My very own island, minus the water

Surprised to see me back so soon? I wish I could say that my 6 week posting hiatus was because I was sitting on a beach somewhere, sipping beverages, and working on my tan. The reality is that I was in the midst of project and home decor madness. With the first year down, I'm happy to say that I am now moving into Phase 2. So you remember that last project that I said took a lot longer to perfect than I had planned? Well, you're about to see why. Let's rewind 6 weeks ago to the wonderful place known as my closet. I needed a place to hold some of my accessories, so I decided to build myself an island...minus the water.

I was going for a pretty substantial sized piece. My original idea and measurements were loosely based off of the Expedit bookshelf from Ikea. I wanted to be able to use their fabric bins for storage. I went with 36"w x 36"h x 16"d. With my drawing and list in hand, off to Home Depot I went. Much to my disappointment though when I realized that they don't sell 16" wide wood. The only thing that came close to that was MDF. Now there is nothing wrong with MDF and I have built plenty of things using it before. It is however not my first choice. MDF is extremely heavy,difficult to get perfectly finished edges, and it's not the best material for screws so you're pretty much stuck using glue. It was all they had, so I had to just make the best of it. I picked up what I needed and took advantage of the non-line at the cutting area. The nice man was happy to cut all of my wood for me. 

Once the whole piece was put together I knew it would be too heavy, and I would never get it up the stairs without serious injury and damage to my good wood floors. I decided it was best to assemble it upstairs. However, to cut down on the mess I painted the pieces downstairs in the garage first. I went with the color white to keep it cohesive with the rest of the shelving in the room. I gave each piece 2 coats of white paint, and hauled them all upstairs. It was quite the Saturday morning work out

Now it was time to start putting this thing together. Like I mentioned before it's best to use glue with MDF, therefore adjusting once it's dry is not an option. I took my time and did it one piece at a time.One of the hardest things actually is making sure all of your pieces sit at a 90 degree angle. You don't want furniture that's slanted and rocking a gangster lean. The best way I've found is to add glue to the piece and set it down. Then use my L ruler to make sure it sits at 90 degrees while it dries. Seems easy enough, but it definitely requires some innovation at times.

Between gluing, drying, and waiting between pieces the whole process took about a full day to finish.

Now you probably can't tell from this picture, but my carefully planned measured pieces did not all come together perfectly. I ended up having to use some scrap wood and wood filler to even out all of the gaps and edges. After the main piece I added the next layer. I wanted to incorporate a place to add a couple of trays for some smaller things, so I added 1x4 pieces to the top. At this point I was just going to paint what was left, but then somewhere on the way home from work one day I got the sudden urge to get fancy and use trim around some of the edges instead. That meant another trip to Home Depot to pick up supplies. I used wood glue and then painters tape to hold it in place while drying. 









Once the added trim was set, I brought a drop cloth upstairs and finished the rest of the painting. This is actually the hardest and most time consuming part. Trying to get perfectly smooth edges is never a fun process, especially when it comes to MDF. It absorbs paint like a sponge, and roughs back up as it dries. It was a lot of layers of thick application, light sanding, and then repeat. The final product was all worth it though.














Now here's where it gets interesting. It was time to create the top. Originally I was going to use a 2'x4' piece of plywood. Mostly because wood comes already precut in that size, and not having to cut the wood is always a plus. However, I found a spare piece from my stash in the garage. Not as big as I had originally planned, but would still work...and it was free. I grabbed the piece and painted it the same white color as the shelf.  






To decorate the top (because just leaving it white is for ordinary people) I was going to use a stencil and create a pattern. Problem#1 I could not find one that I liked or that created too much extra work. I thought about free handing a design, but I had my heart set on a stencil (don't ask me why). I did a little bit of Googling and found a few designs I liked online, then created my own stencil using card stock. To not compete with the plethora of colors already in the room, I went with gold for a nice neutral look. Problem #2  metallic paint can be a hit or miss when it comes to coverage. It depends on the formula. Sometimes it's made really nice and opaque, other times nearly translucent and you're stuck adding 10 coats. I also wasn't feeling the design either. It just wasn't doing it for me at all. I gave it a couple days thinking it would grow on me, but no such luck. 










Painting just wasn't working. It would take me forever to get the perfect look. Then I had an idea. I have recently discovered the Sharpie Paint Pens. They would give me the control of drawing, but the appearance of paint. So I picked a set up and got to work. Only problem, I still had no stencil. A few more days passed with more pondering. I really did want a stencil look but with a little more interest. So, I did a little of both. 



I reprimed and repainted the top to cover over the first botched idea. Then I created a stencil shape as my base, and traced it in a staggered pattern over the entire top. 




I didn't want them to all look the same, but did want some uniformity. I started with the center shape and free handed a design inside.



After that it was a free for all. No plan, just sketched and designed what came to me. Each day and each session adding more and more.



and more



At this point things got a little dicey. Once I decided to color in the solid gold section, the marker just wasn't giving good coverage. I was 2 seconds from going back to being discouraged. However at some point one of my pens busted. Which originally made me cuss, but it was actually a blessing in disguise. As I tried to wipe up the drips I realized it was really opaque on it's own. The leaking paint actually produced enough actual product that I could use my paint brush to fill all of the sections in. *Friggin Eureka* I kept going and going until I was done.





Finally! I thought I would never get to the end of this. I have to say I really like the way it turned out though. So now to just add the trim along the edges and I was home free. 



Once everything was complete I carried the piece upstairs and laid it on top. Volia, I was DONE! *Lots of snaps and cartwheels across the floor*





Now to put this thing to use. The plan was to add purses, and hats but for right now it's just purses. The smaller space under the top is where the trays are going to go for housing smaller items. 



View from the top. 



And with that this project is a wrap! Just to think it only took me a whole month to complete. This might be one of the longest projects to date, and not because it was difficult or hard. It was for no other reason than that I could not be satisfied with a simple top. Can you believe it?! The design took longer than the building. Go figure. I'm glad it's done though. I'll probably add a few things over time. There's plenty of unused space, so we'll see how it all pans out. Until then...it's on to the next project.