I have this twenty year old Oak chest that has lots of dings and does not match the rest of the living. I stripped it down, sanded all the finish off, and took the white cloth seat off.

I then stained the Oak a darker color after sanding down all the dings that the wood had acquired over the year, we purchased some black pleather and wrapped the seat in this after using some adhesive to keep it to the cotton cushion.

When I moved into my house the fireplace wall was covered in plaster molding, I did not like the look of this and it made it impossible to mount a TV above the fireplace. We decided to tare the wall down completely and redo it with a stone fireplace. The stone that used was from “Brighton Stone”, http://www.brightonstone.com/. They had 12″x6″x1.5″ tiles that had been pre-cut for easy laying.

I then built a seat out of 4″x6″ planks of wood and cement board. I used lag screws to hold the 4″x6″ pieces together.

I setup the frame and mesh for the new stone border.

This was my first time laying down cement so I did not go crazy with it. If I were to do it again i would have built a frame that came off the wall. I placed a small piece of wood to keep the stone from dripping down over the fireplace, I only let this sit for 1 day, I should have let it sit for a couple of days as it did dip a little after removing the wood.

I then built a mantle our of  6×1 boards with a 4×4 as the mount.

Here is the finished product.

This blog will be used to document the different projects I work on related to Linux/Android, Microcontrollers, CNCs, PCB design, Golf Carts, etc…