Giuseppi & I (Part 3)

Giuseppi and I Part 3 brings us to another favorite piece.  One of which will be handed down through generations.  I figure 100 + year old barn wood should last another 100 years.  Anyway, I have a small wrought iron wine rack that holds 6 bottles of wine.  This, however, is not enough wine storage for me.  The object was to use an old barn wood fence, the larger planks of this barn wood stash, and an old window to make something I could store wine in.  As usual, Giuseppi had no fear.  We got to work.

Making the frame was easy, after we penciled out the measurements.  I had visions of slanted shelves that would hold the wine bottle "bottoms up" as they should be stored, but Giuseppi had a better idea.  He drilled holes in the shelf so that only the bottle necks would slide in and the bottle would be completely upside down thus saving the cork and eliminating the sediment.  Perfect.

It was at this resting point we remembered something very important.  It was our daughter's (Giuseppi's Mother) birthday!  Since she is a big fan of the primitive antiques style we decided to take a quick break and whip her up a barn wood shelf.  I grabbed a couple of pieces of barn wood, a star we had picked out for something because we knew we would have some use for it, showed him what I thought would be cute and no kidding, Giuseppi had this done in less than 30 minutes.  

Now back to the main project of Part 3.  The window would be the key focal point so we didn't want to mess this up.  It was heavier than we anticipated so we had to put our noggins together to come up with a hinging method and the tedious task of latching it.  We set out to the local hardware store and found some hardware, go figure... no pun intended, that matched the rustic motif.  Giuseppi had the measurements perfect and the window fit like a glove.  Once hinged and latched we thought it was complete.  Until, we opened the window and we realized it would either fall to the floor or tip the entire cabinet over if we let go.  Immediately, he thought rope.  I agreed since it would match the rest of the barn wood creations however, when in the closed position, the rope did not cooperate.  Each time we closed the window, the rope would either stick out the side or kink up in front of the window blocking the view of the "pretties" I would have inside on the shelves.  Plan B was a hook and chain.  Bingo.  The chain was heavy enough to fall down inside the window when closed.  My Giuseppi is one smart biscotto!

I knew this piece was going in the dining room and I had the perfect spot picked out for it.  Stepping inside to show Giuseppi where it was going to go, and measuring one more time just to be sure, I realized it might be a little too short.  My vision of my wine collection was much taller on the chosen wall.  We definitely would have to "lift it up".  We wanted an extra row of cubbies along the bottom, but barn wood was in short supply and we still have a few more smaller ideas we wanted to complete.  The summer and our time together was coming to an end.  Giuseppi must go to school.  I made a quick trip to my favorite "Rags to Vintage" and picked up a small table.  While thoughts of just attaching our barn wood creation to the table were good thoughts, just still not the look I was going for.  Our solution was to just use the legs of the small table.  It worked great!  We have now achieved the perfect height.   It looks awesome!

  

Incidentally, the small table served another purpose.  It now rests atop a box, which is actually an old drawer, that holds toys!  A perfectly disguised toy box!  

Waste not, want not.

Giuseppi has since gone back to school and over winter break he went skiing.  I'm hoping spring break might bring him back to finish up with the smaller pieces and a Part 4 for Giuseppi and I.

Giuseppi and I (Part 2)

Giuseppi and I had to use our creativity for the project in this Part 2.   We built a really unique shadow box shelving unit out of the smaller, shorter pieces of barn wood.  I have an old bottle collection and thought a barn wood creation would be the perfect way to showcase these bottles and get them out of the way.  Did I mention how little you have to dust barn wood?  Oh yeah!  It’s another big plus.

So, I brought out all the old bottles, which incidentally were mostly treasures scavenged out of the creeks running through our property and surrounding fields.  Some of which Giuseppi himself discovered in his younger years.  All of the grandkids enjoy a good scavenger hunt with Papa and Grandmama.  We furnished an entire rock bed for the flower garden just by scouring the fields in search of perfect sized rocks and then toting them back in the golf cart.  So, I have these bottles.  Giuseppi and I were trying to measure a symmetrical shelf with exact spacing enough for the bottles.  I was out of my league but Giuseppi worked magic with his tape measure and pencil.  Meanwhile, I kept finding more bottles.  I’m sure I was driving him crazy, but he never let it show.  Not to me anyway.  Then we decided it did not have to be symmetrical, it just had to look good with the bottles.  So we laid it out, cut the wood pieces to fit all the different bottle sizes and had fun completing the jigsaw puzzle.  The only two pieces that had to be the same size were the outer “frame” pieces.  We were really cooking with gas now.  

After arranging, and rearranging we were ready to assemble.  It was about that time I began wondering how we were going to hang this creation.  Giuseppi had a great suggestion of drilling a hole and stringing rope through each of the end “frame” pieces and hanging it by the rope.  I loved the idea, because I too like rope with barn wood, however, I was afraid the different size and weights of the bottles would make it hang uneven and crooked and I would be forever straightening it.  That’s the kind of anal-retentive personality I have.  The idea of a rod or dowel through the top of the “frame” pieces was perfect!  This would be strong enough to hold it straight and also be easy enough to hang on hooks to hold it out away from the wall.  We made a quick trip to the hobby store to buy a pole and stylish hooks for hanging.  Giuseppi skillfully drilled the holes and got it right on the first try.  It fit snug as a bug in a rug.  Ready to hang…

 Then Giuseppi was adamant about using rope and I agreed.  He had a piece of wood for a shelf that fit perfectly across the bottom but there wasn’t enough room to put anything on it.  He quickly went to work drilling holes in the “frame pieces” and the new shelf.  He then tied ropes to the shelf and the “frame” pieces which lowered it and created a “hanging shelf”.  He burned the ends of the rope to prevent unraveling.  Yippee!  Room enough for a few more knick-knacks!

This barn wood creation was complete.  We didn’t have to find it a home; I already had that picked out.  All that was left was to find the studs, because it is quite heavy, and hang it to display my unique collection.  It looks great!  Yep, we had just as much fun decorating as we did creating and building it, Giuseppi and I.

 

If you like old windows, you’re going to love Part 3 of Giuseppi and I.