Farmhouse Bookshelf

With painting furniture, I tend to look a lot of places for inspiration and ideas. One of those places being Instagram and I found NAK Home pretty early on in my painting hobby. I just loved all the unique pieces she found and her style. She also happens to be one of the sweetest and nicest fellow furniture painters that I have met on there. She would paint some pretty unique bookcases and I loved every single one of them. 

So, for a few years here, I have been on the hunt for one. Not having much luck, mind you. I find mostly pieces here in Wisconsin that are from an entertainment center or meant for a big tube TV. Well my friends, I finally found one! I couldn't believe it when I found it at GW and the price tag was still on there. If there was a prank TV show for furniture finders like myself, I swear I was on it with this piece. For the price and quality of the piece, I was on my furniture high for the rest of the day. Next step was getting it home. I didn't even bother to measure it because I knew I was going to get it home, one way (my SUV) or another (my dad's F150). 

Turns out, it did fit into my SUV, if my front seats are almost all the way forward. We got pretty close on the way home. 

Here is a full view before I did anything:

First, I took off the hardware and the cleaned the entire piece with TSP and some hot water. I was envisioning white for this piece, so I wanted to not have to spray the entire piece with primer. 

I cleaned up the hardware with Bar Keeper's Friend and took a picture this time. Check out this transformation:

This truly amazes me every time. All the tarnish literally just wipes off with a rag and some elbow grease. 

After cleaning, I lightly sanded the bookshelf and then shop-vac'ed it to get the dust off. 

At the ReStore, I found SW Dover White paint in satin, so I decided to mix this up to make some chalk paint for this piece. Think I paid $1 or $2 for an almost full quart of paint. Such a great deal for such an amazing color. I used my HomeRight Finish Max sprayer in my garage to paint.

After the first coat:

One tip for using this sprayer: definitely make sure to do a few test sprays first. Then determine if you need to adjust the amount of paint with the spray control that it is spraying. This will really help you avoid the dreadful drips that magically seem to appear!

Between each coat, I lightly sand with 150-220 grit paper and dust off before the next coat of paint. This will really help you get that smooth finish.

Here it is after about 2.5 coats of paint and some distressing:

I then sprayed on 2 coats of General Finishes HPTC in Satin. I lightly sand after applying this as well. 

Definitely one of my favorite pieces this year!

Thanks so much for reading!

-Shayla

Linked up to: Making It In The Mountains | Chic on a Shoestring

Farmhouse Side Table

You've probably noticed that I haven't posted in a few months on here. 

I have still been finding pieces and projects, but have not had much motivation to actually work on them. For this, I am attributing it to my new real-world job that I started last November. It has certainly been keeping me busy, but for the rest of the year, I am making a dedicated effort to work on projects for the rest of the year. When I was really working on this, I couldn't wait to get out of work to go home to work on this. I missed that little bit of excitement in my nights and now it is back!

Anyways, so with this table, found it as a local Goodwill. Like I do with all my projects, I fall in line with all the details, original hardware and great lines. It was also marked as solid mahogany. It was pretty scratched up, had collected quite a few dust bunnies and looked like some sort of liquid has been dropped on it. 

So to start, I started with my Shop-Vac (Christmas gift from my dad from 2014, thank you Dad!) and go rid of the bunnies and spider webs. Next, I used mixed TSP and hot water to wash it down. I was really hoping this would clean whatever liquid had dropped on this table so I wouldn't get any bleed through in the paint. Then, I lightly sanded with 150 grit sand paper and gave it one final sweep with the Shop-Vac. Here she was before I started painting. 

My eye usually only sees in neutral colors, so of course I wanted to go white for this table. I decided to use Behr's New House White. For my projects, I have been using Behr paint for quite some time. Behr Premium Plus Ultra has always been my preference for the specific product, in hopes that it will really block stains. For this project, I wanted chalk paint so I could distress it. I used the same recipe that I have always used, one part water and one part Plaster of Paris mixed first, then three parts paint. Works like a charm every time.

So I start spraying with my Home Right Finish Max sprayer and get the first coat on. Within a few minutes, I could already see the bleed through [insert sad face here]. From my experience, there are just some stains that come through no matter what. That is when I go to Zinsser Shellac primer in the spray can form. I have used this on multiple projects and it has blocked every single stain, absolutely love it and highly recommend. They occasionally go on sale at Home Depot, so I usually try to get quite a few when they do. 

Then, the table just needed two more coats of paint to get full coverage. Here is a sneak peak after I did some slight distressing:

One part of this table that I did not take pictures of before/during/after that I am sad about is the hardware. It was so tarnished, but had such great character. So one morning as I was getting ready for work, I put the pieces in a bowl and sprayed on the liquid form of Barkeepers Friend. It sat for probably about 20 minutes. Then I washed it all off with a scrubby and couldn't believe how the hardware looked brand new again. Pictures next time for sure. 

Then to seal the table, I sprayed on General Finish HPTC in Satin. Here is the final table, I absolutely love it. Can't wait to start on some more projects again. 

What do you all think? 

Thanks so much for reading, hope everyone is enjoying 2017 so far!

-Shayla

Linked up to: Making It In The Mountains

Dresser Turned Entertainment Center w/ Wine Rack

When I bought my condo, I was very fortunate to get an awesome neighbor downstairs who has turned out to be a great friend, almost like a fun second grandpa. I knew we would get along just great when he showed me this amazing old antique lamp that he has had with him for 30+ years. He has full on cable and I don't, so we occasionally watch Flea Market Flip. After seeing my work and some of the fun projects on the show, he asked me to make him an entertainment center with a wine rack. 

So I was on a mission to find the perfect piece for him. I found a great Henredon dresser on CL while perusing it on a Saturday night. Small world, it turned out I knew the person selling it. The next morning, I went to pick it up. And then it sat in my garage for quite awhile. Finally around January, I started working on it.

I had never reconstructed a dresser before. First, I started taking of the back. It had these very old nails in it. Here is a picture as I was taking of the back. I then took out all the drawer slides and stops.

My vision was to buy a big piece of wood that I could slide in through the back to make the shelf for the cable box and router. I found a big piece of wood a Home Depot that would do the trick. I also bought two pieces of wood to cut for the wine rack. My dad came over and helped me cut all the wood. Here is the dresser with the wood piece after it was cut. Had to make sure it fit!

I then sanded everything using my Ryobi sander and stained it all with General Finishes Java Gel Stain. Here are the pieces after they were stained. I absolutely love how the stain really brought out the wood grain.

After this, I sanded down the top and stained that using the Java gel stain. 

Once I was happy with the top, I taped plastic to protect it and began spraying. My neighbor picked out Tuscany Hillside for the color. I used my favorite HomeRight Finish Max Sprayer for this. 

For the two middle drawers, I wanted to keep those wood. so I sanded those down and stained them as well. Here is the before and after.

And there here she is, all finished after I sprayed on topcoat! I used HPTC in satin and also wetsanded the paint prior to spraying on topcoat to try to get that antiqued look. I apologize for the photos, didn't get to bring it to my usual staging spot. 

So happy she is finished and in her new home. My neighbor absolutely loves it. He did eventually hide all his cords, thank goodness. My cord OCD'ness was on high alert. Hope everyone is has a great weekend!

-Shayla

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

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

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