I was back at work today. Still no real projects, but still, with a meeting and some office things to do, I stayed busy. I had to run to the office supply store so I stopped a Home Depot and picked up polyurethane for the studio shelves. I got a gallon of the clear coat in a satin finish to match the finish of the paint. I put the first coat on tonight. The plan is to put on three coats total, wet sanding between coats two and three. The polyurethane smells a little but I got the stuff my brother recommended. I’m sure it’ll be fine. It is water based. I applied the clear coating with a sponge brush. Note the can says I have to wait a week!!! before I can use the shelves. Ugh my studio is never going to be done.

Here are my supplies for clear coating the horizontal surfaces of my shelves in the studio: foam brushes, a finish sand paper block and some water based “varnish”.

One other thing I bought at the store were a couple more LED light bulbs; 60 watt equivalent bulbs. I spend so an inordinate amount of time staring, evaluating and sometime purchasing LED light bulbs. Today’s purchase added to my small collection…just the other day we bought a 60W equiv. “bright white” and “daylight” bulb. Bright white is 3000K. Daylight is 5000K.  Both are around 800 lumens. I wanted to compare to see which I liked in my newly renovated studio. Today I picked up two more “bright whites” because I liked the previous one we bought, when we used it at the art show last weekend. Well turns out I don’t like “bright white”. I compared one to an incandescent bulb in my office and the LED bulb was made the space to lifeless; too bright.  So I’m going to take back the two new ones, and the daylight bulb, and get the “soft white” LED bulb for my studio lights. I did consider the fact that I’d be painting art in the space, but the lighting is only a factor at night and frankly I’d rather paint in a softer light instead of realistic “daylight” or even “bright white” light.

These LED’s are going back. The “bright white” is to cold, even at a claimed 3000K. I didn’t even bother opening up the “daylight” bulb.

Lastly tonight I’ll leave you with pics from our trip to Crate & Barrel. We stopped to look at their plates the other day. And as usual we saw a lot of awesome stuff there. I wish it was like the old days when we both had jobs and could buy whatever at will. Now we have the house but no means to buy anything. That didn’t stop me from dreaming though.  Here are some of the cooler things we saw and loved. ( I think the chest is something we’ll take a stab at making ourselves for the front hall. And I’m on the fence about the metal wall art…even if we’re destitute we may still consider it to cozy up the place…I really like the rusted metal one, though it’s a circle and not a square so not sure I’m digging that.)

This clock looks better in person, though the color isn’t quite right for our kitchen. Anyway it is pretty cool.

Neat hanging lamp that would look good in my studio.

Really awesome rusted metal wall art. Simple thin wall box tube cut offs welded together. Wish it was rectangular…I would have bought it on the spot. Maybe I’ll make my own.

Would love to have a new bedroom set. Our current set was nice 13 years ago. Plus I like the idea of a bed that isn’t as tall as our current one.

These orange chairs would look perfect in our dining room. They aren’t cheap.

Cool metal grate art.

Very cool fish print wall art at Crate & Barrel.

Dinosaur art that would look great in my studio. I like dinosaurs.

Cool Atwood chest at Crate & Barrel. Might be interesting to create a less deep (<20″) version for our front foyer.