Curbside rescue | The Weekend Country Girl

10 of My Favorite Posts and a Big Thank You!

January 7, 2014

Karen Behr Paint with Primer, Blogging, Building a Home, Chalkboard DIY, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, Curbside rescue, Decorating, Dining Table, DIY Painting and Glazing Furniture, DIY Projects, Dresser, French Provincial, Lake Livingston, resale finds, reusing an old frame, Roadside Finds, Thrifty Art, wedding, Weddings blogging, mid-life, Photography, reaching a milestone, Repurposing furniture, starting a blog for fun Leave a comment

If things go as they have been for the last week, by the time I wake up tomorrow I will have had 50,000 page views on my little teeny tiny minnow of a blog. I will also be celebrating two years of blogging. There are blogs out there that get 50,000 page views a day and it has taken me two years. I never said I was fast. first and foremost, I want to say thank you, friends, for reading, thank you for commenting, and thank you for causing me to improve what I produce. I still have no idea what I am doing most of the time. By that I mean my husband and I are making it up as we go on our projects, and sometimes failing miserably. I am about the most technology challenged blogger out there. There have been many times when I did something on the blog but had no idea what I did, how to fix it, or if it was good, how to repeat that good thing. Between the time I started this blog and now both our children have married, my husband and I changed jobs, we sold a home, went a while “between homes”, bought a home and moved to a new city, my son and daughter in law have moved in part-time, I started a new blog called My Burb Home, and I have taken up photography as a hobby. Not bad for two folks in their 50’s.

This next year we plan to travel to two places on our bucket list, work on both our weekend home and our suburban home, build a raised garden, put in a fire pit,and continue to work on found furniture. Life is good for this weekend loving couple.

I wanted to share with you some projects from the last two years. As I looked back, there were others that could have or should have made the cut but I plan on rewriting several of them now that I don’t stink like when I started. Not many of you were around when I first logged in, set up an account and started rambling so some of the projects below may be new to you. Just click on the hyperlink and it will take you to the original blog. I hope you enjoy.

10. French provincial furniture makeover. I love that we were able to take a couple of homely particle board pieces of furniture and make them beautiful. I am seriously considering selling this set because I want to redo the room like now I recently saw on a home tour but I love the color combination and how much I learned on this project.

9. Western Dresser. We found a homely little Goodwill dresser and made it something fun for the lake house guest room we call the bunk room.

8. Table and Banquette seating out of reclaimed wood. Wow! This is one of my oldest posts and my dinky little camera did not do this beauty any justice. I will be re-photographing this set. This was a collaboration between Hubby and me to come up with a solution to a tiny space using reclaimed siding from our house. It is one of the most functional spaces in our home now.

7. Farmhouse Table. I love the look of a rustic table but man, they are expensive. Our $90.00 solution to this problem turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of furniture. It moved with us and was where we gathered for our first Thanksgiving meal in the new home.

6. Wedding Chalkboard. I did tell you my kids got married, right? I was fortunate enough that both my daughter and daughter in law wanted me to make personal items for their wedding. I loved that they wanted things that I worked on as a part of their special day. The link above is one of those items, an ornate frame my daughter in law, Sweet Amanda, found at a resale shop that I redid for the wedding and added a chalkboard. I chose this one because it was the first wedding project. I love all four of my precious kids.

5. Map Chair. Another piece of furniture that needs to be re-photographed. This little chair would be easy to recreate for a friend moving to a new city or a college student who needs to remember where home is. I seem to have a thing for chairs.

4. Painted Suitcases. I have made a total of seven of these painted suitcases now The link is to four of them I did at one time. I love finding cheap old hard sided suitcases, priming, painting, distressing, glazing then adding a chalkboard to one side. It makes a great entry into a home when guests are coming over or to announce an event. If I ever started a business, I would sell these because I enjoy mine so much.

3. Junk Fairy End Table. The last three are easy. They are my favorite, favorite projects. They speak to my love of color, family and friends. The junk fairy ( AKA The Social Planner) dropped off this homely table while we were gone one day. I did not need it, so posted a photo of it on Facebook and offered to redo it for a friend. Robin snagged it. I am happy that she chose green as the color for the table. I really like how the stained top turned out. I enjoyed it so much that I painted a table in my own home close to the same colors.

2. Beverage Station. I am now working on number three of these babies. What a great re-purpose project for an old stainless sink and a sewing machine cabinet. I love the look and they make entertaining in a back yard or porch more inviting. My favorite blue color, Behr sailboat blue, got used here. My long-suffering husband gets major credit for the stainless sink idea here.

1. Mudroom Bench. When we moved this year I literally looked for homes that my mudroom bench would fit in. It is by far my most favorite project to date. I look forward to the day that someone sends me a photo of their version of the project.&nbsphttps://theweekendcountrygirl.com/2013/01/28/toilet-paper-roll-art/; A found dresser, waiting for heavy trash pickup, and a resale shop mirror turned into this beauty.

I hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. Thank you for taking the time to look back on my last two years. Thank you for allowing me to share what we do.

A Bench for the Foot of the Bed

September 19, 2013

Karen Curbside rescue, home decorating, master bedroom, new home, Painted Furniture, Repurposed Furniture, rescuing damaged furniture, Roadside Finds, The bedroom, Thrifty decorating, upholstery bench, cheap foam for upholstery, Master bedroom, repurposed roadside find, side table legs 4 Comments

This project has been a long time in the works. A year ago, before I even considered moving to the burbs, I literally picked up these legs out of the trash at a garage sale. (I did ask first.) They once were legs for a side table and were solid wood.

I did not have a plan for them but they were too nice to be trashed.

When we moved into our new house I knew I would want a bench at the end of our bed. The room is big and I love having a place to sit and put on shoes in the bedroom. I stalled on completing this project because I am trying to keep the cost down in decorating our room. I am way over budget in the den and guest room. (Like double my $100.00 per room budget in both rooms.) Before starting the bench I had spent about $80.00 on the master bedroom and I still have a few things to do. The holdup was upholstery foam. It is expensive. Crazy expensive. The foam for the mudroom bench tufted cushion was $32.00. A friend of my daughter told me she bought foam on Amazon, but it was still going to be $20.00 with shipping.

A trip to Ikea solved the problem. Have you ever been in the “As is” section of an Ikea? It is a great place to find what you didn’t even know you were looking for. Table legs, cabinet doors, scratch and dent furnishings, hardware…the place is fun to look around in for the unexpected. I found a huge cushion for a couch or chair marked $5.00. Plenty big enough for my bench.

I sliced the thickness of the foam in half using an electric knife then used spray adhesive to attach it to a scrap of plywood pulled from the hoard and cut to fit, added a layer of batting then wrapped an old sheet around the foam and attached it to the plywood with my staple gun. This step keeps the foam in place and smooth while the upholstery is being attached. It has been so long on this project that I could not find a photo of the cushion or the big slice job. I will keep looking.

In order above: sheet on bottom, then a layer of batting, then foam, then plywood

Hubby built a frame for the bench base and attached the legs with thumb screws. The frame and legs got painted a couple coats of Behr Revival Mahogany.

This is a cool tool. It holds the wood at a 90 degree angle so you can attach the parts.

Here it was while we were fitting the bench top on the base. It looks like we did not have it on evenly.

The upholstery brings a little color into the room. it was $15.00 for two yards. Well it looks like I am going to go over on this room also, but not by much. The bench ended up costing $22.00. Not bad.

I love how this looks.

I really want to paint the wall behind our bed a darker color. I believe it is going to be Garden Wall by Behr.

Here she is in all her beauty. Hubby wanted some color in the room. I think this fills the bill.

“Franken Furniture” on the Back Porch

August 18, 2013

Karen Behr Paint with Primer, Curbside rescue, Painted Furniture, Repurposed Furniture, Roadside Finds, Roadside Rescue 6 Comments

We have started creating an oasis on the back porch. I totally blame Sweet Amanda for the porch color scheme and Baby Boy for the name- the Skittle porch. He says that is what all the colors look like. A bag of skittles.

Here is the inspiration cushion.

The turquoise chairs moved in the first day, along with the beverage station. The plants were brought over a couple of weeks ago. The new owners of our city house babysat them for us until we were able to pick them up. This weekend a project I have been very excited about made the trip from the Garagemahal to the Skittle porch.

Remember this roadside find? It was a tip from a friend that led us out in the rain to collect this table.

This drop leaf beauty was warped and sitting in the rain, but solid wood.

Remember the last roadside find from the City House? I got the coral legged end tables and also the cloven hoof coffee table. The glass was in tact and solid. I have plans for the brass feet too!

Hubby came up with a great plan to marry the two roadside finds for a table on our back porch. I am loving it. He even used left over pickets from the lake house porch makeover to make the crazy spider like legs you see under the glass. I love that the only new purchase we had to make for this entire project was the bolts that connect the top to the base. The paint is red tomato by Behr. We had this left over from the bookcase makeover at Star Hill. Here is the finished project. I love the look. It is bright but the glass makes it seem lighter and more airy.

I love the bright colors and how the pieces fit together. The lantern is a clearance find from Marshalls.

The brightly colored serving dish is one of three I got at Goodwill for $1.99 each. I will be using them a lot on the back porch.

I even found a Skittle rug at Target!

Buffet Table With History

July 23, 2013

Karen Behr Paint with Primer, Coldspring, Curbside rescue, DIY Furniture, Painted Furniture, rescuing damaged furniture, Thrifting, using bright colors Behr Jungle Trail, real distressed wood, Reclaimed heart pine 15 Comments

The best time to shop for anything at a resale shop or an auction is when no one else is willing to be out shopping. If you want the best deals go when it is raining, early in the morning or, like we just did, when it is blazing hot. It was 102 on the truck thermometer and we were pooped after a day of shopping when I spied this table sitting outside a charity resale shop. It had just been delivered and heat waves were radiating off the black asphalt where it was sitting. The table was marked $60.00.

I walked around inside the store for a little while then asked the lady at the register what she would take for the table. To my surprise she said it was too hot and heavy to bring in so if we wanted it we could have it for $20.00. Sold.

I really only wanted the legs of the table, but both Hubby and I were surprised at the quality of the table as it was loaded. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. I ~~need~~ want a buffet table at the end of our breakfast room. I have been secretly jealous of my friend Robin’s green end table with a stained top so the color was obvious…well to me it was. We worked on getting the base and table top cut from the original table, but it was just so new and commercial looking. Yes, I am one of those people who like a room to look collected, not bought as a set. I feel the same about furniture. I want unique, original and character. Hubby and I sat in the Garagemahal looking at the piece when it came to my husband. Use the wood from my dad. the plank has been sitting in the hoard over a year. It is heart pine and full of character. I love that my dad saved it from a trash pile at the place where he worked for 30 years. According to my dad the wood was used as a drafting table in the shop of Gulf States Utilities. He said it was built in the 40’s and was already old when he started there in 1960. A quick measurement let us know that it would work. Yay! It needed a quick cut down to the sides to make it fit, a rub down with mineral spirits to clean it, and a coat of poly. Nothing else.It will live in our house proudly. I love wood with history.

The color is a little richer than Behr’s Happy Camper, because I needed it to match my fabric on the chairs in the breakfast area. I chose Behr’s Jungle Trail.

One coat of Bona Floor Poly on this was enough to bring out the shine but not make it too glossy.

I love those nail holes.

It is hard to photograph a green piece of furniture at Star Hill. I had to move it to the gravel road to allow it to show up.

Lots of work took place on this old wood. I love that my dad saved it from the trash pile and held on to it for more than 10 years before I got it. It looks amazing.

It was so well made that the two pieces of wood match perfectly. We thought it was one piece of wood until we got it cleaned up.

Curbside Headboard Into Garage Chalkboard

June 17, 2013

Karen Chalkboard DIY, Country Style, Curbside rescue, moving, Repurposed Furniture, Roadside Finds chalkboard DIY, oops paint, Repurposing furniture 3 Comments

The best time to go trolling for curbside finds is Saturday afternoon just before dark. The very best time to go hunting is the weekend of the huge neighborhood garage sale near our current city house. The garage sale occurs every spring and the finds over the year have helped furnish our lake house and have provided materials for projects in our city house. People tend to throw out items that do not sell. I love items that do not sell.

The most recent garage sale weekend we collected a dresser totally junk but the drawer fronts were solid wood and will be reused along with brass hardware, a pink chair- it now has a home with a teenaged young lady who loves thrift shopping, and this wooden twin headboard that wonder of all wonders- Hubby wanted to make into a project! Of course I let him run with it! He decided to make a chalkboard out of it. Wow. I know. I must be rubbing off on him after 32 years.

This was tricky. He cut the spindles so that they followed the curve of the wood, cut out a piece of hard board for the chalkboard and turned it over to me to paint. I painted the chalkboard four times, then painted the frame with a jar of 25 cent green paint from he Lowe’s clearance section.

Hubby connected the chalkboard to the frame with construction adhesive he. Had on hand and clamped it in place.

In our clean out to move I found 6 hooks that were wrapped in a sack. I hold on to hardware when I find it. I never pay more than a few cents for hardware and save it in a cabinet at the lake so I really have no idea where this came from or what project I bought it for. Whatever the circumstance, Hubby put three of the hooks, painted dark brown onto the bottom of the frame. This is going in his garage by the door so he and hang hats and write notes when he is trying to remember measurements.

I am so proud of his work!

I Was a Faker

May 14, 2013

Karen Curbside rescue, Decorating, Dresser, The City House Credenza, Decorating, finishing a project Leave a comment

Hello friends, my name is Karen and I was a big faker. I did not totally finish the credenza before I posted it. Remember, it was cold and rainy when I worked on it? I just got frustrated before the inside of the doors were painted and we put them back on unfinished, paint drips and all.

It looked finished unless the center doors were opened but it has been bugging me. I would have so embarrassed if someone would have opened the doors. We are about to start showing the house and I know that even though the credenza is not part of the sale, people are curious. ( I am when I see custom furniture!)

Sooo…

I bought a sample of Revival Mahogany because the quart is at Star Hill, sanded and painted the doors brown.

Next I used spray adhesive to adhere burlap to the painted doors. Then I glued a wide ribbon around the edge of the burlap and FINALLY I hammered in some left over nailhead trim into the corners.

Much better. Feel free to snoop when you come look at our house now!

The Junk Fairy End Table

March 24, 2013

Karen Curbside rescue, glazing, painting, Repurposed Furniture 1970's end table, Behr paint, Happy Camper Green, painted furniture 13 Comments

When we returned from seeing The Southern Belle, we were greeted at the front door by this beauty. The junk fairy apparently made a visit while we were gone!

I knew that this dude was worth saving, but we just don’t have a place for it. I know it sounds crazy but I do not sell anything I do. When you sell things someone else is your boss. Right now at this point in my life I have WAY ENOUGH BOSSES in my life. Sooo, I posted it on Facebook and asked my friends if they would like it. My friend Robin was first to reply and she wanted it green. We settled on Behr Happy Camper. I decided to stain the top even though it was in rough shape because I think it has a lot of character.

Yuck. What you are seeing is after sanding it all once.

Eventually it did sand out… well mostly it sanded out. This is what it looked like at 7:15 a.m. Saturday morning.

This is what it looked like at 8:00 a.m. One coat of paint on.

This is what our little green friend looked like Sunday morning after two more coats of paint, the top stained walnut, and a brown glaze applied. I will poly it this week then it gets to live at Robin’s house. I wanted to put the end table in front of the azaleas because I am bragging that we already have 70 degree weather here. Spring has sprung.

The Weekend Country Girl

10 of My Favorite Posts and a Big Thank You!

A Bench for the Foot of the Bed

“Franken Furniture” on the Back Porch

Buffet Table With History

Curbside Headboard Into Garage Chalkboard

I Was a Faker

The Junk Fairy End Table

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