Some Steampunkery for the Imaginarium

I've been wanting to do it, and we finally did it.

When I painted this one wall last winter, I had removed a light switch cover, and hadn't replaced it because I didn't want to put the plain, boring one back up. I wanted something special - something to take the first baby steps towards steampunking the Imaginarium. But I hadn't figured out what yet.

The other day we were wandering around in Home Despot, and I spied these little push button switches, and thought, "Ah-ha." After a little more poking and searching, Greg and I put together a scheme (I had the vision, he had the ingenuity to make it work on this one).

And then yesterday I came home from work to discover he'd already put it together. My steampunk light switch.


I like it. A lot.

An Imaginarium Project

There was this strange little cubby up in the Imaginarium, almost like a mini closet with no door.




I had an idea for something I wanted to do with it - I wanted to put little shelves in it, and use it for storing some of my stuff. With Greg's help, I devised a plan of using small pieces of wood for shelf supports, then just laying the shelves across those.

He cut all the pieces for me, and I set about screwing them into the wall - the walls are plaster, and nailing anything in is an excercise in futility, so we settled on this as the best way to go.





It worked great, though I'll tell you, those supports wouldn't come out without ripping the wall apart. They aren't going anywhere.

Then I stained the shelves ...



Then I painted the inside of the cubby, and a bit of angst set in. I'd decided on what I hoped was a lightish shade of purple, and I bought a whole gallon of it, knowing I'd want to use it in other places. But when I painted the cubby, it was a bit too dark.

I didn't want to take it back to the store to have it lightened, because I'd only have basically one shot to get it right. They'd show it to me in the can, I'd have to guess whether that was a good shade or not (something that never works well for me), bring it home, and if it still wasn't right, I'd be stuck.

I'd read online that the easiest way to lighten dark paint was to just buy white, and add the dark to it until you get a shade you like. I thought, that actually sounds like a better idea ... I could use the white and some canning jars I have to mix up various shades from this one gallon of purple and have a lot of options for my Imaginarium decor. So I started one batch, testing colors on a scrap piece of lumber until I got one I liked.

Then, instead of just repainting the entire cubby, I 'pounced' the lighter color on. Kind of like sponge painting, except since I'd forgotten to pick up a sponge anywhere, I just used a rag (but didn't 'roll' it - just pounced it).

It turned out absolutely fantastic. I couldn't be happier with it. These pictures don't quite do the colors or patterning justice, but they're the best I could get. The patterning is really awesome because the colors blend so well, it's very subtle, almost like suede or something. Just really cool.






One thing I'm especially pleased with is how, at the edge on one side, I blended the pouncing into solid color, just because I wanted a more finished look, and didn't want the pouncing all the way to the corner edge.



So yeah, I'm pretty happy with this. I'm planning to install a rod and hang a curtain in front of it, in part to keep out dust, but I haven't gotten to that part yet, and I'm still enjoying admiring my painting job.

The Imaginarium is very drab, color-wise ... off-white walls, olive-ish green carpet, dark brown wood trim and cabinets. I plan to drastically change that over time, and this project is the first step in that direction ... it's now a tiny little color oasis in a sea of drab, but it's inspired me as to how great the whole area is going to look once I get some of my other ideas completed. Well, with it getting into winter now, I plan to spend a lot of time working on this in the coming months.

Moving On ...

I can't dwell on that mess with the robbing, lying thief anymore. So I'll post something more positive.

Today was awesome! The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 60s. We finished up almost all the leaves in the front yard. There's just a few around some shrubs in my dining room garden area, and on the far side of the driveway. But tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and in the 60s again, so we can get back out there and do the last of it then. But the worst of it's done - two huge piles that were in the front yard. I'm really glad we got some late-season good weather to finish that up.

I got to take Tyler for two nice walks today, which he always enjoys. He had a vet checkup today, and blood work - to check his kidney function. After last time, I did about a month's worth of research, till my head was spinning and I couldn't take it anymore. I'd finally devised a diet for him I thought would be okay, but as the months have gone by I've been less and less happy with this current diet. No reason in particular, just ... not too happy. So I'm waiting to see what his blood test results are (will get them Monday). Hopefully, hopefully, his numbers will have come down - which will tell me this diet was, after all, working. If there's any other change, then I'm going to be changing his diet, although I don't know in what way yet. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

But the vet said Tyler seemed to be doing well, he commented on his strong, slow heartrate - a good thing, usually seen in more athletic animals. I have been taking Tyler for more and longer walks lately. Maybe that helped. And Tyler himself seemed to have a very good day - seemed in a good mood, enjoyed his outings and spending time in the yard. (The vet trip was stressful, but he bounced back nicely).

And, I started on my first real Imaginarium project. There's a small cubby in this one wall, sort of like a tiny closet with no shelves or door. I've decided to turn it into just that - a small closet with shelves, and not a door, but probably a decorative curtain covering it. I bought all the supplies last weekend - 1x6 for shelves (cut at the Home Despot where I bought it), stain, paint, etc. Today I begain staining the shelves.

They're not turning out quite as I envisioned, yet. The stain was lighter than I thought, and isn't going on particularly well. So I just put a second coat on, and it's starting to look better. They'll probably need one more, and if I'm still not getting what I want, I may look into getting a darker color (I assume I can stain a darker color over a lighter color, if I haven't polyurethaned them yet). But I'd really prefer just to get what I have to work - this project cost way more than I thought it was going to as it was (and I'm not really done yet, as I don't have the material for the curtain or anything for a rod to hang it from yet).

Tomorrow I'll get the support pieces cut, and work on starting to get them installed. Then I can paint (and continue to work on the shelves). Once the supports are installed and everything's painted, it's just a matter of slipping the shelves onto the supports, and hanging the curtain.

I'm excited ... my first Imaginarium project, thought up entirely by me, and put into motion. I hope I can finish it tomorrow (though that's going to be tricky what with needing paint and stain to dry, etc). When it's done, I'll post pictures.

On that note, I think I'm ready to go crawl into bed and read for awhile before a good night's sleep, and sleeping in tomorrow.