The Kitchen Dresser Make Over

So, I've had this dresser for MANY years. I think I paid $20.00 for it at a local thrift store (back before thrift stores started charging retail prices for their furniture).

I liked it okay and it served it's purpose. It holds dish cloths table cloths, potatoes and onions. As well as cook books and a whole drawer of extra spices. I like my extra drawers! 

She was ready for a makeover though. She just didn't feel a part of the new kitchen remodel but look at her now!!!! 

I was trying to decide between these two knobs. 

I ended up going with the carved ones on top. Super fun.

I used the same technique with the dresser top as I have with my kitchen table and the back stairs (which I never blogged about, must remedy that).

I sanded off the whole top of the dresser before I stenciled and applied the stain.

I only primered and painted the rest of the dresser/ no sanding.

The finished product. I know that this isn't a perfect piece, no heirloom, not something that will even stand the test of time but I do enjoy giving a face lift to a nice piece of furniture.

Stay crafty my friends.

Book Shelf Makeover: Divine Heirloom White

Well, here I am again. A little more progress each time I come back here and visit with you all. I purchased this bookshelf on Craigslist for $60.00 a while back. It is solid wood with solid wood shelves. One problem, it was dark and dreary and didn't match any of my other furniture.

This shelf usually holds all of my scrapbooks and doesn't look like such a major catastrophe. This is how it has been for the last few months though...while the remodel has been in progress. Heaven help us, there may be an end in sight.

I started priming it before I took the "BEFORE" picture. That's me, all gung ho and stuff. I remembered though and here it is. I don't have a garage so all of my painting either happens on my front porch or in my house...somewhere, usually the dining room. Makes for fun dinnertime conversations and maneuverings.

I really like Zinsser's NVOC Bullseye 123 primer. It seems to give the best coverage. I put on about 2-3 coats. Those crenelations on the top of the shelf were really no fun to paint...just saying. 

I did remove the doors and the hardware and painted it with my Krylon Satin Nickle spray paint. I also added 2-3 coats of Heirloom White satin finish paint. To finish off any painted piece I always use Wipe On Polycrylic. It's easy to apply, doesn't smell very much and dries pretty quickly. Much easier than varnish and doesn't cause a yellowing over time.

Here is the bookshelf in it's finished state. My albums are happy to be home (I purged about 10 games in the process) and the shelf is back in it's rightful place in the living room/office/scrapbook area. It makes me feel so much lighter. I keep all of the children's extra school supplies (paper, pencils, folders, workbooks) in the cupboard portion of the shelf.

I hope that the projects that you're working on are coming along just as nicely.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully, some day, I'll get to start crafting again ;).

Paisley Stencil Kitchen Table Makeover

So, this is pretty much the best picture I have of my kitchen table before. We were having our Back To School Sundaes!! I despised the grooves in this table which collected all the crumbs and food that a family of six can tend to leave behind while EATING! Sheesh.
We ended up getting a loaner table while we worked this one over.
Travis began my completely planing off the top layer of the table, making sure to leave no grooves and just a flat surface. Jakob helped by sanding it smooth.
Next, I used a tack cloth to remove any extra saw dust or dirt.

Smooth smoothy smoothness (sorry for the blurry pic) but it is smooth. :)

I then created a paisley cut image with my Silhouette and cut it out of a stencil blank I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I think it ended up costing about 3 dollars or you could purchase a larger stencil online for $50 or so. 

I rolled on the Heirloom White painted with a foam roller. I had to stop about 2/3 of the way through and pick off all the paint that had collected on the stencil as it wasn't letting the paint through the smaller holes in the design. 

While that dried for a while I painted the table legs and sides. When the top was completely dry I painted on Minwax Dark Walnut stain and then rubbed off the excess with a cloth. I did two coats and let dry and added a coat of Wipe on Polycrylic. I let that dry overnight. 

In the morning I added a second coat of Wipe On Polycrylic. Food wipes off like a dream even though it doesn't have a thick coat of polyurethane.

I'm really happy with the way it came out...Now to paint the chairs.

Have a super day!

Thrifty FRIDAY is Here Again

What can I say? I was a tad busy yesterday and had no time to post my most recent project.

Apparently I had no time to take a "real" before pic either. I had already started priming this girl before I remembered to get a good shot.

 

Yeah, she was pretty sad as is the fact that I don't yet have a garage to do these kinds of projects in yet ;).
The end result was worth my time in the sweltering sun though.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I know the kids will beat on her but she will do for now :)
I used the Martha Stewart double ring stencil with a gray acrylic paint from Folk Art on the top. I finished it off with a few coats of wipe on polycrylic.

I think my table is a happy little table now :)

Especially with my craiglist couch find :)

Hope you have a scrappy, happy, thrifty kinda day!

Thrifty Thursday Sunburst Reveal

Remember, last week, when I showed you this amazing wonder of a glamorous, gilt, clock. Well she's ready to be revealed now.

I defaced her...yup, I took that clock face right off and got to work.

You need the tools of the trade. I gave her a good brushing...she had some serious plaque ie dust build up from her 70's days :).
Oh, and the clamp, how shall I say this...I broke her, I didn't KNOW I broke her (I suspected but in her dark days it was hard to tell) but upon inspection it became apparent that she had a crack from stem to stearn as it were. Do you know how she received said crack.
Well let me tell you a little ditty...
While at the Edgewood Salvation Army last week Jonah started yelling, "I've gotta go pee" over and over again and you just can't ignore a newly potty trained child when they say that. So, I'm trying to carry the girl, and she's not light I tell you, and helping maneuver Jonah through the flappy doors and trying not drop my purse, and well, I sorta dropped her (gasp). Don't worry though.
She's all better. I got some E-6000 in that crack and clamped her up nice and tight.

Then she got primed...I know I should use a better primer that gets better coverage but I still have some of this dollar stuff left so until it's all gone I'm stuck with it.

She was looking pretty good in gray. I ALMOST left her like that but Rustoleum's Heirloom White was calling my name once again.
All beautified and looking skyward with her brand new shiny face.

She's all gussied up and ready to take on the wall now.

Just which wall, exactly, is the question.

I love her here in my master bath with the teals and oranges.

But she might brighten up the living room too...hmmm. Decisions, decisions. (I refuse to get a new couch set until my kids stop drooling and wiping their filthy hands on anything that might remotely resemble a towel).
Hope you have a thrifty Thursday. I'd love it if you'd share your creations with me.
LINKIN' UP to Finding Fabulous' Frugalicious Friday!!!
and Mique's Pity Party

Thrifty Thursday REVEAL: Ye Old Stereo Cabinet

It's time...da da da daaaa...da da da daaaa to reveal the TRANSFORMATION of "Ye old Stereo Cabinet". I'm a huge fan of the blog BETTER AFTER. After seeing all of the wonderful transformations taking place over there I was completely inspired to begin my own redo.
If you remember last Thursday in this POST I told you I bought this beautiful girl for $20.00 and it was high time she had a makeover...well, today's the day... she's finally finished.

Unfortunately this is about the best picture I have of it before I started her makeover. I had previously added the paisley fabric because of the unsightly orange speaker covers and left it at that. Don't get me wrong, I love orange but these were ratty and a bit too retro for me. After I refinished the mirror she was looking old and dreary. Solid wood and in awesome condition.

UPDATE: I remembered I had a non digital photo in an old scrapbook and scanned it in...forgive the plaid and the plethora of pictures. I was newly married and my decorating sense had yet to be refined. :)

So here she is all primed and painted with Heirloom White satin finish paint. I let the primer dry for a full week before beginning to roll on the paint. I also needed a small brush to get into the thin molded lines.

The hardware was brass and that just wasn't going to work here so I took these puppies out back, primed them and shined them up with a coat of Satin Nickle Finish

The last part was the hardest...deciding wether to put my paintable wall paper in the speaker panels or this lovely fabric I found at Joann's??!? Such a hard decision, but I like the blue on white and I'm glad I went for little drama :)

All beautified and ready to get handprints and milk splatters all over her. My hubby keeps telling me I'm asking for trouble painting something white with four kiddos in the house. I like to live dangerously like that :)

Mirror and companion stereo cabinet. So happy together.

And since fall is just around the corner I pulled out my lovelies and decorated her up.

Lastly, I added that hoot owl trivet. I spray painted him so I don't think he's useful for hot dishes any more.
Have a great day and I'd love it if you'd share some of your thrifted or upcylced items with me!!
Linking up to Finding Fabulous for less Frugalicious Friday.
http://kammyskorner.blogspot.com/2011/10/trash-to-treasure-tuesday-link-party-1.html

Thrifty Thursday #3: Ye Old Stereo Cabinet

Yep, she's getting a makeover. I snapped her up for $20.00 big ones and she's been hangin' out with some paisley for a while, but I think she really wants to go lighter :)
I hope to have all of her luscious curviness finished by next Thursday for the big reveal!!!!
UPDATE: Go HERE for the reveal.

And just in case that's not enough for ya cowpoke here's some thrifty threads my dear husband found last Saturday at our local SA to wear for a youth western carnival they were putting on. He was in charge of the three legged race.

Express Shirt: .25 cents

Boots: .50 cents thanks to a 2 for a 1.00 sale (they were a full size too big but he stuffed them)

he had the jeans, the hat and the neckerchief

OH THE BELT BUCKLE-my husband's crafty too. TOTALLY handmade-from start to finish from WOOD!!!

He cut out the oval, attached a contraption to the back so he could slide it onto his belt, drew the longhorn image on the wood and then burned it into the wood. He also knows how to fix clogged toilets! WHAT A MAN!

Have a super thrifty day!

Big Ol' Chippy Mirror

Too bad Travis' head is blocking the hunk of molding missing from the mirror. I'll look for another pic. My friend, Nicole, brought this mirror over to my house (it had a mate which I didn't take). It had been sitting in some standing water somewhere and had some pretty major damage to the bottom edge. Missing molding and cracks.

Ahh here we go...just after getting a cake filled kiss from my birthday boy. I started taking pictures after we had already added globs of wood filler to the edge.

LOTS of wood filler. Here's what it looked like after we had sculpted it out and it had dried some.

Before color...bronzy brown.

Primed with gray primer And painted with Rustoleum's Heirloom White

On the wall at night...yes those cupboards need to change.

Here's the mangled corner all prettied up.

And today...dressed up with her HAPPY EASTER sign!