The Stuff that Daddy Built

Now that I’ve been blogging regularly for over a year, I can look back and see trends in my posts. For instance, anything mentioning my kids will immediately get 50 views once I hit “publish”. No one will read recipes when I post them, but over time, the posts get views as they pop up in google searches. Mostly I’ve noticed that  the two most viewed posts are those on our laundry room table and the wooden cornice board board in Reuben’s room. They are both consistently viewed a few times a week.

That inspired me. Both the laundry table and the cornice board were built and designed by my dad. I came to him with pinterest pictures and dimensions and he hammered out the best way to make them. It has only been in the past year or so that I’ve shared these projects, but my dad has been building beautiful furniture for as long as I can remember. Walking through my house, I can point out at least two pieces of furniture per room that he’s made. So I thought I’d show off some of my dad’s work on display in our house!

Grandma’s Cabinet

This is one of the most sentimental pieces of furniture in our house. My dad built this back in his beginner days for his grandmother. She needed more counter space and storage for her kitchen. Enter this deep, heavy, tile topped cabinet. One shelf runs the length of the cabinet with four door openings. One of these days, I’d like to refinish the cabinet with a similar color stain. The door fronts are plywood, I might like to update them as well.

This is the most useful and versatile cabinet. Right now it holds all of my table cloths\place mats, serving dishes, candle sticks and picture albums! It has become the center point of our seasonal and party decorations. In a few weeks it will serve again as an altar to St. Joseph.

Hope Chest

Speaking of sentimental, this is the cedar chest my dad made for me for my 16th (18th?) birthday. I got to help in the shop as my dad put it together which only  makes it that much more special to me. I never did fill it with samples of my needle work to impress my future husband and furnish our future home, but now it sits at the end of our bed housing all of our linens.

My favorite part of this piece is the beautiful blonde streak that runs across it. There are a few worm holes on the base as well; little winks to custom woodwork

Ladder Bookcase

At the end of high school, I asked my dad for a desk. He had just come across plans for a ladder style bookcase, and made this instead.

For a few years it served well as a desk (he built an ottoman to go with it), then as my sole bookcase. In the townhouse Ryan and I first lived in, it was used in the kitchen for cookbooks and miscellaneous kitchen gadget storage.  It spent sometime outside at our last house as a plant stand and now it’s back inside as a display shelf.

Obviously, I’m still working on “staging” this bookcase. It’s part practical, part decorative. With all the little toddler hands in the house, practical uses are over ruling my decorative hopes.

Kneeler

This is a new addition to our home and one of Ryan’s favorites. For a few years Ryan’s been hoping to pair up with my dad to make a simple prayer kneeler. Ryan’s Christmas gift this year was, surprise, this beautiful kneeler! In our living room we have a prayer corner with floating shelves and a collection of icons. The kneeler fits perfectly in front further setting the corner aside for this specific purpose.

Living Room Furniture

I’ve posted about these before, but they’re still beautiful so they’re worth mentioning again! Earlier last year, we got a new dining room table and chairs. It was exciting because it was the first time Ryan and I picked something out to fit our taste. A few months after that, my dad asked if we would like a new coffee table and end tables (He had built our old one years before out of some scrap wood he had. It was useful, but was now too small for our space). Of course we said yes and after talking with my dad about it for a little bit, decided on a simple plan. Come to find out, my dad scrapped the simple, easy plan and went for a slightly more elaborate, detailed beautiful plan to match with the dining room table Ryan and I picked out.

We still drool a little over these tables because they are just so  beautiful! I think next time though, I’m going to have him add 50 pound weights to the underside to keep the kids from moving them around. As is, Felicity can fit inside the end tables and use it as her special hide out. The coffee table is perfect too for rainy day forts 😉

I love all of the special touches around our house that have come out of my dad’s workshop. We joke that we’ve never had to buy furniture before between all of the hand-me-downs and pieces my dad has built. But I like it that way. Everything in our house has a little story attached to it, a special meaning. I hope our children grow up appreciating the warmth this adds to our home.

It is worth mentioning too, that my dad has been busy in the shop working on my long list of want-needs before baby #4 comes along. I have one piece on the carport I’ve just about finished painting and another fresh out of the shop waiting to be finished. So stick around as our house becomes just a little more personalized and just a little more organized!