The “Wing It” Bench

I came across this bench at an estate sale a WHILE ago. It looked like a disaster, but it was such a sturdy little thing I couldn’t pass it up. It came home with me and there it sat for months, like over 12 of them. Finally a few weeks ago I started on the sanding process. It was definitely a process.

It was surprising how easily the stain and the majority of the ugly blotches came out. It was a terrible stain job too, sloppy and so thick you couldn’t see any of the wood grain. After I finished the sanding, it sat in the garage for a few more weeks because I still had no clue what to do with it.

Inspiration came from digging through all of the random paint and stain cans that I’ve acquired from the Home Depot Oops Paint section.

I had some reddish weatherproofing wood treatment that I’d been wanting to use. Ironic since I hated the red that was on the bench originally. It would have been too gaudy to make the whole thing red, so I went with just the legs. There was also a new stencil that hadn’t been used yet, so now was as good a time as any…

A little distressing, some regular polyurethane and it was finished. It was fun to go into a project and just wing it.

DIY Plank Wall Mantel

The mantel in our house has more or less been a giant eyesore since I can remember. It didn’t always look as bad as it does in the before picture, though. It had a bunch of cheesy square mirrors on the top and sides. We took those off, and it sat in that sad state for longer than I’d like to admit. The stack of wood was purchased probably two months ago. I had the idea for a plank wall and we saw a nice bunch of wood in the discount pile in Home Depot. In total, all of the wood for the project was less than $9. There was a few things that I had to do, before cutting and mounting the wood…

There were giant holes where the shelf was bolted to the wall, and also one of the fake bricks was missing from the framing of the fireplace. I used Rock Hard to fill in the holes, and (more or less) made a fake, fake brick to blend in the gap. The “bricks” around the fireplace aren’t actual bricks, so that’s why it’s a “fake, fake brick.”  It’s not perfect, but it did the trick for now. Before painting the bricks, it’s also important to vacuum and wipe down all the crevices. It’s easy for dust to hide in there and ruin the paint job.

Cutting the wood was surprisingly easy. I give 100% credit to the nice miter saw that I got at an estate sale for $20. I got the idea for the chevron shape of the wood from a friendly older gentleman at Home Depot. I was telling him about why I was collecting all that wood and he said, “You know there’s a really simple way to make your wall look really fancy…” You just set the miter saw to a 45 degree angle, measure and cut. All I needed to attach the planks were 1.5in finishing nails and voila! It was up!

Next came the caulking…

Then the paint…

The bare wood looked great, but I wanted to try the white wash treatment. We’re also supposed to install some marble on the bottom, so I thought the raw wood and the marble might be too busy. I didn’t use an official measurement for the paint, just a plastic cup with some paint and added water until the mixture seemed about right. Very precise…

I’m in love with that incense jar…

So that’s that! I’m not brave enough to try to do anything with the marble right now, but I’ll post pictures of it when it eventually gets done. If you’re thinking of doing a plank wall, do it! It’s easier than you’d think and they look fantastic. For another great tutorial on planking an entire room, check out Domestic Imperfection… Leave me some comments with questions or suggestions. It’s always appreciated!

Dome Top Trunk part 2

It’s finished!! I already did the first post on the exterior, and now the interior is done. I’m so happy with it! This is how the inside started…

It was covered with several layers of awful greenish grey paper. Surprisingly, all it took to scrape that off was wetting it with a sponge and scraping. Lots of scraping..

I didn’t really have a plan for the interior. Well, actually I had several plans, but I wanted to wait and see what exactly I had to work with when I was done with the scraping. I toyed with the idea of modpodging an old map on the underside of the top, or using some of these sheets from Home Depot..

But the wood was looking pretty decent on it’s own..

Not too shabby! I thought I’d try a little stain and see how it turned out…

I always think that natural wood is prettier than any painting or paper. Also, the curvature of the inside of the top would make covering it with any paper or vinyl tiles very tricky (ain’t nobody got time for that). Natural wood it is! Lastly, I added the side bars back on, where they were previously, and made a box for the interior.

(I’ll do a separate tutorial on making the box, don’t want to cram too much in one post.)

…and the finished product…

A few side notes….

The wood in the top of the trunk was definitely different from what was used to make the rest of it. Before I stained the interior all the wood looked the same, but after the stain, the top turned a yellowish brown while the rest was reddish. So, if you look at the tray insert in comparison to the top, it won’t quite match, while it does still match the rest of the trunk.

It took three coats of two different stains to get the new wood on the tray and sidebars to match the trunk. There could have been a stain that matched it identically, but who wants to buy more cans of stain when I already have so many sitting in the garage? One coat of Sedona Red and too coats of English Chestnut, both by Minwax, and it matched almost perfectly. Close enough for me!

It looks fantastic in the office where it’s sitting. Once that room is complete, I’ll post pictures of it in all of it’s pirate-y glory.

Vintage Steamer Trunk Repair

I found this steamer trunk at an estate sale a few months ago. I really liked the dark green and brass colors, but it had this big glob of tape residue on the top and a water ring.

I thought I could get the white stuff of with some Goo Be Gone, but apparently the tape residue was as vintage as the trunk and it would not come off. It didn’t even think about coming off. It was pretty discouraging, actually. I didn’t originally want to sand it, because I was worried about messing up the finish that was still good. At this point though, the rest of the finish didn’t matter if there was a huge white chunk of ugly on the top. I had pretty much given up on restoring it, so the whole thing turned into more of an experiment. After a lot of sanding and scraping most of it was gone and the top was still really smooth. Unfortunately I slacked on taking a picture of this step. I found a paint color at Home Depot that was almost an exact match to the green, so painting was the next step. I wanted to paint the bottom side of the trunk first, so I could see how close of a match it actually was and if I would still like it.

The bottom had some wear too, so I sanded it a bit and then painted. I thought the color was great, so I set about doing the most annoying part of this whole project, taping off EVERYTHING. UGH! So tedious.

This is the bottom again. I used a little bit of filler to get rid of a few scratches and dents. Again, it’s always best to experiment on the side where no one will see it if you’re displaying it in your house. I did this same thing on my dresser though, so I figured it would turn out fine.

Much better right? I intentionally didn’t want the paint to be 100% perfect, because I like the worn look. After I repeated this whole process 5 MORE TIMES, to finish all the other sides, It was a huge improvement. Something was still missing for me though. I decided to try something I’ve seen on Domestic Imperfection, she calls it the “Dirty Cowboy Treatment.” Basically, you just add some stain or glaze to it, to give it the nice worn look. I put it across all of the painted surfaces, with extra in the edges and corners. I think it’s perfect now!

Somehow I wrote this whole post without noticing the cat in the picture below… it’s so nice to have company when I’m working outside! You can also see Keen ears poking up on the right side of the box… silly animals…

Right now it’s just stacked in my room as a make shift end table. I’m not sure where it will end up, or if I’ll even keep it, but it was a good learning experience!

Belle and Beast are having an Estate sale…

Maybe the house from Beauty and the Beast doesn’t actually exsist, so MAYBE this wasn’t actually their house, but it does have a nice library! Come on, even if you weren’t or aren’t that big of a reader, you still wanted that library when you were little. This library might actually be better (as if that’s possible) because it has a secret room!

Looks like just a regular library, but then…

Secret door!

Pretty awesome right?

Not much else going on in the way of estate sales this weekend, but there were a few other interesting things at this house…

Wine Security System 500! I think the 500 is for 500 A.D. No one would ever steal your wine with this baby…

If your unicycle is just not what it used to be, you could find a reasonably priced one here to replace it!

If you buy this chair, it would say to all of the other chairs in your home, “Imma let you finish, but I am the best dining room chair of ALL TIME.” If you don’t get that reference, please go google “Kanye West, Imma let you finish.”

Happy hunting this weekend! Hopefully there is more going on in your city than mine!

Cute Yellow Dresser re-do

I found this little dresser at an estate sale for only $15. The price was right because of how beat up it was, but it’s bones were good. I loved the no frills, simplicity of it. It was real, solid wood with sturdy dove-tail joins. I did have to wood glue one or two spots, but nothing major.

It improved immensely after a quick sanding and only one coat of paint, but there were a few nicks in the top.  I smoothed those out before the last two coats.

After the last coat of paint, two quick coats of polycrylic and drying over night, it was ready to go! I gave this one to a friend of mine and she sent me a few pictures once it was set up.

She loves it, so I love it. This is also the color I used on the chalkboard. It’s just such a happy, cozy color. Let me know how you like it!

For nosey people like me!

One of the best parts about estate sales is getting to see the inside of some AMAZING houses! Take the one for this weekend as an example…

I’m so excited. I mean, look at this kitchen…

I’ll let you know if I find anything good! (that I can afford) 🙂

Estate and thrift, inspiration and uninspiring.

Today my good friend Linda came down to my little town and join my parents and me on one of our favorite past times, Estate sales! There were a few things that I saw today, but didn’t have the space or the money to share. First we have this adorable little breakfast nook dinette thing:

I have just never seen anything like it before! If someone knows the actualy name for it, please let me know. I feel certain that “breakfast nook dinette thing” cannot possibly be correct.I even love the washed out light blue color of it. Anyway, next we have a beautiful solid wood bed frame. Again, I have no spot for it in my house, but it was just too gorgeous to not get a mention:

It could be because I just watched Pride and Prejudice yesterday, but I feel like this bed frame comes right from a Jane Austin novel. Lastly (for “the good” anyway) I saw these cast iron patio table that were really different:

I just liked them. Nothing else to say about that! Now for the BAD. First we have Linda’s unique toilet paper holder:

After the estate sales and the local farmers market, we decided to hit up a thrift store that always has… uhhh… interesting things, shall we say. Everything was half off and while I did find a cute dress and scarf… I also found this:

BUT Linda did also find $10 in a really nice pair of shorts that she tried on, so it wasn’t all bad! Always a good time with that girl! I’d love to read some comments about everyone’s best and worse sale finds!