Red bench rehab

This is actually an old upcycle. But it's one of my favorites!!!

I had gotten this bench from a friend while we were living in Georgia. We were about 45 minutes away from Savannah so we would get salt air and humidity you wouldn't believe. Seriously you'd walk outside and feel like someone left the shower on! Doing your hair? Forget it. 

It all adds up to your outside furniture quickly rusting and looking old and weathered. Quite fitting for the area. I did truly love it there don't get me wrong it was beautiful! Just didn't like the humidity and the bugs. The difference in Texas is it's a dry heat. Sticking your head in the oven vs. hell's sauna. Back to the point.... I know I know. Anyway. This bench sat there on my porch looking the same way as I got it. Sometimes it would move to my back porch that had even less cover from the weather.

One day close to the time we were going to move to Texas I decided to use up spare paint I had left over. So I sanded the bench lightly down. And covered the patio. I took a can of Rustoleum Universal metallic Hammered look in the color black, and sprayed the metal legs and backing. Being sure to cover any rust spots I found. Then I started on the wood. I took the rest of a barn door red can of outdoor paint and painted all of the wood parts of the bench making sure I got full coverage. Followed that with a Valspar antiquing glaze and rubbed it over the entire bench and then really good into the area's I wanted to "antique." left for twenty four hours to dry then took a two cans of polyurethane and sprayed the entire bench down. Left to dry for another twenty four hours.

Here was the finished product. All the neighbors fell in love with it. This bench has since survived four more moves and two hail storms. It's color is holding up perfectly.  I'm a firm believer that paint solves everything. Whether it's the color of a room or an old bench that just needs some TLC. 

Have an upcycle you have done that's one of your faves? I'd love to hear about it.

Faux mirror top bedside table.

Hey ya'll!
  We got bedside tables that have been in the family a loooooong time. Not quite antique yet so I had no problem with the idea of painting them. This is the "after" effect of the antique mirror look.

This is what it looked when I first got it out. Beat up. And changing colors?

The table its self is all wood. Minus that top center piece it's a hard laminate, that as you can tell was changing color due to age. I loved these tables they were my grandma's, then mine, then my moms for the last 6 years and now mine again. Our bed is a white metal frame from ikea. And I just wanted it to match a little better. Before we change the color of our bed. Another story for another date.

Have you ever seen those old pie servers from back in the day? With aluminum tops and cherry/walnut wood surround? Well the aluminum look is what I was after. And I didn't want to spend any cash on it. So I looked through my stash of dun, dun, dun SPRAY PAINT. It's really amazing what you can do with that stuff these days.  Anyways I had a past project of making vases look like Mercury glass. OMG if you only knew my love addiction to that kind of stuff! ( and if you want a blog about how to do that message me and I'll post a how to. Its easy I swear!)  Where was I? Oh yes. Mercury glass. There's this product called Looking Glass from Krylon spray paint. I searched high and low but did not have any luck finding it.  How ever I did find this stuff -->

Rustoleum Mirror Effect

It's not as shiny so it doesn't give the exact look I need for my MG projects. But it does still look awesome in it's own way! And definitely suited my current needs. So I washed the top of the table down. Didn't bother taping anything off. I just went with the flow. In the back of my mind I kept quoting my art teacher from Elementary school. "There are no mistakes in art. If you don't like the way somethings looking change it. It's never ruined." 

I kind of loved the way it looked right then. Hi, my name is Janna and I have an addiction to mercury glass...I know.... No need to worry it was just the drying process with the lighter being the parts dried. The thinner coat you use on the top the more of what you'll see under it that was original. I only did one thin coat each with a few good dark spots to give it the look I wanted. You can sort of see it here below.

After it all dried which I have little patients for  ( Have I mentioned I'm a redhead, I'm Irish, I'm an Aries, I'm only 4 feet 11 inches tall and a woman? Needless to say I have an attitude. I'm lucky my husband can put up with. It's a running joke that the odds were stacked against him lol) So I waited all offffffff about 30 seconds to bring it in. Then I sat down on my bedroom floor and began to paint. the same favorite color of Annie Sloan Chalk paint. Which I'm now out of! Drats! In the color Old Ocher. It took two coats of chalk paint to get the fullness I wanted out of it color wise. I didn't want to distress the paint on this project....

**I forgot to take an in between picture but here are the drawer pulls before. Just brass ones. That I used the same Mirror effect on.

 All I can think about when I actually look at these are the doors in the movie The Labyrinth. You remember the ones she had to take the knocker out of their mouths to ask questions?

Any way here's the finished product of my 4 hour labor. I did two end tables at once. So my husband's is finished to. 

 You can see that it does reflect some. And with more coats it will reflect more. If you really want a mirror finish I suggest the Looking Glass one. This one is more for antique style looks.

The table painted and put together. I really fell love the detail in it. On the sides its got more.

Annnnd I love how it turned out! Exactly the way I had pictured it! Slightly old aluminum. Who knows one day I may add some rust looking spots.... Or not.

From afar. This is my side of the room. My husband and I's taste is pretty similar. But they differ on the fact he has a huge Dragon on his night stand. One day I'm going to change the color of the bed frame. So it's not a prefect match. But you know what? I'm over that look. But I'm proud of the way it looks, it's mine I put the effort into making it mine. And no one else in the world has anything exactly like it. Well for now anyway. I hope you find something soon and make it yours. There are no mistakes.

For now Goodnight to all. I Hope you have a wonderful day/night where ever your from.

Flea market find to bedroom beauty.

Here's an old post but it's one of my faves. We have a local flea market where we live. It's small and hot and dark in a building with no AC and the only electricity is from the rented booths. So far we've only been a few times. I've seen a lot of project pieces but haven't found the right price. Till we came across this mess.

It's a Tennessee cedar chest. SMELLS AMAZING. As you can tell someone painted over it's original varnish  Black on the sides, burnt orange'ish on top. (I'm a UT fan and I love burnt orange this is not that pretty color.) The top had some water damage and the sides looked like someone was practicing hockey shots against it. All..the..way..around. 

The paint was thick coated. But the person who painted it didn't sand first. So lucky for me the varnish under it had bubbled and some of the paint was relatively easy to scrape off with a regular paint scraper. The rest? Not so much. I said this stuff was thick and I wasn't lying. It took 40 and 60 grit sandpaper to get it all off. I did end up finding a lot of the original varnish was in good condition but not salvageable. The entire time I was sanding I found myself screaming Nicole Curtis's words from Rehab Addict saying "Why the hell would someone cover that up?!" the color was beautiful.

This was hours of using the rough grit sandpaper later. Then I used 220 grit for for the finish. I decided to cover the water damaged front side in my favorite brand of chalk paint. And stain the top since it was in better condition. 

Is there any surprise I would use a different stain? I kid I kid. I do love other colors but I wanted dark and I was not disappointed. It took two good coats and a good wipe down to get it the right color I wanted. I finished it with a spray coat of polyurethane.

Here is the finished product. The top came out beautifully and I was able to salvage the sides. The front main panels didn't work out as well so I decided to go with a two tone look. I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in the color Old Ochre to give it more of an antique look. Eventually we plan to add copper details to the top and front. But for now this is how it shall stay. 

Ikea head board turned dog gate.

Well Hello there!
 I am starting this new blog as way to keep family and friends updated with my upcycles and life in general. Anyhoo back to the point right?

                This is an Ikea twin size FJELLSE headboard. It came with the rest of the bed but my kids like anyone else's I hope, have a habit of jumping on the bed. Which led to the screws being ripped from the wood and then a loud crashing noise from the opposite side of the house followed by chorus of "UH OH." After a "This is why we can't have nice things!" moment. I dealt with the situation much like a kid myself throwing the remaining parts of the bed in a closet to be dealt with at a later time. So it sat there ...... for..... months.....

 

**Hold on rewind back up** Insight.
I'm living with my mother while we save for a home. So we have three rooms at the back part of the house to ourselves. plus a bathroom. It's lovely, I'm grateful. I really and truly am! blah, blah, blah.  Anyway "TO THE POINT!" you say?... Separating said rooms from the rest of the house was a white metal swinging baby gate of doom. To my ears... It would hardly latch and led to a lot of banging in attempts to shut it. My kids are 6 and 8 so why not get rid of the gate you ask? Well because we also have a menagerie of animals between our two families. My mom has two dogs and a cat. And we have two hamsters and two cats and one more cat on the way. With the smaller part of the food chain on our side of the house, there needed to be some separation and sanctuary for the animals.... And a reason for a gate.

So I happen to be cleaning the closet and I'm wondering if I should toss, trash or keep this bed. And as I look at it, I think its about the exact size of the hallway that the current gate resided in. I pull it out and get and odd look from my husband as he sees the gears in my brain turning. I put the head board into place of where it would be and realize it would be a perfect fit and replacement for the big white eye sore currently there. He likes the idea, Mom likes the idea. Alright lets do this!

So I take the headboard out onto the patio and wipe it down. This model in particular is unfinished. So it was an easy redo. I used my favorite stain I had on hand Minwax in the color Jacobean.  No sanding or anything, just straight on to the wood. And it turned out great!

 Sorry for the way I'm dressed and the quality of these pictures. I had no idea what I would be starting at the time. Above I am testing out the stain to see how well the wood would hold it. And it soaked it right up. One coat was all it needed. Side note ** from experience when staining always go back and give it a good wipe down to take off any residual stain or it will be sticky.

Ah... Ain't it beautiful? For what ever reason I'm not a huge fan of blonde wood. Because I'm a child of the late 80's early 90's maybe? We were going to stain these later down the line anyway but hadn't gotten to it. I highly recommend these beds if you want to be able to make it your own quick. (my kids aren't easy on furniture so I think it was a fluke) And Ikea also sells other unfinished dressers and more so you can complete the set. 

I liked the way it looked just the way it was but it had two obvious issues. The two GIANT holes the dogs hadn't figured out they could go through yet. The solution was actually my moms idea. It's a grill thingy... you know the part of the grill you cook on? Yeah that thingy. You can buy it at Home Depot for $20.00. It's called Expanded Metal. Who knew it had a name? I know, I get easily distracted bare with me it will be worth it. We used an angle grinder saw and cut the metal square in half. The headboard itself has a half in grove in the top rail so we inserted the metal into it. For the bottom we let it drape over the back and screwed it in. (I will get pictures of this tomorrow I swear) Then we added a double swinging gate hinges so the gate can swing both ways. I believe this also came from Home Depot but the name of the brand escapes me. I'll look into it.


So this is the finished product. And here is a rough estimate of prices.

The bed itself sells at Ikea for $79.00 
(we got it from a friend. It lasted a lot longer then I thought with my boys so I take off depreciation cost.)
The rest was bought at the Home Depot
The stain was 1 qt. Wood finish oil based interior stain in the color Jacobean for $7.77 (I had it on hand so free)
The hinges are 3 in. x 3 in Oil-Rubbed Bronze double-action spring door hinges for $17.98 time 2.
only come in 1 hinge packs..Why I don't know.
And last but not least the Expanded metal sheet in the size 3/4" x 24" for $19.97

Making a grand total of $124.72 if I had bought all separate. I still have left over pieces of the bed that are going to be used for later projects. Could I have bought a new gate? Yes. But I'm all about reusing things as much as possible. And I honestly couldn't have found a awesome looking gate such as this one in stores. So there you go Ikea Hack 1938729837298 head board turned dog gate. 

PS. If you noticed the light saber without me mentioning it you deserve a cookie!