furniture makeover – A Diamond in the Stuff

Faux Card Catalog Side Table

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:00:35 +0000

I love to add in touches of “industrial” into my home decor; old fans, industrial carts, shipping crates, etc. I really love old card catalogs, however they are really hard to find and when you do they are usually expensive. So when I ran across a little shabby side table at the thrift store all I could think was “card table wannabe”!!! Here’s how that shabby table became this beautiful Faux Card Catalog Side Table……..

The table just had one big drawer but on the front it had these sectioned off areas that made it look like 6 little drawers. It was dingy, dinged, and missing a knob but none of that mattered. I could see something beautiful.

Quite a transformation huh? Amazing what some paint and new drawer pulls can do!!! Want to know the deets?

I painted the side table with some Country Chic Paint in Vanilla Frosting. It’s a pretty off white color and I have been using their paint for a few months now and I’m really liking it.

The new hardware came from D. Lawless Hardware. How absolutely awesome are these cabinet label pulls? They seriously MAKE the table!!!

I mean, for such a little table, I’m crushing pretty hard.

I hope you enjoyed my little Faux Card Catalog Side Table transformation today! Have a great weekend y’all!

Linking up to these great link parties!!

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Here’s a little Fall inspired coffee table decor to end on…….

Trunk Storage Table

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 19 May 2014 10:00:02 +0000

I have always loved old trunks. So when a friend asked if I wanted to snag this awesomely yellow trunk from her garage sale, I of course jumped at the chance. The trunk was in really great shape….it was just really….yellow. It obviously needed a makeover and I decided to take it a step further and turn it into my Trunk Storage Table.

I personally have no problem with yellow. I actually quite enjoy it at times. However this yellow and paint job was not going to hack it. I wasn’t too sure what kind of paint I wanted to use, but in the end I was afraid brush on paint would get too gooped up in places on the trunk. I ended up using some primer and Heirloom spray paint.

I wanted the trunk to have some height and be more like a table then a trunk. So I purchased some wood legs and top plates at my local hardware store. I sprayed them all black and attached the plates to the bottom of the trunk. The plate already has holes and screws for easy attaching, we just screwed them into the plywood interior of the trunk.

Is it just me or is that a beautiful transformation or what?

This trunk would make the perfect functional coffee table or a great end of bed storage spot.

Sometimes it just amazes me how just a little paint and effort can create the most amazing transformation. This trunk started out in need of a lot of help and it’s now a beautiful Trunk Storage Table. Proof that cheap can become chic.

Awesome right??? What’s your favorite cheap to chic project that you’ve done???

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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In case you missed it here’s what I’ve been working on……

Check out my Yard Stick Sewing Table for another great furniture makeover!!!

Yard Stick Sewing Table

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 13 May 2014 10:00:34 +0000

It’s been a few weeks since I worked on a furniture project and I was just itching to get to one. I of course always seem to have a stock pile of furniture projects in my garage at all times. It’s usually just a matter of being inspired with an idea and then actually being able to get around to the project. I had the idea for my Yard Stick Sewing Table for two years. Two years. This time it was a matter of gathering all the right supplies.

I shared this old sewing table over two years ago in a Thrifty Thursday post. I couldn’t believe that it’s been two years since I found this sweet little table, but it has. On one hand I’m ashamed that I kept it that long awaiting a makeover, on the other I’m glad that I held out for exactly what I wanted.

The top of the sewing table had some veneer that had been pulled off. It looked like it had been hacked off with an axe, honestly. It was completely rough and really unusable as is. I knew that I needed to cover the top of the table somehow. Then it dawned on me…..yard sticks. They would be the perfect cover for the ugly table top and it’s such a fun vintage nod to the sewing theme.

I ended up using spray primer and paint for the table, Heirloom White by Rustoleum. I sometimes like to spray pieces that have legs, spindles, etc. It seems easier to me to smoothly and evenly paint those areas while avoiding missed spots and drips. I distressed the table with my sanding block then used a clear spray top coat.

The yard sticks were not as easily found as I thought they would be. I did a fair amount of searching for a long time, in every antique and thrift store I would pop in. I finally found a bunch of yard sticks at one antique mall and excitedly brought them home. We began cutting them to fit the top of the sewing table and wouldn’t you know it? I didn’t have enough to finish the table. So it took be a bunch of more months to finally get enough yard sticks to fill up the top.

I glued all the yard sticks down with some wood glue and then weighed them down to dry. Most of the sticks were pretty rough so I added a few coats of Polycrylic to smooth things out and protect them. The top may be a bit uneven because of the different thicknesses of the sticks but at least they are smooth and glossy.

My Yard Stick Sewing Table took quite some time to actually produce but I’m so glad that I waiting for all the right materials. It totally paid off and I love how it turned out. It’s simply vintagey beautiful.

So what do you think? Was it worth waiting for?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Want to check out my LATEST Thrifty Thursday finds? You can find them HERE and make sure you chime in on what I should do with them!!!

Bookcase Makeover {Turning Cheap into Chic}

Courtney Carmean — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 08:00:45 +0000

This past week I have been fighting what can only be described as the plague. Or the flu, bronchitis, an infection, and a thrown out back. Either way it was awful. AW FUL. After an urgent care visit, er visit, lots of prescription meds, and over a week of rest I am finally feeling human again. A sick human, but human non the less.

I’ve been wanting to share my new Bookcase Makeover for a week now! So excited to finally show it off.

Quite a few months ago I picked up this nice little bookcase for $20. I shared it in a Thrifty Thursday post and wanted to tackle it immediately. However we were getting ready to move and I didn’t know if I would keep this for our home or give it a makeover to sell. So I decided to move it with us and I ended up finding the perfect place for it in our new house.

I decided to put the bookcase in our bedroom. Is that odd? It fit in there perfectly and honestly I kind of like the clutter and “mess” tucked back in our room. Since all of the furniture in our bedroom is black I decided to go light with this piece.

I used some Zinsser primer and brushed on some Glidden in a creamy white. It took several coats to cover up the dark wood but it was worth it. When I was done painting I hit all of the high points with some sand paper to bring the dark wood through for a little distressing.

There is a little handy drawer at the bottom of the bookcase for storage. I decided to keep the drawer pulls, so I cleaned them up and sprayed them with some ORB. I was super excited that the bookcase was real wood, it seems difficult to find good sturdy bookcases that aren’t an arm and a leg. So if you find a good solid bookcase that isn’t all that pretty…..don’t pass it up!!!

Once the bookcase was in place we unpacked our very last boxes from the move. Only took us 4 months, but honestly it could of been a lot worse! When all the books were unloaded into the bookcase I was actually pretty surprised at how many books we actually have. Until this point they had never been in the same spot.

I am so happy with my Bookcase Makeover!!! And I think I’m even happier that all boxes have been unpacked and all these books finally have a nice home!

French Country Dining Set

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:00:22 +0000

Slowly but surly I am chipping away at the piles of furniture in my garage. I’m trying to get all of my “to do” furniture and projects checked off the list and hopefully sold before I move. I just finished up this beautiful French Country Dining Set.

I shared these chairs and table in a couple Thrifty Thursday posts. I bought them separately but they work great together. I got the chairs first, they were in good shape just very outdated. The table was at a thrift store and I loved how the oval table would look with the oval back of the chairs.

I knew I wanted to completely re-make the whole set, especially because they were a mismatched set. The only way to coordinate them was to completely make them over.

The chairs and legs of the table got a coat of paint. Well actually more like 3 coats of paint. I decided to whip up some DIY Chalk Paint for this project in a creamy off white. One of the great pluses off chalk paint is the ease in distressing and distressing I did.

When it came time to reupholster the dining chairs I went digging through my stash. I pulled out some French script fabric that I found awhile ago and never did anything with. As luck would have it there was more than enough to cover all four chairs. I think the print and colors go great with the style of the set.

I knew I wanted to paint the chairs and table legs, but I wasn’t crazy about the idea of painting the table top. So I stripped the existing light oak stain off of the table top and re-stained it a dark walnut.

This set came a long way from a mis-matched, oak, and outdated pieces. I have to say that the French Country Dining Set came out exactly as I had it pictured in my head. I think it’s just stunning. I’m a little sad to put it up for sale, but for sale it is!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Speaking of “for sale”….yesterday I shared a Bunch of Little Things I’ve been working on for sale in my booth.

The Bottomless Chair Makeover

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:00:46 +0000

Last summer (whoa it’s been that long?) I found a bottomless chair. Most people would probably pass a bottomless chair by….but not I. Great now I’m rhyming. It was ugly and sad but I knew it could be so much more. So let’s get to my Bottomless Chair Makeover.

Pretty sad looking isn’t it? Awful worn down green color, dirty stinky old pillow, and oh ya a hole where the seat should be. I played with a few options and I finally decided on replacing the bottom and restoring the chair.

To replace the seat I started with a piece of plywood cut to be a bit bigger than the massive hole in it. I bought some chair padding, batting, and fabric. I laid out all the layers on the floor in the order they needed to be in, then I pulled out the staple gun and got to stapling.

I decided to paint the chair Heirloom White and do a little distressing here and there. The seat was a little bit more difficult. I wrestled with it quite a bit to get it attached and in the end I used some Gorilla wood glue to do the trick!

I think that the chair may still need a little pillow for the back. What do you think?

I absolutely love this fabric that I found. It’s kind of this white and grey color with beautiful black French lettering.

There you have my Bottomless Chair Makeover, looking like a completely different chair all together. So the lesson here is: never pass up a cute piece of furniture no matter how hopeless it seems!

Linking up to these great link parites!!!

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Yesterday the Time to Shine link party went live!

I would absolutely LOVE if you would come link up your projects!