Pencil Reed Motifs | ORC Week 4
We are at the halfway mark of the One Room Challenge and I am nearly complete with the console. If you are subscribe to the blog, you would have received first dibs on the bench reveal. I couldn't be more happy with how this turned out, considering I just ended up biting the bullet and painting the whole design onto the fabric free hand.
This Week
The last thing I need to build for this console are the doors. When I first built this console, I had envisioned it having fluted doors. No one was getting pole wrap at the time when the pandemic first hit, but I had to save up to buy and as soon as I was ready, BOOM it became super popular and I was left finding radio weave cane as an alternative.
Unfortunately, the boys picked at it until it became a hazard. Also the Ivar doors have a weird gap when you close them so that was super frustrating as well. Rather than buy wood and spend days cutting all that wood down, I decided to just rip up the cane and frame I had around it (what was I thinking?) and troubleshoot ways to close the gap and "de-uglify" it.
Insp0
I found this Gabriella Crespi inspired coffee table at a Goodwill Boutique last year for $20 covered in pencil reed. The light went off for me and I was on the hunt again for pencil reed. I was only able to find two pounds of it in the size I wanted, so I am hoping I can get two doors done with it to see how much more I will need for the other two.
The doors will be the most expensive project that I actually do as one pound of the larger reed was $20 when I bought it (it's now almost $40). I want to mimic the design on the table and then paint it black of course. I haven't decided whether I not I want the handles to be apart of the pencil reed design or if I want to use metal (have you all caught on that I am sort of winging it?)
Action Items
Remove old cane from doors
Sand sides of door
Nail reed and square dowels onto the doors
Clean and sand coffee table
Paint table and doors
Order more reed if needed
Handles
Budget List
1 quart of Behr paint in Broadway $20
4 3/8 inch square dowels $5
4 Cabinet pulls (still looking for the right ones)
Let's Get to Work
Before the start of Week 4 I began the arduous process of plucking a bazillion staples out of the doors and then removing the cane. Then I sanded the sides down to get rid of as much of the leftover cane and glue I used to keep the edges clean.
Paint stripping the table was a waste of time. After two coats, nothing scrubbed off. So I am attempting (even though my research says it is not recommended for pencil reed) to lightly sand it. The bummer is I really wanted some wood tones somewhere, but it looks like I will have to paint it instead.
I really have to kick it into high gear as there is just a few weeks left before its time for me to start styling the space for Week 8. Stay with me y'all. We'll be coming in for a landing soon.
