Chez Larsson

The Radiator Cover ~ Part II

Here’s how far I got on the radiator cover last time. The frame and top where built and assembled.

 

The next step was to prime and paint the frame and to fit the caning inside. The best way to get a good result with the caning is to soak it in water first for a little while to make it softer and more manageable. I love my tub and how I now have a place to do this kind of stuff!

 

My frame opens up completely and as you can see I haven’t painted the back, just the front. Those yellow stripes on the wall are where I had to remove some oddly placed corner trim in order to be able to tilt the frame out, I later touched that up with white wall paint.

 

Then it was just a matter if stapling the wet caning to the back of the frame. If you try this at home, make sure that you out in A LOT of staples because as the caning dries it will shrink and you want it to be even and not pulling where the few staples are.

 

There wasn’t wide enough caning so I did the frame in two sections. Here one part is done and the other one is waiting its turn.

 

Looks pretty good already…

 

… but as you can see here the caning is slightly bubbly. This is why you want to wet it before stapling it on…

 

… because when it dries, it dries as tight as a drum skin. You can play a solo on this baby!

 

One of the reasons for making a frame that can be opened was so we can get to and adjust the temperature knob. Another reason is that it’s always great to have a radiator in the hall so one can dry mittens and stuff on there and I didn’t want to miss out on that when covering it. I bought a cheap over-the-door hanger and simply hooked it over the top of the radiator. My mittens can dry in there and not be seen. Perfection.

 

As for the top, I had several comments as to where and how the hot air would be able to escape at the top and circulate which led me to drill some holes.

 

There are now five inch wide holes centered towards the back at the top and hidden by what ever sits up there. In this case the first holiday card and a cute felt birdie a reader sent me (thank you!).

 

And there you have it. One radiator cover hiding an ugly radiator and providing some drying possibilities and somewhere to toss your keys. Check!

 

Oh, and here’s the before.

Vintage Wallpaper

I finally used some of that cool original wallpaper that Wille and I found in the attic. My plan was to use it on an accent wall in his bedroom but it turned out there wasn’t enough so I wallpapered the closet door instead.

 

Good thing actually because it proved pretty tricky to work with. I actually used the instructions from the how-to book I got from the previous owners. I used cellulose based wallpaper flakes which I mixed with water into a paste and had to cut all the edges with a craft knife before hanging. Since the wallpaper had been in the attic for over 50 years it was also pretty brittle.

 

After that I’m not super eager to do much more wallpapering with it but I’m happy with the result on that door and Wille is too! I do have some smaller projects that will probably be easier than walls so I may stick to those.

Oh, we also rearranged the furniture in this tiny room. The bed used to be centered in the room but is now along the wall opposite the TV. Makes for much better viewing in bed apparently :).

Drilling Holes

After posting about the radiator cover I had some comments about how the heat would escape upwards which led me to drill some holes in the top. Here’s a good tip for drilling holes and avoid splinters at the other end. MDF doesn’t really splinter like wood but I thought I’d show you the tip while I was at it.

 

Start drilling where you want your hole/s. You drill until you see daylight at the other end. Then stop.

 

 

Turn your piece of wood over and insert the tip of the drill bit in the tiny hole at the back and continue drilling from there.

 

Be careful and go slow at the very end though because once you pierce through the drill can hit back slightly. Make sure you’ve clamped your wood to your work surface and hold on tightly to the drill.

Perfect hole without splinters.

The Radiator Cover ~ Part I

Hi there! So I’ve finally started on the radiator cover for the hall. As you may remember I put that shelf up there as a temporary solution so we would have somewhere to put keys and stuff when entering the house. All along I knew I wanted to cover that radiator up and here’s part one on how I’m doing it.

 

I wanted a large frame with caning to cover the radiator yet let hot air out. Unfortunately the caning doesn’t come in the wide width I needed so my solution was to build a frame with a brace down the middle. That way I can get away with using two narrower pieces of caning.

Anywho, here’s how I built the frame; I started out by measuring the inside of the nook where the radiator is and cut the horizontal strips of wood accordingly. Then I figured out how tall I needed the frame to be and I chose to leave a gap at the bottom and to go just above the top of the radiator. Then I cut my four pieces with a hand saw and laid them out on top of each other.

 

I didn’t want the frame to be double the depth though so I merged the two ends by sawing and chipping away half of the ends as in the photos above. Once you’ve sawn the cut against the grain of the wood it’s easy to chisel away the wood lengthwise.

 

Here’s what it looks like after half the ends have been removed. Like two puzzle pieces slotting into each other.

 

That obviously needs doing in all corners and in this case also down the middle. Six times on this frame.

 

I used a straight edge to make sure I would assemble the frame perfectly square. I’d put one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side to make sure everything stayed put and then I drilled pilot holes  and screwed it all together. I used two screws in each corner so the frame can’t shift.

 

Here I’m trying out the frame in the nook and the shelf too. Hmmm. That’s not a shelf, that’s a propeller. I only have myself to blame for that. I stupidly leaned the shelf against the radiator when I brought it home from the lumber yard and left it like that over night and the heat bent the slightly damp wood. I should have laid it flat on the floor and let it dry there I guess, but what’s a girl to do when she’s blonde?

 

She recycles a piece of double MDF that used to be the table top in her craft nook at the old house, that’s what!

 

I made a long shelf bracket that runs all along the nook and the shelf will be screwed into the wood there at the back so it can’t shift.

 

I want to be able to open the radiator cover by tilting the top of it so I’m using magnet locks at the top and hinges at the bottom.

 

Not a very clear photo but it’s to show you how I’ve attached a 2”x2” to the bottom of the frame with hinges (one hinge is just visible under the L-bracket to the left) and I’m using L-brackets to attach the bottom of the frame to the sides of the nook.

 

Hi there again! The frame has been attached to the sides of the nook (after filling gaps and sanding everything down), the top is in place and this is how far I got on Sunday. Still to do; prime and paint the frame, touch up wall paint where I’ve had to remove some bits and pieces in order to fit the frame and attach the caning to the back of the frame. I’m pretty pleased so far. It’s all worked out better than I expected which is always nice. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you the finished result next week. Stay tuned!

Alex Hack

First of all, thank you so very much for all the advice on my foot disorder yesterday, I really appreciate it! Google is great, but online friends are better :). 

Now on to today's post

So, the Alex unit mysteriously lost a drawer and received a shelf. Why and how did that happen?

 

Well, the why is kind of obvious. We didn’t really need all those drawers but rather a space for a DVD player and a cable box.

The how is pretty straightforward. I pulled the top drawer out, removed the sliding hardware, drilled four small holes in to the sides and added those small shelf supports that come with IKEA kitchen unit shelves, cut a leftover kitchen unit shelf to size, carved out the notch for the brackets on the cut underside of the shelf and popped the shelf in on top if the brackets. Shelf photo courtesy: IKEA.com

 

For the cable slot at the back it was just a matter of drawing a rectangle, drilling holes in four corners and using a jigsaw to cut the shape out.

Hey presto, a TV unit!