Dresser Refinishing!

I won't deny it, refinishing furniture is therapeutic for me. You take something dingy and dumpy and give it a new lease on life. AND if you keep it, you add a little bit more of yourself into your home. I resent my big brand store-bought pieces some times, because they're so lacking in personality! Cheap, sure, but I can't wait until they break and I can replace them with something OLD. Crazy.

I picked up this one for $25 at Value Villiage a while back. I haven't quite found the right place for it in my house, but it looks cute none-the-less.

I gave it a light sanding, then painted it with white Behr paint/primer interior. Even though it was white on cream, it took 5 or 6 coats to get a solid cover. I picked up some sweet old pulls from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for .50 each, and gave them a coat of black spray paint (they were a bronze/gold). Since both paints I used were left over from other projects, I didn't have to spend anything else, so that totals this project at $27! Including a few hours of painting fun :D.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if the paint without a clear coat would stand up to much abuse. I've never used a clear coat because I don't abuse my pieces much, but I think the risk of painting is chipping, and a clear coat might be necessary if you've got kids around. (EDIT: because I was thinking about it, I looked it up. Here is a great set of answers for these clear coating questions: http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2012/09/how-to-seal-your-furniture-and-when-it.html)

Little Blue Table - furniture makeover

a few weeks a go I joined a friend in her search for the perfect dresser project. She snagged a winner, and while the salesmen helped her finalize the purchase I wandered by this little side table. At $9 and small enough to carry by myself, I just couldn't pass it up! Those horizontal lines had that bit of interest without being dated or overly intricate.

I put in another $20 for paint (lots left-anyone need blue?) and $4.50 for a new bit of hardware, and I'm so happy with my colour gamble! I haven't tried coloured paint on a piece of furniture before, but I love how it fits into my house. I asked for input when I was trying to decide what to do with it, and I got a lot of suggestions for an antiqued or worn in look. But I decided that while that would look amazing, it wouldn't fit what we've got going on in our home. I love how it came out - cute, with some attitude! love it. What do you think?

 I used Behr Paint & Primer for this piece. I've used it before on a white dresser, and I love how easy it makes everything! Since it primes, it sticks really well, so its awesome for really cheap pieces with thin veneer. I did a very light sanding (probably didn't actually do anything...) and then put on 3 coats. To get in the grooves on the drawer I had to use one of my tiny acrylic fine-art brushes, but it wasn't too much work (especially compared to my first project). I learned something new this time: I put the first coat on outside on my porch, my usual work space, but it was so wet outside that the moisture in the air made it impossible to dry! I brought it inside into the spare room, and did the subsequent coats inside, with the windows open. The paint doesn't smell too bad so it worked well.

Refurbishing adventure number 2! Little white dresser.

A few months ago I was given an old dresser by my coworker. It was an honour to take it, in sad circumstances, and get to refinish something with a long history. The back panel of the dresser says "Dec 72" and the wear and tear showed its age! The first challenge, once we got it home, was realizing that it was suuuper cheap. No solid wood here! It had a thin cheap venir that was bubbling in places, and handles that weren't solid metal and were bent and dented. But I wasn't ready to give up. It still had good bones! After realizing that sanding wasn't going to be a good idea, since we'd be down to the particle board in seconds, I decided that our only option was to paint it. We hit up home depot and picked up an interior oil based "paint and primer in one" for $25 bucks, along with a little foam roller that we can use for future projects.

Then, it was a simple matter of painting. I made sure to wipe it down first, since I did some sanding on the top to try and get rid of the bubbling (didn't really work). It took about 4 coats, and I just kept going until It was really solidly covered. The nice thing about using the oil based paint was it really built up the surface of the dresser, and I think it will extend its lifetime. (SO much easier than the last dresser project: sanding the entire thing and then staining...yikes!)

Since I'd decided at the beginning that this dresser was NOT going to be a money pit, we decided to check out the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for handles. We had looked at Home Depot and decided that $6 bucks a handle was just more than we wanted to spend. Lucky for us, they had some awesome options at exactly the right size! I decided on these brushed chrome and light wood handles that have an almost beachy feel. We discussed painting or staining the wood, but decided the light look was more versatile and softer. Plus, the only cost $2 bucks each.

The last piece of the puzzle was legs for the dresser! It used to have some, but they had been discarded somewhere along the way. If we left it straight on the floor, we wouldn't be able to open the bottom drawer. This is where family connections prove their value again: I jokingly said "hey Dad! got any dresser legs sitting around in the garage?" and he said "yeah, why?" Turns out, they were perfect. They're cute and chunky and stained the same as the handles! Dwayne had to trim them down and then we screwed them on.

I think it looks awesome. And the best part? Dwayne filled it with his clothes, and now I get the whole closet shelf. WIN!!

So here's the final product! (notice Basil the cat got herself in there again?)

Re-lamp

Here's the story. While redecorating the office lobby, we ended up with a spare lamp shade. It sat around in the media room for a while, bugging me daily with its cute texture and nice chocolate tones. Finally I cracked. I went hunting on the weekend and found the perfect lamp base at MCC for 5.50. Gold and shapely, it fit my criteria! I picked up some spray paint at walmart, and voila.

I regret not taking a before picture of the whole lamp. Believe me, it was GOLD. Here are some iphone photos I snabbed as I sprayed!

Then, I took it into the office and paired it with the lamp shade. I must admit...the shade is a bit too big. But still, I think it looks cute! DIY success!

Dresser Up!

I can't help trying to be witty with blog posts - I really cant. (key word "trying"). I was also reminded today that I can't help correcting people when they get dates and details wrong. I don't MEAN to be the verbal highlighter, but I just can't keep it in! I'm not even an editor. Or a writer.

What I AM, is really into trying new DIY and craft ideas. Over the past 4 months or so (?) Dwayne and I finally did something I've always wanted to do. Refinished a piece of furniture! We picked up this awesome dresser/hutch at MCC for a steal with big dreams of refinishing it and putting it in the kitchen under the window. It was just the right size and in good shape! Easy, right? welll...

I really regret not taking enough "before" pictures, because you really don't get the full glory of its natural state from the two instagram shots below:

It has 9 drawers and was a nice cherry red stain (ew!) with awesome farmhouse knocker knobs, which it turns out, are very hard to replace! They don't make knobs like they used to...with 2 holes 1.75 inches apart...

The trim pieces on the drawers were one of our favourite features of the dresser, but it turns out they make sanding a bit more difficult. So lesson number one was that sanding is HARD. And also, don't sand too hard because sometimes what looks like real wood is actually a veneer... (the top got worn down a bit too far in some places). We used a belt sander for some parts, a hand sander for others, and even did it by hand for the detailed pieces. Before starting I learned to always sand with the grain, and start with a heavier paper then finish with a finer one to smooth it down.

Once we had it all sanded down we picked out some stain! We went for promising sounding Ebony, in spite of how hard it was to see the samples at home depot, which they have nailed up high and out of reach. We just guessed at a brand, basically based on the colour choices. We picked up a top coat as well, and some rags and brushes.

The we got back to work! This was the funnest part, because it was EASY compared to sanding. Lesson number two was if you leave your furniture outside while staining, be sure to wipe off the collection of pollen and dust that collects before starting a new coat...(it all worked out lol).

On to lesson number three! um...the top coat says to sand in between layers, but that might actually take your stain off...so just go with one layer and write a blog post in a year about how it held up.

Lesson number four, which could have come earlier, is that knobs are actually quite hard to find. There are lots of options, but if you're dealing with two holes, you'll find that standard sizes these days aren't the same as they used to be. But, shopping online is definitely your best bet, and you may end up with an awesome knob that just barely works. Use Ship Happens, it will save you exactly 16 dollars in shipping.

Lesson number five? what is it? Refinishing projects are WORTH IT! we saved money, did something together, and have a one of a kind piece that fits exactly what we needed!

Lesson number six: anything you leave on the ground is considered fair game during kitten play time. (which is basically all the time)