The Story About the Filing Cabinet

Posted on March 9, 2012 by seriffim

Hello Blog! I have a project for you, and it isn’t edible! Though, in case you’re wondering, yes, I am still eating tortilla soup and smoothies (and cupcakes this week, whoops.), and I’m not even going to get into all the fun facts I’ve learned about protein/general food consumption and building muscle mass in the last week. (Hint: you can’t just eat tortilla soup and smoothies.)

Sharing this project is slightly embarrassing (okay, yes, most things I post here are slightly embarrassing), as the iphoto events timeline tells me I started this one in um…August. Neat. At least I’m consistent—on my application for NECCA I said that one of my biggest flaws is that I start projects and don’t finish them. But this one is DONE. It only took seven months. Also slightly embarrassing, is that naturally, when I begat said project in my mind-grapes, I promised Nick that I’d finish it that weekend. Poor, gullible, Nick.

I, like possibly most of you, am susceptible to the sweet siren song of the Container Store and its devil ilk. Obviously if I had eight jute baskets, and twelve photo boxes with pink polka dots on them, I would do my damn dishes, put my clothes in the laundry basket, not leave my shit everywhere. But, there is no Container Store nearby, thank baby jesus; so this summer when Nick was seething because our hideous futon was a pile of Stacey-stuffs, I was seething because I literally had no place in our loft that was just Mine. Back then our upstairs looked like this:

Not like this:

Though, currently my desk is covered in earplugs, so it doesn’t really look like that either.

In any case, I demanded a room desk of my own. While I sketched out desk plans that I never got to build, I realized I needed more storage, and decided that I would just give an old filing cabinet a bit of a face lift and that would be that.

And here, gentle readers, is my dirty storage secret. I think when most people think about storage, they think ‘oh, I will put my mail in this compartment, and my pens in this one, and my collection of snails in the snail holder.’ Not so, for me. Part of the allure of the file cabinet was its cavernous drawers. I like storage because then I can just pile my junk in there, shut the door, forget about it, and Nick will stop yelling at me. I had absolutely ZERO idea what I was going to put in the filing cabinet, but I knew I was going to fill it with Stuff.

So, off we went to the Goodwill, and because I am an impatient beast, I bought this beauty for ten bucks, instead of waiting for something slightly less horrific.

It was covered in rust, and there was some irreparable damage to the back where it’d been kicked in, but no one was going to see that. I scraped as much rust off as I could, gave it a quick scrub and a vacuum, then we hauled that sucker outside and got to spray painting. There are some cool file cabinet makeovers out there (also some not so cool ones)–some people use wallpaper to great effect, I chose the good ole’ shake and spray. I did use a spray primer on it, but honestly, I’m not sure what good it did. There’s the Nick approach to spray painting…

And then there’s the Stacey—aka the sit on your ass because you are Just That Lazy. And yes, we neglected to put down newspaper, and the condo people asked us very nicely to not do that again or they’d be (more) annoyed.

And here’s where Delay Number One occurred: The next day there was a hurricane. Er, tropical storm. Either way, hard to spray-paint a stencil in a downpour.

Then I got hung up on stencil ideas (Delay Number Two).

Then, while I was visiting my parents in Minnesota, Nick banged together a desk for me for not entirely selfless reasons. When I got home I put the cabinet in it’s new spot ‘for now’, which was a fatal mistake. Because now I had a filing cabinet—albeit undecorated and without handles—but I could still put Stuff in it. So I did. Oops.(Delay Number Three).

This brings us to October, when I went to Vermont for fabric teacher training and came back with a cast and crutches to a snowpocalypse. And then it was suddenly winter, and I couldn’t haul a filing cabinet outside with a cast on my foot anyway. (Delay Number Four).

To my credit, I took that bleak wintery time to finalize a design and cut it out of plastic. Then on a particularly balmy January day, I headed outside and managed to spray paint the top drawer, but alas it started to rain.

Yesterday I finally managed to finish the deed, and here we are:

And yes, it is filled with stuff.

And that’s how you take seven months to finish a two day projects!

Hopefully this sudden March-warmness is not just a phase. If it’s not, it will definitely mean the start of more project-y fun—it’s just too hard to cut lumber outside when everything’s covered in ice. Also, the whole applying for circus school shenanigans are about to be done with (I got an audition, (yay) which is next weekend, and then I just have to wait for news), so that will also free us some time, but lest you worry, the circus show is still in full swing to steal time from project-doing!

I will leave you with the following text from Nick as a closing statement:

‘Hi! I just tried to eat a ball of tightly crumpled up paper because I mistook it for a piece of broken pretzel. I didn’t realize my error until I started chewing the now soggy paper ball. This is probably how Tesla feels all the time, but he is psyched about it I think.’

Yes. He is a verbose text-er. Have a good weekend!

2012: Embracing Industrial

Posted on January 16, 2012 by seriffim

I don’t really make resolutions for new years (I set goals and I accomplish them, mothaf***as!), but if I were making a resolution for the DIY sector of my life, it would probably be ‘embrace industrial’.

When we first moved into the loft a little less than a year ago it was a little bit confused about what it was, and therefore, so was I. You see, it’s a century old woolen mill. It has massive factory windows, and enough exposed brick to make a New Yorker sick with envy. It has more visible pipes than I can count—and they’re all…beige?

And then there’s the kitchen, which was strangely cozy; whoever had decorated it seemed to be going for a country cabin vibe, which would be fine if this were a cabin and not an industrial loft.

So, between the bizarre kitchen, and the beige pipes, and the adorable red stairs,

it became apparent that the previous owners were definitely going for a ‘cozy’ theme. Clearly they never spent the winter here. Cozy isn’t really what I thought of when I woke up this morning and cursed the fact that all the heat escapes through the glorious bank of skylights and factory windows.

I tried to roll with the cozy for a while actually. I told Nick ‘no I will not paint all the exposed pipes black’, mostly because I have many, better things to do with my time, but also I didn’t want to make the loft feel ‘cold’. I even tried to embrace the cozy for a while during the bathroom remodel, aiming for a mix of industrial and old west Victorian. Eventually I jumped ship and went all the way over to the ‘sleek modern’ end of the spectrum.

I finished the bathroom right before the holidays, and last week as I contemplated what was on the project docket for 2012, I realized something. I have thrown cozy out the enormous factory windows and into the river below, which, by the way, has started to freeze over. Adios, cozy.

So, let’s take a look at the glorious, modern, pipe-made things I have planned for the coming year:

Bathroom Shelves:

Made out of plumbing pipe, obviously. These are pretty straightforward much more miniature versions of our bookshelves, except these will have a toilet paper holder attached—badass. We lost some space with the remodel by getting rid of that weird tiny half shelf, so these will replace it and then some. And then I can stop storing the bath towels with my t-shirts.

Replacing the Futon:

With one made out of plumbing pipe. Sensing a pattern yet? It will have industrial casters, and also lots of wooden slats so your bum doesn’t fall through. I think it will definitely be awesome. Another thing that often bothers me about this place is all the spots where there could be awesome, natural looking wood, and instead it got painted white. Sigh.

Lighting the Living Room:

This one actually doesn’t involve making anything out of plumbing pipe, just using the pre-existing pipe, and pulleys. I frigging love pulleys. I actually made a lot of unexpected headway on this one the other day, so keep an eye out for it!

Oh, and then there’s the Kitchen, which doesn’t involve any pipe, but does involve pouring concrete countertops, but that’s a whole different pony. I mean post.

Ciao!

Wrought Iron Stencils: Vote!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by seriffim

Hey Internet! I need your help with a thing!

I’m going to create a stencil so that I can paint a pattern on this almost-done filing cabinet:

And to make a cushion for this nice blue chair I just finished:

And probably also to make curtains for this icky kitchen window:

I have some ideas—I’m thinking something wrought iron-y. Here are a few quick sketches I did with ink; obviously whatever I choose will be of even proportion and such:

If you could weigh in with which one you like best (and maybe even why you like it) that would be awesome!