Arts-and-Crafts, and Cams and Cambolts

The projects your blog hostess has been working on lately have actually been more in lending a hand to my buddy Scoobie than anything pressing of my own. Her place is under full-on decorating attack. It started with updating the kitchen I showed you a week or so ago, and now it's been adding some arts-and-crafts style furniture.

This is where that extra hand has come in: unwieldy pieces of lovely wooden assemble-it-yourself furniture which assumes you not only have that hand to spare, but an extra couple of feet, a six-foot stature and possibly a mechanically inclined hunk at your disposal.
At the moment, there's just me.

(Disappointing, all around, I know. :) )

But so far, we're managing. Once you put together one flat-pack assemble-it-yourself piece, you begin to figure out how those tech writers think when they come up with the instructions...

You start to get inside their heads....

You begin to take for granted all the things that are not implicitly stated as steps toward finished furniture. Like just because they SAY to do a certain thing, doesn't mean they really, really, really mean to do it right then. Or just because they don't say to do it, doesn't mean it doesn't need to be done.

Their heads are a scary place to live sometimes. I know, I used to be a tech writer myself.
Anyway, you can see Scoobie's completed sideboard here. She's still arranging the decorative goodies on it, but this is an early draft sample of what it might look like.
Note, those peach curtains are on their way OUT. While nice, and while matching the wallpaper circa 1990, they were left for her from the previous owners. Scoobie plans to remove the wallpaper and paint the walls a nice lights arts-and-crafts green, to tie in her red-and-green William Morris rug.

Here is a display cabinet she assembled all by herself, no hand or hunk-to-spare involved.
And this is the barrister bookcase we assembled last weekend. It took a few hours, and then we both took some Advil. But it looks pretty sharp!
I'll be excited to see how her office will take shape. And when it does, with Scoobie's kind permission, I'll share it with you all, too.

So everybody sing: "Cam bolt's connected to the... locked cam! The locked cam's inserted into... Side B! Side B's connected to the... Top A! Top A's connected to the... Wood peg...."

How To Get (and Stay) Motivated for Crafts and Do-It-Yourself Projects

Think you can't paint? Never tried a particular craft before and need that kick to get you going? Want to try a new project but feel a little bit daunted?

Don't worry- we all feel like that sometimes. So I thought today, I'd share some tips I use to get motivated to dip into the arts, crafts and home improvement projects I haven't tried before.

• Set reasonable goals for yourself. So, for instance, if you want to decorate a piece of furniture and you're not sure of your painting skill, choose a design that suits your skill-- and don't expect to replicate the Sistene Chapel on your TV armoire. :) Consider tools like stencils, transfers, decoupage, or simply scaled-back artwork. This takes the pressure off while setting more reasonable expectations.

• If working on a project in stages, take photos during the stages not only so you can see how far you've come, but so you can go back to where you were before if there were any Oopses along the way. I did that with my TV armoire, taking photos of my first attempt at decorative painting, and it gave me added confidence.
  

• Know that there are going to be times during almost any project that you're going to wonder whether you're doing the right thing-- and that's okay! Even fine woodworkers and great designers get confronted with problems during projects that test their problem-solving abilities. Don't be afraid to stop and take time to regroup. Take as much time as you need to think it through again.
  

• Remember that even if something should go awry, this is all a part of a learning process. So while the end-product might not be just what you wanted right away, you can fix it, and you will also have gained the knowledge to do things differently in the future. That's invaluable!
  

• Sketch your design out in advance, or do a few practice pieces to see how your technique will work out before attempting your work in its permanent spot. This gives you a chance to see how your materials will handle in a safe setting.

• If working in paints, acrylics wash up with water and make it a lot easier to cover up any mistakes.
  

• Remember that you'll never know whether you can do it, if you never try. You might just be surprised what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it. But you have to take that first step and start!

• Patience! (This is the hard part for me.) Realize it doesn't have to be perfect the first time. The success is in the learning, not necessarily in the finished product. Choose to take a short break from it, rather than give up.

Here's wishing you joy and success in whatever projects you tackle!