You might not think so but an easel can be a useful addition to your living room. Justin Newcombe shows how.
How many times have you walked into your lounge and thought you needed an easel? Heaps? I know, me too. An easel is a practical contraption, used by artists and rugby coaches to hold a canvas, game plan or any other work in progress. (Perhaps the problem with the Blues is they're actually looking at a Pollock reproduction instead of a game plan).
Antique easels are used by some interior designers as an alternative way to display pictures usually found exclusively on a wall. If you want an antiqued versions of the one I'm building - the softer finish can add much needed life to the modern living area - check out my Anzac Day shoe box for some ideas on ageing a finish.
An easel is a good way to display coffee table books, rotate family portraits, art pieces or other curiosities you mightn't have room for in your on your wall. It could even be a fancy place to put your flat-screen TV. An easel is an alternative place for all that stuff the kids are always bringing home, saving your fridge from looking like a paper booby trap ready to go off every time you want to get the milk out. In my case I've got wooden floors and retro furniture so I wanted to go for a finish which was a little more contemporary, so I settled on "blonding" the timber. "Blonding" is in fact washing the timber with a white stain which lightens it and accentuates the grain. This finish works well on most timbers. I've used dressed pine, mainly because Bunnings has it in convenient lengths which reduce the amount of preparation needed.
To make things easier I stained my timber before I started then touched up small areas where the timber was exposed at the end.
