Spring fever

Hello & happy Spring !! I, have not written in a while & thought I'd share just a few things I've been working on over the cold months. I, live in IL.and this winter really kicked my butt with all the below zero days we had. It's been really hard for me to complete any big furniture projects due to the lack of good air flow in my garage when it's so cold. I, do use ventilator dust & chemical mask but even then I get scared of inhaling too much bad stuff. Anywho, I'll have a ton of things to share as time moves forward.

    I, found the most amazing chairs at Savers !!! Talk about detail !!! Just look at it !! There's actually good a story that goes along with them, but I'll save it for that post. Aren't they beautiful !?!

Here are some more random pieces I've been working on.

I, replaced all the foam & batting and I re-upholstered them in a heavy oatmeal colored french linen fabric & shiny silver nail-head trim.

This buffet had seen better days & was in desperate need of a good cleaning. I, fixed her up real good & gave her a rustic barn wood driftwood finish using milk paint. 

Here's the first phase.

Applied a deep rich dark walnut stain over that & sealed it with a clear satin for durability.

Hope you're all enjoying your Spring & I'll be back real soon :)

Table & chairs makeover take #1

   If you're a thrift store junkie like myself, you can probably relate to finding that special find, walking away & coming back to find it GONE !!!! Well, that's what happened with the table you see below. The reason I hesitated on purchasing it was, because the bottom feet were broke in-half (as you can see in the pic below) & with a hefty $75.00 price tag ... well need I say more.
    After searching a ton of inspirational before & after tutorials on similar tables I thought it was worth the challenge & headed over to buy it, but when I returned the price tag read"SOLD"

  A week later as I was strolling through yet another one of my favorite thrift stores I, spotted something clear across the store !!! It looked like the same table I, past up the week prior, but what is that I see next to them !?! (eyes squinting) ARE THOSE CHAIRS !?! Well, I'll be happier than a pig in mud if it was !!! I, broke into a sprint and low & behold ... there she stood ... in all it's glory !!
 The table of all tables !!!!!!
   Now, if  my heart wasn't pounding so hard, and if I wasn't so concerned about desperately finding the furniture employee to make dibs on this table & chair set, I would've taken the time & snapped a few pics, Heck, maybe I would've thought more on how I was going to get this table & chair set home, but no that's not how I roll. I rarely think rationally when I score a great find. I'm sure it's not a pretty sight, but hey, no ones perfect !!

  Here's a picture of the head chair with arms & there were 4 regular chairs without arms. They were all in very good condition. In order for me to her home I had to dissemble the table & legs & make five trips back & forth, but really this was so worth it.

Here's what the legs looked like after I sanded off all the stain, finish & 60 plus years of wax & dust.

I filled any cracks with my all time fav Plastic wood. This stuff really works great and it's easy to sand & shape.

Here's one of the chairs repaired, sanded, & sprayed the legs with oil base white primer. Spray painting is so much easier than using a brush when you're dealing with a ton of detail.

Here's the underside of the table before I cleaned & sanded. What a mess !!

After scrubbing & sanding.

Yep, that's right !!! I only paid $19.99 for this table & 5 chairs. I feel so much better about my decision on that first table :)

Major endorphin rush !!!

 After I sanded off the orangy finish!!

Pre-stain wood conditioner Minwax is a must with any type of old wood you're planning on applying a stain to. This wood was so dry & drank this stuff up.

 Once it was good & dry I applied a good coat of Dark Walnut from Minwax.

I, let this sit for about 10 minutes & wiped off what wasn't soaked up with a lint free rag.

    Now, I'd love to tell you my next step was a light sanding & a coat of rub-on- poly, however, I. had a few bumps & ended up having to start all over again. So frustrating !! Here's what happened,and I'll leave out the temper tantrum I through when it all went down :(

            Using a special staining sponge, I brushed on an oil base polyurethane and it looked great, but when it started to dry it became blotchy & very uneven. I, tried lightly sanding & hitting it again with the polyurethane, but it still didn't look right. After hours & hours of research I found that sometimes putting thin coats of rub-on-poly works best, and they were right !! She turned out beautiful !!!! I have done tons of table tops & this has never happed.

   I originally painted & distressed the entire chair from top to bottom & was extremely happy with the results, however my husband & kids just had to point out how the back of the chair resembled a face of a ghost... What !?! A ghost !?!... really guys !? ! A GHOST !?! You, had to go there, huh !?!

   Well, from that point forward that's all I could see !!!!! Now, something had to change !!! Thanks a lot guys! In the pic above the 2 upper carvings were the eyes & the bottom picture was the mouth. Can you see it ? Boo!!

So, I began phase 2 on the upper part of the chairs & I'm once again I'm very pleased on how they turned out. This added at least another month to my table makeover, but it was worth every minute.

Here's a peek at the next steps I took to update & refresh my $19.99 table & chair set. I also included the final project as well. I'll write a step by step tutorial on how I re-newed my out dated ghost face chairs :)

    I've been drolling over the chair on the left for quite some time now & the beautiful wood turning legs are what attracted me to the original table I found. My, mind was made up !!! I was going to do whatever it took to create something similar. 

Hope you come back to see how I updated my antique chairs into something a little more... today :) Thanks for stopping by :)

DIY bench makeover

Back in 2010 I, was online searching for the most durable paints & products and I stumbled upon Censational Girls, DIY home improvement Blog. For the next week I saved & bookmark anything & everything that was inspiring. That wasn't a good year for my family & I and seeing how she transformed inexpensive pieces of furniture like me well... made me.. inspired to say the least. That very next week as I was going through the mismatched furniture at one of my favorite resale shops I stumbled upon a beautiful solid oak trestle bench for $4.00. Of course the finish was badly scratched but over all it was what I call a good solid piece of wood.

 List of supplies needed

• Fantastic all purpose cleaner
• Fine grit sandpaper
• Tack cloth / rag
• wood stain &
• 2 inch thick foam
• Fabric & batting
• Heavy duty stapler & staples
• Nailhead trim
• Bench

After, sanding & removing the layers of dust and dirt I primed the base with pre-stain.Whenever you're using a dark color stain & an old piece of dry wood it's always safe to pre-stain to avoid blotchy marks. I applied two coats to get the desired look I wanted & applied a few coats of Minwax Water Based Polyurethane.  It provides superior durability !!!

With a 50% off coupon in hand I headed to  Jo-Ann Fabrics to pick out the fabric & 2 inch foam.

Applied batting over the foam to prevent slippage & to give it a clean smooth appearance. 

I turned my bench over so that I could secure both batting & fabric with staples.

Joann fabrics carries this nail trim kit & it really made this process easy.

The trestle bench lives in my front entrance & gets a ton use from all of us.

Completed bench

• Trestle bench $4.00
• Pre-stain & walnut stain (already had )
• Foam with coupon $22.00
• Batting ( had )
• Linen fabric 1 yard with coupon $14.99
• Nail trim kit 5 yards $10.00
• Total around $51.00

The dusty hutch

It’s hard for me to resist stopping at any thrift stores I come across when I’m out & about. For some silly reason I feel like I’ll be missing out on something HUGE if you don’t stop and have a little look. I blame this obsession on past experiences, when I did on a whim just stop and found that one thing that I swore was left just for me. Some may think it’s sad but I can tell you which store gets their shipments on what day of the week and know the furniture departments sales department employee by first name. Anyway, at first glance you wouldn’t think this dusty old scratched up hutch would be a find to brag about, but under all that dust and dirt was an amazing solid oak luster, dovetail drawers and it was made by Richardson Brothers & company in 1978. Not only was this a good solid piece of tree but for only $8.99 I wasn’t going to leave that store without her. Well, like a number of my resale treasures she sat untouched until the day came when I finally had enough time to tackle this project. With a piece of 60 grit sand paper ( I prefer the round disc that are usually used on electric hand sanders folded in half ) I lightly sanded off the years of dirt, wax and polyurethane until the finish gets dull. I use an old damp cotton t-shirt or towel to get off any saw dust,unscrew the hardware, tape off certain areas & she’s ready to be primed. Like a lot of other DIYer’s I use zinsser oil based primer and usually always put 2 thin coats on. The one thing I love about this primer is regardless of any brush strokes or streaks you get from painting, once you hit it with the sandpaper the finish gets so soft & smooth. You can’t even tell that is was painted by hand. This is where I tend to drive myself nuts and constantly run my hands down every inch to make sure her finish is perfect. Swiss Coffee by Behr is the color I used for the top coat in a satin. Two good coats with a light sanding in between, and some wipe on polyurethane. I picked out some oil rubbed bronze hardware, applied some moroccan fabric I found @ Joann's and decked her out with white ironstone & that was it :)