our table completely out of beautiful hardwoord, but the man at the lumber yard immediately killed that idea. Maple costs $6/foot, and we needed over 100 ft of it. NO WAY. So, back to the drawing board. We did a lot of research, but living in our pretty, little factory proved to be the ultimate source of inspiration.  The high ceilings are not only decorated by thick wood beams, but they are also punctuated by shiny, round, silver ductwork. Why not combine the two materials to create our table? Wood for the top and dark piping for the base! We checked out prices and it worked! We are thinking of something like this...

Of course, this is a coffee table, but hopefully you can appreciate the concept.

How It All Began

About a year ago, two significant moments occurred in my life: my boyfriend and I decided to move in together, and I discovered YoungHouseLove.

The first is a moment that most people would acknowledge as an important stepping stone for many twenty-somethings.  My boyfriend and I didn't plan to put the decision into action anytime soon - we were both committed to our (then) current residences for several more months. However, in joyous anticipation of our residential union, I began to scour the Internet, searching for the perfect place for us to call home.

Some time in the midst of my apartment searching, I stumbled upon a Do It Yourself (DIY) blog called YoungHouseLove. The blog was authored by a couple in their late twenties, John and Sherry Petersik, who shared their journey as a newly married couple and new homeowners. I immediately fell in love with John and Sherry's wit, perseverance, and optimism in their pursuit of creating a home that was simultaneously budget-friendly, unique, and "made-by-hand".

Between moving in with T (the boyfriend) and falling for John and Sherry, I became a DIY fanatic, and in the past year my blog addiction has grown beyond YoungHouseLove (although it is still my favorite) to a list of about ten to fifteen blogs that I frequent daily. In that time, I have also acquired many tools/crafting items, as is standard procedure for any self-proclaimed Do-It-Yourselfer, and my new favorite section at the book store is "Home Design". I have even been known to drool over the orbital hand sanders at the local hardware store.

Since beginning this new chapter in my life, I have occasionally contemplated starting my own blog. Actualizing this idea has proven difficult, however. The idea of writing and maintaining a blog, especially a good one,  is intimidating. It takes a lot of time and energy, and by the end of my day, I usually feel as though I have little of either. Despite our crazy busy lives, T and I recently took up the task of building a table for our "dining room" (more on that later).  In my quest for the necessary tools, I found myself repeatedly having conversations with colleagues who asked me what we were up to and to keep them updated on our progress. For some reason, their words gave me the push I needed, and here I am. Welcome. =)