Twin Bed turned Bench !

Hey Everybody!

I finished a new project this weekend! I really loved this one and I was sad to ship it off to "The Front Porch of the South" to sell in our booth.

I live about 20 miles outside of town so I have the potential to pass alot of yard sales and flea markets when I am going into town on the weekends. Last Saturday I drove to Columbus to drop off the burlap ottoman and prayed that I would pass a yard sale with a good, but cheap, furniture redo project. After dragging the kids through four yard sales that just didn't work I finally lucked out! I found a great solid wood twin bed frame at a church sale for $10.00. It was a perfect fit for my project and luckily it fit in the back of my Caliber (I love my hatchback car).

Here is a picture of the headboard and foot board before my Husband cut it in half.

Before Mike put the bench seat in I lightly sanded the surface to ensure that the primer and paint would stick to the wood. If you don't sand the gloss finish before you paint there is a good chance that the paint will just scratch off and look terrible.

After the piece was sanded Mike cut the foot board down the middle, flipped it upside down to make the bench seat higher and framed the bench seat.
I painted two coats of primer on the bench which is more than enough to protect the wood and provide a great surface for the paint finish.

The fun part was next, I got to get the paint out and put a fabulous light aqua green color to the bench. I love this paint color. I have a hutch in my kitchen with a lighter shade of this color. I will definitely be added a piece to my house with this awesome color.

I distressed around the edges to give this bench an antique feel. I love the shabby chic style and I think this bench falls in the category nicely.

Mike added a great solid Black Walnut bench seat. He sanded it down to a smooth finish and I added a couple coats of Polycrylic.

This bench turned out better than I planned and I can't wait to start on my next furniture makeover.

Burlap Ottoman

Hey Everyone! I finally got another project finished.
     
     A quick update on my home life. I recently quit my day job to stay home with the kids and try my hand at a small home craft business. It was a very scary decision but one that I don't regret!!!

     My husband and I rent a booth space at "The Front Porch of the South" on Veterans Pkwy in Columbus Georgia (booth H02). So far it is turning a very small profit but it gets better each month so if anyone is in the Columbus GA area please stop in and take a look.

     So, my most recent rehab project started as a very worn end table that I picked up for $5.00 at a yardsale. My original plan was to sand it down and do some type of paint design on the top. After sanding the table I realized there was to much water damage on the veneer top so I went to Pintrest for a new idea. Here are a couple before pictures of the table.

     After doing a little web surfing I decided on an ottoman. It was the perfect way to reinvent this table. The table was very sturdy just to much cosmetic damage to repair.

       I painted the legs and bottom half of the table black and had my husband cut off a portion of the legs to make the height more suitable for an ottoman.

      After the two coats of black paint were dry I added two inch foam to the top of the table. The piece was not large enough to cover the entire table top so I had to cut two smaller pieces to cover the entire top. I used a small amount of spray glue to keep the foam pieces from shifting.

     Next I covered the foam with quilt batting. This step is important because it provides a smooth soft layer between the foam and the fabric.

     After the batting was added I covered it with the awesome print burlap fabric. I love burlap !

     I trimmed the fabric to about two inches past the table edge, folded the edge under and used a rustic black steel tack to secure the center of all four sides. After a tack was added to all four sides I flipped the table upside down to make it easier to pull the fabric tight and finishing tacking down the fabric.

     I used my small sewing ruler and my son's short handle hammer to place the tacks as evenly apart as possible. It is tough getting the alignment correct but I managed to do a pretty good job.

      The corners were tricky, I'm sure I didn't do it the way a professional would but I managed to make it look clean and uniform.

     It was probably around 12:30 a.m. when I was finishing this project so I didn't take pics of the tufting on the top. Basically I got my yard stick out and ran string up and down the top every 7 inches, placed a straight pin in each corner where the strings met and tacked it down. This method was easy and all the tacks on the top are evenly spaced.

     Here is the finished product !!!! I love the end result and if I didn't need to add this to my craft booth I would have kept it for myself! I hope you all like it.

Chevron Tables

I am finally back!

My life is crazy busy, but I am glad to be adding my newest craft project.

My sweet husband loves wood and I love paint. He looks at anything with wood finish and sees a work of art, most of the time my mind goes straight to the paint isle at Home Depot! With that said, here is the latest paint project that made my husband cringe.

I started with a coffee table and end table set that my husband made out of scrap wood last year. I didn't have a coffee table at the time so anything was better than nothing. I put a dark stain on the table and worked with it for a while. Two weeks ago (thanks to Pintrest for the chevron stencil idea) I decided to go with a chevron table top print.

This is a before picture of the two end tables after I lightly sanded them.

When you are going from stain to paint is is worth the mess and the time to lightly sand all the surfaces that will be painted. I sanded these tables with 150 sand paper.

After sanding the table the next step was primer (my least favorite part!!). While I really wanted to skip this step, trial and error have taught me that it is necessary.

I allowed the primer to dry and added two coats of white satin finish paint.

Next I cut a chevron pattern from a piece of cardboard, this was very important for keeping the lines even and straight.

I traced the first row using the end of the table as my starting guide. Each complete row required 12 strips of painters tape.

I just continued the same pattern one row after the next until I reached the end. I often have my laptop sitting near by with an episode of "Supernatural" playing. It might slow me down just a little but its worth it!

Next I used a fine sponge roller to apply two coats of paint. After the paint was about 80% dry I removed the tape. When the tape was gone I was so happy with the result.

 I walked by it just to look 15 times that night before I finally went to bed.

I would recommend that anyone who has a DIY project but are afraid to try....Just do it! You will be surprised by what you can do.

I am new to blogging so please forgive me if I am all over the place.

I am a "do it myself" kind of girl. I see something I like and my brain starts breaking it down so I can rebuild it my self. This post is about my Sister's wedding cake (three years ago). I am using this post as my kick off because I think this was my first really ambitious "do it myself" project.

It started with my sister getting engaged. I am 11 years older so I was super excited that my sister was getting married. I immediately volunteered to make the wedding cake to save money and because I was so excited. Keep in mind that at the time I had never made anything close to a wedding cake and had no idea how to.

I started by searching wedding cake images and saving hundreds of them. I settled on the right idea and began the process of learning how to decorate a wedding cake. I took a cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby which was very helpful in teaching the basics. After I got the hang of homemade frosting and how to spread it smoothly I was ready to practice on my own. I started very small with a friends birthday cake, just to see if I could get frosting right. This is my first cake

After this cake turned out I decided to move on to fondant. I did not take a class for this I just bought the fondant and YouTube became my best friend. I learned how to make roses and this is my first cake with fondant.

I learned how to make Calli Lillies on YouTube because that was the flower my sister wanted. I became the "go to" friend for birthday cakes which provided me with more practice.

I was really nervous when it got down to the wire because what if I ruined my sisters cake all because I opened my big mouth and said "I will make the cake!" Luckily my sister was just really happy and bridezilla was not in her vocab. The day before the wedding I worked for hours rolling out fondant and making fondant flowers (with the help of the bridesmaids! Thank You!). I had rolled so much fondant that I had bruises up both arms that had to be covered with make up the next day because I was also in the wedding party. Here is the finished product.

The cake was flawed but I am happy that it didn't look completely amateur. I would recommend that if you have ever wanted to try cake decorating find your closest Hobby Lobby store and get the ball rolling. If you don't have the availability to take a class YouTube is the next best thing. Thanks for reading my intro blog. I have some project going everyday so I will get a new post on here at least once a week.

Thank You!