A New Coffee Station

Here it is. First we had a pile of white oak timbers sort of sanded off, measured, and cut to length. Brad is the builder. He has been so kind and patient with our brainstorms and gets enthused with us. I wanted a little coffee buffet and he seemed happy to help. So from our stash came these boards. We tried running them through a planer, but they have lots of rustic personality part of which makes them uneven and stubborn about getting forced through a planer. Elv says the planer needs to have new blades, but I think it's worse than that. These boards are what they are, so be it.
I wanted barn wood, right? And rustic. So these are perfect.
When I came home from work last night he had it standing by the wall ready for finishing. I put two coats of water based sealer/topcoat stuff that I often use for my projects. Next week, I ought to add two more coats, sanding between coats to make it shine even more. He put the screws straight in through the timbers with a rather rustic result of being able to see each and very one of them.  In this case it is just fine with me. I showed him afterward how it would work to put them in at a slant underneath to have them all hiding. He put quite a few hours of careful work into this project.

   Dena, the tea boxes turned out to be these white canisters that were sitting just for pretty in our kitchen. We found them at the used shop awhile back and couldn't leave them behind; but frankly, I hadn't really put them to use.

Elv wants to get an electric receptacle installed here for us. Who knew that the old thermostat box I have been hiding behind a calendar for so many years would "land" in the perfect place to have electricity here now.
Liz, Rosie, and Ruthie will recognize some of this collection, of course. Still have to get a couple of braided runners to complete it.