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!

Before and After: Ladder-back Chair + Fall Decor

I feel like kind of a slacker lately. I haven't been feeling very well for a couple of months and it's taken its toll on my furniture refinishing motivation. Truth is, I haven't really felt like doing much of anything for what feels like an eternity, so I have to force myself to get things done a little at a time.

So, I only have one "before and after" for you today, but I'll also share a couple of the fall decor projects I've been working on.

This chair came from a thrift store and was in great shape, just looking kind of sad and well, ugly. I knew right away what I was going to do with it. (I love when that happens!)


It was begging to be black.

I'd had this idea for a seat cushion for a few weeks and this was the perfect chair for it. I bought some old doilies at a thrift store and first glued them to my taupe linen fabric.

After the glue dried I used matching thread to stitch each one securely to the fabric so they won't come off.

A few embroidered leaves add just a little more detail and finishes it off sweetly.

Makes me wish I had some black furniture in my house...

My space at the shop is going to be sporting some new fall and Halloween decor soon, and the crafting bug has bitten me hard. The past couple of days have found me parked in front of the TV watching "Monk" on Netflix while I craft and craft and craft. So far I've made 3 wreaths, 2 hand painted banners, 2 garlands, and 2 little Halloween projects. It's been so much fun! Anyway, I won't inundate you with all of them at once, so here's a look at one of the wreaths and banners.

This wreath is built on one of those flat wire forms that you'd find in the floral section. I think they're for making memorial wreaths. The one I used is about 18" wide, so it's a pretty big one.

I cut my burlap strips nice and wide, probably about 6" or so and gathered them into ruffles. I hot-glued each one end to end onto the wreath form until the whole thing was covered.

Next I added a narrower strip of ruffled wool felt and embellished it with some other little found fabrics and fall-ish objects.

It still needed a little something, so I made a tiny "welcome" banner that I strung across the middle.


Looks pretty fall-ish to me- don't you agree?

Okay, so this next project can't exactly be categorized as "fall decor", but I'm pleased with how it turned out so I'm going to share it anyway.

This is one of the hand painted banners I made using Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial found on HGTV.com.

I love the one she has hanging in her space (seen here), so I tried making one of my own.

This is a tutorial you really ought to try. It doesn't require any special equipment or talent, just tracing, filling in and gluing. Seriously- suuuuuper easy.


There's plenty more fall and Halloween projects coming- I promise!

Before and After: 9-Drawer Dresser and Chair

It's been brought to my attention that I may not have ever mentioned what or where the store actually is where I sell my furniture and decor items (HUGE oversight on my part!), so for any locals who may read my little blog, here ya go:

Unique Boutiques
180 Leveland #1a
Modesto, CA
209-606-3748
Open M-Sa 10-6

This weekend the store put on a sidewalk sale, which I decided to participate in. Once a month we have a store wide 20% off sale. This month we decided to bring even more items and set them up under tents outside. Over the past couple of weeks I've been working like mad to get some items ready to bring, specifically some big things that I really wanted out of my garage!

This first project was one that I picked up a while ago at a local thrift store for a terrific price and miraculously fit it into my little Mazda. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before I took out the drawers and started to sand the top.

It was in pretty good shape, just kind of dated and blah.

I got some custom paint mixed in my favorite blue/gray, but this time I had them mix it with the paint and primer combo so I could skip the primer step. It costs more, but I thought it might be worth trying. I have to admit that I was skeptical, but after the first coat of paint had dried I scraped my fingernail over it and it didn't budge. A second light coat over that made it even more durable. The whole thing got glazed and then wiped down with polyurethane to finish it off.






Another thrift store find, this chair was just a few bucks and in much need of some work. But I loved the legs and the shape of the back and could see that it would soon be really cute.



That chair pad was just gross.

This chair didn't "speak to me" very quickly, but once it did I got really excited about how to make it pretty. I started with the seat cover, choosing a base fabric of a taupe linen and then I pulled a pile of pink, coral and white floral fabrics from my stash.
I cut small squares from each fabric then ironed some Wonder Under to the back side of each one. Then I free-handed flower and leaf shapes onto the paper side of the Wonder Under and cut them out. After arranging them how I wanted on the background fabric, I peeled off the paper backing and ironed them into place.

Once they were ironed down I stitched around the edges, some with a straight stitch, others a zig-zag, and just had fun sort of drawing on the flowers with my sewing machine.

The chair got painted bright white (with no primer this time) and heavily distressed and wiped down with polyurethane to keep the paint from coming off further. Just a tip- if you know you're going to distress something well, don't bother priming. But if you don't want to distress or want more control of how much paint comes off, be sure you prime first.
I really love how this chair turned out.
The seat looks exactly like I'd hoped it would! It was probably the first thing of mine inside that sold on Saturday.
Here's a little peek at what my tent looked like at the start of the sale. That corner cabinet ended up back inside after it nearly blew over and broke my little blue stool.
I was torn about parting with my antique sofa, but on a yard saleing excursion last weekend I came upon the very Ikea sleeper sofa that I'd been wanting, priced at only $25! I felt like such a thief that I paid an extra $20 and brought it happily home. A few days later I bought a new white slipcover for it, but I couldn't bring it inside until the other one was gone. This sale was the perfect opportunity for me to try and find the antique a new home, and lucky for me, just as she was packing up to leave, one of the other vendors decided to buy it!
I'm at peace with letting go of my pretty couch. My "new" one is way more functional, way more kid friendly, and the money I made on the sale of the other one certainly helped ease the pain of parting. ;)

Before and After: Two Chairs and a Mirror

It's no secret that I'm a chair girl. I really, really like chairs. So if you're sick of seeing chair makeovers, this post might not be very entertaining for you. But personally, I can't get enough of ugly duckling chairs and transforming them into swans.

This first one was a thrift store find and was in really sad condition. But it was sturdy and only cost a couple of bucks, so it was a perfect candidate for a re-do.

I wanted to pair this chair with a desk that's in my space at the shop, so it got sprayed with some Heirloom White and the seat was given new batting and a pretty, neutral fabric.

A little distressing brings out the little details on the legs and back.



This looks like a swan now, doesn't it?

I was so excited to find this chair because I knew instantly what I was going to do to it.

Turquoise paint + brown glaze + most awesome floral fabric = Very cool new chair!!

Those legs make me drool.

It's been a while, but I once showed you an image of this fabric in a post about another nasty chair that I had hoped to transform the way I did this chair. I stumbled upon a yard of this lovely print at my local Joann when we moved to California and I've been waiting for just the right chair to come along to use it on.

This was definitely the perfect chair.

Finally, I found this gawdy ornate mirror at Goodwill in all its golden glory. It was in perfect condition, though, so all it needed was a little paint and glaze.

I used the same turquoise paint as I did on the chair...

...and the same brown glaze to tone down the blue and bring out the detail.

Way better, right?
Tomorrow we're off to spend the long weekend with my parents and siblings in Southern Utah. We really need a break so I'm truly looking forward to our trip. Enjoy your holiday weekend! I'll be back with some more transformations soon!