Odds and Ends

It's getting cooler here. 

Fall is definitely here and I am trying to get through

all of my painting projects before the weather

 turns too cold and painting

 outside becomes

impossible.

 

The first project was a FREE

 dresser that two of my sisters picked up for me while on a walk.

  Someone was giving it away.....

 

there might have been a reason for that. 

 

 This dresser was almost all particle board and

smelled like cat pee!!!!

The top was a scratched mess.

The metal knobs were rusting.

The drawers were super sticky 

and did I mention

the cat pee?

 

The only good thing was the little scroll at the bottom.

(I'm really trying to see the good here.)

 

 

The smell was so bad that I bought a stain blocker and painted every inch of the drawer and body of the dresser. 

I still didn't feel like that was enough so

 I bought a mistint (a light grey blue)

at the store and painted it again.

Then I painted IT AGIAN in a darker grey.

 

I also let the whole thing bake in the sun for half a day to get rid of the kitty smell.

 

To get rid of the sticky drawers...

a candle.

Rub that on the sliders and they were so smooth to open.

 

 

 

For being a piece of crap,

 (sorry I have to call a spade a spade)

I think it turned out looking great.

I really wanted to do a fake bone inlay pattern

on the flat drawer fronts,

but every time I went to do it I kept hearing the words,

 

"lipstick on a PIG"

 

So I didn't.

 

The sweet couple who bought this loved it, and really with three coats of paint

 and the cleansing power of the sun,

there was no longer any smell and I felt good

 about saving this dresser from the dump.

 

 

On a little side note we finally finished our back entry.

Took out all the old lino and put down a beautiful porcelain tile and finally installed my Christmas presents. 

 

I know...

nothing says I love you more than a front load washer and dryer.

My hubby's quite the romantic.

 

before

 

 after

 

 

 before

(and my father)

 

 

 after

 

 

Next project.

This baby.

THE 70's FIREPLACE.

Don't be jealous she's quite the beauty.

 

 

Can't wait.

 

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sewcando

diyhshp

keepingitsimplecrafts

brassyapple

makingtheworldcuter

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 diybydesign

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A Sweet Little Desk

I loved this desk the moment I saw it. 

I loved it even more when I got it for $15.00.

 

What I didn't love was the colour and the bubbling veneer.

(sorry I was sanding when I remembered to take the before picture)

 

 

Found a chair for $5.00 to go with the desk and I was set to paint.

 

 

 I mixed up some of my leftover ASCP colours.

 

Pure white

 Provence

 with a touch of

Duck Egg Blue

 and painted the whole desk.

 

I forgot to deal with the bubbling veneer in my excitement to paint this baby.

 

No problem.

I took a knife and made a slit down the bubble on the side and filled it with wood glue.

 

 

Then I weighted it with some art books and decided

that wasn't heavy enough so I added some Dewalt tools.

(made total sense at the time)

 

 

 When it was dry I sanded it down smooth and repainted that area. 

It worked like a charm.

 

Next I thought I would make the drawers stand out a little and added a half circle design that was inspired by these plates from pinterest

 

 

I used the end of a new pencil and

"dot arted"

*cough*

(I don't know what else to call it)

my way around the perimeter of each drawer.

 

 

I think it was subtle, but also made those flat front interesting.

 

 

Painted the chair white and added the blue to some of the details.

 

 

Here's the desk completed.

So sweet.

 

 

I love the feminine shape of this waterfall desk.

My three's girls all came up to me and asked if they could have it in their rooms.

 

 

 

 

The lady who bought it, brought her little girl

and she was so excited that this desk was going to be hers.

 

You should have seen her

SMILE

Made my day.

 

linking with
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keepingitsimplecrafts
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sewcando
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beyondthepicketfence
theshabbycreekcottage
staceyembracingchange
somedaycrafts







 



Fabric Covered Bookshelf

My daughter has slowly been changing

 over her bedroom by taking out the pink and adding turquoise. 

 

 We've painted a dresser ombre and now a bookshelf is complete.

 

It started out pretty beat up.

 



 

Priming helped a lot.

 

 

Sprayed it turquoise and used some very heavy fabric for the back.

 

 

Staged it just for fun.

 

 

(the really funny part is that now that it's in her bedroom it's covered in books and you can hardly see the fabric that I painstakingly applied to the back.)

 

I guess it's function over form this time.

 

linking
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staceyembracingchange
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firefliesandjellybeans
frenchcountrycottage
allthingshomie
missmustardseed






 

 

Make your own stuffies

I know you've all seen the cute websites on
pinterest.
that will turn your kid's art into an actual stuffie.

If you haven't you need to visit them. 

My sister loved the idea so much that she had her kids make a drawing
( she didn't tell them why)
and then had them turn their drawing into a stuffie.

  I think they turned out great.

 

 

 

Love the idea. 
Might have to have the mother-in-law do this for Christmas. 
What a cute keepsake.

linking
beyondthepicketfence
staceyembracingchange
threadingmyway
 

Necklace Hanger

I recently helped my sister with a necklace hanger

that was inspired from pinterest posts

here and here.

 

This project involved lots of cool knobs

that my father had laying around his garage. 

 

That's right just laying around, in fact he was thinking of throwing them out becasue there were only 2 or 3 of each kind.

(He doesn't know about the eclectic trend that is so big right now,

I'll forgive him)

 

We lined them up in the order we would put them on the scrap piece of wood. 

(this helped so we knew not to paint two knobs by each other the same colour)

 

 

Now we were ready to paint.

 

 I know a lot of these knobs are gorgeous as is,

 but we were going with two different colour themes.

 

 

This plain boring wooden knob is going to get quite the makeover.

 

 

not the right colour.....YET.

 

 

Just a little tweaking for this one.

 

 

We used crafts paints to get the colours.

 Here are the two

completed necklace racks.

 

The grey and yellow theme is for her bedroom.

 and her daughter got the blue and yellow.

 

 On all of the metal knobs we sanded and distressed so that the original metal could peek through.

 

The wooden knobs got the chevron pattern and polka dots.

 

 

The glass pink flowers just didn't go so we painted them to match the colour scheme.

 

 

This used to be a boring black knob,

but with a little silver paint and distressing....beautiful.

All the knobs were coated with a clear gloss spray and the scrap pieces of wood were

 painted and distressed. 

She got her husband to drill holes and attach the knobs with a screw.

 

 

Great and easy project,

I think for payment with helping I need to have a couple of the

leftover knobs so I can make some for me.

 

Don't you think?

 

linking with

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frommyfrontporchtoyours

brassyapple

 

Ombre Dresser

Another project is done and I've jumped on

another bandwagon to get it done.

 

OMBRE.

 

My oldest daughter had a tall 6 drawer dresser that I thought would

 be perfect for this technique.

 

 

I finally bought me some AS Chalk Paint. 

 Yeah!!

I bought Pure White, Provence, Florence, Paris Grey and Duck Egg Blue.

 

Not to mention both waxes and the large brush.

Pricey.......maybe.

 

 

 

Took the drawers out and painted them white,

I don't know if this step was necessary,

 but I did it anyways.

 

My garage at one point looked like an explosion of drawers.

 

 

 

Now for the ombre effect. 

 I took a whole bunch of the ASCP pure white  and added a drizzle of  ASCP Provence and ASCP Florence in equal parts (precise eh?). 

I started at the top with the lightest colour and then for every drawer below I added the same amount of Provence and Florence. 

I wanted the grade change to be subtle, but not too subtle and I think it worked great.

 

 

the effect is so cool.

 

 

Drawer pulls needed to be updated with a coat of Rustoluem white metal spray paint.

 

 

I painted the body pure white and let those drawers speak for themselves.

My daughter absolutely loves it.

So do I.

 

Having been my first chalk paint project I of course have my opinions about the chalk paint.  I do love that the chalk paint is great to mix and get any shade you want.  I did really like the soft feel of the paint after I gave it little sanding. 

 

You could see brushstrokes, which having spray painted for awhile I'm not use to seeing.

 It distressed well, maybe a little too well, if I bumped it at all it would scuff the paint.  The wax did seal it, but I still felt nervous about scuffing. 

Maybe that will change with time and the wax will harden up.

 

  Overall I did like the chalk paint and will use

 it when I want a certain colour that I can mix myself. 

 

Such a fun transformation.

 

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