Play Kitchen / Bread Box / Potato & Onion Bin

My husband got this from a client and snuck it in to the living room after I'd gone to bed.  I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a nice surprise or he was afraid I'd make him give it back.  It was dirty.  And not exactly my style.  But, lucky for him, I was in serious need of a project.  And I have a thing for wood cookstoves.

I know one day I'll probably love the yellowy tones and knotty patterns of this style, but right now, I don't.  Actually, after I scrubbed 40 years of smoke and grime off, it was kind of pretty.  

I was going to leave the lettering, stovetop, and drawer pulls natural and paint everything else white, but the font on the lettering was bothering me.  It didn't seem to match the era of cookstoves.  I decided it would look better in chrome, with matching hardware and handles, and a vintage aqua color paint. 

I left the cooktop and legs natural.  

It was very well built and I love the little chains on the cabinets.  

It turned out really cute!

The funny thing is we already have a potato/onion bin (that's the same ugly wood, except uglier) and a bread box.  Maybe now we can get rid of them...

Linking to:

Miss Mustard Seed

Primitive and Proper

Gary's Toddler Bed

Gary has been out of his crib for a few months now, but rolls around so much he couldn't stay on a bed.  So he's been on foam pad on the floor.  Kyle really wanted him to have a bed so we built him one with rails all the way around. 

We started the bed a while ago, but had some table saw trouble halfway through so it was delayed for a few weeks, but finally all came together last weekend.

The side boards and rails are from a tree from the ranch. A beaver had cut the bottom of the tree so Kyle brought it to Hutchinson when we were living there.  We had the wood milled by a neighbor in who had a portable mill and it's been moving with us since then. Finally we had a use for it!  We had to sand it down a lot to get it smooth. It still looks a little rough in spots and has a few saw tooth marks but I kind of like that it shows the history of the wood.  It's beautiful wood so we didn't want to paint it. The posts are leftovers from Camy and Cliff's deck and they didn't look good with the ash boards so we painted them white.

We told Gary it was going to be his bed.  It was just boards and posts for so long I guess he thought this was what he would be sleeping on! 

The finished product with all his animals.

He likes it.

Finally a headboard!

I've been searching forever for the perfect headboard for our guest bedroom.  I wanted a curved wood frame that I could add padding and fabric to.  My dream headboard would look like this one from Cre8tive Designs.  Unfortunately no one was selling anything like that for almost nothing.

Instead, I found this one for $11 on Craigslist.

I had to take all the pieces apart because the top piece of the backing was attached on top of the bottom piece so it wasn't an even surface for my foam and fabric.  

I thought it would go back together more easily, but I ended up having to add bunch of little support pieces to the back to get it all flush in the front.

I painted the wood white and added 1/2 inch foam.  I stapled on batting and brown duck fabric, and made double welting to cover the staples around the edge.

Here is a close up of the fabric and double welting.

Ahh...finally a headboard.  

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

My workshop...

My husband thinks I should finish one project before I start another.  Haha!  Here is what I have in process right now.  Let's see...

I just got this dresser.  It's kind of a piece of crap and I shouldn't have got it.  Ugh...  Oh well, I have plans for making it less crappy.  It was only $20 and I'm just going to use stuff I already have.

Here is one of the drawers to the dresser.  Already primed.  And behind it is the base to a really cool table I got for $16.91 at a thrift store.  It was burlwood veneer but in bad shape so it's primed too.

Here is the bottom of the top to the table.  I had to get two cans of lacquer thinner to get the lacquer off the top so I can restain it.  I also had to soak and iron the edge of the top to get off some veneer trim that couldn't be saved.  So far it's been a lot of work.  But I think it will be worth it.

Here is the base to an old drop leaf table I got from my parents.  It's almost done but it takes a long time to do anything when I can only work when both kids are napping, at the same time.  Actually it's a miracle I get anything done!

Here is the top to the drop leaf table.  I had to sand it down, again, and stain it, again, yesterday because the stain was uneven.  Then last night I was priming the dresser and got splatters of primer on it.  No wonder it takes me so long. 

And here is what I'm most excited about, but have no idea what to do with yet.  The old cabinet.  It's really well built and big. 

It was once painted a dark green and then a light green  The outside looks like it was stripped down.  I love the color inside and wish the outside was still painted.  It's almost the same color as my t.v. cabinet.  It must have been the color to paint garage/garden storage cabinets. 

It doesn't have a back though so I'm not sure if I'll add one. 

Oh wait, here's another one.  Now this I really wish I hadn't got.  It was free on the side of the road so I couldn't resist.  It's an old library shelf.  I thought maybe I could turn it into something I could put the hutch mirror on (my other free and totally useless pickup).  But it would take a ton of work for something that would probably still look like junk.  So there it sits, outside our garage, probably annoying the neighbors. 

Oh, and this.  A shelf for Margaret's room.  I'm not sure what I'm doing with it.  Maybe it's done. 


So...only 7 things.