Entryway Part 2; Under the Stairs

Having finished tongue and grooving the two walls near the back door I added a panel to lengthen the under stair so they ran parallel to the other side….

The panel is the side of the armoire that the mirrored door in the kitchen came from. You’ll notice the wood block underneath; this was left in the garage by the previous owner. I’ve used others that were there in the will be kitchen.

As the side of the armoire had a detailed piece that I didn’t want to lose and it didn’t quite reach the top the block served to raise it up to fill the gap. Well, almost.

I just marked on the wood the lowest point where it needed to meet the stairs and the highest. I cut along the line I drew between the two with my jigsaw.

As there was a wood strut where the stair panel ended I glued the two together and clamped them tight.

I carried on gluing tongue and groove to the brick wall under the stairs. I have another armoire door (don’t ask 😖) and I thought I could make a cupboard under the stairs using this.

It’s incredibly heavy. As I heaved it down the stairs the weight made me think about how to support it. Although I have heavy duty hinges I thought it would be a good idea to add a few rollers to the bottom too, just to be sure.

I measured the door and it came to just below the back of one of the stair treads. There’s an additional piece of wood that runs along the stair as it descends that juts out slightly. I ran two lengths of wood horizontally beneath that in line with where the door will stand.

I finished tongue and grooving the back and side of the space.

As I finished that days work I took a length of wood and glued it so it ran parallel to the base of the door. The wheels that needed to be screwed in where too wide to attach without doing this.

In the morning I attached the pole for the hangers along with the wheels and the hinges on the door. I used the same technique for the hinges as when I did the shutters in the will be kitchen.

The mirrored door was a little too narrow so I added a panel to the side of the cupboard.

I left this part of the project at this stage to continue with the doorway. However, having found a bargain Henry II buffet, I used a lovely detailed piece from that to finish off the door.

You can see in the above picture that I’d originally painted the surrounding area white, but not the door. I wasn’t sure at that stage if I wanted to have it all white and thought a contrast might look nice. But I decided that painting all the section would help to unify the whole area in the end. This hasn’t got its fin coat yet, but you get the idea.

There’s lots more work to do, I’ll add another update soon.

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 8 Weeks to go

I was been working hard on the kitchen, my youngest was off school with a cold, and then we had houseguests for a week (bliss). As a result this is a post that covers several weeks activity.

Here is what’s bought and done;

Christmas stocking presents for my girls

Just various things to paint with, notebooks, decorative hole punches, glitter, hair things….anything small really. These are bought, but not wrapped and, as we are on a two week school vacation, I won’t be able to do them until the children are back at school.

This is mainly because my girls know that mummy and daddy buy and wrap gifts for others, so if they were found whilst wrapped it wouldn’t be the end of the world. However if the wrapped Father Christmas gifts were found it would be a bit revealing. I have them wrapped in a different, more distinctive style – so it would kind of give the game away.

Make up gifts

My oldest girl is about to go to middle school, so I wanted something a bit more grown up for her. So I got her a little set of toiletries and some make up and brushes to play with, but only when she’s inside playing dress up (insert firm, Mum voice here).

For my younger daughter I got a light up unicorn that you decorate as a Little ‘un equivalent.

These have all been wrapped.

Craft things

Lots of painting canvases and colouring books. These are my little presents and I’ve wrapped them.

Saint Nicholas gifts

Each year, as we’re, we celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas on 6th December. I always give the girls a little gift from the Saint himself and this year I chose Christmas crafts, because I can keep them entertained between now and the big day.

These are wrapped too.

Along with the gifts they always get a large chocolate Father Christmas, with a large candy cane sellotaped to him as a crozier and some gold chocolate coins. These all represent the Saint himself and his works and have been bought and stored away.

Gifts for family and friends that are visiting but who live in Blighty.

These gifts have been bought, wrapped and gone home with them.

Christmas Cake made

Whilst our house guests were here we made our family Christmas cake recipe which includes chocolate and port. In fact we made two, one for them to take home. The whole house smelled of cinnamon. It was delicious.

I’m kind of feeling that the ‘early’ part of this title feels a bit redundant now. How are your festive preparations going?

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 12 weeks to go

We’re still at the stage of Christmas preparation were I am sure many people seeing this post are wondering why on Earth am I faffing around with this now. Yet with both my daughters birthdays in the next six weeks, along with house decorating on top of Christmas preparations I feel I need to keep adding to my list of things I’ve done.

To show how necessary it is for me, personally, to start well in advance I suddenly realised that there were a lot of names I’d missed off from the christmas cards I’d already written. I hadn’t written out either my friends or my husbands. They’re now done. I’m feeling strangely superior in spite of my constant failure to send cards over many years.

I’ve also chosen and sent a gift to my mother in law in the U.K. She’s a big Royalist and historian so the release of Earthshot as well Catherine’s Hold Still project prompted me to think that these would be good gifts for her.

My daughters and I have finished the bracelets they’re going to gift to their grandmothers and aunts. I like to get them to do something themselves to give relatives.

As there are two of them I don’t want them to make two bracelets per person, so I’ve done a little research on simple necklaces they could also make, and I’ll share these with you next week (when they’re done, hopefully).

I’ve wrapped the rare book bought my mother and added finishing touches to their parcels….

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I’ve also bought and wrapped my youngest daughter’s birthday gifts. This has to be part of my Christmas prep.

The final thing I’ve done this week is decorate the bottles of sparkling wine I bought at the wine fair.

Are you starting early? What are your tips to get ready for Christmas?