Category: Furniture Friday

It’s Fridaaaay!  Ooooh, yaaaaah.  It’s been for what seems like forever since I did a Furniture Friday post, so here we go!  Wait, it’s Wednesday.  What the heck?!  Oh well. Look at me breakin’ all the rules.

I scored this dresser at an Estate sale almost two years ago…I think?  Anywho, I found it online and sent the hubby up the road and through the desert about 10 miles to get it. I do that a lot, don’t I?  Except this time, I just had a baby, so my excuse is legit.  Isn’t she perty?  It’s super sturdy and old and all banged up.  I love it all, but it needed to be polished a bit, shall we say.

I read somewhere to try using hemp oil to bring your furniture back to life.  Not to real life.  Just to make it look better.  I can’t imagine if furniture came to life.  Yikes.  Picture a huge armoire coming at ya with it’s doors flapping and stuff.

Here is a before pic of the top of the dresser.

And here is the after.  It like magically covers up all of those scratches without changing the actual color of the wood.

Again, before and after.

Here’s another before pic, but of the edge this time.

And the after.  Notice the blue crayon on there?  Kids.

I also wasn’t sure of the knobs I had on there.  They kind of blended in a bit, but they’re still cute for that somewhat rustic/woodsy look.

So, I put these on for a test drive.  I think I like them???  I don’t know.  What do you think?

Again, before new knobs…

And after.

I also LOVE the keyholes in the dresser, but they didn’t “pop” like I wanted them to. Queue the Rub ‘n Buff.  You can get this in an assortment of colors, but I chose gold leaf.  It was like three bucks on Amazon.

Before and after.  It really makes the keyholes stand out more.

Rainy day pic.

Sunny day pic.  Lighting makes all the difference.

So, not a HUGE, paint everything transformation, but it looks so revived.  I also have an old secretary desk that I might do this to.  And my crows feet.  Wait.  Does it work on wrinkles?? Maybe as long as I don’t go in the sun with it on.  Hey – remember that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer put butter all over his body and fell asleep in the sun. Google it. Ok, enough shenanigans.

Also, I’m like thiiiiiiiis close to having the laundry room done.  Aaaaggghhh!  One shelf to install and then it’s complete.  Hold your breath that I’ll have it on here next week. Op! No wait, don’t hold your breath.  I don’t want to be responsible for any mishaps.

Ahhh Friday, we meet again.  Can you believe this is the last Friday of September this year?  ROctober is right around the corner.  I call it that because it’s the cat’s birthday (yes, we celebrate), the hubby’s and my wedding anniversary, his birthday and my birthday, all wrapped up into one little month.  Craaaaazy.  Anyway, onto more reno of the master bathroom, shall we?

Now, I don’t have a true “before” pic of the toilet room.  Is that what you call it?  I think it’s called a water cooler.  No wait.  I think that’s where people stand around to talk at work. Well, maybe that’s right then because I tend to have a crowd of three little people around me while I’m at “work” conducting my “business” sometimes.  I don’t remember. Maybe it was water closet?  Let’s just called it a toilet room. Anywho, just imagine this little toilet room without the shelves being built and that is the “before”.

I found some plans for floating shelves on Pinterest (found here) and asked the hubby if he could build them for me us.  After an eye roll and a deep sigh, he obliged.  Love ya babe!

After they were built, I sanded them a bit and stained them.  You can use whatever color stain you’d like.  There are lots to choose from, but I went with Minwax Dark Walnut 2716 (found here).  If you’ve never stained anything before, it can be pretty intimidating at first. There are several ways to apply the stain, but I choose to use an old washcloth to apply the stain. It will get on your hands.  It will stink.  It will stain (obviously).  It’s somewhat of a mess.  I’ve tried gloves. The stink was still there.  Meh, what can ya do.  It’s totally worth it and really not that bad after you’ve done it a time or two.  Besides, it doesn’t last forever on your hands, just a couple of days.  Also, a little stain goes a long way.

After staining, I applied some Minwax Past Finishing Wax (found here).  Apply this all over the shelves and then buff out with a rag after 15 minutes.  I let them set for a couple of days to let them air out (they do smell pretty powerful from the stain) before putting up decor.

Just look at this poor, pathetic looking window.  What are we to do about such an eye-sore?  Oh wait, “Honey, do you know how to frame a window?  I’ve got a picture of how I want it to look.  Do you think you can make it happen?  I don’t have any real plans, but I think we can make something work.”  (Insert me tilting head, smiling prettily and batting eyes.)

Poof!  Just like that, it was framed.  I knew all of those saws I bought him over the years would be put to good use.  He rocks.  I love him lots.

A million times better.  Am I right?  It really helps complete this little room and looks sooooo good.  And now I want all of my windows to look like this.  Lol.  I think I’d better get used to using that saw in the garage ;-) .  I just really don’t want to lose a digit or worse yet, a limb. Yikes.

After the frame was built, I put a coat of primer and two coats of paint on to complete the look.  I just used a can of “white” paint from HD off the shelf, no tinting.

I decided to put up some artwork I had already had because it was a tad boring to look at a blank wall while sitting on the throne of our castle.

I really love how it all turned out and I’m happy to say that this little water closet is complete.  A small room, yet a good sense of accomplishment.  AND, it was relatively cheap for such a big impact (under $60).  I hope you feel inspired and have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!  Since moving into our house just over 2 years ago, I had already decided that at some point (when I had time) all of the cabinets in the house would be painted.  I am just not a fan of the builder grade oak throughout the house.  I know lots of people like it (which is fine), but I’m not one of them.  (I apologize for the quality of some of the before pics.  The sun was shining in and it wasn’t an optimal time to be taking photos.   But the kids were actually playing quietly together, so I dove at the chance to do some work.

Anywho, a couple months back, I decided to give it a go in the Master Bathroom.  I should’ve probably taken a picture of the vanity with the cabinets, but whatever.  I started by removing the doors and then taking everything out from the cabinets.  I DO NOT waste time on painting the inside of the cabinets.  Not for a bathroom.  Kitchen?  Probably. Maybe.  Depends.  After that, I used a de-greaser to clean the wood and then sanded it, just to roughen it up a bit.  Then wash everything down really well to get rid of the dust. Then proceed to tape everything off, so you don’t get paint on the walls or floor.  (Although, I hate the flooring in this room, so maybe I shouldn’t have taped???)

I was going to use a darker color paint (not even sure of the color because it was oops paint from HD), so I opted for tinted primer.  Here is how it looks with one coat of primer.  I used water-based because it is what I had on hand.

Here’s how it looks as the first coat of paint was going on.  I ended up putting two coats on and it covered nicely.

Now, once you pull the tape off, there is bound to be some “bleed”.  Annoying, but true.

I just grabbed a little art brush from the kids’ painting supplies and proceeded to do some touch-ups.

Ta-da!  Not too bad.  You could also take off that little strip of wood and paint it separately, but I’m too lazy I didn’t want to risk breaking the board and such.

Now you’ve got to paint the doors.  Fun stuff, I tell ya.  I know people might be all, “Just buy new cabinets and screw this crap!” by this point, but A) I don’t have the money and B) I really take pride in doing all of this.  I LOVE a good before and after transformation knowing that I did it with my own two hands.

After you’ve removed all of the hardware and hinges from the doors, you will need to caulk around the inside trim of the door.  If you skip this step, the paint will not cover very well and there will be “holes” where paint didn’t cover and such.

Here they are after a coat of primer.

Now, if you were doing this at midnight because that is when your third born night terror went to bed,  you might have some drips from the primer if you didn’t happen to catch them before they dried.  Just sand those down and then put a light coat of primer over top and let dry.

This is how your kitchen table will look if you don’t put newspaper down.  Ha…ha…ha.  I actually have plans to sand down the table and stain it a different color.  Just shake your head like my hubbby does and move on.

Voila!  Ain’t she perdy?  I think so.

I did splurge a bit on knobs and I really like how they shine.  Worth every penny.

I am typically a white cabinet kind of person, but since I painted the entire bathroom white, I decided to add some color to the cabinets.  I’m glad I did.  I really love it.  Now to save my pennies so we can replace the flooring!  Have a great weekend!