Side Table Makeover

If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember this little goodwill purchase I made a few months ago...

I loved that this little piece was solid wood, and the shape and size of it just worked nicely to place our laptop on for when we hook it up to the tv to watch netflix.  

At first, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it - whether to paint it or stain it.  On one hand, I wanted to stain it, because to cover a solid piece of REAL wood (which seems hard to come by in furniture these days) seemed like a crime.  On the other hand, I wanted to paint it since it was right beside our entertainment center, and use the color to help tie in some of the eclecticism of our living room.  

In the end, I decided to attempt to match the stain to the entertainment center, and paint the piece of paneling that lined the back to get the best of both worlds of reasoning that I listed above.

On the underneath side of the drawer, I stained the wood, and tried out a few paint colors I was considering.

Although we don't plan to keep this ole blue couch forever, I decided to use our current furniture to help determine the best paint color.  I felt the mustard was very versatile with any colors we may use in the future, and pulls the yellowish-gold tones in our current couch as well.

First, I stained the whole piece using a black cherry stain by Rustoleum.  

While the stain was drying, I painted the frame of the shoe rack that sits to the right of the entertainment system the same mustard yellow color I planned to paint the paneling in the back of the stand.

And tada!  Here is the finished product with fresh stain, a mustard yellow backing, and the drawer handle put back on!

I do believe the colors of the stain I chose and the entertainment system matched up quite nicely!

I love how the flower pot and quartz pieces stand out so much more now!

Here's the before and after.  I love the added contrast, and I thing the piece feels "softer" in general, which I love!  Plus, it is a really close match in stain to the entertainment system.  (Okay, now I'm just patting myself on the back!)

What charming thrift store, yard sale, or other pieces have you found and added your own personal touches to?  What made you like the piece before you did your makeover?!

A New Leaf for our Dining Table

Right before New Year's Eve, we planned to have some friends over for a little party to ring in 2014.  

The only problem is that the only table we have is a perfectly round dining table missing its leaf, and even putting 3 people on it to eat seems like a chore and way too crowded, so playing board games on such a small table has been quite difficult.

I know it was just last week that I posted a different table update, but just bear with me!

Here is a before and after so you can see the difference in size from the table without the leaf to the new look.

Sadly, washing my placemats from China has destroyed them, so I need to find something just as beautiful but more durable!

A few months ago, I started thinking about it and realized it would be so easy to make a new leaf for the table.  Finally, the day before New Year's Eve I made my way out to Lowe's to find a piece of wood and to use a Valspar paint coupon Tyler's grandma game me at Christmas. (Thanks Janice!)  

Before you go to the store, don't forget your measurements!  That way you can have them cut your lumber for you (which is essential if you don't own anything but a tiny hand saw).  

I needed my board to be approximately 11 inches wide, 3/4 an inch thick, and 3 feet 5 1/2 inches in length.

Once I got to Lowe's, we found the cheapest 3/4 inch thick lumber pieces we could find, which just happened to be 11 1/4 inches wide.  That worked fine, as the opening for the leaf is 11 3/4 inches, but since the pegs are also 3/4 an inch there needed to be some leeway.  It was a 4' board, so we had the man at Lowe's cut it down for us.

I don't know what it is, but I feel like it is great to be able to live in a city apartment (where there is no room for sawing equipment) but still be able to complete projects that involve saws.

When you get your wood home, you'll need to drill holes for the pegs to fit into.  The cheater's way, (my way) of doing this part is to line the board up with the ends of the table and mark on either side of the pegs and then finish the line straight across the board.

Drill in the center of the two lines deep enough for the pegs to slide in all the way.

Here is the board before being sanded or stained.  I was already in love!

When you look closely, you can see that I still need to add pegs to the other side of the board (using the same drilling process as the other side, only gluing in pegs to match up with the holes on the pre-existing table so it will sit evenly.  Also, I needed to sand the edges to give the piece the same beveled look as the table.

Sorry, no pictures of the sanding process.  I was sanding an hour after the "quiet hours" technically start in our complex and I was trying to be fast and get it done before anyone got angry.

The next morning, I set out to stain my piece.  I chose a gel stain called honey maple that I thought looked similar to the color of the dresser we use for our coffee bar.  Plus, it has a similar tone as my table, but give a really nice contrast.

This is the stain drying.  This color is more true than the pictures, since my table is in the back of the apartment, it is hard to get much natural light.  It is also hard to get much natural light when you're a night owl and do your little night owl projects at night.  ;)

To be completely honest, I have never used a gel stain before, but I didn't like it at all.  It was sticky much longer than normal stain, and I was always in fear that I put too much in certain places and that it would be patchy.  Unfortunately I could only find this color in the gel, but next time I'll keep in mind that I prefer normal stain!

After you give your stain a good chance to dry, you'll need to protect it.  I used Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane, clear satin.  I'd never used it before, but I think it worked out pretty well.  I sprayed three coats of poly (as the instructions instructed).  The wood isn't as shiny as the rest of my table, but the next day I made an accidental spill and it completely repelled the water, so I know it works!  I have thought about applying a few more coats to see if that helps it match the rest of the table, but for now it is at least serving its functional purpose.

Ahhh, there it is!  Stained and with my beautiful table!

I'm really in love.  And the colors go perfectly with Tyler's grandfather's painting.

Tyler even mentioned that the napkin holder that his other grandfather made us has the same theme of dark and light!

Once the new year hits, I'm ready for spring.  I thought I'd throw in some springy flowers and a tea pot for fun.  :)

Well, that's it.  I'm in love.  I made this leaf intending to only use it for game nights and company, but I can already tell that it's there for good.

Antique Table Structural Fix

Today I'm showing you guys how I fixed a structural problem on an antique table!  There's nothing like ringing in the new year with some "git 'er done" attitude.  Sorry...I am from the south.  The accent/attitude comes out sometimes.  Actually, the accent and the attitude usually come out at the same time.

A few month's back, my husband, SIL and I went in together on an antique table as a gift for some friends.  Being an antique (and being a craigslist find) I found a structural problem with it when we got it home that I didn't notice when we went to buy it.  

Here's a really bad picture of the table...

And a slightly better picture of the table at the party where we gave it to them.  It also has the leaves added in here.

Here is a photo of the structural issue underneath the table.

The board coming toward the camera was part of the frame that held the two ends together.  The board at the top of the photo that is busted was supposed to hold the other board in place.  Originally the top board held the middle board because it had a slad down the middle where the other board fit into.  But as you can see, that busted through and there was nothing supporting the middle board on this end of the table.

We took a trip to Home Depot and found the metal braces below.  Since the board was busted on both the top and bottom part of the slat, I decided to get two braces and bolt them together.

My mess of tools...

This is a close up of the braces in case you're needing to buy them.

First, I clamped the brace to the location I planned to put it.  

Using a bright colored pencil, I marked all the holes.

When I took it off, you could see them very easily, so that was successful!

When I started drilling, I realized I needed goggles since all the sawdust was falling in my eyes.  I found Tyler's goggles from Biology in college and used that.  I thought I looked ridiculous, so I thought I'd share.  ;)

Figure out which drill bit you need and get to work on drilling the holes!  I did pretty well at keeping them straight, but ended up having to re-drill a few toward the end.

Screw everything together.  This part was the most difficult because it was nearly impossible to get tools in that small space in the right angle.

I feel like this really helped the structural issue, and definitely kept the middle board in its place.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out!  The braces were long enough that it didn't stress the board at any of the points that were already breaking, so I don't foresee any additional damage happening to the table as a result of this method of fixing it.

I'm sure this isn't the proper way to fix this table, but for a layman I think I did okay!  

What do you think?  How would you go about fixing something like this?

What to do when you lose your drawers...

So have you ever been in one of those situations where you lost your drawers?

Not your pants, sillies, your drawers.

If you are a person who lives, walks, and breathes, chances are you own or have owned a particle board dresser.

I have one thanks to one of my good friends who gave Tyler and I some furniture when he moved from Oklahoma to Oregon as our wedding gift.  Our friend who gave us the dresser is a boy, so my guess is he didn't cram quite as many articles of clothing into those drawers as I do.  Needless to say if you've ever encountered one of these dressers, the bottoms of the drawers have been falling out routinely for months.

Finally, I got smart.

My college education, you see.

I decided it was time to stop losing my drawers, and find a solution.

And here's another tangent.  My aunt, a wise woman, once posted a facebook status about how she might not be able to fix her vacuum cleaner handle with tool and screws, but that with a glue gun, it was as good as new.

Well, I am also here to testify that a glue gun is the best tool out there!  I'd even venture to say better than duct tape, and sure looks better too!  Maybe hot glue is a woman's duct tape.

On that note, check out my new glue gun!  Fancy!

So, how did my glue gun save the day, you ask?

Here's how:
1.  I took my drawers out of the dresser.  If the inner board is warped, turn the drawer upside down and push it back into place.

2.  Once the board is back in the crevices, you'll surely notice that it seems that the board should have been cut at least a quarter of an inch longer on both directions.  Scoot it around to where all four corners overlap inside the crevices evenly.

3.  On one side, squeeze hot glue into the crevice as to take up some of the extra room inside the crevices.

4.  Once you've done that, check again and make sure the board is completely centered and touching the rest of the drawer on all four sides.

5.  On the underneath side of the drawer, use your hot glue gun just like caulking along the entire perimeter of where the bottom board meets the rest of the drawer.  Do this a few times for stability.

6.  Let it dry, and you're done!

I'm sure another material one might use is to actually use caulking.  I didn't have any, so I just used hot glue.  It fixes everything, I swear by it!