Sunday, August 29, 2010

Metallic Side Table

My youngest sister moved away and started her freshman year of college a few weeks ago.  (Sniff, sniff…)  Now that the last of us 5 children has flown the coup, I’ve been helping my parents move into a smaller home that is (lucky for me) like 5 minutes away from us.  My mom wanted to set up a room in their new house to be just like my little sis’s room in their old house, so she can have a familiar feeling place to return to when she’s home from school.  They painted it the same color (a lovely pale green called “Wasabi”) and brought back in her black and white medallion bedding.  She’s had this little wood side table for quite a while, and for quite a while, it’s looked a little out of place in the room.  Well, I took the opportunity to steal the table away for a little makeover.

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She is an extremely talented flautist, and picked up this lovely pewter music stand somewhere along the line.  It served as the inspiration for the finish on the new table. 

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Since I did the metallic secretary not-long-ago, I still had all the materials on hand.  This time around, I did a spray primer instead of brushed primer, and I must say, I missed the interest the brush marks gave to the secretary once the glaze was added.  I guess it’s all about what effect you’re going for.  I felt this application gave much more of a zinc or pewter look, whereas the brush strokes made the secretary feel more like an antique silver leaf.  There was much less for the glaze to grab onto.  (I took these pics yesterday evening with waning light, so I must apologize for the poor picture quality.  I may go back sometime soon and try to get a better picture of the finish, ‘cause that’s how I roll.)  :) 

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Notice the little monogram “H” I added to the original wooden knob?  Kristine over at The Painted Hive offered a simple tutorial on how to Mod Podge images on your simple wooden handles to customize them.  It worked like a champ!

Here’s the newly finished table in the context of her very cute room (We still need some kind of treatment for that long skinny high window.  Any suggestions?):

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Well I hope we’ve feathered her little nest enough to keep her coming “home,” even though it’s not the home she knows.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Armoire, with a twist!

I got a killer deal on this solid wood armoire off of Craigslist.  I actually had to write the lady back and make sure it wasn’t a typo.  “Just to be sure before I drive half an hour to and from picking up this sucker, it is $15?  Right?”  “Yes.  It’s missing the doors.”  “I’ll take it!”

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I got some MDF cut to size for the doors.  I had picked up some doors from the Habitat Re-Store that were exactly the right height, but a smidge too wide for this application (on top of having some cheapo pressboard for their centers.)  I used the moulding, cutting down the widths with my miter box and saw and attached it to the MDF with nails and my all-time favorite, gorilla glue.

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I painted it a not-quite-white, spray painted the pulls with some trusty ORB, and here she is:

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Now, if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I (almost) never play it completely straight and expected.  There’s always a little bit of a twist, something unexpected, and this project is certainly no different.  It’s a mild-mannered-but-never-the-less-lovely armoire, yes.  But this little lady has a wild side as well.  Wanna peek?

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Oh, don’t be a tease…

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I got a couple of sample pots of Behr Gem Turquoise when I attended the Arizona Bloggers Tour de Thrift a while ago.  I used almost one sample pot on this project.  It has phenomenal coverage, even for being such a vibrant color.

I used the same technique I did on the Apple Green Chalkboard Desk’s top to do the scallops on this piece.  I just cut some blue painter’s tape in half in a wavy line, used half on one side and half on the opposite side like so:

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Phew!  Was that enough pictures for you?  ;)

 

Linking to:

Tatertots and Jello, Life in the Fun Lane, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, I Heart Naptime, Cottage Instincts, Domestically Speaking, My Backyard Eden, Somewhat Simple

DIY Club DIY ClubVisit thecsiproject.com
HOUSEOFGRACE

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Pediment Headboard Bench

I found a queen size broken pediment headboard and footboard set the other day at a local thrift store for $10.  (The DAV, or Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store is a great one in Prescott, AZ.  I ALWAYS find great deals there.)  I decided it would make an absolutely fantastic bench.  I already started choppin’ when I remembered to take this picture.  (By the way, the Metallic Secretary Desk you see in the background of this picture sold this week!!  Yay!  And the woman also bought the Funky Lamp I did a while back for her daughter, and has a couple of commissioned pieces she wants to have redone as well!  Double Yay!  Hi, Diane, if you’re reading!)

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But onto the project at hand…  I cut the footboard to be the sides of the bench and attached them to the back post of the headboard with a scrap from the middle part of the footboard like so:

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Make sense?  Then I put three planks of 1 x 6 lengthwise from side  to side  and added some fluted trim across the front like so:

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I decided to try a new tool and a new technique on this project.  I stole borrowed my mom’s Dremel to add some hand-carving on the large open space on the back of the bench (headboard.)  First I composed a design on the computer and printed it out.  Then, with a pencil I heavily outlined the design, taped it face down where I wanted the design to be, then rubbed with (in my case) the end of a chopstick to transfer the pencil lines onto the piece.

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You peel away the paper, and there you have your guide!

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Then, I carved the design with the Dremel.  It gets really hot, so I could only do it in about 10 minute increments before letting the tool cool down again.

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For this project, I decided to use a blogopshere favorite, Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint.  This was a large project, so it took three cans.  The coverage is great with Rustoleum Painter’s Touch.  The only drawback for me is that I can’t use my favorite little spray paint gun with their specially designed top, so it makes my fingers tired.  (I really can’t wait to get a paint sprayer…)

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After it was painted, I did some distressing and a smokey antiquing glaze.  And here it is!

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Very stately, don’t you think?  I LOVE it!!

 


This project is competing in the Spray Paint Challenge at The CSI Project!

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Linking to:
Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Perfectly Imperfect, I Heart Naptime, Miss Mustard Seed, Life in the Fun Lane

DIY Club

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Boy’s Aviator Room Set

I’m so excited with how this project turned out!  And I had Cara back over collaborating on this one, so good times were had all around.  :)

It all started with a waterfall dresser I picked up at Goodwill for $12.  It had certainly seen better days.  As you can see, the veneer was coming off in several places on the drawers.

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Cara and I threw a few ideas back and forth before deciding to do the dresser along with a twin headboard and footboard that Cara had to be a vintage aviator/military bedroom set for a little boy.  We were both quite inspired by the “big boy room” that Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick had done not-too-long ago for her son.  We especially were swooning over the vintage aviation posters she framed and hung on the wall.

The waterfall style of dresser is very art deco in style, so we wanted something with that kind of feel.  AND we needed to camouflage the boo boos on the drawer fronts with some big graphic treatment.  I found this poster from World War I (a perfect fit for the art deco style of the dresser) which served as our inspiration, and off we went!

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We simplified the original poster, so it just reads “Join the Air Service” and we removed the soldiers for a bit of a cleaner look.  Cara and I tag-teamed the painting of the poster across the drawer fronts.  I did a little bit of distressing and an antiquing glaze, and here’s how it turned out:

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It’s difficult to tell in the pictures, but the strip above the drawers and the wavy part below the drawers is painted a bright, shiny, metallic silver.  The sides and top of the dresser are gray and the trim is navy.

Here’s the matching headboard and footboard.  (The bed posts are also the metallic silver…)

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Little boys deserve cool rooms too!  ;)   My husband said he wished he were eight so it could be in his room.  :D

Happy Wednesday!

 

Linking to:

Somewhat Simple, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Perfectly Imperfect, I Heart Naptime, Life in the Fun Lane