My Ideal Refuge - Frame up restore: January 2019

I think I've gotten all the cabinets ready to install, and all the fronts redone so they look like I want. Now I have to wait for a bit of warmer weather so I've turned my attention to cutting the foam to length and width, and laying out and sewing the fabric for the covers.

I found 6" high density foam at Walmart that would suit my needs, so I bought enough to make everything. I couldn't find a 15" piece, but they did sell 30" wide pieces so I cut them down to the length I needed and split the 30" in half. Using my electric knife I'd bought years ago with the bread knife blade attachment worked really well at cutting this stuff.

I'm doing a stripe for the back of the cushions/bed and a solid brown for the cushion seats.

Here a photo of the seat back fabric, laminate & marmoleum choices :

And a few photos of the foam, and completed covers. I used velcro to inclose the foam inside.

I even managed to match the stripes pretty closely. After I finish the other sides back cushions , I will be working on the seat cushions in the solid brown.

I think after I'm done with this project I will go out and shellac the trim pieces, so they are ready when I need them.

One step at a time, as time permits...

Post #23 ~ December 18th - We removed the old facing from the two doors and I sanded them down nice and smooth. I also added some interior supports to the top and down the middle for some structural support. Today (Wednesday Dec 19th) I glued and stapled (with 3/4" x 15/16" staples) the extra supports into the closet door and put the new facing on. As you can see I used almost every clamp we have, plus weighted it down where the extra supports were added with bricks.

Post# 24 ~ After being forced to take two weeks or so off from the project because of a very bad cold over Christmas, I'm back at it.

I did the same thing to the bathroom door that I did to the closet door, and when done with both doors, flush cut the edges, then rounded the edges over with a 1/8" roundover bit. I then put on two more coats of Amber shellac, and two coats of clear.

I used Larry's method of shellacing from cannedhamtrailers.com to lay down the first layers of shellac on the 4' X 8' sheets of Birch plywood.

Then after I got everything cut out and applied to the cabinet, bathroom & closet doors, and drawers I decided to do some refined finishing techniques because of a bit of streakiness I didn't like.

After watching some youtube videos on french polishing I decided to try the new method on these items. I really like the results as I got a smoother more mirror like finish. Here is a link to one of the videos I watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxRIPkzgUTM.

Method I used: I took an old wool sock (or half a sock) and placed it in the middle of a double layered cotton cloth (I used part of a flour sack towel), & tied it off to make a pad. After sanding with 240 grit sandpaper & removing any dust, I then dipped the pad into a small amount of shellac, dripped a few drops of denatured alcohol on top, plus a drop of mineral oil for lubrication. I rubbed the pad over the door face following the grain of the wood until it was coated with the shellac. To keep the pads from drying out, I kept them in a jar with an airtight lid. I let the shellac dry for an hour, then rubbed 0000 steel wool over it, wiped any dust off it, then applied another coat. If I needed more layers I repeated the process.

When I liked the way it looked I applied a coat of paste wax on it to help protect it, and buffed it to a shine.

I think they came out very nice. I think am going to do this to the walls and cabinets too, because it just looks really nice.

I do have to redo one of the cabinet door fronts, because when I flush cut around the edges the birch paneling delaminated really bad. Luckily I had a spare piece that would fit the door. So I've removed the old and have glued the new face on. Hopefully this piece won't have the same issue.