DIY Monday: Chair redo

After and before

So it is time for another DIY Monday and this week I added a chair to the desk I redid last week.

Before

I had this chair (actually have 2) as leftovers from an old dining room table which is now my family room coffee table.   

After

Clearly my kiddo loves pink and especially any form of pink camo.  She actually has throw pillows in a similar pattern to the chair and her bed spread and shams are pink camo.  So are half her cloths so this fabric was a no brainer. 

Sexy Legs

Unlike the desk, I decided not to antique the chair.   I like that it is in the same General Finishes Antique White Milk Paint but isn't an exact match.   Obviously the chair is not a match to the desk either and sadly, doesn't fit under the desk but that's okay.   We have a plan for storing it right next to the desk. 

 All set up!

So that was my fun project this weekend.  The other project was putting in a little duck pond which required us digging a hole and then backfilling the pond area.  Our ducks are supposed to be in next week so expect some totally amazing photos of baby ducks!

Be a Warrior Queen

From beat to neat: Sofa Table makeover

Before and After 

I got this table last summer and it sat in my office for months and months because I didn't have room for it in the garage or time to refinish it.   I knew in principal what I was going to do with it and I knew that I wanted to use it for the TV.

Beat UP!

As you can see, I got it home last week and the top needed some special attention.  I have never had a piece that was so beat up on the surface.  Because it was going next to the buffet I refinished last weekend, I decided to make them match.  Obviously these pieces are different but I wanted them to coordinate.

Top all Sanded.  Don't you love the 1970's flower detail on the drawers?  

So I sanded the top with the idea of staining it with General Finishes Java Gel which I had used on the top of the buffet.  As you can see above, it sanded beautifully but I wasn't aware of how dry the wood was.  If I had been, I probably would have oiled it first so the stain didn't dry out as fast as it ended up doing on me.  Next up I removed the knobs which got a little brown spray paint treatment and then a removal of paint to make them look antique gold.   Next the base was lightly sanded with some fine grit sand paper.

I hate painting spindles! 

Then I started painting the base.  I hate painting spindles and had to do this super carefully, making sure to catch any drips and fix them before they dried.    This is finished in the same General Finishes Milk Paint, Linen, that I did the base of the buffet in last weekend.   I love this color but what I discovered about it is that I am so pleased with the way it looks without antiquing that I decided early on that this piece would not be distressed.   That is a departure from my norm because I love the distressed look of pieces normally.  This piece has some natural distressing due to the age of the piece and I decided to work with that only.

Halfway HOME!

Once I got the base coated in three good coats of the Linen paint I sanded it slightly to remove any imperfections and added a final light coat of paint and let it completely dry. I was ready to move on to the top.   I have learned something about myself this weekend, I am incredibly picky about my finish on pieces.  I don't like to see any drips in my paint and I am a stickler for no brush marks.  I noticed this when I was looking at on line garage sales and examining the work of other painters.   I told my husband, it drives me crazy when someone spends so much energy repainting something and I can see in the photos the brush marks, splotches where paint is inconsistent, and places where the finish just doesn't look smooth.   I am picky.  I would end up redoing all the finished pieces I saw.   This is why I do my own work, more than any other reason.  I would rather customize my home and know the pieces will last.

Supervisors always looking on.

Meanwhile, one of my hens decided to come supervise my work.  First she checked out the sleigh bed I picked up this weekend.   This piece is going to eventually end up in our spare bedroom as our guest bed, once I refinish it.  It was a steal of a bargain of $0.00 because a friend called and said if I didn't come get it she was putting it in the trash.   Hold up, wait!  WHAT?   FREE is my price of preference.   The side rail needs a little work but nothing I can't fix with some L brackets.  I was all like 'sign me up for free'.   So I ran out to get this Saturday and put it in the garage.

Someone wants to ride

Henrietta above, decided she needed to get some bike riding in and jumped up on the bike to go for a ride.

Or read??

Once she got up there however, she noticed the books and decided a 70 degree Saturday was much more of a reading day.   I finally had to grab her and remove her to the backyard so I could get some work done without worrying about her getting into trouble.

Top soaked up the stain! 

Back to work I went staining the top.   I only put one coat of Java on the top and by the time I had gotten to the end of the line, I noticed the stain had soaked right in to the wood like water.  This is gel stain and it is not suppose to do that, see what I mean about the wood being dry.  I am sure now that it was because the top was so scratched that the wood had simply no conditioner left to prevent this from happening.  Then I debated with myself, what to do, leave it super dark or sand it down, condition it, and redo the entire top.

Read for the sealers

I decided to leave it super dark and proceeded sealing the top with several coats of General Finishes High Performance top coat.  Once I got a good protective layer or 10 on the top this baby and I coated the base with or two coats (I can't recall) of the same satin finish then  I moved the piece inside.

Wax and then done

It dried and dried and dried.   I like how it looks with the buffet.   I was pleased.

Finished for now

So this morning I woke up, waxed the entire piece with clear wax, buffed it out and moved the TV on top.   The piece is finished for now.  I am going to add a shelf to the bottom to hold all the components for the TV.   However, for now, because we aren't in the market for a larger TV yet, I left the old crappy stand behind it and just covered it up so it didn't look so stupid.

Here is my main problem with this room, the room is long, super duper long, actually.   I have a 48 inch TV and when you sit on the sofa, it looks like a 26 inch TV.  No joke!    So when we get around to buying a giant TV, we will be able to move the TV back against the wall.   Yes, I would love to put the TV on the wall but unfortunately, this is not going to happen.   See, in this room, the wall the TV is on happens to be the same wall there is an ugly breaker box.   Why they didn't remove the breaker box to the new garage when they converted the old garage is beyond my comprehension.   I am a slave to someone else's home improvement laziness here folk.   Maybe at some point we can move the box and I won't have this struggle.  Until that time, the struggle is real.  

So, what do you think?   Table and buffet look awesome together don't they?   Who would ever imagine these pieces started out so incredibly ugly?

Below are links for Amazon where you can find the paint I used on these pieces.  Amazon affiliate links don't cost you anything additional if you purchase from them.  FYI. 

DIY Fugly to Fab: Buffett makeover

Sanding fugly 

Alright I am going to be honest here,  I have been sick as sick gets for the better part of 2016.  I have been through two rounds of antibiotics and countless hours in bed.   In all that time I have felt so blah And I mostly slept.  

But when I did go into my family room there was this ugly buffet (the bottom half of a China cabinet actually.  The top half is still in my garage waiting to be re-purposed into a curio cabinet.)  This thing had been sitting in my garage for 10 months.  I was suffering from serious buyers remorse and didn't want to work on it.   Hubs decided it had to leave the garage so he put it in the house  and said fix it or toss it.  

Primed and stained 

So this weekend I was finally feeling about 80% normal.   I could finally breath a little easier and hubs was out of town so I had time to do a few tasks I put off when he is around and this puppy was high on my list.

Above you can see I sanded and primed the piece white, except the top which I stained.  Now let me be honest this piece is not solid wood.  It's mostly veneer.  If you sand veneer you should be very careful not to sand too much or you will get down the particle board underneath.  

2 coats of Milk Paint later

I know a lot of people don't prime when they use chalk paint but I do regardless.  This time I actually used General Finishes Milk Paint in Linen and their Java Gel stain.   This was the first time I have used the Linen Milk Paint which isn't a true Milk Paint but has the look of the real stuff.  Let me tell you I love this stuff!  It went on easy and very smooth.  Sometimes with chalk type paint you get brush streaks.  Not with this stuff.   

After it dried I finished the whole piece with a satin Polycrylic top coat.  Use your best judgement on how many.  I did 2 coats on the whole piece but the top, if your piece is going to get heavy use, would need at least 3 coats.  This isn't going to get used for anything except brick-a-brac.  

The stained top

Basic of the project: 

1 coat primer on body.  

2 coats GF Milk Paint on body. 

1 coat of Java Gel on top.  (If you want it darker you can use another coat.) 

After this dried I used 2 different waxes to age.  One in brown and one in white to mute the brown and give it a little character and feeling of age.  Obviously it darkened the paint just a bit.   

This piece had some nice little bits of detail

Once it was finished, I was surprised at how much I actually like the piece.  We are using it to store DVD's.  Yes, I have a lot of movies. 

All done 

Aside from that it was generally a weekend of cleaning.  We had a beautiful sunrise Saturday.  

This is my happy place 

Yay cleaning!  Remember I have been sick so while the house wasn't trashed, it wasn't as tidy as I wanted either.  

One thing you can say, I am not afraid of color!

See this is a clean kitchen.  Lol.  It lasted all day before the kid put dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher.  An aside here.   Kid says she can't ever tell if the dishes are dirty in the dishwasher so she leaves them in the sink.  Now, maybe I am just smarter than the average bear but of there are only 2 cups and some silverware in the machine, isn't it logical that they are dirty?

I love the signs I found somewhere and the little planter thing I got from Magnolia Market 

Have I mentioned before I have sort of a 50's retro kitchen happening?  Well I found these signs for super little money like Starbucks trip money, I'm talking.   How cute are they? 

Okay so that's my weekend.  I told my husband last night I look around the house and all I see are projects.  Hopefully there will come a time when the projects stop and the walls that I haven't painted don't call out to me to change them. There is nothing wrong with them, they just aren't my paint. :)  

So did you mark off anything from your To-Do list this weekend?   

Below you will find Amazon links to the products I used on this buffet.   Please note their is no extra charge for you if you purchase using these links. 

Thursday Favorite Things: Farmhouse Table Makeover

Katherin's Corner Thursday Favorite Things Hop 184

Yay it is Thursday and I can finally share my Thursday Favorite thing with you!  Here she is.  My new/old table.

I find it so much easier to paint things for myself than try and decipher what someone else will love.  The only problem is my hubby, bless his heart, doesn't always understand why I am painting "A perfectly fine ____."  He's so cute.  He doesn't notice things the way I do.  He doesn't look at his old table from his prior life and think "It's got good bones but it needs a update." It's ok, I don't notice things fishing he wishes I would.  So this week I am sharing with you my upcycled farmhouse table.   

Dated but solid

The table had good lines but was stuck in 1999 so I thought it was time to bring it into this decade.  Confession time, I haven't started on the chairs yet.  We have been without the table for days and days so for now I am planning on working on one chair at a time until all 6 are finished.  

This started with a good cleaning and sanding.  I used liquid TSP alternative and a couple of different sanders.  My go to is an orbital.  I know, I should love a palm sander but I love my orbital.  I also used a belt sander to beat this baby up a little.  This is the rough coat on the top.  It took a lot of tweeking and sanding more here and less there to get the final finish. 

Jave top and base leg coat

For the legs I started out with a blue-green color I custom mixed from several paint colors I had.  Actually there are about 5 blues, greens, or grays that make up the legs and side and that's the bottom layer.  I did this knowing I was going to cover it with moss green but wanting to bring out a color that was close to my kitchen and dining room wall color and near the darker turquoise kitchen cabinets. 

This top took a lot of purposed distressing. 

Meanwhile I decided to distress the top.   I used the belt sander, orbital sander, dremel, and hammer for this process.  Like I said, I beat it up.  My kiddo came out to find me hitting the table with a hammer and she put her 11 year old body on the table and said "You are hurting the table!"  I should say, she was not at all behind this transformation.   This was her childhood table growing up and she was not happy that I was changing the table she and her parents used for years.   I think she thinks I am a little paint crazy but she keeps asking me to do her room next so you know, you win some and lose some.  

The stain is Java gel by General Finishes and the look I was going for was not a uniform stain but a loved look: used and a little abused but beautiful.  I worked and worked to get this top perfectly imperfect.  (Meanwhile hubs kept asking me why "we" needed to refinish the perfectly good table at all?" Between the boat and the table our roomy garage was  cramped!) 

Can you see the turquoise peeking out from the moss green?

Next the legs got 2 coats of Moss Green paint by Waverly. This was my first time using Waverly chalk but it won't be my last. I love that it is cheap enough that I can buy out my Walmart on colors and  I am pretty pleased with the coverage which was smooth and self leveled very well.  Are you designer paint companies taking note?  Inexpensive alternatives to $40 pints of boutique paint and home made chalk paint are the loves of my life.   I live at the miss-tint section of my local big box stores! 

Once the Java gel dried for 3 days...3 long days...3 incredibly long and torturous days...I hate waiting, it was finally time to put on the protection.  It is my table so of course I wanted really durable.  General Finishes High Performance top coats. The finish is satin but you can't tell.   Why? Because after the poly dried (all 4 coats) everything for a coat of clear wax and the legs and side panels for a coat of a light brown wax.   After buffing the top it was time to move the table back into the house. 

Trust me it isn't this dark in the house normally. Yes, I need candles for my center piece. 

Where the lights never cooperate with me but that is life!  See why the bottom coat was turquoise?

I am happily surprised that I love the top.  It had me worried! (see the chairs in the background? LOL)

The table top was polished to a high shine because...well look at it!  

After wax the moss was a little deeper. 

If you look close you can see the turquoise under the moss along with a little of the wood. 

And just enough turquoise peeks through to give my walls love!

And someday the chairs will match the table.  I have to make some time to work on those when the kiddo isn't around.  

Perfect---just ignore Sadie's bowl on the floor.  It was dinner time.  

I am in total love and even hubby realized when it was done that it was pretty amazing!  He asked me this morning, "Can we use the table?"  Well of course!  It wouldn't be good for much if we couldn't.   I protected it from us.  Oh, and once it was finished, the man could not stop bragging about how much better it looked.  One day he is going to learn to trust me on this stuff.   Even the kiddo admitted that it looks nice.  

Alright folks, that is my Favorite Thing this week.  It's Opening Week of baseball season so the fact that anything beats that really shows how much I love my furniture.   

DIY DAY TWO: Chest of Drawer Wars and Maison Blanche La Chaux FrenchLime Paint Review

When I bought this chest of drawers to refinish I had no clue how much work or how complex it was going to be. 

Before 

This was my first major piece to upcycle that was not a piece I already owned.  What I learned is:

-Always open all the drawers to make sure they slide easily,

-Always inspect all the drawers carefully for cracks, 

-Inspect all sides of the furniture for water damage, veneer damage, and just general pulling away of 'stuff'.

I spent a lot of time sanding swollen drawers down, gluing dovetailed drawers back together and regluing veneer on which I wasn't completely prepared for when I purchased this piece.  It worked out okay but it was a lot more work then I originally realized.   

After primer 

Once I had everything glued, sanded, and ready, I primed this piece because I wasn't taking any chances.  I hadn't used the paint product I was about to work with before and this piece is old and had some different veneer on it than I had ever seen. 

Drying process-La Chaux 

La Chaux by Maison Blanche is an amazing Lime Paint product.  I absolutely love it. My husband was on his 7th annual guys only (thank heavens) camping and fishing trip last weekend and I took advantage of the opportunity of a boat free garage to paint and free up some space. 

 First I covered the piece in Maison Blanche Maison White paint then...

Amazingly thick! 

\

La Chaux French Lime Paint in Garconniere.  The French Lime paint is different from regular mineral and chaulk paint.  It is super thick and after you paint it on, you go through a process including swiping your piece with a plastic credit card type obtect when it is not quite dry and polishing with a plastic bag when it is still not dry...

Here is the video I watched about 5 times before doing the project. 

Now, an aside here, I didn't follow Annie's process completely.  After I was done swiping with a plastic card I found some areas where too much paint had come off so I went back and loaded paint on the plastic card and swiped paint directly from the card onto the chest which may be why my piece looks a little bit like leather or marble.   This process isn't hard but I wouldn't call it easy either.   It looks great when it is done but you have to be willing to stick with it and not give up.  Also, I wouldn't do this again on a day that is below 70 degrees.  I painted on a day that was 56 degrees and it took forever for the paint to dry.  I was, luckily working on two projects at once so I had something else to occupy my time but this took more than a day to finish.  (The end tables from Monday's blog were my other project).

Once it was all dry, I covered in a coat of polycrylic then clear wax and I added black lime wax and Silver Organza wax also from Maison Blanche and another coat of clear wax.   I guess you could say this thing is well sealed.  

Almost done-how rich is this? 

The paint dries with different tones to it based on the way you manipulate it.  It is truly amazing.  It has such a depth and when you add the wax it just brings it out even more.  I really love it and look forward to using it again on special pieces.  It isn't for everything, but for special pieces.

Center after Black Lime Wax 

This piece turned out to be special and I learned so much from it that I can say, it was truly worth the growing pains.

Shadows effect thie look on this photo a little but I wanted a pretty setting 

I love how this piece turned out in the end.  If I had thought ahead I may have filled the handle holes and totally changed out the hardware but I went with the original and I like the slightly masculine feel they add to a piece that seems dainty to me with the floral inlay.  

The final product!

And it is finally completed!  

*Nobody asked or paid me for this review.  The opinions expressed are mine.

DIY makeover: Coffee Table

I can't tell you how excited I am to announce that this week I will be kicking off my first venture into my new love/business.   

I have fallen completely in love with redoing furniture.  It started slowly.  A few years ago my then neighbor and good friend Sharon introduced me to thrift shops as a way to occupy me and watch over me while I was rehabbing from surgery.  During that time I purchase my very first DIY furniture project a piece I still have in my home today.   

My current project is an old coffee table that had seen better days.  When I first got it, from a friend of mine who found it at a thrift store, I thought it looked like it was in ok shape but when I started sanding it, I could see there were a few areas that I hadn't noticed on initial inspection.  The table needed new life and a new finish on top.  That's ok, it is the kind of CPR I am becoming really good at and love doing. 

Beat Up Before 

I have always been crafty but I have begun taking classes on different mediums of paint and I have learned what works for me.  I love using chalk paint,(I am thinking of venturing into the milk paint arena on my next piece) but I do not love antiquing it with wax.  I therefore make a paint glaze.  Actually, I have brown and black paint glazes that I have already made so I am using those.   They are a little more tricky to get subtle but I work at it.  

Top sanded to reveal the beautiful wood!

It sanded down beautifully and I could instantly see how to make this table shine and I have to tell you, I absolutely love it.  I am actually sad that I don't get to keep it but it will find a good home.  So after many hours of careful staining the top, painting the legs with chalk paint, glaze and and lots of careful distressing (AKA Sanding),  the piece is drying with a satin poly protective coat the only thing keeping this from resale. 

Finished distressed detail

I adore this piece so much!  Can you believe it is the same table? I want to use it in my house but that original piece of furniture that started it all is, ironically, a coffee table and if you read my DIY blogs, you already know about my other coffee table.   No, I am not specializing in coffee tables.  I just so happened to have found this one after redoing two of my own.   

Finished except for two more coats of poly

Forgive me if I occasionally plug my furniture Facebook page and latest projects on the blog.  I just love working on this stuff so much. 

Link to my Home Decor Facebook page. I just started this Sunday so it is a work in progress and there will be updates of finished pieces as they become availalble with pricing and photos.  You don't have to buy from me to like it.  Just go in there and get some ideas and inspiration.   I can't possibly do blog posts on each and every piece of furniture I re-love.  Can I?

https://www.facebook.com/turnbacktimetakingtrashtotreasure