Ugly Duckling Makeover

I found this hideous gameboard at the thrift store. I almost walked right by it, but something told me that there was still hope for this ugly duckling. After all, it was only 75 cents, so I didn't have much to lose.

I started by sanding the board all over to make it easier to paint.

Then I painted all the blue squares black and painted the background cream.

Next I painted the board red. It took 3 coats. Two were burgundy and the top coat was barn red. The last thing was to stencil stars, black and cream, all over the board.

Then I placed it on top of my china hutch along with my other thrift store treasures including, Pfaltzgraff dishes, chippy paint birdhouse, and large mirror.

I would say it was 75 cents well spent.

Blessings.

A hole in my drawers and a makeover

That photo is a little peek at my makeover. But the story actually begins a few years back. Old houses are notorious for not having enough closet space. Our little house in the Ozarks (the one we lived in before moving to the prairie) was especially short on storage. I knew as soon as we moved into that house that we needed to find another chest of drawers for the master bedroom. I, of course, started my search at a thrift store. It was love at first sight. I spotted the chest practically the moment I stepped into the store. It was a 3 drawer, white, antique chest of drawers with chippy paint, and beautiful, curvy legs. I am a sucker for sexy legs, so I was immediately smitten. I had a smile on my face the whole way home.

When I got home I realized that my affection for those beautiful drawers might have made me underestimate what it was going to take to repair this piece of furniture. You see, there was a hole in the bottom drawer. I am not talking about a pencil sized hole, or a shoe box sized one. No, half of the bottom drawer was actually missing. I just assumed we could fix it.

I showed my husband my purchase when he got home. He laughed, right out loud, a lot. He explained that he did not have the right tools to fix the chest, and buying the tools he needed would probably cost more than just buying another chest!

I knew I was on my own with this problem now, so I just shoved a piece of cardboard over the hole. It worked at first. Since it was summer then, I just put my sweaters in the broken drawer knowing that I wouldn’t be opening the drawer much. Then gravity set in. The cardboard began to sag. Eventually the saggy cardboard jammed the drawer, and you couldn’t open it. You had to remove the drawer above the broken one, and then reach through the hole to get what you wanted. Then you had to put the other drawer back in. Finally even I had to admit that this wasn’t very practical, so I donated the chest back to the thrift store so someone with the “right tools” could fix it.

Now I had to go chest shopping again. This time I was more practical. I looked for something that had functional drawers rather than just buying for beauty. I ended up with a ho hum, ordinary, 4 drawer, boxy chest which had no sexy legs whatsoever. It is sturdy, and it does keep the clothes contained fairy well, so we moved it with us when we came to the prairie. I have never been happy with it though. That is why I decided to give it a makeover while my husband was gone. I knew that if it turned out badly I could just get rid of the evidence while he was gone.

You see, I have never done a (successful) makeover on a large piece of furniture before. I have redone some shelves and picture frames, etc., but nothing this substantial. This was my first major project.

Here is the chest of drawers before I began. You can see from this side view that it just your basic wooden chest of drawers.

My first step was to sand the piece using my little electric sander.
Next I gave it three coats of paint. I used a brush for the first two coats, and I was pretty sloppy. I actually wanted to see some of the brush strokes because I like the rough look. I used a sponge brush for the third paint job because I wanted to be sure I had good coverage for the final coat. The paint color is something in between cream and sand. I let that set overnight to dry.

Here it is in the morning before I started again.

Next I sanded the chest again. Then I brushed walnut stain all over it using a sponge brush. That turned out darker than I wanted so…..

I brushed white stain on top of that.

I didn’t brush the lighter stain over the drawer edges of the knobs though, because I wanted to keep them the darker color.

Finally this project was done. Now the chest of drawers looks like it was abused by dozens of little hands for decades, then rolled in the dirt in the barn. Perfect. That is just the look I wanted.

There are a couple of morals to this ridiculous story. The first lesson is to be sure you are not tempted by a set of sexy legs. Your clothes will fall through a giant hole in a drawer. The second lesson is to not be afraid to try painting a piece of furniture you dislike. You might be surprised at how well it turns out, because if I can do a makeover, anyone can. (It also helps to do this while hubby is away, so any major mistakes can become charitable donations.)

Have a great weekend, and I hope you get started on that long awaited project. Blessings to you.

The girlie-girl in me

In my last post, I wrote about deciding to decorate the main parts or shared parts of the house in sort of a country, primitive, folk art style. The master bedroom is going to be different. This is the one room where I hope to release my cottage, shabby chic, romantic, feminine side. There is only one potential problem with this plan. I'm married.

While I may have a girlie-girl side, my husband is more of a burly man. He is a Nascar, hunting and fishing, and Craftsman tool loving guy. His favorite home decor catalogs come from Bass Pro Shops and Cabellas. If he was in charge of decorating, we would probably have the camo couch and matching recliner by now.

When I talked to my husband about how I wanted to change the bedroom into sort of a "Secret Garden" with lots of birds and flowers and chippy furniture, he said he just had a couple of requests. His first request was that some sort of bed still remain in the room, and his second request was that he still be allowed to sleep in said bed. Since these seemed like such reasonable requests, I agreed.

Now the fun part can begin. My first adventure has been the makeover of the chest of drawers in the bedroom. My goal is to make it match.....

this mirror....

and this picture frame...

The chest makeover is already almost done. There are a few finishing touches left to do though. I hope it will be ready to reveal soon.

Then I will dive back into the blog world looking for inspiration from some of those beautiful cottage decorators out there. I just love seeing all the different ways they incorporate country and shabby chic into their homes. So this is a warning to all my cottage blog friends, don't be surprised if you see me prowling around your blogs looking for inspiration. I am continually amazed by how you turn your thrift store, garage sale, and hand me down finds into such gorgeous rooms for your families to enjoy. I believe that your photos and decorating tips just may provide me with enough help that I can actually have a coordinated room for once.

Thank you to everyone for all the great ideas you have already given me. I can hardly wait to get started on this no cost/low cost decorating adventure.

Bigger than a broken bread box... makeover

I had two problems, but I solved them with one solution, a makeover. My first problem was my messy spice area. I am constantly cooking and most of my cooking is from scratch, so I use lots of spices. There are certain spices that I use the most, so I buy those in large containers which I like to keep near the stove. That area had become an eyesore though, and it just seemed to jump out at me whenever I entered the room. I needed to tidy up that spot.

My other problem was a broken bread box. I had purchased a wooden bread box at the thrift store. I gave it a couple of coats of paint when I brought it home to make it match the kitchen better. I soon discovered though, that it didn't open properly. The bread box door stuck most of the time. You had to yank it really hard to get the door open. Finally, I just yanked it too hard, and it broke. The box split down the side. The door and front and back trim were now loose. The box was unusable.

I asked my husband, who is a professional fixer, to repair it for me. He went through a lengthy explanation about how difficult that would be, how much money it would cost to purchase the right size clamps, and how chances were that the fix wouldn't last. My husband and I have been married a long time, so I knew what he really meant. In girl language it would have translated to something like, "I hate that bread box and I am never going to fix it."

I knew it was best to just move on and figure out what I could do with it myself. I came up with a plan to repurpose the broken bread box. First I removed the door permanantly. Next I rolled the box over, turning what was previously the back of the box into the bottom. Then I took some good old Elmers and glued the side and trim back on. I let that set overnight.

The next morning. I painted the inside and the outside of the box with black craft paint, two coats. I let that dry for a few hours. Finally I added a fabric remnant I had hemmed to the old bread box and now it was ready to be transformed into a spice box. My large spices, the ones I use the most, fit perfectly inside. My mess was transformed.

This was a no cost makeover. My only expense came when I found the two primitive ginger jars at the thrift store. They were a whopping $2.00 each, but I decided to splurge and get them anyway as a reward for finding a way to repurpose my broken bread box. There is nothing more fun than turning trash into a treasure.

Blessings to you.