I've recently been working a new media center for the living room.  The reason for this is simple...Stephanie and I decided to take our current media center and convert it into a changing table for use in the new nursery!  The little guy should be arriving near Thanksgiving time this fall.  It will be just what we needed and won't require us buying something new when we can just re-purpose it. 

I'll be posting on the changing table later, but for now I want to focus on the new media center.

I had decided I wanted somewhat of a simple design so that I could build it fairly quick and try out some new techniques for joining things, like pocket hole joinery and a biscuit joiner.  I've also been learning how to use Google's Sketchup drawing software, so I decided it was a good time to use it exclusively on this project.  In past projects I've always hand drawn my design, not necessarily to scale and then starting the construction on the project and "eye-balling" dimensions to get the right look I wanted.  Well this always causes a lot of headaches and the projects took twice as long as I would like.  The answer is Sketchup!  Take a look at what I've created for the media center.

Before I get too far ahead here, I can't take complete credit for the design, because it originates at Pottery Barn and has been reconstructed at Ana White's - Knock Off Wood blog.  I like the look of Pottery Barn and Ana does a great job of recreating them.  I am not using her exact design because I had some leftover lumber I wanted to use, so I worked up my own model.

So after much tinkering, I created three views of the media center and printed them so that I could have them in the shop while I went about cutting out each piece.  I like to stick them on my dry erase board so I they in clear sight and this allows me to make notes as I go.

I have already started construction and can really appreciate the time spent on the design and cut list I created.  I'll post soon on the progress soon as well as give some thoughts on using a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig.

I've been hard at work in my garage adding some new shelving and expanding my workbench.  I've completed the much needed shelving project at the back end of the garage to handle all the wood I have been collecting.  I also wanted to add a permanent place for my miter saw, so I incorporated a place for that as well.  I've still got some organization of miscellaneous materials, but this picture should give you a good idea of what I've done.

I also decided it was time for some more work surface area where I keep my main workbench.  I came across a great article at www.finewoodworking.com and it fit my needs perfectly.  My funds are limited at the moment, so I am using some 2x12's for the work surface, but I hope to replace those with a solid core door to provide a much more flat work surface.  I also intend to build some more tool storage cabinets with wheels.  These will provide needed storage and double as infeed and outfeed tables for my table saw or planer.

My creative juices have been flowing and my taste buds are swelling in anticipation of eating a meal on a dinning room new table.  Stephanie and I have been in serious need of a normal table to eat at ever since we got married.  Our current table only seats two and it’s a bar height table, which really isn’t all that comfortable.

Once I finalize the design I’ll get started on preparing the wood for the table top.  I’m really excited about the wood I’ll be using because it’s about 100yrs old.  My grandfather salvaged the old counter tops from his father-in-laws general store and put them in storage long go, then my father had them in hope that he would build a table with them some day and now he has passed them on to me.

I’ll be posting some finalized plans soon along with my progress on getting the boards ready for gluing up.  Stay tuned…