Tag Archives: furniture

The Completed Highchair

So as you may recall, I had a wooden highchair I wanted to paint. And if you are my Facebook friend, you will know that I did just that recently. I had to wait longer than I wanted to, just because it was too cold for far too long. But the week before I went to BC I, along with a friend who brought over a coffee table to paint, got a couple coats on. Tim finished it up before he joined me, and when we got back, I sprayed it with some lacquer. The paint, a semi-gloss, didn’t feel glossy enough to me and I wanted an extra barrier between the paint and spaghetti stains.

The completed result is far from perfect. There are a few scratches in the paint. It looks like somebody dragged it across the garage floor while we were gone. Very strange, but the scratches are on the bottom of the tray and therefore out of sight, out of mind. And I don’t know if you have ever used lacquer, but it was a little more difficult to get even than I was anticipating. So some places aren’t as covered as others, but I’m okay with imperfection. I can always fix it later if necessary.

And here Calvin is, enjoying it. I have to say it was super easy to see the dirty areas that needed wiping, and super easy to wipe down. I call it a success!

Now I just wish I could paint the kitchen walls I dislike so much!

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My Favourite Piece of Furniture

When we were engaged, before we decided we didn’t want to spend money on large gifts for each other, Tim got me the best gift ever!

It was Christmas Eve, and we were at his parents’ house. In the evening, I followed Tim to the basement, not knowing that he did not want me to follow him. I found him in the workshop doing a little painting on a piece of furniture. When he realized I had seen it, he said “surprise! But you weren’t supposed to find out until tomorrow.” But it was still great! I had seen the piece before, in the window of a store I passed whenever I went to the grocery store. This one, in fact:

Thanks, Google Street View.

The Junction. One of Victoria’s many quality used furniture stores. One time in particular, I recall driving to the grocery store with Tim, passing the window and exclaiming how lovely the piece in the window was! So, one day while I was at work, he went and bought it. I think he had to get his parents’ van from Nanaimo to haul it away. And he also made a couple trips up there (1 3/4 hours drive each way) during an 8-hour shift of mine so he could do a little work on it and not have me know. What a great surprise it was!

So we brought it back down to Victoria, and squeezed it into my tiny suite where it served as a TV stand.

This was right before we moved and had a baby. That was the only place we could collect baby things and moving boxes.

In our next place in Victoria, it was still a TV stand, but a little more visible.

Now, in Edmonton, it is the perfect entry way catch-all.

It holds my bag, keys, hats, scarves, gloves, baby shoes, and pretty board games. Inside is where we keep movies and not so pretty board games.

I love it a lot, and it the most useful piece of furniture ever! Now I just need to decide what to do with it now that it is spring. I don’t want to keep all the winter gear out on the shelves (because I want to forget this season exists), but I don’t know what kinds of things I can replace them with. Whatever it is has to be baby friendly of course, since this is one of Calvin’s favourite places to come play when I let him roam free. Any ideas?

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Calvin’s Spot

Calvin has been sitting for a while now, and it’s nice to be able to plop him into a high chair at restaurants and not worry about holding him and a fork and knife at the same time. Until now we haven’t had one at home, which wasn’t a problem until recently when he started eating. Sitting on the floor ain’t cuttin’ it. It’s hard to get a good spoon-to-mouth angle.

I’ve been looking around for a while for high chairs, but I am too picky. I don’t like those plush ones. I have enough laundry to do, never mind adding a high chair cover to it. Also, why would it need to recline? And as simple and easy to wipe down the IKEA ones are, they just aren’t my style. I’ve always liked the wooden one my mom has, and if she never had her grandchildren visit, I would’ve probably snuck it out of her kitchen. And then I saw this one on Kijiji! It is perfect!

All wood, small scale, and doesn’t take up a lot of floor real estate. It love it, and it suits ~~Calvin~~ me so well, don’t you think?

Calvin and his avocado mouth thinks it’s just dandy!

And now he has his own spot at the table and can enjoy looking at our faces while we eat too, instead of our calves. Also, he likes to pretend the table is a bongo. Multi-use!

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