Thrift Store Make Over: Cork Trivet

I love shopping at Goodwill.  I always find something that I can use or re-purpose.  My family is trained – if we pass a Goodwill, I’m going in REAL quick.

I found this wooden tray and it sat in my studio for a LONG time.  Way too long.  In my way long.  So, today, I finally fixed it up.

My studio is in my basement and there is a sliding glass door with steps that lead to the backyard.  This is the best spot for natural light, so my pictures are often taken here.  This guy is on the floor basking in the light.

$1.96 not to bad a price for this tray.  My intent was to make it into a cork trivet for my kitchen table.  The table is wood and I am forever screaming, “don’t put hot things on the table you’re gonna wreck it.”  Eloquent, aren’t I?

Corks from my cork stash.  I wish I could say I drank that wine.  Wine drinking seems so adult and cool.  Wine is a collector’s dream….all those types, labels, colors and bottles.  Spreadsheets could even be made cataloging your collection and I can’t stand the stuff.  Tastes like jet fuel.  Oh and I keep trying it too.  Hoping my “tastes” will change.  47 years later no luck.  So my cork saving team sends me their corks and I use them in all sorts of ways.

Pattern works.  Ready to hot glue.

All glued.

Ready for some hot stuff.  Looks like I could use some new candles.

Vintage Organizer

I was searching around etsy and came across a vintage organizer exactly like one I have.  It is a plastic, carved, wood toned paper organizer that RetroMama65 is selling for 25 smackers.

 

Huh?  I said.  I really like mine and I was planning on painting it.

Mine was sitting in the garage, waiting its turn.  See it there on the side next to the boat shelf.  I wish I could remember to take before photos.  Seems like the one I have is a bit darker than retromama65’s.

 

 I finally remembered to paint it with Typewriter MMSMP when I was painting the shelf for the gym.

 

I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.

 

 Of course, I had to stuff some yarn in it.  I have it sitting on my project table and if you think it doesn’t have all sorts of things jammed in it already – you are wrong!  I wish I could keep things neat and organized for more than 10 minutes.

Merry Christmas 2014 all!

 

 

Furniture Rescue: Bow Topped Shelf

I’m lucky enough to have a room on the lower level of my home that we designated as a fitness area –

we call it “the gym”.

It’s the one room in the house that I avoid like the plague.   The gym has a wonderful elliptical machine in it that taunts me each time I walk by.

As I pass by on my way up the stairs, I hear it calling, “Oh, too busy for me, huh?  Word on the street is you would rather be knitting, painting furniture in the garage or digging holes in the garden than spending some time with me.”

“You betcha”, I mutter.

But when I get to the top of the steps, all huffing and puffing, I remember that exercise is the key to fitness, resiliency and stress relief.  If only exercising was the same, as say, watching TV with my slippers on, then maybe I just might start doing it.  Maybe, I just needed to provide a bit of coziness to the activity to make it more appealing.  More slipper friendly.

So, when my FFF had this piece – a hutch top without it’s bottom – I thought this just might be a solution to my problem.

In my life when I need to cozy something up – I add a shelf.

I added some wheels.  To give the piece some height and mobile flexibility.

I re-stained the vertical supports and painted the shelf in Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter, which always comes out gray for me.

I sealed it with wax and brought it downstairs to sit next to the elliptical monster – I mean machine.

It’s a little shorter than I hoped it would be, but it will work great to house all the creature comforts.  The remotes, the heart rate monitor band, the elliptical manual and the slippers that I can use while exercising on this machine.

So, I have zero excuses left to not use this monster.  I’ll start tomorrow :).

Furniture Rescue: Vanity Chair

I was on the hunt for the elusive perfect vanity chair.  Either the chair was too short, the seat was too small or it was just plain ugly.  My FFF posted this little gem and I just had to give it a try.  It had a low back and a wide seat.

It just might work.

I mixed up a batch of chalk paint using the same color as the walls in the Master Bathroom and started painting.

While the paint was drying, I tackled the seat cushion.  This was a well used little vanity chair.  There were no less than four covers stapled over each other on this guy.

I used the last one as a template for my new fabric.

Stapling it on to the seat was pretty easy.  I distressed the paint and this guy was done.

I think if I can find a set, I’ll add some casters to make the chair a bit taller, but for now I just added some felt pads to the bottoms of the legs, so they don’t scrape the tile floor.

And in case you were wondering, it is sorta weird to see your bathroom on the internet.

Furniture Rescue: Buffet

In the blogland circles I roam [DIY, furniture painting, thrift store make-overs] [Yes, there are more people out there just like me.  Frightening as Lee would say.] [I found my people.  People who get me.] this style of buffet or sideboard is quite popular.

When my FFF [Favorite Furniture Finder – if you’re new to my blog] listed one of these on Craigslist – I was smitten.  Of course, when you buy furniture as an accessory, not a life long commitment, it can get expensive and this piece was out of my budget.  I put in my best offer and kissed this piece goodbye.  I just knew someone would outbid me.  As luck would have it, my FFF called and said she wanted it out of her unit and I could have it.

 Yippppeee!

Now, I wasn’t a fan of the original wood finish.  Something about all those different wood tones, it made me a little nervous.  I needed calm. [Note:  That’s the chandelier in the corner of the pic!]

So, I decided on a safe black finish.  Why?  Because Martha Stewart has a room in one of her many, many homes that I want to use as inspiration for my dining room.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw this room.  Pink ceiling and all.  This is exactly the inspriation I needed to make my crazy idea work. Martha’s room has pale yellow walls and a pink tinged chandelier.  I have pale yellow walls and a pink crystal chandelier I bought from my FFF.  Sometimes I buy something and then say, “WTF did I just do”. But, usually there is a reason when my gut tells me to seize the opportunity.

Notice Martha has a black painted piece in her room, probably to anchor all the pastels.  Now I have a piece that will be the anchor.  Black it is.

Once you know what the plan is for a piece, the rest is easy.

I sanded to roughen the surface.  Stripped and sanded the top, because I’m going to stain it instead of paint it.

Started painting.  With latex this time.  Not milk paint.

Waited for the paint to dry.

Stained the top and put the piece in my living room until I can start the redecorating of the dining room.

I re-used the original hardware on this piece for now.  I think it blends in well, but maybe something better will work later.

I just love the way it turned out.

I lined the drawers with a music patterned wrapping paper.

Already put the top to use to display the Thanksgiving Carolers.

Now I just need to find someone to hang that crystal chandelier and paint the ceiling light pink and not call me crazy at the same time.

Wish me luck.

Furniture Rescue: Drop Leaf Secretary Desk

Transforming a piece of furniture is like therapy for me.  I think I try to sand all the grief and regrets from my mind and paint over all the things I’d like to do over.  When I’m done with a piece of furniture, I feel like I’ve been put through an emotional wringer.  And I do this to relax!

It is sort of stressful to stare down a piece of furniture that’s had a tough life.   Like this girl for instance.

Someone tried to love her.  They really did, but she could be so much better.  She deserves better.

Dino agrees.  He LOVES furniture restoration days and doesn’t miss a chance to be out in the garage with me with Pandora on the radio.  Sanding dust floating around.  He watches the birds fly by and breathes in the outside air.

I wish he could help me make the decisions about how to fix her up though.

She’s got potential.  I don’t even mind the turquoise color – it’s too bad the finish wasn’t executed very well.  There are lots of drip marks.  The hardware needs to be fixed and cleaned as well.

I decided to sand the surface a bit to remove the top coat drips and have a smooth surface for the paint to adhere.  I used MissMustardSeed’s Milk Paint.  Grain Sack for the exterior and Artissimo for the interior.  I was hoping this would be a good palette for allowing the original color to peek through the distressing.

I didn’t take any progress photos, because I was in a zone and before I knew it – I was done.

The milk paint chipped just like it’s supposed to and I distressed the edges with a sanding block to expose the original finish.  The grainsack color is outside my comfort zone.  I usually go for darker colors, but I am so happy with how this piece came out.  I love that the turquoise is coming through the navy blue on the inside.  I added some glass knobs I picked up at Home Depot.  To me they look like sparkly jewelry and dresses up the distressed finish.  Like jeans and a tee-shirt paired with diamonds.

 I lined the drawers with a gray and white chevron wrapping paper.

I love her and I’m glad she was there for me when I needed to zone out and try to work through all the things rattling around in my head.

Furniture Rescue: Big Ass End Tables

My FFF [Favorite Furniture Finder] sells quite a few sets of end tables.  I had my eye on a set listed on Craigslist and when I called, I learned I just missed them.  The  new owner was driving off with them as we spoke.

 As luck would have it, my FFF had another set that I might be interested in, so I swung by the mini storage and snapped these up.

They are big.  26″ square and had details that I knew would look great when painted.  As with all projects on my very long list, they sat in the garage all summer.  But, once I decided to use Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in Shutter Gray, I couldn’t wait to get started.

When using milk paint, there isn’t much prep work to do.  I cleaned the tables with a damp cloth, mixed the paint and slathered it on.

Nothing like a Dino photo bomb.

When the paint was dry, I sanded to a smooth finish and lightly distressed the edges and then waxed the entire piece, which creates a strong, bonded finish that feels like butter when you run your hand over it.

It is the smoothest surface I have ever felt.

I cleaned the original hardware and reinstalled it.  Buffed the dried wax surface and lined the drawers with a wallpaper I found at the Goodwill.

I placed them in the family room [for now].

The best part about these end tables is the back is completely finished so they can sit in the middle of the room and the back side of the end tables are just as pretty as the fronts.

Thrift Store Make-Over: A Boat Shelf

Since my shelf fetish has already been disclosed on this blog,  I can move on to my next shelf project.  I found this boat shelf at my favorite Goodwill store for $4.97.  I recognized it as a wood piece from the old Total Crafts store.  I’m a crafter from way back, and before there was Michael’s, there was Total Crafts.  I bought the shelf thinking I would paint it.  It sat in the garage for many months and I finally started on it after my blue milk paint arrived in the mail.

The boat shelf was a mix of light stained wood and blue paint.

I thought it would blend in better with other wood tones in my house if it were a darker stain.  So, I stripped and sanded the light finish off and re-stained it in Minwax’s Dark Walnut.

I then painted the small drawer and the sides of the interior in MissMustardSeed’s new blue color Artissmo.  Artissmo is almost the same color that was originally painted on the boat shelf.

Watching paint dry is one of my hobbies.  Yours too?

Once the milk paint was dry, I distressed the edges and sealed it with furniture wax.

I found a compass knob for the drawer.  To install it, I just drilled a hole in the center of the drawer.

She’s all done!

Finally, a place to put all of Lee’s light houses.

Fence Boards: Tool Boxes

Second Project

I couldn’t wait to start making the tool boxes with the old fence boards I mentioned in this post.  I had all the materials I needed except for the handles.

Donna of Funky Junk Interiors used a vintage drill press for her handle and I didn’t have anything like that on hand, so I figured a small tree branch would have to do.

My roommate [aka my mother] wanted to hit a few yard sales last Saturday with Dino and Markey.  Two dogs at a yard sales is not a good idea, but this yard sale was close to home and it turns out was in a cul-de-sac with a wooded area.  So, one dog went with me hunting for a stick and one dog went with my mom hunting for treasures.

Dino and I found a great branch with an intertwined vine that I’m hoping is not poison ivy.

Markey and my mom found a mirrored backed display case ($4) and a sun tea jar with no handle ($1).

Mom, Dino [brown], Markey [Gray] and yard sale treasures

Ready to make it.  I measured and cut the boards to make a long tool box with tapered sides.  I used a piece of deck wood for the bottom, since it wouldn’t be seen and I didn’t want to waste my old wood.  Lee jig-sawed the ends to narrow down the wood side pieces.

My brother was visiting, so he helped Lee with drilling the holes for the handles with a hole bit attached to the drill.  Nothing like putting your brother to work when he visits.

We threaded the tree branch through the holes in the side pieces.  Done!  Just in time for dinner, so I didn’t get a chance to decorate it properly and then I was told to “move my artwork off the table”, so we can eat dinner.  I’m pretty sure this is my house, but some days I’m not so sure.

Since I had a few board pieces left,  I wanted to make two smaller tool boxes.  It sure was  easier the second time around.  Lee cut the wood and drilled the side holes.  This time in flip flops.  Think maybe we should get a drill press now, huh?

Lee drilling holes in driveway in flip flops. Don’t do this!

Lee and I assembled the first one, then he disappeared, because the Redskins game was starting. The nerve!  We’re in the middle of a project.  It came out pretty good though.  I even tried to decorate it this time.  Insert plant from counter.

Tool box Lee and I assembled.

My mom and I assembled the second smaller one.  We were running low on tree branch parts, so we stuffed all the smaller branch pieces we had through the holes and wrapped twine around the branches to hold them together.  Not bad.  I stuffed it with my milk paint and brushes.  That’s decoration to me!

Tool box my Mom and I assembled

Dino and I walked the meadow and cut some flowering “wild flowers” to finally decorate the long tool box.

Old fence boards and wild flowers from the meadow.  All in a day’s work.

Furniture Rescue: Bar Stools

I have a bar area in the basement that we rarely use.  I figured if there were chairs to sit on perhaps we would use it more often.  So, I logged on to Craig’s List to see what my FFF had for sale.  What’s an FFF?

Some people have a BBF.  I have an FFF.  My Favorite Furniture Finder.

She knows who she is and she knows what I like.  Tonight she is dropping off a cathedral shaped cabinet that was too big to fit in my SUV.  Just wait.  I’ll take pictures of it soon.

My FFF had these two bar stools from Poland listed for sale.  If these stools could talk, right?

I liked the bentwood detail under the seat, so I took them home with me.  I had plans.

I thought the stools would look best in a sleek black color.  I took the seat cushions off.

I mixed some satin black paint with 2 tablespoons of un-sanded grout to make a chalk paint and started painting.

As I was painting, I thought some of the details would get lost if the chair was all black, so I left the bentwood detail under the seat and the fan back unpainted.  Since the original stain on the wood was a bit red, I found a stripe that had both red and black stripes along with a bit of green to blend with other colors in the basement.  If I get tired of the stripe, I can just re-staple new fabric on the seats.

Here they are in their new home.

  So far, no one has sat on them yet.

But, the bar area looks a bit better with a pair of stools ready for some a-c-t-i-o-n.