Rustic X Coffee Table DIY

This is a project from about a month ago, but I completely forgot to blog about it until now! Joel made this table for us on the Saturday before the Super Bowl, because we were hosting a party and needed somewhere for our guests to put their snacks.

I found the plans at Ana White, and Joel followed them pretty exactly. I was out while he built the table, but he did his best to take a few iPhone pictures of the process.

The table was so fantastic looking, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Even before Joel actually built it, I debated the treatment that I would give it - stain, or paint? I wanted to have that weathered, beachy, washed out grey look, and I wasn't quite sure how to achieve it. I finally came across some tips about how to oxidize wood. This is a process that basically rapidly ages your wood by exposing it to a rusted steel wool solution.

The formula is simple:

 In a Mason jar, mix a roll of fine steel wool (not the grocery store kind, but the stuff you buy at the hardware store) with some vinegar. I did about half a jar of vinegar and one roll of steel wool. Let it sit for a few days, and it's ready to go.

I will note here that after a few days, my mixture did not look ANY different. I was really disappointed, and was sure that I must have done something wrong. Many people online said that their solution turned brown or red, and mine definitely hadn't. I'm so glad I gave it a try instead of giving up on it though, because it worked so well! 4 weeks later, my solution is still clear.

The day that you are going to apply it to your table, you also need to brew some strong tea. I used 8 teabags to about 2 cups of water, so that it was strong and black.

Begin by painting your wood with the tea mixture. This isn't intended to change the color of the wood, instead it just provides a base for your vinegar solution to react with. I let mine sit on my wood for about ten minutes, then I brushed my table with my vinegar solution. The solution doesn't smell great, so it would be a good idea to do it outside or in a well ventilated area. I also found it was very drippy, so cover any important surfaces before you begin.

After about ten minutes, like magic, the table began to change color.  The color you get won't be 100% consistent, but I think that's part of the charm of this kind of table. I waited a couple of days and then did a second coat on just the top of my table, to give it some contrast. It darkened up even more, and it became exactly what I was looking for.

 Below you can see the contrast I did, by oxidizing the top twice and the bottom only once. I think it just gives the table an extra something!

 Below is a good example of the somewhat inconsistent results you can expect. I could probably sand down the darker spots to make it one fluid color, but I kind of love how it looks!

Have you ever tried this process before? Do you plan on trying it anytime soon? I'd love to see your results!

The dresser saga, AKA, why I should stick to crafts

Oh, this was such a big project.

I found a dresser that I loved at an estate sale, for $15. It required quite a bit of work, including repairing two big gashes at the top. I fell hard though, and figured I could handle it.

From the start, this dresser was trouble. To get it home, I had to cram it into my Golf. I didn't remember until after I paid for it that our trunk hasn't been opening, so it had to be wedged into the backseat.

As much work as it was to cram into the car, it was a million times harder to get it out. We had to take out the knobs to roll down the windows, and broke a chunk off the bottom of the dresser on its way out.

But I was eager. I was ready to go.

After removing the hardware, the first thing I did was buy a roll of veneer (ugh...$25!) to redo the top of the dresser. I used contact cement to attach it, giving myself a terrible headache for the night, but I was okay with that, because I loved my dresser.

 It looked good at first, but after a few hours, I noticed that the veneer was buckling. By the next day, I noticed that there were huge air bubbles everywhere. No amount of rolling and pushing and working at it could get it to go away. Finally, I realized that I would have to remove the veneer. I figured I could remove the veneer off the top of the dresser, but leave it on the curve, where it wasn't actually buckling. This was also the only part that actually needed to be repaired to begin with. I really should have only worried about that part from the start.

Removing the veneer was the worst. I swear, the contact cement fumes come back tenfold when they're being plucked apart with a spackle knife. The whole top of the dresser had been destroyed from the contact cement. To fix it, it required an entire night of sanding and refinishing the top part using wood filler. By the end, though, it looked fine. Once the top was feathered into the remaining veneer using the wood filler, I was pretty sure I was good to go!

The next day, I began priming it. I used a stain blocking primer by CIL, so that I wouldn't have to stain the entire dresser. I have read about these stain blocking primers, and I have to say, I was super happy with the results. It made that part of refinishing the dresser much easier!

The primer looked beautiful! Except as it was drying, I noticed something... worrisome. The remaining piece of veneer was starting to bubble up again.

It wasn't TOO bad, and I figured that once it was painted, it would barely be noticeable.

I used the color Tempest by Matha Stewart. I was looking for a color that had a nice, antique, powdered blue kind of feeling, and I am really happy with it. Here you can see it against the white stain, to get a feel for how different it is.

But as the paint was drying, I noticed that the veneer was bubbling so, so badly. UGH.

Horrible. The only thing to do was just rip the entire piece off. So even though it was already sanded, feathered, primed, and painted, the remainder of that darn veneer piece had to come off.

If you're keeping track, this is the entire $25 piece of veneer that has been ripped apart and trashed. I was just so frustrated. The worst part is that by now, I still hadn't fixed the initial problem with the dresser, which was those two gashes missing from the sides. I ended up filling them in with wood filler, which is absolutely what I should have done from the beginning. I also hard to redo the whole curved part of the dresser with wood filler, the same way I had redone the top. I didn't even take pictures of this part, because by now, I was so over this dresser.

Once the curve was refinished with the wood filler, I was finally good to re-prime and repaint the top of the dresser. The curve isn't perfect. I didn't sand it as well as I could have, and I didn't take my time as much as I had been. All I cared about, though, was that it was done.

The last little detail I had to do was refinish the hardware using brass finisher. I just love these handles, and I was so happy with how nicely they cleaned up.

So after ALL of that, I can finally present to you... the finished dresser!

I am so, so happy with how it turned out. But if I can offer anyone any advice - stay away from veneer unless you really know what you're doing!

La fin - Homemade art shelf part TWO

Sooo my art shelf is all finished!

First of all, if you don't remember art shelf part 1, please refer to this post.

Basically where I left off, everything was done except for the top, caulking, painting, the siding for the back, and moving it into my classroom.

The first thing that I needed to do was go to Home Depot and get paint.

Simple, right?

Obviously you've never been out with me.

Apologies to Home Depot for this one.

Anyway. Let's move past that, shall we?

The first thing I had to do was caulk the cracks in all the corners. If you haven't used caulking, it's FUN. Really, it's super satisfying, it's like playdoh mixed with glue and it makes everything pretty. It's awesome. 

 Then I had to paint the wainscoting that I bought for the back pieces. 

 While I waited for Cody to come cut the wainscoting, I started painting!

 And painting.

 Then Cody began attaching the back panels. While I painted.

 And painted.

 And then.. it was DONE!

 I absolutely adore it. It reminds me of Cape Cod, and I feel so happy everytime I see it. Especially when you know what shelf it's replacing.

 See? This is what my art supplies were stored on before.

 And here they are now!

Huge thanks to Cody for all of the help with this project. I am not confident with power tools yet, so he did all of the hard work while I held things and used Gorilla Glue and made sound effects (read: eeee ee ee e ee oooh ooh ahh ahh.)


Aaaaaaaaaand that's it!

My biggest project to date

This is the first time I'm going to post a half finished project, only because I have been on it for the past month and we made such progress today and I want to share!

Basically, I decided about a month ago that I really wanted to have a great art shelf for my classroom. Something like this. But look at the price!! Obviously I don't have that kind of money. So one day while I was working at the daycare, I drew up what my dream cabinet would look like:I even tried to write down measurements, so that Joel would be more willing when I asked him to make it for me. Joel and Cody took me to Home Depot, and we bought a huge piece of MDF (which was terrifying to bring home, but I won't start on that.)

When I got the MDF home, I traced out all of the pieces onto it (which I planned on a piece of paper first) so that Joel and Cody could make the cuts. A couple of days later, I had this:
I did a REALLY quick, sloppy white coat of paint on the pieces as a base. These sat in our living room for a few weeks, until today, when Cody and I finally got a chance to go out and build the start of my DREAM SHELF! I took some pictures as we worked. Cody did all of the nailing, but I had the important job of putting GORILLA GLUE on everything. Here's me holding the bottle:
I did appropriate sound effects every time I glued, don't worry.


Great paint job, huh?
This is where I will store tupperware buckets full of markers, pencil crayons, etc.

I must have been Gorilla Glue-ing in a lot here, because there are no more pictures until the end:

Yay! The right side is for tupperwares, and random supplies on the top. On the left side, paint bottles will go on the bottom, legal sized paper on top, and the three shelves above are for regular sized paper. Beside that, I will put scrapbooking papers standing up.

Isn't it wonderful?
Here's what's left to do:

• Buy a bit more MDF for the top
• Buy thin slats of wood for the back
• Caulk the little gaps between the shelves
• Paint the whole shelf the color of the second swatch here
• Decide if I want to do a lip around the top

Hopefully I will be done this next week, so I can put it in my class before the beginning of school!

My new lamp!

Today I completed my project of turning this
into thisWhen we were on vacation in Maine a few weeks ago, I saw this amazing lamp at an antique store that was worth the effort of hauling home on the 9 hour car trip. I paid $20 for it. The thing I liked most about it was the eagle on the lamp base:The first thing I did was trace the lampshade onto bristol board and cut off the old lamp shade (it was garbage bag material, just wound around the wire!)

I decided to cover it using an idea I had seen on mama-says-sew, which was for a nice, ruffly lampshade. I bought a rough, almost burlap-like fabric to cover the bristol board with.

First, I cut it into strips:
Then I ironed them down the center so that there would be less hangy threads (without having to do any sewing).
and I was left with this:

Then came the VERY long process of gluing the little strips onto the bristol board!

Basically I would just put glue either on the board or on the piece, and desperately try to get it glued on nicely before it dried or I burnt myself.
As a result, there are some big clumps of glue hidden nicely under the fabric. My fingers are also quite burnt.This took several hours to finish, and got really boring after a while! I definitely had to split it up into several sessions to save my sanity (and my fingers.)

Next, I took the lamp outside and got to spraypainting:
Thennnn all I had to do was put the lampshade on and:
Very happy with this little guy!