tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54099317407206247162013-04-06T13:45:44.696-04:00Just us two...for now.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970603425631888125noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409931740720624716.post-40398925359713077052013-04-06T13:45:00.001-04:002013-04-06T13:45:44.705-04:002013-04-06T13:45:44.705-04:00WaitingI have finally moved on to my second piece of furniture. It's another dresser, smaller, and I've decided to paint it white and yellow! I'm really excited about the yellow. This dresser has proven, already, to be a difficult one because after sanding just the top for nearly an hour (with an electric sander, mind you!) I gave up and went to buy chemicals. This thing has at least 7 different layers of paint on it, all different colors and when I went to remove the hardware whomever made it basically dug out the wood because the screws on the hardware weren't long enough so I'm going to have to fill those in with wood filler (I might need to get a bigger container!) and then find hardware with screws long enough to go through. The original hardware is nice and I was going to keep it but I just don't think I'd feel right selling it with giant holes where the knobs are. It looks sloppy. Or maybe if worse comes to worse I'll just cover it with contact paper which I'll have to get for the drawer bottoms anyway because they're stained and whatnot. Now I just need to find some decent looking paper.<br />
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So I just got back in from slapping two coats of Citristrip on it and the drawers and I'm waiting for it to do it's thing. I read a review on it from another blog. She was testing it vs the more caustic version and Citristrip won. Her project actually had several coats of paint on it, too, so I'm hoping mine turns out as well. I am actually painting it white again so if it doesn't all come off it's not a problem but because there were SO many layers of paint it was all sloppy looking and I couldn't just slap another coat on and expect it to be nice and smooth. That sander has met it's match!<br />
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I have a third dresser I'll be working on that's taller. I plan on doing something more masculine with that since my first dresser was super girly and the second one will be pretty feminine but more grown up. Unless I change my mind I plan on staining the body and some of the drawers ebony and every other drawer a sun bleached light stain. I got inspiration from a table I saw while browsing for ideas. I'm not sure what color I'm going to do the hardware. I haven't inspected it closely yet so I don't even know if I'll be able to use the original. It'll definitely be dark but not black. Maybe a charcoal grey or something along those lines, rubbed bronze, pewter...I'll figure it out.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970603425631888125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409931740720624716.post-87337854624173185632013-04-04T18:41:00.000-04:002013-04-04T18:41:43.344-04:002013-04-04T18:41:43.344-04:00Refinishing furniture!So I've stumbled across this awesome thing called "refinishing furniture". I've only done one piece so far but I am thrilled with the results and about nine days after setting it up for sale it's sold to a wonderful lady who will be giving it to her daughter. I'm so happy for them. It's going to look great in her room from what she described.<br />
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Here are my befores and afters. I found it one Craigslist. It was dirty, had stickers all over it and was missing some of the knobs with the ones it had being mismatched and cheap. I felt like the lines were feminine and I had a stencil I'd been dying to try. I mixed up some paint to create a new color and bought some knobs then went to work!<br />
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I'm pleased and I know the little girl is going to love it!Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970603425631888125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409931740720624716.post-30245775160349786332012-09-02T12:59:00.000-04:002012-09-02T12:59:04.484-04:002012-09-02T12:59:04.484-04:00ProjectsI have gone into a DIY frenzy! If you remember from my last post I spent an entire day on Pinterest pinning JUST to my Do It Myself board and got soooo many great ideas! I finally got around to trying out the faux milk glass and I'm torn. First of all, it's relatively easy but none of the tutorials I found had a lot of information so I was trying to do better than that for you. I don't know how much better I'm going to do but I'm certainly going to try. First of all here are the <a href="http://www.jkizzle.blogspot.com/2012/04/tutorial-faux-milk-glass.html" target="_blank">instructions</a> that I used.<br />
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I went to Goodwill and picked up 7 glass vases for $1 a piece (the little one was only $0.50). Then I ran to Hobby Lobby and picked up the Enamel acrylic paint that she suggested in just about every color. I got excited. I planned on making some for myself and giving them as gifts for Christmas as well so I was picking out all the ladies' in my life favorite colors (does that sentence make sense?). Anyway, so that was a lot of colors. I also decided doing some seasonal ones would be fun, too, so black and orange were thrown into that as well. Yes, a lot of colors.<br />
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Ok, so I began with the white. I thought I'd try to measure it out because I have a digital scale so I would know how much to use each time to cut down on waste but I guess my scale isn't that sensitive. Then I tried using a measuring shot glass but this stuff sticks to whatever it's in and that seemed wasteful so I decided on the next one to just mix it in the vase but then it was hard to mix SO my suggestions is to, yes, mix it in a different container. There is going to be some waste. There doesn't seem to be a way around it. The white one I let sit correct side up for about an hour and swirled it as suggested then poured out any excess. I wiped the rim off and voila, beautiful! However, mixing the other colors wasn't so easy as I described about because it seems to take A LOT of paint to coat and there is a lot left over. I'm wondering if it can be stored mixed to save on waste. I'll get back to you on that. Instead of letting the next several sit right side up like the white one I turned them over to let the paint drip down the sides. I'm not sure if I didn't make the mixture sloppy enough or what but the rims didn't turn out quite as pretty as the white one. I was going to give the blue one as a gift but I think I'll keep it and try to make the next one prettier. If they're my vases you can't really see the issue from the outside so as long as I'm the only one that knows I can live with it. Here are a few pictures to help explain.<br />
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Before :)<br />
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This was just after I'd fully coated the vase. There were bubbles all over it which concerned me but I held out hope that they'd pop as the paint settled. <br />
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I turned it upside down briefly to get rid of the excess paint after pouring out what I could. <br />
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And lovely! The bubbles DID pop and the vase is coated uniformally. <br />
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Even the rim is nice and smooth looking. <br />
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These vases didn't turn out as well as the first. I had to mix several batches of paint because I wasn't getting enough paint but I think I just wasn't thinning it enough. I figured half way through that I can always go back and recoat so I'm not stressing too much. They look pretty good from the outside but as gifts... <br />
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They don't look as good on the inside. This one was going to be for my mom. I'm going to try to recoat it with a thinner coat and see if that helps. If not then I now have a green vase and I'll do another one for her. Once I recoat I'll let you know how that goes.<br />
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So sloppy looking. I think I just made the paint too thick with these. :( <br />
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However, from the outside they look quite nice. I'm excited to see how they stand up to holding water. I still need to stick them in the oven and then go buy some flowers to try it out. Again, I'll post on how they hold up! <br />
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Within the next few weeks I'm going to try one of the reupholstering projects. I have an ottoman I got off of Craigslist about a year ago that I've been wanting to reupholster but never considered doing myself until now. Once I get to that I've got a lovely wingback channel chair that I'm going to attempt and then...well, there's A LOT I'm wanting to get my hands into so stay tuned!!Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970603425631888125noreply@blogger.com0