Finished A couple of recycled furniture pieces today

I often forget to take the before pics of pieces I have been re-doing lately.
Here's an old end table that I started on yesterday and suddenly remembered to get the "before" pic

It was actually in a little better shape than this when we found it a couple months ago...but was one of the pieces that got hit in the heavy rains we had awhile back... I felt kind of sorry for how drab this old thing was looking... and decided to get a bit funky with some color...
I think if furniture could talk this one might tell me it is happier today than it was yesterday :)

I finished up this 4 drawer chest today. Spotted it at a thrift store awhile back and some of the drawers were wonky...and the finish was really banged up---- I really loved the curved front
I put on a couple of coats of white wash chalk paint and then waxed it with some ebony stain added to the wax. Brownie my constant side kick weiner-meister boy...ended up with a little streak of white wash paint on his side as well.
hubby made some new drawer runners and got it functioning
when I was decoupaging the drawers he kept giving me that "look" and I could tell he wasn't quite seeing what I was seeing. 
But when he got home from work yesterday after I had done the sanding and all---he said that it looked way different than he thought it was going to look the night before. :D
I really like how this piece turned out.

I finished a couple more pieces but will post some pics later.
Hope ya'll had a happy hump day!

Hooray Sunshine today in bako...got some stuff ready for Rose Bowl Pasedena next week!

Nice to have a bit of sunshine today....hands were warm enough outside to actually do something for an extended period of time LOL!
Hubby and I were getting some stuff ready for the Rosebowl Pasadena Swap next week....
here's a couple of old tables I found a few months ago that just needed some sanding and a little TLC...
I love the lion head knob on the side table stand!

Here's a table we covered with a tarp but it got wet with the recent heavy rains....has a real marble top but is made of pressed wood mixed with real wood on top...and the bottom was jacked up pretty badly after getting wet...the easiest fix I could think of was a layer of glazes on top of chalk paint and I think the piece will survive for a few more years :)

here's an old pic that had a faded brown plastic frame....
while I had out the cream chalk paint I added a quick layer to the plastic to give it a fresh new look.

Am working on another dining set....hope to finish it up tomorrow if the weather permits.
Will get some more pics up.
Cheers to a productive 2015 ya'll
refurbish refab re-shine...one piece at a time :=)

A cottage shabby pink recycle situation.

I've been doing a bit of a Pasadena on the pink lately...was just doing too many recycled projects with pink hues of paint...and needed to add some other choices to what I was putting on my paint brush. But when hubby brought home this table the other day.... I knew it had to be pink in its' new life.  I really like the drop leaf feature.  The top was a bit chippy but I don't think anyone will notice that now :=)

Hope ya'll are having a bit of a rosy week so far.

A new old Piano Stool thanks to a little paint decopauge and The Graphics Fairy :)

My Nephew Larry has been buying a lot of old stuff at "storage auctions" and estate sales and he cracks me up because he is always stopping when he sees people on the corners with stuff set out for sale.  It's in our DNA I guess. There's just no getting around it....you either love doing this kind of thing or you simply think it's a waste of time messing with old junk....LOL!  So the other day at work I took home a couple of pieces that he had bought....and today....my day off I had time to re-do the first one.
This old piano stool with ball claw feet was pretty cracked and jacked.  

 So I first got out the sander and went to town on the top of the stool.  I also filled in the big crack with some "caulk" and then went back and sanded that down.  Then came some white paint that I mixed with some beige paint.  And then some blue paint mixed with more of the white paint that I had a big bucket of in the garage. (Use what you have is my motto whenever you can ..you don't have to run out and buy something new to make something new.) It's pretty simple...as you are painting--- simply rub out some areas...rub harder in some areas than others..to get that distressed look with the original wood showing through.
I also have this old "sea sponge " that I am constantly using on just about everything.  To me...the best part about sponging is that you can actually very easily cover up "mistakes" :=)
So for the top of the stool....I went to my favorite on-line go-to when I am too lazy to search my own images.....
The amazing  Graphics Fairy...
http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/
She has an amazing blog (one of my all time favorite blogs LOL ) with free images and a lot of inspiring tips and info.
She has a great tutorial there about copying onto tissue paper and adding it to a project....(which is what I did for the center image)...I used some white polka-dot tissue paper and I really like the way the dots show thru the finished image.
For the other images...I simply used some more of the Graphic Fairy's great graphics....printed them out....put some decoupage on the top of the stool.....burnished the image...and peeled away the paper.  Some of the paper whenever  I use this method always "sticks"....I'm not sure if I am just too slow-mo these days or what....but it is pretty easy to wet your fingers and "touch up" what you don't want to leave on your project.  Just don't rub too hard.....until you get the hang of it....you yourself will know when it "feels just right" :=)
So then I stamped on some gold tone  ink and I added one more coat of decoupage to the top of the stool before I sprayed it a few times with clear gloss.  I myself tend to always spray things a bit heavy so I make it a point to stand further away from the item I am clear coating :=)
Last...I added some polyurethane to the top of the stool. (I also want to add from my own experience that when I am using things like polyurethane....to me....it is much easier to apply it with a piece of an old tee...or rag....I used to always fight the finish if I was using a brush....and a nice soft old rag makes it so much easier to apply the final coat.)
And here is what it looks like now....

If you have any questions about this project I will be happy to try and  answer them for you :)
Hope ya'll have a great week!