Now that the weather is warming up and spring appears to be here???? I am inspired to get cracking on some projects and finish up all those things on my to-do list.
We are still putting the final touches on the master bathroom we just had put in. We took on the finishing work ourselves to save some $$. It's a bit stressful (okay a lot stressful) but worth it in the end. It's a functioning bathroom right now but I want to wait til all the trim and door work is done to post the results... all those little things like towel hooks etc that take a while to finish off.
In the meantime....I had a commission that I got from my site on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/offherhinges?ref=si_shop
The client contacted me and was in Toronto so came over and we discussed what she wanted. She was looking for a sideboard similar to a piece I made for us here.
I hunted around for the right sized windows to use as doors and the right sized door to use for the body of the piece.
This piece took quite a while to get together....lots of measuring twice, biscuit joining, sanding scraping, gluing, screwing, cutting....phew!
When it was almost all done I sourced a piece for the top....the only one I could find that was great looking was an old barn floor board. Almost 16" wide and 2" thick! This baby had some substance!
Once assembled the piece was really heavy.....I mean back breaking how the heck am I going to move this heavy. But we finally got it into the van, drove across town and loaded into the client's home. They absolutely loved it...which made me feel great.
I realized how much I love making things and wished that I could just do this all the time....but alas, a bathroom reno won't pay for itself! But I do really feel pretty lucky that I get to do things like this that I really enjoy and get paid for it.
Here's the finished product:
Making this piece also makes me realize how much time and value goes into handmade things and that we all need to be conscious of that in our daily shopping. In this mass produced era where things are so abundant and so inexpensive, we often have to remind ourselves to support small businesses or craftspeople. I hope it isn't a dying art to have people hand make things (I think the success of Etsy which focuses on just that is an example that it is thriving) because often the most beautiful and well made things are crafted by hand with lots of time, effort and passion put into them.
Right now I am working on trying to get a Flea Market happening in our neighbourhood....similar to the Brooklyn Flea we visited in July last summer and fell in love with ....and the Junction Flea in the west end of Toronto.
We are finding that there is a lot of paperwork and naysayers....which is frustrating. I think our city needs to pay some attention to the small businesses and entrepreneurs who make our neighbourhoods amazing and are a big reason this city is so interesting. If Toronto is to thrive we have to make sure that big box stores aren't taking all the focus away from the little guy. Don't get me wrong I shop the big box stores from time to time for price and convenience....but we need to make sure the mom and pop shops aren't forgotten. Or that it is too difficult for these small enterprises to thrive.
Okay...enough of the soap box for me! Off to walk the dogs!
