Furniture Restoration

Restore

Transform

                       Recycle

                          Reclaim

                                       Repurpose

However you want to say it I would love, LOVE to own my own shop where I could sell furniture, home goods, crafts and what not that I have repurposed. This was a dream of mine many years ago. I went to grad school. I got pregnant. I learned (after giving my heart and soul to a company that didn’t give a darn about me for 3 years) that I really don’t want to be tied down to a job I don’t really like, that my graduate degree is almost as much of a waste as my BS. Except that I think an education itself isn’t a waste, just the money it took to get the degrees. I don’t have the resources to acquire such shop and currently I live in my parents’ house (I lost that job I gave so much to in Sept. of 2009) and I can’t just decide to transform their garage into my workshop like I could if it were my own house. I wish I could say I am just making excuses but my mom nearly killed over by my mess in the tv room while I was trying to get ready for the craft show I did.

I also have reclaimed my love for working on my crafts and am very sad I didn’t sell much of anything at either the craft show or in my neighborhood open house. I don’t know what to do with all my things I made for the show. I am a little leery about listing on Craig’s List but at least there I guess I wouldn’t have to pay 20cents a month for each item I list. I am so confused at what I should do. It is almost as nerve racking as trying to find a job where I don’t feel like I am just settling.

But back to the furniture (et al) restoration. I found some time ago that I liked to fix things up. If I found something at Hobby Lobby I really liked but it was a little broken, I would ask for a discount and fix it up. I haven’t been able to work on a major piece of furniture though and I am itching to try some of the great pieces I have seen lately. I want to try glazing something so bad. I need to find a piece to try it out on. At times like this I really wish I lived in Texas or somewhere were the flea markets, garage sales, trash days, ect produce better “junk” pieces to acquire. The Goodwills here in Central NM seem a little over priced.

Here are some of the blogs that I have started following and have found pieces of inspiration…

These gorgeous pieces by Jenn at Much Ado makes my fingers tingle and want to run to see if that piece I saw at Goodwill is still there. I just saw an ugly piece of furniture, now I see potential after seeing what Jenn did here.

Here is a similar table done by Savvy Saver Secrets. I think these tables are from the 70s? May not be much that many of us would look at before, but they are definitely awesome after transformation. I mean, like, I TOTALLY want one. For sure.

This roadkill trash beauty was originally a TV console. What a great job Beckie from Infarrantly Creative did.

This lovely hutch was done by Brooke at The Crafting Chicks. I have ALWAYS wanted a hutch. I have worried about buying one because they are such a large piece of furniture and I move around so much (not because I want to but because the wrong turns my life keeps taking) and they are such costly pieces of furniture. I never thought to go find a used one and fix it up. Tingling again. LOL.

What a terrific idea by Miss Mustard Seed herself (over at Mustard Seed Creations). I just stumbled upon this one as I was typing this up. I once had this 3 drawer dresser that had come from a grandparent or something. One of the drawers was broken. My mom and I put a shelf (covered with faux leather) at the bottom of the middle drawer and reattached the face of the top two drawers. Then opened up the top and put in toy chest hinges so that it opened just like a toy chest. Then we fixed the bottom drawer so that it would slide. After that I spray painted the whole thing. I wish I knew then about glazing but I lost the piece when I left Maryland to come back to New Mexico. Very sad. It was a perfect blanket chest.

Some of the other sites I follow for furniture (but I know there are some more):

I think I want to have a furniture restoration link party but I haven’t had much luck with linkies. Will think on that one.

Where I Blog

…and create my crafts. Mind you this isn’t exactly my choice, this is the space I had to work with.
My desk
Dr. Pepper is my Red Bull. LOL. See my chair. I had to take that back off that wouldn’t stay because no matter which screw I put in first, the other wouldn’t screw in. I am going to nail a board. Funny thing? This is my main computer but most of my blogs are actually composed on my laptop. Live Writer wouldn’t download on my desktop and I also have Adobe Photoshop on my laptop. I just sit in a big chair in this same room, right about where I am standing taking this picture. (I really like Martha Stewart’s Living magazine, but usually the cover and a few pages in the front are all that I care to see.)

This is where I am doing most of my crafting, some is outside in the backyard. This is the table that I posted before that I redid with paper and Mod Podge. The green chair in the back is the one I was talking about where I sit with my laptop. The bag with the polka dots is where all my paint is. I am trying to figure out a better way to store it where I can see the colors. Maybe a spice rack would work. (The white little bird cage is now orange and will be shown in a post tomorrow. I need a little black bird or something for it.)
The calendar looking thing hanging on the door of my computer desk? I got way creative yesterday. Got a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper. The squares are playing cards with another piece of paper over them. It’s my blog partying schedule. I have a lot more to add.
One other thing to share.
Another thing I took out of storage, but I always hated that it was white. I inherited it that way.
I found the brackets for $2 at Goodwill. I passed them up when I first saw them. I was looking for some other way to store my ribbon. Then I saw one of the ribbon “cabinets” at Michael’s and I went back to Goodwill for the brackets. I just had to drill a bigger hole in them for the dowels to fit. Used liquid nails to attach them to the side. I want to attach a piece of peg board to the other side but I would need to find someone with a leftover piece. I taped up the Plexiglas and hinges and sprayed it Cowboy Boot brown. I didn’t spray it so that it looked even, I like how it came out looking like it could be real wood. Of course it would work better on the other side of my desk, closer to my craft table, but that is where I had the room for it.

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I linked this up at

and over at
   

Re-done Office Chair

I had an office chair that I really liked to sit in, it was comfy. But it was too big and it was that fake suede and got really dirty looking. The arm rests were really soiled. The room that my computer desk is in is also the media room so that big chair really got in the way. Now that I have moved the table in there to work at I needed a smaller chair I could move between the two. I went cheap knowing I was going to redo it. I got the $20 one from Walmart. Comfort was not the priority in making that chair but it also makes me get up more often.

The fact I didn’t have to take it apart to do what I wanted was nice, but the back piece doesn’t screw on good, one screw won’t screw in no matter which hole I screw into first. I can’t take it back since the chair isn’t black anymore, but wonder if they would just switch out the piece that doesn’t work since it is still as is from box. I removed all the staples from the bottom cushion. Tedious work.

This and went together with  to make. A little extra padding never hurts.

The black piece is the one that won’t screw on right. Well, I also wasn’t able to take it apart to put the new material on it. So I wondered what I was going to do. Looks funny like this. I tried sewing and learned I couldn’t. But then my mom came home and showed me what I did wrong so I was able to sew a little slip cover together, not fitted by any means though.

I love the green color of the paint. The green fabric was left over from when my mom made table runners for my brother’s wedding reception. They didn’t match as well as I thought they would but with the green of the ribbon and some purple thrown in, it all works. If only the stupid back cushion would screw in, it would all work nicely.

Sofa Table Redo

A few months ago my son and I had to move back into my parents.  For almost a year I have not had the desire to work on Brendan’s scrapbook, something I used to love.  I did, however, make a fall wreath, a Christmas candy cane wreath and a Valentine’s wreath.  My only creative work.  I decided to get into blogging and suddenly I have a creative itch.  I can’t make a huge mess in my mom’s house so I needed a solution.  I have a small desk and not a lot of room for a table.  So I decided to pull my sofa table out of storage and fix it so that I can easily wipe paint off of it.  I really like how it turned out. 
Before (except that I forgot to do a completely before, so this is after I started roughing it up)
I roughed up the whole table, removed the knobs and took it upstairs.  I was going to use a lighter colored paper, but really liked the ones I used.  Mod Podge Gloss and paper later and  

I am pretty sure I will be moving in the very near future so I didn’t put a layer of Mod Podge on the wood yet.  Will do that after moving.  Right now it is in the corner of the room my computer is in and I can start doing more work there.  Oh how I would love to have a bigger work area with lots of organization as well.  Some day.  Some day. 

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I linked this up at

del.icio.us Tags: Mod Podge,furniture redo,scrapbook paper

Reuse/Recycle Mayhem

I went a shopping this weekend, spent maybe $30 on all things I found.  Went to some Goodwill's and Savers.  Though I don't like the smell in those places, I had a grand time going down all the non-clothes aisles.  I wish I had more money because I also saw some furniture I would have liked to have gotten to fix up.  Here is a peak at what I picked up.  I can't wait to get them all created...I then found this fence in the backyard and oohy OH.  My son was a little upset because he was who painted it four years ago, but it was time for a change.