Built-in Entertainment Center and Fireplace

Courtney’s built-in entertainment center and fireplace are complete and THEY…LOOK…FABULOUS!  If you haven’t been following along, you can read all of Courtney’s progress posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.   Courtney did a fantastic job on this project.  I got to see it in person a few weeks ago and have to say that I am a proud teacher!  I just walked around looking at it for a good while admiring her work, forgetting that we had a short window of good lighting for photos.  I got some GOOD ones though, as you see!

Built-in Entertainment Center and Fireplace

When Courtney first emailed me about doing a project together, she said she wanted to build some built-ins on each side of her fireplace.  This is the picture she attached to the email.  We set up a Skype session and I only had to do a little convincing before Courtney agreed that we needed to address the entire wall, including the fireplace surround and mantle.

OK, I might have had to do a little more than a little convincing but the end story is that Courtney took a leap of faith and agreed to take on a much bigger project than what she was expecting to initially.

Of course it ended up costing more and taking longer than simply building bookcases would have — but the transformation tells it all!   This is a stunning feature wall now!

 

Courtney kept me on my toes through this project.  We had many Skype sessions where we’d just sit and look at her progress and discuss next steps and different approaches.   One thing I learned about Courtney is that she is a planner.  She wanted to understand what was coming in the next 5 steps and she analyzed every step and every suggestion.    She would frequently text or email me to ask “why”– not only about her project but whenever she would read a Facebook update or blog post I would write about my personal projects.  She wanted to understand why I chose a certain material, why I chose a specific fastener or joint technique, why I did something one way instead of another.  I loved that Courtney was soaking up as much knowledge and understanding she possibly could throughout this experience.

She’s a scientist — but I think she’s got a little sawdust in her blood.  🙂

 

I love this room and I love the fact that this cute little thing (Courtney) built the entire thing all by herself!  We can accomplish amazing things with a little confidence in ourselves, hard work and perserverence.  There is always a time, in every big project, where you get to a point where you are so tired and sick of looking at it and working on it that you just want to erase the whole thing, rewind, go back and NOT make the decision to take it on.  It happens to me EVERY TIME.  It happened to Courtney.  But she didn’t quit.  She kept going and got it done and now she has this amazing room and all the knowledge and experience she gained by taking on the massive build that will help her and propel her in her next project.

I hope to see many more amazing projects from Courtney.  I mean seriously…look at what this girl can do!

And I HOPE that Courtney continues to share her projects on TheSawdustDiaries because  I have a feeling she is going to knock out some more eye candy awesomeness!  Once you build something like this, you can’t stop!

I’m so glad to have had the chance to go through this process with Courtney, to have been a part of helping her learn and grow and build something so amazing.  It’s always a learning process for me too, working with a client, because I have to think about things in a different way in order to express my idea to someone who thinks and processes information differently than I do.  It makes me more aware of my own choices and processes.

So thank you Courtney!

Thank you for making me analyze and explain and draw pictures of every detail…and for taking a leap of faith and trusting in me and in yourself and creating a masterpiece.  I am SO proud of you!

 

Read all of Courtney’s progress posts:Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.