Furniture Refinishing Projects

Project #1: Several years ago my mom bought this old birdcage/display but nothing was done to refinish it and it sat in the garage rusting for a couple years. Last spring I took it out, totally sanded it down by hand, and added a rust preventing base paint to keep it from rusting more until I decided what to paint it. I always thought it would be cool redone and a few months ago I finally brought it over to the house and painted it. It’s now in my future office room being used to display some of my library.

Before and after sanding. That was a rough job scouring off all that rust!

I finally repainted it a pewter color and it looks fabulous!

Project #2: I bought this little folding table at a thrift store in the sale bin for $6. It was horribly ugly but it was a cute style and sturdy. I knew it could be repainted and with a little elbow grease look great!

Someone did a crap job spray painting this table. It was gaudy gold painted over bright yellow. It wasn’t primed so it was peeling off showing yellow all over. Blech!

I lightly sanded the table, spray primed it, and used leftover Benjamin Moore Navajo White paint. I then added a clear protective top coat to keep it from being damaged.

Voila!

Have a bright day!
Chelsea

Kitchen Updates!

Well I am WAAAY behind on posts, specifically house remodeling projects. It’s been a crazy fall and winter season. Lots of traveling and working! So whenever I haven’t been doing either of those things I’ve been doing stuff around the house aaaannnd let’s be honest watching Netflix. It’s cold! But I’ve been doing mostly the other three things. So now that a new year has started it’s time to catch up on the blog. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you’ve been keeping updated but I still have lots of blogs-ta-write. So here we go!

As a reminder: This is what the kitchen looked like before I bought the house. Pretty much unchanged in 50 years. It was in serious need of some cleaning and cheering up. Since it was the most in need of help it’s the last room I worked on.

    

    

The first thing I did when I started working on the kitchen was I took off the old drawer pulls which were pretty rusty (I had to saw off at least one) and painted the bottom cabinets Benjamin Moore White Dove. I then replaced the knobs with really cute new contemporary pulls.

Probably 3 months passed before I did anything else which was having a friend help me take down the upper cabinets. I patched the holes and primed over the yucky walls. I’m planning to put up open shelves.

   

It already looks so much brighter and bigger with the cabinets down!

I bought this cute skinny blue shelf at a store that was going out of business. I’m planning to put it in the kitchen in the small hallway to use for pantry items.

I decided to paint the ceiling Benjamin Moore Cat’s Meow pink!

Annnnd I finally got the beadboard paper put up! It’s so cute! I painted the walls Benjamin Moore White Dove, the same color as the trim and cabinets. In a few months I’ll have the shelving up. I can’t wait!

 

Say goodbye to the old stove! I finally got a stove right before Thanksgiving!

    

    

    

Officially used my oven for the first time to make brownies for Crème de menthe brownies. Yummo!

It is so hard to believe this is the same room and how much was done in a few months. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a few more months as things progressively get completed. Stay tuned!

Have a bright day!

Chelsea

Pinterest worthy DIY projects

I’m the kind of girl who likes to do things herself and find new ways to use and enjoy things from another time or place. It doesn’t hurt if they are inexpensive changes to boot. I have a lot of mini projects swimming around in the back of my head and as I recently had a social gathering at my house it was time to put some of them into overdrive. So without further ado. Voila!

I found this awesome vintage garden gate buried in ivy behind the shed when I was clearing some things out of the yard. I knew it would be awesome cleaned up and put back in the garden. When were walking around downtown Madison after going to the Sunflower Farm Festival a few weeks ago I saw this “old” garden gate on a wall. ‘Um. I’m doing that!’

So I cleaned it up, scrubbed it with a steel wool brush, and sprayed it with a clear anti rush spray paint and then Krylon Ivy Leaf.

Ta Da! It has a new life:)

Project #2. While shopping a month or so ago I spotted these adorable house numbers outside a cute little shop. I asked, they no longer sell them. So I figured, hey! I can make those!

    

I had tons of wooden paint stirrers from my massive house painting project/s and extra Benjamin Moore Bermuda Turquoise paint. I was going to paint my door Bermuda Turquoise but ended up going with Calypso Blue, one shade lighter. Used leftover white paint and a stencil. Sprayed with clear sealer. Easy as 1, 2, 3…Done!

So fun right!

What are some of your recent DIY projects or Pinterest inspirations?

Have a bright day!

Bright Girl