Wall hanging racks for the dining hall

In a bid to clean up the mess

Our dining hall is pretty big with a concrete shelf built on the east side with 2 windows. Now wherever there is a space, things tend to get put on it and end result is clutter. This shelf was no exception and was choc a bloc with small kitchen appliances (toaster, mixer, coffee maker et al), plus food items like biscuit  & fruits.

But the real mess was made by the cats (no less than 5 in the house) who tend to jostle for space to bask in the sunlight, which is aplenty near the easterly window.

There was something to be done, and in the end the cats won ! I decided to build 2 hanging racks to store the sundry items, and free up the window space for them.

The racks needed to be of different sizes as one would end over a switchboard below which the microwave oven would be kept. The other would span the entire length of the window and sit beside the same.

Had some 12 mm plywood, so wasted no time in cutting them to size using my makeshift 'table saw' (I have since made a better version of the so called 'table saw' and hope to improve more on the same), and slapped the pieces together using pocket hole joinery + fevicol.

The pocket holes are on the inside

This is how the smaller rack looked after joinery was completed

This is both the small one and the large one together after I put 1/2 inch beading on the front. 

In the foreground you can see my makeshift 'table saw'. In the background, my biggest project till date which I shall write about in a future post.

Now around this time (in August 2015), I had bought the FERM HVLP paint sprayer machine. Decided to break out the same for first use on this rack and boy was I pleasantly surprised! This is what I had to say about the machine (in another forum) after using it for the first time :

Painted 2 shelves (intended for kitchen/dining hall usage) with white wood primer this afternoon.

At first while checking with the viscosity cup I was a little apprehensive of thinning down the primer so much, but all worries were put to rest Once I poured the thinned primer in the paint cup and started spraying. 

Horizontal and vertical spray patterns made easy work of spraying onto various sides and racks, and I finished the 2 shelves (20" x 14" , and 40" x 14") in about 20 mins.

The amount of primer used was also a lot less than what would have been used if I had brushed it on.

After painting was done, cleaned the paint cup with NC thinner, and also sprayed NC thinner to clean the lines. Then used a rag soaked in thinner to clean the tip and nozzle parts after dismantling them.

Overall - I feel the Ferm HVLP machine is a very good investment for DIY spray painting.

Coming back to the painting part - I first primed the shelves (2 coats) and then painted them. All paint and primer was Asian Paints.

Here's the smaller shelf primed+painted 1 coat, and the bigger shelf only primed.

Here's the smaller shelf and the bigger shelf primed and painted (2 coats)

Finally after drying, hung them up in the dining hall and they got filled up real quick. The place surely looks much well organized now, and the cats can now bask in the morning sun all they want !