DIY Chalk Paint

I made something!  Ok, technically I didn't make it, but I did refinish it which is close enough.

After a bit of a dry spell craft/DIY wise, I decided to chose a nice easy project to kick off 2014.

I found this little cabinet at our local thrift store for $25.

It had a couple of scrapes but nothing major and the top glass panel is in perfect condition which is a major bonus.  It's made by Lane so is a good quality piece, is really sturdy and ridiculously heavy.  I thought it would make a perfect tv cabinet.  

I've seen chalk paint all over Pinterest and the blogosphere.  I Googled a couple of major brands, and making my own (while saving a few pennies) seemed to be the best way to go.  Plus the 'no prep required' really sweetened the deal - you know I love a shortcut!

I picked up a tester, a couple of mixing cups and a box of plaster of Paris all from Lowes.  I mixed:

1 Lowes paint tester (221 ml)
75ml plaster of Paris
75ml cool water

These measurements are all in milliliters because that is what's on both the tester and the measuring cups.  Much easier than having to Google conversions!

The mixture itself was like slightly watered down paint - but not to the point where it would run or drip more than usual.

I removed both doors and the hardware, then used a regular cheapo paintbrush to apply 2 coats - no sanding or priming needed.  It went on unbelievably easily with each coat dry to the touch in about an hour.  I'm not sure how well the mixture will last, but I had enough paint left to refill the tester jar so I'll let you know!

I left the cabinet overnight to dry completely, then applied a coat of Minwax finishing wax with a cloth to seal the piece.  Next up I spray painted the hinges and pulls using Rustoleum in Champagne Mist.

I picked Almost Charcoal for my color, but failed to take into account the fact that the plaster and water would lighten the color.  So it's not quite as dark as I wanted, but I'm still pleased with how it turned out.

I'll snap some more pics once we've heaved it upstairs.  We just need to drill a couple of holes in the back for the cable wires to run through and we'll be all set.

Kate

xxx

Headboard History

Happy Monday, and Happy Autumn!  Today I wanted to share the transformation of my $30 head board.  This is how it looked when I first brought it home from a local flea market.

After an allover coat of cream, this is how it has looked for the past year.

It seemed to be the perfect candidate for a chevron paint pattern given that the wood was already carved into that shape - so no measuring or taping needed, yippee!

I used the existing cream as one chevron colour, and picked a colour 2 shades darker than the wall for the second chevron.  I wanted to make sure the tone would work in the room, so using a colour on the same paint chip was the easy option.  It only took a couple of coats and it was evenly covered.

It's like a little hidden surprise when you lay the pillows down, and is a much more interesting than it being in one colour.

 

Kate

xxx

When chair stain goes bad!

On Friday I promised you a look at the Danish chairs I picked up at a local thrift shop.  They have possibly the worst DIY stain job I have ever seen.  It looks like a lot of hate went into the staining and upholstering of these chairs. 

Here they are together.  I'll admit they don't look too bad from far away.  A little lumpy maybe, but not ready for the scrap heap yet.

But take a closer look and you can really see the shoddy job that someone did on these poor chairs.

I can't stress how terrible they look.  The stain is right over the brass sabots (yes, I totally had to Google to find out what the little brass feet on mid century furniture is called!).

I felt so sorry for them.  The upholstery job is almost as heinous as the stain.

And I don't even want to know what this is.  Bleugh!  Now do you see why they were only $12 each :-)

It was easy enough to separate the seat from the wooden frame.  I Googled around and decided to use Citristrip (from Home Depot) to try and bubble up the horrific stain job so I could scrape it off easily.  

I did a small text spot on the back of one of the chairs before layered it on the rest of the frame with an old paint brush.  I waited about 30 minutes and it seemed to work really well - cue lots and lots and lots of scraping.

And that's pretty much as far as I got this weekend.  Fingers crossed it's a case of getting a LOT worse before it gets better.

Kate

xxx

Coffee Table Before & After

Here is my starting point - a $30 Craigslist coffee table, in all his gingery glory!

This was definitely a well used table - and it had the rings and stains and scuff marks to prove it.  Some were just on the surface and others were deeper ridges and nicks in the wood.

There was only one thing for it - invest in a sander!  (hmmm, he was looking extra orange in this shot.  Lovely!).

I sanded and sanded and sanded.  You can tell how long it took me by the fact the table was in complete sunshine when I started and complete shade by the time I had finished.  It was totally worth it as I was left with a nice smooth clean surface to work with.

I knew I wanted to paint the legs white.  I gave them a rough sanding by hand and then layered on 2 coats of white paint.

Next up was the table top.  I was really torn between painting or staining.  In the end I went for stain.  Mainly because I've never stained anything before and thought, at only $30, this was the piece to experiment on.  And also because I wanted a more muted/subtle finish.

Now for how to tackle the staining process.  I could have gone with an allover dark finish - but where's the fun in that!  Since I had decided on stain, I thought I might as well go all out and try something different.  I considered a chevron pattern, but the idea of trying to tape all those zigzags really didn't appeal.  In the end I came up with a Union Jack.  The table had the perfect dimensions (44" x 26"), and being from the UK I figured I should own at least 1 Union Jack based piece of furniture!

A quick stop a Lowes and I had picked up 2 tins of Minwax Wood Finish (Golden Pecan and Dark Walnut), a roll of painters tape and some foam brushes.

I started by applying an allover coat of the lighter pecan colour - this would represent the white in the flag.  I used a foam brush to apply the stain and rubbed any excess off with an old rag.

Next up was taping off the white areas to build up the darker colours that would represent the red and blue.  I used 1" painters tape.  There was a lot more measuring involved than I had bargained for (the chevron wasn't looking like such a bad option at this point!), but I wanted to make sure it was as to scale as possible and not off center or wonky.  For anyone interested, I used a 1" outline round the larger middle cross, and 1.5" and 0.5" on the smaller diagonal cross.  The large cross is 6" wide (including tape) and the diagonal cross is 3" wide (including tape).

I Googled to see how the painters tape would hold up with stain instead of paint, but I couldn't really find any info on leakage/bleeding/tips etc  In the end, I just went for it.  For this stage I used Minwax Dark Walnut.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little alarmed when I began to sponge on the wax.  It was much runnier than I thought it was going to be and looked like oil, and I felt certain it was seeping right under the tape.  I powered on regardless, following the directions on the tin.  I didn't let it sit for very long as I was paranoid it was going to be a blotchy mess.

But unbelievably, after wiping away all the excess, I peeled of the tape to reveal crisp clean lines.  There were a couple of spots where I hadn't sealed the edges properly (mainly around the outside lip of the table) where the wax had gathered, but with a bit of elbow grease it was easy to blend in.

Next up was the second layer of Walnut to make the blue area of the flag a little darker than the red.  This was much easier than the initial taping as all of the measuring was done.  I simply ran the painters tape around the existing triangles, trying to stick to the lines as I went.

I was a little more confident this time around when applying the stain.

Between each stage I allowed the stain to dry for 24 hours, and I sealed it all with 2 coats of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane.  The new knob was a $2 Hobby Lobby find.

I'm so pleased (and surprised!) with how well it turned out.

Now for a good old before and after shot.  No more ginger coffee table for me!

More pics to come when I get it off the ugly driveway and into the living room!

Kate

xxx

I wanted to stop by to add just 1 last pic of the table in its new home (excuse the quality - its a phone snap!).

Linking up to East Coast Creative's amazing competition

www.eastcoastcreativeblog.com

Table Time

I've been a busy bee over the past few days working on my first furniture project  (about time, right?).  I mean, I've tackled the odd flat pack here and there and changed out some hardware, but this is my first real furniture transformation, and I'm loving it!

I even splashed out on a sander!  Good grief, I think I aged 10 years just typing that, ha!

This is a sneak peek at the before. 

There has been a lot of drying time involved so hopefully everything should be sealed and ready to show off by the end of the week.

In the meantime, here are some pretty flowers that are defying all the odds and surviving in our garden (see Mum, I told you we had flowers!).

Also, has anyone else noticed that everyone in blogland is moving?  I can't wait to see how they all approach their new spaces and transform them.  Here are some of my faves:

Young House Love:

Little Green Notebook:

House of Hepworths:

I'm also keeping an eye on Yellow Brick Home as they will be revealing their new pad any day now - and it sounds like it's going to be a mammoth renovation converting 2 apartments into 1 family home.

Kate

xxx

Mini Makeover

This weekend I finally tackled a loooong overdue mini makeover.  By long, I mean I've had this sad little plant stand on the to do list for 2 years.  Yes, 2 YEARS!  I bought this on my very first trip out to Bama Flea Mall for a cheaper than cheap $5.

The minute I got home, I sanded it down ready to be painted.  And that's how it has stayed.  It even made the move from our last apartment to our first home - I refused to give up on my little project.

I'm trying hard to use up the paint and craft supplies I already have.  I hunted around in the garage and found a tester from when we were deciding on the living room wall colour.  It's just one shade lighter than the colour we finally settled on (Behr, Opal Silk).

I gave the plant stand a quick 2 coats.  I wanted to add a little detail, so used a gold paint pen to mark a single chevron.

I'm contemplating turning it into a little table - maybe with a frosted glass top?  Maybe!

Kate

xxx