Here’s a wall bed that my wife and I finished last week. We ramped it up a notch and did it in the style of an armoire to further disguise the fact that it was actually a bed.

The necessity for the Murphy wall bed came from the fact that my wife’s mother moved in with us a few months ago. In addition to wanting to give her a place for privacy when she has visitors we also wanted to give her a place where she could enjoy the surroundings of some of her own furniture. We decided to turn the bedroom just down the hall from her own bedroom into a sitting room for her. Since we also wanted to retain the option for guests sleeping over a wall bed was the perfect choice. And it is!

The panels are made with Oak plywood and the cabinet style frame work is all done in solid Oak. It’s about 80″ tall and 60″ wide. The stain and finish are environmentally friendly products from Sasco. The Sansin stain and Sasdura, the urethane finish, are both water-based, low VOC and no odour. Not only did they dry in record time and give a great looking finish but with no odour they were a dream to work with.

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Here’s a kitchen island that my wife and I completed (finally!) early last year. It is made of Pine and has a thick Birch top. It measures approximately 36″ long by 24 inches wide and 34 inches tall. The base has been painted and the natural top has a polyurethane finish. It also features Southwest style icons on all sides of the base.

This has been a project that was a long time in the making. The wood that was used to make it was reclaimed from other pieces of furniture that somehow found its way back to us.

The four beautiful Maple legs and the Birch top came from an old table that came with our previous home when we bought it almost 25 years ago. We used it as a computer table for several years and then it went on to be used as same at our niece’s home. Years later it returned to us and with no one else wanting it we hung onto it. After visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009 for the 2009 AAW Symposium we were inspired to use the table in a Southwest style kitchen island for our home.

Here’s a photo of the pieces that we used:

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In the late Spring I had the opportunity to use some recently learned skills. I got to make another bunk bed. I also got to build a double bed using the same technique. Using what I learned at the Bayside bunk building marathon I was able to give my sister-in-law and her husband a hand building a well needed sleeping solution.

My brother-in-law and I spent the day building these for their lake front cottage and it couldn’t have been a better day. Though it rained a bit on and off throughout the day the bunk bed construction went slick as a whistle.

Before starting I did up a cutlist and a step-by-step plan which, amazingly, could not have worked out better. Here it is:

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All this time I thought it was a birdhouse and here it was a house for squirrels!

When I built the birdhouse last year it ended up being a bit too late for tenants that spring. We were keeping our eye on it this Spring but hadn’t seen any action other than the occasion visit from one of our resident squirrels.

However, my wife and I were having tea on the patio the other day when we heard a noise and looked up and saw a small head poke out of one of the windows:

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