Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Dec 6, 2007
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Recycling
I have just finished making one of those garden seats that have a roof on top, and fancy woodwork on the sides. This all started when we were in one of those garden centres having a look round, when Mk2 spotted some garden seats and took me over to have a look. I was quite surprised when I saw the prices of them, as some of them were over £200. I then made the mistake of saying to her, "Ah, I could make one of them for nothing". The moment I had finished saying it, I knew it had been a mistake; and Mk2 took me up on my statement, and challenged me to do so.
I knew we had all the timber required, as my stepson had recently given me a set of pine bunk beds that he was throwing out after they had bought new beds for their children. I had taken them all to bits and stored all the wood in one of our sheds, even keeping every screw and all the nuts and bolts that were used to hold them together. That was not a new thing for me, as I have always kept old screws and nails, in fact anything like that, if I had been throwing out any furniture.
Back in the days when I used to have a second-hand furniture shop, I used to restore old furniture, then sell it in my shop. During the four years that I was doing that, I built up quite a large collection, in fact if I had been at a poor sale where the prices were going too high, or there was not much in the sale that I was looking for, I used to just buy the really old beaten-up stuff, just for all the parts that I could use later. These pieces would sell for next to nothing, yet would hold a vast amount of parts, including handles or wheels that I would use while restoring something later on. A restored piece of furniture always looked better if it had been restored using the original old nails and screws, and other old parts.
Anyway, back to the bunk beds. I went out to the shed and dug out all the timber and parts to have a look at what was available, then I sat down and drew a sketch of what I wanted it to look like. Once this had met with Mk2's approval, I went ahead and made a start, using an old coffee table as the seat part, as it was a good, solid base, being made of metal with a solid wooden top. I had been at it for four days, as with my back problem I can not do as much as I would like to in one day. I used two of the bed end railings for the back rest of the seat, by placing one on top of the other to give it more height, and I used the bedposts as the armrests after cutting them to size. The other two end railings were fitted on the sides to give it a more ornate look, as well as some privacy for the person sitting on it. Even the pieces that were cut off the bedposts were used as the uprights for the armrests. The bed slats were used for the lining of the roof which I finished off with a bit of roofing-felt that was left over from roofing our garden shed.
I had to give the whole thing a sanding-down with my palm sander, as the kids had been drawing on the woodwork with pen and crayons. The sanding gave the whole thing a professional look on completion, especially after I had given it a coat of wood preserver. This had to be done, as the timber itself was not designed to be used outside, so preserver would be required to stop the wood from warping in the cold and wet weather. I was really pleased with the end result; in fact it all turned out to look better than I anticipated. So all in all I am happy with the end result, the fact that it kept me busy for a few days, along with the fact that it never cost us a single penny, as all the screws, nut and bolts, even the nails were all recycled from the original bunk beds.
The whole thing reminded me of my days as a second-hand furniture dealer, and I had forgotten that pleasant feeling you get when you have restored some old piece of furniture, that someone had thrown out, or put into an auction, back to its original condition. The fact that I was doing it all to make money back in those days, seems immaterial to me now, I just got that satisfying feeling after restoring it. The other good thing about the whole exercise was being able to get all my tools out and use them once again, as it had been a long time since they had been used. This fact was brought more to light when I had to charge the batteries up for my cordless drill, and change the blade in the jigsaw after I had spent a long time searching for them. So now we will be able to sit out in our back garden on this very seat that was made completely out of recycled wood. Now that it's finished, I am thinking what else I could make with the timber and parts that have been left over, as I seem to be smitten with this recycling bug!
