"Stephen M" wrote in message
...
Rob makes a good suggestion.

I have a natural maple sill in my kitchen which gets a little bit of rain
on
a windy rainy day if the window is left open. The water-based poly is just
not up to that. I'm just not convinced that a natural-finish window sill
is
all that good of an idea.

The bay window has a granite sill to match the counters.... that rocks
;-).

I would say go with solid surface or paint.

-Steve

You make me think about it, but I lived in a house before that had painted
shelves at each window and it was fine. So I'm thinking I'll still go with
clear wood, and if there gets to be a problem over time I still have the
option of painting. If I avoid water based finish and use something like
Thompson's Water Seal maybe it'll fare better. I've used Swedish
penetrating oil in the bathroom and never had a problem there, either, and
I've got lots left. Mind you we only stayed in that house another five
years after putting in the pine panelling. My wife is not averse to putting
a piece of glass over it either, but now we're talking more trouble than I
want right now.

So the choice is between oak, maple, and pine in that order. I'm not
crazy about oak because of the open grain, but I do want it to be reasonably
close to the floor (which is currently covered by carpet but that's likely
to change someday).

I've been mulling it over and here's what I've been thinking: Oak board
6 1/2" wide (1/2" for the slot it sits in), extending 3 or 4" beyond each
side of the window. The painted pine vertical side moldings will butt
against it at right angles. I'll use sliding dovetails to attach it to two
oak support brackets of the same thickness as the shelf, with some simple
wavy pattern along the diagonal of the mostly triangular shape. The corners
of the shelf away from the wall will be rounded on a 1" radius or
thereabouts, and all edges not meeting the wall will be given a roundover on
the router table. The sliding dovetails will allow me to remove and replace
if the need arises, which it will when we paint the walls.

The only thing I haven't figured out is how to attach the supports,
because I can't depend on a stud being exactly where I want it.
Alternatively I can attach a long board underneath the shelf, parallel to
the wall, and attach brackets to it. But now we're starting to use up more
wood than I'd prefer to look at.

It's not a fait accompli, but that's what I'm considering now. Gosh I'm
verbose--sorry. What do you think?

- Owen -