Salutary Sunday

At the beginning of the year {a whole WEEK ago} I made a list of goals, and one of them was to make at least one thing a week, and progressively make more and more things each week as time goes on. I'm going to post what I'm making/made every Sunday.

I think Sunday is a good day to do it because I have the whole day to myself. Vince has Friday/Saturday off, and I have Saturday/Sunday off, which is great because we each get one day to ourselves, yet we also have a day to share. If I don't happen to make anything during the week, I'll be able to work on Sunday by myself {with the music cranked up!} and not be interrupted.

Now what does salutary mean? Well, according to Google, it means: 'good: tending to promote physical well-being; beneficial to health;' I think it's a perfect word to describe what I'm doing.

{And it reminds me of Charlotte's Web...salutations!}

I'm creating things because I FEEL GOOD when I do it. I love creating, I love designing, and I love giving away things I make.

♥ ♥ ♥

This week I made a freaking table. And holy hell, I'm so excited about it.

I did some research online about making your own sewing/crafting table, and I didn't come up with much. The website I did come across recommended using materials that were so expensive, I might as well have gone out and bought a brand new one! Because I'd rather buy useful things such as fabric {and food} I decided to just go to Home Depot with Vince and see what we came across.

I knew that I was going to use part of my Gorilla Rack for the bottom, so I just needed wood for the table top. I wanted a solid particleboard, and then a softer board to put on top of that because I want to be able to put pins in it. After looking at a LOT of particle board {like 20 different kinds} I decided on a cheap one that was $14. Some of them were $45 for a 4x8 foot sheet of wood! I was shocked it was so expensive.

We walked around some more and came across a sheet of wood called 'soundboard'. It reminds me of cork board {which is what that site recommended} but it's thicker and seems more solid. As in, it won't fall apart like cork when you poke too many tacks into it. That was only $8, so I got a sheet.

We had the lady at Home Depot cut the sheets so they were 4x6 ft. That may seem pretty big, but I wanted a big table that I would be able to leave my sewing machine on, and also be big enough that I could cut and iron fabric.

I had a sheet that I got for $4 and I love the print, so I decided to use that for the top of the table. I layed the sheet on the floor and made sure it was smooth, then put the soundboard on top of it. I did little dollops of wood glue around the soundboard and then the particle board on top of it. I walked on top of the particle board to be sure the glue got spread around and the 2 pieces would stick together.

I then made sure the edges of the wood lined up with the lines on the sheet, then folded the edges and staple gunned the sheet to the wood. I did that around all the edges until the sheet was very tight across the wood. Because the sheet was lined, I had to keep checking to make sure it was looking ok!

Now I just had to put the top on the Gorilla Rack. I bought the rack from Sam's Club, and you can have the rack be tall {7 ft.} or you can have it be in 2 different parts, 3 ft. and 4 ft. I have the 4 ft. one in my kitchen and use it as a food storage rack, so I used the 3 ft. one for the table. I was really excited to have a tall table to work on because I would get such bad backaches from bending over a desk. Now I can sew standing up or sitting down. It will also make it easier when I'm cutting.

All I did was center the table top over the Gorilla Rack.

I was originally going to screw small L brackets into the wood and the rack, but I don't find a need to. I'm able to lean on the table and it doesn't move. It feels pretty solid to me! I do have one side up against a wall, though. If it was in the middle of a room, I would probably reinforce it.

It's nice to have the rack underneath because I can store things I don't use on a daily basis, like old clothes I'm going to modify, paper, hammer/nails, paint and books, until I get a book shelf.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with how the table turned out. I'm slowly working on the room, like adding artwork, bulletin boards, shelving, etc. There is one wall that has the fake wood paneling, and I'm going to ask my landlord if I can paint it because it's HIDEOUS. I hate that kind of thing! If so, I'm going to paint it a pea green:

There are also two windows in that room so it gets wonderful light, which will make me want to be in there even more!