I did make a cotton scrubbie today, but one picture of a scrubbie looks pretty much like the other ones I’ve had on here.  I will be making more as  I’ve realized I don’t have enough on hand to get me through wash loads if I don’t get to it each week.  So instead of another nearly identical photo, I thought I would take a picture of part of the project my husband is working on.

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We live in an older house, and I love the charming features that it has.  One thing that I had never thought about was the radiator covers.  Our current covers are pretty much wooden boxes with radiator screens painted white.  They never bothered me, but apparently they were driving my husband crazy.  He has been making new ones for our living room out of cherry wood.

Cherry is beautiful. He hand picks each board to get the exact grain pattern he wants.  It is sort of like “fussy cutting” when you are making a quilt. These are the tops, one had 2 coats of stain, the other has one. We have the drawer from another piece of furniture in the room he is using as a comparison to get the right shade.  It has been interesting to watch him build the bottoms.  We couldn’t find any plans, so he’s been designing them himself…and he keeps adding features. There are slats on the sides, and curves where on the old ones there were only straight boards nailed together.  I’m always happy when the staining starts because it means the end of the project is in sight. Cherry can be blotchy, so it first gets a sealing coat, then stain, then multiple layers of shellac with sanding in between. The final coat is wax.

The time that goes into these projects means we could certainly have bought them cheaper, but so often it is the process that provides more value to your life.

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