In my previous article a little while back – 5 Reasons to Photograph Your DIY Projects – I suggested several good reasons why you should take progress photos at various stages of your home reno or woodworking projects.

Now I’ll share a few simple photography lighting tips that will help you end up with better images.

This is not a guide to taking magazine-quality photos by any means. That’s in a whole different category.

Camera Equipment

For the purpose of this article I’m assuming that you have a basic point-and-shoot digital camera or cell phone camera with auto focus and auto exposure. If you’re working alone and the pictures you want require you (or your hands) to be in the picture, a small tripod or camera clamp mount are useful.  

Camera shake

Blurry pictures are a result of camera movement while the picture is being taken. This invariably happens in low light conditions when the aperture is wide open and the shutter speed is slower than 1/60th of a second. There are two ways to get around this – add more light or stabilize the camera.

If adding light isn’t an option, then steady the camera using a tripod or other camera mount. You can often achieve reasonable results by pressing your arm against a wall or post, or resting it on a sawhorse, stepladder or car roof and gently squeezing the shutter button.

Some cameras have a self-timer which delays tripping the shutter for a few seconds after you press the button. If you place the camera on a tripod or a stable surface, you can press the button and let go of the camera. This feature is useful for reducing camera shake in low light or if you need to be in the picture to demonstrate a procedure.

Lighting

The origins of the word photography essentially come down to "drawing with light". In a nutshell, the better the lighting – the better the picture. You’ll likely have three potential sources of light depending on your situation and time of day.

1. Natural ambient light from windows (ie. daylight)
2. Artificial room lighting (ie, fluorescent, incandescent, halogen)
3. On-camera Flash

Natural, diffuse (indirect) light from a window will usually give you the best results. The light reflects off all the surfaces in all directions without creating harsh shadows like direct sunlight will.

Cameras often don’t handle the difference in brightness (contrast) between direct sunlight and the surrounding area very well. Sometimes changing your location or camera angle to avoid the sunny area or just waiting twenty minutes for the sun to move can make all the difference in your results. In pinch, you can also try shooting with the flash on – the flash might help to brighten up the dark areas.

Artificial lighting mixed with natural window light will likely give you some colour variations within the image. Daylight (and flash) tend to look blue, incandescent lighting has a yellow cast and fluorescent can look a bit greenish. Your camera will try to determine what is "white" but you’ll inevitably end up with different colours in different areas of the image. Severely off-colour pictures can be improved somewhat with free or inexpensive computer software.

I try to reserve the on-camera flash as a last resort because it can create harsh shadows and presents a very "flat" look. But it does the job when you need it – like in the corner of a basement or late in the day when there is no other light source available. Light from a flash only travels so far, so foreground objects will be much brighter than objects further away.

The picture on the left was taken with the on-camera flash. The picture on right was taken under the exact same shop lighting with the flash disabled.

Auto Exposure

Exposure refers to the total amount of light that reaches the imaging sensor which is achieved in two ways – aperture size and shutter speed. Most of today’s cameras can automate this function to achieve what it "sees" as the best combination of these two variables. The camera’s auto exposure function works quite well in most situations, but there are times when it doesn’t give you what you need.

The most common situation where auto exposure fails is when you’re taking a picture that has a window (or a patch of direct sunlight) in the frame. The camera aperture will close down to "estimate" the middle between the brightest and darkest parts of the image. Usually the scene outside the window will look fine but the interior of the room will be very dark. You can trick some digital cameras by setting the exposure correctly for the interior and then re-framing your shot to include the the window.

Shooting with a window in the picture:

1. Frame the picture you want to take and look at your display. The room interior will likely be very dark with few visible details.
2. Move the camera just enough to place the window at the edge or outside the edge of the display. The wall should brighten up so you can see the details you want. NOTE: it’s better to tilt the camera up or down to keep the auto focusing distance closer to the final framing.
3. Press the button part way  – your camera should try to autofocus and determine the correct exposure.
4. Hold the button and re-frame your shot as you want it. Many cameras will hold the exposure as long as you don’t release the button.
5. Press the button the rest of the way to take the picture.

The picture on the left was taken by just pointing and shooting. The picture on the right was taken using the steps described above.

To get the correct interior exposure with my DSLR, I had to switch to manual exposure since it continuously adjusted for the light entering the lens.

Hopefully, these tips will help shed some light on how to get better results in your DIY pictures under less than ideal lighting situations. I’ll follow up in the final article in this series with a few tips on subject matter and reference points.

Our four-legged family members have become an integral part of our lives and we’ll do almost anything to make them happy.

And by “them” of course, I really mean “us”.

Here’s a statistic that will blow your mind. In 2011, in the worst economy in decades, US households spent $50.96 billion on their pets.

Of course this includes everything – from food & veterinary bills to treats, toys and yes – cat trees.

So what’s a cat tree?

Cat trees are pretty much a "jungle gym" for cats. You can buy them ready-to-assemble in all shapes and sizes. When "Ridiculously Big HUGE Cat Trees" turns up in your Google search, you just KNOW you have to check it out to see exactly HOW RIDICULOUSLY BIG & HUGE cat trees can be.

Any cat-fancying DIYer can build a custom cat climber with a few tools and the right materials. And there’s no shortage of design inspiration for any size you want.

 
Most cat trees are sturdy wooden structures covered with pile carpet, jute or sisal rope. While the carpeting may not be your first choice in home decor, remember those few little claw picks in the couch are just the beginning of a life-long kitty-workout regimen that’s guaranteed to end badly – for your couch.

Feline funhouse

There are a bunch of good reasons that cat trees & climbers have become incredibly popular in cat-loving households:

• Many cats now live exclusively indoors
• Cats need to sharpen their claws regularly
• Cats need daily exercise
• Cats like heights & small spaces
• It’s fun to watch them play

In a nutshell, it all comes down to encouraging healthy exercise that will prolong the life of your cats (and your furniture).

Buy or build?

If you just want one to magically show up on the doorstep in a couple of days you can likely find what you want at Amazon.com. They’ve got an amazing variety of designs and sizes at prices ranging from about US $25.00 to several hundred dollars.

If you’re looking for something a bit different be sure to check out catsplay.com. They have a wide variety of unique designs including a eco-friendly natural cedar tree that would suit even the most elegant home decor.

If you’re itching for a DIY project you can do with your feline friends, there are plans available to guide you through the process. CatTreePlans.com offers 10 designs + 2 bonus scratching posts for $9.95.

Or check out these free instructions at showcatsonline.com for building a cat tree.

Besides a few pieces of lumber and plywood, look around for recycling opportunities – you can use up leftover sections of concrete form tubes, PVC pipe, sisal rope and carpet remnants.

Designer Ideas

If you just can’t live with a carpet-covered jungle-gym or don’t have a big budget, there’s no reason you still can’t draw inspiration from top designers.

These simple and beautiful trees, shelves and scratch pads from squarecathabitat.com would be relatively easy and inexpensive to recreate by substituting poplar, pine or recycled lumber for the $200.00/ sheet Plyboo.

These nifty metal "cat clouds" wall shelves from therefinedfeline.com could also be adapted in wood for a DIY project if you have the proper tools.

Whether you buy or build, providing a playground for your frolicking feline is a great way to keep her (and your furniture) happy and healthy. In return, she’ll reward you with hours of crazy-cat entertainment & dangling cat napping sessions.

Of course, if you REALLY loved her, you’d fork out the $9500.00 for the real deal.

 
Images: CatTreePlans.com; amazon.com; CatsPlay.com; SquareCatHabitat.com TheRefinedFeline.com

Odds are most of you reading this article either have a digital camera or a cell phone that can take pictures – maybe both.

This is the new reality that allows us to document our lives in ways we never would have 10 or 20 years ago.

We get instant results on colour displays that give us a "do over" option on the spot. And you can take thousands of pictures for the price of recharging the batteries and transferring your images to a computer or other storage device.

My life on Kodachrome

My father was a professional portrait photographer so it’s no small wonder I make a point of keeping a camera handy when I’m working on a project. He captured an incredible account of our growing family and local events from the 1940′s to the 1990′s – from the serious to the silly. His basic rule was get the picture – then extract us from whatever stupid situation we got ourselves into.

And I’ve got the embarrassing pictures to prove it.

The point I’m trying to make here is, you can’t go back and get the pictures you didn’t take at the time. This applies to DIY as well. You may not think you’ll want or need pictures now, but what about next week, or next year?

The 5 reasons to take pictures during your project

These are in no particular order but they’re all good reasons to keep your camera handy:

1. Sharing with your friends & family (Facebook, email, Twitter)
2. Getting DIY help on web sites and forums
3. Documenting for house inspection/real estate transactions/insurance
4. Reviewing enclosed spaces to locate pipes, wires, blocking, etc.
5. Creating woodworking plans or blog articles after the fact

SHARING

Digital photography and the internet are made for each other.

It’s so easy to share pictures on Facebook or through email that we can keep our family and friends up-to-date on home renovations along with our other activities. It doesn’t matter if you shoot 100 or 1000 pictures, the idea with this type of sharing is to be selective in what you share. 5 or 10 pictures will bring them up to speed – 50 will send all but the most interested followers scrambling for the delete key.

If you’re going to share pictures by email – do everyone a favour and size them down to fit a typical computer screen (i.e. 1000 x 700 pixels is reasonable) – making your mom scroll around a full-size, 6 megapixel image to figure out what it shows defeats the purpose.

DIY FORUMS

DIY is a learn-as-you-go endeavour and we all run up against situations where we need to consult with experts or experienced amateurs who’ve been down your road that can offer guidance.

Posting pictures of your situation gives others a better idea of what you’re trying to do (or undo) than trying to explain a complex problem. Frequently, the first response to a question on a forum is "can you post some pictures so I can see what you’re talking about?"

FOR THE RECORD

If you ever sell your house, a home inspection will likely be required. Inspectors can only see what’s on the surface, and look for evidence of insulation, structural problems or potential problems.

The days of flipping real estate for a quick buck are pretty much done. Unless you’re trying to hide an inferior reno job, having progress photos of an addition or renovation would be useful for an inspector or potential buyer. It becomes a visual record that can be useful to future homeowners. It shows that you have nothing to hide and just might help to close the sale.

SHOOT FIRST – ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER

I start with before pictures and shoot pictures at all stages of a project – hundreds of them. Some of them are lousy, and I don’t know if I’ll ever need them, but more often than not I go back to look at pictures for reference several times before the project is done.

Pictures are really handy for reviewing where studs, pipes or wires are after you’ve drywalled. Where EXACTLY is that baseboard heater wire your buddy forgot to pull through the drywall while you were at the hardware store? If you’ve got pictures of key plumbing and wiring within the exposed stud walls, you can zero in pretty close to your target and correct the problem with the least amount of damage or re-work.

Websites and plans

If I didn’t take pictures of my projects this website wouldn’t exist – or if it did, it wouldn’t be all that useful. You may not have any thoughts of starting a blog or turning your woodworking project into a full set of plans to sell, but you never know what opportunities could arise in the future.

If you’re an avid woodworker designing your own furniture or cabinets, having a set of in-progress photos in your archives gives you the option to develop plans or write an article after the fact.

Once I’ve completed a project, it can be a year or two before I get around to writing out the instructions, finishing the detail drawings and preparing my woodworking plans. The photos help me to recreate the steps in the process so I can write them up in the correct order and remind me of exactly what I did.

Photo archives

I’ve only used a fraction of the photos that I have taken during our bathroom renovation and the veranda/mudroom addition in articles on this blog and in my Stonehaven Life woodworking plans.

As time allows, I intend to upload them to Flickr Creative Commons to make them available to a broader audience.

I’ll follow up this article soon with a few tips on taking photos of your DIY projects.

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

Today, Lee & Katelynn show off the beautiful results of all their hard work and creative use of “treasures” in the conclusion of this 3-part series.

You can catch up on the back story here in Part 1.

Enjoy! – Rick

Decorating to suit the venue

With the walls and ceiling white and the floor poured, we were just days away from the big day. All that was left was the setup!

Luckily, after our big cleanout, we had an eclectic collection of old farm stuff. A tub that had been hauled out of the barn for my sister’s wedding was recommissioned to hold a couple kegs from the local brewery. An old washing machine was used to hold extra bottles and cups. (I was surprised to find that there were no leaks from either of these despite their decades of being forgotten).

Setting up the tables in a manner that accommodated everyone and didn’t exclude anyone was a challenge. We began with a CAD drawing of the reception area of the barn, then added tables with chair and people buffers and arranged until we found an acceptable floor plan. In practice, it took a little more effort and problem solving before everything was in a suitable spot.

Once the layout was complete, tables were covered with gingham table cloths in various colours, my grandmother created apple and cherry blossom centre pieces in old pickle jars and milk bottles and jars of jam were placed at each setting as a take-away favour.

At every table, we placed cards and pushpins and our guests were asked to write their best wishes and advice on the cards, then post each somewhere on the barn wall.

In the corner, we setup an apple ladder (which we still use in the orchard to this day) and hung wedding photos of our relatives.  My grandfather (who is now 90 years old) had long ago rescued a 4 foot wide saw blade from my great grandfather’s mill and hung it as a backdrop for the gift table.

Wine was placed on each table, but there were extra bottles that needed a home. My soon-to-be mother-in-law found “The Kelvinator”, an old icebox, in the corner and gave it a nice white paint job. The extra bottles of wine were cleverly hidden away in the Kelvinator until they were needed.  Accompanying the Kelvinator was an old apple barrel, another piece of history we still use on the farm to this day.

Square dancing and fiddling

Following the dinner and dessert, the night’s entertainment was a square dance.  My father-in-law became interested in playing the fiddle after my wife left home (to fill the hole in his heart, she claims), and has attended several Gordon Stobbe fiddle camps in the past few years.  Gordon is an excellent square dance caller, especially for the beginner square dancers, so we were very pleased when he agreed to call for us.

The fiddle music was provided by a group of young fiddlers from the Fredericton area, who requested as payment a donation to help fund their fiddling trip to France.

The square dance area was next to the mow, and almost a foot lower. My father-in-law provided some salvaged wrought-iron railing to separate the two areas and to act as a barrier in case the dancing got out-of-hand.

As the evening drew near, lanterns were lit to illuminate the path from the barnyard.

On reflection

Now that nearly a year has passed since the cleaning process began, we’ve had some time to reflect.  Was it worth it? Yes, definitely.

We had a fantastic venue for our wedding that provided the welcoming farm-y atmosphere that we were aiming for.  We’ve received many compliments since; the best comment being that the whole affair was kind of like being in Alice in Wonderland, without the whole Queen of Hearts drama.

The weather, although cold and somewhat rainy at the beginning of the day, gave an ethereal atmosphere that we couldn’t have planned or executed better.  And now, almost a year later, the barn is an excellent place for gatherings, apple cider making, and storage for the orchard’s u-pick (don’t worry, we keep it organized and clean!).

And if this process has moved anyone to want to do a similar thing,
there’s a whole second level of the barn waiting to be purged!

To read more about the Big Red Barn Dance:

Big Red Barn Dance – Part 1

Big Red Barn Dance – Part 2

For more (and larger) pictures on Lee and Katelynn’s barnstorming adventure check out their “Time to clean out the barn!” forum thread at Old House Web.
Wedding photos: chantalarseneau.com

If you’re just tuning in, Lee & Katelynn, a couple of young engineers, took on the challenge of holding their wedding reception in a barn filled with 50 years of accumulated “stuff”. You can catch up on the story here in Part 1.

Today, Lee gets into the nitty gritty of whitewashing the barn interior and preparing to pour a new concrete floor in part 2 of this 3-part series.

Enjoy! – Rick

Old-time solution

With the barn cleaned out it was time to make it presentable enough for a  wedding reception. Pricing out paint for such a large area can be quite a shock, but there is an old-time solution: whitewash. Used in barns as a disinfectant, whitewash is a mixture of lime, salt, and water that dries to a chalky white appearance. Because of the ingredients it is much cheaper than paint, but also less durable.

There are hundreds of different recipes online with various additives to help make it longer lasting and less prone to rubbing off but we used the basic ingredients, which resulted in a very effective finish.

Prior to applying the whitewash, it was necessary to clean many years’ accumulation of grime and cobwebs from the walls and ceiling. A pressure washer would have been quick and easy, but in May it would have taken too long to dry. A combination of vacuuming and sweeping, along with lots of elbow grease cleaned the walls and ceiling to a point where the whitewash could be applied. Scraping old whitewash off the ceiling with a stiff bristle broom is quite the workout!

Due to the grittiness of the whitewash mixture, some trial and error was necessary before an easy and consistent application method was found. Paint brushes tended to gather dirt from the walls and even industrial paint sprayers clogged up because of their fine nozzles and filters. We found that using a manual-pump garden sprayer allowed us to get a thick coat on quickly without having to stop too often to clean out the nozzle.

When first applied, the whitewash appeared grey, but given a few days to dry, it whitened considerably. If you’re considering doing this, be sure to wear overalls, lung and eye protection as this stuff will stick to everything and is not fun to breathe.

Concrete progress

With the whitewashing complete, it was time to look at the floor. Since the original purpose of the barn was to house cattle, the existing concrete floor was uneven, cracked, and completely missing in some places. We filled in several of the low spots with insulation and levelled the floor with many, many (many!) wheelbarrows of sand.

After laying down a vapour barrier and covering the floor with wire mesh, we hired a contractor to pour and smooth out the concrete. I would say they did an excellent job!

Since the whitewash is based off of salt, it wouldn’t have been a very good coating for the metal support posts and manure trolley track that runs through the barn at ceiling level. Even though the trolley hadn’t been used in ages we thought it was a very interesting piece of history, and after raising it so the taller members of my fiancée’s family didn’t bonk their head, it was given several coats of white paint.

We were only days away from our wedding, and with the barn spic and span we had conquered our greatest hurdle. The last phase was to gather our treasure from the cleanout and decorate.

Check back for the conclusion of the Big Red Barn Dance – Part 3 next week.

Big Red Barn Dance  – Part 1
 
 

As I mentioned in my Stonehaven Life 2012 Preview, Lee & Katelynn, a couple of young and energetic engineers, took on a mission last year that some of us (like me, and apparently Lee’s father) would have likely dismissed as “crazy”.

Today, Lee lays the groundwork of how they transformed a junk-filled barn into a fabulous venue for their wedding reception in part 1 of this 3-part series.

Enjoy! – Rick

Pitching the idea

In early February, as my fiancée and I were sorting through wedding details, I asked, “What if we held the reception in the barn?“, to which my fiancée responded with an incredulous “UGH” – but, before getting into the reasons behind that response, a bit of history is in order.

The barn in question was built on the family farm in 1916 by my great grandfather, Hazen Everett. Two post and beam barns were combined and rebuilt with a gambrel roof for hay storage, concrete cow stanchions, and knob and tube wiring.

My grandfather took over the farm in the 1960′s and had faithfully kept the barn in excellent condition. The exterior shingle siding was coated with a mixture of linseed oil and iron oxide (also known as rust, hence the red colour so prevalent with barns).

Cool reception

Back to the “UGH”.  It’s not that my fiancée was opposed to having a wedding reception in the barn; in fact, we had planned a square dance with live fiddling music as our reception dance, so having it in a barn was quite fitting and atmospheric.

Originally, our plan had been to rent a tent and set it up next to the orchard, similar to my sister’s wedding, which was also held on the family apple farm.
However, if you have ever priced out a 20×30 tent and dance floor you would know that it becomes a very significant portion of your wedding budget and can mean sacrificing things that are way more fun.

So why the disheartening response to my brilliant suggestion? Obviously the size, condition and suitability of the barn weren’t the problem. The problem was what was in the barn.

My grandfather focused on the apple orchard side of the farm, so the barn hadn’t been used as a cow barn for many decades. Over the years it was used to work on farm machinery, as a holding spot for scrap metal and as storage for miscellaneous objects as other buildings on the farm were emptied and re-purposed.

Trash and treasures

Over the half-century since the cows left, the barn had accumulated nearly 2,200 square feet of trash and treasures. To use the barn for our intended purpose, we would have to empty all of this area, a huge task that definitely required help.

  After getting my grandfather’s blessing, we spoke with my father about cleaning out the barn. At first the suggestion of cleaning out the barn was thought to be crazy, but after sleeping on it for a couple nights my father started to see the potential in the idea.

Indoor space is always in short supply on a farm, but by cleaning this space we would get our reception area and my father would get a new space to use (as well as guaranteed cleaning help!).

Everything but the… no, wait… there it is!

Progress was slow at first. Unlike those TV shows, there was no big truck to fill and make everything disappear. Most of the stuff we were dealing with was construction material, old machinery and appliances, or metal to go to recycling. Over 3 months stuff slowly disappeared from the barn with help from friends and neighbours. As we cleaned up we came across many interesting items.

Left: A cast iron sink, about 4 feet long and perfect for our upcoming kitchen renovation. Right: A wooden pung – just needs a bit of repair, a willing horse and a driver with nerves of steel.
 

By this point it was the end of April, and our wedding was less than a month away. Most people would have had their reception area booked and decorations ready, but for us it was time for the next phase: making it presentable enough for a wedding reception!

 
Check out Big Red Barn Dance – Part 2.
 
 
Wedding photo: chantalarseneau.com
 
 

Well, now that we’ve polished off the last of the turkey and we’re scrounging around in the bottom layer of holiday chocolates, it’s time to contemplate the year ahead.

2011 was hectic for some of us and a relentless economic challenge for many others. We were "#Occupied" and pre-occupied by an unprecedented wave of protests, political crises and natural disasters around the globe.

While we’re not out of the woods yet, it feels to me like there are some positive changes in the wind for 2012.

That said, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for following my Stonehaven Life blog and give you a sneak preview of a few things in the works for 2012.

Renovation Projects

Meet Lee & Katelynn…

…a pair of young engineers with a creative DIY streak, fabulous sense(s) of humour(s [?]) and two goofy greyhounds that do the occasional sleepover at our house.

These newlywed homeowners have graciously agreed to share some of their renovation explorations here on Stonehaven Life as we head into 2012.

BIG RED BARN DANCE

The venue for their wedding in spring of 2011 was next to the apple orchard of the family farm. The beautiful big red barn was the obvious choice for the reception and square dance to follow.

Uh… except for this.

Not to be discouraged by a few odds and ends cluttering up the place, they undertook the monumental task of mucking out the machinery, retro appliances and stuff that had accumulated over decades. They tarted the place up with real whitewash and poured a new concrete floor.

Just another day on the farm for them.

In a series starting in January, Lee & Katelynn will share their experience of transforming the barn and decorating it for the one of the best-ever wedding receptions I’ve experienced.

Big Red Barn Dance – Part 1

AND THEN THEY TAKE ON THE KITCHEN

Undaunted by the barn project where they found everything under the sun – including this awesome kitchen sink – Lee & Katelynn are plunging into 2012 with a full-on kitchen renovation inspired by a lack of insulation.

Their home, which was originally a cottage built in the early 1900’s offers lots of opportunities for them to get creative and and put their engineering know-how to work.

Once the dust settles and they come up for air, they’ll be sharing that experience in another series so stay tuned.

Woodworking Plans

WASHSTAND VANITY

I’m finally getting around to compiling the photos, drawings and instructions to complete woodworking plans for the washstand vanity that I built for our bathroom renovation last year.

The vanity is made of stained pine and was designed to suit the age and style of our old farmhouse.

These detailed woodworking plans are now available.

MEDICINE CABINET 

The medicine cabinet is a companion project to the washstand vanity but would be suitable for almost any bathroom.

It’s an easy-to-build project that can be wall-mounted or inset into the stud-space.

Look for these Medicine cabinet plans in spring of 2012.

Dealing with recycling is an everyday event that we all deal with.

It seemed that the blue and grey bins that we put out for pickup were always under a pile of other stuff or stacked on top of each other which made recycling a hassle. So when we renovated our mudroom I designed a cabinet for our recycling bins that makes them easy to use and to get to the curb.

One of my New Years resolutions for 2012 is to make these project plans available on the Stonehaven Life site.

Tips and Ideas

Of course I’ll continue to share the usual assortment of tips and ideas as well.

One of the trends that I see on the horizon is the rise of the "sharing economy" which could shape the way we approach our transportation, housing and lifestyle activities. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next decade as we adapt to the new realities of the changing global economy.

As always, I invite everyone to comment on the blog and to share your ideas on how you DIY@home.

Happy New Year!

Rick

When we renovated our bathroom recently, it included moving the tub to increase the headroom under a sloped ceiling. Since were we using the same length of bathtub, we had to deal with the space left at the end of the tub.

Rather than just fill the whole thing in, we decided to use the space to our advantage and add a shelf for shampoo bottles and other shower and bath supplies.

Planning

After consulting the plumber, we determined we could safely move the tub 6″ away from the sloped wall without disturbing the existing cast iron tub drain and stack. Even that 6″ distance makes a big difference to a six-footer like me.

The height and size of the shelf was driven by the tiles. We had decided on 6″ x 6″ tiles for the shower walls so I planned the shelf height at about 5 1/2″ above the top edge of the tub – just slightly less than a full tile. This tile line is consistent around the entire bathtub area.

Framing

Once the demolition was complete and the insulation installed, the next step was to frame in the space for the tub. I used 2 x 6 for framing and built a short “wall” that was 5″ higher than the tub.

My plan was to use DenShield backer board for the tub area which is 1/2″ thick, so that was calculated into the overall height of the framing.

The end wall which runs from the floor up to the sloped ceiling was added next. It’s just two – 2 x 6 studs with a 1/2″ plywood spacer between them which made a typical 4 1/2″ thick wall once the sheathing was added to both sides.

The tub framing was nailed to the existing studs and I was fortunate enough to have a roof rafter in just the right place to give me something to nail the end wall to. The house was framed with full dimension rough lumber and I had to add furring strips and shims to square up the shower area prior to installing the tile backer. But that’s another story.

Backer board and drywall

Once the tub was in place and insulation finished, I installed the tile backer throughout the shower area and put regular drywall on the outside face of the end wall. I planned the installation so the horizontal shelf backer extends over the vertical piece below and the wall backers overhang the edges of the shelf sides and back.

I used a couple of cedar shims under the shelf backer to give it a very slight tilt towards the tub so any water would run off the front instead collecting at the back.

Shelf material

My original intention was to put tiles on the shelf surface itself but decided in the end to use a 1/2” thick solid surface material called HI-MACS. You could also use granite, Corian or any other waterproof “stone” or tile material.

Once the backer was installed I measured the space, allowing for the overhang at the front to clear the vertical tiles and mortar bed and a small radius on the exposed front corner. I emailed a dimensioned drawing to the supplier and they ordered the piece for me.

Tile installation

The full enclosure was tiled, leaving the tiles immediately next to the shelf until last. The HI-MACS shelf was installed using thinset mortar, just like laying tile. I then cut and installed the row of tiles between the shelf and the tub deck. The wall tiles were installed after the shelf so that any water dripping down would hit the sloped shelf and run off into the tub.

I didn’t want any exposed or sharp tile edges so I used 2″ x 6″ edge tiles on the narrow edge of the end wall. The roundover edges are flush to the face of the tiles on the shelf side of the 6″ wall, making a nice rounded corner. The outer row of edge tiles is a continuation of the edging that caps off the entire tiled shower area.

After the mortar set, the tiles were grouted and the joints between the shelf and the surrounding tiles were caulked.

Finishing

The lower part of the room has bead board which stops just shy of the outside corner capped with a small chair rail.

I made a corner moulding out of 3/4″ x 7/8″ pine with a rabbet cut in the back shallow enough to keep the moulding proud of both the tile and the bead board and attached it with panel adhesive. The joint between the tile and moulding is sealed with caulk to protect it from any potential moisture.

We’re very happy with how it turned out and it makes an attractive and useful addition to our new bathroom.

 
 
 
Related posts for our Bathroom Renovation

Tiling a Sloped Shower Wall

Do I need “Ditra” under Floor Tiles

Plumbing Access Camouflage

MDF Baseboard Radiator Cover

I can really get behind re-purposing and recycling stuff that might otherwise end up getting tossed away.

I’m also a big fan of creative design ideas that keep us from getting too set in our ways and falling into the “that’s the way we always do it” trap.

Rachael Ranney, host of {Re}habitat on Buildipedia’s “Go Green” Channel, shows how to turn an old chair into an eye-catching piece of furniture in her “Swanky Leather Belt Lounge Chair” video.

Easy DIY project

This looks to be a pretty straightforward DIY project that would work for a variety of chair styles. The main criteria would be to use sturdy wooden chairs with square seat and/or back frames.

If you’re anything like me, you may have a collection of old belts cluttering up your closet to get you started. All kinds of belts are easy to find at thrift stores and discount outlets for a reasonable price.

Belts running side to side are stapled to the inside of the frame on one side, stretched across the seat and stapled to the other side.

Belts that run front to back are woven through the stretched belts and stapled the same way.

You can find the 7 step by step instructions for this project below the video player on the Buildipedia site.

I’m thinking a set of “belted” dining room chairs would look fantastic.

This project idea is the result of a recent bathroom reno. The old steel shroud on our baseboard radiator had to come off to get the plaster, lath and wood shavings out of the wall behind it.

If you’ve taken one of these out before, you know it involves cutting things apart. Damage aside, it was also deemed too ugly to exist in the new decor. So I had to come up with a new cover that would suit the look without a lot of effort or expense.

Why MDF?

First of all, DO NOT DO THIS WITH AN ELECTRIC BASEBOARD HEATER!

This is a hot water radiator so the temperature stays well below combustion levels of the wood components the pipes come in contact with like studs and joists.

I built this from a 12" x 96" x 3/4" piece of MDF that many building centres sell as "shelf" material, usually for less than $10.00.

MDF is stable and easy to work with. You should wear a mask when cutting and sanding it because of the fine particles and resins that bind it together.

Construction details

The pictures and drawings pretty much tell the story so I’ll focus on the few details that you can’t see. Your situation may be slightly different and you may want to adapt some of these ideas to work for your particular site.

All the components were pre-painted before installation.  

• I installed a 7"high plywood back (pre-painted black) directly to the studs behind the pipe before the tile floor and drywall were installed. The drywall and bead board rest on top of this and the joint is concealed by the radiator top.
• The end supports are made of two pieces glued together to make them 1 1/2" thick. I cut the pieces slightly oversized, and made the final cuts after they were glued to get clean edges. Once I determined where the pipe centre was (off the floor and wall) I drilled a 3/4" hole centred on those measurements. Then I used a jigsaw to cut a channel in the least visible location so the ends can slip over the pipe. I had a to cut off a few of the aluminum fins at each end to make enough space.
• The end supports were drilled and screwed to the baseboards using 2 1/2 screws.
• The rabbet on the back edge of the top makes it easier to get a tight fit to a wall that’s not perfectly flat. Ours bows out almost 3/8" in the middle. I marked a scribe line on the top and sanded to the line using a palm sander. Sanding off a 3/8" edge is a lot less work than a full 3/4". After a few test fits I finally had a result I could live with.
• The 1/4" MDF cleats keep the front cover vertical when it’s snapped into the roller clips. I located these so the front cover is just slightly recessed from the face of the end supports.
• The top is attached using 3/4" angle brackets. Each end has a bracket and three more are spaced evenly along the back edge to keep the top from sagging. The brackets were fastened to the top before installing it.  

What about corners or long runs?

Well…. this was a short, straight run and as simple as it gets. I have other rooms to do in the future that have one or both of these situations.

For a longer run, my inclination would be to add one or more "end" supports in a logical place – possibly centred on the wall or dividing the run in three depending on the situation.

As for corners, I would either redesign the end supports to eliminate the 20 degree slope, add a 1" x 1" block to fill in the gap at the slope or see if I could mitre the meeting edges to make a corner assembly.

If you’ve got more ideas why not share them in the comments.

Related Articles on our Bathroom renovation:

Tiling a Sloped Shower Wall

Do I Need “Ditra” Under Floor Tiles?

Plumbing Access Camouflage