Drab to Darling Desk Re-Do

I have mentioned before that I have some pretty incredible thrift stores in my town. I know that it is only by sheer luck that I come across these treasures, and feel it is a duty of mine to bring them straight home, and gussy them up so that they'll reach their full potential. Such was the case with this darling little desk. I have already bought my son a desk (a really incredible old desk, but I'll get to that in a minute,) but this one is one of those super tiny ones, smaller than a kindergardener would use, and perfect for my 2 year old son right now. For only $3 I snatched it right up.

First things first, I gave it a really good scrub with a bristled brush and some steel wool. It had a lot of funky cobwebs and rust all over the bottom, and since this is for my son, I wanted those to be good and gone.

The top of the desk was a plastic laminate material that wasn't winning any beauty awards, so I decided to cover it up completely and made the top into a chalk board. I coated the whole top and edges in chalk board paint. I then seasoned the chalk board by rubbing a piece of chalk sideways over the whole top. This ensures that once we start writing words, letters or anything else on top, the lines won't be permanently etched into the paint.

My son came out in the middle of this part and assisted in dusting off the chalk. I could barely keep him away the desk, he loved it already!

Next step, paint the body of the desk. Something with this many little crevices called for spray paint, and I went with Rustoleum since it has such a high level of protection and stops any more rust from forming.

I made sure to tape the desk well, all around the edges of the wood and the metal details. I then started spraying!

I did 2 - 3 light coats of paint leaving 10-15 minutes drying time in between coats, then I flipped the desk over to do the bottom and the inside.

Looking better already!!

I sanded all of the grime off of the wooden seat and back until I was down to the wood. I then tried out this Americana gel stain in Oak.

I really wanted to try this stain because it is water-based, and I really hate the fumes of oil based wood stain and the paint thinner that I then have to use to clean my brushes. I also don't ever know what to do with the thinner afterwards, so this let me avoid both of those situations.

You'll need to use a different technique than with a oil based stain, where you would paint it on, let it soak in, and then wipe off the excess. For this water based stain, you paint it on a bit at a time, and then wipe over it with a damp cloth to help blend the color until it's as light or dark as you want. It took a few applications to get it just how I wanted, but once I was finished I really loved the warm oak.

It needed a little something extra, so I went for a 3. If people ask me, "Why a 3?" I will say, "Oh, because Jayce is the 3rd member of our family!" or something like that. The real reason is, I wanted to put some sort of detail there, and this 3 was the best option in my craft room at the time. Sometimes my details are sentimental, and sometimes they are just completely random!

I sealed the wood with a coat of satin polyurethane and I was done!!

So?! Better, right?!

My son just loves it! Actually, while I was in the backyard cleaning it and it's successor, the neighbors' kids came over and all 3 were fighting over writing on it.

And here it is next to the bigger, up next for a re-furb desk. Isn't it tiny? And isn't the big one great?! It has a wooded desktop and a big hollow compartment inside for storage. I feel a responsibility to do this big one just right since it's such a great find, so I'll welcome your suggestions. But for now, we're loving the 2 year old chalkboard version.

I'll be linking this up to these great link parties this week. See you next Monday!

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Barn Wood and Branches Wall Art

I had an incredibly lucky moment a few months ago, when some friends asked me to make a few signs for their house. They wanted to pull apart a beautiful old chest that was in their home and use that wood for the project, and offered me the rest of the wood to use as I wished. They added, "the chest is made from some old barn wood from our farm." I couldn't get my yes out fast enough!! The wood is beautiful, rich, warm and weathered, and I was thrilled.

I knew I had to come up with something special for this wood, no typical sign would do, so I turned to Keri at Cutting Edge Wall Stencils and got this incredible stencil.

I lined up the boards and enlisted a few cute handymen to secure them to one another on the back with metal braces. Then, with a flat base I started on my stencil.

I wanted some depth to the design, so I picked out light, medium and dark shades of acrylic paint to stencil with.

I started off with a shimmery bronze paint that was a very similar shade as the wood. I lightly sprayed the stencil with a tacky stencil adhesive, and placed it a bit off-center on top of the wood. I then grabbed a stiff stencil brush and started to layer on the bronze.

I let the bronze paint dry, repositioned the stencil, and painted a shimmery gold color on the corners of the board, overlapping a bit of the bronze branches.

When this was dry I centered the stencil, and started in on my lightest color, a creamy white. I pulled away the stencil and was done!! I attached wire hanging gear across the back and put it right up on the wall.

One of my favorite things about this piece is how different it looks depending on where you're standing in the room. When the light is hitting it just right, all of the shimmery colors just pop out.

If the light is not directly on the picture, the creamy colored branch stands out the most,

but if you're looking at it face-on, there is a nice blend of the three colors. I wanted this painting to have the sense of depth that you'd have if you were standing under a tree looking up at the branches.

I also was so happy with the contrast between the old and battered wood, and the elegance of the branches in the shimmery tones. I love it!

I practiced the design on two smaller sections of the same wood. I included this sweet little bird, who didn't make it onto the big piece, but I think is a fun element.

I am so pleased with this project! It has really given me a new appreciation for wall stencils, something I had previously shied away from since I am such a commitment phobe with decor. But being able to stencil onto something that could then be moved around is fabulous!!

Also, I'm so excited to say that this project made it into the Top 12 over at the The DIY Club!

and

Erin

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Lap Desk

On most summer days I sit in the yard and toss the ball to Moose (my dog). I try to catch up on some of my magazines or do some lesson plans for summer school. (yep I'm teaching summer school...can't get enough of those youngin's..ha!)

Anyway...I'm always dragging more items out of the house than needed because I need a hard surface to write on or something to rest my laptop on. So, I decide to make a Lap Desk.




At Hobby Lobby you can buy the pre cut wood piece (50% off for a grand total of $4.00) for the top. You also need some fabric, acrylic paint, batting for the cushy pillow, and any other decorative items for the front. (I originally planned to mod podge some imagines then changed my mind..that's why the Skirt Magazine is in the picture.)




Next, you'll want to paint the entire lap board allowing each coat to try. (which with the weather we've had lately it only took about 20 minutes to dry rather than 1 hour...bonus!!)



Considering my sewing skills are slim to none, I turned to the trusty hot glue gun for the remainder of the project.




I hot glued the fabric to the board on the sides, and along the center, leaving a pocket for the batting. This is for the pillow part of the Lap Desk.






Once the pillow was stuffed, I glued the edges together and trimmed it out with ribbon. I chose to run the ribbon around the board for an added decoration.

Next, I tied the ribbon in a bow, added a fabric flower that matched the back pillow and some decorative clothespins to hold any work or memo's while I'm reading.




Thanks for stopping by, I'll be linking up to these awesome parties..won't you see what they're cooking up! Until next time!

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Distressed Blue Chair

When I drove up to the thrift store a few weeks ago I was stunned to see this great chair sitting outside by the dumpster in the rain! I quickly threw it in the back and then headed inside to see what was so great that they were throwing beautiful things like this away! It was an old chair, dark brown, with 5 fun bars across the top, and I knew I could put it to good use. (It didn't occur to me to get a before picture until after I had already started in on painting the seat, sorry!)

Anyway, I knew exactly where I wanted to use it, as an accent in my light blue kitchen, so I bought a several-shades-darker blue (Tranquil Aqua by Sherwin Williams), and went to work painting it. This was my first time re-finishing a piece of furniture, so I thought I would share a few tips from my trial and error experience.

#1. Sand it first. Don't skip this step, even if you are impatient. If you skip this step and then try to sand the already painted furniture, you will end up just making scratch marks in the paint and it looks terrible. (Sorry no picture, but it looks bad and is really annoying!)

#2. Before you start painting, decide whether or not you want the furniture to be completely painted and lightly aged, or lightly painted and heavily aged. I discovered that it is much easier to put on another light coat of paint if you want more coverage than to sand off paint that was put on too heavily. (It may be easy if you have an electric sander, but I don't.)

I realized this after I had put this heavy coat of paint on the seat. This is when I noticed that the seat was completely flat, and really looked so with this kind of paint job. So I heavily sanded the spots that would be naturally worn if this chair had been used for years: around the edge, the "leg spots," and a bit of a butt spot.

#3. Try the "dry brush" method of painting first. Get a little bit of paint on the end of your brush, dip off the excess onto a paper plate or the paint can lid, and then lightly brush it across the surface of your furniture. If you don't like the look, it is easy to sand off for a more worn look, and it's easy to paint a second coat for more coverage. (Again, that thing about not too much paint in the beginning, have I stressed that enough yet? Can you tell that the sandpaper and I spent a lot of time with this chair?!)

#4. Lightly paint over the details. Leave the cracks and crevices unpainted.

#5. Sand the edges just enough to let the wood show through. Or sand a little more to show a little more of the wood.

You can even make it seem like sanding is fun enough to abandon Sesame Street over.

#6. Apply wood stain liberally.

Be aware that if you use a lot of stain (like this) then it will change the color of the paint in addition to highlighting the exposed wood. I let the stain sit here for just a few seconds before wiping it off, but the places with more exposed wood (like the seat), I let it sit for a few minutes until it really seeped into the wood.

(See the difference between the horizontal post and the back leg of the chair? It changed the blue to a bit of a brownish aqua color.)

#7. Allow to dry completely. Repeat any steps as necessary. Seal as desired.

#8. Experiment with various decor, use as photo prop for flowers, remain undecided about decor and post pictures anyway. :)

Once I had the blue paint on my chair, I realized that I didn't just want a blue accent, but the combination of a lot of dark brown and the blue, which is why I went with the VERY distressed look. But I also wanted to see how just a little bit of distressing would look with the same colors, so I pulled out this cloche I made a few months ago.

I lightly sanded along some of the sharp edges and a bit around the circle to give it some depth. I used a q tip to apply some stain just to the sanded parts and then quickly wiped it off so that it didn't get onto the paint to change the color.

I had been tentatively planning on painting numbers on each of the spokes on the back of the chair, but decided that the very distressed finish was enough detail for now. So I put a 3 on the cloche instead, and I think it was a perfect touch.

Better huh?

This is no Miss Mustard Seed tutorial, in fact, I wish I had read some of her painting tutorials before I dove into this painting project, but I was just so excited about the chair and had the prettiest blue paint already picked out...

I hope you learned a little tidbit if you haven't done any painting like this before and would like to try it out. And for you seasoned painters out there, please let me know what I have missed! This may have been my first furniture painting project, but it certainly won't be my last.

I'm linking to these amazing parties, and the CSI Project!

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