Happy Wordless Wednesday to y’all! :D
I came across this beautiful little Mersman table recently & since I’m a tad obsessed with mint at the moment, I picked up a brush and painted away!! I also distressed, waxed, primed, and polyed, of course, hehe! The bad news is there are no before pics on this one since I’ve been crazy busy deckin’ the halls, but the good news is that this very table is being GIVEN AWAY soon! Keep an eye on my blog for details & happy holidays to you!!!
Dear Santa,
I know I haven’t written in a while, been super busy being a grown-up and all, you know how it goes… but now I have two little guys that are completely enamored with you. You bring joy into our home two months out of the year and I thought it would be awesome if I worked for you the other 10! I’m sure you get a ton of applications for the coveted positions in your workshop, just as I’m sure the elves aren’t big on outsiders, soooooo instead of handing you a form to read, I’m showing you this project I made. If you could spare a minute from your busy Christmas schedule to check out this corner media cabinet I built, I would greatly appreciate it. Oh, and tell Mrs. Clause I said hello!
{ My little guys’ room was quickly becoming unorganized and needed a change… my go-to idea for making a room feel homey? Built-ins, of course!! That’s when I got online to find a corner media cabinet plan that would hide the growing number of cords for my boys’ tech. The amazing site ana-white.com had a media console plan that I modified to give off more of a built-in feel. Check out the plan here. It’s beautifully simple, using just 3/4″ plywood, 1/4″ plywood, 1 x 2s, 2″ screws, and glue. I added an extra component shelf (in hopes that St. Nick might bring my boys a gaming system), placed molding along the top, and made it flush to the walls to give it a finished built-in look.
I plan on turning the empty spaces on the sides of the media compartments into speaker boxes, adding a back piece with cord holes, and under-mounting a night light in the middle shelf soon… work is never done, lol. Finally, I topped it off by painting the whole unit with Behr’s ‘Polar Bear’ in semi-gloss to flow with the rest of our home’s trim. Now my little guys have a space for their books and tech + they’re really enjoying the extra room that they have to play! }
So there it is, Mr Clause. Hope you consider me for a full-time position in your workshop! My little guys & I will be putting out extra chocolate chip cookies and milk this year! Merry Christmas to you!!! ;D
I don’t know why I get so attached to furniture… I just get a feeling from some pieces, an urge to bring them back to their former glory or to create a more modern story with their timeless beauty. Guess I’m just a romantic at heart! This piece gave me that feeling and more even before I painted, distressed, and waxed it!!
As I worked, it reminded me of my Great Aunt Fran, classy and beautiful. That description could also hold true for my Mother, which is why I’m beyond happy that this piece is going to her! Hope you enjoy it, Mom! :)))
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It is bittersweet to work like crazy on a piece, to put your heart and soul into it… from imagining a concept, to painting it, to sweating in the heat to buff out a waxy glow, to then finally selling it to someone that you hope will appreciate the work that went into it. I have found that perfect bliss by selling my pieces on Etsy and am happy beyond words that the pieces I have passionately refinished find happy new homes through my humble Etsy Shop! On this wordless Wednesday I am grateful for happy clients because they make the furniture refinishing process a joy!!! :D
Here is my most recent piece that sold on Etsy from which I’m still glowing because of the lovely feedback the buyer gave my shop! I <3 happy clients!!
Hello there! I am so happy to share this recent refinish with you! This 1930′s Brandt side table was a wreck when I found it, but after a little tlc she is beautiful once more! For the look of this piece I had a past client’s future nursery in mind & I think it turned out perfectly as a chic nursery side table! To get this look, I started by sanding the wood top and finishing with satin lacquer. I then painted the whole piece in a custom teal I mixed up. I taped off the edge detail along with a square on the shelf, painting that area a lovely white to offset the aqua. After the paint dried I distressed and added Briwax clear wax to give the whole piece a soft glow. My process might take a long time and be labor intensive, but if the end result is as pretty as this then it’s all worth it! Check out my work!
I really hope this piece finds a loving home! :)))
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Who doesn’t love Mid Century Modern?!! It just has a beautiful & clean look to it that I cannot resist! Therefore, needless to say, I fell head over heels in love with this mid-century desk!! I wanted to keep the finish as simple as it’s beautiful design, so all I did was slap a fresh coat of white paint on it…
then I jumped on board the ombre train that is such a hit right now and painted the drawer fronts in gradating shades of teal. Finished it off with gloss polycrylic on the white & satin lacquer on the drawers. And there ya have it! A stunning mid century mod beauty updated & ready to be loved for another 50 years!
Happy weekend to you! I’m off to find my next furniture love!! :D
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Do you have an odd space in your home that would be brightened up by a plant? If so, this super easy & economical project is for you! Snag an antique lamp from a thrift store for a few bucks, remove all the cords, cut a circle out of scrap wood, paint & poly said scrap, glue wood onto base, and voila, you have an adorable plant stand that costs just five bucks! Check out my photographic step-by-step!
Have you done any fun DIY projects lately?
I do love me some built-ins!! Architectural elements add a personality and a craftsmanship to your home that freestanding furniture can’t do on it’s own. That’s why I’m always looking for an excuse to build some! A perfect example is our living room, which is a long rectangle & our furniture arrangement works best as a square, giving me a few feet behind the couch to play with. In comes the built-in desk I made…
I built four base cabinets, modified from an Ana White version seen here. Base cabinets are super easy to build and of course, you can suit them to fit any dimension that you need. If you tackle cabinets make sure you take squares often and pay special attention that your face frames are exact. My slim built-in desk cabinets only needed to be 15 1/2″ deep, just enough space to accommodate my family’s laptop. I also incorporated charging station shelves in the far right cabinet for my phone and my little guys’ Nintendo + the top of that cabinet, along with the marble on top, has a 2 1/2″ hole to allow cords for lighting and electronics through. Once built, I slapped two coats of Behr ‘Polar Bear’ white paint on and waited for the granite top to be cut. The gorgeous grayish green piece of granite was, lucky for me, near free since hubby had an awesome connection to a scrap yard through his tile business. I still can’t get over how pretty the stone is! I also made myself a gallery wall with my favorite Art, (Drifting I & Drifting II by Jane Bellows from Gallery Direct) along with shelves I’ve refinished, silhouettes I drew of my little guys, and treasured family photos. Needless to say, it is now my favorite spot in our home!
I still have to caulk some spots, fill some picture frames, and I might eventually build Shaker cabinet doors, but, for now, I am in love! Have you tackled any built-ins lately?
Cheerio! I’ve been so inspired by all the British patterns I’ve seen online that I decided to make a Union Jack-inspired design on this old coffee table, I am part Scottish after all! This table was in baaaaaaaaad shape, way past the point of sanding and bringing the wood back to life = perfect candidate for paint and lacquer! Here’s the step-by-step:
I started by priming and painting three coats of white on the base which was a very dark stained wood. Kate, let’s call her, was looking happier already! Next, I sanded the top so that it was smooth enough for paint. I taped off the Union Jack pattern, adding one color at a time. Mint, white, and eggplant were refreshing color choices for this piece. After the latex paint dried I added two coats of clear satin lacquer which came out to a beautiful soft sheen. Blimey! Kate’s finished and she’s quite a looker!!
What has inspired you lately?
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I can’t tell you how good it feels to get finished with a project that you’ve put your heart and soul into for months! I’ve always wanted an interior sliding barn door, but I never had the perfect and functional spot for one until we moved. In this ‘new to us’ home their is an AC unit/storage closet right smack in the middle of the living room… most people would dislike this, but it is THE perfect place for a sliding door since it frees up your home’s footprint for foot traffic or furniture!
The Materials – I already had tons of wood pallets so the wood was free. The other materials were hard to come by, making this project take much longer than it should have, but worth the wait. I found some old Cannon Ball Starline rollers on eBay for ridiculously cheap and scoured my town for a track to house the rollers, eventually finding just what I needed at PRO Build. The track, brackets, and handle were $55 bringing my grand
total up to $70 so far. I am extremely proud of my thriftiness on this project since barn doors and hardware online can easily reach into the thousands! I also had to buy a piece of 1 x 6 pine to attach the track brackets to and of course bolts to screw the pine into the wall’s studs. I wanted the wood of the barn door to look authentically aged so I oxidized it, well, my oxidizing specialist aka my adorable 5 year-old little guy, oxidized it & he did an amazing job! It’s very easy to make using white vinegar and 0000 steel wool that has sat for a few days… more details on how to make your own here. When all was said and done the materials were about $96 and the finished project is worth every penny!
The Build – I built just a basic backwards K design barn door (I’m sure that’s not the correct term) from images that I saw online, being very careful to measure everything twice so that the dimensions would suit our living room and door frame. The most time-consuming part of this project was taking the pallets apart, but two hammers and some elbow grease are all that’s needed. I joined biscuits and used wood glue throughout and also randomly nailed to give it a well-loved look. 
The rollers and track were fairly easy to install and I made sure to secure the red mahogany-stained pine brace to the wall studs perfectly so that it could support the weight of the barn door and track. As an added detail I also painted the barn door pull in my current favorite color, aqua. The door looked a little lonely, so I found an antique four pane window on eBay and printed a picturesque mountain plains view to place inside, giving an expansive feeling when in reality it’s just a wall behind the window… so nice to have a mountain view here in Florida!
This project makes a huge impact on our space, creating incredibly beautiful and functional Art!
