Hubby found these barstools at the thrift store yesterday for 10 bucks a piece....
Well this is what they looked like after he sanded the top of the seats for me.
Then I copied a couple of reverse images from the Graphics' Fairy blog (awesome stuff there!)
here's a link
http://thegraphicsfairy.com/
and transferred them to the tops of the stools.....
then rubbed the oak with some ebony stain and put a coat of clear poly on top.
I think these are ready to spin for a few more years :=)
Yep that's Brownie in the first pic up there... he is a little upset with me today because I wasn't holding him as much as he always wants me to :=)
Hope ya'll had a Super Sunday!
This is another piece that my nephew Larry bought at a storage auction and I had time today in between all of my other projects to work on it.
The kitchen cart had several cracks and a lot of them I left as they were....(because I wanted to LOL !). I did fill some of them in with caulk. And then I used a pretty easy painting method. You simply take a darker color and spread it on the piece. Let it dry and rub out some places if you want the original wood to show through. Then I took a rag and "washed" over the surface with a lighter color paint...leaving some places darker than others. You really can't make mistakes here....you just rub away until it looks good to you :)
I started on the top of the piece with another wonderful graphic from "The Graphic Fairy's" Blog....an image of some old chickens. I used the decoupage method of putting on some mod-podge... burnishing the image and then peeling the paper away.
Then I remembered a vintage image I had saved quite some time ago of Colonel Sanders and a gal eating a piece of his finger licking chicken.
So I copied that onto tissue paper and decoupaged that onto the surface and then stamped some silver ink on top.
I then printed out the phrases in "Word Pad" that I placed on top and added them with decoupage after "burning" the edges.
Next I sponged on a few hearts after drawing them with a pencil and then filling them in.
Then I painted on a design on top of that by using a piece of vintage lace. You just apply paint to the lace and press it on where you want it to go :)
After that I attached some vintage buttons and poured on a bit of resin. Then some polyurethane and some clear coat to the entire piece. And here is the new old "Le Chicken Cart".....
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!
