Krylon’s Dual Duel

Just a quick little post to make a plea for votes on Krylon’s Dual Duel.  :)  Voting ends on Friday, and I’d be honored to have your votes!  You can vote once a day until then, and each vote enters you to win your very own 6 pack of Krylon’s Dual Paint and Primer Spray Paint in your choice of colors.  (I won a few weeks ago, just for voting for my own projects!)

There will be one winner from each of the four categories, and these are my entries for the best spray paint makeovers of all time.

(Just click on the before and after picture of your choice to be taken to vote.)

Lawn & Garden - Headboard Bench

Decor – Funky Bedroom Set

Kid Stuff – Tres Chic Play Kitchen

Garage Sale – Antique Side Table

Thanks so much!!!

Red Fireman Dresser, New Knob Shop, and an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Giveaway!!

Phew!  That’s a long title!  And there’s a lot to cover here!

First off, I’d like to give a big congrats to Heather for winning the Chair Back Headboard!!  (Heather, drop me a line and we can work out getting that to you!)

Next up, the generous gals at WonderFaux Studio in Stafford, TX sent me some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to try out.  I’ve seen lots of fantastic projects in blogland using this paint and I had being dying to get my hands on some to try out forever, so I was excited, needless to say.  I chose to give the deep and rich Emperor’s Silk red a go, and the color surely did not disappoint!

I started with a ho-hum, dime-a-dozen Hemnes dresser from Ikea.

A ended up with a fun, quirky, bright, one-of-a-kind piece!

Wouldn’t it be just fantastic in a little boy’s vintage fireman room?  Like, RIGHT at home in a bedroom like this one?

Yes.  I think so.

Since AS Chalk Paint boasts “no primer needed,”  I jumped right into painting this one.  Now here’s where a little color theory comes into play.  To get such a vibrant red color, almost no white pigment is used.  White is what gives color coverage, so red is typically a very difficult color to cover with.  The Annie Sloan paint was no different.  The adhesion was certainly great and not needing a primer, but the color coverage for this particular shade was lacking.  I used 3/4 of a pot of paint (3 heavy coats plus touch ups on the knots)  for just this one, smallish dresser, whereas my friends “in the field” who have been using AS Chalk Paint have had great coverage and gotten miles of use out of one pot of the paint.  So, take from me a lesson my friends.  If you use AS Emporer’s Silk, make sure you use a gray or black primer before you paint and you’re sure to be thrilled with it and it will last like chalk paint should.  :)

I finished it off this dresser with some Minwax Paste Finishing Wax, which gave it protection and a nice, satin finish.

And are you wondering about those fantastic pulls?  :) 

Well, they are Ann Marie originals made from salvaged vintage water valves.  They are available in my new Etsy shop called The Hob Knobery, along with a selection of natural gemstone knobs and some vintage knob finds as well!  I’d absolutely LOVE for you to hop on over and check out my newest venture. 

I have more ideas for some furniture knob handiworks bouncing around in my brain, so there’s much more to come!  :)

NOW IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!

And, of course, I’ve saved the best news for last.  WonderFaux Studio wants to give one lucky Twice Lovely reader their own pot of Annie Sloan Chalk paint in the color of your choice, along with 3 artist’s gesso brushes!  (A $60 value!)

AND, to sweeten the deal even further, I’m going to throw in a $20 credit to the all new Hob Knobery Etsy Shop towards whatever you’d like there.  :)

For a mandatory first entry :

1.  Like WonderFaux Decorative Arts on Facebook and leave them a comment there saying you’re over from Twice Lovely.

2.  AND be a public follower of this blog.

3.  Leave a comment below saying you’ve done #1 & #2.

For extra entries:

1.  Favorite the new Hob Knobery Etsy Shop and leave a comment below.

2.  Like Twice Lovely on Facebook and leave a comment below.

3.  Facebook, Twitter, or Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment below.

The giveaway will run through next Wednesday, August 3rd and I’ll announce the winner that day!!

I go in EARLY next Thursday morning to the hospital to have this baby!  :)  Can’t wait to meet this little guy!  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and healthy delivery.

Linking to:

Domestically Speaking, The Shabby Nest, Miss Mustard Seed, My Repurposed Life, Chic on a Shoestring, Finding Fabulous, Lolly Jane

Chair Back Headboard and Giveaway!

I had some pressed-back oak chairs sitting around in my workshop forever!!  Someone gave them to me for free back when I’d never turn down free.  (I’ve learned to be a little more discriminating in what I’ll take up valuable workshop space with.)  They weren’t in good shape to begin with.  The wood on the seats was split, and grew more so over months of sitting in the workshop.  The legs had been chewed by a dog.  Overall, completely yucky!  But I have such a hard time throwing things away!  I kept thinking “The backs are so pretty!  I’m sure I could think of something to do with them.”
I’m not sure what happened to my before picture, since I took it SO long ago, but they were these kind of pressed-back chairs that you see everywhere, but in much worse shape.

I had the idea to turn the chair backs into a headboard, and as it turned out, three chair backs put side-by-side was JUST the right width for a queen size bed!  It was meant to be!
I lined them up and attached them together with some scrap wood that I cut to size.

Then primed them with some cheapo black spray primer.

I then spray painted them with my favorite silver metallic spray paint, Rustoleum Bright Coat Chrome, and added a black glaze to antique it and make it look like pewter:

How I wish I had a queen size bed in my house so I could stage it up all nice for you guys!  (sigh…)  You’ll just have to use your imagination.  ;)
I’m just glad I could salvage some part of these chairs and repurpose them into something cute and unexpected.  It makes me happy.
I’m really getting discouraged with the sales and marketing aspect of furniture upcycling lately, so I guess the forced break for birth and newborn days is coming at an opportune time.  (Baby is scheduled for induction two weeks from tomorrow!!!)
Since I don’t want to sell this headboard, and I have no use for it here since there’s not a queen bed to be seen, how about a giveaway?!?!?!  (I’m not able to ship this, so unfortunately this giveaway is only for locals, within pick-up proximity to Prescott Valley, AZ.  Please pass the word along to any Arizonans you know who might be interested as well!)
Here’s what you need to do:

1.  Be a public, Google Follower of this blog.  (If you’re not already, you can go ahead and click follow over to the right on the sidebar.)
2.  “Like” us on the Twice Lovely Facebook fan page.
3.  Leave a comment that you’ve done both of the above.

For an extra entry, stop by Cara an my new(ish) Etsy shop, Garden Laundry (a place for soft, vintage bedding and linens) and comment back here about your favorite item we have listed, OR something you wish we had in the shop.  :)
I will draw and announce a winner on Monday, July 25th.
I have a fantastic giveaway coming up next week as well, so stick around.  ;)

Krylon Dual Dresser Redo

Krylon sent me the new Dual Paint to try out. Check out their latest promotion, The Dual Duel, where Krylon is looking to find The Ultimate Restorer. To win this title, enter your spray paint restoration project and encourage friends and family to vote for your project as their favorite for their chance to win too.  (Stop by and check out the contest!  There are a few Twice Lovely pieces entered there, and I would very much appreciate your vote if you’re so inclined!  You can vote once a day, so check back and vote often!)

Being a busy mom of (almost) 4, any steps I can save in the furniture refinishing process are always welcome, so I was very excited to try out Krylon’s new Dual Paint and Primer in One!

There was a lot going on with this makeover, so I apologize before hand for the lengthy post.  :)

I started with a dresser I picked up on my local Craigslist.

It’s a fantastically versatile size and solidly built.  What I didn’t love about it was the multitude of faux drawers and excessive pulls.  It’s a three drawer dresser that’s trying to look like it has 8!  What’s up with that?!?!  And 16 pulls for 3 drawers is just a little ridiculous, don’t you think?  So I set out to transform this little beaut into a THREE drawer dresser and restore the universe to rights.  :)

For those of you who live for the before and after’s (like me), I won’t keep you waiting.  Here she is without all those faux drawers.  ;)

Ahhhh!  Much better, doncha think?

But first things first!  When I get real solid wood pieces like this, I usually try to strip and stain the top.  I LOVE the combination of a painted body with a warm, earthy, wood top!  If you have never tried stripping and staining wood out of fear (believe me, I used to be scared to death of it too!), I’d like to take some of the mystery and fear out of the process.  It really is easy, pretty fast, and terribly rewarding!

I always use Citristrip.  I find it does a great job without all the toxicity and stinkiness of other chemical strippers.  (You’ll notice my bottle was just about empty when I finished this project.  I use it a lot.)

You’ll notice, though, it’s a “safer” paint stripper.  Still, be sure to wear protective gloves and avoid getting it on your skin or in your eyes.  I paint it on thick using a wide, cheap, chip brush.  It’ll start doing it’s thing right away.  Let it sit for at least 30 minutes, then scrape up all the gunk.

The top still had quite a bit of paint left after the first application of the stripper.  (This dresser had no fewer than 4 or 5 layers of paint on it!)

Even with at least 4 or 5 layers of paint on it, I was still able to get the top stripped to bare wood in 3.5 hours (while going about my life.)  ;)  So don’t be afraid of this process!!

Here’s a little bit how that particular 3.5 hours went:

2:00 – applied stripper

2:30 – removed first layer, reapplied stripper

2:45-4:00 – picked up kids from school

4:15 – removed second layer, reapplied stripper

4:15–5:15 – cleaned up 3 year old’s poop castastrophy, gave the pooper a bath

5:15 – removed last layer, cleaned off remaining paint/stripper with denatured alcohol and fine steel wool, gave a quick sanding with fine sandpaper

5:30 – WE HAVE WOOD!  (time to cook dinner)

See?  Not so bad.  You can do it!

Once the top was stripped, I moved on to tackle the issue of turning those faux drawers into single drawers.  I accomplished this using moulding, some masonite, wood filler, and (my good friend) Kwik Wood.

First, I used my miter box and saw to cut some very small moulding to size and miter the end to 45 degrees.

Just line up your carefully measured edge like this:

and you end up with a nice 45 degree angle, perfect for making a frame of moulding!

Then, I attached the moulding to the fronts of the drawers using wood glue and clamps.  (This moulding was so lightweight and small, I didn’t feel the need to tack them on with nails.  The wood glue held it on just fine.)

Next, I had my hunky husband use our very-old-and-heavy-but-still-effective circular saw to cut some thin masonite board to size to fit inside the mouliding frame.

I attached the masonite with wood glue as well, and filled all the gaps and cracks with wood filler.

The last step in creating the new drawer fronts was to fill in the small gaps that remained on the sides with my trusty JB Weld Kwik Wood.  (This stuff is perfect for larger fills and repairs that are just too much for your wood filler to handle.)  Just mix up the putty, smoosh it in the gaps, let it dry, and sand to smooth.

Now that I had the body of the dresser ready to go, I started staining the nicely stripped top.  I save my boys destroyed and dirty beyond saving socks for just this purpose.

(Gross!  That used to be white!)

Just put on a glove, slip on the sock, and you’re ready to wipe off your stain!

I wanted to give it a nice, dark walnut stain (my personal fave.)  The dresser top had other ideas.  :)  After the first coat of stain, it barely looked any different.

I’m not sure what was up with it, but I must of given the thing 5 or 6 applications of Dark Walnut stain before I was somewhat happy with the result (and the result certainly wasn’t the Dark Walnut I was looking for.)  Oh well!  Sometimes the furniture has a mind of it’s own and I can’t break it to my will.  ;)

I always get antsy for the wood staining and do it before paint the body of the piece.  My trick on keeping the paint off the nicely stained wood top is to turn the piece upside down on the drop cloth.  Then I use painters tape over any edges still exposed.  The paint away!  Always does the trick.

Usually, I start with a primer, but since Krylon sent me their new Dual Paint and Primer Spray Paint to try, I got to skip that step and jump right in!  For this project, I used High Gloss Piston Gray, and I love the way it turned out!! 

I bought these gorgeous, detailed, black cup pulls from an Ebay seller (thehardwarehunter) for less than $2 a piece!!  I’ll definitely be shopping with them again!

Here’s how the not-quite-dark-walnut top ended up (pretty nice, even though not what I originally had envisioned):

I heard that the Krylon Dual spray paint is now available at Walmart, so I certainly recommend giving it a try! 

I did notice the paint stayed tacky for quite a while (much longer than their regular indoor/outdoor spray paint), so make sure you leave it a good long time to set up before handling it or touching it.  It feels like it’s going to be a tough finish that will really hold-up though!

Happy (spray) painting!

Linking to:

Primitive and Proper

How to Start Furniture Upcycling – Part 2

I’d like to talk a little today about the “tools of the trade.”  These are the things I think are essential if you’re looking to start into furniture upcycling for profit.

1.  Electric Sander(s) – When I started out furniture upcycling, I only had a palm sander.  It did the job.  I still use the palm sander quite a bit for detail sanding and for most of my distressing.  I have a Craftsman Mouse and like it very much.

The times that it was not doing the job for me was when I was trying to strip or sand large surfaces like table tops or dresser tops.  For those purposes, it’s best to invest in either an orbital sander or a belt sander.  I purchased a Ryobi Orbital Sander and it works very well for my purposes.

Make sure you’re always stocked up on a course (for stripping, I usually buy 60 or 80 grit), medium (general purpose, 100 or 120 grit), and fine (for between coats, around 200 grit) sandpapers that work for your tools.

I generally don’t do a lot of sanding before I paint a piece.  You want to make sure you do enough sanding that you have a good, smooth surface to start painting on, but if you’re using a good primer, I don’t think it’s necessary to sand your whole piece before priming and painting.

 

2.  Brushes  -  I personally don’t like roller painting, so when I’m not spraying on the paint, I use brushes.  In the beginning, I bought the cheapo brushes, but once I started making a little money and heard everyone raving about Purdy brand paint brushes, I bit the bullet and bought a three pack of brushes for $20 at Home Depot.  Let me tell you, these brushes REALLY do make a big difference in the quality of your end product.  Do not skimp and buy cheapo brushes.  Purdy brushes will last you a good, long time, if you take proper care of them and they lay down a much smoother layer of paint and greatly reduce the appearance of brush strokes.

3.  HVLP Paint Sprayer/Air Compressor  -  Not very long into furniture upcycling, I realized that things would go SO much faster and be SO much easier and I’d end up with a MUCH better end product once I found a paint sprayer that worked for me.  Honestly, it has been my best business investment to date!  I did a LOT of research on different paint spraying options and here are my conclusions.

~ Airless Paint Sprayers, though an inexpensive option, did NOT work for me!  I know some of my furniture refinishing friends love their airless sprayers.  The Wagner Optimus Power Painter was my first sprayer purchase ($70 at Home Depot.)  I tried to get it to work for me and all I could ever get was a big, spitty, painty mess.  I returned the first and exchanged for another, thinking it might just have been a faulty machine, but had much the same experience with the second.  So I returned it as well and got my money back.  Later, I bought and tried a Ryobi sprayer from Home Depot and had a similar experience, with lots of spits and a big mess.  Returned that one as well.

~Self-Contained HVLP Paint Sprayers, though highly recommended by my pro friends, we’re just too expensive for me!  Some of the furniture refinishers buddies of mine whose professionalism, technique, and impeccable end products I greatly admire (namely Miss Mustard Seed and Christa from Stories of a House) highly recommended a HVLP sprayer unit.  These can run anywhere from $300 to $1000.  In the end, I just couldn’t bite the bullet and spend that much, so I was determined to find a less expensive, but professional quality alternative.

~The best option for my purposes is the combination of an HVLP spray gun attachment with an Air Compressor.  Once I decided on this option, I started scouring Craigslist (my BFF) for a good, used Air Compressor.  I found a huge, barely used Craftsman tank that was more than I would ever need for $100.  I LOVE it!!  I then bought a HVLP spray gun from Neiko (a 2mm nozzle) for around $50 on Amazon.  I used this for some time with much success.  It gave me a very nice finish and made things go along much faster than hand-painting.  It was still a pretty slow gun though, so I kept my eye open for something that would be faster still.  On the recommendation of Beckie at Infarrantly Creative and Gail at My Repurposed Life, I bought a very inexpensive Central Pneumatic spray gun from Harbor Freight ($14.99!!!)  I was skeptical that something so low priced could do the job I expected of it, but it has turned out to be everything I was looking for!!  And for such a great price, even if it doesn’t last forever, it’s cheap to replace.

 

Here’s a little pictorial summary of a few other miscellaneous items that I always keep on hand:

Well, I hope these posts were helpful and informative for you and took a little of the scariness out of doing this sort of thing yourself.  It has brought me so much joy (and a little bit of extra spending money to boot!)  I have a passion for it, and I hope that on this blog I’m able to help some people out there to JUMP IN! if it’s a passion of yours as well.  :)

Please let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer for you.  I got a few after the first of these posts and I’ll try to answer any of your questions next time.

Happy upcycling!!