Fingerpaint frame

We've had a blank wall in our breakfast area and nothing was the right scale for it.  I taped one of my son's fingerpaintings there and it looked silly.  But it gave me an idea.  I went out to my husband's scrap wood pile and found some old deck rails from my brother-in-law's old deck.  I ran them down the middle on the table saw and mitered the edges and then just stapled them together on the backside.  It's very "primitive" but hey, it's a frame for finger painting! 





It's rough, but I think that makes it perfect.

Burlwood Table

I found this table at my favorite thrift store.  Usually their furniture is priced ridiculously high, but this one wasn't marked so I asked how much it was and one of the ladies there said it was $16.91.  It seemed like a really random number, but it was a good price.  A piece of veneer was broken off the edge and the lacquer was in bad shape, but it was at one time a high quality table and I liked the shape.

I think it's burlwood veneer. 

I would have liked to keep the veneer on the edge but this little piece was missing so I had to remove it all along the edge.  This wasn't especially easy.  It involved a lot of careful ironing on a wet cloth since I didn't want to take off the veneer on the middle or sides. 

There were some gold foil designs on the top that were also a pain to get off.  It took a whole can of lacquer remover to get all the finish off so I could sand it down. 

Once it was sanded, I used a dark stain (although it didn't take much stain) and then applied a dark wax.

The wood turned out really pretty and even the edge where the veneer is missing looked okay.

I painted the base with my greenish mistint color that I've named Garden Shed Green.

I distressed it lightly and kept the hardware as it was.

Linking to:
Primitive and Proper
Miss Mustard Seed

Ugly Dresser

I got this ugly dresser from Craigslist.  The listing said it was an antique so I was really disappointed when I saw that it was not only not an antique, but it was not very well made.  The seller started loading it into my van as soon as I pulled up and since I'd already made the trip there, I took it for $20.  It was mostly real wood but the sides were MDF and had some water damage.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but it needed paint so I started out by priming it.

I had to sand down the bottoms of both sides to get it smooth since it was all bumpy from the water damage.  I also added a piece of an extra decking board to each side to cover some of the damage and add support.  I cut the ends with a jigsaw to match the curve of the trim.

I decided to use a grey paint I'd found in the mistint section of Home Depot and brushed it on without getting too much in the carved design.  I had to go over the design with white again though, and then sanded the whole thing down so the white was only in the carving.  The top picture is before sanding, the bottom is after sanding. 

I painted the pulls white, but then decided to try them with an Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  I'm still not sure which I like better but I went back to white.  I went over the whole thing with a dark stain and it made the grey look much nicer. 

Here's a close up of the added board on the side and my not so great job of matching the trim.

I may redo the pulls, but I'm not sure what to do with them.

I did a lot of distressing.  Or as my husband calls it "stressing it out". 

I never feel like my distressing looks very realistic.  Luckily I had a two year old that was very happy to help.

Here is it in our bedroom. 

 

Linking to:Primitive and Proper
Miss Mustard Seed

Gate-leg table

My beautiful table. 

It started out in rough shape.  I thought I'd just sand it down, slap some fresh paint on it and restain the top.  Well it needed a lot more work than I realized.

This is the table that we ate at when I was little.  (Notice the sweet little baby in the background!)

It was next to the wall heater and the paint would get hot and bubble.  I remember picking at it.  When I moved to my first apartment it was the only thing that would fit in my little breakfast nook.

I took it apart to make it easier to sand. The finish came off the top with just a touch of the sander. The paint on the legs though wasn't going to come off with sanding. I had to use three applications of Citristrip to get through three layers of paint. The legs had also been broken and repaired several times so I refixed some of the breaks and filled some holes. Then primed, painted, and polycryliced the bottom. The top should have been easy, but I messed it up five times before I was done. First I had an uneven stain that I didn't notice until I waxed it. So I sanded it down and started over. Then after I'd restained it I got splatters of paint on it from another project. Sanded that down, restained, and rewaxed. It was gorgeous. Then for extra protection I put on some polycrylic. Well, if I'd thought that through I would have realized that it wouldn't stick to wax. I was so annoyed with myself. While I was sanding it down, again, I made a big scratch across the top and accidentally sanded the edge too much in one spot. So I think the whole table is a little smaller now! Anyway, finally I got it restained, and just did rub on poly instead of wax. And it's really pretty now.

It looks a little reddish in the sun. I think it's fir but I'm not sure. It's very soft.

Ahh...so pretty.

I used all the original hardware. I cleaned them up a little but left some of the old paint.

Here it is in the house.

With some stuff on it. This is the first time I've tried to "stage" a shot. It's definitely not my strong suit.

Gary saw the bell and was going to get it!

Linking to:
Primitive and Proper
Miss Mustard Seed