table makeover – A Diamond in the Stuff

Sewing Table Makeover

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 12:00:53 +0000

Sorry for the radio silence this week. I was getting ready for a huge maker’s fair this past weekend. As promised, it was amazing! My only issue is that because I’m selling there, I don’t get the opportunity to walk around and see all the other maker’s stuff. Sad face. The turnout was great and it was a beautiful day!

Now I want to introduce you to a beauty that made a first appearance at the makers fair this weekend…..

My Sewing Table Makeover began pretty shabby. You may remember seeing this old sewing table in a Thrifty Thursday post awhile back. The top of the wood table was warped and damaged. Basically the only thing that I could salvage was the iron base and the drawers. Which is exactly what I did.

We removed the wood top and old sewing machine from the base. The base was a little rusty so I gave it a good coat of clear spray to keep the rust in check.

A new top of cut out of 3/4in plywood. We used the existing holes in the iron base to attach the plywood top.

I have been collecting old yard sticks for months and months now. I used a bunch on my last Yard Stick Sewing Table but I still had a bunch to use up. So we cut the yard sticks to the length we needed and even wrapped some around the sides. They were attached with wood glue and a nail gun. Then I gave the whole top a few coats of polycrylic to protect and smooth things out.

The end results were amazing.

The variations of color and character of the yard sticks is just awesome. I love the typography of it all.

What was once a discarded old mess is now a beautiful table. And let me just tell you almost everyone in my booth this weekend had to “pet” the table as the walked through. It’s just that beautiful.

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Want more sewing table inspiration? Here is my Yard Stick Sewing Table makeover…..

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…..