A Safe Painting

This is not about Safety.

Today is snowing, really snowing out there, so I'm taking a Snow Day.

I am sitting in my chair, knitting, and look over to the left wall of the living room...

The doorbell speaker from the 60's was here. Now it's not. The hole left from its removal has been covered for the past few years by a framed photo of Covered Bridges. The Covered Bridges were covering the hole. But I already told you that. Now it's not. There's just a hole in the wall.

The boy mentioned something about patching and painting it... sounds pretty banal to me.

I get an idea...

What if I took a pre-framed canvas, like the kind you buy at Michaels in a 3-pack, and painted it to look like a Safe door, outfitted with two hinges on one side, and even a 3D knob as the dial?

How tongue in cheek!

I lifted a frame from my daughter's collection while she was sleeping. I checked the 8 x 10 frame against the hole size... Perfect!

I searched online for images of safes and printed out one that I thought I could duplicate.

I began my scavenger hunt for 3-dimensional objects that I could glue onto the canvas to make it appear like a real Safe.

Dial: I figured it would be easy to find a dial, like the type from an older toaster oven, we have tons of discarded appliances around here (know what I'm talking about...?)

None to be found!!

(I'll look for the other items on my list, and maybe bump into a dial in the meantime.)

Roofing nails: These will make cool rivets! I'll just drill some pilot holes for Safe entry.

Hinges, need hinges... where the heck are they?! Ah, finally found some, mostly gold, some silver. I want silver.

Ooh! A Cone bearing. This is NICE! It turns just like a safe dial would!... I'm not gonna ask permission. What fun is that?

: D

And a black knob to fit inside... easy.

Now for the sprocket wheel thingie: I'm thinking that I wished I would have saved my Tinker toys, 'coz they would be so perfect right now. No such foresight, so I think I'll ransack the Lego collection. Must be some parts there to create what I need.

Yup... out of 3,579 pieces, I found 8 that will create the door handle.

I need to create a solid, steel-looking foundation for my Safe.

I mix a few colors until I've found a steel-looking mix that somehow coordinates with the lustrous steel bearing and matte plastic Lego handle.

(somehow was the goal)

I first paint the edges, then pencil out the objects to be glued on in a bit, so I don't paint there.

Well, sorta.

The Lego handle turns to infinity.

And the cone bearing is so satisfactory in the way that it dials, with that subtle clicking noise.

(I glue everything down the way that it should be.)

(If you're a Stargate fan, you get the reference.)

There was no room to inscribe or paint on any numbers for the dial, so I thought about nondescript symbols... and then immediately thought about Stargate.

I searched for images... and Bingo!... found exactly what I was looking for.

Scaled it down to the size for what I needed, printed, cut it out and glued it onto the canvas, just to the inside of the rim of the bearing.

Time for the hinges... gotta be able to open this thing from the wall.

: D

Penciled out the holes and drilled some pilot holes, for Safe entry.

Time for the rivets, courtesy of 3/4" roofing nails.

Drilled small pilot holes, again, for Safe entry (of the roofing nails).

You'll never know.

And neither will I.

But it sure covered that hole, it did.