Monday, May 21, 2012

Several "before" and "afters"

Okay, folks, moving day is the day after tomorrow, so I'm afraid I'm just going to have to dump a bunch of photos on here and call it a blog post. After that I'm going to be MIA for a while. Probably a long while. If I were more on top of things I'd have written a bunch of posts ahead of time and set them to auto-post during my absence, but I think we all know that that was pretty unlikely to happen. And I have to warn you that these are not the most dazzling makeover projects, either. But I did document them (sort of) so I feel compelled to share. First is my husband's nightstand. I decided I'd like to get new ones when we move so I wanted to try redoing this one to sell. It wasn't awful, but I was kind of over the dark brown/painted detail combo.


The top had some water damage so I needed to sand that down before painting.
I painted it a creamy white color, distressed just a bit and added some vintage sheet music to the top and drawer front.
A clear, vintage glass pull adds a little sparkle to it.
Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" photo of this vintage phone stand, but it wasn't much different except it had a shabby looking cherry wood finish on it.  I painted it the same color as my plank-topped sewing table to make it a little more fun. 
These antique chairs were from an ice cream shop in downtown Modesto.  The chairs themselves were in pretty good shape, but they needed an update.
I spray painted them in Heirloom White then got to work on the seat cushions.  A couple of them were missing their seats, so after cutting new plywood circles I recovered them all with simple but sturdy drop cloth fabric. 
Still too plain, though.  They need numbers!  Numbers are always cool, right?  Again using contact paper I cut out the numbers in the style that I liked and rubbed them onto the fabric.  (I did this step after upholstering the seats because I knew that trying to center each number perfectly on the seat and then attaching the fabric would be really tricky.)

Using a stencil brush I dabbed on some craft paint to fill in each number.
I was going for an imperfect look, so I didn't fill them in completely.
Why I didn't take a picture of all 5 I can't figure out.  But I think you can get an idea of what they ended up looking like.
Finally, I painted this little nightstand to match my daughter's dresser.  No distressing, no glazing, just a good paint job.  (Sorry, no "before" for this one either.)
Unfortunately the dresser sold without the nightstand (yes, I sold my girl's dresser- poor thing has had her clothes in laundry baskets for weeks).  But hopefully somebody likes the nightstand enough to buy it on its own!
Well, that pretty much does it.  I have a couple more projects that I'm finishing up now, but I don't know when I'll get a chance to share them.  In the meantime, wish us luck!  This is a BIG move and I'm more than a little nervous about it.  But I hear Ann Arbor is nice, however far away it may be from our loved ones.  I'll check back in as soon as I can.  Please don't give up on this little blog of mine!  I'll be back!

6 comments:

eve said...

love it all.
best of luck with the move!

Wonders said...

Just wanted to say I have loved your blog and I'm so excited to someday try some of this stuff. My whole family is from Michigan and I've got relatives in the Ann Arbor area, it is lovely. There is actually lots of awesome amish places nearby. Anyway, good luck in your move and settling in to a new place, I'm sure you'll all be great!
Carolyn Wixom

Felicia Constantine said...

Hey There,
I'm in your area, and see your stuff at Unique Boutique all the time. I love your items, and was hoping to send you a private message. How would I do that? For special orders, and event invites too :)

girls bedroom furniture said...

Hey
diddle dumpling
Thanks for this great stuff!, I’m quite pealed with the information in this one, say keep up the quality work

jigadijig said...

Welcome to Ann Arbor!
Once you're settled in you'll have fun scouting for new "old" stuff to transform at Treasure Mart, The Kiwanis Saturday Sale, Salvation Army and more!
Just found you today, love your painted Ikea rug!

blossom accountants said...

nice post thanks for update