Paint

Painting dovetails and through mortise and tenons? Like a heathen??? You bet!

I put masking tape on the oak slats and put on a coat of primer.

After putting on two coats of white paint, I removed the masking tape and applied matte varnish to the oak slats. For my Norwegian friends: I used Trestjerners gulvmatt water based. Does not yellow the oak, and it is VERY durable (it is intended for floors).

Just waitin’ for the varnish to dry… (do you hear the Otis Redding intro too??? Dam-da-duuumduuum-dam…)

By the way: I did not mention it before, but the two oak slats came from a wide board which I ripped in two. I mounted them so that the grain flows from one board to the next. I though it turned out well.

Two coats of varnish and a day later, it was time to hang the shelf on the wall next to Rosemine’s bed.

Unicorns and foxes and owls and Gruffalo’s and Pooh… Lots of good readin’! The last days I have been reading from a book by Anne-Cath. Vestly about a boy named Kaos, short for Karl Oskar. Lovely stories!

Anne-Cath. (Catharina) was a famous Norwegian author of children’s books, on par with Astrid Lindgren. I loved her books as a child, and the kids love them now. Although the stories are out-dated by now, they still have lots of things to teach us today. And it is a wonderful thing – reading the stories I loved as a kid, to my own kids. Peppa Pig can become bacon for all I care!

This was certainly a fun project, and very rewarding as well. I got to practice some techniques, the shelf is very well built and it turned out really nice. At some point I would guess it won’t be needed anymore, and I will then repurpose the shelf somewhere else.

But for the time being, it’ll serve the kids well.

Now I need to make a couple of smaller shelves for all those treasures. And, to quote Lilly, some sweets. Yeah, you wish, Lilly! Storing the weekend load of chocolate and bon-bons in their bedroom?

I’d have to pick them off the ceiling!