Cedar Chest Makeover

Once upon a time...

 I found this little beauty in a thrift store for $15 dollars.

What?!  Not such a beauty you say!  

Well, that's because she just needs a little makeover!

To become this...

And here is an up close picture of the fabric that I used to upholster the top of the cedar chest.  It was left over from my daughters crib bedding so it is extra special to me.  This chest is for my daughters room.

 And she lived happily ever after!  Well, almost but lets take a look at the makeover process!

and

Here is how I got the look:

• I skipped sanding this time and went straight to priming I used Kilz oil based spray paint to prime but for some reason half way through the bottle it started coming out in blobs and made the chest look texturized.  But luckily it was easily fixable, it sanded right off and left enough primer on for the paint to stick:) Whew!

• I gave it two coats of Valspar's Windsor Way (looks like it should be named Cinderella Blue to me but... hmm what a fun job that would be naming paint colors!)  I did water it down a little bit.  This helps the paint to dry smoothly instead of having all those yucky bristle marks made from the paint brush.

• I gave it a good wax on/ wax off of antiquing glaze making sure to focus on the details in the wood.

• finished it off with 2 thin coats of poly.  OOPS!  I forgot to lightly sand around the details!  I just grabbed my little sanding pad and sanded anyway, then just very lightly reapplied the poly over these areas. No harm done!!

Table Makeover

                                                    
Remember this table I showed you in my Thrifty Finds Post? The twenty dollar one with the cute little legs!

Well, after I got it home and went to work on it I started to think that perhaps I had just flushed twenty of my hard earned bucks down the drain.  Oh yes it was THAT bad!  Every screw that was in it was hanging at least half of the way out and the leaves were not flush with the rest of the table.  One of the leaves was so warped I had to trash it all together.  Sniff.  Sniff.

So after MUCH tightening and MUCH sanding and priming,  I started to think that perhaps it might have some potential after all. Maybe. 

I already knew that I wanted it a gray color so off I went to the Home Improvement store to find the perfect one.  I decided on Valspar's Vintage Gray.  I mixed the paint and some water to get a very thin, watery consistency.  Then I just brushed it on going with the direction of the wood grain and immediately wiped it off with a towel; Just like you would a stain.  I went over the table 2 times using this technique.  After letting it dry I went over it with an antiquing glaze, immediately wiping it off as well.


And here is how the finish turned out.  It is hard to tell in the pics but you can still see the wood grain in it.







This is what it looked like with the antiquing glaze on it before wiping it off.  I used a foam brush making sure to get into all the spindles on the legs.

 I used sand paper to distress it around the legs and finished it off with a Satin finish Poly.  I love the worn look, like it has been used in an old farmhouse for many delicious Sunday breakfasts!

And here she is! 

 

 I think in the future I will add a board to fill in the gap in the aprons that is created when the leaves are added but,

 I really love how it turned out and can totally see it with some of these Darling chairs!  Can't You!? 

I will be Linking this post to the parties in my sidebar...and to Primitive and Proper;)

What I've been up to...

So what have you been up to that is sooo important that you neglect your new blog you ask? 


            Well, a whole lot and I hope to show you everything soon!


 But for now I have a confession to make...I have been playing in chalkboard paint.


It seems as if everybody has tried their hand at it.  I have been seeing everything painted with it!  From canisters, walls, doors and everything in between.  I have to say that I truly love it and have been so inspired by all the wonderful things I have seen done with it that I could seriously have something in every room painted with it.  But for now I'll just settle on the refrigerator. Yes, I said refrigerator...Yes, I know I'm crazy but check this out:




This is what it looked like before, nothing fancy and in need of being replaced by a nice BIG stainless steel one.  However, I have ZERO refrigerator funding so I decided to make it into something that I can live with for a while longer:)



• I started by removing the hardware off the front of the refrigerator.  It was very easy, the handles just screwed right off. 
• I gave the front a good scrub with fine grit sand paper to tone down some of the texture and also to give the paint something to adhere to. 
• Next I taped off the edges with painters tape because I only wanted the front to be the chalkboard.
• I then primed with Kilz oil based primer
• Don't forget to sand in between coats! (you want it as smooth as   possible)
• I did three coats of the chalkboard paint with a small roller brush.

I think that I like it even more without the handles so I'm just going to leave them off.

 And VOILA!

I think it turned out well and I like it so much better than before don't you:)
O yea and the kids love it too!