farm table – A Diamond in the Stuff

Milk Can Side Table

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:00:12 +0000

Welcome August! Sorry for the dead air that was July. Ya know….travel, kids, company, kids, business stuff, kids. We’ve made it to the other side and the kids will be back to school in one week. One week. I’m both sad and ecstatic all at once. This past weekend I participated in a local Farmer’s Market (and I will be doing it every Saturday through August) so I’ve been busy with projects! I recently scored two antique milk cans and just had to so something fun with them. I spied some round wood pieces at Lowes and knew I had to made a Milk Can Side Table.

This is the milk can I started out with. It was pretty dirty to start with, so a good bath was the first step. Then I used a clear spray paint on the milk can to stop and seal in the rust.

This is the round wood piece that I found at Lowes. I bought the smallest size that they had available in my store. It’s about 15in across.

I debated on how I should finish the round top. I went back and forth about staining and painting. Finally I decided to stain this one Dark Walnut because I thought it would look great with the coloring of the milk can. I finished it off with some polycrylic.

Once the round top was done I flipped it over and positioned the milk can top in the middle of the circle. I traced the top of the milk can with a pencil, then I added some E6000 glue to the rim of the milk can. All I had to do was flip the can back over and place it in the circle I had drawn. Pretty easy. I weighed the can down onto the wood to make sure I got good adhesion.

Who knew an old milk can would make such a perfect little side table?

The milk can itself is so full of personality and character. The natural patina on it is perfect.

I think it would make a great indoor table, but it looks awful perfect outside with my adirondack chairs!

I mean, doesn’t this look like the perfect place to spend some long August days at? Ya me too.

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Want to do some more outdoor sprucing up? Give one of these Tiered Urn Flower Pots a try…..

DIY Outdoor Coffee Table

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:00:10 +0000

On the blog last week I shared our huge DIY Backyard Makeover. My hubby and I did a complete overhaul on our boring backyard. That included our porch area. I wanted to make it a place where I could sit and watch the kids play or we could have friends over and hang out. We purchased a patio set last summer when we moved into our new home. I love it. Well except for the coffee table that came with the set. So I decided to whip up a DIY Outdoor Coffee Table to complete our backyard makeover.

I spotted an awesome DIY Coffee Table over at the Shabby Creek Cottage and knew that this is the direction that I wanted to go. So I looked around our garage and started gathering supplies. Luckily we had most of the things we needed to complete the project. I love stash buster projects!!!

I used some 4×4 and some 2×4 boards because that’s what I had on hand. My hubby helped me get all the wood cut and put together.

Once the table was put together I painted it with spray paint that I also had on hand. One item that I did buy was 4 casters to put on the bottom of each table leg. I love that I can just wheel the table around where I need it! Awesome for an outdoor space.

For the top of the table I went searching in my garage. My hubby had recently cut down some 6ft fence boards to create covers for the air conditioner and electrical box in our backyard. So I had a bunch of 2ft boards in a pile. They made the PERFECT table top. We planed each board down as they were quite rough and then I stained them with some of my DIY wood stain.

We used the nail gun to attach the fence board remnants to the table base. I did give the table a coat of Polycrylic to protect it.

The fence boards ended up taking a redish look because of it’s type of wood. But I think it turned out fabulous!

Now my patio set definitely has more personality. I love this table way more than the one that came with our set.

What do you think of my stash busting DIY Outdoor Coffee Table?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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If you want to see my entire Backyard Makeover check it out HERE! There’s lots of fun stuff to check out!

Vintage Drop Leaf Kitchen Table

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:00:39 +0000

Since making the move to Louisiana I haven’t been finding the treasures like I thought I would be. Everyone told me I would be finding lots of awesome junking treasures in the South, but it’s been slim pickins thus far. I have a feeling part of that is because I don’t know where to look. I have slowly been checking out thrift stores and looking around for those hidden gems. If I have any readers from the Shreveport area and know of places I should check out, let me know!

Well anyways, a couple weeks ago I did score this awesome old drop leaf kitchen table. It only has one leaf though. It’s pretty old and I can tell that it’s been around awhile. The other leaf is just gone, but I still think it is an amazing table.

The table was pretty wobbly which was an easy fix, just a little tightening of the legs. It also needed a major scrubbing. I think this table must of been shoved in some barn somewhere and forgotten for years.

Of course I painted the vintage table! I used some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White for a creamy white makeover. I wanted to work with the shabby look of the table so of course I distressed the table with some sandpaper.

I decided to try some Polycrylic on my drop leaf table. I haven’t used it with the Annie Sloan paint but I wanted to give it a try. It worked really well, it did yellow the paint just a bit but it almost adds to the old feel of the table! I’ll just keep that in mind in the future!

The table turned out so cute! It would be such an adorable breakfast nook table or a little entryway table.

Well that’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed the transformation of my Vintage Drop Leaf Kitchen Table!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Last week I shared the Nautical Pallet Flags that I made for the Joann Fabric and Craft Stores® National Craft Month campaign. Come check them out and I’ve included my tutorial for how I made these!

Broken Coffee Table Rescue

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:00:43 +0000

One of the great things about being a DIYer is everyone knows your a DIYer. Why is that such a great thing? Well you will often find yourself being given all kinds of random furniture and supplies from friends and family. Soon after we moved to Louisiana I had a friend give me an oak oval coffee table. It was the kind that held a piece of glass in the top and that glass was broken and gone. My friend must have had faith in me because honestly I had no idea how to make this broken coffee table into something beautiful.

This is what the coffee table looked like before. Sorry for the phone pic, I got all set up for a “before” pic and somehow it didn’t get taken. I went back and forth with a few different ideas, but the fact that the coffee table was oval made it difficult.

Luckily I still have some really awesome old fence wood laying around. I decided to turn the coffee table into a farm style plank table.

My hubby got a new DeWalt wood planer and I think he was a little excited to try it out! I love the old wood, however some of it is a bit too rough. So we gave them a pass through the wood planer and they came out smooth as butter. We used two long pieces of wood as braces across the back of the planks to hold them all together.

Obviously once the wood was planed down it lost some of it’s beautiful darkness. So I grabbed some of my homemade natural wood stain and brushed a coat over the whole thing. It darkened it right up! I also put on a couple coats of polycrylic on the table top to seal it all really well.

When it came time to paint the bottom of the coffee table, I grabbed my Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white. It took two coats to have full coverage….but no sanding, no priming! I just love it! I did some distressing with sandpaper and gave it a wax top coat.

My husband was able to take the existing top of the coffee table (the part that held the glass) off before I painted it. What was left was the base of the table with some ready to use hardware to attach the new top. The plank top was attached by screwing it down through the attached hardware.

You can see how beautiful the wood top turned out. It’s amazing to think it was once old shabby looking fence wood. It still has some of the imperfections you expect to find on old wood though. Honestly I wouldn’t want to totally get rid of it’s character.

The chalk paint turned out beautifully. I love pairing some chippy white paint with old salvaged wood. The combination makes me happy.

Overall I’m really happy with how the coffee table turned out. The best part? Coffee table=free. Old fence wood=free. A little paint, stain, and elbow grease=fabulous farm style coffee table. So the lesson learned? Never throw out a sad discarded piece of furniture until you’re really sure there is nothing you can do to make it into something awesome!

Thanks for checking out my Broken Coffee Table Rescue!! I’d love to hear what you think about it?

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While your visiting, come see my project from last week! Which just so happens to be another fabulous coffee table…..

DIY Farmhouse Coffee Table

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Several months ago I was given a coffee table. The owner no longer wanted it and I have been dubbed the person who takes all cast out furniture. A role that I am of course happy to play. I gladly took the coffee table, stored it in my garage, and wondered what to do with it. The table just lacked any personality. So I decided to give it a little face lift and turn it into a DIY Famhouse Coffee Table.

I knew I wanted to cover up that blah pressboard coffee table top. The first step was very nicely asking the hubbster to help me cut some 1×4’s. We cut them to the length of the old coffee table top, with a little over hang.

Once the boards were cut it was time to do some staining. I used Minwax wood stain in Dark Walnut. The dark color of this stain is right up my alley!!! I used a couple coats of wipe on Polyurethane to protect the wood.

While the wood stain and poly was drying I whipped up some creamy DIY Chalk Paint. I am loving the pairing of white furniture with stain wood combo. I painted the coffee table with the chalk paint and did a bit of distressing.

I waxed the painted table once the chalk paint was dry (I usually wait 24 hrs for the paint to REALLY dry). Then I called the hubs in with his nail gun to attach the stained boards to the newly painted coffee table.

Is it just me or is knotty dark stained wood just dreamy???

Here’s a close up of some of the distressing that I did to the chalk paint.

I seriously think if I didn’t already have a coffee table I would be making this on all mine!!! The new top of the coffee table is oh so much better than the drab one of the past.

Do you have a boring coffee table at home in need of a little something? Why have a cookie cutter coffee table that looks like everyone else’s, when you can make a DIY Farmhouse Coffee Table of your very own!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

Check out some of these other farmhouse inspired projects that I’ve done……

Stained Inlayed Wood Table

Little Farm Table

Farmhouse Buffet Table

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While your visiting I’d love for you to come by the Time to Shine party!!! We’d love to have you party with us!!!

Stained Inlayed Wood Table

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Do you ever have a piece of furniture that poses a problem that you just don’t know how to solve? Do you pass up these kinds of items or throw them out? Or do you let them sit in your garage for months and months while you try to figure out a solution to the problem? I would fall into the latter category.

I bought this little table at an estate sale awhile back. The top of the table had lots of water damage. I’m guessing a plant once lived atop of this table. There were a couple layers of veneer that had bubble and cracked terribly. So the only thing to do was to rip off all the ick and get down to the bare bones.

Then I was left with trying to decide what to do with this freshly exposed top. I finally decided that I wanted to add some wood planks inside of the open space on the top of the table.

The first step was to give the table a good coat of paint. I decided to use my chalk paint recipe to make a creamy white paint. Like my bed riser paint helpers???

The wood pieces that I put in the top of the table are 1×4 and cut to fit precisely into the opening. I stained the wood piece with some Minwax in dark walnut. I glued down the wood planks to the table with some Gorilla Wood Glue and some clamps. I used a couple coats of polyurethane on the table top to protect it.

This table went from damaged junk to a sweet little farm table!

I gave the painted part of the table a little bit of distressing. One of the best features of the chalk paint is how easily it sands off to reveal the wood beneath.

I love how this little table turned out! I think the Stained Inlayed Wood really transformed and saved this little table!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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See what else I’ve been up to…….

Yesterday I shared my thrifty finds in my Thrifty Thursday post.