More furniture transformations.....

ok so here are the other two furniture projects I did. the first was painting a changing table i figured it was small and shouldn't take long and if i could handle that then i would be ok handling bigger projects. well i gotta say the hardest part of all these projects for me was waiting for the paint to dry! lol I was so anxious to see my finished product that at times i would add a coat before that paint dried. the best places to find things are garage sales and CL. both places you can negotiate the price.

The changing table was originally oak and I wanted an espresso brown one. again it was inexpensive through CL. For this project i sanded the table first then primed it with gray spray paint primer then spray painted it Brown. the finish wasn't as smooth as i expected so i used a scrubbing sponge to smooth out the spray paint bumps.

the next project i did was a desk i wanted something more elegant for the dinning room and so i found this all wood desk at a garage sale and got the price reduced to $15! you'd be amazed what people will do to get rid of something. this was truly a gem. even had a locking drawer that the owner wasn't aware of because he didn't know the key was screwed on behind one of the drawers lol. this desk was very heavy and an oak finish. i wanted a two tone finish so that the hardware would stand out. I decided on white and brown. I didn't take a before pick (not sure what i wasn't thinking) so here is a before of a similar desk. 

 I primed the bottom white and the top grey since it would be a dark brown this time i actually found espresso paint. spray paint was used only on the hardware the rest was regular latex paint.

 I lined the drawers with dollar store drawer liner....

 and for the top i wanted a really smooth shiny finish however the espresso paint only came in semi gloss so i originally tried polyurethane but i didn't notice much shine then i decided to use clear lacquer paint. i strongly suggest a well ventilated area and mask because that stuff stinks!!  and presto my new desk! i may get a glass for the top in the future but with 2 boys i may not.

 after the desk was done i had to do something about the oak bookcase i had. I was a small one purchased a long time ago but still did the job. so for this project i just spray painted with the grey primer,  no sanding. i used the same paint as the desk so hand painted after priming it. It was a very plain bookcase i wanted to add a little sophistication to it.

So i added trim to the top and bottom fronts! 

 to tie the bookcase in with the desk i glued some of the drawer liner to the back of the bookcase it actually made it look fancy!

 the finished product looks great to me!

our old corner office area. 

our new office corner. 

and lastly made an office cork board using leftover drawer liner and brown ribbon. lol 

Transforming a nightstand

welcome back to me! I've been MIA but I'm back and wanted to blog about my personal projects with hopes to inspire others to do the same. I think this pregnancy along with pinterest has sparked my creativity and so I was motivated to get some things done before baby came. I have wanted some nightstands for our master BR for some time with no luck. I finally found a pair for dirt cheap on CL and figured I could paint them. I was inspired by a another blogger who happened to transform the exact same nightstands. click here for her blog. I am going to include step by step instructions as i found hers to be a little vague and was left with questions.  so lets get started! this is actually my 3rd furniture project.

here are the before picts: these were old hotel nightstands. found them on CL for $5 ea. they would serve as the base for my new nightstands.

I cleaned, sanded and added wood filler to any holes. I also added wood filler to one of the bottom corners but I didn't really need to considering I was planning to add some height to them. I bought a 4x4 from Home depot (HD) and had them cut my 8 pieces to size with a larger piece left over. cost: $14. I believe they were each 5" long although I only added 2inches in height. the untreated wood was more costly than the pressure treated one but I was told for indoor projects not to use the pressure treated wood. I used gorilla wood glue (amazing stuff) to keep the new footing in place and then screwed them in place. the first table i put the screws on the inside bottom but they didn't lay flush so i tried wood filler but you could still see where the screw heads were.  the second table i put the screws in from the side where they would not be visible.

once the new feet were on it was time for the trim. the blogger said hers was 7" but i couldn't find any that size for the life of me. HD has a pay by the foot trim and was told to get a foot more for mistakes and boy was he right. Cutting 45 degree angles is not easy!! I don't have power tools so I purchased a miter saw kit at walmart. I only did the 3 sides since the back would be against the wall. this trim was floor trim and came pre-primed which took one step out of day,  yay! I bought a smaller trim for the top to make a place for the glass/mirror I was planning to put on top. Wood filler was used to fill in any gaps between the joints. The cost of the trim was surprisingly expensive as well. Later on I found trim for a fraction of the cost at the habitat restore. not only are the products cheap the money is used for a good cause. If you have one near you I highly recommend it. once the trim was on i primed the rest of the table. If you are painting something dark then save yourself the hassle and use grey primer! on parts where there was white primer i found myself having to put on more coats of paint.

For the drawers i added some trim i found at the habitat restore and new acrylic handles (the last ones there!) I love crystal everything so if i could incorporate it somehow i was going to. the hardest part was deciding on the colors and designs at the end. started out with a silver trim but then changed my mind and made it brown. Again just used gorilla glue to put the trim on nothing more. the handles fit perfectly! i spray painted the drawers and backing almond and painted the rest espresso brown in semi gloss because they didn't have gloss! i then added one to two coats of left over lacquer to give it more shine.

once the body was done i began to work on the top the other blogger used bead board but i originally wanted to add a mirror (cost: $25/ea) then i saw a bronze mirror and thought that would be cool (cost $40/ea) so since the cost was too much for me i decided to go another route. I figured i would make a design on the tops and then just cover with plexiglass! the plexiglass was $25 for a big enough piece for both tables but I had to cut it myself (not easy!) the cutting tool HD sells sucks! i ended up using the miter saw to finish the cuts after my first attempt ended in a broken piece :-( Also note that if you can save one side of the trim for last because i ended having to take one off and re-position it so that everything would lay flush. what a pain in the butt!! 

i covered the original table with 3/16 inch board (cost:$5) as this would serve as my platform for my design. i then primed it and painted it. this is where it got very messy and frustrating. I planned to paint the plastic with mirror spray paint so i tried it on a small left over piece first. it didn't turn out as i planned so that idea was scrapped. 

then i thought well maybe i can stencil a metallic stencil on the board and put the plastic on top since it would be easier to repaint the board than to do anything on the plastic. 

I couldn't decide on which stencil to use and what colors. i planned to use a bronze base with metallic silver or almond stencils but.... apparently I'm not any good at stenciling and you could see where one piece ended and the other began. it just didn't blend in well. soooo I decided to paint the whole thing metallic silver with just a design in the middle with our initials on ea table. the letters I had were too big and like i mentioned before my stenciling skills were bad so i didn't want to risk it. I did what any sane person would do i resorted to dollar store decals!! i wanted to make my husband's table manly and mine more feminine. the metallic silver drove me crazy trying to get a nice smooth coat on (did i mention I'm a perfectionist) so it was repainted at least 4-5 times until i gave up. 

and here are the finished products! 

I hope this inspires others to tackle any project that may seem impossible. a pair of nightstands like these may cost over $100 ea but i completed mine with just about $55 for both! I took me a few weeks with trying to juggle work, a toddler and the fatigue of being pregnant so take your time if you can especially when waiting for the paint to dry! hope you enjoyed and please comment or ask questions! have a blessed day.