Furniture Makeover: Bookcase

This post (or any posts, for that matter) is long overdue. During my time spent in captivity inside our apartment because of Hurricane Sandy, I decided that I was going to be productive! While I may not have crossed everything off of my to-do list, I was pretty proud of myself for accomplishing a rather involved furniture restoration project — revamping an old bookcase.

Before

This bookcase holds absolutely no sentimental value. In fact, it was left in our apartment by the previous tenants. We already have a bookcase that we like much better than this one, so we decided that it would be best used as a shoe cubby of sorts. As you can see from the photo, it was in pretty rough shape. Virtually all of the finish had worn off of it, and it was a boring color. All of this wouldn’t really matter so much if it didn’t sit right inside our front door, making it the first thing you see when you come in.

After

After some sanding, staining, and painting of the back panel, I think it looks much better! Only next time, I’ll remember to ventilate our apartment before I start staining — the fumes were more than a little overwhelming! Have you tackled any projects lately?

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Weathering the Storm

A peek into the (closed) entrance to Central Park at the end of my street

Well, it has certainly been an interesting few days here in New York City. Our public transportation has been out of commission since Sunday night, and the subways have just started running again today. Although cabin fever was starting to set in, I have to be thankful that our neighborhood was spared any terrible damage and we never lost our power. I have friends in other parts of the city who are moving temporarily into hotels while they wait for their electricity and water to be restored. And of course, seeing the horrific damage in parts of New Jersey and Queens is humbling — sometimes we forget how powerful Mother Nature is until something like this happens.

I’ve been working out of our apartment for the past few days, and really taking the opportunity to reset and take a deep breath. Sometimes the constant feeling that we have to be going somewhere or doing something is just too much stress to handle. Even though it’s annoying that I can’t just jump on a train and be somewhere else for a while, I’m enjoying the feeling of staying put, writing more, and having more time to prepare something good for dinner each night! I even bought a Cornish game hen to roast last night — more on how that panned out later!

Otherwise, I’ve passed the time not spent working by baking, revamping an old piece of furniture, and making some plans for our Thanksgiving dinner! Hope everyone made it through the storm safe and sound.