Antique Window Face Lift

I'm so excited to be almost done with my bedroom re-do.  When I was in the middle of it I didn't think it would ever come together.  One reason for that is because I had about five projects going on at once.  I painted a wall, made a new upholstered head board, painted and stained the top of two end tables and a dresser, made curtains, and gave my antique windows a face lift.  This is part of that insanity.

As you can see I took on a little much all at once.  But I wanted my bedroom to get done as soon as possible so I didn't have to live in the mess for long.

Part of my re-do was to incorporate two antique leaded

 glass windows that I found about two years ago at a yard sale.  I have been waiting for the right place to put them and I finally found it.

They cost me five dollars a piece and I have loved them and protected them from getting broken every since.  I decided that I would dry bush them and hang them above the dresser that I was working on.  I also wanted to hang a wreath or something in the middle of both of them to pull them together and to bring more color to the room.  My colors for the room are aqua and chocolate, which I am loving, but I didn't want to get too matchy, matchy.

Here is one window that has been dry brushed. I had thought about leaving them the way they were but they didn't show up on my wall very good.  They didn't show up very well with just the white dry brushing either so I decided to add just a little aqua paint.

I had to calm the color down in a few places but it seemed the more I experimented with the colors, the more I liked them.

I then decided to really clean  the windows and hang them up.  This took a long time because the glass is so delicate and there are so many tiny pieces, but they came out shining and looking so pretty.  I  found this sconce like decoration (I can't think of whats it's called to save me) and hung it between them.  Still not done though...........

Now she's done, and I love it.  I really think things came together well. The contrasting yellow begonias  seemed to have added depth to the room.  My room is getting so close to being done, I can't wait

Thanks for stopping by, I love your comments and new followers as well.

Sandi

Upholstered Headboard

So I've had the same headboard and furniture in my bedroom for forever!  I love it, but am ready for a change.  If you have read some of my other postings you have seen that I am redoing all of my bedroom.  Starting with painting the wall with a chocolate color, then making new curtains, two new end tables, and this headboard.  My daughter has made head boards for several years and sells them on Craig's list.  She is so good at making these, and fast , so she offered her help.

I wanted mine to have a little curve on each end so we hauled the wood from the SUV to the back yard.  I cut out one end and flipped the cut out part over to the other side, traced its shape on the board and cut it out too. 

I decided how far apart I wanted my buttons and where I wanted them.  I then measured 8" down and 10" apart.  Next, I marked four rows, alternating the buttons, after which we drilled a hole every place I had marked for a button.

After drilling the holes, we put an old comforter and some really thick batting on the board for the filler, then laid the fabric on the top of the batting.  The fabric I picked for the head board was too thick for these buttons, they kept popping back open.  Jamie  had a quick fix for that.  We pulled the string through the drilled hole, batting and fabric and turned the needle and pulled it back through the same hole.  Basically we were pulling the fabric tight, like there was a button there, the string was taking all the pressure off of the buttons, which I later just glued to the front.  Pretty cleaver, huh...

When we had the string on the back of the head board we tied it off with a nut.  Jamie uses flat washers all the time, I only had these on hand and knew the batting  that I turned over the edges was so thick that they (the nuts) wouldn't be touching the wall.

This is my room in the middle of the big change.  The before picture...

And the AFTER, didn't it turn out pretty?  Thanks Jamie, I love it.  

I really love the dark paint with this head board color against it.  The curtains look so good against it too.

Thanks for stopping by, I love comments and new followers as well.

New Curtains

As you can see I am in the middle of redoing my bedroom.  The bed is pulled away from the wall that I am painting a chocolate color, and the throw pillows aren't on the bed.  The dresser isn't where it usually is and the night stand that you can see is one that I have redone for the new look, click here to see it.  I've been wanting a new look for some time now and so I finally just jumped in. 

I picked out my curtain fabric that is really upholstery fabric, but I loved the color and print so I decided to go with it.  I decided since it was so heavy that I didn't need to line the back of the curtains.

I folded the fabric over 1/4" and ironed it all around the panel.  I then turned the sides over 1 1/2" and hemmed them before I hemmed the top or bottom.  I folded the top and bottom over 4" and then sewed them in place. 

On the top after sewing a 4" casing I divided the 4" in half and sewed a straight seam, leaving  the 4" casing in two 2" casings.  One for the ruffle and a 2" casing for the rod. 

I sewed the side seam first so that the bottom and top hems would be on top, I think it looks more professional and finished.

I had some cream colored panels up there before, which I liked, but I was ready for some color.  I love the color that these add to my bedroom, I also put color on the wall, the upholsterd chair, and the new headboard that I upholstered.  Check out the whole thing. 

The room has come together finally, it was a lot of work and time but I am really loving the change.

Thanks for stopping in, I love comments and new followers too.

End Table for New Bedroom

I have been so busy lately, a good kind of busy,  I'm redoing my bedroom.  I can blame all this hard work on the color of fabric I bought for the upholstered headboard that I'm doing.  I got a pretty cream color that I knew would be good and neutral, you know, one that would go with any bed spread.  Well when I held it against the bedroom wall, well it just blended in too much.  So it started, the painting of the wall, new curtains, hopefully new pictures, when I find the right one's, etc.  My hubby and I have had our bedroom set for most of our married life, nope, never a change.  So I'm going to put my old furniture (which is still in excellent condition) in the spare room.  Then I've been checking yard sales and Craigs list really close and found an older dresser that I really like and am in the process of painting it right now.  I will be posting all of the pictures when it all comes together because it really is a huge change, and I'm loving it so far.  For now I wanted to show you the cute end table that I found and refinished and will be putting it beside the sitting chair that I redid earlier this year (click here to see it.)  I really like this little table and knew it would fit in with the idea that I have for my bedroom.

I had to glue the top in a couple of places that were starting to separate.  Then I sanded the top down really good because I wanted to stain it.  I didn't bother sanding the rest of it because I knew I would be using ASCP on it.

I wanted the top to be a really dark stain, almost black.  I used Minwax dark walnut, and applied two coats of it, and I'm really happy with the color.

I then spray painted the pull with Rustoleum bronzed metal spray.  I then used two coats of ASCP in old white on the rest of the end table.  I then sanded it down to get that really smooth finish.  It seems that when I use this paint no matter how good my brush is I always have brush strokes that need sanded down.  Thank goodness it sands so easily.  I love the look and feel of it after I sanded and distressed it a bit. 

Won't it look pretty beside my chair in my newly refinished bedroom?  I can't wait until it all comes together.  Saturday should be the big day when I'm done with all the projects, here's hoping!

                                                    Doesn't it look pretty in it's new place? 
                                          I love it with my new curtains and reupholstered chair.


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Dresser/Media Center

About a month ago I was yard saling and not having any luck.  It was one of those days that turns out to be very disappointing because so many of the yard sale adds said they had all kinds of furniture, and they didn't.  In fact the old microwave cart that they called "lots of furniture", didn't even look good to me.  Anyway I was about to head home when my daughter called and asked me if I could go look at a chair she had seen on Craigslist.  She gave me the address and it was only a couple of streets from where I was at.  The chair turned out to be not exactly like it looked on Craigslist and I knew she wouldn't be happy with it.   But this little beauty was in the corner of this garage with a couple other pieces of furniture and the lady was selling all of it.  I got this at an unexpected stop...

Thank you sweet daughter!  I grabbed her up for a really good price and was happy the rest of the day.  Funny how a good deal can make your whole day better.  About three weeks later I started working on it.  I knew I wanted to do it either in black or white.  I could see this being a dresser or a media center, so the black was really pulling me it's way.  But a white dresser would really be pretty too.  White won out!    I first sanded it which was really easy because it was just stained, not sealed.

After sanding and priming  I gave it two coats of Glidden Swiss Coffee.  I discovered when I did my last project that Glidden's satin paint isn't completely satin.  They make their paint in between an eggshell and satin.  On the can of paint it says, eggshell/satin.  It's a really nice finish but doesn't have as much gloss as even a satin does.  Just a heads up to you if you're looking for a little more shine.  I put new hardware on her and along with the paint and she looks completely different.

I have found the plastic lined table cloths that you get at the dollar store work so good to protect the floor.  They are thicker then the plastic paint covers you buy at the paint stores.  What do you think, didn't it turn out nice?

                        I love your comments, and feel free to become a follower, I love that too. 
                                                                Thanks So Much. 
                                                                        Sandi

Do It Right the First Time

My hubby really supports me in what I enjoy doing, which is refinishing furniture.  He also know's that sometimes it's hard to find furniture that I can fix up.   Well a couple of weeks ago he was out of town and came across this dresser and a desk, (I'll show you the desk in a later postiing).  It was really sweet of him, especially since he was in his small car and to get the dresser home he had to put a blanket down and attach it to the roof of  his car.  Let me tell you, he got horrible gas milage, and I really had to scrub to get the bugs off the top of that dresser!  I wouldn't have bought this dresser to fix up because of the laminant on the top and the condition the drawers were in.  They didn't have glides on them and I know how hard it is to find the right one's some times.  Take a look at her.

I decided to jump in and see if I could finish it in couple of hours, I knew what I was going to do with it after staring at it for a long time.  The drawers are wood but the top had laminate on it, I knew I needed to sand every thing...or did I?  My thought process went something like this.  "You know you need to sand the top or else it won't stick",  "no, they make primer and paint so good that you won't need to".  "You'll be sorry if you don't sand",  "no, it'll work".   And so it went until I talked myself out of sanding, which, I knew better the whole time I was doing it.  Here's the headache I had to clean up just for trying to skip a step.

After it dried really good I ran my finger nail over it and it peeled right off.  Yep, I knew that would happen, why did I do it?  Hubby suggestd that I just lay a wet cloth on it since it is latex paint and that I would be able to scrape it right off.  Look how good that worked, I almost didn't need the scrapper.  So I was back to square one except for the rest of it was painted white and looked really nice.  I did discover that I really like the top in a dark color rather then white like the rest of it.  So I decided to use AS Graphite paint, (I know, I know, no sanding needed).  It went on great and I finished it off with just the right shade of color to match the distressing

On the drawers I decided to lightly paint over the scrolling that was on them so they would show through really good.  I replaced the little knobs, which were really understated, with these that make a statement.  The top, handles, and distressed area match really good in color, I was really pleased that it turned out like that.  I also painted the kick board in the graphite as well.

I'm not sure you can tell, but I really like how that looked.  I used Glidden paint in satin, the color is a soft white called Swiss Coffee.  It looks kind of bright here but it's actually a soft, warm, white.  To finish the project I used Min Wax rub on poly on the top and the kick board.  It doesn't look anything like the dresser he brought home, does it?

 

My Hubby did really good by choosing this one, it has turned out to be one of my favorites.

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Not Mellow Yellow

About a month ago I was at an estate sale.  It was a really good one except the good stuff was already sold.  I'd walk by a dresser that I really wanted only to see the "sold", sign on it.  You get your hopes up and then they're smashed.  There were two stories to the house so I had fun looking around, but, I went to get something!  Do you ever feel that way, like you're really missing out if you don't get something?  Well I did see something that I liked the legs on it, in fact thats all I really liked.  So I bought it, yeahhhh I got something.  Then I got in the car and looked at it again and asked myself, "what are you going to do with that"?  You'll see what I mean.

That door laying in it, well it belongs to some other piece of furniture, not this one.  I don't really even think the legs are that great.... okay I got caught up in the moment.  Since that door doesn't go with it I guess I will have to fill the two groove's on the bottom with wood glue, where a door should go to slide back and forth.

As you can see I decided to paint it yellow.  I have always loved the color yellow but have never had the opportunity to use that color on furniture for my house, it wouldn't fit in too good.  But I threw caution to the wind and decided to go for it.  I started to really like my little night stand/old fashioned record holder/box with legs.  What ever you call it, I like it, and I found a use for it

In my craft room I had these things and more (I didn't want to clutter it up for the picture) just sitting on the floor.  So I decided that that room needed this bright, happy, stand.  It did turn out good and goes well with the colors that are already in that room as you can see.  I don't feel the five dollars spent on it was wasted at all.



I painted it inside and out with Valspar satin latex in the sample size at Lowe's, my favorite store ever.  Good thing I got the sample size because I got two other one's before I got the one I used.  I will make good use of the other samples eventually.  I was going to glaze it but decided to leave it fresh and bright.  It turned out to be a fun little project.