Kitchen table makeover

Our kitchen table and chairs were a few of the pieces of furniture that we brought with us when we moved from Arkansas back to Sweden. Though I really liked the look of the table it was an odd size. It was square and quite large for 4 people, but really too small to fit 2 on each side. Any time we had company, it was a squeeze. I had been on a look out for a used table that would better fit our needs. Since we weren't planning to keep our current table, I wasn't motivated to refinish it, even though it was getting really scratched up.

When I finally found the table I wanted it was from the same series from IKEA as our current table. With the same finish, but rectangular and expandable.

The table top had some minor wear, but it also had some (super-)glue stains that weren't coming off, so I decided to sand it down and refinish it.

I bought a sander and spent forever on getting it sanded down to bare wood.

Then i stained it with a black stain from IKEA called Behandla.

Then I finished it 3 times with water based Polyurethane.

The middle board (only used when expanded) turned out slightly lighter for some reason, but I don't mind. I had stained it in the basement and the rest of the table in our kitchen. 

I finished it just in time for some family visiting and now we can fit 8 people, no problem!

String art World map

As I was looking for a gift for my brother's PhD graduation I came across an awesome piece of String art World map on Etsy. I wanted the gift to be personal and commemorate his years as a PhD student, as well as something that would take him in to the future of his career. I realized that I could add nails to the many places he had been presenting at conferences, teaching and visiting for his research. This was perfect!

String Art World Map - by HOAGARD

Since I love crafts projects, I got more and more excited about making a string art world map myself. I had never made any string art before, but how hard could it be? I had 3 weeks. I asked my brother for a list of cities he had visited for his PhD and realized it included North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. I went and got all the supplies and started looking for a globe to print out and use as a template. I found a really cool site (Rotate the World) where you can rotate the world any which way. All I had to do was to find the angle that showed North America, Europe, Asia and Australia at the same time. Say what? Not possible! But that string art I had found on Etsy had them all... hmmm... obviously it was not very realistic. Change of plans; though I loved the square format with the globe, I would have to settle for a rectangular projection of the world map. Another trip to the store got me the correct piece of wood (50 cm x 80 cm) and I found a great simplified world map to divide up and print out onto 6 pieces of A4 paper.

I painted the wood grey and got to work on nailing and stringing.

When I ran out of nails about halfway through, I went back to the store for more. They only had one more box of 330 nails, so I was hoping that I wouldn't run out. There was 2 nails left when I finished!

The final result:

String Art World Map - made by Me

I added brass nails to the 11 cities that my brother had been to as well as one to Luleå, Sweden where he was getting his PhD at the Luleå University of Technology. The brass nails are very subtle and can not be seen from a distance, but up close they show up nicely.

After finishing the string art, I had to package it securely for it to survive being checked in on my flight up north.

I was relieved to see it had survived. My brother did great presenting and defending his dissertation and at the graduation dinner I gave him the art piece after quoting Dr. Seuss's All the places you'll go!.

He was amazed and really grateful and I also got quite a few questions about it from the other guests.

As a final touch I gave him extra brass nails to add to places he visits in the future in a special little box ☺

All in all the project execution went smoothly, but I did learn a few things along the way. Maybe I will share some lessons learned in a later post.

Reviving the blog

I realize it's been over 8 years since my last post. Much has happened since then, including a move to a different continent and birth of my second child. During periods of these 8+ years I have been too busy or burnt out to be creative. But there also has been quite a few projects started and completed that I could share here on my blog. I will share one of my favorites in my next post.

Cheers