His and Her Desks

Our home is not a very large home, about 1,500 square feet, an old modular home with 7 foot ceilings.  It may be on the smaller size but we love it.

Because it is small we don't have a lot of space beyond the things we absolutely need, so space for a study for me and craft room/study for my wife would be luxuries as is the case for most families I imagine.

We found some areas that would work for study areas but would need smaller desks to fit the spaces.

Hers:

I made Cristina's out of an old sowing machine base, which are easy to find at antique stores for around $20,  and part of a trashed entertainment center.
I removed most of the sewing machine parts just leaving the sides and the back.
The top is the side of the entertainment center stripped, sanded multiple times, and then clear poly'd five times to give it a smooth hard finish.  It is oak.    

His:

Mine is one I designed and made from old lumber; oak, cedar, fir and pine.  Simple construction on top and bottom then several coats of poly.

Being glued up and waiting finish sanding:

Finished with poly drying:

Now we both have our little areas that we use for morning devotions and such.

Wood and Steel Stair Railing

A while back we added a sunroom onto our home and it is a room we love.  It has windows seats on two of the walls which make for extra seating when having a lot of guests over.  Under the seats there is plenty of storage.  There is a woodstove that heats the house very very well when we choose to do so and a nice old leather recliner in the corner adjacent to the woodstove.  There are plenty of windows to enjoy the nice view and watch the birds eat from one of the many bird feeders.


One thing that I really like is that in order to go into the room there are three steps down into the room, about 6 feet wide, which makes it feel like a private room even though it is wide open to the dining room.  The only problem with the steps is that for older people and little people (our kids) it is a bit hard to walk down.  So I needed to make a railing.


I wanted to make it out of wood and steel, this much I knew, as for the rest it was created as I made it.  I did want to use 100% old material as well.


This is the finished project:

To make it I first had to figure out the angles and to do this i made a simple rail out of wood and screwed it together so that my angles would be right.  Then I welded an angle template that I used as I cut and welded the metal. 

I used 1x2 steel for the uprights, 1x1 steel for angle brackets holding the wood rail and for the two parts parallel with the stairs, and 2" flat steel for the middle rail.  

There is a middle rail for the 'little' people and the wood rail is for the 'big' people.  The metal rail is two flat pieces I welded end to end to make it long enough and then heated and bent the end.  

The cross sections in the middle are some old tire irons that were going to be scrapped, they ended up working great.  

The wood is an old piece of oak I cut, sanded, routed edges, and then oiled.

I bolted it down and it is very solid and not going anywhere.  

another view: