How To White Wash - A Nightstand Redo

Recently, I have had a little obsession with whitewashing. It started small when working on my signs from Board & Brush. It was appealing to me because I started trying it on a small surface and then this weekend, I got the bright idea to try it on a piece of furniture. This nightstand came from a local thrift store here in Wisconsin, something like this. 

I just loved all the great curves and details of this little piece. It was calling my name, like a lot of pieces do. So into my car it went. Kristen @ NAK Home recently tried FolkArt's Home Decor chalk paint from Joann's in black, so I thought I would give it a try on this piece and keep the wood top. I got it to this point and didn't love the top.

So I thought I would try a white wash. I had some leftover Fusion mineral paint in Limestone, so I added a little water to it and started. 

Here is what it looked like after I did this. The trick is not to let it sit on their long enough to dry. I quickly painted it on and then right after I had fully covered the top, I took some paper towel and wiped it off going all in the same direction. Here is what it looked like after.

I loved how it turned out with the different shades of color. Next, I slightly distressed some the paint to bring out the details, put some poly on the top and wax on the rest of the nightstand and here she is!

What do you all think? 

Thanks so much for reading,

-Shayla

Linked up to: The Crowned Goat | Chic on a Shoestring | A Stroll Thru Life | Making It In The Mountains | Chic On A Shoestring | Patina Paradise

Vintage Bed Frame

With all my furniture projects, I have yet to do a head board, foot board or full bed frame. When my client had asked me to refinish an entire furniture set that included a full bed frame, I couldn't wait! This is part of a three piece set I refinished for the client. Here are the two other pieces from the set. It's so beautiful with all the detail, hoping to find a similar set for myself some day.

All of these pieces were previously painted, in a fun green with a glaze on them. Here is the head board for the bed set before I got started on it.

I lightly sanded to rough up the surface with 100 grit sand paper and then 150. Since this was such a big project with a lot of detail, I opted to use spray primer. This was great, but I did not get enough coverage as I was hoping for. I was hoping to just have to use two cans but ended up using three. Then, I lightly sanded and started spraying. The entire set is General Finishes Antique White milk paint. 

I sprayed every piece with my Home Right Finish Max Sprayer. I absolutely love this thing, best $70 I have spent in a long time. It takes a little getting used to when you convert over from hand painting. For me, it was getting a good idea of how much to really spray in one area to get good coverage and have no drips. I feel like drips just happen sometimes, no matter how hard I try. If this happens, I always let it dry, then start sanding. Usually 100 grit first, then 150 and 220 last to smooth everything out before respraying. The finish I get with a sprayer is amazing. No brush strokes and great coverage.

For the top coat, I used General Finishes HPTC in flat in my sprayer as well. I just love how this set turned out. Can't wait to see a picture once my client has her little girls room all finished.

Thanks so much for reading!

Shayla

Linked up to: The Crowned Goat | Chic On A Shoestring Decorating | A Stroll Thru Life | DIY By Design | AKA Design

My Biggest Build to Kick Off 2016 - Dining Room Table

Happy New Year to all my readers! I can't believe it is already 2016, crazy! One of my goals for 2016 is to update this blog more and get going on more projects. I joined the Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest group in late November and can't wait wait to join in. The month of January filled up very quickly, so I am hoping to join in the next few months.

So, the month of December was a big month for myself. I took the CFA level 1 exam on 12/5, which really slowed down everything, including furniture and this blog. Then right after that, my father bought a condo near me and I helped him move and get settled. One of his housewarming gifts was this amazing sign I made at Board & Brush. Here we are on the one of the most windy days in Wisconsin while it is raining of course on December 14.

I work usually about one night a week at their Hartland, WI location teaching a class. I highly recommend checking them out and it would be a great business venture to open up a franchise location for all you DIY'ers our there. Wisconsin is starting to get a lot of them, so I haven't opened one yet, but I would love to.. maybe in 2016! Here is a quick sample of some other signs I have made there, can you tell I am dating a Wade? 

 

 

Anyways, with my dad moving, he (we because he needs help with decor) decided that he was going to get all new furniture. It helped that the buyer of his other place wanted it furnished too. So I had a little boost of confidence with furniture building after my farmhouse bench and thought it would be a great idea to make him a dining room table. I have always seen Shanty 2 Chic's plans for their Restoration Hardware inspired dining room table and decided to try it.

My dad's dining room was not going to accommodate a table of that size, so I made the top smaller, about 3x5. I was going to try to make the legs smaller, but decided to just not make the middle 4x4 quite as long. Here are some pictures during construction in my garage.

Here are some tips if you decide to make this. Kreg has a 6 inch clamp that is supposed to hold the boards together where you drill. I skipped buying this and I would kneel and apply pressure while drilling. This seemed to work pretty well. I would be tempted to try the clamp though if I make any more of these. I sanded the table top when it was completely together and this seemed to help all the little variations in the top (there were a few). It also helped a ton to have a friend over to help (my furniture friend Kim) because of the size of the project.

This was how far I had got the first day (about 5 hours). The top was assembled and I had the bottom lightly set up so I could see how level the table would be and for the height. Next, I built the legs with my Ryobi 10 inch compounding miter saw.

Once I finished these up, I put the top on again and everything was pretty level and good enough for me. 

Next, I brought out one of my Goodwill chair finds that I would eventually like to refinish and sat at the table. It was pretty high, but I went with it. Hoping to find some tall chairs (fingers crossed). Anyone know where to find any? Next I sanded out the table and all the legs with my palm sander. I would recommend starting with a rough grit (80 or 100) and then going over it again with 220 to get it nice and smooth.

For stain, I tried Varathane's fast dry wood stain in Early American. My dad really likes the rustic look and  I wanted to get this done quickly. It worked well. The directions for this recommend staining everything once it is assembled. If I make another one of these tables, I would stain the mitered supports for the legs of the table before. It is really hard to get underneath them. Then I would just touch them up after it was all assembled.

I then put 3 coats of  my favorite satin poly on the top and two coats on the legs. Then came time for assembly, I was so nervous!

We flipped everything upside down so I could drill the legs into the tabletop. Then we flipped it over and got it set up and realized it really was super tall. So we took the pads off and I am still looking for some taller chairs to put with it.

Overall, it was a lot of work. I probably had at least 20 hours into it. But I just love it! My dad does too.

What do you all think?

Thanks so much for reading!
Shayla

Linking up to: The Crowned Goat | Thirty Eighth Street | Making It In The Mountains | DIY By Design | A Stroll Thru Life | Chic On a Shoestring | AKA Design

Farmhouse Bench

My first furniture build is in the books folks and here she is! I got a referral from a very nice girl I had met through a local buy/sell group to build a bench. When I built my Shanty-2-Chic floating shelves, I definitely got a confidence boost that I could build furniture. So when I got asked to build this bench, I was very excited to build it. From Shanty-2-Chic's website, I came across the Rogue Engineer and follow them on IG. So when I got this order, I immediately logged onto his website and came across this plan.

I started searching for some similar legs that I could get locally. Home Depot had these beautiful legs and of course there were only 3 when I got there. Just my luck. So I found someone to see if they had more in the back and he pulled them up for inventory and saw they had 5. Well, there was one more in the box next to it! Phew, so I grabbed them and the wood and couldn't wait to get started.

The build for the bench went well for my first time. The Rogue Engineer's plans are great. In total, I spent about 3-4 hours building it. If I had to do it again, it could be completed in 2-3 hours. Here are some pictures of the build.

And there she is all put together. Next was the stain. I chose to go with Rustoleum's Kona stain for the top and then Varathane gel stain in natural for the base of the table to match the clients current dining room table. To seal the bench and protect it, I went with my favorite polyurethane in satin. I am in love with this bench. If only I had a big enough dining room for my own. Someday.

Thanks so much for reading!

                                                                            Shayla

Linked up to: The Curator's Collection | Thirty Eighth Street | The Painted Drawer | The Crowned Goat | Finding Silver Pennies | Chic on a Shoe String | DIY By Design | Designer Trapped | Making It In The Mountains

Dark Grey Bassett Dresser

Happy November! Sorry I have been a little MIA, been busy getting ready for the holidays and I took my mom on a trip to Palm Springs, CA. We both had never been to that area of California and I would highly recommend it. We had beautiful weather and spent most of the time at the pool. The nice shuttle driver for the resort was convinced we must not have pools in Wisconsin. Ummmm... we do, but we only get to use them about two months out of the year! We stayed at the Westin Mission Hills and here is a view from there. My favorite picture I took while we were there.

OK, now back to the snow, cold weather and talking about this grey dresser. I had found this on CL quite some time ago. Ok.. like back in March. Ugh that sounds horrible, anyways. I finally got around to it in October. I thought it would be a good candidate to try spraying on since it was small in size and if I ruined it, I wouldn't be heartbroken. So, I took all the drawers out and lightly sanded everything. The color I used for this dresser was a custom mix with Behr's Orion Grey and Downpour. Now that I have been getting more familiar with how certain colors change with other main colors, I have really been enjoying making custom colors. That also means the color is very original then too, which I love. 

I forgot to take a complete before picture, so this is the best that I have. Next I got to spraying. With this, I learned that I definitely need to make some drawer skirts (inpired by The Resplendent Crow). I sprayed two coats of grey and the one coat of General Finishes high performance top coat in matte. 

Here was one of the drawers as it was drying.

Here, I was almost done with it. Just doing some little touch-ups on it. And you can see my other inventory/mess/workshop/garage. See anything you like?

And there she is, all done!

Thanks so much for reading,

Shayla

Linked up to: Thirty Eighth Street | A Stroll Thru Life

Painting with a Sprayer

Well, it finally happened. I bought this sprayer from Amazon a few weeks ago and finally got it out and painted this past weekend. It is amazing, I wish I would have done it so much sooner. My favorite furniture bloggers all spray their furniture for the most part and I finally decided to get it a try myself. 

I started testing it out first with cardboard and water to get a feel for how it sprayed and the different settings. 

Once I thought I had a feel for it, I thinned out some eggshell black Behr paint I have had for awhile from the Home Depot oops rack. It suggested to thin it down about 10-15%. with water. Once I had the paint thinned down, I poured it in the container and got my garage and the piece ready.

I was so nervous at first and I don't know why. Once the first coat was finished I waited a bit to see how it started drying and it looked amazing. It was so great not to see any brush strokes and I think it took me about 8 minutes to get the first coat on. 

I let this dry overnight and then did another coat early on Sunday and then staged it late in the afternoon while the sun was still out for pictures. I am still learning, but overall the first piece went well. I also did a chair since I had mixed way too much black paint, The set/up and cleaning take the most time, I am still trying to master the cleaning process. I thought I had it all cleaned out and then some black paint still dripped out of it an hour later. And I even bought the cleaner that attaches to the sink/hose as well. Hmmmm. Anyways, I would highly recommend this product. It saves time and creates a flawless finish on furniture. 

Anyone have any tips for cleaning?

Thanks for reading,

Shayla

Linked up to: AKA Design | 58 Water Street | A Stroll Thru Life