Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT 1950s Craftsman Garage retro remodel

[48James]

Sir,

Here is where I got it from:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Looks like they are all out currently, but there may be other online retailers that carry it. It is an awesome color, a little blue...a little green - it's perfect.

Its a little hard to find, but I wouldn't have any other color. Love it!

Thank you so much! Been looking at every store for this color.

 

[Red Leader]

Alright! Update time!

I made the final touches on the cabinets before priming. I had to do a little more bondo than I thought, but it turned out real well. I was pretty upset when I pulled the door off and ripped some wood, but the repairs have been made and I think it looks good.

Funny thing...I call myself a perfectionist, but a true perfectionist (I guess I should say a 'professional' perfectionist) would probably just laugh at me. These cabinets are far, far from perfect. The plywood I used for the flats was actually a real rough grade of plywood. It was repurposed so I don't feel bad since I got to reuse it, but if I was starting from scratch I definitely would have gone with the sanded stuff (and if the budget was limitless). The curves aren't perfect. Heck, there is even a 1.5"x1.5" chunk missing from the plywood shelving where I slipped it into place on one of the top shelves (now that I think about it...ehh...I do want to fix that lol).

All that to say, they are not perfect, but I think they will look acceptable when done. It was a good learning experience. Next time I'll have to get that ball bearing router bit dangit!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, enough words, more pictures!!!

Before priming:

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

By daveamy at 2011-07-10
This door is smooooooth and it even stays closed on its own!

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

And with the first coat of primer:

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

By daveamy at 2011-07-10

Honestly, this isn't very exciting haha. Once the paint is on, things will really start taking shape. I'll also have to do a lot of touch up. I didn't bother masking off the wall for the primer because I needed to do some repainting of the wall around the cabinets anyway as there are lots of gouges, scratches, paint, pencil marks, etc.

Here is what's next, in order:

1. prime #2
2. paint
3. cut, finish and install from facing plate (apply Craftsman decal before finishing)
4. route trim pieces
5. cut trim pieces
6. finish trim pieces (boiled linseed oil, just like the good ol' days)
7. install trim
8. install flashing strip around the bottom 2 shelves and polish for chrome-type finish
9. make and install art deco strips on trim pieces
10. make side accent pieces for each end of cabinet
11. run electrical to the center piece and the far right side and install fluorescent lights and halogens
12. cut holes and run rope lighting throughout cabinets
13. make and finish under-folding swing down access drawers underneath the bottom cabinet ledge
13. touch up EVERYTHING because it will be a mess

As you can see, I've got my work cut out for me. I don't know if I'll really get too far into this list before the kid comes, but as I get breaks, I'll be knocking things out

 

[Red Leader]

Thank you so much! Been looking at every store for this color.

No problem buddy

If you're painting anything garage/tool/car related, feel free to post it in this thread - I love this color and am interested to see what it will be going on.

 

[Sriracha Me]

Red Leader,

Great build documentation and techniques. I know you've said that you're not a carpenter but your skills are surely not amateur level!

The color combo is great. It does gives off the vintage vibe along with the machines.

Questions: What method did you use to hang up the bikes? "J" hook?
I am in the middle in fixing up my garage (Need to start thread soon) and i would like to make a pulley system to get the bikes up 10'.

Thanks

 

[Red Leader]

Red Leader,

Great build documentation and techniques. I know you've said that you're not a carpenter but your skills are surely not amateur level!

The color combo is great. It does gives off the vintage vibe along with the machines.

Questions: What method did you use to hang up the bikes? "J" hook?
I am in the middle in fixing up my garage (Need to start thread soon) and i would like to make a pulley system to get the bikes up 10'.

Thanks

Thanks for such a generous compliment!

Good question about the bike storage - the way I hung them works good, although I'll probably remove that system at some point (strictly just because of the theme of the garage).

I put a 2x4 on top of the rafters, put a J-hook in it, and the way it works is depending on the spacing of the bikes, you throw a bike up there and the J-hook grabs the bike around the front end of the top tube of the frame, and then the underneath of the front of the seat hooks over one of the rafters. You have to space it right, but it works pretty good!

If I remember I'll try to take a picture with it. I dunno if your like me, but words mean nothing - I need a picture

 

[Red Leader]

1. prime #2 *DONE*
2. paint
3. cut, finish and install from facing plate (apply Craftsman decal before finishing)
4. route trim pieces
5. cut trim pieces
6. finish trim pieces (boiled linseed oil, just like the good ol' days)
7. install trim
8. install flashing strip around the bottom 2 shelves and polish for chrome-type finish
9. make and install art deco strips on trim pieces
10. make side accent pieces for each end of cabinet
11. run electrical to the center piece and the far right side and install fluorescent lights and halogens
12. cut holes and run rope lighting throughout cabinets
13. make and finish under-folding swing down access drawers underneath the bottom cabinet ledge
13. touch up EVERYTHING because it will be a mess

 

[CraftsmanFreek]

Red, I've just spent hours going over your fantastic project! Can't wait to see it completed...make me want to visit Colorado even more now. ;o)

 

[Tbucit]

Red Leader, very good looking job you have going on. I may be forced to adapt something like that at some point on my shop. One note, you are not a perfectionist. This is not a bad thing as a "true perfectionist" never gets anything done because rarly is anything good enough for them. However that said, you apperar to be a hard working, imaginative,get it done with what you have type of person which beats the hell out of a perfectionist anyday. Like I said the entire vintage shop/tool idea is great and looking forward to more updates.
Randall

 

[hoopty388]

going to keep an eye on this one ....very sharp..nice skills

 

[Red Leader]

Vise...




















Done!

Before:

By daveamy at 2011-07-06

After:

By daveamy at 2011-07-11

Glamour shots:

By daveamy at 2011-07-11

By daveamy at 2011-07-11

By daveamy at 2011-07-11

By daveamy at 2011-07-11

 

[Nightshift]

I do love that hammered Verde Green on old Wiltons ... it's perfect. I may repaint my two 5" Wilton machinist swivel vices that color ... Bill

 

[1Garageman]

OK, you got me hooked on your damn garage by looking at the pics and your comments! Keep posting!

 

[Red Leader]

Well guys,

today is the 'official' due date, but no updates so far. However, we are getting real close!!!!!

If you don't see an update for several days, you know whats going on

After life settles back down, I will continue working on the cabinet shelving.

It doesn't look like much right now, but I guarantee you...it will be worth the wait

 

[kbuhagiar]

Well guys,

today is the 'official' due date, but no updates so far. However, we are getting real close!!!!!

If you don't see an update for several days, you know whats going on

After life settles back down, I will continue working on the cabinet shelving.

It doesn't look like much right now, but I guarantee you...it will be worth the wait

Good luck - and BTW the vise looks righteous!

 

[Motown 454]

Wow I love the shelves nice work. The vise came out great.

 

[Jack Olsen]

This remains an awesome project.

Best of luck with the new arrival!

 

[Nightshift]

Well guys,

today is the 'official' due date, but no updates so far. However, we are getting real close!!!!!

If you don't see an update for several days, you know whats going on

Exciting times ahead ... especially if this is your first! You're life as you currently enjoy is about to change ... bit-time!

All the best. Cheers, Bill

ps ... we'll likely not hear from you for a couple years now till you get caught up on your sleep

 

[48James]

No problem buddy

If you're painting anything garage/tool/car related, feel free to post it in this thread - I love this color and am interested to see what it will be going on.

I have been looking for this color for years, it's always too expensive to be shipped over the computer and no stores have it!
Here is what I'm going to paint:

[/IMG]
torn apart delta drill press

[/IMG]
I'm also going to paint a Wilton Cadet, I think its about 4''

 

[48James]

Oh yeah, you inspired me to go and see if Lowe's could order this paint. Lowe's is way closer to me than Home Depot so I thought I'd give it a shot. Turns out they can order, so I ordered a case of it!! Finally I'll have some green hammertone.

Thanks again!

P.S. I forgot to say that I am really looking forward to seeing this retro garage done!

 

[Red Leader]

Oh yeah, you inspired me to go and see if Lowe's could order this paint. Lowe's is way closer to me than Home Depot so I thought I'd give it a shot. Turns out they can order, so I ordered a case of it!! Finally I'll have some green hammertone.

Thanks again!

P.S. I forgot to say that I am really looking forward to seeing this retro garage done!

Wow...awesome! So that is a grinder? Drill press? Either case, its gonna look great!

 

[Nightshift]

Oh yeah, you inspired me to go and see if Lowe's could order this paint. Lowe's is way closer to me than Home Depot so I thought I'd give it a shot. Turns out they can order, so I ordered a case of it!! Finally I'll have some green hammertone.

Thanks again!

P.S. I forgot to say that I am really looking forward to seeing this retro garage done!

James, try Menards ... seems to me that's where I bought a case on the way home from Florida this spring. They had it in stock. Bill

 

[Red Leader]

Well, put on a 3rd coat of primer because it needed it. Hopefully that's done and I can move on to painting if other things don't come up first


Most places that carry the Hammered spray paints actually do have a green color, but it is much more a 'true' green color, rather than the teal-ish green/blue of the Verde Green.

 

[48James]

Don't worry about that primer, that was definately not my best......

 

[Red Leader]

Don't worry about that primer, that was definately not my best......

I just re-read my post and I realize it sounded kinda bad - I hope you know I was referring to the shelving/cabinets needing the 3rd coat of primer, not your tools - that would be pretty rude of me haha

Your tools are looking good, sir

 

[lonestarky]

Red Leader-
How is your wife feeling and progressing?

 

[Red Leader]

Red Leader-
How is your wife feeling and progressing?

Thanks for asking.

We may have had a false alarm tonight - not really sure yet, I guess we'll know by morning

One thing for sure is that it is RAINING something fierce tonight! Thundering and lightning and raining...all night! But the grass needs it

 

[lonestarky]

My wife is pregnant with our first children (twins) currently, so I sympathize with your situation. I hope all is well, and it was a false alarm, or everything 'came out' OK.

 

[Walterchang]

I envy you. My wife is also pregnant with twins, I cant even leave her for more than 1 hour without her asking me when I am going to be done. I have no time for any projects, it *****.

 

[tinbender 66]

AWOL for more than 24 hours! Here's hoping that everything is ok and you're a proud new dad with a healthy wife and baby.

 

[Red Leader]

UPDATE:

No baby yet - it may be tomorrow or it may be a week away. Had an appointment today and things need to progress just a little further. The way I figure is that it'll happen sooner or later.

And with the garage, got the shelving painted, 1st coat.

Cutting in corners:

By daveamy at 2011-07-14

By daveamy at 2011-07-14

By daveamy at 2011-07-14

The whole thing:

By daveamy at 2011-07-14

By daveamy at 2011-07-14

I didn't bother taping anything since I plan to go back and touch up the walls. I needed to get good coverage in the nooks and crannies where the shelving met the walls, and the walls could always use more paint anyway

It would almost appear the from my updates I have no life. I promise I have a real wife and she really is pregnant!

In other news, I discovered google sketchup. Wow, I'm hooked. It will be a fun toy to play around with once the baby comes and there is some down time here and there. It will really help to visualize what the best table/bench/tool layout in the garage will look like.

Also, although I am not anywhere near close to building a workbench, I've started to get a vision for its design (now that the cabinets are past 50% done) and I'm really getting inspired with the 1950's diner look. While this garage won't be anyone's soda fountain shop, I plan to add a lot more chrome accents (what is 1950's without chrome?). So, the design I'm thinking of incorporates:

1. Rounded edges, following in the style of the cabinets
2. Formica top (just like the old 50's table veneers)
3. Ribbed metal trim around the table edge

Here are some good visual examples that capture the look:

There are also a lot of cool bar stools and such. I'd like to try and find some like this:

...then throw some casters on the bottom.


Another idea I also had to give it more a a 1950s feel was to find and purchase an old working seeburg wall-o-matic:

and get an adapter to hook it up to an ipod (normally, they hook up to a real jukebox, they don't play music by themselves) so that way you can select whatever songs you want on the wallbox, and they play instantly from an ipod hidden in the garage somewhere else. The old wall-o-matics go for about $200 or so an an ipod adapter is $100, so right now I don't have that budget for the garage, but one day when I do, it's happening!

 

[TONE]

Looks good. Are you planning on trimming out the 2x4's that are being used as support in the shelves?

The shelves themselves are so finished and have so much detail in them. I'm confused as to what you will be doing to the vertical supports, if anything at all?

To me the shelves look great. It would be sweet if they could have been built without the supports. It looks great with just the painted pieces. To bad the supports where needed. It would have been super cool to seen a floating type system.

Also, the two shelves in the middle would have looked great if they where the same thickness as the other shelves.

Either way, looks nice, and keep posting, and NO I'm not trying to nit-pick. I'm a designer so it's in my blood.

 

[TimGrz]

In the woodworking world we call the grooves a "kerf". Sometimes we will soak the wood in water as well to make them even easier to bend...

Another method is to cut the wood into very thin strips, place glue in between, then pull them into a jig until they are dry. It takes longer but the whole curve is solid and can be used for structural items.

I worked at a cabinet shop and am familiar with the kerf. But what we did is fill in the space with Bondo-- yeah, autobody filler. Normally we would do it once it was together, but if the piece was going to be put somewhere where that was no possible way to get to it after, we would fill it before installing it.

Bulletproof. Never once was there an issue with this after the fact.

/tg

 

[A1an]

Those shelves are amazing! Nice work!

 

[shopnut]

Interesting project you have going on here Red Leader. Keep up the good work - the results will be worth it. The best thing is, it sounds like you are enjoying it and that's really what its all about. And I wish you well on the arrival of the new family member. Hopefully you will be able to find a little time to escape to the shop once the father duties kick in!

P.S I'll have to look into the electrolysis process since I like to restore old things as well. Thanks for the info.

 

[white500xl]

Great Work! Since you are a pretty talented wood worker and dreamer, I have a idea for a work bench.... Why not creating something out of wood that resembles the old Alimite oil and lube station workbenches? They have a nice art deco look, that would fit right in your style that is going on! You could probably create one and sculpt it to fit your flowing theme, using their basic design, and fine tune it to match yours! Maybe put a metal top on it to resist grease and lube chemicals. I think it would look really cool! Keep up the great work!
Jerry.

 

[wolflrv]

Why not use real Craftsman logo'd bar stools??

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/s_10155_12602_Storage+%26+Garage_Garage+%26+Work+Area_Garage+Accessories?keyword=stool&sLevel=1|2&sLevel=0&prop17=

 

[Jack Olsen]

Red Leader, here's a thread that might give you some ideas for a period-correct bench.

One example:

 

[Red Leader]

Why not use real Craftsman logo'd bar stools??

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/s_10155_12602_Storage+%26+Garage_Garage+%26+Work+Area_Garage+Accessories?keyword=stool&sLevel=1|2&sLevel=0&prop17=

That's a good question. There are 2 reasons. One is that although some of those craftsman stools have a somewhat retro vibe to them, the have the modern 1980s-present 'Craftsman' logo which I think is kinda ugly when you compare it to some of the vintage Craftsman logos.

The second, and perhaps more important reason, is that there is a good chance that those stools are made in china. I'm trying to keep the garage as American as I can, at least where given a choice. Having a bunch of 'made in china' stuff that looks old just feels kinda fake for the garage.

I guess a 3rd reason if I could wager one comes from a guitar collecting perspective - which is, if the old ones are so close in price (now) to the new reissue ones, why not just go for the old original ones?

 

[Red Leader]

Red Leader, here's a thread that might give you some ideas for a period-correct bench.

One example:

Jack,

I'm glad you posted this. Thank you. I looked through that thread. Some great stuff there. I can't spend $500+ on a real one, so I'll just make one. I've already looked out in the garage and probably wouldn't have room for one of those things and where I was going to put my bandsaw, so I think I'm going to make one similar that fits within the custom space of the garage.

The vision continues. I now am thinking it would be pretty cool to have a setup like that Alemite, with the flatter, taller cabinets and the workbench in the center, in addition to a rollaway work bench that would stick out straight from the center and roll away to reveal the long-ways workbench underneath. That way, if you really wanted more space, you could easily get it by rolling a few things around.

I've done some sketching, but I'm still working on it. As soon as I get something close, I'll post it and see what you guys think. I also had the idea of posting a few different concepts and seeing which one you all like the best and going with it. Kinda like a poll. Could be fun.

Thanks again Jack.



ps - the wife is asleep so I can't do much out there right now but I did take that time earlier to clean the garage and now its ready to rock for the next project.

 

[Red Leader]

Looks good. Are you planning on trimming out the 2x4's that are being used as support in the shelves?

The shelves themselves are so finished and have so much detail in them. I'm confused as to what you will be doing to the vertical supports, if anything at all?

To me the shelves look great. It would be sweet if they could have been built without the supports. It looks great with just the painted pieces. To bad the supports where needed. It would have been super cool to seen a floating type system.

Also, the two shelves in the middle would have looked great if they where the same thickness as the other shelves.

Either way, looks nice, and keep posting, and NO I'm not trying to nit-pick. I'm a designer so it's in my blood.

The 2x4s are going to be staying there. I understand what you are getting at (i.e. ugly haha), but they are far from finished. Any single spaced 1x1 will get another member to in essence make it a 2x4 and then each one will be covered with wood trim (think the trim I did around the floor) on 3 sides. I may even get a head start on this today. I think it will look pretty good with those supports. Of course, you're idea is pretty cool too. I bet it would look great without them, but I'd probably have a little harder time with strengthening them.

As always, great ideas guys!!!