Furniture Archives - Flip This Rental

March 10, 2017June 22, 2017

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

Sometimes we tackle projects because we want to test out a new idea, or spend some time doing something we enjoy, but we don’t necessarily expect them to be easy or quick. Other times we know a project will make a big impact in our home but we don’t want to have all the fuss that goes with it, so we put it off.

One of my friends, Jake, has two dressers that didn’t go with the rest of the pieces he owns, so last spring we began throwing around ideas on how to refinish them. The project kept getting put off because we’re both busy people, and we had to be creative in figuring out a decent workspace.

Now Jake is moving to Chicago in less than a month, so I knew we needed to get our act together and get this project done. I wanted him to be able to have furniture he loves to take with him to a new place and have a fresh start.

While doing this project, I was conscious about the things that make a project less daunting, and these are the 5 tips I wanted to share with you!

1. Listen to Your Piece

This first tip I think really applies to houses, but can also apply to furniture as well. In a house, we take clues from the architecture to guide us to different design choices. I think in some ways furniture does the same thing. Maybe this is me justifying laziness, but after a while it becomes clear how I want to refinish a piece. Whether it’s paint, stain, fun details, or new hardware.

This time I didn’t have the furniture in my house to stare at nonstop so it was a little trickier. Jake didn’t really know what his style was, or more accurately how to explain it. To find the best fit, I took cues from the other objects he has in his apartment. He likes clean lines, silver metals, and doesn’t mind dark colors. Overall, he’s drawn to a crisp look with some texture thrown in here and there.

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting
As you can see, both dressers have outdated hardware that doesn’t go along with Jake’s aesthetic. One of the first things we decided was to replace the hardware with matching hardware for both dressers.

The dressers don’t have anywhere close to the same style so I thought it made the most sense to paint them different colors. I knew I wanted to use General Finishes and Jake decided seagull gray milk paint for the tall dresser, and midnight blue chalk style paint for the long dresser.

2. Use Sprayer Without Paint

After sanding the tall dresser I kind of hit a wall of oh crap how are we going to get all the dust out of these details? And then I was like oh! Canned air. And then I was like OH. I can just use my sprayer without paint to do the same thing.

I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this so maybe it’s just too obvious to blog about, but it was definitely an aha moment for me.

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

3. Paint Consistency and Spraying Technique

I didn’t have any issues with the long dresser, likely because that is the second one we painted. However, there were some flukes with the tall dresser painted with milk paint.

I have a HomeRight Finish Max HVLP sprayer and in the manual, it says to thin paint out so that it runs through the cup that comes with the sprayer in 25 to 40 seconds. When I timed it, my paint was running through closer to 25 seconds, but I was ending up with drip marks.

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

I didn’t troubleshoot all the possible issues, but I think it was because my paint seemed a little runny. It also could have been because I was applying too much paint at once and standing too close to the piece. These are some general rules I like to keep in mind when I’m spraying to avoid issues like this:

Make sure your paint is a good consistency
spray in even strokes, starting the spray away from the piece then moving across
Let go of the trigger after each spray to avoid moving too quickly and creating areas with too much paint
Don’t stand too close (or too far) from the piece. I generally stand about a foot or so away.

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

4. Fixing Mistakes, Don’t Panic!

However, if you do mess up (like I did) don’t freak out! Whether it’s drip marks, accidentally touching the wet paint, or dirt in wet paint these are all fixable. In spots like the ledges of the drawer frames I wiped drips off because it wasn’t going to affect the finish. In spots like the side of the dresser, I just left them to sand (gently) before doing another coat. It would also be beneficial to just tap the drip with your finger so you don’t have as much to sand out.

One of us also bumped the bottom corner but I left it that way because I didn’t want to put too much paint on one area and end up with even more drips. I think it’s just easier to apply more paint than have to sand it off and then apply more paint.

I didn’t get any dirt in the piece this time but that is a super easy fix. Just wait until the paint dries and knock it out with a dry cloth. This shouldn’t mess with the finish at all.

5. Work with a Friend!

Typically I do projects on my own at my own leisure unless I am frustrated and need help. In this case, I felt there was more of a time crunch with the big move coming really soon. I didn’t want the project to take any longer than necessary so Jake could focus on packing and making the transition to Chicago.

That being said, it was so much faster to have an extra set of hands throughout the entire process. It’s also great because you have someone else to blame if things go wrong. Just kidding… sort of. If you’re looking for a project to go smoothly and take less time, definitely enlist help.

The project start to finish took a weekend and I wasn’t completely drained by the end. We bought supplies Friday night and worked from about noon to seven on both Saturday and Sunday. So really we put in about 14 hours, maybe less, since I didn’t really account for eating. Although I don’t think we really had any down time for paint and wood filler to dry.

So there you have it! 5 easy tips to make painting simpler and hopefully to help you gain some motivation instead of putting a project off. Now what you’ve probably been waiting for… before and after photos!

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting
Have you ever tried any of these tips for painting furniture or have any other tips I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

See You Around!

Lauren <3

5 Tips For Simple Furniture Painting

If you liked this post, you may also want to check out this post.

February 2, 2017June 15, 2017

Guest Bedroom Makeover – Home Away From Home

Wow. So it’s been forever since I last posted. I finished my last semester of classes for undergrad in December and at the beginning of January, I started an internship. I graduate in May just to turn around and start my master’s in the fall! Phew.

All of the big changes really took a toll on my mind and body, so blogging wasn’t a top priority. I kept pushing without taking care of myself as much as I should have.

But now I’m feeling myself again and possibly on my way to being even better than before 😀

But back to the internship. If I drove from home it would be a 2-hour drive twice a week which means I would probably have to wake up at 6 am. Ew.

The good news is my mom and her boyfriend live 20 minutes away from my office. Jackpot. And in this crappy Michigan winter that makes life so much easier.

I’ve been staying in the guest room which they basically use as a giant storage closet.

This is pretty much the before picture. The bed was originally coming out of the corner on an angle and the stuff wasn’t shoved into the corner as much.

They have a really nice house and it just makes me sad seeing a room not living up to its potential.

And since I’ll be staying here until May I figured it would be a great way to (1) make it feel homier for me and (2) make it feel homier for the future guests.

Above is the product of my second step. Obviously, you can see there is less stuff shoved in the corner. I put a bunch of sleeping bags and pillows in a bag in the closet, some sheets and blankets in drawers, and shoved other stuff under the bed.

Ideally, I would like to have my mom sort through stuff with me, take some things down to the basement, and figure out better storage options for the rest.

I think the tall dresser would be better positioned in the hallway or even in the closet.

My mom has some horse tack in here which might honestly be the best place for it for now. The other stuff though could definitely get moved out/around.

In this picture, you can see I put my quilt on the bed because it made it feel homier for me. This will eventually get changed to match the room design, and my mom even mentioned buying a new bed set. I also moved this lamp in here which was first in the living room, then my mom moved it into her office. So we’ll see if that’s permanent.

I like the footboard but I don’t think it goes perfectly with the style I have in mind for the room. Maybe if I’m feeling motivated I will stain it a darker color.

Also, say hi to Louie. He’s such a cool cat and pretty much in love with me. Lol

The Plan

Besides all the organizing I already talked about, I also want to do some DIYing and decorating. So here’s the short list of what I want to do:

Organize/Declutter all the stuff
Paint the walls
Figure out the best furniture positioning (bed, side table, tall dresser, bring in a chair?)
Paint the side table and dressers
Stain the bed?
Get a new bed set
Decorate with objects around the house/thrifted/new

In future posts I hope to update you on how the organizing goes as well as share an updated design plan. I get the feeling that my mom will be open to my ideas so this should be a fun project for the next few months!

What are some amenities that make you feel more comfortable when you’re the guest? Or what are some things that you try to do for guests in your home?

Thanks for reading and as always…

See You Around!

Lauren <3

To see the next post in the series, click here.

May 24, 2016June 17, 2017

Dresser Phase 2

A while back I added some paint to a dresser, and meanwhile bickered up a storm about the idiot that did such a horrible paint job. Turns out Chris got this dresser from one of his friends, and the truth is he just didn’t care enough about this dresser to take the time to do the job right (sorry not sorry, Mike. It looked like crap).

In phase 1 I added a coat of white paint to the whole thing (minus the wood top) including the insides of the drawers. And we can’t forget about that God awful contact paper I removed. Lastly, I gave the drawer pulls a nice coat of black spray paint.

Dresser Phase 2

I also attempted to remove some of the paint from the wood top.

Dresser Phase 2

In phase two, this is what I started with.

Dresser Phase 2

In this stage, the first thing I did was pull all the drawers out and tape off the top. Then I gave the dresser one last coat of white paint with my Home Right Finish Max HVLP Sprayer.

Dresser Phase 2

We didn’t have any newspaper, so I used what we had which is colored construction paper.

To get everything prepped I made sure to strain my paint since it was leftover from other projects. I bought this sink strainer from Dollar General and it fits perfectly into my sprayer’s container!

Dresser Phase 2

Typically paint needs to be thinned to avoid clogging the sprayer. The Home Right Finish Max comes with a viscosity cup, and depending on how quickly the paint runs out that will tell you if it needs to be thinned more. For water based paints it is perfectly okay to thin with water.

Here’s what she looks like with the fresh coat of white!

Dresser Phase 2

I’m not sure what’s up with the left side of the dresser, but the color looks off compared to the right side. In the before pictures it’s also obvious that it was harder to get good coverage. Not sure why, but now the only difference is the color slightly.

Dresser Phase 2

It’s a little hard to see, but in the picture above the wind knocked some dirt into my paint job! I waited until everything dried and just wiped it off with a dry rag. Good as new.

To give this bland dresser some character I painted the drawers with General Finishes Holiday Red Milk Paint. T’s bedroom is (mostly) Avenger themed and I thought this color would go perfectly.

The night before painting these drawers I bought a roll of masking paper and taped the three sides of the drawers I didn’t want painted.

Dresser Phase 2

I didn’t tape the bottoms because no one will see the paint on them during general use.

Dresser Phase 2

Originally I set the drawers up like the photo below, but when I started spraying nothing came out. The sprayer can be tilted somewhat, but not to this extent.

Dresser Phase 2

Instead I used an outdoor table with a drop cloth and set the drawers on top. That worked perfectly, but I should have laid the paper side down. As you can see with the third drawer from the left in the picture above, there is some of the drawer peeping through. This is because the paper wasn’t quite long enough. When I laid the drawers down the paper sunk more and I got overs spray inside the drawers. It will be an easy fix to sand them down a little and go over it with a brush and some white paint, but it could have been avoided.

Dresser Phase 2

Here are the drawers with their fresh coat of red. I think the picture on the right gives the most accurate representation of what this color looks like in real life.

Next I set out to remove more paint from the edges of the wood top. To do this I taped the painted part off and used a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol. Some areas came right off, and others I just had to scrape a little with my fingernail.

You can see there are only tiny little flecks left.

The front had even more paint, and now there’s none!

Last but not least this baby got a fresh coat of stain on top with some leftover General Finishes water based stain in Brown Mahogany.

Dresser Phase 2

The final product is exactly what I had in mind, and I absolutely love it! Even though his room is (mostly) Avengers themed I had to style the dresser up with some of little T’s firefighter gear. I don’t recall mentioning this on the blog, but Chris is a firefighter 🙂

Dresser Phase 2

Even though red is a vibrant color I can think of so many styles this dresser could go along with, even in just a kid’s room.

As a side note, this is not a sponsored post in any way. This is the first project I used my Home Right Finish Max for and it worked like a charm. This is also the first time I used General Finishes Milk Paint, and I love it just as much as their other products I have tried (Gel Stain and Topcoat, and Water Based Stain).

What style would you use this dresser with? As always feel free to leave me a question or comment, I would love to hear what you have to say 🙂

See You Around!

Lauren <3

March 16, 2016June 17, 2017

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

Wow, I can’t believe it has been over two weeks since I posted last! Whoops. But I’ll make it up to you this week by showing you my finished china cabinet! A few months ago (4 months to be exact) I shared my ideas for updating the cabinet and asked your opinions on what I should choose. I ended up choosing to stain the piece in General Finishes Java Gel Stain. Many of the pieces I saw were extremely dark, but I did see one that was lighter and I absolutely loved it. I figured I would only do one coat and that would be light enough and let the red tone of the wood show through.

To do this project I purchased:

GF Java Gel Stain (1 qt): $26.67
GF Gel Topcoat in Satin (1 qt): $26.67
Shop Towels: 3 rolls for $5.98
Mineral Spirits: $4
Foam Brush: $2?

I already had on hand:

Plastic drop cloth
Rub N Buff Antique Gold
Gloves
One foam brush
Ridgid random orbital sander
80 and 220 grit sandpaper

Here is what I started with:

Distinctive Furniture by Stanley mid century modern china cabinet; cabinet restoration

If you want to see more in depth pictures, there are some in the post I linked to above.

I cleaned the drawer pulls by soaking them in baking soda and vinegar then scrubbing with an SOS pad.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet | Hardware

Next, I sanded the crap out of the whole thing (minus inside the cabinets and the faux wood backing). I used my Ridgid random orbital sander with an 80 grit sanding pad. I wanted to sand down to the bare wood in order to keep the piece from getting too dark. Another reason was due to scratches on the cabinet doors and shelves, along with some nasty water rings on the top. I didn’t want to have to fill the scratches in with wood filler.

After I sanded everything with 80 grit I hand sanded with 220 grit to smooth it back out. General Finishes has great videos that I would recommend watching if you are going to use their products. I watched this video on how to apply Gel Stain and topcoat. It also explained not to go any farther than a certain grit or the pores of the wood will be closed and won’t accept the color as well.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

After sanding I wiped the entire piece down with Mineral Spirits to clean the dust off and prep the wood. For water based stains use a mixture of water and denatured alcohol.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

You can see in the pictures above how the mineral spirits bring out the red color in the wood. It dries pretty fast so it was hard to get a good picture.

General Finishes also recommends wiping down the surface with mineral spirits right before applying the stain. This helps the stain glide across the wood since it is so thick.

I then used a foam brush to dapple the stain onto the cabinet. Then I used a rag to spread the finish out evenly and wipe any excess off. Work in small sections so the product doesn’t dry out before you get a chance to wipe off the excess.

Here are some pictures once I got the stain on:

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

I let the stain dry for a full day before applying the gel top coat. To apply the topcoat I got a new foam brush and brushed on the product in a very thin layer. I went quickly at first to get it on the surface then went back slowly to make sure the lines were even.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

You can see in the pictures above how much richer the color is, and how the wood grain stands out after applying the topcoat. (The left picture is without topcoat).

General Finishes recommends putting more than one coat of topcoat on and sanding with a fine grit in between coats. This is because the first coat of topcoat is likely to lift the stain and create a grainy look. I didn’t have this problem so I just stuck with one coat. I also didn’t want to have to do any more sanding.

As I mentioned before, I cleaned the drawer pulls and did not use Rub n Buff on them. However, I couldn’t get the door hinges as clean as I wanted so I decided to use Rub N Buff on them.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

This china cabinet also whispered to me how much it would love having little gold feet. Sooo I used some Rub N Buff on the black part on the legs.

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

Great thinking, cabinet! I love your little gold feet.

Here are the after pictures!

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

I love how much depth this stain has to it. It’s so rich looking, and it was very simple to use. I was shocked by the price of the stain when I bought it, but I hardly made a dent in the can. A little bit goes a long way, which I noticed even with the water based stain I’ve used on two other projects. And for an oil based stain, it didn’t have too much smell to it. I did have the windows open, though.

I was not compensated by General Finishes in any way for writing this post, and all of the opinions are my own. However, they did follow me on Instagram. score!

Mid Century Modern China Cabinet

So what do you think? Did I make a good color choice? Would you say this is a proper restoration?

Eventually I think I would like to sell this baby, but for now I’m just going to enjoy the product of my hard work.

See You Around!

Lauren <3

December 30, 2015June 16, 2017

Antique Chair Revival

As I mentioned recently, I’m updating a chair for my mom, and the most difficult part was I could not save the old fabric as a template. This was challenging, but I will show you in this post how I reupholstered my chair without using a pre-existing template.

When I first got the chair I cleaned it and used some Restor-A-Finish on it. You can check out the first stages of that here.

Antique Chair Revival

The picture above is what the chair looked like in the very beginning before I cleaned it.

The next step in the process was to completely gut it and take all the old fabric off. There were a million and one nails on this thing and some of them were underneath a layer of fabric. This made it impossible to pull the fabric off without ripping it.

Another reason I couldn’t use the old material as a template is because it wouldn’t lie flat in order to cut the new fabric in the same way.

I also wanted to upholster the chair differently to leave more of the wood exposed. The old upholstery didn’t do the beautiful chair justice.

So, the point is it IS possible to reupholster a chair with no previous template to go off of. No matter what your reason is, I just happen to have a few. A lot of blog posts I read on reupholstering made it seem like “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE SAVE THE OLD FABRIC OR YOU WILL DIE”. Which now having done this chair, that’s a hunk of bologna. You might cry, but you won’t die.

Anyway, so after I wrestled with this thing for a while the chair was down to this stage:

Antique Chair Revival

Underneath the upholstery there was a wool and straw filler. Below that it had burlap on the seat, backrest, and underneath (pictured above). I took this off because I would be adding a thick cushion, and the straw was all over it and messy.

Antique Chair Revival

Underneath the burlap was burlap straps. I left these on because they are the support of the seat which go over the springs on the inside. At this stage, I vacuumed the whole chair really well to get any dirt and straw that was leftover.

One strap wasn’t nailed down on one side so I stapled that back down.

The front and back of the chair wasn’t stained where the old fabric was, and the sides of the chair were sort of stained.

To make the color all look even I got a stain to match closely with the existing color and re-stained the whole chair. I went to my local store that sells General Finishes products, and apparently I’m lucky because there aren’t many retailers around here even in bigger towns. I told the lady about my project, and she helped me pick a matching finish that would work well. In the end, I chose Brown Mahogany in the water based stain.

Antique Chair Revival

Here is a picture where you can see the contrast with the stained areas.

To prep the chair for stain I sanded the whole thing down with 180 grit first followed by 220.

Antique Chair Revival

After the first layer of stain you can tell that the unstained parts are starting to more closely match the rest of the chair.

When I went back over the chair the second and third times I only went over the areas that were lighter in order to try to get a more uniform look.

After staining, I was ready to cut my cushions. To do this I measured the width of the top part of the seat, and the bottom part of the seat because they weren’t the same length. I then cut on an angle from the top to bottom on both sides making a trapezoid.

For the back cushion, I first measured the highest part at the top of the backrest and the lowest part at the bottom. This gave me a rectangle. Then I held the cushion against the chair like so:

Antique Chair Revival

After I held the cushion up you can see where I made my marks with a sharpie. Then I took my box cutter and made the rounded top.

The next step after making my cushions is adding the fabric. I chose the gray patterned fabric for the seat and back.The burlap is for underneath and behind the chair.

Antique Chair Revival

First I decided to upholster under the chair. To do this I had to cut out little squares where the fabric had to go around the legs. This reminded me of my high school math days and terrified me. You know those math problems where you have to find the area of a square with pieces cut out? That’s what this felt like at first.

Once I stopped being caught up on perfection and stepped back to think I figured it out as I went. Just hold the fabric up to the edge of the leg and make a mark where it needs to be cut. Or measure how long it needs to be.

Instead of cutting the whole piece I needed, I just measured and stapled as I went along and this made it pretty easy. I left enough excess to tuck the edge under so it was clean cut. My tip to you is to always air on the side of caution even if you measure the cuts. Cut less first and go back later rather than cutting too much to begin with.

I used this same technique to upholster the seat and back, with some adjustment to how I did the back.

Antique Chair Revival

Pictured above is the underneath of the chair reupholstered.

Antique Chair Revival

For the back of the chair, the first thing I did was cut out a chunk of burlap and stapled it to the back. To staple the fabric around the top of the chair I cut a piece that was approximately the right size leaving a little extra. This is the only time I used the old upholstery as a “template”.

Antique Chair Revival

Then I used a combination of tucking and stapling in the best way possible to get a tight, clean look.

The same thing with the seat in the back you can see a few weird folds, but that’s because there was no other way to get as precise of a look.

Antique Chair Revival

Here is the side view where you can see the combination of stapling and tucking.

Antique Chair Revival

The finished view of the front! This is my favorite view.

Antique Chair Revival

And I was even able to nail the original tag back on 🙂 I tried so darn hard to save that.

This thing was basically a giant pain in my butt almost the entire time I was working on it, but I am really happy to have restored a classic piece of furniture. I think I will take on some more upholstery projects in the future, but only if they are more simple to upholster.

Here is my materials list and cost breakdown:

Chair – Free!
General Finishes Water Based Stain in Brown Mahogany – $11.31
1 yd burlap fabric – $4
3 yds gray patterned fabric – $12/yd = $36
two 2 in dense cushions – $15/ea = $30
5/16″ Staples – $4.23

This project in total would cost about $85, but I got some serious deals at JoAnn’s when I bought my fabric and cushions so it cost me a little over $60.

I delivered it to my mom when Chris and I went over to her boyfriend’s house for Christmas. She was so excited, and loves how it looks! I told her if she ever wants to get rid of the chair, it has to come back to me.

Antique Chair Revival

The before and after still amaze me!

Would you attempt an upholstery project without a template?

See You Around!

Lauren <3

November 18, 2015June 17, 2017

China Cabinet Makeover Plans & Poll

Recently I bought a china cabinet off of Craigslist, and I am now trying to decide the direction I want to go to restore it to it’s mid-century glory (possibly with a modern twist).

I’m so glad to have gotten this cabinet with very little hassle, and only a little bit of stress. I didn’t even have to drive far to pick it up either, which was a huge bonus.

She’s in pretty good shape, and I like her the way she is, but I feel like with a little elbow grease she could be totally fabulous for her age. Before I get into my plans (and you share your thoughts), let me show you the details.

First off this is a cabinet made by Stanley furniture or, as the label says, “Distinctive Furniture by Stanley”. I found a lot of other cabinets by them online which weren’t selling for a ton of money, but I didn’t find very many exact models as mine online that included prices. However, I did find a listing on eBay for around $600!! I think that seller might have been insane. I bought mine for $75. Maybe people just aren’t selling this cabinet.

There are two doors on the sides and three drawers in the middle. You can also see in this picture that the color is a little faded and not even. I love the lines in the doors, and the drawer knobs but they could use a little sparkle.

Here is a close up of the hardware and the faded coloring of the door.

In the first drawer is this nice separator for silverware. The other two are just plain old drawers.

China Cabinet Makeover Plans & Poll

The cabinet on the left has this shelf, and the right cabinet does not have a shelf.

China Cabinet Makeover Plans & Poll

The back of the whole cabinet is a sheet of fake wood veneer 🙁

China Cabinet Makeover Plans & Poll

One of the shelves has this deep scratch which I will probably fill in

China Cabinet Makeover Plans & Poll

And the top has quite a few water ring stains.

The Plans

I know for sure I want to stain the piece using a gel stain by General Finishes. I’m not quite sure which color I want to use yet, but I’m leaning towards Java (a super popular color), Brown Mahogany, or Antique Walnut.

China Cabinet Plans and Poll — Photo Credit: The Weathered Door

This is an example of the java stain on a mid century credenza.

Brown Mahogony Brown Mahogany

Here are two examples of the Brown Mahogany stain. These examples also show you how much of a difference there can be between pieces depending on the wood and the amount of stain used. I’m assuming they only used one coat on the piece on the right, and two coats on the left. One of the reasons I’m having such a hard time deciding is because of the variation in all of the pieces I’ve seen.

This is an example of the antique Walnut from Niagara Furniture Painting.

All of these colors are pretty similar, so I’m not sure if it even matters which one I pick. I don’t want to stray too far from the original finish of the cabinet, and I don’t want it to be too dark. I do like the red tint that the cabinet already has in it, but I wouldn’t want much more. Also, I would like it if the grain was emphasized more than it is right now.

Now, the next decision I have to make is if I want to paint the back or not. Since the backing is a fake wood veneer I’m not sure how well it will take stain, or if it will end up looking too different than the rest of the cabinet since the grain is obviously different. I think painting the back a light gray would make the glass pop out more. I was thinking General Finishes seagull gray milk paint.

Seagull Gray

Last but not least I want to update the hardware with Rub N Buff Antique Gold

I think it will really make the hardware pop and show off that mid-century modern style especially if I achieve a distressed look and let some of the darker parts of the pulls show through.

Your Turn

so let me know what you think:

#1: The Stain

Java
Brown Mahogany
Antique Walnut
Another color?

#2 To Paint or Nah

Yes, paint the back
No, don’t
Yes, but paint it a different color

#3 Rub N’ Buff

Yes, use Antique Gold
No, don’t use it at all
Yes, but use a different color

Feel free to add any additional thoughts or give me other suggestions that I haven’t already mentioned.

See You Around!

Lauren <3

July 19, 2015June 17, 2017

Curbside Dresser Makeover

A while back the boyfriend picked up a dresser he saw on the side of the road. It was in good shape structurally but boy oh boy whoever painted this thing did NOT know how to paint. Or they were just extremely lazy. I can’t tell. Please ignore the ugly paneling and the fact that one picture is not in the same orientation as the others. Oops. #SorryNotSorry

First of all that contact paper is dreadfully ugly and it was really dirty. In the second picture you can see that they painted the dresser but obviously didn’t prime or do a second coat. It’s like they got sick of it and never came back. Also it looks like towards the bottom they didn’t want to get paint on whatever surface the dresser was on so they just avoided that part. Third picture. Apparently they didn’t own a screw driver either so they just slopped some paint on the drawer pull and also didn’t look behind the front of the knob to make sure they got it all. COME ON PEOPLE. Now I almost won’t dump on the top of the dresser because I actually like the look of the wood top BUT they very sloppily painted the sides of the dresser.

Now that I’m done being angry, I’ll show you the process of making the awfulness go away.

First I propped the drawers up on random objects, took the drawer pulls off, and sanded the drawers slightly. The front right drawer had a little bubble so of course I peeled it and it ended up being a lot bigger than I expected. But it wasn’t anything a little primer and paint couldn’t fix.

What a huge difference one coat of paint can do!

I also spray painted the knobs, and as you can see I made sure to get every angle. Eventually I plan on replacing these because the one on the very right is chipped in weird ways. Yet another baffling thing about this dresser.

The dresser is being used in my boyfriend’s son’s room and my main motivation for fixing it up was all the hand-me-down clothes piled up in our living room. All the clothes in the dresser are hand-me-downs plus a bunch more hung up in his closet. Holy cow!

First off, if you are wondering what the heck is behind the dresser. It’s a door. I think at one time our “duplex” was a single family home and this was a doorway that led to the basement. In order to make it a duplex they just took the rest of the stairs out and added a door. It’s really strange and there’s not really a way to make it any less strange. *sigh*

Anyway, I couldn’t really get all of the paint off the wood so I got as much as I could. I also used some leftover Restor-A-Finish to hide the scratches and brighten up the wood a little bit.

In the future I would love to paint the drawer fronts and sides red to give it a little pop. I might even change the drawer pulls to Captain America shields to go along with the Avengers theme we’ve got going on. I’m just relieved to have this checked off my to-do list!

If you liked this post don’t forget to share it! 🙂

And if you want to see the next phase in this dresser makeover click here.

See You Around!

Lauren <3

July 14, 2015May 31, 2017

Antique Chair Makeover – Stage 1

So besides being a crazy youngster that enjoys doing daring things to her rental home without asking her landlord permission, I also enjoy buying old lousy furniture and dumping money and countless hours into it. BUT the final product tends to be somewhat decent so I usually am happy. I bought an old trunk from salvation army for $10 once and turned it into a table. It cost me 3X as much to fix it up but I get a lot of compliments on it so it’s okay.

I’m currently working on an old chair my mom’s boyfriend had lying around his garage, so they kindly donated it to me. I cannot for the life of me pinpoint when it was made and it’s driving me bonkers. I wanted to paint it white, distress it, and reupholster it but I have a soft heart for antiques and decided to restore it. I don’t have a place for it in my house so I’m fixing it up and giving it back to my mom for her birthday.

This is before I cleaned it. The wood is really worn and dirty, and the leather seats are really damaged. Poor thing needs some TLC 🙁 So far I think it’s made of dark walnut?? and that it’s really old?? maybe?

I figured this tag on the back would make it a piece of cake to figure out how old it was, what it’s made of, and how much it’s worth.

WRONG-O.

I searched for hours, dayssss and I can’t find a chair company/manufacturer, leather company, or anything based out of Detroit. Seriously, if you know anything about this chair tell me. Oh, it’s kind of hard to read but the right side says Detroit, Michigan 😉

The first thing I did with this chair is give it a good cleaning with some hot water, soap, and borax. The borax probably wasn’t necessary but I just love that stuff.

He looks a lot better after a nice bath but he’s far from a shiny diamond of a chair. Sorry chair, you’re still a lump of coal. Next I used Howard Restor-A-Finish in Dark Walnut and #0000 Steel Wool to restore the color of the wood and hydrate it. The top of the arms are really faded. There were also several scratches on the wood and the Restor-A-Finish is supposed to hide them really well.

When using the Restor-A-Finish make sure to put a drop cloth or newspaper underneath your project or apply it outside. It’s very oily and I’m sure it would make a mess if it spills. Let me tell you this stuff makes a BIG difference. You almost can’t tell that the wood was so neglected.

I just love how rich the wood looks after using Restor-A-Finish. It really brings out the carved details in the chair as well. This product is really easy to use and a little goes a long way. I almost wish it came in smaller containers because I don’t really know what else I’ll use it on. Maybe that’s an excuse to buy more dumpy furniture 😛

Stay tuned for the next stage in this chair’s makeover. I’m scared to pull all that leather off!

See You Around!

Lauren <3