We have a weird little step from our living room to the bedroom. That is because the pipes for the heating run right underneath it. Don’t ask us why! We really don’t know why you would run the pipes that way. Evgen made an oak step to hide them as much as we can. But we still needed a door to separate the living room from the bedroom. We could not make a simple plain door because of the step, so our only option was a sliding door. With sliding door we would also save a lot of space, since we don’t have it that much there. The door is also almost always open and that way it can be hidden in the corner during the day.

So first of all, again, we drew up a design. Since the door will be from floor to ceiling, we wanted a horizontal feature to break the height a little bit. The insert also plays the part of the handle. There are two inside frames, in between these two a black insert, around them a slick black frame and just four regular plywood panels to cover everything. Modern, minimal, maybe even with a kind of a japanese twist.

First of all, Evgen inserted an aluminium mechanism under the ceiling where the frame will hang and slide. On the floor, he drilled a hole in the floor and screwed in a little plastic guide. We forgot to take photos of this part, but it is just a simple plain store bought mechanism for sliding doors.

Evgen cut a bunch of planks to the right size which are for the basic inner framing for the door. He screwed them together and inserted another plank in the middle for added strength.

For the middle black insert, where the cross section represents a letter I, he cut two planks and a small piece of plywood panel. He cut a groove in each plank where the panel will slide in. Then, he painted them all black and when they were dry, assembled them together.

The same procedure was for the outer frame. He cut the planks to the right size, sanded, painted them and screwed them around the inner frame and the insert. He screwed them only from the top and the bottom of the door, so that none of the screws were visible. The outer frame sealed the inner frame and the insert together firmly.

When it was all done,  he precisely measured the blank space that was left. He cut four plywood pieces to the right measurements so that they fit snuggly in the frame. He sanded them and applied a couple of coats of water  based lacquer over them. Of course he sanded with a fine grid sand paper in between coats. Then, he glued them to the inner frame and pressed them together with clamps.

When it was all dry, all that remained was to hang them to the mechanism. What do you think?

This year we have a lot of big birthdays coming up and my dear friend Anja’s came in April. Anja is half of the team at Milo za drago. They are two girls making handmade natural soaps, hand painted tights – Hulahopke for all ages and their last project is Bella opera – gorgeous jewelery made of natural stone and gilded with golden leaves.

So, with two other friends, we came up with a sentimental idea for her present. We got a news cover from the exact day and year that she was born. Now all we needed was a nice frame to put it in. Oh, where, oh where could we get one? Evgen to the rescue!

The problem with some store bought frames is that they are not sturdy enough, if you want to change the picture is a pain in the … and they are probably not even made out of wood. Evgen’s design was simple, very minimal, the corners of the frame were reinforced and it was made out of oak. The idea is that you would just slide the sandwich of the glass, the picture and the backing right into the frame. That way you can have all the control. You don’t have to turn the frame around to check if the picture is still in the right place or has it already shifted out of the center and it’s not aligned with the frame anymore.

First he prepared a couple of planks and cut them to the right dimensions. Then he made a groove in each of them where the picture would slide in. At the end of each plank he cut out two notches where the plywood insert would go. At the last photo here you can see all the parts needed for the frame ready to be glued together. The thin bottom piece is just an extra.

At the back of the frame, in the middle, there is also a thin plank with a square cross section for added strength and durability. It is glued to the frame with a little wood pellet insert on each side. Bottom two corners are different from the upper two corners, because the picture will be of course inserted at the upper part of the frame.

Bottom corners

Upper corners, where the picture will slide in.

Corners with the inserted piece of plywood.

Now it was time for glueing all the pieces together. After he glued them, he pressed them together with clamps so that all the seams would be really tight. When the frame was dry he cut off the plywood that was sticking out of the frame in the corners. Next, you guessed it, he sanded it with 240 grid and applied a couple of coats of oil for the finish. Lastly he attached on a frame hook.

The frame is finished!

At a local glazier he ordered a piece of glass 50 x 70 cm with 3 mm thickness. Then he just assembled the glass, the picture and the backing board together and slid them in the frame.

Oh, and in the photo below the glass in the upper right corner is not cracked, it is just a reflection of a telephone wire. :)

Remember when we redid that blue sofa in the Autumn? Well, with the sofa also came a footstool, but we just didn’t have the time to upholster it then. This brown box of sadness sat in our office since then and last week we finally found the time to make it shine again and unite it with the sofa.

I must say, since this was our first big thing to reupholster, we are still very happy with the outcome. The owners of the blue sofa are also on the same page as we are. After more than half a year of use it is still very comfy and the fabric hasn’t stretched or faded.

So this is this big box of sadness. It is covered in a brown faux leather that has seen better days. The fabric is damaged, torn and stained and the shape is definitely not appealing. The sofa was also once covered with the same fabric.

First we stripped it to the wooden box that was hiding underneath the old foam. Of course we discarded everything except for the box. Since this is really an ordinary box, we could just made a new one from scratch, but in the idea of recycling, decided to just work with what we got.

When the frame was nice and clean, we stretched the webbing over the top of the box and stapled it in to place. Over the webbing came on the burlap.

Over the burlap we stapled on a 10 cm thick piece of foam. Next, we stapled and glued a 1 cm thick piece of foam around the whole box. The foam even went over where the top 10 cm foam was for a nicer transition.

For an even nicer finish we covered the whole box in dacron. We glued it with a spray adhesive onto the foam. To make the footstool a little nicer for your hiney, we did three layers of the dacron on top.

The last part was to wrap the whole box in a breathable piece of fabric. Unfortunately I don’t know what is it called. Pillow inserts are normally covered in that same fabric.  If you know what it is, let me know! :) I buy big cheap pillow inserts and use the stuffing that is inside for other projects like mr. rhino and am left with the empty pillow insert. I usually save them and recycle them like I did now.

While I was sewing the covers, Evgen did the base for the footstool. He could just glue or screwed together four pieces of wood, but he wanted to try something new and to make the base a little more interesting.

So, he cut four pieces of oak 44 cm long, 3 cm wide and 2 cm high. At the ends he cut them in an angle of  45°. There, he cut in each of the ends a groove (3 mm wide) with his table saw. Then he cut 4 square pieces  (8 x 8 cm) of triple layer plywood and inserted them into two of the grooves at the end of the planks.

When he was happy with how it looked, he glued them together and left them to dry over night. The next day, he cut off the remaining plywood and sanded the whole thing. Lastly he applied a couple of coats of oil.

For the covers I just sew a simple box,  with one top piece and two for the sides. The cover must be tight, even a little too tight, because the fabric will definitely stretch over time. And it will also shrink a little while in the wash. But of course you should wash your fabric before sewing. First I stitched the pieces together, then topstitched and lastly hemmed them together.

When I was happy with the fit, I stitched on the velcro tape on the bottom of the covers. I did four pieces of velcro for four sides. For a nice corner I folded the fabric in 45° or like an envelope. While I was sewing the velcro tape on the covers, Evgen stapled the other part of the velcro onto the footstool.

The wooden base was attached to the footstool with two screws on the bottom. So I had to make two little holes in the fabric for the screws to go through. I zigzaged around them to prevent them from  tearing.

Them Evgen just attached the base to the box and TAA DAA! The footstool is finished!

Here it is in its natural habitat and united with its sofa! :)