This is it, folks. My first blog post. Is it really my first? Goodness, no. Is it the first one that will actually maintain a long-lasting place on my website and kickstart the beginning of a better blogging experience? Perhaps.
So, here we are at the beginning. And in the beginning, so I am told, the world was created. And only after the mouth of the sea and the teeth of the mountains and the crown of the sky were created–only then, when the setting was set and the fruit was ripe, did little people made of corn and clay toddle around the world’s expanse, exploring and making more things out of other things.
It seems right, then, that before I get into any sewing or crafting or other experiments of a similar scale, I should first will into being a good environment in which such things may be accomplished.
My husband Rick and I became first-time homebuyers this past summer. In addition to an awesome great-room, we each have our own workspaces now. He has an office for his computers and his 3D printers, and I have a miraculously large crafting/office space for my much roomier hobbies.
Square footage isn’t everything, though. Poorly arranged furniture, inadequate work surfaces, and a deficit of good storage space can muddy up what would otherwise be a dream space. That’s been my problem, here: My furnishings don’t make any sense.
I’ve been working out a few different fixes in my head, and I recently managed to identify enough of the problems to get started on some solutions:
- I’m going to need a sturdier cutting table. A flimsy panel of papery Homasote balanced precariously atop a mess of things is adjacent to having a proper cutting table (sort of), but it’s… not great.
- So I don’t leave smaller projects cluttering up the cutting table, it would be nice to have another workbench or counter space available. A craft bar.
- I currently have a few bookshelves acting as storage space along one wall, but if I had alternative storage solutions built into the bottom of my tables, I could free up that wall space for any number of things (and the room will look, well… roomier if the bulkiest clutter is kept below eye-level).
Oh, and there’s one limitation on my upgrades: I intend to do it all for about $500. Let the creativity begin!
The first thing I was able to work on, before acquiring any new materials, was the base of my workbench or craft bar.
I realized that two of my bookcases–all of them some economy brand of assemble-it-yourself storage from around seven years ago–were segmented. Instead of having two side panels the full height of the unit, the middle shelf is interposed between top and bottom sections.
I removed the hardware in the middle of the unit, separating the top and bottom segments, and turned the top segment of the bookcase on its head. In the image below, the bottom segment is on the left, and the top segment (flipped upside-down) is on the right.
The two segments had some differences:
- The left segment has two narrow boards across its top, fastened between the two side panels.
- The right segment appears taller, because that middle shelf I mentioned earlier is still attached to it (also shown on the top).
- The bottom of the right segment is inverted, in comparison to the left one.
Gracious, it’s hard to describe these things succinctly. Here is a closer look at the “inverted bottom” comparison:
Note how, on the left (with the screwdriver), the shelf is positioned on top of a narrow strip of particle board. On the right (with the hammer), the shelf is positioned underneath the narrow board, creating more of a shallow box than a shelf.
Luckily, the bottom portions of both of these segments are made up of the same component parts.
If I remove the bottom of the right unit, I can simply flip it over and reattach it. Then it will be identical to the left one.
Like so:
Of course, in flipping those pieces over, I lost some of the veneer finish. I could have kept the veneer on top, but it would have involved separating the shelf from the narrow board and reattaching them to each other differently. It was easier just to flip them over as one piece.
I intend to paint these shelves in a lighter color later, so the lost veneer on that bottom shelf doesn’t bother me.
It was also necessary to drill new holes to accommodate the flip. A small transparent ruler I use for sewing came in handy for measuring where the center of the original holes were, so I knew how to position the new ones.
If I need to, I can use some wood filler to patch up the original holes.
The top end of each unit got a bit of a makeover, too.
In the image below, the left unit has two of those narrow particle board strips across the top–one at the front of the unit, and one at the back.
First, I removed the shelf from the top of the unit on the right. Now both of the units are precisely the same height, and I have a spare board that I can use in a different project. If nothing else, I should be able to cut it down for use as another adjustable interior shelf.
Then, since there were two of those narrow boards available, I removed one of them from the left unit and added it to the front of the right one. Now they both have a little bit of support keeping them squared up, and there will be something to affix the counter top to later.
And that, friends, is how I took one big thing and made it into two smaller things–two visually and functionally identical things.
A second bookcase like this one received the same treatment. When I line up all four of my little shelf units side-by-side, the base for my counter adds up to 98″W x 35″H x 12″D. Not bad!
