If only they weren't $7,000, plus shipping from their maker in New York. I kept looking, but I also kept coming back to these bookshelves. I swooned over them. Finally, Clinton turned to me one day and said, "you could make those." At first I thought he was overestimating me. But when we sat down and discussed what would need to be done, I realized he was right. I could do this.
First I needed steel pipes. My friend Matt has a welding studio I could utilize to drill holes in the steel to put pins through. I could get some wood and drill holes in it to fit the pipes into and they'd be held in place by the pins. Some adjustable feet would mean I wouldn't have to drill into my floor or ceiling. I could just use tension to hold it upright.
It took a few months of all weekend work to get it done. I ended up buying an old craftsman drill press to get even holes drilled into the thick wood planks I picked up from Home Depot. Hand drilling led to wonky holes. I put a nice dark patina on the steel, stained the wood, added the feet, and made tons of measurements that were usually just a little off.
I'm really good at just sort of winging it. Clinton, on the other hand, is a perfectionist. When something is off, which it usually is when I make it, it drives him nuts. I don't even notice how off it is and I figure that it'll still look fine, so I let it slide. He likes to do things right. I settle for "good enough," "it looks fine," and "it'll still work."
Despite my total mismeasurements of where I drilled the holes into the pipe, somehow it did all work out. We had bookshelves, for under $500.
No comments:
Post a Comment