Before and After: Changing Table

Shame on me.

Shame, shame, shame.

I tease you with photo- a peek at a project that I am so very excited to share with you. I offer you one tiny glimpse and promise you a follow-up post and full disclosure of my mystery piece-- and then I flake. I bail, I fail, I drop the ball. :( Seriously, though, things got a lot busier than I expected them to, so my promised blog post had to wait.

But the wait is now over. And hopefully it will be worth it. I'm super duper about this piece. It's one I've been mulling over for some time- waiting for inspiration to strike and to be able to give it the time it deserves, because I really wanted to do this one "right". It started as this lovely but tired changing table that I spied in a local thrift store.

It had tons of that antique character that I love, but the finish was drab, and the price tag was just too hefty for me. I walked away, but there it sat for some weeks so I could smile at it during my thrifty visits.


Later it got marked down 50%, and still it was a little bit pricey. But the fates smiled on me one day as I happened to be carrying a 50% off coupon which I could use to purchase this lovely piece at a very reasonable price.

I didn't work on it for quite a while, waiting to really know what I wanted to do with it. I tried to figure out a way that I could make it mine. I do, after all, have a new baby who needs changing OFTEN. But, I already have a very functional, perfectly fine changing table. Finally I realized that, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't keep it but I could make it Mine in the sense that I could give it my touch. So I mixed up some DIY chalk paint using the recipe Anne Marie shares on her blog Twice Lovely and using one of my favorite blues- "Prince Edward" by Glidden- as my base color.


Instead of continuing the same blue color inside the cabinet, I decided to do something a little unexpected and used the most PERFECT coral color- "Peony Pink" by Behr. (So, any guesses what my favorite flower is? Yep. The peony. Coincidence? I think not.)
Isn't it just GORGEOUS? Mmmmm. I want to paint everything this color from now on! It's my new favorite color for my wardrobe this spring, and I've even purchased some nail polish similar to this. Are you on board with the coral craze?

(Sadly, my beloved coral is looking a little more like persimmon in this photo below, thanks to my crappy garage lighting.)

Not hating on the persimmon color, though. Look how pretty it is on the wall in this bedroom.

via
Hmmm... kind of loving persimmon, actually. I might have to give that color a try soon...

Anyway, the sanding step is always super fun, and thanks to the chalk paint recipe it distressed like a dream, letting some of the white primer and wood show through.




Finally I decided to apply some brown glaze to darken the exposed wood and make those details stand out. Some clear glass knobs finished it off perfectly. Seriously bummed I already have a changing table!




But now, here's the best part. This piece had a little secret to share when I got it home and started to really inspect it. Look what I found on one of the back panels.




This inscription is in pencil and oh-so-carefully written. It reads:

Infants Changing Table
Converted from old dining room stand found in basement of Putnam House in December 1972

Conversion completed March 19, 1977
East Grand Rapids, Michigan
W. E. Chickering III

Made with love for my First born child,
with hope for his or her brothers and sisters,
with dreams for their Future and with loving thanks to their mother, my wife Lynette.

I mean, could that be any sweeter? I was thrilled to find that some of this piece's history was actually inscribed on it, along with the beautiful sentiments of the craftsman who converted it into something beautiful yet functional for his new family.

It's now at the shop, topped with a framed photo of the writing on the back panel (which of course I protected with some polyurethane) so people will know that this table has a secret preserved on the back.

Before and After: End table

It's been pretty quiet around this little blog of mine, I know. I've been busy staring at this precious angel face for the past 3 weeks.
I just want to soak up every drop of his sweet newness before it goes away, so the projects and crafting have been scarce. They'll be back soon, though, I promise!

In the meantime, here's a quick look at a table I painted right before taking my break.

This sad end table was in desperate need of a new look, which I was more than happy to provide.

It inexpensive and sturdy with awesome character and LOADS of potential- just what I'm always looking for in a rehab project!

I decided to keep it simple and just painted it the same creamy white color as my chevron desk (seen in the background) then gave it a brown glaze.

Nothing revolutionary, but I'd say this table now has a whole new lease on life, wouldn't you?

Before and After: Ladderback Chair and Twin Bed

Sorry things have been so quiet around here lately. I'm counting down to Delivery Day with baby #4, and these last few weeks seem to be going really slowly. As my belly gets bigger working on furniture becomes more and more difficult, and with the holidays in there I had plenty of other things to keep me busy.

But enough of the excuses. I'm determined to work on furniture for as long as I possibly can, and I've managed to get a couple of little things done lately that I wanted to share with you.

I love a cute ladderback chair, don't you? This one had a rush seat that was in good shape but kind of worn, so I left it alone and just painted the wood.

I primed it, then painted it with a nice flat blue mistint paint that distressed really well.

I think the roughed up paint and the worn woven seat now somehow work together to make this chair pretty sweet.

This vintage twin bed was a total steal at a yard sale this summer. I hated to paint over that pretty birdseye maple, but it wasn't in great shape and I didn't have it in me to refinish it.

Besides, the real eye catcher of this piece is that heavily carved headboard, which paint could only enhance.

All it needed was a fresh coat of ivory paint-and-primer (also a mistint that I picked up) and some brown glaze to bring out the details.

This project was perfect for glazing. Just look at how that carving stands out now!
I just brought both pieces to my space at Unique Boutiques (which admittedly has been looking rather bare since I've slowed my pace) and hope to have another couple of things to bring in this week as well.

If you're local be sure and go check it out! We're at 180 Leveland in Modesto, at the corner of Floyd & McHenry behind the Chase Bank.

Before and After: Another long dresser

I love these long, low dressers. They can be so versatile, whether they're used for their traditional purpose to store clothing in a bedroom or somewhere else in the house like in a dining room as a buffet, in a nursery as a changing table or in a living room as a sideboard.

This french beauty was a great deal that I found on Craigslist.

The drawers are pretty and curvy, but the hardware it came with was a little too ornate and one of the handles was broken.

I loved that the top wasn't painted, though it was in pretty rough shape.

I had recently been looking back over my blog and came across this post about the dresser I was so excited to paint with my custom robin's egg blue and decided I'd do a similar treatment to this one.

I started by stripping the old finish off the top (always a very satisfying, if messy, job) and sanding off some of the imperfections. Then the body and drawers got painted with that lovely blue (with no primer this time).

I chose to leave the top unstained and just sealed it with wipe-on poly so that the natural wood color would show and the remaining imperfections could still be visible (though the wood isn't quite so yellow in person). I was going for a very rustic look here.

The body and drawers got a heavy distressing, then glazed brown.

These long handles came off of another dresser that's waiting to be worked on. I thought they were in the perfect state of weathered wear to go on this particular piece.

The row of center drawers got some smoked glass knobs from (our BRAND NEW!) Hobby Lobby.

I love how the original paint color shows through on this piece, but that the new blue is really the star now. It's currently in the shop, so if you're close by go have a look!

Before and After: Dresser and Side Table

I found this vintage waterfall style dresser on Craigslist over the weekend and bought it for dirt cheap. The owners had tried really hard to restore the wood veneer, but then put it in their humid pool house where it proceeded to peel up again.


I was going to try to reattach it but soon realized I just wasn't up for a job that time consuming at the moment.




It also had this awful water spot right on top.


Using a damp towel, a hot iron and a putty knife I was able to get all of the veneer off the drawers in about 40 minutes.


This dresser was the perfect candidate for a treatment I've been wanting to do for a while. First I cut out some numbers using a roll of contact paper that I usually use to line drawers...


... and rubbed them on real good.


Then I used a gray glaze on the drawers and when I peeled the contact paper off it left the wood numbers behind. I was so happy with how clean and crisp the lines were. No seepage or leaking at all! The drawers also got a little antiquing with some stain.


The original hardware wasn't too bad, so I buffed each pull with fine steel wool and later primed and painted them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint.


Here it is all done. In the end I glazed the top as well to hide that water spot. I re-stained the top, sides and spaces between the drawers, but the spot was still really noticeable. I would have liked to leave the top wood, but it had to be done.



I think I started sanding the top of this table before I remembered to take a photo, but to begin with it was in pretty rough shape.

Because of some water damage that swelled the wood, I had to sand down past the wood veneer and into the pressboard underneath in a couple of places. A little wood putty to smooth it out helped a lot.

It got painted a pretty blue (surprise, surprise right?) then distressed and antiqued with brown glaze.

This is one HEAVY table. I just love those legs!


And just for fun, here's one more little bit of Halloween decor that I did the other day. I FINALLY switched out my framed scrapbook paper with the spooky prints I found at The Graphics Fairy last year, and put up a flock of black cardstock bats.

I think I need a few more bats. You can never have too many bats around, right? :)

Before and After: Nighstand, Dresser and (another) Chair

This little nightstand was listed for sale on Craigslist along with the dresser that I'll show you next. They're not a pair, but I decided to paint them similarly so they could go together.

They were both sort of a dirty white color, and both weathered in an ugly way, but they each had nice lines and cute hardware which made them seem worth revamping.

The top of the nightstand was some kind of pressboard, covered in that shiny plastic laminate that you see on lots of this kind of furniture. I sanded the laminate really well and proceeded to prime and paint the whole thing Heirloom White.

The little cubby got a coat of pretty blue and then I glazed everything to bring out the details.

As much as I love a good chippy piece of furniture, this little chest of drawers just didn't have the look I want when it comes to a natural distressed finish. The paint was chippy alright, but for some reason it looked less charming and more neglected and sad. This is what it looked like after I'd already started to sand it.

That paint just kept wanting to come off, so it took a while before I finally got it ready to paint. It too got primed and painted Heirloom White, then glazed with dark brown to finish it off.
I forgot to take a picture of it, but I also lined the drawers of each one with a cute polkadot contact paper that I found at Target. Good little trick to cover up stained or ugly insides of drawers.


You know me and chairs. There's bound to be a chair hanging around waiting to be redone.

This one got primed then painted with a pretty slate blue spray paint, then distressed quite a bit.

I used the same technique for a hand painted bird detail that I used on this chair a while back. SUPER easy.
I was hoping to have another "before and after" to include in this post but it turns out that I forgot to take the "after" photos before it sold. I hate when I do that! Guess I'd better get going on some more stuff, then, huh?