My first refinishing project

Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I posted...but that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting away. Well, at least for the past couple months. Goodness, it's crazy how many projects I've completed recently.

At the beginning of November I posted over on my personal blog about how I was starting this project. I finished it in just a couple days but have never shared it. So here goes.

I have a little corner in my basement apartment that needed some kind of shelf or tall desk. I needed some extra storage space for books and papers and something cute and decorative. I looked around for a couple weeks exploring some specific ideas, but when I found this piece at D.I. for cheap, I knew it would work.

The BEFORE shot (I had already taken off the first door before I remembered to take a pic.)

As you can see, the first step I took was removing the doors and hardware. After that, I sanded down everything. Since this was already in my house, I placed some old sheets on the carpet and did everything on that so there was easy clean up. 

When I was ready to paint, I first covered all the corners and edges with some deep red acrylic paint, just in case I wanted to distress it and have that color pop through.

Then I went about painting everything. My lovely sis (Sizzle!), informed me about purchasing that small jar of sample paint (see pic above) from the hardware store for $2-3. I even have a bit of the paint left over. Yes I did all the painting inside, on the above blue sheet. I would do one portion, allow it to dry, rotate the piece, and paint another section. 

And.... 

The end product (plus a little bit of Christmas decoration)

I initially planned on putting the lower doors back on, but the screws were stripped and I could never get those handles off. So Plan B, I made little curtains that could hide my storage space.  Ta-da!

That black and white pinstripe fabric matches some of my other projects: full-sized curtains, desk chair, recovering, and decorative pillows. I got a bunch of the fabric at Savers for just a couple dollars and believe me, I've made good use of it. I'll try to share those other projects soon! 

I LOVED doing this! It was cheap and super easy. Next I'm on the hunt for a good coffee table. Then I want to try refinishing some laminate pieces. 

Journey to become a decoupage queen

Dear Readers - so I have been amazed at my sisters amazing projects, and am being inspired to do more projects. I've been subletting for the past 6 months and living out of boxes, my art supplies are no where to be found and I've been really neglecting my creative side. However, I'm moving in two weeks and am already setting up an area that I can really do more projects to share with you. For now, I'm gaining inspiration through other blogs, talking to people, looking at magazines. I can't wait to have a new room to decorate!

I've always loved decoupage and I'm pretty good at it. I wanted some unique ideas to use it for, so here are my thoughts on how to get started, and some tutorials I found for some cool projects.

Join me on my journey to become a decoupage queen!!

- First, find something to decoupage.   Always take a look at those collectibles or decorations that you've had around forever - or a really good piece of wood furniture that you see at a yardsale - it's all about seeing it for what it can be.

 Anything can have pictures and paper glued to it: furniture, photo albums, shelving, frames, boxes, vases, mirrors, hard cover books, trays, suitcases, dishes, candles, cans, bottles, egg cartons, rocks, plastic bangles, old headbands, shoes, hats, etc etc.

- Second, Find the pictures and paper to decorate your item with:
You can always keep pictures on-hand, but for example you find an old 1920s lamp to spruce up, it might call for some similar time-period pictures. If you’re on a tight budget, like I am, use magazines, newspapers and spare paper that you have around your own use. You can use pictures to create cut-outs from old magazines, photographs or wrapping paper. I keep unique or artsy pictures in a file - and I LOVE those vintage calendars, you can get them super cheap at goodwill or even at retail stores once the year is over.

The general medium is paper, but you may also use fabric, buttons, dried or pressed flowers, feathers, beads, wood, indeed anything that will give an interesting finish when your project is complete. Simply let your imagination go wild!

- Third, get your tools together
The only other tools you require are a decent pair of scissors and some glue. You'll also need something to brush the glue onto the paper - like a popsicle stick, a knife or a paintbrush (if you use a brush just make sure you don't leave it sitting around or it will be a pain to get the glue out of.) For the glue, I like mod-podge or colladge-podge, but a good pot of varnish would do. Once you buy the materials you have them forever (unless you run out of glue). But it's still a really cheap hobby.

Other, more specialised, projects will need further thought and research. If you wish to decoupage furniture or clothing, for example, go online and use the top search engines to find out exactly what tools and materials you would need for any given project, and where you can purchase them from. 

Share your ideas for decoupage or something that you've done! Jules
=======

I'm planning to decoupage a pair of pumps that I have but are all nicked up - I'll follow this tutorial and let you see the results.

 ==========
I just bought an old desk from an antique store and I'm going to follow this tutorial to make a plain wood table from simple to.....

SaSSSY! (They used old maps here, I thinks that's awesome!)

=============

Here's a great idea for a Halloween decoupage project

painting with layers

Hello from Sizzle filling in for Toots, who is completing her LDS mission in Uruguay. Today I am going to show you to repaint with layers. Distressing furniture is really in right now, so is painted furniture and sometimes you want color but not an over powering amount of color. This was my predicament.
I bought this cabinet at a garage sale. I thought I could redo it and keep my fabric in it.. So I sanded it, primed it and painted it this color:

I did several coats so this color was thick. I painted the doors this color too:
Then I got a candle and waxed the edges. Put wax where you want the next color of paint to sand off easily. It really works and keeps you from sanding down to the wood, instead you have this color show through.

Next I painted it a creamy white, I did several layers to cover the Amber Rose color. Then I sanded the edges where I had put the wax and some I didn't. This is the result.
See how I have the color showing through instead of the old wood color?

You can also use Elmer's Glue and get a crackle effect. Just paint over the glue while it is WET; so you'd need to do a section at a time. I was thinking I should have done that on the doors but I didn't.

Another tip: save money on hardware by buying a shape you like but not the finish. My knobs were this brassy gold and I got them for .97 each and spray painted them the color I wanted (the same color I did my desk chair in. It saved me a lot of money and now the hardware matches my desk too.


Before:

After:



A fun project - you could even do two colors and wax different parts and have two colors show through. The possibles are endless so keep the creative juices flowing!

Chair Re-do

Hi it's Sizzle aka the girl with the red shoes and today I am sharing a chair redo. I have been looking for a little chair to go with my new sewing desk. I wanted something small so it wouldn't take over my room and could be pushed under the desk. After searching garage sales (so fun btw) I found this little chair- I think I paid 2 or 3 dollars for it. It is the perfect size but the fabric was worn out.

Here is the almost finished result (I still have to screw it back together): Thankfully my 4 year old held the top up for me so you could get the idea.

I spray painted the metal to a darker color to match the hardware on my desk. I used duck cloth to upholster the bottom so it would be sturdy and did a fun fabric for the top - I figure that won't get as dirty. Plus that is the part I look at and I love having beautiful things around me to keep me motivated and inspired.

The bottom needs to be pushed up a little so I will have to fix that before I strew it together but there you go.

Here are pictures of the process; lots of sand was involved - well, came out I should say...

After unscrewing the top and bottom and spray painting the chair (thanks KK) I took all the old stuff off - I was left with that wooden, shaped board. I put in two layers of batting - which may not have been enough - I should have added three I think... I stapled it on with my industrial stapler. (I use this all the time it was only $15) Then I put the fabric on top of that and stapled it on too. The top was like this - it was already covered but it was all moldy and dirty so I scrubbed it with Lysol and wiped off all the grime. Can you tell the difference in the below picture? (I'd only done a short line)

Then I folded my pretty fabric around it and stapled that - no batting this time because I used what was already there.

Tomorrow KK will be posting-Stay tuned

Keep the juices flowing!

SIZZLE
aka the girl with the red shoes

What I did - furniture re-do

For any of my projects I am not sure about the way you are supposed to do them but I know the way I did them.

I had never painted furniture before - I wasn't sure the process or how hard is what going to be etc etc but really it is easy IF you have the right supplies.

1. The first thing I did is to take all the hardware off.

2. Then since I was doing this INSIDE my house I put an old sheet under the desk and table.

3. I had some sandpaper in my scrapbooking supplies - it was fine or very fine - my dad said it would work and it did. I sanded the entire desk. I was surprised that it went a lot faster then I thought it would and it was fun. I had the kids help- they LOVED it. It was a good way to get out aggression. I didn't sand it a ton but enough that it was a little rough so the paint would stay.

3b. I cleaned it with a wet rag and vacuumed it to get all the dust off. If there were any smooth spots I quickly sanded them.

4. Then I primed the desk. I actually found this primer in my garage from a previous owner - It said it was for wood. I doubt you have to use special primer but this is what I had on hand and I wanted to start RIGHT AWAY!

I took my time - primed it one night while the kids were asleep and painted it the next night

5. Finally the fun part! I got to select my paint and splash color all over that baby. I knew I wanted blue. I got Swim by Valspar at Lowes in high gloss. So fun. It went fast. I ended up doing two coats over the course of a couple of days.

6. Trip to Lowes to select my hardware - I got a grass pattern that will match one of my fabrics. The holes matched up where the old hardware was so I didn't have to putty the holes, sand and redrill. I have wood putty if anyone needs to borrow it...:)

7. Then I reassembled.

Ta da. Done. It sounds like a long process but it went really fast and like I said I didn't do it all at once but I was done in a weekend.

Furniture Re-do

My new favorite thing to do is to refinish old furniture! I finally figured it out and now I am always on the look out for funiture I can paint. My current treasure hunt include a unique chair for my desk. I am so excited to have my sewing room - can you tell?