A Place to Hang Your Hat

So, it has been quite awhile since I've posted. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy with projects. Life just does that to you sometimes. I just completed my latest project, a fairly quick one as they go, and it reminded me of this blog so I thought I'd post it up and hopefully follow up with more entries on all the other things that have been occupying my spare time. First though, some background.

I applied for and received a promotion at work over a year ago, coincidentally right around the time I stopped blogging. With the new job I also got to move into my own office and for that amount of time, the office has been barren except for the practical necessities to do my job. I've been using a spare office chair as a place to hang the extra raincoat, sweatshirt, company hat, and backpack when I'm in and it looks rather sloppy. A couple weeks ago we had an intern with us on a detail and she commented how my office was pretty boring. This kind of put me in motion to actually make this coat rack which I'd been contemplating for a long time. I also brought in some artwork that had been sitting down in our basement collecting dust for lack of wall space in the rest of the house.

After building our front porch, I've had some scrap material left over that I've been trying to find some good use for besides firewood. I especially had way too many 2"x 2" railing slats left over that I had pre-cut but somehow grossly overestimated how many were necessary. So I thought I'd try to make my own humble glue-lam post out of these slats and join them up vertically with lap joins and make this interlocking hat tree for my office. I also wanted to get creative with a bunch of accumulated scraps of random things in the office and combine the craftsmen element of the wood work with an industrial metal element. One piece that I especially wish I had been able to incorporate was on old rock drill bit that I hauled over from Montana on the infamous move (see past posts) but alas, I just couldn't find a good way to mount the post and create a wide enough base to make it stable. That and the bit itself was very heavy, probably as much as the whole hat tree. The end product doesn't have nearly the industrial touch that I originally intended but I still kept some of it in and the rest would have been hidden by the coats anyway. During the process of building it, I discovered that my glue-lam technique needs a little bit of work but overall I was happy with my rookie attempt. At the top part of the post I had an alignment issue with one of the pieces of wood and I took the opportunity to get my new carving knives out and practice a bit. Part of the main post has a polished steel bar that was leftover from a light fixture we put in the house and it was too nice to just recycle. So, at the top end of the bar I carved the wood to faintly resemble a whale and the bottom end a whaling ship in homage to the recently released Moby Dick in Pictures. Finally for the base, I used some beat up old 2"x 4"s I had around the basement. I sanded off the bulk of the paint but left enough to show it's prior use and abuse. I finished it all off with a coat of natural stain and left it at that.

One thing that I noticed after the completion of the tree was the accidental progression of age in the wood from the bottom to the top. At the very bottom are some chunks of old growth Douglas Fir that I had bought from a salvage store and used to make a painting frame. It amazes me how tight the grains are compared to the younger wood. The upper part of the base is some newer Doug Fir but still probably from a piece that has been our house for at least 20-30 years. Even comparing those grains to Pine that I used for main post you see a noticeable difference. What I love about this project the most (aside from finally getting those coats, hats, and bags off the chair in the office) is that nothing I used was something I had to purchase new. Everything, down to the bolts and washers was something I already had lying around at home. I've cleared a bit more room from underneath my front porch, I cleaned out some the excess nuts, bolts, and washers that were filling up my miscellaneous drawers, and I put some otherwise wasted material to good use. If you're interested in some other amazing reuse projects, I would recommend Phoenix Commotion, a group that has not only done amazing work in their use of recycled/reused/re-purposed materials but also with an incredible socially-conscience purpose in mind. Now, the only thing left to really finish this project off is a good topper. If you see something, let me know.