Monday, November 29, 2010

White Twin Bedroom Set

Phew!  That was a super NICE and much needed week off, filled with family and food (two of my favorite things.)  With all the commotion around here leading up to the Camp Verde sale, then a week I promised myself would be time off from all things furniture and blog related, I didn’t get to post this set that I finished up!  I thought you might enjoy it.  :)

It wasn’t a set originally, but everything works together so swimmingly!  It began as this lovely appliqued sleigh headboard and footboard set:

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Then I added a lovely little French shaped side table with a drawer  (LOVE the harlequin pattern!):

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Finished it off with a Drexel Chest on Chest of Drawers (with killer bow-front drawers, I might add) from the 40’s.  (Sorry about the poor before pic.  This one was from the Craigslist ad when I purchased it.):

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Add a gorgeous shade of white with the slightest hint of gray, and you have pure bliss!  (I couldn’t even bring myself to distress them.  They were too b… e… a… utiful, as is!)

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These would be so perfection for a little girl’s room!  Hope you like!



 

Linking to:

House of Grace, Sassy Sites

Monday, November 22, 2010

Altar’d Ebook Giveaway Winner!

There were 78 entries for the Altar’d Ebook Set Giveaway, and the winner, as selected by Random.org is #33 …

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Krista from Blissful Craziness!  (Krista’s a fellow Arizonan.  We ROCK!!)

Congratulations, Krista!  Please email me, so I can put you in touch with Mandie to get your copies of both her Guide To Painting Furniture and Guide To Decorative Finishes for Furniture!

If your name is not Krista and you don’t have a blog called “Blissful Craziness,” never you fear!  You can still tap into Mandie’s tried and true professional knowledge of furniture painting and beautifying!  Remember, both her first Ebook (the primer on how to go about painting your furniture) and her second Ebook (adding the decorative touches to take your furniture refinishing to a new level) are available for the low price of $10 each!!  They are jam-packed with tips, product recommendations, and project ideas!  Click the icons below to get your copies today!



Thanks so much to my friend Mandie of Altar’d for putting so much time and effort into creating these Ebooks, and for graciously offering the free copies for giveaway here!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Bedroom Set and Barn Sale

I was working like a mad woman busy bee last week to get ready for the Barn Sale in Camp Verde (more on that below) so I didn’t have time to share many of my completed projects with you.  Here’s a twin bedroom set that I am so happy with!

I bought an antique twin headboard and footboard set from Goodwill for $15 as well as a side table with great details for $5.  I thought I’d pair them up as a set. 

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The wood on the center inset panels of the headboard/footboard and a starburst pattern in the wood inlayed top of the side table were just too beautiful to think about covering up with paint, so I had the plan to strip the table top and just the panels on bed set to prepare them for staining.  I planned to apply a dark walnut stain to the wood, and paint  the outside frame part of the bed set and the base of the table gray with a heavy distressing.  The stripping ended up being much more of a chore on these pieces than I originally thought, and took several go-arounds with the Citristrip as well as some sanding to get them ready for stain.  I applied Dark Walnut gel stain from Minwax.  The gray paint was a color I mixed up myself with some mistinted Behr as a base.  The heavy handed distressing revealed the white primer as well as the wood underneath.  I was thrilled with the results!

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Check out those sweet casters!

This set didn’t sell at Camp Verde, so it’ll be going up on Craigslist as soon as I can get to doing some listings.  If you’re local and interested, let me know.

As I’ve been mentioning, Friday and Saturday was the Junrestore Vintage Market Barn Sale in Camp Verde, put on by the quite lovely Tara of Junkrestore.  We all had a great time!  Though it started out a little frosty, Friday turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day, gloriously sunny with highs in the mid 60’s and we saw quite a bit of foot traffic.  Saturday turned cloudy and horrendously windy, but the company more than made up for the yucky weather and lack of shoppers.  :)  I really enjoyed getting to meet Tara, Cassie, and Christa as well as the other wonderful ladies buying and selling while we were there.  Here’s a few pics (borrowed from Cassie, since this naughty blogger forgot her camera.)

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While I didn’t move any of the really big ticket items, I sold enough smaller pieces to make the trip worth while and had a really great time.  Even got away for an overnight in Sedona with my sweet and patient husband (who helped me load, unload, reload, and reunload and was fantastic company, as always.)  A big thanks again to Tara for doing all the organizing for the event and working as cashier the whole time!

 

Linking to:

Stories of a House, House of Grace

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

New Altar’d Decorative Finishes E-Book & Giveaway!!

When I was first getting into thinking about renovating furniture for other people, there were a few people that inspired me to take the plunge.  Among the first was Mandie from Altar’d.  She has such a fun and vibrant personality, and she certainly brings that to her furniture refinishing!  I’m so blessed to have gotten to know her as a bloggy friend and fellow upcycler.  I’ve benefited from her advice and know-how countless times, and now YOU can too!!

Mandie released her first E-book, “Complete Guide to Painting Furniture” a few months ago, and it has been wildly successful!  It has a slew of fantastic tips!  Have you ever wondered how to shop Craigslist for fantastic furniture finds?  Mandie tells you all the keywords to search for to wade through all the mattresses and junk to find the gems!  Ever wonder when to sand, when to prime, what the heck is a deglosser, whether to use satin or high gloss paint, how to distress or glaze?  Mandie has covered it all and gives her professional and time proven opinions on which products will do the job.  If you haven’t yet got your copy of “The Altar’d Complete Guide to Painting Furniture,” you really must!  Click below, and for just $10 you can be on your way to painting furniture like a pro!

If you have already read and benefited from her furniture painting primer, and want to dig a little deeper into adding professional looking decorative touches to set apart your redone furniture from the crowd, you’re in luck!  Mandie has just released the follow-up E-book, “Decorative Finishes for Furniture.”  In this new E-book, you can learn how to jazz up your furniture redos with metallic paint, metallic rub ‘n’ buff, silver leaf, chalkboard paint, decoupage (including how they accomplished their very popular “Love Letters” series of furniture pieces), and more!  There’s even an expertly done section on decorative embellishment using a projector, contributed by yours truly!!  (I was completely honored to be a part of it!)  This E-book is also available for the low, low price of $10!  Just click the icon below!

Mandie has graciously offered BOTH the first and second E-book to a lucky Twice Lovely foll0wer!  There’s a few ways to enter:

1.  Be a Google follower of the Twice Lovely blog (on our sidebar) and leave a comment telling us so.

2.  Check out the Altar’d Website and tell us in a comment which of their furniture looks you’d like to try your hand at!

3.  “Like” Twice Lovely on Facebook and leave a comment (here, not on FB) telling us so.

4.  “Like” Altar’d on Facebook and leave a comment (here, not on FB) telling us so.

I’ll pick a winner on Monday, November 22nd.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

French Drop-Leaf Dining Set

This project has been hounding me for months!  I’m so relieved to be finished and am so pleased with the final product!  :)

Cara picked up this fantastic drop-leaf table at the same yard sale as the upholstered chair I finished last week.  (I can’t exactly say how much it was, since this table, the arm chair, a lazy susan game table, and this console were all purchased together, but the total price was $27, I believe.)

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The chairs, I picked up separately.  They had a great French shape to them, but hideous, pastel, southwest upholstery on the seats and a pickled wood finish that’s also big here in the southwest.  There were 5 chairs that came with a round pedestal table that I’m saving for another project for $60 on Craigslist.  The people were moving and it was a must sell situation.  They are SOLID pieces and I was happy about the score.  :)

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Here’s another view, so you can fully grasp the hideousness of this fabric:

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Gross.

 

So with the shape of the chairs and the curvy legs of the drop-leaf table, the direction I was going with this set was going to be a french, distressed ivory finish.  That upholstery was, naturally, headed for the trash.  I picked up this lovely fabric for the cushions from Joann’s ($5 per yard with a coupon.)

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I fell in love with the chocolate and teal color combination!  Isn’t it great?

So, the table and chairs were primed and painted ivory.  I wanted to add something special to the table to tie it in with the new upholstery on the chairs, so I decided to tape off and paint a faux striped table runner with the chocolate and teal. 

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Once I had the stripes taped and painted, I sanded them to distress and fade, to make it look like it had been there for ages.  And here’s the finished table:

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I love how the stripes help tie the table in with it’s fantastic new chairs!

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It fits best with 4 chairs around the table, but you always want to have a little extra seating for guests.  :)

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Yes, our willow tree still has green leaves.  This is Arizona!  ;)

Another project checked off my list of things I want to bring with me to the Junkrestore Vintage Market Barn Sale in Camp Verde this weekend!  Hope to see some of you there!  If you’d like the location, send me an email and I’ll send you the address.

 

Linking to:

Primitive and Proper, Domestically Speaking, My Backyard Eden

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Updating a Chair Without Reupholstering

So, Cara picked up this chair at a yard sale for nearly nothing.  It was the end of the day on a Sunday and the people were practically giving things away.

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The wood finish and caning, though not horrible, had certainly seen better days, but the upholstery was in really good shape.  I just could not see putting a bunch of time into reupholstering when the chair didn’t really need it. 

So then it begs the question:  How do you update a chair without changing the upholstery?  The first step is obvious: Paint.  I decided to go with a soft white (No distressing this time.  Shocking.  I know.) 

Then, I picked out a fun, modern print in a coordinating color and whipped up a little back pillow, and kabam!  A chic-looking new chair!

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And since I loved the fabric I used on yesterday’s project, and thought it went well with the blue and white, if someone wanted to go a little more wild with the make over, it could look like this:

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FUN!!

So, no need to rip off perfectly good upholstery.  You can completely change the look of a chair with just some paint and a leetle bit ‘o fabric for a fun pillow! (…or two)

 

Linking to:

Domestically Speaking, Primitive and Proper, My Backyard Eden, Coastal Charm, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Chic Cottage, My Repurposed Life, Miss Mustard Seed, The Shabby Nest, Finding Fabulous, Freckled Laundry

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