Coffee Shrine

There are few things in life to which I am more devoted than coffee. For me, the proper way to show devotion is maniacal control over as much of the coffee production process as I can muster.  And that means a coffee roaster. And a coffee roaster has to live outdoors so the smoke doesn’t kill your family or pets.

We had this really useful little (little!) counter outside our kitchen window. I put a half-screen on the window, so we can use it as a pass-through from the kitchen to the back yard. I want to make that into a huge counter over spacious cabinets.

I assembled and leveled the cabinets on adjustable feet to keep them off the ground. I added a power strip inside so I could leave everything plugged in. Then I put plywood and backer board over the whole thing, rented a tile saw and tiled it with 20” ceramic tile and a fetching bull-nose around the edge.

I think this shows an appropriate level of devotion.

Weekend Project: Book Rack

I’ve been reading Knock-off Wood a lot lately, and they had these plans for a book rack.

They’re great for my girl’s room for three reasons:

• The books face straight out (so you can see ’em)
• It sits flat to the wall (12″), so I can put it behind her door.
• It’s sturdy enough that she could climb it (not that she should)

Here’s the finished product:

Hooray, books!

I deviated from the original plans in a few places:

• No arches. I didn’t want to cut them so I tell myself they didn’t match her room anyway.
• Routed outside edges and rails dress it up a bit
• Taller shelves (15″ instead of 12″)
• Notches for her chair rail & baseboards

I’m particularly happy with how the baseboards came out, but I sort of messed one thing up: when I routed the outside edges, I didn’t stop at the baseboards. The round-over goes all the way to the floor. Whoops.

This was a great project. It took me 2 days of carpentry (with the assistance of a 5-year-old), plus a day of painting.  I spent about $90 on materials & a few tools that made it go smoother. I’d recommend it of you have an unused wall in your place.