New Site!

Arpcollective.com is the new home for all things ARP Woodworking! It's a wonderful site that i am very proud of. This blog will unfortunately be no longer the home for my work progress and thoughts. But have no fear! At arpcollective.com there is a section title Blogcollective that will be the new place all of this. 

Please take a minute or two to visit and explore amd see all the different sides of ARP and the ARP Collective. 

Wyatt's New Room

New baby on the way equals a busy time for a new father. But I'm getting things marked off the list! One major task off the "honey-do" list was his nursery. I had very large dreams for things to build for my son. But decided to simplify my life a bit and be a little more realistic about what I should do.

In my previous post I shared the corner bookshelves I made for him. Here are a couple little artistic fun accents I made. Reclaimed wood arrows and a reclaimed wood picture frame. 

The arrows (image on the top) are made out of reclaimed cedar fencing, nice and weathered. I clear coated them to protect the look and wrapped twine around the end. The mounting clips I used let them stand off the wall just a bit. The W we found at an antique shop in Wimberley, TX. It was unfinished and pretty heavily rusted when we got it so I have it a good sanding and nice new paint job. The beautiful dream catcher was hand made by a wonderful friend of mine, the amazingly talented Savannah King. She has an Etsy shop that should definitely be checked out. Visit her online at www.etsy.com/shop/ShopThirdEye

As for the picture frame (below the arrows), I came across a bunch of discarded base molding and chair rail molding. It was all in great condition and solid oak. The glue and nails were an easy clean up. I used some of the chair rail as my frame pieces. Once together I painted it and then sanded to give it that "antique" look. It is simply hung with a picture clip attached to the back. The Bear head I unfortunately had nothing to do with. It was another amazing Etsy find. If you're looking for some great faux taxidermy Wall Charmers are the people to go see. www.etsy.com/shop/WallCharmers

It's a lot of fun working on little things like these. They definitely add a lot to Wyatt's room. Hopefully he loves them as much as I do. 

Floating shelves for a kids room.

Just installed new shelves in my son's room. Each shelf is built as one L with a front and sides.  They are made out of 1/2" birch plywood, 26" long in either direction and 4" deep. The front lip is 2" high to keep all the books from sliding off the shelves and to hide the cleat underneith. 

I created a design that doesn't use any nails or screws. Glue and biscuits are holding them together. I wanted a design that could be built out of any materials. I think they would look great in oak with a natural finish. The ones that I built for My son Wyatt were painted with a water based kid safe paint. 

Things to do with extra time on your hands...

It's been a little slow around the shop after a busy couple months. Slow time gives me time to play around with some ideas and busy times leave lots of wood scraps laying about. So, i made myself new custom case for my ipod. 

 

Music is something i consider essential while working in the shop. I usually work alone so it helps drown out the loud noises and helps keep my mind open and not too focused on o e particular thing. I also like having a soundtrack to my projects. 

For this little guy i took some 3/16" maple used for cabinet backs and some 3/8" maple strips that i couldn't bare to throw away and glued them up with the help of a few pin nails. You can't see it in this picture but before i glued the face down i lined the inside with some fabric from my rag box. I think it was one of my wife's old shirts. 

After it was dry i sanded it up snice and used some left over stain and top coat for protection. Cutting out the holes for the screen and circular bottom was the hardest part. Tried once with a jig saw and basically destroyed it. Wound up using a coping saw for a finer cut. 

And there it is. My own custom case. The top is open so i can just slip the ipod out if it needs charging. 

Mahogany Conference Tables

 I recently finished one of the most difficult projects I've done in a long time. The two images to the left is 1 of 3 mahogany conference table I built for the Stephen Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas.

They were designed to be used as separate tables or to be locked together to form one long conference table. But because of the size restrictions due to the tight corridors in the hotel, the sides had to be able to fold down for easy storage and maneuverability. Adding to that maneuverability are the adjustable and locking

casters mounted underneath. In addition, each table is equipped with two to three power outlets.

The top, as well as the base and post, is mahogany veneer on an MDF substrate, The edges of the table are solid mahogany.

The biggest challenge for me was keeping everything consistent. I found it beneficial to build each section together as I went along. All the bases were built together, all the top sections were built together, etc. But When it came time to put them together I had to focus on one table and use it as the guinea pig (so to speak) then assemble the remaining to, solving any problems that had arisen along the way. To add an extra element of difficulty to the final assembly, all the pieces had to be stained and finished.

I am very happy with how they turned out. The hardest part about building a piece I care so much about is sending it out of the shop to it's new home. Hopefully the Stephen Austin Hotel finds as much joy with them as I did in making them.

The Big Turquoise Reception Desk.

For the past week i've been working on a reception desk for a store in Houston. Today I put the final touches on it. The whole piece is three sided, like a large U. Here are two of the pieces. It's painted high-gloss turquoise with an inlayed glass top (not seen here unfortunately), which is painted white.

To make sure the high gloss was consistent on the whole surface it had to be mostly finished before the units were assembled. This made for an interesting build today. I think it turned out pretty nice.

Dining Room Table

Here is a first for me. This is the very first dining room table I have ever built. I was a little nervous about taking on this project but am so glad I did it. It was a lot of fun and and super challenging. I learned a lot building it.

The whole thing is built out of pine. The top is strips glued together, planed and sealed. I notched the legs together and joined them with the center beam. I used a wood dowel to hold the whole thing together. You can see a detail of that below.

When my wife and I started talking about this project we had several different design ideas. We both really wanted to have the top be the strips of wood but the legs were hard to agree on. I liked the look of older farm house style table legs, more rustic, and she preferred a more modern look. I feel like i found a nice medium of the two aesthetics. I enhanced it by staining the legs different from the top.

One thing we both really wanted with our new table was a bench for seating. I am a big fan of the bench seating at tables. I tried to emulate the table style with the bench but wanted it to be different enough to be an accent not a match. You can push the bench all the way under the table. The legs of the bench go right over the legs of the table.

I'm really pleased with the how this piece turned out. I look forward to building another one soon. Any one in the market for a new dining room table?

The Candice End Table

     I made this piece for my wife. Once again, bulk trash day has been a gold mine for me this year. When I found this was literally in pieces. It had a laminate over the whole thing that was almost entirely peeled off. 

The first thing I did was remove the gross laminate and give it a good cleaning. Removing the old dry laminate glue was an adventure. A few coats of paint later and now my wife has a brand new end table in her favorite colors. 


I have gotten a lot of good feedback from this little piece. I am going to start to design my own version of this end table. I love the idea of multiple levels. Fixing this up was fun and has given me a lot of new ideas for future projects. 

Dresser to Record Shelf

My Wife has been asking me to build a new shelf for our records and record player for a while now. I figured moving into our new home was as good a time as any to build some new furniture. I wanted to make something that emulated 70's style furniture. I played around with a few designs but nothing really struck me. One day while I was walking my dogs I passed a house with several old pieces of furniture on the curb. I saw this dresser with six beat up drawers. It was old, dirty, dilapidated and 70's as hell.  I loaded it in my truck and brought it home and started working on it that day.

The first thing I had to do was get rid of the drawers. After I took them out as well as removing the back panel I was able to give it a thorough cleaning. I'm not sure how long it lived on the side walk but it dirt and bugs made me thing it had been there for quite a long time.

After cleaning I installed a shelf on the top and one of bottom out of some scraps of plywood I had lying around. For a nicer look I used a couple pieces of oak as fascia for the upper shelf. Once the shelves were installed I started sanding. This was the longest step in the whole process.

The top of the dresser was white laminate. I was initially going to remove it and make a new wood top but I had an idea to stain the whole piece a very dark color and leave the top bright white. I think it turned out great. I stained and polyed the wood and bleached the hell out of the top.


There you have it, a brand new 70's style record shelf. I used the two upper cubbies for my stereo and cd player and the lower shelf for our records.
The whole project took about a week and I am very happy with the way it turned out. Bulk trash week has been a bit of a gold mine for me this year.

Entertainment Center

In a previous post I shared some pictures of a piece of furniture in progress. Well, here is the finished piece!

this entertainment center is made from found and salvaged wood. The only things purchased where the drawer slides (new) and the drawer pull which I found at City Wide Garage sale here in Austin.

I decided to give it an aged white-wash look. The shelves and the two front panels at the bottom where previously stained. I liked contrast of the light white-washed wood with the dark stain so I decided to keep them how they were.

This was a fun piece to build. It was definitely a challenge finding enough materials to complete it. For a little while I thought I may have to purchase some wood but came across some bits and pieces that some friends were getting rid of.

The idea for this came out of how much I disliked my old entertainment center. It was very short, did not have a lot of storage space and was just a cheap pre-made bit of garbage we purchased at an enormous chain that will remain nameless. The lower drawer is not very deep or shallow but is very wide. It is perfect for video and dvd storage.

Reclaimed Oak Stool

I recently did the finishing touches on a stool/ end table I have been working on. The top of it was made a while ago but I was having trouble making a choice about the direction this piece would go. Initially I was planning on making an end table with a lower shelf. Then I found the legs you see in the pictures and my idea changed to maybe turning it into a stool. So here it is, the stool of indecision.

The top is layered oak panels that I reclaimed from a pallet. The pieces of purple heart I used as the inlay was a gift from my friends at Wishbone Woodworking in New York. The legs came off a chair I saved from the garbage collectors. It definitely took quite a lot of sanding and glue to bring them back to life. But I think they make a really nice addition to the whole piece.

The final step to this stool were the five coats of tongue oil, sanding in between each with some 320 grit.

Entertainment Center... In Progress.

This new project has been a lot of fun for me. I am building an entertainment center for my wife and myself. I decided to make it a bit more challenging by only using found or reclaimed wood.

The top and sides are made out of pallet wood. I spent a lot of time pulling nails for this one but I love the look of the old weathered wood so much. The first image shows the process of gluing the pieces together. I notched each piece to make it a bit sturdy.

Our current TV stand is very low and doesn't have a lot of storage space, which is always something I seem to never have enough of. So when I started designing this piece I wanted to double it. There will be four shelves on the top of the piece and one large drawer on the bottom. The front panel that will be the 4 shelves was a piece from an old desk I found on the street. It was mostly dismantled so i had a pretty easy time taking the pieces I wanted to save and leaving the rest. Honestly, when I found that front panel I started designing the rest of the unit around it. It was originally about 2' longer then it is now.

the final picture shows the entertainment center with the bottom fascia pieces. That is where the lower drawer will be. I think the drawer slides may be the only new piece of material I will have to buy. But I would prefer they be new and sturdy then old and rusty.

I am thinking about going to a few antique stores and thrift shops to try to find my drawer handles. I am trying to keep the look of the mismatched materials without making it overly cluttered looking.

This has been a fun project.

New ARP Woodworking Logo

My new logo is done! My good friend Sal has done a really great job. Make sure to check out his work on his site, www.salvationdesign.com/v3/. He is a really great designer and artist.

It's Logo Time!

It's about that time that ARP Woodworking got a little bit professional. My good buddy, Sal Dell'Aquila is, as I type this, working on a new logo for ARP Woodworking. I am very excited, he is a talented artist and designer.

Check out his work at the link bellow.

http://www.salvationdesign.com/v3/

New portfolio site.

I have decided to make a separation between the two current lives of the ARP Collective. Since this is, obviously, the ARP Woodworking blog I have decided to take my wood stuffs off my portfolio site and give it it's own place to live.

arpwoodworking.carbonmade.com

I now have the ability to share more of my wood work with the world.

To either put your drink on or sit upon...

I have been working on this piece a bit. It is a work in progress at the moment but considering I am having second thoughts on the direction it should go, I thought I would document it's progression.

Oak slats with purple heart inlayed into the top. I have the legs off an old chair that I am going to fix up for the legs of this. I want to stain the legs dark and keep a more natural look for the top.

I had initially meant to build it as a stool but I am starting to feel like turning it into an end table might be a little more fun. With the possibility of a shelf or drawer! But I haven't made up my mind yet. what you see in the picture is where I have stopped.

We will see...

Speaker Boxes

I built these speaker stands for a friend. He wanted something to raise his stereo speakers off the ground, simple. I used all found and reclaimed material for this project. The front, top and sides are all different. I even used the leftover wood sealer from another job.

They are about 12" wide and deep and about 24" tall.

Air Stream Office

 My first post (technically 2nd) and my first official job as ARP Woodworking.

An air stream trailer converted into an office space for Taurus Irrigation. All the furniture follows the curves of the trailer. Not an easy task but very fun and it turned out really nice. I stained all the pieces and installed a new floor.

The above set of pictures is the space pre stain and drawers. The pictures below are of the finished pieces. Hope to do another project like this soon.

New Blog!

ARP Woodworking has officially started a new blog space! I will be using this to share all the new things I make!

Enjoy!