Introducing...the New Project!

I bet you're thinking to yourself, um, Brittany...you still haven't finished your kitchen table yet! How are you working on a new project already!?

Yeah...I know. But! Frank and I were in the middle of working on our table. We went out to take a break for a while and returned to find this gorgeous piece of work on the side of the road...for free!! How could we pass up free!? Especially when it was uniquely designed and in perfect condition! well...for a makeover...

And besides...this took almost no time to sand down. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. Some of you responded to my posts on Facebook asking for suggestions on what color to paint this beauty and I received some really interesting suggestions! Some of you said black, some said white, some said green or aqua blue! Some of you even thought I shouldn't paint it at all! So many choices!!

I thought I'd share some of my brainstorming here today both to help me to organize my thoughts and also to hear more feedback from you!

And I promise, our table is still in progress! I am working on putting the finishing touches on the chairs and the table is all ready for some coats of stain and polyurethane as soon as the weather cooperates!

Here's a quick sneak peek shot of the nice smooth edges we worked on over the weekend:

Okay, so about the little beauty we picked up on the side of the road. There are many ideas floating around in my head, but one thing is for sure. We are thinking we are probably going to make it into a bar cart. This will be a place we can store wine glasses that have been sitting in boxes in our closet since they are too tall to fit in our kitchen cabinets, a place to store our wine bottles and some serving items. Here are some examples:

This first one is solely a wine bottle rack and has drawers, so obviously ours would look different. But we are thinking about either putting a wine rack on the bottom of the 'cart' or installing a shelf for the wine bottles like the ones in this cabinet.

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Here is a tutorial I found on pinterest for now to create shelving for wine bottles. I'm sure we could figure out how to make it fit into our 'cart'. 

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If this idea does not work out, we can always find other interesting and stylish ways to display our wine:

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Or, we could install shelving above the 'cart' similar to this. I'd probably prefer to choose wood shelving and paint it to match the cart to create the illusion that it's one flowing piece of furniture. 

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I also love the idea of resting an interesting tray on the top of the cart for serving utensils, linens, flowers, or other items needed for serving. This picture also has their dresser on castors which is such a great idea to make it easy to move the cart around (and adds a little height). I also really love the bright blue color they used.

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Speaking of colors....here are some thoughts, keeping in mind some of your suggestions!

Our living room area has various blues and greens. Since the dining room area and living room area are one big room, I want to either keep the piece neutral or add in colors that will make the two living spaces flow.

I love this navy color. It's not too dark, but using a color could brighten up the space and create a nice surprising "pop" in the room. 

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I also love the idea of creating a distressed look to give the cart a beachy feel. The piece already has a vintage charm to it, so I think using chalk paint or a subdued hue would fit nicely with the piece while keeping it flowing with the rest of the furniture. I'd choose white, grey, or a very light aqua blue. 

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One other thought is to maybe add some pallet wood to the back of the piece to add a more rustic feel to it, but I have yet to try working with pallet wood and admire those who do...I've heard it's  very difficult to work with pallets. So this idea may be wishful thinking...

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So...what do you think!? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Monday, Monday...

Hi Everyone! Can you believe it's July 1st already!? I definitely cannot. It seems like June was just a big blur! Frank and I have been so incredibly busy. The first weekend in June was my sister's graduation party. Then, the following weekend we celebrated our 1 year anniversary by attending our good friends' wedding. The weekend after that was Father's day which we celebrated down in Pennsylvania at my sister's new apartment. Then, my Dad's birthday was the weekend after that (lucky guy had two special weekends in a row!). This past weekend we spent Saturday working on our table top re-do and today we went to the beach with our good friends who drove up with their two-year-old son from Lancaster. Busy, busy, month!

...it's no wonder I haven't posted as many updates as I normally do!

Also, our "little" table re-do project is taking WAY longer than we imagined it would. We found out yesterday why. We were using the wrong type of sander. I guess when you're new at DIY projects and when you've never built anything out of wood before you make mistakes and learn along the way.

When we originally started, we were using two electric sanders and we purchased 5 different grades of of sandpaper. But, the sanding took us days. We sanded last Saturday before we even glued the table together, Sunday once we cut the table and twice during the week. We felt like we weren't getting anywhere and the table was still raised at the joints and on both of the end pieces.

After working for another hour this weekend and feeling frustrated that we weren't getting anywhere with leveling the table, Frank did some research and we realized we should have been using an orbital sander all along! We ran out to Home Depot and picked up this orbital sander.

This little guy seriously saved our sanity. I am happy to say we have the table pretty much level and just need to go over it a few more times with some fine sandpaper to finish it off.


I also had a chance to work on some painting this weekend. Remember the scratched up, dirty white pedestal?

I sanded it down. Applied a coat of primer and two coats of a pale grey. I am so in love with the gorgeous color we chose from Martha Stewart's paint color line at Home Depot! (I'll share the color name in the final table reveal).

I also sanded down the chairs, primed those, and began painting the tops of the chairs the same gray. As I was painting I started wondering what the chairs would look like if I painted the legs white and the top gray for some color blocking action. Or, I was pondering the idea of doing the paint dipped look and painting the whole chair gray except for about 8 inches on the bottom of the legs.

Our goal is to try to get the table and chairs done next weekend so we can start working on the next project on our list!


Question of the Day: What do you think? Should I paint the chairs all gray? Paint the chairs two-toned? Or, paint dip the chairs?

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What We've Been Up To

Happy Thursday everyone! I am lucky enough to be enjoying a delicious cold iced caramel macchiato at a local coffee shop while enjoying the sunshine, from afar, inside in the air conditioning! It's super hot today! I hope you all have been staying cool--wherever you are!

So, the lack of posts lately is mainly because we have been so busy with working on our new table we have barely even been home! We spent the whole day on Saturday, a few hours Sunday morning, and a few hours Sunday night assembling the table top. Then we spent most nights this week, when it wasn't thunder storming, sanding the life out of it! Let me tell you, sanding is not for the faint of heart!

We started out sanding with a 120 grit sandpaper and realized, after sanding for what seemed like hours, that we were not making much progress. So, Frank looked up tutorials online and found a suggestion to use 7 levels of grit to progressively sand which will involved more work, but will reap better and faster results in the long run. So, back to the hardware store we went. 

We decided to try 4 levels rather than 7. We picked up 60, 80, we already have 120, and 180. We most likely will pick up a very fine grit to finish it off, probably around 800-900 as per a suggestion from a friend.

So, the sanding continues. I will be honest--it's frustrating and I have become more and more impatient with this step of the process. But, I keep reminding myself it will be worth it in the end to be 100% happy with our finished product. 

Here is what our table top looks like so far: 

It still needs a final cut to make sure the edges are exactly even and tons and tons of sanding to make sure that the top is perfectly level, especially around each joint between planks. 

After we complete the sanding process we'll be filling in the creases with wood filler and finishing with a nice stain. Stay tuned for the final reveal! Our hope is to finish sometime between this weekend and the weekend following that depending on how the weather holds up. I can't wait to show you the finished product!

Question of the Day: What is your favorite thing to do on a hot summer day?

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Power Tools

Hello everyone! I'm back! Sorry for the unexpected break--we had some family related things to take care of and took the opportunity to take a small break from blogging. Everyone is okay and we are back into our normal routine this week.

However, we do have some exciting news to share! We started a project that we have been itching to start since last summer. Since we live in an apartment, we needed to wait until it was nice outside so we could spend a few days at Frank's mom's house working on it. 

We are not quite finished with it, but I thought I'd give you a bit of a sneak peek! We are hoping to have it finished by some time next week (or earlier if we can manage it!). 

Any guesses? If you've checked out our Facebook page you've probably seen some snapshots as we began working on it this weekend....

Our dining room table is getting a giant make-over!

We bought this table from Craig's list last year for $100 as a set including 4 chairs. We loved the pedestal base, but we were not in love with the linoleum covered top. Looking underneath we figured it would be fairly easy to take apart and just replace the top. When we looked into prices for new table tops we were blown away! If you've ever looked into it before you know it's not cheap to buy a pre-cut table top. 

So, we decided to make one ourselves! We found a couple tutorials and planned out our own tweaks to make it the most affordable and manageable project for us. We decided to take off the top, make our own table top and while we're at it, we are going to re-paint the base and chairs. As you can see, the pedestal is gorgeous, but in rough shape. 

So, first Frank took the table apart so we were able to lug the two pieces to his Mom's house to get started. 

Then, we spent some time at Lowe's picking up all of the supplies we needed to get started! We spent most of the day on Saturday and several hours Sunday morning and Sunday night working on getting the table top glued, cut, and drilled together. This week we will be working on giving it a good sanding job, staining it and finishing the painting. 

Needless to say, we are very excited about this project and I can't wait to reveal what it looks like when it's finally finished! Plus, I learned how to use 3 different power tools for this project which makes me feel powerful! 

Question of the day: How did you spend your weekend? Work on any new projects lately?

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End Table Make-over

So, does everyone remember the coffee table we found at my grandmother's that Frank very successfully sanded down (with some of my help) and painted and stained?

Well, see that end table to the left of the couch? We found that too. We thought it looked interesting and it was that same very dark brown stain. After having success with the coffee table, Frank decided he would use the leftover paint and stain on that pretty ugly end table.

We used the same stain we used on the Coffee Table after sanding down both the upper and lower surfaces of the table. This was much easier to sand down!

(Keep in mind, it's winter. Frank did all of this in our apartment between sanding on our porch and painting with all the windows and back door open...you can redo furniture pretty much anywhere I guess!)

After the stain, Frank painted the legs the same white paint we got at Lowe's from the Coffee Table.

This makeover took much less time. Partly because it was a lot smaller and easier to sand down, but mostly because Frank was so happy with how the coffee table came out he wanted to do it again! I think I successfully married a man who loves working on furniture which obviously makes me happy!

Anyway, without any further delay, I bring to you our "new" end table.

Next...we need to work on our kitchen table. We got it for a steal from Craig's List over the summer. I absolutely love pedestal tables, but this one has a pretty rough top made of composite.

It's fine for now, but since the chairs and the pedestal are all solid wood, it would be nice to make a new table top for it and re-paint the chairs. Frank is itching to get started, but that's one make-over we definitely cannot do in an apartment...We will have to wait until Spring for that one.

I'd love to hear if you've done any furniture projects lately.

Coffee Table Makeover

So for the past 3 months or so life has become incredibly busy. Frank got a new job, I started my last Fall semester of grad school, and we moved! That's right, the family sold the house we were living in which allowed us to get our own place. This is exciting for us because we are now able to decorate and really feel stable and at home. I foresee many projects ahead of us! Luckily my husband enjoys helping me with projects, especially furniture makeovers.

So for my first post in a very long time, let me introduce you to the coffee table we found in my grandmother's barn over the summer.

Frank and I scored this coffee table when our family was going through old furniture in my grandmother's barn. Nobody else wanted it and Frank and I noticed that it has a great shape despite that absolutely ugly dark brown finish. We decided to take it and attempt to sand off that brown and paint it instead. 

We used an electric hand sander to sand off the caked on brown finish. We were surprised when we revealed gorgeous wood underneath! This changed our plans. We decided we wanted to keep the wood exposed. 

Once we had everything sanded down good, we picked up a satin stain in Golden Oak from Lowe's. The can called for 2 coats of the stain, but it was pretty dark so we decided to just do one coat. We wanted the wood to be ask close to its natural color as possible, but the stain gave it some depth and warmth.

After we stained the top of the table, we painted the legs and the sides of the top of the table a warm creamy white color also from Lowe's. And, this is what it looks like now (excuse the mess around the table...we haven't finished unpacking yet). 

If you have a decent amount of patience (mostly for the sanding) and a few bucks, you can refinish any ugly piece of furniture and transform it into something you love! This project cost under $40 with the stain, primer, paint, brushes, and sand paper included. Luckily we had a Lowe's gift card so it was no cost to us! 

Have you done any makeovers lately?