Bare Legs and Milk Paint

Alright y'all - this is what a "boring" weekend without plans turns into at my house....a dinning room table redo!

One morning, hubs and I were sitting at our kitchen island enjoying our morning, freshly pressed cup of Costa Rican coffee when we suddenly realized we had no plans for the weekend! Let me tell you, I could hear angles singing! Ever since Thanksgiving we have been constantly on the go so when a weekend approaches us where we don't have much on the agenda....well....we start redoing furniture we already own. Ha! 

I know...normal people would enjoy a free weekend by doing nothing, but not us. We would rather redo our dinning room table and take advantage of this nice February weather unseasonable (for most of the US) weather. 

I have owned this table since my sophomore year of college. It's old. Not THAT old but for something I picked up for 120 bucks at a garden center several years ago, it has seen better days. It has lived through college, at least 4 moves that I can think of, and a kitten using it as a chewing toy. It needs some love. Hubs and I don't really have black in our house anymore and, really, the table was starting to look very out of place so we decided to give it a little face lift! And let me tell you, this project taught me a lot of patience. 

Here's the before picture: 

I really had no plans for this table so I basically made this up as I went. Luckily, it worked out! Once I had it out in the driveway and could get a good look at it, I decided it needed a new top. Of course Hubs keeps a pile of scrap wood sitting in the garage so I started laying out the pieces on the top of the table, in no particular pattern, and then this happened...

Ta da! You can clearly tell that this was scrap wood, test pieces, wood we have pulled off of other furniture, and some left over scrap wood from our Barn Wood Bench. After I got everything laid out how I liked it, I used a little wood glue to secure the pieces, and then started in with the nail gun.  Once my new table top was in place, it was time to get the existing colors off, and get this thing prepped for some major overhaul. Thankfully, the sanding was pretty simple. Orbital sander and some coarse sand paper and it was looking like new already!

Now it was time for Hubs to step in. I knew the top looked a bit unfinished so Hubs finished off the edges with some trim pieces that REALLY made this table look uniform and complete. 

Okay, ya'll, I hate doing this too, but you REALLY need to take the time to cake this thing with wood filler. Don't be shy...use a lot of it! Since this will be used as a dinning table, we didn't want anything to be uneven so once we got wood filler into all the nooks and crannies, Hubs took the ole mighty belt sander to the top of this thing and made it silky smooth. 

**This is a must! Take the time to do this. It's not fun, I know. But, it will be worth it in the end. Deep breath....patience. 

Oh, and while we had the belt sander out, we went ahead and stripped the legs of the black paint and let 'er bare legs show. 

Now on to the fun part - stain! So, this process really tests my patience because I crave instant gratification...which I get with stain...but I am always so anxious to see the finished product. It would be so easy to skip may of these steps, but from experience, I have learned that it's not worth it. Breathe.....

Okay so first thing's first, this wood needs some conditioning! This is simple. One coat, 15 minutes, and you're ready to start staining. You can either use a pre-stain or a wood conditioner. Either one will get the job done. 

Now, you can begin to apply your stain. In the past I have always used an old t-shirt to apply the stain but this time I used a sponge brush (and will use this technique for all projects going forward). To really make sure the grain of the wood shows through you will want to work in small sections. Apply your stain, wait 2 minutes, then wipe it off with a lent free cloth (or an old t-shirt). Do this across your whole piece. Once you have covered the entire surface and let it dry for 1-2 hours, give it a quick light sanding with the orbital using fine grit sand paper, and then start the process again. I believe we did this 3 times. 

We're getting there!

Again, since this is actually going to be used as our dinning room table (for now), we wanted the top to be smooth. But with smooth, I also wanted to make sure it was protected from hot plates and any wine spills that may happen on a dinning table. Cue the polyurethane! Seriously, this stuff might be my new best friend. I've used it in the past but never knew it's full potential until now. A-mazing. I put a coat of polyurethane (or "poly-blah-blah-blah" as Hubs likes to call it) on this table top every chance I got! You can put as many coats as you want and you are only helping the furniture, so don't hold back. It is important to let it dry for 1-2 hours between coats, but go crazy. I think we put 2-3 coats on this thing every day for 5 days before we decided that it was probably as good as it was going to get. Ha! Definitely worth it. See...the patience is paying off!

Now for those bare legs. 

Instead of staining the entire table one color, I decided I really wanted some contrast. I wanted the top to be dark but I wanted the bottom to have a more antiqued finish. I have done this before but with more effort than I ever cared to exert. Ha! This is a whole new experience we are about to embark on together but it should make the desired results a little bit easier to accomplish. The completion of this table calls for a trip to the store to find gel stain and milk paint. And yes, you have to go to a specialty store to find this.

Oh and I couldn't have done this with out a little help from Ana White.

Here's how this works: first, make sure your bare legs are prepared with some pre-stain (Keep in mind when using the pre-stain, this isn't something you can let sit over night. You must allow at least 15 minutes for the conditioner to set in, but no longer than 2 hours. Directions may vary depending on the brand so look at your can). Open your can of gel stain and get to stirring, don't shake! This stuff is thick and needs to be worked on for a couple minutes before use. Apply as directed and let dry at least 24 hours between coats and/or before moving on to the milk paint. 

On to the milk paint! This stuff is a new experience for me and comes in a variety of colors, so get creative! It's not exactly cheap but I would recommend trying it out on some scrap wood before slapping it on your furniture. It took me some trial and error and again practicing my patience. But here's what we figured out: the packaging calls for equal parts milk paint and water. I found that it was much easier to deal with it if there was just a little more milk paint in the mixture than water...but don't go overboard. It should be a little bit thicker than the consistency of milk...maybe more like a milkshake? Your call. 

The first coat seams to go on a little streaky but I was pleasantly surprised with what the second coat looked like. Oh, and I didn't waste any time between the first and second application. Now....again I have to practice patience. This HAS to sit for a good 24 hours before you can do anything with it. Technically this is supposed to crackle and look awesome after it drys....we will see how it goes!

So after we let this sit for 24 hours, we noticed it was crackling in some spots but not all over like we had hoped. So, we lightly went over all the legs and the skirt with the orbital sander and very fine grit sand paper. The milk paint began to flake off in areas and it was looking great. We finished the legs off with two coats of "poly-blah-blah-blah"  and moved it back inside! I was very pleased with the end results and will be using milk paint for future projects!! Hope y'all like it. 

Oh, and the kitten I mentioned in beginning of this post....he was happy to have his table back. I think he approves. Hopefully he's out grown the chewing stage. And yes, he's actually that big. Ha!

Whew! Now for the chairs..... (coming soon!)

Stay safe- KC

Pink Flamingos and Christmas Wreaths

Happy New Year's Eve, y'all! I guess this will be the last post of 2014! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Holiday. 

As y'all know I have been on a bit of a wreath kick recently (which reminds me, I need to post all of the Christmas wreaths I've been making!). A friend of mine came to me with a couple of wreaths she wanted to make for her grown kids. Let me give you some background before we dive into this because it's not your typical Christmas story....

This friend of mine lived in Hawaii for 10+ years and raised her two children there. Their holidays were filled with sunshine, beaches, and old St. Nick running around in swimming trunks...oh, and flamingos. Wait....what??? Yes, I said flamingos! Actually, the flamingo thing started as a joke when her daughter got married. Apparently her and her son in law exchange obnoxious flamingo souvenirs every year for Christmas (and all throughout the year when they find a flamingo that is worthy enough to be displayed with all the others). Well this year, Friend decided to change things up and really give the son in law (who lives in snowy Boston) something that represented a true Hawaiian Christmas filled with pink flamingos. I'm so confused. 

The wreaths I have been making have been filled with greenery, fake snow, jingle bells, and bright red ribbon. So I was really excited when Friend came to me with this idea. So instead of doing the typical burlap bubble wreath that goes perfect with any Christmas decor, I got to switch things up, and get in the mind set of being in Hawaii for Christmas (cue the ocean waves on the noise machine!). This time, burlap just wasn't going to cut it. Sooooo here's what was decided! 

The scrap fabric wreath! Except, I went out and bought this fabric because, I don't know about you, but I don't have any flamingo inspired fabric scraps laying around my house. 

Here's what you will need: Fabric scissors (or one of those fancy straight line fabric cutters...which I do not own...hint hint...), about 4 yards of fabric (mix it up - I do a half a yard to a yard of a few different patterns and colors) and a few spools of ribbon, along with the well known wire wreath (this was an 18 inch wreath). 

Now, get to cutting. The strips do not have be perfect by any means but typically mine are about 6 inches long by 1 inch wide. Same for the ribbon. 

*Tip: fold your fabric up and cut several layers at once - this makes the process a little faster. 

Now, one at a time, alternating different fabric and ribbon, start tying them onto the wire. It's very simple but somewhat tedious. 

*Tip: you don't have to fill each section of the wreath completely. I went about half way before I started on the next section. Once you get all the fabric on there and fluff it up and spread it out, it will look full - so, no need to completely fill the wreath (unless you just want to). 

Now you will start seeing what the finish product will look like.

And the final product! 

I finished it off with a flamingo themed Christmas stocking and then Friend added a Mele Kalikimaka sign to make it Hawaii Christmas official. 

*Picture coming soon!*

Also, here's a picture of the other Hawaii inspired Christmas wreath made for her Son and Daughter in law. I think they turned out great!

I wish everyone a very safe and Happy New Year! 

xo - KC

Plumbing Pipe and Wooden Shelves

Hey, y'all! It's Friday!

I wanted to post this real quick before I go sit in traffic for an hour or longer... blah!

Hubs and I are making these shelves! Made out of plumbing pipe, they have a lot of character and are great for an office or any home decor. This particular one was made for an office - very basic. Share with your family and friends and let me know if anyone wants to get going on their Christmas shopping! We'd love to make you a shelf!

I thought this would also be a good shelf to have in your kitchen to hold spices, flour, and sugar. You could also easily screw hooks in the bottom to hang coffee mugs on. 

KC Tip: You know how I always say flip things around, turn them over, and look at them at all different angles?? Well here's a tip with this shelf...flip it upside down! When you flip it over, the top (or bottom..?) still works as a shelf and the bar in the middle becomes a towel rack. This piece would be great in bathroom to hold a towel and some toiletries for your guests. 

Xo! Have a great weekend and as always, stay safe!

KC

New Bottoms, New Nightstand

Good evening, all! It's Sunday night which means I unfortunately have to go back to my day job tomorrow. Sunday's also start this horrible emotion that I like to call "Sunday Grumpies" which basically means, I've had such a fabulous weekend spending time with Hubs, doing some household crafts and furniture redo's (of course!), and thinking about how much I wish I could do all of this for a living. But hey, we all have to work, so back to the grind tomorrow!

Things have been a little crazy for Hub's and I lately. Busy busy! There have been weddings, trips, and life that have really been keeping us on the go! Oh, and we also decided to go to India to see a dear friend celebrate his wedding (coming soon to a post near you in December! Eeek!!). So, yes, I'm a little behind on the posts!

Okay, enough excuses as to why I haven't been posting. Let's get down to business! I had mentioned in  previous posts, Barn Wood Bench and A Vase and a Lamp Shade, that Hubs and I have a list of things we needed for our bedroom. Well guess what?! Today I finally get to cross everything off that list! We finally found the prefect nightstand to perform a little bit of Consigned Design magic on. Excited? I am!

Here's what we found:

Flea Market find: $100....minus $40 after a little bit of negotiating. This thing is ugly but it had great bones...well sort of. I'll get into that a little later.

First step was to get all of this ugly paint off of this poor piece of furniture. Little did we know how much paint was actually on this thing. LAYERS and layers. So, needless to say, this took a little a lot of elbow grease. I couldn't have done this without my friend, Paint Stripper. Actually, we used a spray on paint remover that worked great! You should be able to find this at any local home improvement store.

PLEASE be sure to use protective gloves, eye wear, and long sleeves to do this. If the wind catches any of this mist and gets on you, it will burn a little. This stuff is no joke. So please use with extreme caution. Also, do this in a well ventilated area, aka - outside, the smell is intense.

First, just spray the paint remover on like spray paint. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until the paint starts to bubble (be sure to read instructions on the can as well!). The longer you let this sit, the easier it is to scrape off the old paint. Then use a steel paint scraper and get to scrapping! It's best to work in small sections. I started with the drawers and then did the rest of the piece.

Since there was so much paint on this silly thing, we had no choice but to sand off all the excess. But, I still think it's a good idea to do just to make sure your surface is nice and smooth. We used 80 grit sand paper for this.

Ignore the gardening, I never said I had a green thumb!

Back to the bones: Here's a little reminder to you while you are out junkin' (definition - going into the most run down places that have piles of crap in them and dig for a gem) - be sure to look at your piece entirely. We made the mistake of only opening the top two drawers of this piece while at the flea market, but once we got it home we realized the bottom drawers were falling apart. So, we decided to go ahead and put new bottoms in all of the drawers. Hubs went out and got some fancy ply wood (yes, I said fancy) and made new bottoms for each of the drawers. They turned out great!

I really wish I had taken a before picture of these drawers. You would have been shocked to see what the bottoms of them looked like.

Next step, prime! This is when I think the piece really starts to look like a new.

Last are the finishing touches. You can really finish this up however you would like. We actually bought a piece of furniture (I know! It was the first piece of furniture that we had actually bought new in a long time. Ha!) that we loved the finish on so we were trying to match it. We used the same antique gray paint we had finished our Barn Wood Bench with. Remember - once you do a coat of paint, let it dry for 24 hours, sand it down, and paint it again. I always try to do this a few times. It takes A LOT of patience but it's worth the extra time and work. Once the painting was complete, I sanded some key parts of the nightstand to really give it an antiqued look. After I got it roughed up a bit, I used some glaze and dark stain to complete the look.

Oh, and I can't forget about the new hardware! The original "hardware" (if you can call it that) that was on this piece only needed one screw to get it secured into place. We wanted to switch this up so we covered the old holes with some wood filler. Then Hubs got the new hardware put on. Here's another reminder - always measure twice. Don't tell him I told you this but the bottom drawer's hardware is a little off....actually its way off...which is why the final pictures are taken at an angle. Ha! Hopefully you can't tell.

Finished product!

Cost of redo: Approximately $70

Total cost of nightstand: About $130

Alright - bed time. Night y'all! Stay safe.

KC

PS - I will upload a picture soon of the finished product in its new home. You'll love it!

Burlap Bubble Wreath

It is so hot in Texas right now. And unseasonably, it has been raining every day which is NOT helping with the humidity.  I made a comment the other day that I was over summer and I am now ready for the cooler temperatures of fall and winter (well as much fall and winter you can get down here). Why do I live in Texas, again? I miss having 4 seasons!

So, with fall and winter on my mind, I decided it was time to start stocking up on holiday decorating! Actually, in all honesty, I really don’t like decorating for holidays (except for Christmas, of course) just because I don’t like the hassle of putting everything away. It makes me feel like I’m moving every other month. So, solution to that….door wreaths!

I’m thinking I might turn into a crazy wreath wife. I’m sure my husband will love that! But I had so much fun making this wreath that I see many many more in the future.

Here’s the list I plan on accomplishing:

Every day/Summer

Halloween

Fall/Thanksgiving

Christmas

Birthday (this will be in place of Valentine’s day)

Easter/Spring

Fourth of July

First of all I will say that I quickly learned that you need more burlap than you think (especially if you like a tighter look to your wreath). So, buy a little extra and if you don’t use all of it you can always take it back. Oh! And I will mention that the tighter woven jute is much easier to work with than the lose weave.

All you will need is your burlap ribbon/garland – I used 5 inch wide and 20 yard long spool but you can buy it in many variations – found in the floral section of your favorite craft store, a green wire wreath, pipe cleaner to match your burlap, and your accessories. You can choose to accessorize your wreath however you’d like but in this case I used barrette flowers  

So, when I first started this wreath adventure I couldn’t find instructions ANYWHERE on how to do this. I found people that sort of kind of explained it but most people just said “there isn’t a wrong way so just do what works for you.” That’s great advice but I need instructions! So, with their advice, this is the best way I found to do it and now I’m going to share it with you!

You may think I’m completely crazy but start out by unrolling your entire spool…..just do it!

1. Start by tying a knot on the inner most ring of your wire wreath (for a little extra support you can actually tie it to one of the divider pieces that runs perpendicular to the rest of the wreath).
2. Now, you are going to start weaving your burlap through the wires. Over, under, over under....
3.  Pull all 20 yards through your wire wreath and pull tight.
4. Now make your loops. You can do this as fluffy and loose or as small and tight as you want. I’d say my loops are on the small side - Personally I think it makes for a cleaner look.

     5.   Now go the other direction

     6.   Pull tight

     7.   Make your loops

     8.   Continue! 

Once you come to the end of your first roll of burlap you will need to tie off the end in a way that will keep what you’ve done, nice and tight. This can be done simply by using a pipe cleaner. Be sure you get pipe cleaner that’s the same or close to the same color as your burlap. Oh, and notice my helper in the picture below? He’s showing you how much of the wreath 20 yards of burlap covers.

As I mentioned before you can use whatever you would like to decorate your wreath. I found that the easiest way to do this is with barrettes. Craft stores have tons of these things and in several different colors and sizes (or you can even find them at girls accessory stores, too!). Barrettes are the easiest thing to use because they clip on to the burlap and will always stay put, AND they are easily changed out if you want a different look!

And here’s the final product! Simple and chic.

Oh yeah…I would suggest doing this outside. Apparently burlap sheds….EVERYWHERE. The shedding is worse than the big orange cat's. But if you do want to craft on your couch (like I do) then the shedding is easily cleaned up with a dryer sheet and/or a lint roller.

Have fun y'all and stay safe!

KC

Barn Wood Bench

Ya'll, this might be my favorite thing yet so I'm really excited to share this! 

Good morning and happy Monday! I had mentioned in a previous post (A Vase and a Lamp Shade) that I had a list of things we needed for our bedroom. Well today, I got to cross one off! Here's where we stand:

List of things we need:

Nightstands

Lamps

End of bed bench

So, back in the spring we went to one of my favorite flea markets in Round Top (Like, seriously....it's huge. A junkers haven!) and found this nice man who was selling old barn wood out of the back of his pick up. Hubs and I didn't have a clue what we wanted to do with it but we new we loved the looks of it so we bought over 50 feet for $15 bucks. Crazy! 

This seems to happen a lot, but Hubs and I spent hours shopping for a bench to go at the end of our bed. It was shocking how expensive those suckers were! $200 bucks here, $500 bucks there. What?! No way am I spending that kind of money on a bench I will probably never sit on (let's be honest - it's really just for looks, right?) So I told Hubs that we should just try to make one. After several discussions, we finally had a light bulb go off and realized we had an old table that we weren't using anymore and we could salvage the legs for our bench. THEN we remembered about our barn wood and decided that would make a unique top for our bench. Done and done! Let's get started. 

First, I laid out all of our barn wood, picked my favorite pieces, and got them arranged how I liked. We decided to make the bench 4.5 feet long (remember - our bed is huge) and about 18 inches wide. So, I measured the wood, made my marks and and started cutting! 

Yes, that giant saw still scares the crap out of me!!

Second we removed the legs from the old table and sanded them down to their natural state so we could paint them the color we wanted later. Since they were already used as table legs, it made assembly really simple.  

We even used the old hardware and leg supports from the table to attach the legs to the bench. Then we cut a couple smaller pieces to support the top (just in case we ever did decide to sit on it!) and for easy attachment to the barn wood. 

In this picture you can see the corner leg supports. We just paid close attention to how we took the legs off the old table and tried to replicate it when putting the legs onto our bench. It worked out well! Oh - and a Kregg Jig will come in handy for this project so you can make pocket holes and attach your supports easily. 

*Quick side note - I thought the underside of the barn wood made a neat pattern as well. I always suggest to play with everything you have. Turn it upside down, flip it over, and look at it at every angle before you make a decision. Something really simple could really change the looks of your piece.* 

Once everything was in place we gave it a quick sanding and a coat of paint. I didn't do anything fancy with this paint. All it took was a couple quick coats of the color you decide on. We used an antique grey. Oh! And that bottom piece, it was just shelving wood you can pick up at your local home improvement store. We splurged a little on that purchase (I think it was around 20 bucks)! All in all I think we ended up spending less than $30 on our bench! 

And for a little extra storage, I bought these wicker baskets at Garden Ridge. They had a HUGE selection of any shape, color, size, and style you like. It's a great place for extra tee shirt storage (if you have a ton like me) or even extra blankets and pillows. 

KC