Two Matching Bookcases

Ok, I know I say this a lot, but I think these might possibly be my favorites thus far. Or at least until I paint something next. I picked up these beautiful bookcases from a local Goodwill. One of them was broken, but I used some handy dandy wood glue and my brad nailer/compressor to get it back together.

Luckily everything was mostly still in tact. I love all the detail on these, I couldn't wait to get started. I first cleaned them with TSP, hot water and rag. They were pretty dusty, old, full of cobwebs and definitely had the antique smell going on. Here they are after I got them all fixed and cleaned up:

I wanted to use these as my nightstands, so next it was onto find a color that would go with my bedroom. I narrowed it down to these two Behr colors:

Flint Smoke ended up being my final decision. I wanted a light greyish/blue to pick up on the rest of the color in my bedroom. Now, they were ready to paint!

I sprayed these with my HomeRight Finish Sprayer knowing that all the beautiful detail would be very hard and time consuming to hand paint. I mixed up my paint with Plaster of Paris and water to make the good ol' homemade chalk paint recipe and got to spraying. In between coats, I lightly sanded with 220 grit sand paper and then would vacuum the dust off. I then sealed them with General Finishes HPTC in satin. 

I absolutely love them! Without the paint sprayer, I never would have even thought about touching these with a paint brush. If you are on the fence about getting a sprayer because of whatever your reason is, just get one! It is honestly life changing and will save you a ton of time and you will get a perfect finish on whatever you decide to use it on. 

Thanks so much for reading and happy holidays!

-Shayla


Linked up to: Making It In The Mountains

Understated Coffee Table

 Please note, while this contest is sponsored and I received free product, all opinions are my own.

Hi everyone! This month I participated in the Fab Furniture Flippin' contest again. This month was sponsored by Velvet Finishes. We got to pick two colors for the theme "Colour Your World" this month.

I was super excited to try this new paint as it is something I have never tried before. I decided to stick with a white theme, as I tend to have hard time straying away. I picked out two colors, Understated and Rococo.

One of my furniture friends gave me an amazing coffee table with a solid wood top to use for my project piece (thank you Kim!). I started off by sanding down the top, as you can see I was partially started here in this picture.

I loved the chunky legs and solid shape of the table. I used a dark stain for the wood top of the coffee table and then I prepped it with Velvet Finishes Ready product for the base. This was super easy to spray on and it dried really quickly. I then applied two coats of the color Rococo. To recreate the wood look, you could paint the top in a nice dark color such as Timeless or Luxurious from Velvet Finishes. Here is progress shot after my first coat and stain.

The paint went on very easily. Super smooth and great coverage for white over a dark green color with the only prep being the Ready spray. I then dry brushed Understated over the base color. I then sealed the entire table with Velvet Finishes Protect product. And here is the final product!

I absolutely love how it turned out! I love the refreshing white tones with the dark top.

Thank you so much for reading. If you want to check out all the other entries, please visit these lovely hosts:

Fern Avenue

&

Sweet Tea Refinishing

Interested in participating along with us in the Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest? You can do so by sending an email over to: info@fabfurnitureflippincontest.com.

Have a great weekend!

Shayla

Linked up to: Making It In The Mountains | Finding Silver Pennies

White Bookshelf

Hello! Long time, no post for me. 2016 has been one of my toughest years thus far. My grandma passed away in March and it has been one of the hardest obstacles in my life thus far. We have always been very close and it was very hard for me to watch her deteriorate in the last few months of her life. I try to keep telling myself that she is in a better place, no longer in pain and cherish all of the memories we had together, but I still incredibly miss her. Life is just not the same! So I lost a lot of interest in a lot of the things that used to bring me so much happiness, like painting furniture. I have still been picking and buying piece selectively though in hopes that I would get it back eventually. 

Summer in Wisconsin is such a beautiful time of the year. I have been outside so much with my new hobby of golf and just enjoying the summer, while slowly working on this piece above. I came across this piece at a local thrift shop and had a 50% off coupon and got it for $7.50! What a deal. Here is the exciting parking lot picture before I load her up in my car.

I bought this piece back on January 28, per my trusty iPhone. And she has sat dormant in my bedroom with me every night up until the last week. I have been very fortunate to meet another fellow Pewaukee-an (is that such a thing?) who runs a barn where she rents out booths to vendors. She also refinishes furniture and occasionally asks me if I have any finished pieces when she runs low on pieces for her booth. This has been so great for the both of us. The Milwaukee market isn't that great for selling refinished furniture. A lot of people try to talk you down in price and pieces just don't sell well compared to other  bigger cities. So this piece went to her booth and I will have a few other pieces going there soon as well. It's a great business relationship for me because I know she will always take my pieces and I don't have to worry about selling them.

With all the spindles on the piece, I used my HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer. By far, still the best investment I have made for painting, besides the furniture. I used Sherwin Williams satin paint that I found at a local ReStore in Casa Blanca for a great price. To protect it when done, I used General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in satin. To apply it, I also use the sprayer as well. I love how it turned out! I need a bigger house to keep all these items.

What do you all think? 

Hoping I am back into furniture mode and I should have a few more posts coming up in the next few weeks. 

Thanks so much for reading, happy Thursday!

-Shayla

Linked up to: A Stroll Thru Life | Chic On A Shoestring Decorating | Pocket of Posies | Patina Paradise | Making It In The Mountains

The Perfectly Imperfect Side Table

This month, I got to participate in The Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest that was sponsored by one of my favorite paint companies Country Chic Paint. The theme for this contest is Bling Bling.

 We received one pint of their all-in-one decor paints, one pint of a metallic cream and a short handle paint brush.

I decided to try one of their limited 2016 colors in Sea Storm and Silver Bullet for the metallic cream.

I found this super cute little table at a local Goodwill recently and knew it would be the perfect piece. This table just called my name. It looked very handmade and whoever made it put a lot of time and effort into it and I wanted to give it new life!

This table was hand nailed together and I am still amazed at how they got the second bottom shelf to fit in there. So I brought her home and decided to paint her first. I am a huge Country Chic Paint fan. Here is a link to another blog post where I used their Vanilla Frosting color to redo my most favorite Cedar Hope Chest of all time. Their paint is incredible, it has great coverage and goes on well to any piece.

Here is the progress after one coat. I put one more coat on in addition to the first coat of the all in one decor paint in Sea Storm. Then the next step was to tape off the legs. I was envisioning a shabby chic/farmhouse silver dipped look for this cute little table.

This was my first time using their metallic cream. I was expecting it be more of a paint consistency, but Country Chic is very accurate in describing it as a cream. I applied two coats with a brush.

And here is the perfectly imperfect table all finished. I just love all the cute detail of it and seeing how much hard work someone put into building this table. The table fits perfect in my landing area of my stairs. Can't wait to find some new cute decorations for it in it's new home.

What do you all think?

Thank you so much for reading! To see all the other entries from fellow bloggers, please visit these two blogs:

Sweet Tea Refinishing 

& 

Thirty Eight Street

Interested in participating a future contest? You can do so by sending an email to info@fabfurnitureflippincontest.com

Thanks so much for reading,

Shayla

 Please note, while this contest is sponsored and I received free product, all opinions are my own.

Original Elegance with Pure & Original Paint

This month I got to participate in the Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest again! It was so fun, I got to try a brand new paint, Pure and Original's Clasico paint line with the theme of Original Elegrance.  This is their chalk based paint made with natural pigments with a matte powdery look. I decided on two colors, Atria and Soft Asparagus. 

Please note, while this contest is sponsored and I received free product, all opinions are my own.

I decided to try this paint on this adorable side table I picked up from a local thrift shop. 

I was tempted to leave the detailed sides, which I tried at first. I tried painting the entire piece and leaving those for the end and a small paint brush. In the end, I decided to paint the entire piece.

 The paint was amazing on the metal detailed parts. It went on so well and only required about two coats for everything. Here are the final pictures.

How do you think it turned out? I am in love with it! This was such a great new product to try and I am so happy with the results. 

Here are links to the host bloggers where you can see all the other projects:

Thirty Eighth Street 

and 

Anastasia Vintage

If you are interested in participating in future contests, please email info@fabfurnitureflippincontest.com for more information.

Thanks so much for reading!

-Shayla

Linked up to: Chic on a Shoestring Decorating | Lost and Found Decor

Caned-Back Chair to a Padded Back Chair

This month, I participated in the Fab Furniture Flippin' Contests March project, which was sponsored by Fairfield World. The theme this month was "Mix and Match". Please note, while this contest was sponsored and I received free product, all opinions are my own.

I had come across this chair at a local Goodwill quite some time ago and wasn't getting a vision for it, until this contest came along.

Fairfield World provided me with Foamology 1" Cushion Foam and I decided to convert the back of this chair to a pad. I started off by removing the caning. I used a really sharp box cutter to cut off the caning.

Here is the chair after it was completely deconstructed.

Next, I traced out the back pattern on the foam and installed the back of the fabric on the chair.

Then I layered the foam with some batting, hot glued it together, and then glued it to the frame of the chair so I could install the top layer of fabric. 

Then the tricky part, all the stapling.  And then installing the cord. There really is a science and art to upholstery. Despite my best attempt, I am still not 100% satisfied with my upholstery skills. I need to take a class! For my mix and match, I decided to mix colors here with the cording and fabric. I feel like these colors mix and match in a very complimentary style.

And here she is all finished!

I absolutely loved the cushion foam I was provided with. It cut nicely and made the project very easy to complete. Just need to step up my upholstery skills!

Follow these two blogs to see all the other great projects from my fellow contestants:

Colleen @ 58 Water Street

+

Charlotte @ Ciburbanity

If you are interested in participating in upcoming contests, please email info@fabfurnitureflippincontest.com for more information.

Thanks so much for reading,

Shayla

Linked up to: Lost & Found  | The Curators Collection | Making It In The Mountains  | Chic on A Shoestring Decorating