Painted Furniture Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

Behr Paint with Primer, Building a Home, Coldspring, Painted Furniture, painting, Repurposed Furniture, Rubbish Rescue, vintage style

Covering the Breaker Box in the Guest House

June 5, 2023June 5, 2023 Karen

I love our guest house. It is more of retreat for me than a guest house actually. I paint, read, and nap out there.

It is my favorite spot on our property.

I am generally happy with how the place looks and is decorated, and I love the exterior, the windows, the wood floors and the bathroom but there has been a spot that has bugged me since the sheetrock went up.

The breaker box stuck out from the wall and even worse it is slightly crooked. I made a really bad choice with the contractor I selected. While we were out of town he allowed an inexperienced crew to sheetrock and it was terrible. The contractor did not stand by his work and abandoned the job shortly after. Fixing the breaker box would require ripping out sheetrock and framing work and I’m just not willing to go through that yet.

For a year I’ve lived with the crooked ugly box but I kept looking at some cabinet doors in the shop and an idea formed.

I disliked the breaker box so much that this is the only photo I could find of it!

This past March we went to pick up furniture and I picked up some cabinet doors and hardware. The cabinet doors were literally about to go on a burn pile. The pile was already burning and they were stacked up ready to take over once we left. I took them home with me when they were offered.

My husband built a box to hang the cabinet doors from out of 1X 4 pine. He clamped, glued, and screwed it together then let it dry. After it was dry he attached metal corner reinforcement to the box.

I knew I wanted something that didn’t protrude very far into the room so a shallow ( 4 inch deep) cabinet that covered the box and had easy access to the breaker box was the answer.

He attached the box to the wall with angle brackets into the studs then used the hinges that were already

The cabinet door is plumb (vertically level) just to give you an indication of how crooked the breaker box is.

Once to the doors were installed I painted the box and interior the color of the walls, Behr Helium.

I painted the doors the color of the v groove wall, Behr Ocean Boulevard. I feel like at this point I need to remind some people that A: I don’t paint over all wood. There is a ton of stained wood in the guest house. B: These doors are not antique even though they are solid wood. C: The doors were headed for a burn pile. Surely painting them is better than destroying them.

Ocean Boulevard on the wall behind the kitchen cabinets.

The door color was a little more intense than I wanted so I whitewashed and distressed the carving and detail on the doors. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I am so happy to not have to look at the breaker box anymore!

I hope you have a great day!

Thanks for following us as we continue to work on our home.

Coldspring, Country Style, Decorating, DIY Furniture, guest house, Painted Furniture, painting

Paint Changes Things

August 15, 2021August 15, 2021 Karen

I bought this piece of Ethan Allen cabinetry at a resale shop years ago. It would have been part of an entertainment center. It hung out in storage then had legs added and moved into my principal office as a printer cabinet after it was painted a vivid turquoise. It served me well until I moved to another position where I couldn’t bring my furniture.

It was moved with us and ironically ended up stored in almost the same spot where it now is in the guest house for years.

When we got all the furniture out I thought it would work with the color scheme but the two 1950’s chair cushions were too much for the space.

Of course the solution was to change the color. The only color I could see it as was red. I also wanted some of the turquoise to come through because even though it is bright, I like it. Believe it or not there is a bit of a paint shortage in our area. Apparently it is the time of the year that students paint their parking space and red was hard to find. It took three stores. I would have loved that… back in the day’

I brushed a few areas with paint thinner, painted the cabinet classic red, then sanded over places to let it look a little distressed.

It is amazing how it changed the look. Of the piece.

Not sure the folks at Ethan Allen would approve but we like it. We have installed a television so the cabinet is going to hold dvds etc.

The paint thinner made the wrinkles you see in the corner.

Still plugging along on the exterior but soon there will be paint.

We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, DIY Furniture, Painted Furniture, Providence Acres, Rubbish Rescue

A Seven Foot Buffet Table for the Far from Perfect Patio

July 30, 2020August 1, 2020 Karen

We bought a stainless steel tool bench table top that was dented because it was dropped in shipping for $45.00 a year ago. The top is a stainless steel sheet covering workbench hardboard and weighs 83 lbs.

I didn’t know exactly what we were going to do with the tool bench top but I convinced Mr. Math that we needed it, even if only just for the shop and it was a great deal. Now that we have the deck, I wanted a serving table/ work space sort of what they made at Always Chasing Life . I liked the casters so that we could move around where we needed it. Now that we can move from the the front porch to the back porch all on the same level it will be easy to set up as we need when we once again have groups over to the house. Since our serving table will be outside all the time it needed to be made from treated lumber or painted with outdoor paint or with rot resistant wood. This one has a bit of all that.

We are still working on a budget to get the deck done and I am still trying to get the clutter cleaned up in our storage so I tried hard to not buy anything more than absolutely necessary for this project. I knew we had some 4×4 posts for the legs a friend gave us a while back when they repacked their porch posts. I also remembered that we have scraps of cedar boards around that need to be used up. We just had to purchase 4 2X4 boards and 2 1X4 boards along with casters for the legs to help the 7 foot beast move around easily in order to put this together. I collected the scrap cedar and posts then Mr. Math bought the wood and casters.

The cedar was a variety of lengths and widths. A table saw and planer fixed that.

Mr. Math assembled the frame and I stained and painted it with materials on hand.

The paint is more of the porch paint that I used on the patio furniture. The stain is dark walnut. It is really dark. Over the stained wood I used a clear outdoor sealer.

I knew I wanted the shelf on bottom to be able to hold things when needed but not hold water when it rains so we spaced the boards four inches apart. We cut the boards for the shelf to width, planed, and sanded most of the old paint and stain off the boards-but not all because I like letting it show through , then sealed the cedar boards with a clear outdoor sealer and finally nailed them to the bottom 2X4’s for additional storage when using it as a serving table. We did leave the center board a little wider to make the spacing work.

L brackets attached the top to the base.

The table is far from perfect just like everything back there and Mr. Math still needs to work on the dents on the top a little more but it looks good and will be useful. It won’t rust or rot outdoors, will be a good work station and food serving space, and will store right next to the house.

The Husky sign side will be the back side of the server, but it isn’t awful.

This ding needs additional love but will never be perfect. I am okay with that.

It will be parked here until the grill gets moved and the deck gets stained. Then it will be under the covered porch.

Altogether we spent about $60.00 on a seven foot long counter height stainless workspace that is far from perfect but I am thrilled to have it. I can’t wait to get everything totally put together and for us to be able to have a blow-out party once the coast is clear on the Covid front.

I hope you are staying safe, and finding reasons to be thankful in this season.

We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Coldspring, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, rescuing damaged furniture, vintage style

1940’s Chest of Drawers

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 Karen

Waaay back on December 30th Mr. Math and I headed off to collect a chest of drawers, vanity, and mirror. Somehow along the way I also picked up a lime green claw foot tub but that is a story for another day.

The furniture belonged to my friend’s grandparents and had been in a garage for 20 years and was showing what humidity can do to furniture over time. The veneer was coming off and the drawers were warped. The mirror is going to really need some attention down the road but it is a beauty. I had no idea when I picked up these pieces that shortly I would temporarily go back to work. As a principal. Then there was a pandemic. Then online learning, zoom meetings, virtual everything. The bedroom furniture got put on the back burner. I have been busy people. I promise. So the furniture moved from one garage to another.

I honestly thought that the chest of drawers would be too much work to save but that original folk art factory stenciling kept staring at me. I knew I would have to give saving at least some of it a try. I got busy stripping the veneer off. I had to get a steamer after parts of it but it came off and got sanded. I bought water based polyurethane hoping I could seal the drawers after cleaning them. The first coat was a disaster. The old varnish under the poly started bubbling up. I stopped after one coat thinking that this was all getting primed and painted. I went to bed thinking about that darn chest of drawers. The next morning I decided to try going over the bubbly varnish with steel wool and to my surprise it wasn’t horrible. It took four coats to get them looking decent. They still aren’t perfect but I am glad they were preserved. The top was totally stripped and sanded by my husband including all those wiggly grooves around the top drawer. I stained it all dark walnut

I am keeping this set for my guest room. The base of the chest of drawers was painted a warm white called cinnamon bun. I liked the original hardware patina so I kept the as is but will be spraying them with a sealer soon. I convinced my husband to stop moving it inside to take some pictures, but I still have some touch ups. I love how it turned out and look forward to having it in my home.

Coldspring, Painted Furniture, Real Life, recycled furniture

Mersman Drum Table Troubles

February 20, 2020February 21, 2020 Karen

We have a cat named Chloe. She is a 17 year old, grumpy cat who works hard to make sure we all know that she is queen of the house. She only eats soft food ( extra gravy variety only) and cat treats. Chloe hisses at everyone, and she would probably smoke and drink whiskey if she could figure out how to make that happen. Her feeding time is somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. We either have to get up, give her a clean bowl, fresh water, and food or she will stand in the hallway and yowl until we do.

The picture above is the best shot I could get of her. She was making another attempt to get up on the table after I had run her off twice.

I was given a 1950’s mahogany Mersman drum table with a damaged top and today I am going to tell you the tale of the table. The photo below is not mine but is similarly to how the table looked when I got it. The only exception is that my table had a large stain on the tabletop.

By now you may be wondering what a table and our old grumpy cat have in common. Well, I named this table Chloe. Does that give you an idea how much trouble this table was?

In my quest to get my stash of unloved furniture moved along I started work on the drum table. Everything except the top of the table was in great shape. I have no idea what in the world was spilled on the table but it soaked in and the top couldn’t be saved. Even after sanding, painting ( primer then paint) and polyurethaning the top the darn stain bled through. I had to get out the serious primer to knock it down. It took two coats of primer. That was when I knew this table would be trouble.

It took three coats of paint to get the top smooth. I spray painted the feet and drawer pulls old gold so I decided to try stenciling roses on the top. Finally I added a coat of poly to seal it…again.

She turned out pretty didn’t she?

I have been pretty spoiled selling my furniture up here. Nothing has been posted more than a day or two. The piece took a while to sell. There were two no shows, then I got sick the morning that a real live owner was coming to get it. I had to let the buyer know I would have to deliver it for them once I felt better. My son volunteered to take it to the new owner but it wouldn’t fit in the back of his car.

The final, and I do mean final straw was the delivery. The table tipped over on the way. I stopped the car and checked the paint. Thankfully there wasn’t any damage to the paint job so I continued on. When I delivered the piece to a sweet older couple, this was laying in the back of the suv.

That darn table.

Drum table 1, me 0.

I literally gave the table to the couple for free and walked away.

Bye Chloe.

Ever have one of those projects?

I hope you week has been amazing.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Dresser, Painted Furniture

Little Lucy’s Dresser

April 16, 2016April 16, 2016 Karen

I am such a lucky mother in law. I must have done something right with my own kids because they both made great choices of partners to share their lives with. My son, Baby Boy and his wife, Sweet Amanda are expecting their first child. More importantly, they are expecting our first grand baby, on both sides of the family, and first great grand baby on both as well. We are beyond excited.

Sweet Amanda asked me if we would find her a crib and dresser as our gift for the baby. I was so happy to be a part of the process. After sharing Pinterest ideas with her and checking out what she seemed to gravitate toward, it became clear that she was looking for an eclectic mix of furnishing and color.

She seemed to keep going back to this dresser, from Project Nursery.

The title of this post is June’s Purple, Teal and Mauve Striped Nursery.

I knew I needed to start looking for a long dresser and I was lucky enough to find this beauty at an estate sale for $40.00.

It was in a little rough shape after being loved by another little girl but the piece was solid wood and fit the bill for what we were on the lookout for.

The only real problem was the formica top. I researched and found out that Kilz makes a super sticky primer called Kilz Adhesion Bonding Primer. Our Home Depot doesn’t carry it, but they did order it for me.

It got primed then painted a beautiful purple called I Heart Potion

The hardware knobs got replaced with these crystal knobs, because, well a girl needs a little sparkle. The original handles were painted with Rustoleum gold spay paint.

It was a push to get the dresser done in time for the baby shower, but we made it. I cannot believe we will be meeting the sweet girl in less than a month.

We are just a bit excited.

Thank you for following along on our journey. We love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Blogging, Dresser, French Provincial, Painted Furniture, The City House

The Purple Nursery Dresser Project

February 12, 2016 Karen

If you are new to my blog, welcome. I am thrilled to have you join us. You might not know a lot about me, but my son, Baby Boy, and his wife, Sweet Amanda, are expecting our first grandchild May 1. We are so very excited to be grandparents.

Our kids asked us if we would mind furnishing the nursery as our gift to them. We were thrilled.

The first order of business was a crib. We found an awesome crib online sort of like this one:

It was very gently used and will be painted gray. It will be so cute for our coming baby girl.

The next order of business was to find a dresser for the sweet baby girl. I know that my daughter in law has a soft spot for French provincial dressers (you can see their bedroom furniture here) so when I spotted this beauty for $40.00 at an estate sale I was thrilled. It is going to serve as a diaper changing station and dresser in the nursery after it has a little love.

After both of us looking online, a lot, I could tell that Sweet Amanda was leaning toward a purple dresser. I was not in the least bit surprised when she started leaning toward purple. Her college home had an eggplant purple kitchen, her efficiency apartment after graduation was painted what my son called Barney purple, her dining room wall was covered in frames that were shades of purple.

That sweet girl loves herself some purple.

There are lots of examples of beautiful purple dressers out there. Sweet Amanda is weighing her options carefully before giving me the “go ahead” on colors to make sure it goes with her bedding.

Project Nursery

By Stephanie Lynn

All Things G & D

Probably My favorite is the brightest purple dresser from Project Nursery below, but I will be happy to do whatever the mother to be wants.

Because the dresser has a formica top, I am going to be trying out a new primer on this project that is supposed to stick to plastic surfaces better. Kilz Adhesion. I had to have it shipped to the house because our local stores don’ t carry it. I will let you know how it works. This weekend the project is to get the dresser cleaned, repaired, hardware removed and the dings fixed so we are ready for primer and paint once the Kilz arrives and we have the color nailed down. It is going to be stunning. When I was a teenager, my parents let me redecorate my bedroom and I ended up with a purple bed, purple headboard, lime green bedding and curtains having a brightly painted dresser is not so unusual in my world. Of course I have done my part to make sure that a few more dressers got a coat of paint along the way, too.

Having a grandsweetheart on the way is exciting. Having a daughter in law who lets me participate in the decorating is awesome.

I am blessed.

I love hearing from you,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, moving, new home, Painted Furniture

The Expand-O-Matic Facelift

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015 Karen

This past spring I bought this beauty at a community garage sale for $20.00. I had no ideas what it was, but I thought it was cool the way that the front slid out and turned in to a table.

A little research, and checking out the drawers for a label, taught me all about the mid century Expand-O-Matic.

It was designed at a time when we Ameicans were moving off the farms and into the city. Space was tight in apartments so furniture had to do double or triple duty. Here is a a 1960’s advertisement after they tried to update the name by calling in EXPANDWAY. I like the 1940’s/ 1950’s version- Expand-O-Matic.

I find it ironic that I bought it because I am moving to the country not the city. My plan is for the desk/table to move into the back guest room. I plan on us making a Murphy bed for the room along with the desk. It will be able to convert between office space and bedroom as needed.

The room looks like this right now:
As you see above, the room needs love.

The room is going to be kiwi ( a little richer than lime but bright green), cream and teal. The top and legs were stained with a Minwax gel stain called special walnut. I am so excited to have my own space inside he house to paint, sew or just piddle as my mom calls it. It will be a fun, bright, creative space with my awesome painted chair which will have cream legs when we move in, this super cool desk/ worktable, and a kiwi colored cabinet with a Murphy bed in it. I am thinking I will be painting a rug to go in the space in case of disasters that occur when I craft.

Here is the inspiration room:

Of course my room will have a little more of a rustic vibe.

The hardwood runners that allow the table to expand to 6 feet are all cleaned, waxed, and now move easily between open and closed. We still need to fabricate the leaves, but the body is painted (Behr Real Teal) the drawers are a mis-tint sample I picked up for fifty cents. The mis-tint is darker than my go to “sea salt” cream, but still an off white color. I tried to stain the drawers but they were too far gone to save. I was able to save the top and legs even though ther is an ink stain on the top. (I wonder what happened there?)

Ink stain

The drawers above were sanded until I almost sanded through the veneer but they still were not going to look right.

I tried to polish up the hardware but in the end, I had to spray paint them with metallic spray paint. (Rustoelium Soft Iron).

Wouldn’t this piece be great in a mini house?

I found these awesome curtain panels for $5.99 each too! The color is a perfect match to the teal color on the Expand-O-Matic. There are three windows in the office so getting the curtains for under $40.00 is amazing.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

I love to hear from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Apartment living, Building a Home, Chair, crafting, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, resale finds, The bedroom

Saginaw Furniture Company Expand-O-Matic

April 26, 2015April 26, 2015 Karen

I am always amazed at what I find at garage sales. At the time I was at my latest garage sale, our house was being inspected so I wasn’t sure if the house would pass. I had already told myself we were killing time, not buying. I did pretty well… except for two milk glass mugs and a wooden bowl until I spied something I had never seen before. It looked like a desk, and I could tell it was old, but what clinched it for me was the fact that it expanded to become a six foot long table. What in the world? The leaves were missing but I had to have it for my long hoped for my craft/ Murphy bed room I am planning at our new spot. When the bed is set up the table can collapse to be a bench.

The price on the desk thing was $25.00, and I couldn’t resist.

When I got home I started checking online to see what I had. It took some searching but I finally found it. Saginaw Furniture Company Expand-O-Matic. It was probably from the late 40’s or early 50’s. They changed the name to Expandway later but I love the older name.

They were made for New York apartments and were sold up until the 60’s. The top drawer is lined and divided to hold silverware. Apparently the morning mini home market has made these cool again and these puppies are selling for $600.00 complete.

Mine is going to get stainable leaves. The top and leaves will be dark walnut.. The base is going to be painted teal. I already have the perfect chair for it when it is a desk.

Here are some shots from Etsy. All I could find were sold.

I wish I had those leaves but we should be able to do something that looks nice.

Mine only expands 6 feet.

I also am changing jobs so the suitcase wall will be moving into the craft room along with the sewing cabinet. As soon as the leaves are done and the Murphy bed built, the room will be done. This may be the easiest room to put together at the house.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, Country Style, Dining Table, moving, new home, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture

When Furniture Finds Its Way Home

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015 Karen

A sweet couple that used to live across the street from us moved to Hawkins, Texas- population 1278. When they moved they sold me their farmhouse table. They just did not think that they had room for the long table in their new dining room. I really only bought it for the legs because the top was not solid wood. The table hung out in the Garagemahal for months, and I do mean months. It was heavy and had to be moved any time that I was working on a project so I started to think I just needed to get rid of it. I decided just to paint it all out and sell it. I mentioned on Facebook to my friends that I was going to be selling the table and guess who responded that she wanted it? The original owner! As soon as I started on the table, a friend gave me two chairs and a bench that I knew would be joining the table. They we’re a mess, but wood.

I also had four other chairs hanging out in the Garagemahal that I bought for a song at Canton.

Do you like mixing and matching chairs around a table as much as I do? I love painting mixed chairs the same color. All in my friend ended up with a table that seats 8 for her dining room. The fabric on the chairs is young and fresh, just like my friends.

I love the Behr sea salt bottom and the revival mahogany together on the table but next year when our life is a little slower I would like to change out the top for a stained solid wood top.

My buddy waited a long time to get her table and chairs (like since November) but this past Saturday I got the chance to go and visit their little bit of heaven.

I love the dark mustard walls with the upholstery.

They call their home the Crooked T Ranch, I think it is charming. I am smitten with her sunroom/craft room and her bathroom has an original fireplace and chandelier in it.