Shades of Blue

One of my bosses gave me the piece that is the focus of today's project. I decided to turn this small table into a nightstand to sit beside the red bed. I didn't really have anything in mind for it except that I didn't want this piece to also be red. I did want to pull another color out of the comforter to pull the room together so I decided to focus on the mint green-bluish color that is the predominant color on the comforter. The first thing I did was give her a good cleaning. Then she was ready for her before picture.

Isn't she cute? I gave the entire piece a light sanding, gave her another good cleaning and started painting. I didn't intend to leave the top unpainted but my mom stopped by as I was working and she mentioned how cute she thought it would be with the top stained a dark color. I decided she was right. Sometimes Mom really does know best! 

The color is Woodsy Scent from Clark + Kensington (anyone else snag the free samples Ace Hardware was giving away?). The paint says it has a primer in it so I didn't prime but I still ended up having to put on two coats. Luckily this piece is small so it didn't take too long to recoat! The top I stained Kona from Minwax. Then I took some of the Martha Stewart Black Coffee glaze and glazed her legs. I replaced her old knob with a new one from Hobby Lobby. 

I'm really glad I stained the top instead of painting it. I think it looks wonderful!

I'm partying here:
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove
Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence
Latest and Greatest Fridays at Days of Chalk and Chocolate

A Light for Mother's Day

I don't have a new project to share with you today. I spent most of this past weekend with my Mom and Grandma for Mother's Day so I wasn't able to complete any of my works-in-progress. Some things are just more important than projects! We three had a lovely weekend. We went to a nice dinner, visited the local thrift stores, hit up an estate sale, and just enjoyed each other's company. I did manage to get quite the haul of red velvet ribbon at the estate sale. A 25 yard spool for $0.50! I got four spools. I haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet. Any one have any Christmas themed ideas for velvet ribbon?

The highlight of my shopping trips was coming across this gorgeous little vintage light in the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. Since my fur-babies didn't get me anything for Mother's Day I decided to get myself a present! It was all of $5. The detail on the fixture is amazing. Oh, how I do love thrifting!

Color Me Yellow Part Deux

If you are new to my blog you might not remember my first nightstand re-do. You can find that makeover here. Both the old re-do and today's re-do are sewing tables, sans sewing machines, that I decided to use as nightstands in my master bedroom. While the first sewing table I featured was picked up for free at a yard sale, today's sewing table was picked up for $19.91 at Goodwill. I actually purchased this one first and had been searching for quite some time for one with similar legs when the free one came up. You just can't pass up free! Besides, I'm of the belief that your nightstands don't need to match exactly. It's more interesting that way! Now on to the good stuff!

Here is what she looked like when I bought her. Pardon the unmade bed and the mirror before I gave it a makeover!

I just love the detailing on those legs!

She was missing one of her knobs so first thing I did was take off the remaining hardware and fill in the holes with wood putty. After she was sanded and primered, I painted her Lemon Twist by Sherwin Williams. I then applied Briwax in dark brown.

This stuff is not nearly as easy to use as the Martha Stewart glaze from last week. It might even be messier too. Both are pretty forgiving though. The Martha Stewart glaze takes a lot longer to dry so there is plenty of time to wipe off and reapply until you have the look you want. The Briwax is very difficult to remove if you leave it for more than a minute or two. Unless...you add more to it. I know it's counterintuitive but if you find you have too much and can't get as much wiped off as you'd like, apply more to it and wipe it off immediately. Seriously. It works!

Lastly I had my step-father drill a new hole in the center for her new hardware. And here she is!

Here is a picture of both of my yellow beauties in my master bedroom. My cat Baxter just had to have his picture taken too :) (The nightstands are actually the same color but the sun was shining in the room from the right side making that one [and the picture] look much lighter.) You'll also recognize the wall hangings from an earlier project.

I'm partying here:

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence

Latest & Greatest Fridays at Days of Chalk and Chocolate

Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Newbie Monday's at Debbie Doo's

The New (Tomato) Red Bed

Hello friends! The weather finally decided to cooperate with me so that I could get some painting done. Today I bring you the red bed. I had quite the time with the red spray paint. In fact, it was almost a disaster. But before I get into that let me show you the before picture.

This is a twin size bed, manufactured by Dixie Furniture, and purchased by yours truly at the local Goodwill for $19.91. While it looks decent in the picture, it was in pretty bad shape with lots of dings and scratches on it--especially on the footboard.

Unlike my previous spray paint adventures, this time I decided to choose my bedding first and then choose my spray paint. I chose the Echo Jaipur comforter set. Since the room itself is a pale yellow I decided to focus on the red.

It was tough finding the right shade of red. Most were too bright, some were too pink. I even took the fabric to a big box store and asked them if they could match the red. (Apparently you can't pull colors off of fabric, although that's not what the advertisements say.) I eventually ended up finding Krylon Tomato gloss spray paint at Home Depot.

I purchased two cans thinking it would surely be enough to do a twin size bed. Wrong! I don't know if it was the Kryon paint or the red color but this spray paint had awful coverage. It took a whole can just to do the footboard. Also, apparently red shows up every little scratch and ding so I had to resand the footboard after the first round of spray painting. I knew the one can I had left wouldn't do the job so back to Home Depot I went. Much to my chagrin in the two weeks since I had last been there they had stopped carrying Krylon!! Just my luck. I went to Hobby Lobby, Joanne's, Michael's, KMart, Wal-Mart, Ace. They all had Krylon, but none of them carried this color. I called Sherwin Williams and they could order it for me but I had to purchase a case, which was 6 cans. I finally found it on Amazon but had to pay pretty outrageous shipping prices. In hindsight I would have actually been better off to get the case from Sherwin Williams and try to sell MY extra cans on Amazon. But I digress, the spray paint finally arrived, the weather cleared up, and I was able to return to the task at hand.

I neglected to take a picture of the bed with the spray painting alone but just know that this red is pretty and bright. It's definitely not a color to use if you don't want to draw attention to something. I decided early on that I was going to glaze this piece because of all the nooks and crannies just begging to be showcased. I chose a black glaze, specifically Martha Stewart Metallic Glaze in Black Coffee.

This glaze was so SIMPLE to use. I've used a paste type wax before and it wasn't nearly as easy as this. Be warned, it is quite messy. I had glaze all over my hands by the time I was finished. Luckily, it washes off easily with a little soap and water. Here is the after shot.

And here are some close up shots of those wonderful details.

I wish I could show you what the bed looks like with the comforter on it, but alas, I still have to buy a twin size mattress set.

Update! I have finally bought the mattress and here is a picture of the completed bed. Joy!

I'm partying here:
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
ThriftyThings Friday at The Thrifty Groove
Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence
Latest and Greatest Friday at Days of Chalk and Chocolate
Debbie Doo's Newbie Monday
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Piece of Work Wednesday at Primitive and Proper
Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking
Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage