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.
Hello friends from Providence Acres where I always seem to have a project going and my sweet husband does the heavy lifting. We are in the process of building a deck on the back of our house. We are adding a total of 240 square feet of semi shaded outdoor space that will connect our carport to our back porch and I cannot wait to get it finished. It has been slow going for us, but we are making steady progress in spite of lots rain, humidity, keeping up with the garden, mowing, and heat. Lots and lots of heat. We set a budget of $2000 to get the porch built and we are going to be close, but a little over. I can’t wait to show it to you but we aren’t quite ready yet. As we worked on the deck I kept thinking about a patio dining table and chairs we had out in our barn. The set was given to us by our buddies across the road. It was rough when we were given it two years ago and storing it in a barn didn’t help it get any better. When we pulled them out of the barn I had my doubts. Serious doubts.
Mr. Math had to rebuild a lot of the table underside. It is a butterfly leaf table which we had never messed with before.Every chair needed work, some more than others.
The set was probably pretty expensive when purchased and was well used. It had been refinished at least once but probably twice. Anything wooden left exposed to sun, rain and humidity is going to deteriorate without lots of maintenance and this set was no exception. There was rotted wood, loose screws, broken boards, and general wear and tear.
After Mr. Math got it all repaired, and I learned how to use wood Bondo, I used some Behr Low Luster Porch paint the I found on the oops shelf at Home Depot for $9.00. I find the best stuff there and hang on to it until I find the right project for it. I am not sure what the problem was with the paint but it is definitely a Behr porch paint called Sea Cave.
I hand painted the chairs. Every stinking chair. It took me three days. All because I was afraid to use the airless sprayer I bought two months ago. When I came time to paint the table I knew I was never going to get the finish I wanted without using the sprayer. 2 hours of reading and two YouTube videos later, I asked Mr. Math to help me. The sprayer turned this:
Rough
Wet Paint
Smooth Finish
All that work, both underside and top side just over an hour including wait time to turn it over. Why was I a scaredy-cat?
Just thought you might like to see some of the repairs. This set will never be mistaken for brand new, but with the paint job it doesn’t look half bad.
The set turned out better than I expected.
Those butterfly leaves are so cool. The fold in half then go under the table.
I found the cushions at Family Dollar for $5.00 each. They make the chairs more comfortable and add a bit of color.
All together, including the cushions, paint, screws, plates and Bondo this project cost about $40.00. Not bad for adding seating and a table. We are looking forward to having family and friends over to enjoy them.
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.
I don’t know about you guys but I am ready for a few things to change. I am ready for a little warmer weather, to be able to have friends and family over, and for this whole stay at home thing to end.
I hasn’t all been bad around here though. We live on 15 beautiful acres of land that allows us lots of space. Another benefit is knocking out small projects that were going to get done “one day” like cleaning out storage buildings, organizing the linen closet, fixing some minor cracks in the Sheetrock, and paint touch ups. We also have a few projects coming up. Before the world slowed to a crawl we had a new washer and dryer delivered and installed (FYI- in the country you have to switch a gas dryer from natural gas to propane and that is a pain.) With the laundry upgrades, the laundry room is about to get spiffed up. I am getting excited about that one!
We also did a project that turned out beautifully and will make our main eating area much more functional. Every since we moved into the house we have had a table that was once in our formal dining room as our breakfast room table. I really do love the table and we have had it at least 35 years. It just hasn’t worked well for us in the space that we have.
This is the most recent picture of the table I had before it got moved out.
The design of our ranch house is a little unusual. The front door of the house, that is really not convenient for guests, opens directly into the space that our coffee bar and table are in. When we moved in the former owners had closed the front door off completely and had a china cabinet sitting in that space. We have installed that beautiful mahogany door and added a really large porch so the space gets lots of traffic now. The space isn’t very large and when we have a crowd over it is tight in that space.
We kept using the table there even though it wasn’t a great fit because, well, we liked the table and we already had it. The 47 inch diameter table had a leaf that extended the length when we needed more seating which was great. The final straw that forced the change (and I am glad it did) was when moving back into the house after getting the flooring replaced the leaf was damaged. It was time to go. I started looking on Facebook marketplace and found this solid wood table for $50.00. The information on the underside said it had a1998 shipping date.
It was solid wood but had some wear on the top.
My son gave us some dark walnut stain from a project they were working on and oil based poly for the tabletop. I found a mistint can of paint at our Home Depot a while back that I knew would be perfect. It is almost a dark pewter gray. My husband did an amazing job sanding and sanding the the top, staining it and then applying three coats of semigloss polyurethane to the tabletop.
The color is closest to this picture. For some reason the other photos look greenish.
This table is going to work so much better for us. When we have a party we will be able to move the table against the wall as additional serving space. The 32 inch width gives almost another foot of walking space through the area. It feels good to make progress on the house during this time of such uncertainty and sad news. We have decided to use this time to turn lemons into lemonade on our little corner of the world and get projects we can do without bringing others onto our property.
I hope this week finds you and your family safe and healthy. We love hearing from you.
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.
Ever since I started blogging, I have stopped 25 thousand page views to look over what happened since we started. I just hit 100,000 page views. I had not been paying much attention to the stats so this one was a bit of a surprise. It used to take a long time to reach 25 thousand page views. I mean a really long time. This time took 5 months. I was worried that in the last five months I wouldn’t have much to show you guys. It felt to me like we were sort of stuck and not getting a lot done. The kids moved out of the country, the garage is full of unfinished projects, school got started, life happened.
When I actually looked back over the last five months , I was pleasantly surprised. We got a little more done than I remembered.
My favorites from the last five months are below. If you click on the link below each picture it will take you to that actual blog, complete with DIY and pictures.
Our biggest project was updating our suburban bathroom and figuring out how to get that restoration hardware weathered wood look on a dresser. Board and batten, cool shelf, zinc finished towel rack and chandelier made to look like wood beads.
I worked off and on for a while on a funky dresser that is now 99% complete. I love the look of this piece that is going to be an entertainment center.
Not too bad for a “slow” few months. Being a weekend country girl is a great life. I am blessed to have the opportunities that I have.
Thank you all so much for joining my husband and me on this empty-nest, third quarter adventure. Repurposing furniture and blogging has helped me to stay active and has enlarged my circle of friends.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and travel with us on this adventure. We have a lot in store and look forward to the future.
I am getting ready to show you my fabric painted teal chair with lime green legs as soon as I finish one more little item for the chair, but I realized That out of context the chair would look a little Dr. Seuss-ish. You still may think it does when you see it but it will fit in this room.
Just before I started blogging we did this furniture fore the Lovebirds. They were getting ready to set up house and we wanted them to have some fun furniture. We bought the furniture from an estate sale. The furniture had a great story. The children, who were holding the estate sale had all pitched in to buy the furniture for their parent’s 25th anniversary. I don’t understand why they did not want to keep it but for $150.00 we got a great set. I do not have any pictures of the before but we are babysitting the dresser and armoire while the lovebirds are living in far away lands.
Right now the bedroom is a mix of our stuff and theirs. The walls are painted Behr Ice Cube and the dresser is painted Behr Rapids. My son loves wood as much as my daughter in law loves painted furniture. We compromised by painting the dresser base but leaving all horizontal surfaces wood.
The painting says Always Kiss Me Goodnight in case it is bugging you. I painted it for them as part of their wedding gift. In their home they have grey bedding with dark purple accents. Our bedroom is yellow, teal, turquoise, and lime green. Crazy huh?
I love this mirror. It is so pretty and well proportioned.
We painted the furniture and glazed it with a dark glaze.
The hardware on the set is so ornate.
My son’s belongings are in this upright chest.
The horizontal part of the armoire at the middle being left stained breaks up the armoire.
I love the top. The herringbone painting usually lives above the bed, but it looks good here, too.
We learned a lot about painting furniture when we painted this set. I am happy with how it has held up after two years and three moves. Before the kids get back we have a few touch ups, but not many.
The teal chair will sit in front of the giant windows.
Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you take a minute to pray for my kids who are far away from home. It has been a long few months already.
Okay, here is a quiz. What is Carl Douglas famous for?
How about The Knack?
Do you know what Rednex is famous for?
I will bet you know their work.
Do you remember “Everybody was Kung Foo Fighting. It was fast as lightning”?Kung Foo Fighting was Sung by Mr. Carl Douglas
How about My Sharona? The Knack knocked that one out.
Rednex is famous for a song that is played at least once a night at almost every Texas bar… Cotton Eyed Joe.
After that these bands/singers either broke up, stopped singing, or just never produced another hit. I guess it really ages me that I do remember all of them, and they were pre-music video era.
I jokingly say I am a one hit wonder, too. You see, my mudroom bench is without a doubt the single most viewed and pinned post I have ever done. All the rest of my posts combined would be about half what the other posts have been viewed. I think of the mudroom bench as my one hit wonder. Don’t get me wrong, I love that bench. It is the first thing I use when I walk into the house every day and my last stop on the way out the door. But, I like other pieces I have done just as much. They just didn’t get noticed like that one did.
I think it was the lighting in the photo I took. We are after all visual folk.
I wonder if it would have been as popular if this was what I put out for the world to see?
Here are a few of my other projects that I think get looked over. It may have been when they were posted, how they were photographed, or maybe I really am a one hit wonder who just got lucky the one time.
My Western Dresser for the lake house Bunk room. It makes me smile when I walk in the room, still.
The yellow and gray bedroom. It all started with a table I picked up on the side of the road and a son moving out. In case you are wondering, yes I stenciled the wall. I still love the look. I miss that room the most of all the rooms at the city house.
The green buffet table. This was a thrift store dining table turned into a more narrow buffet with a reclaimed wood top. I love this table. Baby boy says it is his favorite piece in our house. It is about to get an addition. I am adding a hutch to the top for my milkglass that is about 80% complete.
Our farmhouse table. It has at least ten, 1-0 coats of poly on top and I am crazy about this table. It started out life as a white tile and golden oak table and cedar siding from our lake house. I am about to change the color of the legs so that it plays nice with the buffet and hutch.
Finally, the second most popular post is the beverage station. I have now made three of these with numbers four, five and six in the Garagemahal waiting for their turn. I have made a green, bright blue and navy blue. Soon a burnt orange, a green and a cream colored one will be done.
I love showing you all what I do and I really do value your input. Thanks for taking time out of your busy days to see what we are up to in the country. I hope your day is wonderful.
33 page views. That was a watershed moment for me. I blogged about my family pictures (you can go to the post here) from the beach Christmas before last. In 24 hours I had 33 people look at the pictures. Wow. I was really proud of that number. Up to that point I was averaging about 18-20 page views per day.
This week I crossed the 75,000 page-view mark. Thanks for sticking with me or for finding my blog and joining in. I know in blog land 75K is nothing, and I mean hardly a blip on the great blogosphere radar. It is just an ordinary week for Remodleaholic, Shanty 2 Chic, or Roadkill Rescue, but it is a big deal to me.
Because I am an educator, I thought that you might like to know this about blogging:
In 1999, there were just 23 blogs. Today, there are over 1.5 billion blogs on the internet. ( Now you see why I am so impressed you even found my little bitty blog?)
WordPress.com alone has over 60 million of them. Every half a second, a new blog is created. There are about 31 million bloggers in the US. ( I personally read about 10 blog posts a day so I am not even keeping up with one minute of the blog world per day.)
1 in every 5 bloggers updates his/her blog daily. (Man, I stink in this area!)
If you have read my blog for any time at all you already know this, and I would like to apologize in advance for retracing this well beaten path, but here goes…
I do not get paid to blog. I do not have advertisements on my blog. I do not get free stuff to try out and talk about on the site. I am not opposed to getting paid, and any company that wants me to try out their stuff if free to send it my way, but blogging is not my job. I blog, and repurpose furniture because it brings me joy. I especially like trying new things out to see if it works. I started blogging so that I could show you guys what we were up to at our weekend home, Star Hill. We were setting up a home on a shoestring budget and I got hooked looking for things to fill the home with up there that were functional, creative, and fun to have around. Along the way I have met new friends. I love hearing from you in Canada, and Spain, and other parts of the U.S. I am thrilled when I can show off a project I have done to my friends who do not live near me. I have a full time job that I love and I get paid well to do but I am thrilled to have a hobby that fills my need to be creative.
A year ago I got a Facebook page for the blog. It is a fun place to talk about what I am doing in small snippets. I do try to check in there daily. If you are one of the 381 folks who like my Facebook page, thanks for checking in on me from time to time. I enjoy what you have to say and I value your input. ( Because of Facebook I am now trying to replicate a zinc finish on furniture.) I am also working on posting to Instagram more often as I see things that I think might interest you. It is my goal to continue to improve as I go along. Twitter still vexes me. I seem to have two Twitter accounts set up, but this is the main one, here. It depends which device I use where it goes. Sorry. Still learning.
This year we moved from our city house of 14 years to a suburban home. That is no small feat for two 50 somethings who had lived in the same community for 24 years. We have been super busy changing jobs, setting up a new home, learning the new area and I have taken a big leap. I have actually sold some pieces of furniture. That was scary stuff for me. I am riddled with self-doubt when it comes to the work I do and up until this year I would never have considered doing what I do to furniture for money. It made me feel good to have someone appreciate my work enough to pay for the projects. Here is a sample of what I have sold in the past few months:
I am redoing a whole mid-century bedroom set. This night stand, a headboard and a dresser.
I have a thing for green mixed with stained wood. Others must, too. I have sold more green and red than any other color.
This was my first ever set that someone requested I look for to purchase. Scary!
I sold these two pieces to someone who put them in the same bedroom as night stands. If I had ever thought they would be together, I might have changed the colors. She loved them as they were and they look awesome in her eclectic guest bedroom.
Red Red Wine by Behr. I know you are going to ask the color. Someone asks every time I post these beauties. We have made four headboard/footboard beds this summer. I still have four to go. One will be finished soon. I love that they are being used by some sweet ladies and are going to be around a while.
Because I have stepped up the amount of work we are doing, I have also committed to learn to use all the tools we own. I am learning to use the drill press, the table sander, and the biscuit joiner at the moment. (My first ever all on my own construction project will be coming soon. I want it to be a surprise for the recipient and they are a reader.) When I add the tools I can already use without assistance, I feel pretty accomplished. Two years ago I was terrified of a drill. Silly me. The table saw and grinder still loom large over me. They are two tools that I fear.
Here is a sample of the projects I have completed in the last fewmonths. By far the most popular thing we have done is turn headboards into benches. As I said above, we have been neck deep in benches lately.
I love the look and I learned to use tinted wax on this one.
Sewing cabinet number 4. I stained the top of this one. Numbers 5, 6, and 7 are already spoken for and are hanging out in the Garagemahal.
A gift for a friend who moved away. I miss her.
We built a giant barn door for our Burb Home out of reclaimed barn wood from my husband’s farm. I treasure this and will take it with me wherever we live.
Coming up in the near future we are going to finish our master bath room. It is going from a builder basic to a rustic retreat. I am so very excited that it will be done by the end of August when Hubby returns to work.
This week the electrician came to install the chandelier I made over to look like wood thanks to Life on Virginia Street’s blog.
The sinks for the vanity are purchased, the faucets are waiting and the lights were picked up this week. We are moving along.
During the last few months we have traveled to Costa Rica, been to our family reunion, and while you read this, we are in Durango, Colorado. I am excited to take the train ride and plan to go white water rafting.
Next up on the big project list is finishing the master bedroom at Star Hill. I love the reclaimed wood wall, the sewing machine night stands, and the door headboard. Still to come are curtains, wall paint, staining and painting the dressers, shelving, and décor. It will be done over two weekends, I hope. dream.
It is my wish that if you do not take anything else away from my silly posts, it is that even a mid-life woman with no training and not many skills can stretch beyond her comfort zone and learn new things, attempt new projects, and chart a new direction in life. If I can do it, so can you.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to read about what I do, send me messages, offer advice, and make my day sweeter. I appreciate each of you and feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to share.
Hello, Friends! I hope you don’t mind, but I am going to be mashing a bunch of projects and finds into one pile so you can see what I have done recently, and what I have hanging out in the garage waiting for love. I am really getting anxious to get started using my cedar that has been patiently drying, get started on my bathroom, and get Star Hill, our sweet little near the lake house updated a tad. I just told you all that so you know it is my plan to burn through some projects that are hanging out, taking up space and bugging me. I also have some work for others that I am trying hard to get finished.
Sooo… here goes:
In the hanging out bugging me category
China Cabinet- I am going to paint this a very light gray with a patterned back wall.
50% complete Headboard/ Footboard Bench. It is going to be a stunner with storage.
3 count them 3 tables that need to be finished. 1 of them is going to become a farmhouse table with reclaimed wood on top and is sold. It is still not done. All will be beautiful… if I can just get rolling and get them done.
4 projects for people. 1 is a bench out of their childhood twin bed, 1 a media center, 1 a mid century modern dresser that will complete the bedroom set I am working on and 1 a china cabinet.
This is my inspiration for the china cabinet. It is going to be a dark blue. madigan made
Here is the inspiration for the media center. The piece I am painting is even prettier.
I hope you can see from the phone photo the detail in this buffet.
The dresser I will be paint in looks a lot like this one, or at least it will once painted.
Here is the dresser I will be painting.
In the house project category
Our bathroom needs to be done. Board and Batten walls, electrical work done, dresser painted to look like restoration hardware furniture, mirror down, pair of mirrors hung, and tile work. Not too much huh? Here is the blog I wrote about our plans. Bathroom Pinnsperation
At Star Hill I want one wall in the den to be covered with corrugated tin roofing from my husband’s family barn. We need to install a new wood burning stove and hang a raw cedar shelf on that wall. I also want to paint the bedroom and make curtains. No small feat for this non-sewer. Here is the bedroom in the unfinished state. Bedroom
Once we are done, I get to start building with the beautiful cedar. It shouldn’t take long, right? Hurry summer so Hubby has the time off.
