Craft Table to Coffee Table

When my kids were little we bought them this beautiful craft table from Pottery Barn. It had one of those paper holders that would hold a spool of craft paper and drawers to hold crayons and stickers. It was fabulous! But then my kids got taller and older and the table just sat outside for years collecting dust and dirt and spiders. My daughter would play with bugs on it and carve her name in to the paint. My husband stored the dog food container on it. It was a mess! I really wanted to salvage it somehow because it was high quality but just didn't know what to do with it. Finally I thought, it's either going to get new taller bulkier legs and become a desk or get shorter legs and become a coffee table. Well the coffee table one because we already have a crappy desk but not a coffee table.

Here is the sad little craft table before.

We wiped it down and other than just being really dirty (the wood wasn't even rotted at all!) and shooing some spiders away, it was in great shape!

We purchase some coffee table legs from Lowe's and took the old legs off the table.
My husband made marks on each spot where the new hardware needed to be drilled in (this made it a ton easier). He had to sand the corners of the legs just a bit to get a flush mounting.

He used the same hardware from the old table legs so that save us some $$!

I sanded the table top and the sides and the front of the lip with my circular sander and paper with grits ranging from 80 to 220. The paint was a little hard to get but we just kept at it with the 80 grit until it came off. The rest of the sanding was pretty simple and since the legs were wood we didn't sand those at all. I decided to paint the legs and the lip of the table Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore. We just got 1 quart which was more than enough with 2 coats of paint. I highly recommend just getting a sample of paint because it is super cheap (usually $3 or less in a 1/2 pint and they are right on the paint counter and they will mix in your color for you) and with a small project like this I barely used a quarter of a cup out of the whole quart of paint. I am the type of person who HATES having a bunch of paint cans in the garage! I never end up using them again.

The tops of the legs had predrilled holes in them so my husband put hooks in them so after I painted them we could hang them to dry in the garage. After I painted them with 2 coats of paint, I spray painted a clear gloss over them. I don't really know what I was doing, I just wanted to put a coat to get them a little shiny and protected and luckily it worked out. I let the legs hang dry for a couple of days while I worked on the table top.

 We flipped the table top over and taped off the areas to be painted. I just painted the front and sides and just right underneath. I painted the fronts and sided of the drawers separately and let them sit off to the side to dry. These as well also got 2 coats of the paint. After the bottom had dried for about a day, we flipped the table top and stained.

We used Rust-Oleum Wood Stain in Black Cherry (1/2 pint) and Rust-Oleum Polyurethane in Satin Finish (1/2 pint). We also used Paint and Staining Cloths for the stain. They worked really well and did not get lint in the stain at all. So this was my very first time staining and let me tell you, I was NERVOUS!! Also excited! So excited, I didn't put gloves on. (Duh!) Stain is super messy and sticky. But I just poured a little of the stain on the table and wiped with the grain of the wood. Since the table was a cluster of wood pieces there wasn't really a grain rhyme or reason so I just rubbed it on and added more as I went. I also did the lip edge of the table.

This stain is a 1 coat process. After you get it all on, you wait 10 minutes and then wipe off any excess that hasn't soaked in. The color was freaking glorious! I was super stoked! Then it was time to put the polyurethane on (instructions were to do within an hour of staining). This was also really nerve racking for me. I used a synthetic bristle brush and poured a little of it onto a paper plate and went to town. Try your best to get an even coating. The poly will dry within 3 hours and then cure in 7 days which is really fast. There are a couple of spots I messed up on but my hubs and best friend say its just me and probably no one else will notice. The poly was a satin finish so it is not glossy at all. I do like it a lot!

 These pictures were the day after we stained and poly'ed and put the legs on. I mean Seriously! The colors are beautiful!! I couldn't wait to take it inside so I basically tell everyone who comes in the door very sternly, "Don't touch the table!"

 Isn't it Gorgeous! I went to World marked to purchase the knobs and that's that. It's still curing so I haven't put any decor on the table but I have my eyes open for the perfect center piece. The drawers are great because they can hold the TV remotes.

This is it with my whole living room setup. Yes we have only love seats because the house is a rental and it's really old and has tight corners and we cannot fit a full sized couch through the door. My husband has been humoring me by letting me get really cool chairs though. Oh and no artwork on the walls because I'm lazy and trying to get out of here soon. All in all this table took us about a week and probably cost us $80 with the legs, paint, stain and new knobs. It was totally fun and worth it to save this table because it was such a good quality piece.

Until next time...

-Leslye

Seat Stand

So with the bed we purchased that was refinished in my previous blog post, I also got a night stand with it. For awhile I was just going to trash the thing because the top of the dresser was laminate and particle board. Then I thought, I'll get some really cute scrapbook paper and mode podge it to the top and then refinish and paint the rest. The dresser also had these horrible plastic feet in the front and I just really was at a loss as to what to do with it. 

Soooooooo, I figured what the heck! If I'm gonna trash it I might as well just try to do something with it.

Like I said, It had hideous 80's furniture qualities so I decided to take the top off and make it a seat stand. I removed the hardware and put it aside. I actually was going to get new pieces but I'm super excited for what I did with the original pieces so hang tight and you'll see what I mean.



I took a hammer and a flat screwdriver between the top and it came off pretty easily. The finishing screws came out with pliers.

Looks better already right!?

I'm really trying hard to not start my projects until I take a complete before picture but I get so excited that I forget.

My husband cut me boards to fit along the top back to make the seat as well as a board that would fit as the bench. We nailed in the sides from the inside out and then when the nail was secure in the side, we clipped the extra length and scraped it down with a metal rasp until it was smooth and flush with the wood and then filled the spot with wood filler and let dry for sanding. We added a small wood rail to the top around the edge just to make it look nicer and more complete. I filled the gaps with wood filler as well and let dry. I also took out the rounded separator in the middle of the drawer because I thought it looked cheesy and whenever I tried to sand it I was just flattening it out any ways. (Not a master sander yet!) So far so good! I sanded all sides as best I could and got down to a pretty decent finish. The sides of the nightstand are particle board and so is the drawer front. Yuck! I thought this piece was solid wood but oh well. I don't live in an area rich with cool antique places so I get what I get and I won't throw a fit!

After all was sanded, I fretted for a couple of days over what to do about the plastic legs. I had some black spray paint so I thought, what the heck! I put some painters tape around the sides to protect and went to town. A couple of coats and they looked perfect! Like painted smooth wood!

I painted the nightstand black in the same finish as I did the bed on any part that you could see from looking at it. 2 coats. Oh and when I did the bed, I got only a quart of paint and after 2 coats of paint on the bed and 2 coats of paint on the nightstand, there is still about a quarter cup of paint left. No need to buy a lot of paint on these projects. After I left the paint to dry overnight I went back to the Home Depot and got a sample size of Behr Paint in Oyster to do the distressing. Seriously! It cost about $3 for a sample size and I still have more than half left!!! If you are doing a small project, this is the way to go!

                              

                

I mixed some glaze and the oyster paint and painted on and scratched off with steel wool let it dry for a bit and then sanded off a little more with a handheld block sander. Oh yeah, I also took the original hardware and spray painted that as well. It turned out so well! After I did the handheld block sanding to distress a little more I liked the way it turned out. Hey, this is my first try distressing anything so I think I'm doing alright. It's not exactly what I pictured but it's a work in progress.  

For the drawer, I went and got black and white contact paper and just cut it and stuck it down. Now for the fun part! Picking out the upholstery for the seat cushion. We have a $2 fabric store around so I wen there and fount this really cute bird pattern that both my daughter and I loved! (Even though this is for her room, it's my project and so I wanted a little say in it)

   Cute!

After I had the pattern picked out I got some foam and placed it over the wooden seat board and stapled it just like you would do if you were recovering a chair. (See my chair covering post if you aren't sure)

And that my friends is my finished product! The seat cushion is not nailed down, so if we want to change the fabric out at any time we can. I'm really happy that I did not ditch this piece because of a little hitch with the top because I have a very sturdy seat/nightstand!

Refinished Bed

I've been wanting to take on a larger more detailed piece of furniture for quite some time now. My husband found this bed at a Garage Sale so we decided to go ahead and purchase it at for my daughter's room. I had a complete before picture but it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. Any way, here it is from mostly start to finish!

It had these awful details on it that I did not really care for. Luckily they were just stapled in so I was able to work them off with a putty knife.

We pulled out the staples with wire cutters and then filled the holes with wood filler. 

You can see the original finish pretty good from these pictures and also how discolored it was after we took the details off.

 We sanded the bed to its original wood finish with 80 grit sandpaper and then to smooth it out we used 100 grit sandpaper. The spindals on the head board were too hard to get to with the sander and were just getting ruined so I decided to take my chances and just left them alone to paint over without sanding them at all.

My daughter wanted a black bed so we got a quart of Behr black paint in satin enamel finish (Didn't want it to be too shiny) and painted one coat, let dry for a couple of hours and painted another coat and let dry for a complete day. The spindles held the paint very well after the first coat.

Here is a picture of the finished product without pillows and a picture of it with. It's a simple little bed and my daughter loves it! It was super easy to do and a great first project as far as big furniture is concerned.

Make Your Furniture POP!

Currently the house I live in is a rental so there isn't much I can do in the decorating department because I don't want to have to fill holes or repaint when I leave so my decor is minimal. I saw maybe in a magazine the suggestion to paint the insides of a cabinet to give it a POP of color. I have this huge white armoire that I knew would be perfect for this type of treatment! With the help of Hubby, we took the slider doors off and took the shelves out so those too could be painted on all sides.

I picked the Benjamin Moore Color in Tropicana Cabana. It is utterly disgusting how much I love this color and it can be quite an overwhelming color but when used in little spots and spaces it is perfect for creating a unique piece. Make sure you dust and clean the area you are painting and make sure it is completely dry before you start to paint. I used two coats and did not sand at all. I used a ultra smooth roller and went to town.

After I put all my books and stuff back in the cabinet, the color didn't show as much as I wanted it to so I decided to take the slider doors back off and just leave it open. With the area being as small as it is, I love being to see the color over the dining room table and I now have a new project...
Making some sort of picture frames out of the slider doors!!

Old Chairs Made New

My old super ugly fabric on the chair (ew, look at the stains!)

Ok, let me just start off by saying that my chairs look like crap! I have kids and they destroy everything! I have reupholstered chairs once before on an old table but I never learn my lesson and I forget how simple it is to recover chairs so they sit looking very disgusting for a long time before I think, "Hey dumb-dumb, your chairs look like people puke all over them daily and you either need to schmooze your husband for new ones or you need to fix them." I do not schmooze anyone, ever! So... off to Joann's I go!

These are the tools I gathered. A hammer, staple gun (that thing was legit!), 2 flathead screw drivers (one for me, one for Ruthie), 2 socket thingies to take the seat off the chair (yes I took the entire chair apart before I realized I just needed to take the seat off. Ruthie laughed at me) and pliers.

First, unbolt the seat from the chair frame. Underneath if there is a black piece of fabric stapled to the chair, remove the staples with the flat screwdriver and pliers very carefully. You can salvage this piece to reuse.

After you remove the black fabric, you will uncover the stapled on fabric that you will be changing out. I suggest that you remove all the staples from this fabric too because it just makes for a cleaner restart point with your new fabric. It is tedious but worth it. You can also remove any tags from the chairs as well. I doubt the police will come knocking at your door.

This is what your chair will look like once all fabric and staples are removed most likely.  Just a foam shape and a wood board. Measure the old fabric from that chair and then you will know how much fabric to buy.

 Now for your fabric, go to a store that sells upholstery fabric and find something you like or can deal with until something better comes along. I got my fabric at Joanns and it was 50% off. I'm not in love with it but it makes me happy so I'll live. I have 8 chairs and I needed about 2 square feet of fabric per chair. I precut each piece before I started. Place the foam and wood board in the middle of the fabric and pull taught on one side and staple and then pull taught on the opposite side and staple again.

 Work your way around the seat pulling taught and stapling. When you get to the corners you might have to work some magic with the corners but if you are as OCD as I am you might be able to make it look pretty good with the least amount of creasing.

 After you finish stapling the fabric securely all the way around, take the black fabric (sans tags) and re staple to make your finished seat look clean and professional.

Reattach the seat to the chair frame and voila! You have a brand new set of chairs at about the cost it would to replace just 1 chair (in my case $80). Now for the big question.... Should I let the children sit in these chairs or just let them feed outside like the other wild animals?

This project took Ruthie and myself about and hour per chair.

Oh and be careful when removing the staples.....

Table and Chair

My Partner in Crime is one of my best friends, Ruthie. She hates this picture but I love it...

After I did my pallet table, Ruthie was given this super cute table and chair. We got some sanding paper and used my husband's crappy sander to get some of the old pain and stains off. I think it's a beginners sander for maybe a small child because the sandpaper kept coming off. We ended up sanding it by hand mostly. Good thing it was a small table and chair!

She bought a small container of the Martha Stewart paints you can get at Home Depot in a Metallic Gold and a Bronze. We painted the chair in Bronze and the seat in Gold and painted the table in the Gold and details of the table in Bronze. The table got 2 coats of paint and it covered beautifully. The chair we only did one coat of the Bronze because Ruthie wanted a little of the old Antique Red color to show through.




This table and chair turned out so freaking cute I can't even believe it! In the picture you can't really see the reddish tones on the chair but in person you can and it looks fantastic!

This small project took us about 6 hours start to finish over the course of a couple of days. After we sanded the table we wiped it down with a damp towel and let it sit overnight to dry out. Then we painted and let it sit for an hour or so between coats to dry.

I tried to get a picture of her sitting at the table but she refused... Oh well...