Picturesque Month ~ 01'15

If you've missed my hallway bench project check out the steampunky goodness here. I'm glad I got done with it before going back to work after the holidays because it's much harder to finish a big project like this when you have to work 9-5.

I went to another Dawanda workshop with my friend Romie. This time there was nothing to take home, because we knitted and chrocheted scarfs, hats and headbands for homeless people with the gals from Helfen Wollen. Sadly there weren't as many people as when it's a regular workshop where you can take your crafts home for free, but the people that came had loads of fun chatting away while doing something for their karma. There were even people from the newspaper there to take pictures and interview people to inspire their readers to send their spare wool or warm goods to the organization.

~ Cumberbatch everywhere. Funnily enough I walked past these today when someone was changing the posters and I asked him I could have one. So now I have a huge Imitation Game poster lying in the office waiting to be hung up :D
~ Finally got to try out our extension for the settlers game we own. It wasn't as fun as it looked at first. I actually prefer the original version.
~ Also finally got to finish making a new tablet cover for the husband. (I started in November!)

~ Went on a fun trip to the Dong Xuan Center in Berlin with some friends. It's a huge asian whole sale center where you can get all kinds of weird stuff!
~ Apart from the weird stuff they have real good and authentic asian food. I had a really yummy vietnamese noodle soup called Pho.
~ One of the most interesting stores was this fake flower store. Everything was make from plastic... Surreal!

~ I took some time to clean up my craft area! It helped a lot that I attached a shelf to the wall next to the desk, this way I don't have to store everything on my desk. I'm much more likely to be crafty with a clean and organized desk, so this was long overdue!
~ Clear view to my sewing machine. Usually this place was crammed with all kinds of stuff... I also attached a pinboard, which I found next to the trashcans, to the wall.
~ The neat and tidy desk inspired me right away to make a cloth cover for my sewing machine. I had a plastic one, which was pretty ugly though so I never used it. You can barely see it, but it has pink stripes and it so nice to look at when I'm not using the machine.

~ It didn't really snow again until the end of january, too bad snow doesn't last very long in the city, cause that's the part I most like about winter.
~ Snowy weather calls for soup! Hot steamy lentil soup. And the husband made pretzels from scratch, sooo good! He's really got a talent for trying out new recipes. I usually fail at my culinary attempts at something new. Well, next months are diet time again. Got to prepare for our summer vacation in the US!

Well, I would say this was a good start in the new year, let's hope it continues to amaze!

Steampunked Hallway Bench

Until now we only had a tiny stool sitting in the hallway and it was mostly covered with mail and other stuff so I couldn't even sit down half the time to put on my shoes. You know, cause I'm a grandma!
I checked ebay every now and then to look for the perfect bench to put in our hallway, but they were either too big or too far away or too expensive. Then one day: I found this raw beauty just a street away from our place for 12€.

The condition was quite alright as I was planning to sand and paint it anyways. I don't thing we have more than 5 pieces of furniture in the house that I haven't repainted (I just counted, it's true!).
So, you know the drill: I start by cleaning and slighty sanding the wood to prepare the surface for painting.

I started with one layer of white and then two layers of lilac paint, just remember to let it dry overnight after each layer.

After painting the bench I remembered that the wall has a baseboard and since it would look ridiculous for the bench to be away from the wall a few centimetres I grabbed a saw then next day (because I thought of that in the middle of the night and obviously had to get up from bed to measure the the baseboard) and sawed off a corner in the back of each leg of the bench.

I looked for the perfect stencil image to add a little something something to the bench. I found this awesome steampunk corner stencil and printed it out in a medium size. Cutting out the stencil was biatch! I've never cut out such an intricate design and was mighty glad when I was done. Of course I couldn't cut out the stencil like it was, so I coloured some parts white to have the stencil in one piece.

And this is what the stencil looked up close after applying the paint. I used white paint and a little bit of silver.

The inside of the drawer looked awful painted, so I glued a bunch of pieces of candy gift wrap inside decoupage style.

And don't forget to lube up your drawer with wax, it makes such a huge difference! Easy access ;)

There we are! I added 4 stencil images to the bench, one for each big surface. Some turned out better than the others, but all in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the result!
Let's check it out in the hallway:

      


Alright, that's it. I think this will be the last furniture project in a while now, but you never know. I enjoy all of my furniture projects, but I'm also glad when I get to work on smaller crafts and get to use all of my craft room space without painted furniture waiting to dry.

This post will be part of the Upcycling Tuesday and Creadienstag.PS: Check out all these funky geeky crafts at the Nerd'n'Geek Linkparty <3