BUSY BUSY

It has been way too long since I have posted any of my recent projects.  I have to admit, I have been lazy when it comes to blogging, but I am back on track and have a cute little project to share today.

I have loved this material since I first saw it, but it was $28 a metre and I way too frigging cheap for that.  But when I went to Fabricland yesterday, it was on clearance for $6 per metre and I knew it would be perfect for my new stools.

I know that it is extremely busy, but I it so bright and just plain fun.  Give it a chance and I will make you change your mind about it.  I promise

I bought 2 of these these footstools from my friend. I loved how retro looking they were and they have storage inside, which is a huge plus as well.

They were pretty beat up and desperately needed some TLC - which I was MORE than happy to provide, in the form of my busy bird material.  I absolutely love the silver legs underneath, and they fold down if you want a lower stool.

First I ripped the old red material off.  Not sure how old these are, but the cushion underneath literally crumbled under my hands!

Next, I got out my stapler and glue gun and went to work!

I love how it turned out and I love how it is making my "reading corner" in my rec room come together.

Next up, add a pallet picture frame and fix that godawful lamp.  Stay tuned! Pin It

TIME AND TIME AGAIN

There are times when I go to goodwill and I get tremendous deals.  It usually happens when I am not looking for anything in particular.  I found a beautiful waterfall vanity for $40 about a month ago.  I am way too cheap to spend that amount, so I crossed my fingers and hoped it would be there on 1/2 price Saturday.  I know that people in my town are pretty cheap too, so I had high expectations that it would be waiting for me.

Yup, there is was - in all it's mac tac glory!

I always look at things like this and wonder why the heck people choose to ruin things with mac tac.

Then I realized why.  Underneath the sticky stuff, the wood was rain damaged.  The centre part was broken in the middle and the previous owner tried to keep it from falling apart by covering it with the hideous, marble looking paper.  Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

I had seen some fabulous restorations on Pinterest, like this

 or this

or my favorite

I had some of the antique linen paint left over from my cabinet project, so I started painting the edges, just like the beautiful pink one above.

However, once I saw what was under the mac tac, I realized that a smooth paint wasn't going to fix any of the problems.  So I got out my black paint and just started painting until the brush was empty.

I wanted to paint the drawers something like this,

but after my epic fail on the cabinet, I decided to go with a safer choice. Yes, you got it, I used the rest of my clock scrapbooking paper.  It is going to go into a totally different room than where the cabinet is, so I am ok with using the theme again.

I wanted to put red knobs on it, just to give it some colour, but I could not for the life of me find anything that I liked.  So, to keep costs down (as we all know how cheap I totally am), I used some of my daughter's acrylic paint and painted the original handles.

I like how antique they look, and they took about 5 minutes to do.

I think I am going to use it for a desk in my upstairs guest room.  Gotta hurry up and sell the desk that I already have, lol, or put it in the playroom.  Either way, I really, really love the end product.  And FYI, the dresser is not lopsided, my picture taking skills kind of suck.

I am not sure what I am going to do with the mirror portion yet.  I might recyle it into a wall mirror.  You just never now!

Up next, some cool pallet ideas.  Woot! Pin It

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Spring is slowly starting to come to town, and with it, my desire to craft again!  Thank goodness, because my spare room is looking like a junkhouse and hubby is getting CRANKY at me for it  - lol, like I care.

Last summer I bought this cabinet from the facebook auction.  I think I paid $5-$10 for it.

As you can see from looking at it, it was just a place to throw crap.  It didn't match my style, was beyond blah and was basically an eyesore.  I don't know what made me decide to finally do something about it.  Maybe I was bored, maybe I was stuck inside because of a snowstorm, maybe (and probably) I finally looked it and felt a deep embarrassment that I had actually let it sit this way for almost a year.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it and then a friend of mine emailed me about painting fake wood, and how she wanted to do a dresser of hers a nice bright white colour.  I replied that maybe it would look great white with a dark, stained top.  LIGHTBULB!  That is what I decided this baby needed.

I sanded it down quickly, as it had a shiny finish on it, then I got to work.  I didn't choose a bright white, instead going with a colour called antique linen, which is basically white.

I had forgotten how hard it actually is to paint something plain white.  It took about 4 coats to get this to a nice, even colour.  Then I used my go to stain, Dark Walnut, for the top.

I was feeling pretty adventurous and attempted, key word being attempted, to paint zebra stripes on the front.

Talk about an absolute fail.  It looked like a dead flower or something Abby Sue would have done in finger painting class.  I didn't want to paint the white over it, because I knew it would take a bazillion coats to cover that brown colour.  So I went to my trusty modge podge drawer and pulled out my staple.  You got it, I used my clocks.

I am getting to be such a pro at modge podging, and, in my opinion, the finished product is always so awesome looking, that I didn't consider this project that big of a fail.  In fact, I absolutely love it now.

I still have to add a shelf to the top and maybe some bright coloured baskets, but it is totally functional and looks perfect in the space.

How's that for a cheap makeover?  I didn't have to buy anything, as I had all of the supplies at home already. Unique, fun, and one of a kind - just the way I like my house to be. Pin It

DOG DAYS

Months and months ago, I got these 2 cute chairs from the facebook auction for $12.

A lot of people were bidding on them, but I swooped in at the last minute and scooped them up.  Apparently they were used at a daycare for the tots to sit in.  I had a different (and in my mind) better use for them.

My poor baby boy gets picked on by everybody.  The cat washes her paws in his water bowl and Abby Sue mauls him to death.

I decided that he at least deserved some peace while he was eating his "chuppies" (that's what my husband calls Diego's meals).  

First, I bought 2 stainless steel bowls from Goodwill for FORTY-NINE CENTS EACH!!!  Then, I got my brother to cut a hole out of the bottom of each chair, so that the bowls would sit flush in them.

I couldn't decide on a colour to paint them.  I didn't want blue because it seems like everything in my house is blue.  I didn't want white because I knew they would get dirty too quickly.  I decided to go with a chocolate brown, and then paint a sturdy varathane coat over top.

I was going to use big wooden letters on the chairs, but I thought that Munchkin would play with them and eventually rip them off.  Bad cat.  

I ended up using some letters that I had leftover from another project.

Now, I am well aware (as my husband sarcastically said to me) that Diego can't read, but the chairs are so cute with the words on them that I ignored the mocking and went with my gut

It is very hard to take pictures of them because the bowls cause reflections on the back of the chair.    Diego tried them out and he seems to really like them.  Let's hope Munchkin can't make such a mess on the floor with the water bowl.

Not bad for a total cost of $13.  And, as you can see above, Diego is the smartest dog and can obviously read that his water bowl is in the drink chair.  LOL

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MY PLANS WERE FOILED

About 6 months ago, I got a free dresser from Kijiji.  It was very old, but not in bad shape, except it was missing the face of one of the drawers.  It was so old, that you could smell "antique" when the drawers were opened.  The seller told me that it had been her grandmother's and that she hadn't wanted to get rid of it, but she didn't know how to fix it.  I promised her that I would do something fabulous with it.

I do not have any tools that would help me fix it - no saw, no planer, nothing like that.  So my poor old dresser has sat in the garage - getting used as a "catch all" while I worked on other projects.  Such an awful way to treat the elderly, isn't it?  I thought about using mirrors on it, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that might not turn out.

I searched "DIY old broken dressers" on Pinterest and an odd idea popped up.

TIN FOIL!  It would look mirrored, but wouldn't cost as much.  Plus, it would fix the broken mirror front.
I then searched "tin foil dresser" and beautiful projects appeared.

I loved this, but it was a bit boring for my dresser.

This one was beautiful, but too much tin foil (at least in my opinion).  I decided to do the drawer fronts with tinfoil, and then the rest in an antique finish.

I got a can of oops paint in a soft gray colour (or so I thought)

It almost had a blue tinge to it, which was fine because I have blue accent pieces all over the place.  While that dried, I tackled the tin foil.  Let me tell you, trial and error.  lol

On the first drawer, I decided to do small, overlapping pieces.  First, I ripped off the foil and then scrunched it up.  Then I smoothed it out and painstakingly attached it to the drawer.  Took me about an hour to do one drawer.

I thought that was too much work.  So, next time I used tacky spray on the drawer, then 2 solid sheets of foil.  Much, much better.

That's a lot of modge podge ladies and gents.  I used almost a whole container of it on this project.

On my VERY FIRST TRIP to Hobby Lobby in August, I had purchased these knobs, especially for my dresser

Just beautiful and only $3 each!  Next time we zoom down to Buffalo, I am budgeting at least $100 just for knobs!

While the tin foil dried, I started painting the dresser.  I used the same brush that had been in the gray paint and broke open the black paint.

The colour turned out gorgeous.  I was so excited!  So, while this paint was drying, I dabbed paint on the drawers and then quickly wiped the majority of it off.  This was VERY DIFFICULT, as it got in all of the crevices of the tinfoil and took at least 2 papertowels per drawer to clean off.

I didn't have enough knobs left, so I improvised and used 3 different types.  I am so flipping pleased at how well this turned out.

It is hard to tell from the pics, but it is a rich black/gray colour.  I will try and take a better picture once I carry it up to the room it is going to be in.

I would do this project again in a heart beat and I would recommend all of my fellows DIYs try it as well!

Partying here

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