furniture upcycle – 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!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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!

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!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See what else I’ve been up to…….

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

Shabby White Dresser {With Chalk Paint}

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +0000

About 4 months ago I spotted this lovely little dresser for sale on an online selling page. It was obviously needing some attention. There wasn’t a knob to be found on it, the two front legs are missing their wheels, and the wood is full of blemishes. So I decided to turn this sad and drab dresser into a Shabby White Dresser.

I had such success with my first attempt at DIY Chalk Paint that I decided to give it another try.

I didn’t sand or prime a thing, just gave the whole dresser 2 coats of the chalk paint.

I did a slight distressing on all the edges and high points. That’s one thing I love about the chalk paint, it’s so easy to distress!!! Once everything had properly dried I use Minwax Finishing Paste as a topcoat and buffed it to a nice sheen.

The dresser obviously needed some new knobs, seeing as it’s super hard to open drawers without them. I got these black ceramic knobs from Hobby Lobby.

My love for old furniture only seems to be growing by the day, especially when I get done with a piece like this. It still has it’s blemishes that tell a story of a few previous lives but it now has a whole new life!!!

This lovely little dresser is now for sale and it will be headed to my booth soon. I hope you all have enjoyed my little Shabby White Dresser makeover and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

Shabby Secretary Desk & DIY Chalk Paint

Courtney Carmean — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

You all may remember this lovely little secretary desk that I found at a thrift store. I showed if off a couple weeks ago in a Thrifty Thursday post. I was really anxious to tackle this cute little desk and to be honest I was really anxious to tackle a new paint method (ok, not really NEW but new to me).

This is how the desk started out. Great bones, great style, just needed a little TLC. I have been wanting to try out some DIY Chalk Paint. It seemed easy enough, but I was still hesitant that it would really be as great as it seemed.

DIY Chalk Paint Recipe:

1 Cup of flat paint

1 Tbsp of non-sanded grout

*I also add just a splash of water to help with thickness and chunks in the paint.

That’s it.

I mixed up the paint and grout in a plastic bowl and got to paint’n. It took two coats for proper coverage, but not having to sand or primer the desk was totally worth it! The chalk paint dried pretty quickly so I needed to work fairly fast. I was worried about brush strokes, but once it all dried they were hardly noticeable.

Once my two coats of chalk paint were dry it was time to a top coat. I haven’t heard a lot of people talk about the top coats that they used on chalk paint, so I decided to talk about what I used. I decided on Minwax’s Paste Finishing Wax. I just lathered on a good layer of the wax and then buffed it out once it was dry.

Here she is all dolled up. I choose an off white color for my flat paint that I purchased at Home Depot.

Before I added the Minwax I did a bit of distressing. I grabbed some gritty sandpaper and started hitting all of the edges. There is little that makes me as happy as a distressed white piece of furniture.

I think secretary desks are so fun! I love that you can have a work space easily available and then it can all be hidden away. I’m not a big fan of clutter! Not to mention all those great drawers for storage.

Luckily this piece had all of it’s hardware and it was all intact. I just cleaned it all up a bit. I decided not to paint it because I liked how the brass drawer pulls looked against the white paint and next to the distressing.

I simply love how my shabby secretary desk turned out. It is such a beautiful and lovely piece, but I love it’s casual feel!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!