The pillar project

 My mom is an amazing creator.  She has a gift for being able to see the final product of a project before she's even gotten started.  She also has serious staying power once the project has started.  She rarely gets flustered or annoyed.  If a problem creeps up (and they always do!) she always knows how to overcome them.  Over the last couple of years she has taught me so much (stained glass, moulding, refinishing furniture, tiling, building, painting and more).  Recently, she has suggested that we do a project in my house and she would help me with whatever I needed from her expertise.

So, I made a mental list of projects I have wanted to do, but have been scared of tackling myself because I don't have quite enough confidence to take on something major by myself.  I chose the pillar in my entryway as our first challenge because I thought it would be the easiest and gently push my skill level.

Initially, it looked like this (but without hardboard surrounding it).  It is a structural post that was simply covered with wall board and painted.  It was nothing special friends.






I started by looking at pictures of pillars inside homes that I did like.  And, although we didn't copy any particular pillar exactly, we did take bits and pieces from several pictures and created our own finished product.




This was during the ugly stage of project pillar.  And, since I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands, there were a couple of weeks where the pillar looked exactly like this.  Whenever someone would stop by and come in the front door they'd immediately ask me what the heck I was doing?  It was hard not to notice my new eye sore pillar.




Fortunately, after weeks of hard work by me, my mom and especially Wes, the pillar project was finished.




I am super happy with the results.  One of my goals during the project was to keep the costs as low as possible since I have two more pillars in the kitchen that I want to build up just like this one.




A lot of the wood is MDF, but we decided to put hardwood around the base since it will get lots of knocks from the kids, vacuum and toys.



The improvement of this pillar makes a huge difference in the beauty of the entryway.  I'm amazed at how much I notice it every day.



Next item on the agenda...fireplace mantle.

**Extra kudos to the person who can tell me the significance of the umbrella in the last couple of photos**