I originally tried a lighter color (Golden Pecan):īut like with the colorful leaning mirror I built a few weeks ago, I didn’t like the lighter look so I did an additional coat in the much darker (and aptly named) “Dark Walnut” that I already had from a previous project. I gave the corners a quick sanding to remove any roughness, then I stained the boards with a Minwax stain. First, I cut four 11″ segments from the 8’圆″ board on my table saw. Four of the brackets were larger, for the two bigger shelves. I also bought simple “L” bracket corner braces, two for each shelf (I was planning on six shelves, so 12 brackets total). I thought long and hard about what I wanted them to look like and changed my mind a bunch, but ultimately I decided I wanted them to be relatively simple but also colorful.įirst, I bought some simple wood boards at Home Depot - an 8′ length of 1″圆″ for most of the shelves, plus two 1″x12″x10″ oak pieces for two slightly larger shelves where I hope the cats will actually lay down. It’s hard to tell completely from these photos, but it really juts into the doorway to the hall, and makes everything feel more busy and crowded.įortunately, I had a plan. For the longest time, I’ve been dreaming of building something on the walls for the cats, like this:įrom the Plus-Nyan house, a home in Japan designed with both cats and stylish interior design in mind. That left us with this:īut the closer to “finished” that side of the room got, the more the cat tower drove me crazy. Then finally I found a replacement for the rocker at the Brimfield Antique Show, a mid-century lounge chair that I fixed up with new webbing and furniture polish last week. Then we scored The Chair and our new end tables, and brought in an old rocker we had, leaving us with this: The opposite side of the living room looks like this, and has pretty much been constant since we first did our living room makeover in the fall (except for the side table, which was a relatively new acquisition from an awesome vintage store in Burlington, VT):īut meanwhile, the opposite side of the room, against the picture window, has been a continuous work in progress.īut I knew that eventually I wanted to add seating over there so that the room didn’t feel so oriented around the sectional facing the TV. That may be true, but my tolerance of said cat tower began to decline precipitously as we continued to work on the picture window side of the living room. In said post, I showed a photo of the tower we have for our cats, and explained that I thought it was among the more aesthetically-pleasing variations in the cat tower family: I wanted four screws securing the cabinets, so I did two anchors.A few months ago, I wrote a post about how to decorate stylishly while also recognizing the demands and needs of your pet overlords (or faithful best friends, if you have dogs instead of cats). PS I did screw the cabinet bracket into studs, but they are 24" on center and I could only secure the 47" cabinet to two studs. DO NOT use the plastic toggle bolts in lath and plaster!ĭrop an extra dollar and get the metal toggle anchors! It would have saved me a huge pain in the ass. I tried expanding the hole a little bit and then the whole thing just fell into the wall. But I couldn't get the plastic piece into the hole that I drilled! The plastic catches on the wooden lath and refuses to go through even with a hammer (it flexes instead) or when guided with little screw drivers (no good). The wings are supposed to expand as you screw into it. You drill a hole, fold up the plastic piece, and push it into the hole. It's a plastic version of the toggle bolt. I tried the plastic insert with wings like this. DO NOT use the self-drilling plastic drywall anchors in lath and plaster! They don't work because they can't penetrate the lath boards behind the plaster. First I tried those self-drilling screw-in plastic drywall anchors. I went through several other options before the toggle type finally worked. When you tighten the bolt, it pulls the wings against the back of the laths, creating a securely anchored bolt. The wings fold up as it enters the hole, and then they spring out on the other side. I finally managed to find an anchor that works in lath and plaster - it's called a toggle bolt or molly! It's a bolt that screws into a pair of spring-loaded metal "wings." You drill a hole in the wall and insert the bolt into the hole. Not only are the walls non-flat, but many conventional drywall anchors simply don't work. I bet many people here have had to deal with at least one lath and plaster wall if they have older houses. I want to share my recent experience with anchoring a cabinet on a lath and plaster wall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |