Cutting Through The Cold

Last December, Ariel Lautman, a full-time mom in the DC area, resolved to stop buying prefab furniture for her family and instead, build some herself.Ariel planned to start small with bookshelves for her one-year-old’s bedroom before working up to bigger projects for her home’s common areas.

February Update:

So far my first project has been going about as planned, though a bit slower than I had expected. I’ve been making display bookshelves for my son Ezra’s room. He’s a little over one, and pulls all of the books off of his traditional bookshelf when he’s looking for a particular story. My hope is that once these shelves are up in his room he will be better able to find the particular book he wants us to read.

We’ve had a particularly cold winter this year, which makes it hard to go out and do my work on the patio. I learned about not leaving my drill bits outside in below freezing weather (it will snap the wood when it gets warm from drilling) and to make sure that the holes I’m drilling are far enough away from the edges of the wood so I don’t split it.

All told, the actual work time has been less than I had expected. I still need to finish sanding and sealing the shelves, and obviously we’ll then need to put them up in Ezra’s room. With the end of the bookshelf project in sight, I’m starting to think about my next project, and how ambitious I want to get.

Slideshow: Work in Progress