The Reveal!
At long last the radiator cover is finished! I started this project all the way back in November, and as usual - thought I could do it in a weekend. It all started because so much work had been done on the dining room,
but the one last (and ugly) thing that remained was the radiator:
So, in November, off to work I went...
I had done some rough calculating...
And had rough-sketched the idea...
But still ended up with a bit of a mess. The end panels were poorly designed and had to be re-fashioned:
I also put in features to try to tie the cover in with features on the hutch, table, plant stand and the built-in. In this case, a plinth with the fleur-de-lis, and some rope applique:
And the cover really began to take shape:
A couple coats of primer and a few more of paint later:
All the pieces in the dining room are painted with Valspar's Polar Star in exterior enamel:
It's funny because in most light, the Polar Star doesn't look nearly as gray, as a matter-of-fact - it really looks like a toned-down white. Which was actually part of the master plan way back when the years-long dining room makeover first began with the dining room table:
Anyway, the next step was applying the antiquing glaze. For most of the pieces in the dining room, the glazing was done with Valspar's antiquing glaze.
But, when it came time to glaze the built-in, Valspar had discontinued this product. After faaar too much research, I settled on General Finish's glaze.
It's a good product, and worked great on the built-in, but it has waaay too fast a drying time. I started glazing the radiator cover with it, but it ended up just looking dirty...
So I had to do some re-painting...
Then, lucky me, I found that I still had half a bottle of Valspar's glaze in the workshop. This was so much better with a 15 minute dry time! And with that, the cover is finished!
And looking down the other way, you can even see the plant stand in the background...
Finally, here it is in its natural habitat:
See ya soon!