DIY THURSDAY: ONE DOWN, A DOZEN TO GO…

I mentioned in this post the dozen or more unfinished projects I have sitting around my house, and I have every intention of finishing each one over the month! As a matter of fact, I just finished this guy:

Please ignore the mess surrounding the bench, my office was in flux at the time!

I had already sanded down the top by the time I remembered to take a photo, but the entire piece was a distressed (and not in a good way) mahogany. So I lightly sanded down the base and began painting it in my favorite go-to color: Annie Sloan Old White.

With a couple layers of Old White, I then distressed the base and left it as is….for months. It didn’t look terrible, it was usable, and I became distracted with other, more challenging, projects. And so it sat. Until this morning.

To add that pop of color that I oh-do love, I painted the interior (yes, the top opens!) in Valspar’s Brushed Orange. I then stained the top in Walco’s Danish Oil in medium walnut, waxed the entire piece in Miss Mustard Seed’s wax, and viola! Finally, a finished product:

Simple and sweet. Or better yet, business on the outside, and a party on the inside!

And yes, those are real tulips you see in the picture – I needed to give myself a little spring hope in this frigid weather…

Oh Spring, where art thou?

DIY IN THE WORKS…

Do you ever have those projects that just seem to take forever? Or rather, those projects that you seem to take forever to get to? I have a handful of projects that I have been working on bit by little bit, sometimes over a period of months. And these projects are not huge, overwhelming, or time-consuming by any means. Quite the contrary, in fact! They are the so-simple-I’ll-get-to-them-later kind of projects.

Let me give you a few examples:

I sanded down this piano bench and painted the base in ASCP Old White almost a year ago. The top opens, which I have painted in a lovely pop of orange. I simply need to paint a final layer of orange, lightly sand it, wax the base, stain the top, and viola! Done in 30 minutes. Yet there it remains – still unfinished.

Or how about this large weathered window? I have every intention of transforming this sucker into a mirror, which simply requires cut mirror panes, glazier points, a little bit of caulk, and an hour of my time. Yet there it still hangs – as a window frame.

And this soon-to-be chalkboard was cut and fashioned into a frame a few weeks ago. It simply needs a few layers of chalkboard paint on the board and a weathered stain on the frame. What am I waiting for?!

And finally….

The dreaded curtains! I plan to transform this adorable material into stagecoach curtains, which required very little sewing, a little stapling (to a board that will attach the curtains to the top of the window), and the drilling of two little holes to hang the whole piece. This project has been a over year in the making. Oh my.

Needless to say, I can be a bit of a procrastinator! But I have challenged myself to complete these projects (and a handful of others that I didn’t share) over the next month. You can expect to see them pop up in future DIY posts!

How about you – are you a procrastinator like me? What projects do you have in the works?

DIY THURSDAY: ENTERTAINMENT UNIT REDO.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have gotten a peek of my entertainment unit redo last night. I think I let my excitement get ahead of me!

It’s quite amazing how easily a quick paint job can change the dynamic of an entire room. Initially, the entertainment unit was the monstrosity in the room – The Big Black Box was the focal point indeed:

I’ve been wanting to paint this sucker the moment we brought it into this house, and after finally convincing the husband that it was a go, I also had to convince him to unplug all the cables and go without TV for a couple of days, and it just so happened that it was during the SEC and NFL games. Oops…

But the weather was cooperating – almost 70 degrees! – and I could wait no longer. So we lugged it outside and I immediately went to work.

First, I removed the backing, shelving, and doors, and then sanded the entire piece down just to rough it up a bit in order to give the paint something to hold on to. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for the majority of the piece, which typically requires little to no sanding, but I wanted avoid applying a half dozen layers!

I then applied a thick layer of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen to avoid any seepage of black when applying the Old White.

Once this base layer was dry, I gave it an allover light sand with 220-grit sandpaper to smooth it down, and then began applying the Old White.

I applied two layers of Old White on the exterior and just a quick layer of the white on the interior and again, used 220-grit to smooth things out. *Typically, you do not need to sand between layers. Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint is meant to give that hand-painted and matted affect for that distressed and aged look that everyone loves so much. I wanted to go for only a very light distress, however. Sanding with high grit paper allows for a smoother surface and offers a very light sheen rather than a matted finish.

Once the Old White was fully dry, I painted the interior in a custom blue using Louis Blue and Old White.

Unfortunately, at this point, I noticed the weather becoming a little less cooperative – a large and dark rain cloud was blowing in – so I quickly finished up with the blue, allowed the paint to fully dry, lightly distressed the edges using 150-grit paper, and then lugged the piece inside. (And in my hurry, I forgot to take the remaining pictures!)

In between bouts of rain, I painted the backing in my custom blue, the doors in yet another custom and slightly lighter blue, and the shelves in Old White. And finally, once everything was dry, I lugged the unit back outside to spray the top and interior in a crystal clear enamel to give it a tough, protective finish (I knew the top and interior would get a bit of a beating over the years, so I wanted to avoid the waxed finish).

Finally, I left the putting back together of the unit to the hubby while I basked in my accomplishment. Once things were in working order, I added some ribbon detail to the doors, and here it is today…

Better, don’t you think? It really blends into the room and brightens things up! I’ve added a few more touches of blue throughout the room to tie it all together and now feel much more at home. It’s amazing what a little paint can do!

Linked to:

DIY THURSDAY: OLD COAT RACK = ARCHITECTURAL DECOR

I’m a huge fan of those old, chippy, and occasionally rotten wooden architectural pieces. In fact, I’d like to have far more of them in my home. Unfortunately, it just so happens that they often come with a hefty price tag, or they are so rotten that they simply fall apart in my hand! So until I stumble upon those pieces that speak to me – without instantly crumbling into dust – I have to settle with what I have or simply create something similar…

Aha! Some of you may remember the barn door turned coat rack I put up in place of this piece:

Well, today I finally decided to do something with it. A few swipes of paint and a dab of dark wax would transform this piece into the perfect architectural décor for my French door frame. So off to work I went…

First, and quite obviously, I needed to remove the hardware, so I grabbed a Phillips-head screw driver, removed all the screws, pulled off the hooks, and put them to the side for use on another project.

I then sanded down the holes a bit and filled each one with wood-filler. After allowing the filler to quickly dry, I lightly sanded again, wiped down the entire piece with a damp cloth, and began painting in…you guessed it, Annie Sloan’s Old White!

With two light coats of chalk paint, I gave it time to fully dry, and then once again lightly sanded the piece down, distressing at the corners and along the edges.  After wiping it free of dust, I began waxing the entire piece with Annie Sloan’s clear wax. Once the clear wax was buffed, I then began applying dark wax, making sure I really worked it into all of the nicks and grooves:

With the dark wax, I tend to work in smaller sections – this piece was small enough for me wax on half the piece with dark wax, and then wax off with clear wax before the dark wax fully dried. I then repeated the process on other half. This process removes the majority of the dark wax, leaving behind a light stain on the majority of the piece, and a darker, almost dirty-like stain in the nicks and grooves. The final product looked like this:

It took me a while to hang it above the French doors – I really could have used a second pair of hands! But after struggling with it a bit this morning, I finally managed to get it in place, and fairly straight too!

It’s a little more brown than I would typically paint, but I think it mirrors (pun intended) this piece directly across from it quite nicely:

What do you think? Do you have miscellaneous items laying around that, with a little TLC, can be transformed into architectural décor? Time to start rummaging around in your garage!

LINKED TO:

DIY THURSDAY: MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL…

Call me vein, but I love mirrors. They can add light and depth to any room; they can be an architectural element, an intricate detail, or a bold surprise. So when I come across large, framed mirrors on my pickin’ trips (for a good price, of course), I immediately snatch them up.

Take this guy, for example…

I came across this mirror while at a junk store out in Richmond, VA, and I couldn’t resist the amazing detail – but the color was this gaudy, spray-painted gold that hid those intricate details. So in my typical DIY fashion, I broke out my paint brush, a can of Old White Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, some sandpaper, and Annie Sloan’s clear AND dark wax.

When working with details like this, the dark wax works wonders – truly! It gives the piece that aged, antique look while really making every little detail pop with that perfect patina.

So after painting the piece entirely white (two coats), I hand distressed it with 180-grit sandpaper, waxed the piece first with the clear wax, buffed it, and then added the dark wax (*unless you want to attempt to use the dark wax as a stain, ALWAYS wax the piece with clear or natural wax before using the dark wax). When using dark wax, you really want to get it deep into the grooves and details – don’t be shy!

Typically, it’s best to work in sections, dark wax on, clear wax off, allowing the dark wax to stay in the nicks and grooves, but waxing/buffing the majority off with the clear wax, leaving only a tinted patina behind. See how the details really begin to pop?!

After rubbing in the dark wax, and buffing off with the clear wax, I ended up with this…

Not too shabby, eh?

Any mirror can be painted, and with just a little TLC, you can change the whole dynamic of a room. A few more examples:

BEFORE: I’m just starting to paint the piece in Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey.

AFTER: Hand distressed and with a hint of Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg

Or, here’s something that has no intricate details at all, but still turned out pretty awesome…

Unfortunately, I don’t have a true “BEFORE” picture – this is the mirror painted in Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey.

AFTER: hand-distressed, dry-brushed with Old White, and dark waxed.

What do you think – do you have a mirror needing a bit of an update? If so, I’d love to see before and after pictures!

Linked to:

FEATURED PARTIES AND A HUNK OF JUNK TRANSFORMATION

Hello my friends! I’ve been a bit absent the last few days due to some recent travel, but I’m back with a couple of goodies up my sleeve!

First, I want to thank Kim from Made In A Day and Katie from Katie’s Nesting Spot for featuring my barn door to coat rack creation!

I would highly recommend checking out their blogs for some fun and quirky craft ideas – and if you have any fun and quirky crafts of your own, you should definitely link up to their weekly “linky parties.” Thanks Kim and Katie – I look forward to seeing many more amazing ideas and inspiration!

Next, since I missed last Thursday’s DIY post, I wanted to show you a little something I was working on while in DC…

Now, I definitely had a great time visiting with friends and family, but there was an underlying bittersweetness to the trip that was difficult to shake off – a dear friend of mine is moving to Boston in just a few days and I was specifically there to see her off with a few more good memories before she totes herself 400 miles uptown.

A few days prior to my arrival, this dear friend asked if I’d be willing to paint a small bookshelf that came her way via her grandfather – one of the few furniture pieces that will be moving with her – and of course, how could I possibly say no? So with hand sander and paint cans in tow, I drove up a couple of days early to get to work.

Let’s just quickly say, the piece wasn’t in the best of shape…

Eek!

…but it was small and compact and, thanks to the electric sander I brought with me, fairly easy to sand down. With a little bit of wood filler, a can of Annie Sloan Old White, a few strands of Frog Tape, a custom mixed pop of color, and A LOT of love, I transformed this hunk of junk into something with a little more personality:

Perfectly fitting for my friend, I think – a solid foundation with a punch of color and quirkiness. Hopefully she agrees!

Lastly, don’t forget to send in your “Pets on Furniture” pictures for a chance to win a care package courtesy of moi (that would be me), Simon (my cat), and Mattie (my pup). The winner will be featured in tomorrow’s post.

Cheers!