What a mess!

On Monday me and Mom found this amazing antique sewing table at Value Village for only $30! We were both surprised it was so cheap, and it wasn't until I got home that I found out why. It had this really horrible mac-tac on the top and two sides, when I pulled it off I had a not so lovely surprise. At some point the previous owner must have tried to scrape off the top veneer and in the process, gouged out chunks of the top!

 This is what I'm dealing with right now. I've started to sand off the sticky mess, but its taking forever!

  My original plan was to stain the top and paint the bottom. I'm trying to decide if I should risk staining, on the count of the wood filler may be too obvious, or just paint the whole thing... This project is definitely going to take a lot of elbow grease and patience, I'll post pictures when I'm done!

A well travelled dresser

I'm so excited how this dresser turned out! I picked this up off the side of the road a couple weeks ago and it had no knobs and looked as if someone had previously attempted to sand it down. The top was half sanded and was a mess. Once again, I really wish i had of taken a before picture : (

The first thing I did was sand down the faces of the 3 drawers. I knew I wanted to make these look like old crates that had postage stamps and other designs on them. I found the design for the middle drawer on a great site called The Graphics Fairy. After transferring the designs on the bare wood, i went over them with a sharpie marker and sanded them a little to make them look aged. I'll add a link to my DIY projects page for complete instructions. I chose to use Minwax Polyshades in the Natural Pine (looks just like an old crate!) and finished the drawers off with some great handles.

 For the body of the dresser I used Burled Redwood from PPG and mixed it to make my own chalk paint. This turned out to be the PERFECT colour! It's nice and rich, warm, and looks like it has a history. After distressing it with 150 grit sand paper, I sealed it with Minwax Paste Wax.

I couldn't be happier how this turned out! I'm definitely going to try this look on another piece soon : )

A new addition!

I'm just about finished my latest project. This is one of my awesome finds during the curbside giveaway, which means it was free! I already had the paint, so with only spending about $10 for stain and a new brush, it's totally changed. That's definitely my favorite part about furniture flipping, the end result! You can find the Before picture of this desk Here.

After sanding down the top, I used Minwax Polyshades in Antique Walnut. This product is great because it has both the stain and polyurethane in one. Two coats of that was all it needed. Then I mixed up some homemade chalk paint in a nice yellow and green for the body, and then used the dark paste wax for antiquing.

Right now I'm trying to get into the Alderny Farmers Market, I have a meeting next week with the lady in charge of deciding who can be a vender. Hopefully she like my stuff so I can get a tent to display my furniture! *fingers crossed*

New life to old shutters

I found these great shutters at Renovators Resource and thought they would be perfect to make old signs out of! First I mixed some homemade chalk paint in a grey/blue; once that was dry I stenciled on the lettering in an off white. After dry brushing a bright red on the sign, I distressed the whole thing with my electric sander. All I need to do is get a picture hanging kit and it's done!

Detail:

Curbside Giveaway Finds

Last weekend was the HRM's Curbside Giveaway. To anyone who isn't aware of this, it's an event held twice a year in the HRM where you can put anything you want to get rid of at the end of your driveway for others to take. I was sooo excited about it this year, since i knew there would be tones of furniture around town. SO, at 8am on Saturday I got up, quickly got ready, and me and Mom went hunting! I ended up finding some really great pieces. I found a lovely solid wooden dresser and a funky side table, but the best find was definitely this old vanity which had so much potential!

I've already started working on the vanity. As you can see in this picture (sorry about the poor quality, I took it from my phone) I have already sanded the top down to bare wood to be stained. My plan is to stain the top and paint the rest, and also change the hardware. I'll post more pictures with my progress!

First Sale!

I just had to make a quick post about my first sale! I sold the Pie Cabinet to someone who I know will appreciate its funky quality! The money went right into my Portugal fund : )

First Re-Upholstered Chair

In my last post I mentioned how I started my first re-upholstery project on a chair I bought for $14.99 at Value Village. Well here are the results! I’m pretty happy with it, considering it was my first attempt at re-upholstery. I probably could have pulled the fabric tighter on the bottom, and the back could have used a little more padding, but I really like how it looks! So without delay, here’s my first re-upholstered chair : )

                

                      Before:                                                                      After:

                                  

Things going on...

I figured I should post an update of what I've been up to lately. Last Sunday I bought a great dining/living room chair from Value Village for $14.99. It was an upholstered wooden chair with woven sides, and it needs LOTS of work. The fabric was really old and dirty (and auqa crushed velvet, ouch!), so I have since ripped that off and taken the seat off the frame. This was a much bigger task then I thought it would be. Who ever built this thing did not want it to be taken apart. It had more glue and staples in the fabric then a Christmas parade float! After I finally got all the fabric off, I painted the chair a nice creamy white, distressed it, and then used Minwax Dark Paste Wax. When I get home I’ll post some pictures of my progress with the chair : )

Today’s my birthday, and at 6am Eric woke me up, made me breakfast, and gave me flowers, chocolate, and a Mastercraft Electric Sander! It’s only us DIY chickies that can appreciate this present, and I tried it before I got a chance to get dressed this morning haha.

Finally, I ordered my own business cards! This is the basic layout, with a some information removed : )

Have a good Wednesday!

Vintage Vanity

This was a vanity that was sitting in my mom's storage for a while, and since she had no room for it, it was given to me! As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I think that's how the best DIY projects come to be. If you have instant inspiration then it has a better chance of being something great!

I really wish I had of taken a 'Before' picture of this, but my camera decided to be a piece of crap before i started. If you can imagine, this was in really hard shape. It was painted white at some point, because there were traces of the old paint in certain areas, but mostly it was just wood. 

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