The walls were painted with a
high wainscoting of green with
a lighter green above.

Rug & Carousel

A young couple with a passion for do-it-yourself projects and entertaining turned a plain cottage dining room into a place for friends to gather. With help from a designer, the couple energized the room with tangy, citrus-colored walls, lightened woodwork, and built modern furniture, including a corner wine rack, a table, and a wine carousel; using items from the hardware store and lumberyard.

See these projects below and on the following pages.

This painted sisal carpet pulls the dining room's scheme together, incorporating all the room's colors in its stripes (the yellow is a nod to the golden hue of the birch plywood). The wider stripes play up the accent colors of the slipcovered chairs and are interspersed with narrow stripes of the two greens on the walls.

Sisals vary in coarseness, but all soak up paint. If you're using five or six colors on an 8 x 10-foot rug, as we did, plan on a gallon for each color.

It's easiest to use a paint pad for each color; bristle or foam brushes won't saturate the rug's surface as well. Pads vary from 1 to 9 inches wide; turn one sideways to cover a wide stripe quickly.

1. Place a drop cloth under the carpet. There's no need to mask off each stripe: Follow the rug's weave for crisp lines. Determine each stripe's width and the placement of each color. Then work one stripe at a time when painting the whole rug so each has time to dry to the touch before you paint the next stripe.

2. To apply paint, dip the paint pad into a shallow container of paint, dragging the pad across the container's rim to evenly saturate the pad. Press the pad into the rug's fibers; don't use a brushing motion. Repeat for other stripes and colors.

3. Let the carpet dry for two to three days before putting it into service.

What You Need: Tools:

 

This lazy Susan can also step up to
the plate as a floral centerpiece.

• Measuring tape
• Pencil
• Protractor
• Compass with pencil
• Hacksaw
• C-clamps
• Drill with 1/4-inch- and 3/4-inch-diameter wood-boring bits
• 3-1/2-inch (outside diameter) hole saw
• Router with chamfer bit
• Paintbrush
• Sandpaper

 

Diagram 1

• Three 14-inch-diameter 3/4-inch plywood circles for base (O), lower plate (P), and top plate (Q)
• One 1/4-inch-diameter, 20 threads-per-inch (tpi) threaded rod, 40 inches long
• Polyurethane
• One 12-inch-diameter lazy-Susan bearing
• Screws to fit lazy-Susan apparatus
• Twenty 1/4-inch nuts and flat washers

1. To determine the placement of the five openings, locate the center point on the top plate (Q) with a measuring tape. From the center point, use a protractor and pencil to mark a radius every 36 degrees, dividing the circle into 10 equal sections. Using the same center point, use a compass with pencil to draw two circles on the top plate -- one 3/4 inch from the edge and another 2-1/2 inches from the edge (the two circles will be 12-1/2 and 9 inches in diameter, respectively).

2. Use a hacksaw to cut the threaded rod into five 8-inch lengths; thread a nut onto the portion you're cutting so you can back it off the end and straighten any threads damaged during cutting. To drill the holes for the threaded rods, first clamp the top plate (Q) and lower plate (P) together. Drill a 1/4-inch hole on every other radius line along the outer marked circle. Unclamp the plates, switch to the hole saw, and drill five 3-1/2-inch holes in the top plate (Q) with the center points on the other five radius lines where the inner circle intersects them. (See Diagram 1, to verify hole locations.)

3. To mount the lazy-Susan bearing to the underside of the lower plate (P), drill a 1-inch access hole in the base (O) as indicated. Rout a 1/2-inch chamfer on the bottom edge of the base and top plate. Drill 3/4-inch-diameter counter-bores in the bottom surface of the lower plate to recess the washers and nuts.

4. Use a paintbrush to apply two coats of polyurethane to all plywood components, letting dry, then sanding between coats.

5. Install the threaded rods, keeping the top and lower plates parallel.

6. Mount the lazy-Susan bearing to the base (O), then, through the 1-inch access hole, fasten the base to the plate assembly with screws.