This might be the most exciting part of the wardrobe build for me so far. It’s such a little thing, but building the bridge to connect the two wardrobes took it instantaneously from just boxes, to the vision that I sketched out on paper months ago.
Even putting up a back support, and clamping it into place, all the sudden turned it into one piece. I’ve never been so giddy about a 2×4 in my life – it makes me so happy that I can almost un-see the ivy wallpaper.
We had to do some electrical – we’re adding a pendant light on the bridge, and since the wardrobes caused the elimination of the only outlet on this wall, I wanted to add one back in. We decided on a switch and outlet combo. This will make it possible to turn on the future pendant, and allow guests to plug in a hair dryer or something at the dresser. So, to get the right placement, we moved the dresser in, and held our breath that all of our measurements with the two big boxes was correct, and that it would fit. Of course it did! (Once again, I’m sorry for the grainy pictures – I promise, I’ll get better at taking low-light pictures in the evenings, which is when we can do most of our work.) This gives a sneak peak of the final product – tall storage on each side, with a dresser and drawers in the center. So much storage!
Prepping for the bridge, we fit the “ceiling,” and added supports to be able to nail the face of the bridge to.
The ceiling of the bridge definitely connects the two sides together, but more importantly, it houses the electrical for the pendant light that we’re adding in. We made the sides of the bridge way longer than they needed to be, and then measured and drilled the hole for the junction box. We didn’t worry so much about the side-to-side measurement, because with the extra width, we would be able to adjust the horizontal placement once the ceiling was sitting in place.
I know what you’re thinking. “WHY ISN’T THAT HOLE CENTERED?” Like many things Queen Anne, the pendant light we are installing is asymmetrical – so the hole is off center, but the globe will be centered. Just enough quirk!
Next step is to build the face of the bridge! We started with the rough rectangle, and clamped it up to make sure it worked. Even in this basic state, I was giggling. It’s starting to look like furniture, at least to me. And it’s amazing to see how Doug’s implementation of my design is coming to life.
“Is that a trash bag of hay in the front of this picture?” Good eyes, and yes. Yes it is. Don’t worry, I’m not gluing hay to the walls – that’s the window where skeleton number five was perched on the hay bale, and that’s all the further it got when we took Halloween down.
Next, we measured to figure out where we wanted the arch. We dry-fit the decorative moulding to help (those are actually mouldings for the side of staircase steps! So cheap and effective.).
To make the arch outline, Doug used a piece of bendy ply and nails to create the shape.
This seems pretty rudimentary, but it totally worked! This is absolutely the type of geometry I wish I had done in high school.
Perfection!
Using a jigsaw, Doug freehanded the cut for the arch. He’s really steady – if you do this, go slow. Patience is a plus here.
My job during this? I moved alongside the blade with the shop vac. The dust from the blade and the mdf was covering up the line, so Doug couldn’t see where to cut. So I tried to eliminate the dust from the beginning. It worked pretty well!
Post-cutting and pre-routing fit! Like a glove!
Time to use the router!
It’s a simple edge, but definitely makes it look so finished.
Going around the corners was what worried Doug the most, but again, going slow was what made it successful.
Beautiful!
Next up : Crown moulding for the room, and for the wardrobe, as well as paint and beginning work on the baseboards and the wardrobe doors. I think my hope of being done with the room by Christmas is going to be just out of reach – but maybe by New Years, since we’ll have some break days to get a lot done! Even if it’s not done, I’m totally putting a Christmas tree in here, though. Don’t worry.
When you two talented & crazy kids are done with your house in, you know, a few months, can you come and help me with my house?
Pretty please?
It would be my dream to do so. And we would have so much fun, wouldn’t we?
Let’s create a historic version of “Trading Spaces.” This can’t fail.