From Dresser to T.V. Console

Remember back when I posted my very first furniture project. It was a bedroom set makeover, and the catalyst that sent me from buying new matchy-matchy furniture into finding furniture that just needed a little lovin' and "elbow grease" (which is a term that has always sounded gross and unsanitary to me.) to look pretty again.

Anyway, that bedroom set had a good life after I made it over, but eventually I started making changes. The first change had to do with the mirrors, which I made into part of that Christmas wall gallery. After Christmas was over, I decided to transform them back into mirrors and use them for the mirrors on my makeup vanity and they are now living happily ever after on top of the vanity. I sold the nightstands because they were too low for the new mattress set we bought last year. I did keep the armoire for our bedroom TV and have so far left it alone, but as far as the dresser goes, I ended up deciding not to put it in our new bedroom. The space would have been too crowded between it and my vanity, so we moved it to our basement where it sat untouched for several months until I decided it would make a great TV console. Not a super unique idea, but I wanted something to fit our board games, along with space for the miscellaneous crap I hide when it's time to clean up for company, and I had already sold our existing entertainment armoire so we were using a shoe rack from Ikea as a replacement.

After I decided what I wanted to do with it, I got to work (after much procrastinating). Since I like that "eclecta-cottage" look (a term that I should really trademark...), I decided to chalk paint it and distress it, because what's more awesome than making pieces of furniture look like they have been through a war? I chose the same color as my dining table, Sherwin Williams, "Watery"

Here's some before shots, which you probably remember...

before makeover #1

before makeover #2

The first thing I did, of course, was paint it using the chalk paint. After I did that, I used an orbital sander to distress it so that the previous paint color would show through (Actually, I planned to sand the original paint off and then paint the areas I wanted to distress black, so that color would show through when I distressed it, but I was too lazy.) I had never used an electric sander before, but it turned out to be quite fun, so much fun that I got a little carried away on a few areas...

As you can see, I stayed with the original hardware, which I decided to spray paint flat white, to give it the "lighter-fresher" look that I'm going for in the house. Originally, I didn't think to distress the pulls, but I did drop a few of them so they kind of distressed themselves and it ended up working out.

Then, it was time to make a shelf for the electronics to sit on. At first, I wanted to take just the center drawer out, but the DVD player wouldn't quite fit, so I decided to take the other two top drawers out.Then, I took out the little drawer glide thingy's and sat some spare particle board on top so I could put all of the electronics on those. After the shelf was in, the mister used some weird attachment on his drill that looked like a big circle, cookie cutter, thingy to drill the holes in the back for the cords. He was just about finished when our drill started smoking before meeting it's demise, so he had to punch out the rest of the hole by hand.

probably should have had him drill those holes before I painted it to avoid the extra distressing...

I did plan on adding some whitewashing and a little bit of glaze, but I got too impatient so I didn't. I didn't put a protector on it either, which I may, or may not, regret some day. However, I think it works for now and I'm pretty okay with how it turned out (even though I need to fix it so the ugly cords don't piss me off every time I look at them).

So there you have it.

One Post, Two Little Projects.

While I've been busy with dance competition season (which, thankfully, is almost over), swimming and gymnastics lessons, trying to get us settled into the new house (I'll post a few pictures, soon.),and working on getting all the paperwork ready for my trip to Africa, I've completely forgotten that I also needed to post about a couple of my recent projects! Don't hold your breath because they aren't all that awesome, but they do include dressing up one of Diva's bookshelves, a second redo of the kitchen table that I refinished quite a while ago, re-purposing my old dresser, and making a totally cool headboard (okay, the last two aren't finished yet, but I am hoping to get the dresser done this week and the headboard done before the year is over).

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen the pictures, but since I know there are people who still aren't on Instagram (cough, cough...my sister), I'll go ahead and post them here to give you all a little break from all of the posting that I will be doing about my journey to Africa.

Project #1 is hardly worth mentioning and I think we've all seen it a million times on Pinterest so I'm not even going to watermark it, but since it technically does qualify as a restyle, I'll post it anyway.

I simply took Diva's boring white bookcase and added a little shelf paper that I got from Target to the back to give it a little something extra. It was very quick and really easy, though I do advise having a credit card with you to smooth out any bubbles and also that you take a deep breath when the pattern doesn't line up perfectly between the two, or more sections you have to use to cover the back.

I didn't take a "before" picture, but I'm sure you can picture the white back that it used to have.

Project #2 was a quick restyle of the kitchen table that I had previously redone clear back in 2012. When I say quick, I mean it. I literally did it in two days, just a few days before we moved into the new house. I didn't really plan on it until I realized that the extra paint I had left over from painting the dresser (which was also painted in the same time frame) would would also look cute on the kitchen table and because I had already decided that I needed to replace two of the chairs, one due to the Tyrannosaurus Rex incident the week that I finished the table the first time and one because I just couldn't find any chairs that would work with it (Surprisingly enough, it's hard to pull off mismatched chairs!), I figured I may as well give the table a new look, too. So I slapped some paint on there, decided it looked pretty good, and kept going. I also put about five coats of polycrylic on it to try to protect it from the ridiculous amount of wear and tear my family puts on furniture.

Here's what it looked like after the first time I redid it:

and here's what it looks like now:

The ladder back chairs were already white, so I didn't need to do anything to them, but the other two chairs are"new" ones that I found via Facebook. They are actually the very chairs that inspired me to go to Africa. They were originally a dark aqua blue, which didn't look quite right with the table, so I decided to paint them white. Only this time, I had a friend of my sisters paint them because I needed them sprayed to match the other ones, and there was no way I was going to spray in my new garage!


For the table, I used the chalk paint recipe that I always use mixed with Sherwin Williams "Watery", which is a great soft blue from their coastal collection and goes with the whole cottage-like atmosphere that I'm trying to create.

From Desk to Vanity

Hi, remember me?...

Now, why would anyone give me away??

...that ugly desk that Jen bought from the thrift store for $25 when there was still snow on the ground and said she was going to turn it into something beautiful? Well, she finally did and here is the long awaited blog post all about the excitement, the heart ache, the near mental breakdowns and the sweet, sweet joy of finally getting a project finished after several months.

 Originally, I planned to still use it as a desk and refinish it for our office, but then I realized that I had a major problem:

...and that wasn't even half of it. 

My makeup, skincare, and hair products had taken over my bathroom, and quite frankly it was getting to be a pain in the ass to move everything constantly to clean the sink. Not only that, but I could never find what I needed. I was constantly looking for primer, or foundation, or anything else related to girly primping.

...and I had always wanted a vanity...

I got to work right away (okay, it was a few months after we unloaded it into the garage.)

One of the first things I had to fix was the veneer that had chipped on the top.

I took a stiff putty knife and shoved it under the veneer and started prying pieces off:

 It was actually a great stress reliever, but after a few dozen pieces flew up at me, I remembered that I liked seeing out of my eyes and so I got my safety glass and continued to rip up the veneer:

 At this point, I realized that I hadn't really thought ahead about what I would replace the top with, but I decided to worry about that another day and began working on the drawers and the fabulous hardware they came with:

After, I had taken off the hardware and puttied the holes, I primed the entire desk with Kilz Oil-based Primer. Then, I used a homemade chalk paint recipe that I had found online and mixed some gray paint left over from Destructo's room and a pink shade of paint that Lowe's had samples of. I ended up deciding to paint the drawers pink and the rest of the body the light gray. After I did that, I took black acrylic paint and swiped it wherever I felt like:

After that was done, I put another coat of the chalk paint over the drawers and desk and then sanded them down a bit. The drawers didn't look quite how I wanted them to, so I put a coat of the gray paint on them, and then painted them again with the pink paint before sanding them down. I also applied just a little of Valspar antiquing glaze in a few spots on the desk. I was going for a shabby chic look, but I didn't want to be too obvious.

I found some adorable knobs at Hobby Lobby that fit my shabby chic theme and had Studly attach them (He is a little more precise then I am at measuring.). I also replaced the feet because the other ones just didn't do it justice...and they were also ugly.

It was definitely starting to look damn good, if I do say so myself (and I do.)

 However, with every project there is a snag and mine was the top of the vanity as I still hadn't figured out what to do with it. I didn't want to put new veneer on it, because the online tutorials looked like there would be too many steps to follow and since I couldn't even finish the YouTube video explanations without falling asleep, I passed. I thought about mod podging scrapbook paper onto the top like I had seen on Pinterest, but I couldn't find a pattern that I liked. Then, I thought about fabric instead, but when I cut the fabric, I kind of destroyed it and so that was out, too. For about a week, I stared at the ugly particle board top, out of ideas (that wouldn't be too much work.)

Then, one day Diva started talking about how she learned how to make stuff out of duct tape in one of her classes at school and asked if she could duct tape a nightstand that we had handed down to her. After seeing the results, a light bulb went off in my brain.

"Duct tape!", I told Studly as I opened the shopping bag that night.
"What the hell for?"
"My vanity top, silly! We are going to duct tape it!"

He looked at me like I lost my mind, but he listened to my idea anyway and helped me duct tape away.

 

It took a roll and a half of white duct tape to finish it off:

My favorite part is that it kind of looks like wood planks, which is an idea that I had earlier, but had scratched thinking about the work required to seal it and how sucky it would be to clean between the planks

(Remember people, I'm all about convenience.)

A mirror was the next step. 

Luckily, I already had one that I had recycled twice before: 

The first "recycle" was when I painted my very first piece of furniture, which is what started this whole thing.

The second time, was as part of the Christmas display over my mantel last Christmas, when I took the side mirrors off, removed the glass out of each of them and replaced it with chicken wire, Santa, and a Merry Christmas!

 Luckily, I had kept the glass...Just in case I needed it again.

This happened to be the "just in case" project. So, after finding all of the parts to the mirror, I put the glass back in the side mirrors and repainted them to match the dresser. However, there was just one minor setback that happened when I was stapling the backs back on:

 Whoopsie!

Not to worry, like most of my other projects, disaster seemed to spur creativity in me and I soon came up with an alternate idea for that side mirror.

Instead of a mirror, it became a necklace rack. All I had to do was put some fabric over the cardboard that was supposed to cushion the glass from breaking (a job it obviously did not do) and then I just used spray adhesive (which smells quite flammable) to attach it before placing those handy little command hooks in random spots all over it:

Well, isn't he funny after midnight?

 After everything else was done, I took my trusty hot glue gun and added a little something to the edges of my new vanity.

I think I almost passed out when I saw the finished project. Mostly because I couldn't believe it was finally finished!

Anyway, let's get to the before and afters, shall we?

 ...and a few more pictures, just for fun and giggles:

The vanity stool is from Target. I had wanted it for several months, but didn't want to spend the original price which I believe was around $100 and even the reduced the price to around $60 was too high. So, when I saw it for under $18, I was like, "SOLD!" I think it's perfect, don't you?

This is the only time that you will be able to see this much surface.

.

(It doesn't exactly say Shabby Chic, but 5 Daytime light bulbs definitely helps you see that zit you need to pop.)

(...and when that zit needs special attention, we have a back up.)

Diet Coke: The Decor that goes with anything.

One more before and after shot?
Well, okay...

Well, that's it for now. I've got to go use this thing to make some magic happen for this face, run some errands, and then do my statistics homework (jealous?).

(Oh, and I also have to finish up taking pictures of my other project that I've been working on....Stay tuned.)

Baby Noah's Crib Reveal

I'm pretty sure I told you all about Baby Noah's crib, but I'll recap (because, I'm up way too late working on the blog and I don't have time to read back through all of my recent posts to see how much I revealed.

Here we go:

My cute next door neighbor, Emily approached me when she was pregnant, having seen some of my projects, and asked me if I would paint her crib for her. I had two thoughts: 1. I was totally flattered and 2. I was instantly terrified. This is because when I paint my own stuff, I don't have to worry about being perfect, but a crib for someone else that people were actually going to see, that's a different story. However, even though I was extremely nervous, I decided to try it. What was the worse that could happen? Uh....I could destroy a perfectly good piece of furniture that she would end up hating (although, I would never know because she suffers from extreme and genuine sweetness and probably wouldn't say anything). But, with encouragement from Studly, my dad, and Emily (who assured me that she would love whatever I did), I started painting baby Noah's crib (Okay, okay...so it was about two months after she delivered it to my house, but I did start on it eventually...)

I thought spray painting it would be best for the look she wanted, but doing that in the dead of winter in Utah is ill-advised, so I used a chalk paint recipe that I got from Jamielyn over at I heart Naptime. I had used it once before, but it didn't work as well as I wanted it to, so I decided to try it again. I played with the mixture a little and it ended up working a lot better this time. I used regular interior paint from Lowe's in satin. The directions did say to use flat paint, but if you have learned anything by reading this blog, it's that directions are for wussy's....(until I screw something up royally.)

I also used 3 coats of Polycrylic in Gloss in order to seal it. I prefer to use Polycrylic because it doesn't yellow like the other poly (which I am not even going to attempt to finish spelling at this hour.)

*If you don't know what chalk paint is, you are missing out because it's awesome! It gives you more of a rustic look that is really easy to distress, which I personally like, being that my style is all "eclecta-cottage" (I really must trademark that.) Anyway, aside from that there is NO sanding or priming required because it is a really thick consistency and dries pretty fast. My hutch was actually a dark walnut color before I painted it white, and I used 2-3 coats (after I used 2-3 coats of another color that I decided against). "Official" chalk paint is known by Annie Sloan, but there are only a couple of stores that sell it in Utah that I know of. However, there are a few recipes that are much cheaper than Annie Sloan, which is hella expensive (although, I still want to try it).* 

Anyway, Emily was kind enough to send me a few before pictures from when her second child was born, so you can see the transformation (because,we are all suckers for before and after pics, right?) :

...And here is the work in progress with yours truly playing contortionist...(Sidenote: this was not easy and it wasn't until after I instagrammed the picture that someone commented that they took their crib apart when they painted it, and it was much easier...D'OH!)

The crib was more challenging to paint than I had anticipated because of the bars (Sheesh, those took a while!) and I kept getting little drips here and there which is always the part of furniture painting that is the most "I'm going to throw this paint can through the wall!" frustrating. Some dog hair would also randomly decide to waft in the room and stick to the wet paint, so I did have to sand a few places away and repaint over them.

Obvious Tip: If you have a drip that you don't notice right away, I found that using a butter knife to scrape it off worked really well and made it much easier to fix.

It took me about a week to finish (well, maybe two...okay, probably three once I finally started...) and Destructo had to be temporarily displaced from his room in order for me to paint it (His room has the best light.) but when it was all over I was in love...kinda...Actually, I was really nervous, because even after being really careful and fixing all of the flaws, I was still finding little areas that I thought I should fix, but Emily was so close to having Noah that I knew if I didn't just get it over there and let her be the one to approve it, that he would be sleeping in a dresser drawer until he was 6 months old. I have to be honest though, I totally had that "impending diarrhea feeling" while in the process and even after she took it home. All in all, though, it was a fun and challenging project and I love that Emily loves it, which was SO important to me!

Here are the "after" pics:

I have to say, looking at the pictures, that it is pretty cute and don't you think Baby Noah's bedding is adorable? (Emily made the quilt herself, which I think is totally awesome.)

I am so grateful that Emily trusted me enough to let me do this for her and I really did enjoy the transformation process, even though I sound a little whiny in my post :)

(Oh, and sorry for the quality of the pictures. I had to take them from my iphone and I'm not too good at editing the exposure.)

Until I blog again....