BEEF up your frame

The frame I had around the mirror was not looking very good anymore kinda wimpy. I liked the position of the mirror and did not want to take it off the wall so I did a total make-up job on the frame.

Here is what the frame looks like before.

I needed to add a slim boarder so that the wood tiles lye flat.

The finished mirror. The little sticky out boards make great little shelves for your little treasures!

Cardboard musical instruments

Other crazy cool music video with Mike Southworth from collide entertainment where I get to play with cardboard which I think is becoming one of my favourite mediums to work with.
The music video takes place around 1985 where the band The Matinée are around age 5-7 years old and are on their very first tour. My part of the music video project is to build all the instruments (Drums, bass amp, guitar amp, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass ) using household items. So the kids The Matinée put on a huge music concert for their parent and stuffed animals in the living room.

The biggest challenge with this is making the instruments be able to take a beating from Five, 5 year old hyper boys and still look homemade. I also wanted to replicate The Matinée’s real instruments since the video will switch to them in present time. I wanted the instruments to look like they fit the kids and so could not copy the actual size. Here is what I came up with.

The Cardboard Amps

Were made using cardboard boxes as the foundation then painted. For knobs I used beer/pop bottle caps and lego as power buttons and standby buttons. Then to finish off the amps used jump/skipping ropes as patch cords.

This is a play on 1980’s Marshall Stacks using cardboard, beer/pop bottle caps, and lego

Wanted these to resemble vintage tweed fender amps

The bass cabinet had to have a real monitor that was used to playback the song the band would be rock'n out to so I cut out some round holes and put landscaping cloth so the sound can still travel through it.

The Drums

These were the greatest challenge because they had to be strong enough to take a beating which they did and they stood up to it. I had to incorporate wood so I made stands out of wood with plywood bottoms.

Top view of the drums 80% finished

Adding The Matinee logo to the bass drum

Guitars
I built a couple of different guitars because I was not sure which ones they were going to use in the video.

Fender Strat. almost complete.

acoustic formation backside

acoustic from front.

Microphone 

Had to use my daughter to give me an idea of what size to make it. even know she is way younger.

Power Wheels - re-paint

I also had to quickly paint this girls I jeep that was originally purple, pink and light blue princess designed power wheels. So Red, Black it changed.

The Matinée - The Road

Display all your tiny treasures with a simple shelving unit

I had this old cupboard door that I couldn't throw away because I thought I would be able to use it one day. That day became ... today.

I wanted to build something that would display my tiny Chinese teapots and tea accessories in a nice warm natural way, I also only had 2 hours to build this. Here is what got created ...

Original beat up old cupboard door.

Painted the panel using a solid stain paint that was a nice retro blue / green colour. 

After it dried, I used my electric sander and sanded more than I usually would because I wanted it a lighter colour.

I then found 4 pieces of scrap wood and cut them some what random and then pre-drilled them from the back of the panel.

Screwed them in making sure the board stayed in place.

All screwed and in place. Done.

Here is the finished product. I just screwed it into the wall.

This makes a great shelving unit for your small treasures. Another way to hang this unit would be as if it were a picture using eye screws and wire on the back. Then using a picture hanger that attaches to the wall, hang the unit on it (just make sure that the picture hang will hold the weight of the shelving unit).

Until the next moment of inspiration.
Yours warmly,
Adam.

Shakers Acres Trailer Park (Part 2)

 This is continued from: shakers acres trailer park sign post

After I finished the Shakers Acres Trailer Park Sign, Mike (Collide Entertainment) asked if I could go to the location and help set-up for the music video shoot.

We had to build a stage that looked basically like a pile of junk as if the trailer park folk might have thrown it together but it had to be strong enough for the band, The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer to play on.

Picture of the stage almost finished ... looks real safe ... Not!

The sign on location with the stage in the background

The Finished Video, 
Shake it by The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer.  

The Attic - Wall project

I have been creating a little space in the attic to relax and have my own space. I have one wall that I never finished.

I have been doing some spring cleaning and wanted to get rid of some wood ...
Do I have any wood to finish this wall???
Well, I have a bunch of pieces of wood.

Welcome to The Junk-Wood Wall

On the way ... not too sure this is a good idea.

The finished wall, I think it looks pretty good.

Side view of the wall ... it is quite practical since it has natural occurring shelves

The many layers of wood at different and random thicknesses creates a wall that has many natural occurring shelves. as you can see in the above picture. 

Also another bonus is I do not have to make a trip to the garbage dump.

Our house - bathroom

When we moved in here this bathroom looks 10X's better (in the before pic) then it actually was. It smelled, it was not functional ... there were bi-folding closet doors for the door to the bathroom I guess because the cabinet was too big for a door to open.

Before

  So I thought one day ... I'll just rip up the tile and give the floor a quick sand and be done with it. but no ... the floor was in amazing shape halfway through but then the entire other half was completely rotten. I could remove the flooring with just a puddy knife. Not good. But I was able to find some cheap hardwood that was sold in 4ft chunks. Now we have a floor that I know what is under it.

After

G-Men Ramen Restaurant

This is a restaurant my wife Emi (with baby in belly) and I designed and built. February 14th - March 12, 2009.

The Counter

We wanted to keep costs as low as possible so we decided to just dress up the existing counter. The idea was to make a Yatai a Japanese noodle stand.

Before

After

Window treatment

The owner wanted the windows to be covered. These were very big windows to cover. We used plywood with 1"X4" frame around with tinny windows in each covered by beach wood. I think like the rest of the restaurant has a Japan meets the West Coast feel.

From the out side ... The Entrance

The Idea here was to put a Japan feel by adding a Vintage Honda Cub (Left side) and Tokyo Tower (Right side) in the windows on the sides of the entrance.

Right side: We build a stage for the Honda Cub. and hung the open sign on an angle and added a big light above. That says Ramen.

Left Side: A mini Tokyo Tower stationed on a floating shelf in the window. With other vintage looking toys from Japan.

From Inside: Entrance

Since there are two doors we were asked to stop the flow and make an entrance that customers could wait to be seated.

Before

After

The Entrance - This is what you see when you open the front doors

 Other Pictures from different angles

Emi (6month pregnant) and owner Eiji

Adam working

Owner Eiji (closest), Chef Takaru (hidden) and Owner Minoru (in back)

 

The Shed

Well here was quite an interesting project a shed with so many layers on it that all it did was leak. I had to fix this building so I could use it. This was a really cool project because I wanted to use as much recycled material as I could.

 I did not think I could save any of what I was seeing. I had a display case that was just sitting around and thought ... that would make a cool window and placed it in the side of the wall. Next I had to re-do the roof ... Holly crap there were 3 layers of tarp various mixed siding, old doors that used to be in the main house. This was a real thing of beauty NOT!!!.

Got rid of the roof and had to use new 2X4's and OSB Plywood.

Ripped off all the siding and finished the roof.

I worked on putting the siding on which is recycled from my cousins fence so it's already treated wood and it looks amazing. We are going to re-use the doors that were on the shed ... Emi is taking all the old paint off and we will put a finish on it. The Idea is sliding Japanese style doors.

Finished off the wood siding and installed the door on a sliding track. It also has a functional lock and you can now use the shed.

I put a little roof over the display case and now the little shed is done. It's amazing what you can do by recycling and re-using old building materials. With a little creativity and imagination you can turn a piece of non-functional mess into a totally enjoyable space.

Before

After