Projects, projects & more projects. (WHAT am I thinking???)

This past week I came across a few new "treasures" I just couldn't pass on.  I'm super excited about them, but unfortunately, now my garage is looking more like a contestant for the show "Hoarders" with little room for me to actually work in there.  Yikes!  Time to get sanding/priming/painting while the weather is still cooperating!  My hubby must REALLY love me 'cause there's no way way we'll be parking our cars in the garage anytime soon and he hasn't said anything yet!

So, are you curious to see what I found?  Here are a few of the projects that will very soon be seeing paint!

A twin size wooden head & foot board (including the metal rails) and a sweet little French Provincial bedside table I picked up at a friends garage sale last weekend.

A very solid (aka HEAVY) French Provincial 9 drawer dresser WITH mirror from the cutest little old couple!  I ended up having to call on some friends to help me load it in my van, so while waiting for them, I had a great little visit with the couple!  (Picture is from the online ad)

A French Provincial buffet/hutch (Are you noticing a trend here?  I ADORE the French Provincial style!).  I love the design along the top and the petite features.  (Picture is from the online ad)

And the last one I picked up is this (almost all) solid wood armoire.  It was being used for paint storage in the owners garage and he decided it wasn't working for him anymore.  Yes, it's covered in dust, cobwebs and paint spray, BUT, it was FREE!!!  Yup, didn't cost me anything other than the fuel for the one hour drive it took me to get there!  (Picture is from the online ad)

So there you go - a few of the many projects I'll be working on over the next little while.  Keep checking back for what I hope turns out to be some amazing transformations!

Cristina

The Tale of a Hexagon Cabinet

Have you met my friend Murphy yet?  And I use the word friend lightly.  Maybe you've been introduced to his frustrating law!  Allow me to explain.

I picked up this fun little table from my brother-in-law about a month ago before he added it to his garage sale pile.

 It was a bit dusty and definitely dated, but I knew it could be freshened up!  I added a coat of primer and then sat back and thought "now what?".  I decided to go online and see if I could find any pictures for inspiration.  Here are a couple similar tables I came across:

Aren't they pretty?  I decided to paint the outside of mine a clean crisp white.  White paint pretty much makes anything look better!!!!

Curious to see my finished cabinet?  Here it is!  I LOVE IT!

I added a poly acrylic clear coat to protect it and some new hardware to update it. Simple, right? Well, sounds simple enough except I didn't mention the issues I had with the clear coat or the hardware!

The clear coat I like to use is Minwax Polyacrylic.  It's a waterbased sealer that won't yellow over time, so it's safe to put over white & light colored paints.  The application suggestions are to use either a synthetic brush or foam brush.  I thought a foam brush would be a great idea so I wouldn't have any brush strokes.  Um...ya...unfortunately the foam brush was producing a foam with the sealer and causing tiny bubbles!  Great.  It didn't smooth out properly on one side and I had to resand it and start over (using a bristle brush instead).

And then, there was the hardware.  I had planned to use the original hinges - nothing some white spraypaint couldn't make new again, right?  Um, wrong.  These particular hinges are self-closing and so as soon as I opened the hinge, the spring mechanism inside scraped all my spraypaint off the center!  Frustrating.  Not a big deal, Home Depot still makes these, so I just picked up some new ones.  Ya...

What I picked up was these:

See the wonderful little step down on the right?  Not what I needed!  What I REALLY needed was these:

NO STEP!  Never fails.  Oh well, it was worth the numerous trips into town because they DO look nice, don't they? :)

Oh, and the new cabinet pulls I chose - of course they required two holes, so I had to fill the original single hole and drill two new ones.

So, there you have it - my friend Murphy's Law. ;)


ANYWAY, now that the outside is finally finished, are you ready to see the inside?  I decided to have a little fun.  I painted the inside...TURQUOISE!  How fun is that!  No more scary dark corners in this cabinet!

I LOVE how it just adds that bit of unexpected pop of color to the piece! And, check out the storage space this baby has!  It's perfect to tuck away extra blankets, books, magazines or even kids toys!

What do you think?  Isn't it a great change from the old dated look before.

I am SO happy this cabinet is finally finished - it was certainly one that tested my patience!!!

This is a piece I painted to sell, so take a peek in my Shop if you're interested!

Thanks for visiting!

Cristina



Linking to: