China cabinet redo!

I recently bought a china cabinet from one of my cousins. At first I tried to just clean it up and sell it at the antique mall. It was in pretty good shape, and I thought someone else might see the "diamond in the rough". Well I'm convinced some people are just not fixer uppers like me, so I brought it back home for some new life!!!

Well I think it was really worth it!

I used my liquid sandpaper trick and decided I would prime. Then I chose a really nice off white color and glazed. I had thought I wouldn't distress, but changed my mind... I do that, a lot!

My husband put chicken wire where the glass was on the front an we embellished with some decorative wrought iron. (See him working away!) love the finished project!

Have fun scrolling through the pics!

French inspired bread box....

Fast and easy project! I have done several bread boxes. I have found them at yard sales and thrift stores! Fun and quick!
Some of the before boxes are pretty funny!
But the afters turned out pretty good! I used free art I found online for the designs. The French one came from www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

Link to a great how to!!! <3 First A Dream: Chair Weaving Tutorial

I saw my next project online today! I have two chairs I bought at a yard sale, well actually my friend/neighbor picked them up for me, for $1.00 each. They are ladder backs with no seats. I have decided to try my luck at weaving the bottoms myself! I will post pics soon, but here are the directions I am going to follow!

First A Dream: Chair Weaving Tutorial

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Picture of plain primed chair!

New paint!

In progress!

Finished product! <3!

Wine cork coasters!

I love this idea! You can recycle your corks or buy them at an arts and crafts store. I usually have a few around so this craft is next to free! I made mine around Christmas and gave them as gifts! Just now getting around to adding photos! Pretty simple, just hot glue them together and finish with some burlap twine!

Art is Everywhere!

My husband and I were browsing through the thrift store and had an interesting find! When he held up this huge commercial mixing beater, I saw Chandelier! My husband being a fireman/electrician, he wired it right up! Don't you love it!

Desk and vanity Stool

These two pieces might be some of the best before and after pics yet!  I got this desk out of an old abandoned house.  It had been sitting untouched for about 20 years.  The vanity stool came from the Salvation Army Store. 

You wouldn't know it by looking at the pics now!  Here are the before!

Pretty rough huh? 

At first glance I admit, I thought it might be a lost cause.  I started with the vanity stool.  As you can see, it had an awful fabric and some awful paint.  I took the seat off and used some fabric that I already had, and my staple gun and recoved the stool. 

Looking better!  I had never used stripes before, so I had to be a little more careful to keep them in line and not stretch the fabric too far.  Once that was complete I decided I didn't want to spend a lot of time sanding.  There were several layers of paint on this stool!  So I used one of my favorite products!  Deglosser!

This liquid sandpaper allows you to take off the shiny finish with no sanding.  Just follow the manufactures instructions.  I decided not to prime.  The deglosser had left it pretty sticky so I did not think it would  be necessary.  I painted it a nice off white and let it dry.  It took two coats to cover the green! 

Next I distressed using my ryobi sander that my wonderful husband bought me!  I have literally gone through 3 sanders since I started this venture! I wanted it pretty chippy.  because it had so many layers of paint, I was able to distress at different depths for different color tones. 

great little tool!  Really does the trick!

Next i used some stain.  I think it was dark walnut.  Anything you have on hand will work.  I usually use a q-tip or small brush and only stain the sanded areas, but because I want to distress this alot, I rubbed those areas first and then came back with a soft cloth and rubbed it all over.  It creates the look of glaze, a little more distressed. 

Put the seat back on and Tada! 

Now the Desk.....  The laminate on the top was in really bad shape.  It had alot of water damage. 

So I had to remove it.  I was left with a pretty rough finish.  I decided to sand it lightly, but just leave it pretty rough.  I had painted a buffet for my daughter's wedding, and it turned out really good, so I decided to use the same colors.  I really pretty green, with a black glaze for the drawers, and a cream color for the body of the desk.  The desk was covered in a really thick coat of some kind of poly or something.  I sanded the drawers pretty much to the wood and then primed them. 

The red mahogany kind of bled through, but I thought it looked pretty good, so I only primed on coat. 

Then I painted the drawers green.  Two coats, drying in between.  (hardest part)

Then used my sander again to sand the edges.

I like to sand a little extra where the handles would naturally be worn. 

I took some stain and carefully rubbed the sanded areas to age.  I decided to use the original hardware, because it had kind of a vintage look, and the green was just right. 

I painted the rest of the desk a cream color, then glazed it. 

I used Mahogany red stain on the top til I liked the color. 

Love!



Display Cabinet

My latest project.

I was in need of a display cabinet for the booth.  I had several pieces of furniture in the basement, that I thought might work.  Below is the finished product first.  It turned out so great!  Lots of room for all my plates and glass.  It is lighted too, so that was a bonus!

I have to admit, I have never painted any furniture with this kind of finish before.... It is sort of laminate over particle board? I guess?  The finish is shiny and slick.  I wasnt sure paint was even going to stick at all. 

I hate to use the word ugly, but this thing was really ugly!  It had really brass gaudy hardware, a very fake looking finish.  The doors were beyond ugly and really heavy.  They actually made the piece feel heavy to the front, like it might even tip over!  So I decided to take all the doors off.  I took all the glass out, and pretty much just stripped it clean.  I wasnt sure if my usual liquid sanpaper would work, but I decided to use everything I had to try to prepare the surface to paint. 

After cleaning with TPS and then the deglosser it still felt completely slippery!

This is Most of the time when you use the liquid sandpaper, it breaks down the finish and allows paint to stick.  It will feel very sticky.  Sounds crazy, but its exactly what you need to happen.  Well.....not this time. Sooooo I decided to use the best primer I had and see what happens.

This is really good stuff.  I try to use older brushes because I think it tends to dry out and make mine still no matter how much I wash them.  It cleans up with water, and goes on thick!

Looks rough huh?  I was a little nervous, but I waited a couple of hours for it to dry.  I had two colors of paint I wanted to use.  One was a light tan and one a little lighter, almost ecru.  We painted all the trim on the top and around the edges with the darker color, and used the lighter color for the inside and the "body" of the cabinet.  I let that dry.  My helpful husband said.  AI think we should make it look a little weathered.  You know?  We took some of both colors and just kind of sparingly spread them on in a random way.  It went really fast!  I think using the two colors in two different layers had a really nice effect.  I was really dry as soon as we finished. 

Looking a little better, but still not distressed enough.  We both grabbed a sanding block and started distressing the edges.  the more distressed the better, in my opinion. 

I use a mouse sander too.  Goes much faster! 

Anytime I distress, I usually follow up with a q-tip and some stain.  Only on the sanded areas.  Put it on really light and wipe it off immediately.  I go into great detail on some of my other blogs.  I also  used some copper rub and buff on the brass wheat thing that I had completly painted over. 

This is an old photo of some hardware.  You just wipe over the area with your finger.  Turns out great!  I used "copper"

We finished up with a coat of polycrylic,  and Tada!  New display!