Finished The Window Bench

This was a long-overdue finish job.

Before:

After:

Finally Got Around To Installing The AC

I woke up on a recent morning, and it was hot. That was the inspiration I needed to turn a hole in the wall beneath a porch into a built-in AC cabinet (with shelf). 

Before:

After:

Here’s the gallery.

Not Finished, But The Studio Is Taking Shape

Spent a day cleaning up this area, which was previously filled with tools and paint buckets. I still have to finish that window bench (an upcoming weekend project), but, in the meantime, I’ve got a place to finally get around to learning to paint! (Sorry for the low-res photo… quick shot with the iPhone.)

Painting Wooden Countertops, An Adventure

I had a nice finish-ply base for my countertops, which I installed with the help of my dad about two years ago, and over a recent rainy weekend, I had an idea for finishing it. Because the walls were crooked to begin with, which threw my countertops out of square, I didn’t think a finish with strong lines (like tile) would look good, because it would show the crookedness. Something with thickness, like concrete or granite, was too high-end for this application, plus it’d be way too thick when added to the 3/4″ ply. I considered formica, but I had never done that sort of work, the quote I got seemed too high and I didn’t want to risk learning on my own kitchen.

So, I looked into painting the wood countertops. Just regular plywood, more or less. After looking around, I settled on an unexpected solution: epoxy-based concrete floor paint. It was super thick, and it turns any surface it’s applied to into a non-porous, water-tight piece of continuous smoothness. Like one giant span of tile. It cost about $200 and took three days to do, mainly a few hours each day. I’d recommend it.

Anywho, click here to see the whole photo slideshow of the process!