Marry Christmas everyone! I just finished a project and I wanted to share:
My new baby girl is going to need a place to sleep when she gets here so I built a crib for her. She’s not due until February but my wife said she wanted it to be done by Christmas so I’ve been burning the midnight oil to make it happen. Looks like I made it just in the nick of time.
I built it so that it will be convertible to a little toddler day bed and then to a twin size bed. I used my other daughter’s crib as a guide to make sure it came out the right size and shape and then added a few decorative curves and contours of my own to make it unique.
The wood is curly maple. I read a lot about finishing curly maple and practiced on a lot of scraps, and this is the finishing schedule I came up with:
- Sand to 150
- Dye with a dark heavy coat of Transtint dark mission brown
- Sand to 150 again
- Dye with a lighter coat of dark mission brown
- Lightly sand with 320
- Coat with 4 coats of Waterlox original
I’m pretty happy with the way the finish turned out. The pictures don’t really do it justice. It’s a little glossy for bedroom furniture though. There’s still a little time before the baby gets here so I’m considering coating it with a couple of coats Waterlox satin finish but I haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m not sure how it will affect the chatoyance.
For my next project I’m going to build a curly maple dresser to match. I’m going to take my time on it though. I enjoy woodworking a lot more when I’m not rushing to meet a deadline.
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