Summer Projects

So because I am moving yet again to a new apartment, but this time by myself, I have discovered that I need some furniture. Namely a couch and a coffee table. One of my good friends just kind of gave me her futon that she no longer wanted so I guess that could count as a couch. But I also wanted a desk and a coffee table. My Dad solved the desk problem this morning by saying I could borrow my Grandmother's old roll top desk that has been in our family for years and years. My dad proposed that we build the rest of the furniture that I wanted. I agreed, because he has so much experience and knowledge with furniture building and I could learn a lot with him. He said that I would have to design and then draft the plans for the furniture and he would help with the actual building part of the project. This way I can practice my drafting over the summer and in the process create something that I will have and use for quite a while.

I'm very excited about these projects.

Along with the coffee table I am going to be building a matching TV stand.

So yesterday I went to Target because my printer ran out of color ink, and it is finals week and I need to make my art history flashcards to study from. While I was there I naturally looked at the furniture section to get ideas for what I kind of wanted to design, when I came across a wicker trunk that I really liked. I checked the price and it was $80. It looked something like this:
So I called my Dad again asking him to keep his eyes open on Craigslist or whatever for one that was similar. He just said that we could build a Hope Chest instead along with my proposed coffee table and TV stand. I liked the idea.
A Hope Chest is supposed to be a wooden chest or trunk that unmarried women collects household items in like bed linens and kitchen things in anticipation to marriage. Now this is a good idea, albeit a little old fashioned. I think it would be good to modify such a great idea to cater to college students and young women and men who are getting ready to move out of their parent's house and get out on their own. Marriage not necessary.
Thinking back to it,the three plus months between my last day at Millikin and my move in date in Chicago I had made a sort of hope chest out of a plastic storage tub in my basement. I slowly accumulated the things that I needed to move to Chicago and kept them in that plastic storage tub. And that is the basic theory behind the hope chest, is to collect items to prepare for life on your own. Since I'm pretty much moved out of my parents house and pretty much on my own already, I don't really feel the need for a hope chest in it's traditional sense. Also traditionally it held the wedding dress and things for the wedding day as well....I don't plan on folding my wedding dress into a trunk....I also don't plan on buying my wedding dress before I'm engaged or anything.
I just want a nice trunk to hold my extra sheets and blankets.

So I'm building myself a trunk, while the idea of the hope chest is fantastic and I love it, I don't really need one.

If I ever have kids, they will most definitely get one when they start high school to collect things to prepare themselves for moving out to college or out of the house in general.

I love furniture.