Roadside Desk Rescue

I found this desk on the side of the road:

Desk soo heavy we removed drawers asap...

Close up of the mess!

You can not tell from the pictures but the top of the desk was bowed out pretty bad, it had been left in the rain and thoroughly abused during its previous life (nail polish, glitter, glue, etc).

After about a week in the garage and a few heavy thing sitting on top the would retracted and it lays almost perfectly flat now.I thought I would need to replace but I'm glad I got to keep the original top because of its unique shape:

Spoiler Alert: after refinishing

Most of the water rings, scratches, etc removed with hand sander, unfortunately my sander DIED after this project! O well....Here are the AFTER pictures, drum roll please:

DURING pic (primer)

AFTER

On a different occasion I found this pitiful fold away dining chair:

Excuse my boys bb hoop

Revived back to life as a foldable desk chair!

All paint & stain was leftovers so this was an economical redo!

Queen Anne Coffee Table

I LOVE this table, I want to keep it for myself but ALAS it is too low...I wish someone would buy it so I can stop being tortured!
I happened upon the table by a friend who spotted it in an apt complex dumpster...say WHAT?! This table is SOLID wood, not junk! What in the world??!! They could at least have sent it to the Good Will or Salvation Army...it amazes me at the waste problem we have! There is plenty of life left in this piece, although someone with less of an imagination could not see, obviously.

Looks to plain, needs some pizzazz...

Champaign Gold here we come...

Still needed the little detail of gold in the trim, now we're talking!

The gold trim is on the entire table, this is the 'before' the trim picture

A really sharp piece done with $1 sample paint from Lowe's and leftover black paint from a different project & leftover gold pen and craft paint. Finished off with acrylic.

Writing Desk

Another piece commissioned, I'm soo excited! The owner of this desk had it for 20 years trying to refinish and replace knobs, his wife wanted an update to suit both of their styles. The top had water marks, etc...Of course my sander decided it had enough after a different intense project so I was left to hand sand....UH, NO! I did my research on Pinterest and found out I could remove varnish with oven cleaner, since this stuff takes out my lungs I have a whole can of it under the sink.
I sprayed the furniture in a well ventilated area (outside) and let it sit for 15-20 min, wipe down, used vinegar to neutralize and continued process until I got the top how I wanted. Once that was completed I stained and used poly as usual.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

KNOBS: Hobby Lobby

Update Your Frames

For years I wanted a gallery wall of black frames and I gathered all the sale priced frames I could find at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc. Over time I have changed from black to something else, enter: ORB (oil rubbed bronze) I love this color, espresso brown with a bit of surprise (copper). Desktop frames can easily be hung if you buy the picture hanger teeth that just require a hammer to attach to the back of the frame, remove the easel if necessary to lay flat.
Out came the spray can and I went to town, including a mirror and outlet covers:

 Still playing with arrangement.....

Easy Chair Makeover

So, I've had this great little chair in my house for awhile serving no real purpose but to look cute (or so I thought)...I need to clean out the 'clutter' so I decided to get it moving. First, that awful fabric on the seat had to go...in come left over from the Queen Anne Side Chair redo.

BEFORE

                                                                AFTER:

The story behind The "Harvest Chair"

BEFORE

Close Up

Close Up of After...a little bit of distressing

After

Close up AFTER

Here's the story: It was late so I just was just going to run in and out of the Good Will  and lo and behold there are SIX dining room chairs for $5.99 each! Wow, I wasn't looking for chairs but I WAS looking for another project, however, I didn't know how I would manage to get all of these chairs to my house in my Toyota  Camry??
I took and picture and sent them to a friend of mine and also showed them to my mon (whose house I was en route to that evening)...same response: YOU DIDN'T BUY THEM??? Come on people, I DO know how to show SOME restraint. Alas, I figured if they were there in the morning it was meant to be. So my friend met me at the GW as soon as they opened, she actually beat me there and grabbed all the tickets because they had been MARKED DOWN to $1.99 each! THEN I knew it was meant to be :-)

For the seat covers I rummaged thru hangers of draperies at another thrift store and scored WASHABLE JCP drapes for about $3/PAIR...so if you are keeping track I spent less than $20 on SIX dining room chairs. I used leftover paint to mix up my version of 'chalk paint' and after wiping down and repairing I got to work painting these babies.

It was a loooong, arduous project, only because I like to do things that I can finish that same day. Other than that it was NOT hard to do.

Keep using your imagination to transform something that may look 'ugly' at first glance!

Half Bath Re-do Part 1

I have to take a few more pics but this is what I have soo far. For some reason all of the 'before' pictures are MIA...why???!!! :-(

Yes, I did go back and touch up paint around light fixture!

Behind the toliet

Pics relocated from another room (yay

The two butterfly prints are now hanging side by side

UPDATE: I found some "before" pictures:

before wallpaper removal

during removal

Laminate Headboard DIY Chalk Paint Project

So, I got my first commission to paint and lo and behold the headboard was laminate! I was like O-M-G...I didn't know how my homemade chalk paint would work but it turned out ok. Thank you to Teresa @ Unexpected Finds for referring me!

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Bargain Nightstand

I'm always looking for sturdy pieces of furniture that I can use in my boys' room so when I saw this mid century find I jumped at the chance to use it. It had a bad paint job but I was just going to repaint it so I didn't really care.

BEFORE

AFTER


I used leftover paint from his room...most of it is the same color as his walls; I added a little black to darken the paint and painted front drawer and trim.

Gift crate re-do

I tend not to be able to think straight under stress so I haven't had a lot of projects like this but I'm always looking for projects that involve repurposing.

This was like 50 cents because one of the slats was broken but the nail was still in place and my hot glue gun was ready!

Up close and personal

Missing slat

The key to these projects is to do it as quickly so you can have a finished product to look at. I used spray paint and TADA...we have a new fruit bowl!

Lamp/Magazine Table

Lamp Magazine Table

I don't even know what this thing is called, I just know it was 1/2 price day at one of the local thrift stores and I needed a cheap fix for a nightstand for my soon to be 13 year old. Sooo...after checking to make sure the lamp worked, I hauled it into the back of my Camry and took it home! 

Normally, I don't think it fits my design aesthetics but it is FUNCTIONAL and it is durable, being made of wood and metal I figured it can not be destroyed and if it is I haven't wasted any money on it.

The lamp shade looks like it was made with a paper treatment with leaves impressions which I promptly removed and just watered down the paint I was using and painted the shade, see below:

BEFORE

AFTER
I don't know what happened to all the 'before' pictures

Stripe

YAY it works!