Transforming previously loved furniture

February 10, 2020 By

I love a good furniture transformation. I find it so rewarding to transform previously loved furniture and make it my own.

It’s also very economical as typically the piece itself is either free or costs very little money, compared to a brand new piece. And the added extra bonus is that older furniture tends to be better made with more solid wood pieces than what you can buy currently.

This past summer, I went with my husband to the cottage dump and found this little tub chair. I immediately went to check it out as the tufting caught my attention. I also was also in need of a small scale chair for our new home.

Before vintage wicker and wood, upholstered tub chair
Before vintage wicker and wood upholstered tub chair

I made sure the wicker was in decent shape as it is hard to find someone to repair wicker. I’m sure you’ve seen this type of chair before as it’s a very popular design.

I plan to sand, prime and then paint it a soft old gray. I’ve selected this beautiful dark teal velvet to reupholster it with. And then accessorize it with a soft light gray faux fur pillow.

teal velvet and light gray faux fur
teal velvet and light gray faux fur

I am not sure where it will live in our new home, but perhaps the bedroom or the entry. Time will tell.

I’m really hoping it’s warm enough this week to prime and paint it in the garage. Fingers crossed.

Have you transformed previously loved furniture? I’ve done quite a few over the years. These are just a few of the chair ones that I’ve posted about.

I did this chair quite a few years ago, but it’s a favourite . It still lives nicely in my family room.

These two chairs were left behind by the previous cottage owner and I added a bit of height to them and reupholstered them for a completely new look.

My son and son-in-law redid these chairs that were my dad’s into extra living room seating for their home.

And more recently, I had the cushions on these wicker chairs redone to give them a fresh new look.

There are lots of ways to repurpose, reuse and recycle old furniture. Once my chair is all done, I’ll be sharing the reveal!

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One Room Challenge – Week 4 – Sewing/Craft room

April 27, 2017 By

Well this week has been a bit of a challenge! To recap, I’m a guest participant in the One Room Challenge,  hosted by Linda at Calling It Home. Bloggers link up and share the challenge of completing their one room transformations in a mere six weeks. You can follow the featured designers here and my fellow linkers here, as they share their inspirations, challenges and of course, the results.

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For the previous weeks’ post click the link below.

Week 1

Week 2 

Week 3 

I’ve actually been away in Florida for the past week, hence the challenge. So I am scrambling a little to catch up.

I am planning to start my bookcase makeover, this week and it will entail some paint and wallpaper. Yes, this is where I’m using the Quilt wallpaper from Hygge & West.

Before: bookcase 2121-10 Gray Hygge & West, quilt_cayenne_roll_web

And yes, that is Milo’s tail in the corner of the pic. He loves to photobomb.

I also had some fun getting the light fixture, when I went to order it from my regular lighting supplier, it was discontinued….what? and they didn’t have any in their warehouse….sob. So after a little more sourcing I found a very similar one at Zone in the market and luckily they had one in stock. I was off like a shot to pick it up.  I just have to pick up the proper bulbs and get hubby to install it for me and that can be checked off the list.

Octo pendant

So this week’s objectives, paint the bookcase, light fixture installed and get the drapes finished. Wish me luck!

Thanks again to Linda for organizing and House Beautiful for partnering up.
Lisa

 

 

 

Filed Under: COLOUR, decor, design professional, DIY, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, inspiration, makeover, One Room Challenge, Projects, Storage Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Homemade Chalk Paint Hutch Makeover

July 2, 2013 By

Now on to my homemade chalk paint hutch makeover.   This is what I started with (please ignore the green painting tape):

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As you can see it just faded into the wood logs behind it, and the detail on the piece was totally lost.

First up, I painted the interior with the blue FAT PAINT that I had for my vanity. Much better.

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Now onto the exterior, I decided to paint it a soft yellow.  And as luck would have it, I had some leftover builders’ paint from our basement in a soft yellow.  Now off to find a chalk paint recipe, this time I wanted to try a homemade recipe.

Here’s the chalk paint recipe that I found here.

2 cups of latex paint (I used eggshell)
5 tbsp plaster of paris
3 tbsp cool water.
Mix the plaster of paris with the water, stir thoroughly till there are no lumps.  Then add latex paint and mix completely. It should be just as smooth as the plain paint when you started.
 

I mixed it all in a bowl and then poured the completed paint in a mason jar.  I kept this tightly closed and poured only a small amount in a tray as I was painting, so it didn’t become too thick.  I used a small foam roller and a bristle brush to get into the corners.

Now I’ll tell you what I did wrong….sigh….I used builders’ paint, my first mistake.  The paint was thin to begin with and barely thickened up with the plaster of paris. And my second mistake, the colour was too light.  See below.

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Looks too much like cream instead of yellow.  And the paint is just not covering, even after 3 coats!  As per instructions for working with chalk paint, I didn’t sand the piece AT ALL!  And you saw how dark it was, well if I was to do it over, I would definitely give it at least a light sanding as it was taking many coats to cover the dark wood finish.

So back to the drawing board, or paint store, I should say.  I went with a much brighter yellow…

Lemondrops

                                     Lemon Drops 2019-50 – Benjamin Moore

I mixed up some more chalk paint with the new yellow and now it is beginning to look a lot more like I envisioned.

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Much better!

I did give the piece a light sanding before I started with the second yellow.  I don’t know if that helped or not as it still took another 3 coats to cover the piece completely.  So 6 coats in total! YIKES! As I said, I would definitely give it a sanding before I started next time and I’m thinking that FAT PAINT worked much better for covering a dark piece. I didn’t have any trouble with coverage of my library table (but I had sanded most of it, except for the barley twists on the legs).  Click here to see that makeover.

After letting the paint dry for 24 hours, I started waxing.  I used FAT PAINT’s clear and antique wax. I love this wax.  It goes on easily and is easy to work with. It gives such a beautiful sheen.

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I love how the apron and leg detail show up now in the lighter colour.

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I applied a coat of clear wax first, and then a very light coat of the antique wax and once it was dry, gave it all a buffing with a clean cloth.  The sheen is so lovely on waxed furniture!

VOILA!

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It just pops from the wall now and looks so much better.  Sorry for the faded out photos, it’s very hard to take a clear photo here as there is a large window right beside the hutch.

Next project, the matching buffet which I use in the entrance of the cottage.  Stay tuned…..

And an apology if you were trying to get on my site this past weekend, there had been so many visitors that my site crashed!  Wow, I never would have imagined that happening, so a big thank you for visiting and keep coming, we’ve fixed it so it won’t happen again.

And a reminder that Google Reader is no longer available.  If you follow me via Google Reader you can now sign up by email (see the link at the top of my sidebar) or by Bloglovin’, click here to follow me or use the link at the top of my sidebar.

I’m linking this post up to the Power of Paint at Domestically Speaking. Click here to check out all the other fabulous paint projects.

 

 

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Filed Under: antiques, COLOUR, Cottage, decor, design professional, Dining, Dining room, DIY, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, inspiration, lighting, makeover, vintage Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chalk paint sneak peek

January 23, 2013 By

So, do you remember the library table that I picked up in Brimfield, Massachusetts, in the fall?

I was so happy to find it and I’m going to use it in my cottage bathroom.  You can read all about it in my previous posts here and here.

My design sketch for the bathroom.

I was thrilled when Victoria from the FAT PAINT Company offered some chalk paint for me to try out.  She even allowed me to customize my colour.  So I chose Benjamin Moore’s Van Courtland Blue HC-145.

 

I also picked up some of her antique and clear waxes.
Here’s the table in progress.
And a close up of a leg after two coats of the chalk paint.

After a light coat of the antique wax and clear wax and a little buffing.  Isn’t the sheen just lovely?
I’ve decided to keep the top in the natural wood finish but with many coats of clear wax.  You can see how the wood just soaked up the wax.

So here’s how it is now. I still have to put some more coats of wax on the top and I’m going to add some height to the table by adding some pre-made 4″ legs to the bottom. Wish me luck!

I’m off to the Interior Design Show in Toronto this week.
(Click on the logo below to visit their website).

So get ready for a slew of posts next week here and at The TBBs –  Wine, Dine and Design blog.

 

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