Home Theater #31 - Drawer Fronts and More Stone Laying

I finally had time to get back to the theater project. I made the drawer-fronts shown in the picture from the left over pine wainscot boards. In the photo, the wood is pretty light - but actually is looks quite a bit darker in the room.


Here is a picture of the stone we laid up the other evening. I wanted to get to it sooner, but life keeps getting in the way.

The dark much shows the area we added. It's a little less than 20 square feet - not a lot - but I did in the evening after work. With set-up and clean-up we really only had a couple of hours into it. I guess I am not very speedy, but then again these are fairly tight areas, and we are mixing various kinds of stone to get the rustic look.

The mud will dry to the grey color in a couple of days...

One of the things that makes a stone job look professional is how clean it is. Sticking the stones to the wall is actually the easier part - striking the joints is where the works is...


Here is my technique for getting the joints to look "perfect":

Fill any joints you need to so there are no holes. I do this as I am laying the stones.

Let the mud set up for 20 to 30 minutes. It should be stiff, but not solid.

Use a flat-jointer to scrape the mud back out of the joints to the depth you want. The flat-jointer is also called a tuck-pointer

Use a whisk broom to clean out the joints and remove any extra mud from the stone

Use a wire brush to clean out the edges of joints, so they are nice a crisp. Also clean off any mud the whisk broom couldn't get.

Check for anything that doesn't look good: little holes, clumps of mud in corners, etc.

Whisk broom again.

Sponge off the stones, use the wire brush for any last bits that have not come off.

If you are not done, be sure the scrape the mud back on top of the stones so you have a clean surface when you start again.

It's an involved process, but will give you good results. I give myself as much time for this as I do for fitting and laying the stone.

If you are DIY, don't be in a hurry. Work with small areas so it does not get away from you. You can't come back later and make it right - it will be dry.

Small clamps from IKEA - Cheap!

We bought these "super" clothes pins at IKEA a while ago. They work great for clamping small stuff - the jaws open to about 3/4" - and they are fairly strong. I needed to glue a foam gasket in place, and about eight of these did the trick...


In typical IKEA fashion, these are really cheap - 50 pins for $2.

Home Theater #30 - Laying Stone

I started laying the stone this afternoon. I got about 25% done with the wall after a couple of hours, as shown in the picture below.


This is a mixture of about 4 different types of cultured stone, which is the same as we did on the fireplace. I like the effect - it's a more custom look that you get with just one type.  The key is to make sure the larger round stones are spread out, and fill in with the horizontal ones. I put a large one in about every two square feet. 

Most of the work in laying up the cultured stone is in pointing, striking and brushing. This is where you get professional looking results. 

Tomorrow I am going to have my DW and daughter help out, and hopefully get most of the rest of it put in.