Captains Chair

Progress was slow this week due to a busy birthday schedule which included a trip to Joes Crab Shack for a bucket O' crab and a dessert of frozen crepe bananas foster instead of Mr. Lands' "pudding" of sauté of unborn octopus. Delightful!

What I DID acomplish was to take apart that old chair which was full of hundred year old dust, horsehair for cushions and something that looked like dried lawn clippings. Made quite a mess. Fortunately I kept all the fabric to use as templates for cutting new ones and will be substituting modern day cushy foam cut to size for the packing.

It took a couple tries to strip off all the old varnish and another couple coats of stain to get it looking good again. I will give it a further couple coats of glossy polyurethane shortly. When that dries I'll cut the foam and fabric and tack it all back together into what I hope will be a serviceable computer chair.

(NOTE) Everything I have said previously about the computer desk portion of this project please disregard. While I had measured everything correctly and laid it out just so in my mind, I just didn't like the looks of the modified store bought desk next to my storage units so I decided to go for a built-in type thing based loosely on a table I spied in one of the movie stills I refer to as I go through this project. It will be stained to match the wood of the chair and shelves and should look sweet. The computer case and all the cords will be hidden as well.

I'm also excited to have ordered the round skylight to serve as my "salon" window which should look totally awesome when I'm done with it.

Stay tuned sports fans...

Davey Jones' lockers

Its still Sunday, so I made it. Barely. But look what I got done this week.

The top pieces are now mounted on both these storage units. The thing on the wall is apparently called a "cleat" in the design business. It will serve as an anchor point for the back of the storage unit tops tying them to the wall and shoring up those cool looking shelfs which I made from poplar planks and lengths of galley rail. I REALLY like how they look. The far sides of the surface tops will also sport some of that railing later in the week to kind of tie it all together.

Remember those scrolls from way back? I originally painted them a gold color but Marsha correctly labeled them too "kingly" a color for this room so I went with an aged copper treatment instead which really goes well with the mahogany stain. The posts and scrolly things across the front are removable too so I won't have to work around them when I need a lot of counter space. Just pop 'em out and go.

I'll have to figure it out exactly but I bet I will have twice the counter space in here when I'm done as we have in our kitchen and I think I will actually have an excess of storage for a while too but as I start building models again alot of that will get eaten up.

Next up I have an old school Victorian looking chair I am going to attempt to reupholster. I know...Good Luck! Hopefully it will look good AND be useful and comfortable as the computer chair but I will have an eye to a backup plan should it not work out. Beanbags.

No, not really.

Stowing for sea...Topless style

Quick update as this project is going to take another week to complete fully. I have (with Buddy-Lees's help) constructed two more storage units. Riveted them all around, painted them in a used looking two tone scheme similar to the first and added some cool looking pulls and some uh..decorative thingys. At this point the bottoms are complete but these two units will eventually also be sporting a backboard and a shelf with brackets on the top. Hence they are currently "topless". Hyuk hyuk. --Anyhow, these are mostly in parts form currently but I hope to have the whole package on display for you next post. You'll make sure to come by and take a gander at my magnificent package next Sunday won't you?

Also I have added some more tassels and another pair of curtains to the closet which really look kinda neat doncha think? And note the cool lamp I got on sale. It will be going on my map table later. Neato.

Like a dolt from the blue...

One of my many failings is a lack of methodology when I approach a task or project. I frontally attack it hoping to channel zeal into some kind of aesthetic artistic impulse. SOMETIMES it works.

Well, remember I said I was done with the painting? Not quite accurate. You see I began work on the computer desk and had a brilliant idea to make the top look like a slab of slightly corroding metal as its shape and original color were quite modern, (Black and chrome). Its the curvy piece pictured. It turned out very good. Too good.

I loved it so much I went back to Lowes bought 4 more cans and spent a week taping and masking and plugging gaps in all the beams across the ceiling. Now they are "done" again as well but sporting the same corroded rusty metal look.

You see..If I'd done some proper research up front on metallic patina paints and various textured sprays before jumping up screaming and charging the pill-box so to speak, I'd have saved a lot of both time and money. Lesson to all you kids out there planning is stoopid and boring but it will save you in the end.

Note the fancy pants heating register there. This was purchased from the fine folks down at Exquisite Brass and Tile http://www.brassandtile.com. It is absolutely perfect thanks Paul! See Exquisite Brass and Tile for all your Nautilus (and every other) rooms' needs. Tell 'em Ned Land sent ya!

Finally you think you have it rough? Look at what the ol' ball and chain gave me for Valentines day. A completely functional iron ball and chain, and yes it fits. Course I hardly noticed after all these years...Ba-dump dump! I'm here all week folks.

Full Metal Racket

"Anything worth doing is worth OVER-doing", a wise man once said...

While not completely done yet the basic painting is now once again "done" in the Nauti-room. The last glaze coat is drying now on the coppery colored walls and I will be adding details when it is dry tomorrow like you can already see on the more golden colored walls such as defining the edges a little better and adding some color splotches randomly about where I feel fanciful.

Each wall required three colors, a basecoat, a metal glaze and a top glaze to tone down the metallic sheen some. The bottom coat was applied in a solid manner with a regular foam roller. The metal was dabbed on in stabbing motions with a beat up old two inch hand brush. The resulting more or less random spots were beat down and smoothed in with the stippling brush shown here with a light pounding. This process took several hours and the pound pound pound went on late into the night. Luckily Marsha zonks out pretty solidly and only vaguely remembers hearing any of it. I think it would have drove me crazy like the Tell-Tale Heart or something.

The third coat was applied with a textured roller that left gaps in the paint it laid down as it went letting the previous colors show through in places. This layer too was lightly pounded. I think I got my 25 bucks out of that brush and it held up quite well.

I'm in much happier place with it now. It totally looks metallic and beat up at the same time. I can almost hear far away engine and machinery noises.

It is now time to work on some more of those storage units and the track lighting but first the computer has to come back in so a computer desk project is up next. How do you make a store bought computer desk look like it belongs on a sub? Not the foggiest...but I have some ideas. Check in later!

Five Thousand Words

Short and sweet, mostly pictures.

I am busy repainting the entire thing. I have discovered something called "metallic glaze" and "Stippling" Two new 3 part wall colors are going in and there is definitely more visual interest.

The other pictures are the conversion of one of the storage units. Its not Nauticalized completely yet but it shows where its headed.

Big blog post when the paints done this weekend.

Trimming the Submarine

The trim molding is all in and more or less painted as well. I have spend the last couple days filling and sanding down the myriad nail holes from putting up all the rivets and the floor molding. Those are all filled and tomorrow it will be a short job getting them all daubed with a wee spot of paint.

Unfortunately I had some free time this week and looked through all the large size movie stills I have and it made me want to try a texture scheme one more time for the walls. I have already tried numerous washes, sponge textures, and overcoats upon a now over-painted test area all of which failed to look anything but messy. I will be trying another over painting scheme this time using a large area sprayer and some decanted metallic spray paints like I used on the beams. If successful it could look really neat and more like the movie sub colors. If I'm not blown away, however, I won't be doing it. This is such a small house I can't just always close the door to this room and hide my folly.

The candlesticks pictured are going to spice up the exterior of my paint booth. When I get done with THAT project, and when not in use, it should look like a miniature glowing power orb like we see in the Nautilus' engine room.

No special eye protection will be required however.