Search Results for: broken to beautiful

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Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled

Broken to Beautiful is FunCycled’s way of sharing love and kindness. Saying thank you to our customers and community! 

This idea started with an idea that was planted in my heart several years ago while attending the Capital City Rescue Mission’s annual banquet. They showed how God takes broken lives… permeated by drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, and makes them beautiful through the power of Christ’s love and grace. Hearing the stories and listening to those affected speak brought me back to the basics. It reminded me that without Christ I am broken but His death, burial and resurrection makes me beautiful in God’s eyes. All of my sins have been wiped clean by Christ’s victory over death on the cross. (2 Timothy 1:9)

Over the years, God has blessed FunCycled by giving us continued opportunities to restore and refresh well used or broken furniture through our design services.  We repair it, redesign it and it’s given new life. One of the things I love about my job is that every project reminds me of the most important work… the work God does in our hearts.  He takes the old, damaged, or hurting and gives us new life in Christ.

Through our Broken to Beautiful initiative, it is our desire to redesign a piece of furniture or complete an upcycling project for free to bless one individual within our community.  We have done this in a variety of ways over the years, and it is special every time!  

From our hearts to yours,

Sarah & the FunCycled Team

Here’s how to be part of this initiative:  

✔️Complete this submission form where you will provide us with your contact information as well as supply photo(s) of the project you would like completed.  Remember, you can make a submission for you or for someone else who maybe would never be able to afford a project like this. SUBMIT TODAY

✔️Within the form, we will want to know a little more about why this project is so important.  Maybe share some of this history behind the piece you are submitting or tell us a fun story about how you rescued the furniture piece.

✔️Attach a picture of the piece you would like redone. You can do this through the form. 

✔️We will send you a consent form to sign allowing FunCycled to make any and all alterations to the piece. You will need to sign that and give FunCycled all rights to make changes and creative freedom to redo it however we determine. (You can make suggestions, but we will not guarantee any specific design)

✔️If you have a picture of the room it will be going in, send a picture of that as well.

OUR CURRENT INITIATIVE

We will open up submissions on August 1, 2024 and close out on August 15, 2024.  Once a winner has been selected, we will notify them and proceed with the next steps. 

Don’t forget…the more information you provide us about the history of the piece or the story behind why you would like it saved, the better. It will help us decide who the winners will be! Thank you for sharing this with your friends and for wanting to repurpose along side of us! 

MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION HERE

We look forward to hearing from you! 

TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF OUR PAST FURNITURE REPURPOSE PROJECTS! 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. Last but not least, let us customize a furniture piece for you. We create custom furniture and will deliver for customers in upstate NY and also ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our furniture for sale page.

We Love Taking Something Broken and Making it Beautiful

We’re John and Sarah, and this is our story. Sarah started FunCycled in 2012 to share tips for redoing furniture and then sell the furniture. Since our start in 2012, we’ve grown from selling repurposed furniture to designing custom furniture orders like dining room tables, launching into interior design services, and kitchen cabinet repurposing. We’ve also been able to have once in a lifetime adventures like being on the Rachel Ray Show, winning on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip show, and winning BYU tv’s show Survivalist!!

Check out our story by video!



We have two teens who help in the business and are the reason we started FunCycled. We wanted to have more time at home with them while they were little. They are our biggest blessings in life. Such a joy!

John has extensive woodworking skills from working in contracting and carpentry for 10 years; he knows how to create all the requests Sarah sends his way. As a family, we’re upcycling and rejuvenating homes, kitchens, and furniture on its way to the curb into something beautiful. We service much of New York state and are able to ship to other parts of the US.

Specialty Furniture Painting and Design
Custom Built Barn Doors
Kitchen Cabinet Painting
Interior Design Services

We also bought a house in 2019 and have been repurposing it room by room! We call it our Repurposed Idea House and you can see some of the project we’ve been working on here.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all our local clients who have made this dream our reality!

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Heartwarming Before & After: China Cabinet Painted Sweatshirt Gray

Hi, friends!

I am so excited to share today’s Tuesday Treasure with you! Before I get to that, I want to give a shout out to my team and all they did for helping FunCycled host the 2024 Fall Festival a couple of weeks ago! It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed spending time with old and new friends who stopped by! Check out some sweet photos from the event.

At the event, the 336 Food Truck really delivered on their latest offering…extra creamy hot cocoa with perfectly toasted marshmallow topping! I mean I had to try it! : )

Take a look at that crew, hard at work!

Today, I am featuring our latest furniture makeover story which was actually the winner of our most recent Broken to Beautiful free furniture makeover initiative. For all of the details on FunCycled’s Broken to Beautiful, please read our full blog post here: FunCycled’s Broken to Beautiful.

This heartwarming makeover story relays the tale of a china cabinet passed down from a beloved grandparent to her adoring granddaughter. In Jessica’s own words, “it is a treasured heirloom that carries deep emotional and familial significance. This elegant piece embodies not only the craftsmanship and style of its time but also the warmth and love of my grandmother’s home.” Jessica also shared that her hope would be to use a restored version of the cabinet to display the fine china collection that had been curated by her grandmother on her father’s side. Both of these women have passed, but Jessica wanted to honor the heritage and legacies of each through this one piece of furniture, sure to keep their history and memories alive in a new way. Exactly the heart of Broken to Beautiful!

Here are some pictures of the china cabinet before it was refreshed.

When we first spoke with Jessica to share with her that she had been selected as the recipient of the Summer Broken to Beautiful Initiative, she was beyond elated at the prospect of having this precious piece rejuvenated! I still recall her voice as it choked up with joy and overwhelm.

One really important component to the Broken to Beautiful initiative is that we desire to breathe new life into old or broken pieces of furniture in order to bring joy and hope into someone’s life! We are so glad that we got to do this for Jessica and her family.

Take a look at some after photos of the china cabinet redone.

Here are the photos of Jessica with her now refreshed china cabinet filled with the treasured china given to her! What a beautiful honor to both of her grandmother’s legacies!

And here are some additional details of the cabinet.

We painted the inside of the cabinet in Benjamin Moore Simply White and the whole exterior in Benjamin Moore Sweatshirt Gray. Those swatches are below, so you can see how these beautiful colors work together! Plus, as you see in the last photo above, we lightly distressed some of the edges around the door, the drawer, and molding of this item. When you take time to appropriately distress, it will emphasize and draw (well deserved) attention to all of the right details! And, we decided to keep the original hardware for this item. Keeping the same hardware is a way of preserving history and often is the only complement for an older piece like this cabinet.

Benjamin Moore Sweatshirt Gray
Benjamin Moore Simply White

A huge thank you to Jessica and family for entering the Broken to Beautiful Initiative and for allowing us the opportunity to refresh this cabinet that you may begin creating new memories that honor and cherish those from your youth!

Please keep an eye on our social channels for our next Broken to Beautiful campaign. We encourage our community to not only consider their own stories for submission but to also submit on behalf of a deserving individual who would be deserving of this furniture makeover. Again, full details for the Broken to Beautiful Initiative can be found in the link below.

FunCycled’s Broken to Beautiful Initiative

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Note some of the the links provided are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from any qualifying purchases.

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Charming Troy Kitchen Makeover with Brand New Cabinet Doors

Hi friends!

I hope you had a great weekend! My family and I are continuing to enjoy being outside and enjoying the days of summer!

It has been a while since I shared a kitchen makeover story with you, and today, I certainly will do that! But as I do, I want to make sure that I help explain (and show some good examples of) knowing when upgrading your cabinet doors is the best decision for your kitchen refresh. Typically, with most of our kitchens, we are focused on upcycling the current kitchen cabinets and giving them a refresh by painting them and changing out hardware. However, sometimes when evaluating the whole kitchen project, the best decision is to change out the cabinet doors. It may surprise you, but this not only gives a fresh look to really outdated or beat up cabinet doors but it also can often be the most cost effective option when considering repair costs or labor costs to ensure the right outcome.

Today’s kitchen features the story of Patricia and her husband who were moving into a new home and part of their plan was to include a refresh to their kitchen. When we met, there were a few challenges to talk through. First the color or their kitchen was a dark black. Black cabinets can be an elegant option, don’t get me wrong, but the cabinets in Patricia’s kitchen were in rough shape. doing that thing that many of us do…we know we need to get things updated, but we are really trying to stretch our dollar and make sure we make the best and wisest decision for our families. When I first talked with Patricia, she mentioned that she was concerned the doors in on her kitchen cabinets When we met with Patricia, she brought one of her ca

Here is a picture of the kitchen before our FunCycled team was able to work our magic

It might be hard to see because I had to zoom in on one of the before photos that our client had taken of her kitchen. The cabinet doors were in pretty rough shape. A previous owner had them painted with heavy duty deck paint. This kind of paint is COMPLETELY WRONG for cabinet doors!

As we reviewed the condition of the cabinet doors, we determined that the number of hours to get these doors to a smooth surface (in order to help the paint adhere) would be well beyond the cost of building new doors for the project. Not to mention, we were not even guaranteed to ever get them fully smooth and could not really guarantee the paint would full cure and adhere to the doors.

Here are some more photos that we took the day John installed the new doors. Take a look at that rough texture! As I said before we probably would not even able to get a smooth even finish to repaint these doors and the process of attempting to do so would prove costly. The better option here is to select having new doors built. Another thing to note is that this texture and paint were on BOTH sides of the door.

Before Photo
Before Photo

Here are some photos of the new doors that we took the day of install. These new doors are a shaker style door. Shaker cabinet doors are very classic and work with just about every design style, so it will work in most homes no matter what other decor you may have. Notice how much smoother the cabinets are. Isn’t that so much better? Plus by changing the doors, Patricia and her husband were able to upgrade the hinges. So rather than having to keep her hinges which were really old and not in the best condition, she was able to upgrade to new soft close hinges. The hinges we like to use for our kitchen projects when a client asks for soft close option is linked here.

Front of New Door
Back of New Door

Here are the before and after photos of sections of the cabinets. Notice how much better it is to have the cabinet hardware NOT in the middle of the doors?

The color of the hardware is somewhat skewed in this bottom photo. They are a rubbed oil bronze finish which coordinates with the tones and colors present in the counters. And the color of the cabinets is Benjamin Moore Seashell.

Seashell is a neutral, warm white with beige undertones. Benjamin Moore describes this color as a luminous off-white. You can see a swatch to the right. If you are interested in this color, it has 2 codes. You will find it filed as #OC – 120 or #926…just a little tip for you!

And, of course, here are some great after photos which shows the whole kitchen. What a difference!

WHEN TO UPGRADE CABINET DOORS

  • Rough Texture – if the surface of the doors has so much texture that it will become hard to smooth out, it could interrupt the ability for paint to cure and bond with the surface of the door and lead to peeling
  • Damage – if there are large parts of the door that have been heavily damaged, this could be water damage or major dings and dents that would impair the process of creating a smooth surface
  • Splitting Wood or Materials – there is no good way for major splits in doors to be repaired to a place that will allow for
  • Outdated Doors – if your doors are really outdated or have odd lines and features, even a coat of paint may not provide the kind of update you are looking for
  • Looking for New Style – if you know you are already seeking to change the look of your kitchen, when evaluating options for paint colors, discussing new door fronts may also be the best choice. I would recommend considering this if you know you are already going to update your backsplash and counters. You are already making an investment and by changing the doors, you still save money but you will be able to change the look and style of your home easily and will feel like you have a whole new kitchen!

Thank you, Patricia, for choosing us to be part of this special project and for hiring FunCycled to do the kitchen cabinet painting! What a wonderful transformation! We are so glad you decided to upgrade your cabinets.

If you’d like to see how we paint Kitchen Cabinets, click here to check out our video on YouTube. 

Could your kitchen use an update? We’d love to help!! We can help pick out colors, finishes, product and do the cabinet painting, tiling, add new hardware. You can use our Contact Us form to request our design services or a quote for painting your kitchen. Please check out other kitchen projects on our For Sale page. We’ll need to see a picture of your kitchen, a list of how many doors and drawers there are, and where you are located to email you an estimate. This change ups the value of your home and gives you a whole new look at a fraction of the cost of new kitchen cabinets!

Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled

I am also excited to share that we are launching our Broken to Beautiful initiative again. Broken to Beautiful is FunCycled’s way of sharing love and kindness. Saying thank you to our customers and community!  We want to bless someone in the Capital Region by upcycling a furniture project for them for FREE!

Submissions are being accepted from August 1, 2024 to August 15, 2024. If you would like to submit a project for consideration, fill out this form: Broken to Beautiful Submission Form.

To learn more, visit Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled blog post.

We can’t wait to see what is submitted!

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

In addition to kitchen cabinet painting, we offer interior design, custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,

Sarah ; )

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French Provincial Design with One of FunCycled’s Vintage Dressers

Hi friends!

How are you? Let’s welcome the month of August with joyful anticipation of sunflowers and colorful zinnias ahead! There is nothing like simply every day enjoyments! : )

Today, I want to share one of our latest before and after stories with you. If you follow us on social media you have already been introduced to these beauties, but if not, get ready to be inspired! The thing about this before and after is that you may not be able to appreciate the outcome without really understanding a bit more about these pieces of furniture and how they fit into one of the most beautiful design styles: French Provincial Design

Here are the after photos, beautifully glammed up and painted in Lincoln Cottage Black.

What is French Provincial Design Style?

Sometimes design styles are hard to define. But if you’ve ever heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words,” then you might know the best way for me to answer the question ‘what is french provincial design style?’ is with pictures! Before I get to all of that, I want to share some of the elements that have proven essential to this design style. Oh, and my best definition…french provincial design is a romantic style that strikes a balance between rustic elements of the countryside (of France that is) and the elegance and grandeur of Paris.

Elements of French Provincial Design

Rustic Woods and Finishes
Furniture with Curved Lines
Gilded Accents
Natural Fibers
Mixed Mediums
Touches of Romance

Some Examples of French Provincial Design

Photo: Anita Joyce
c/o Architectural Digest
Photo: Anita Joyce
c/o Architectural Digest
Photo: Anita Joyce
c/o Architectural Digest
Photo: Amy Mings c/o HGTV
Photo: Pinterest
Photo: Edith & Evelyn Vintage

As you can see from above, French Provincial design includes a variety of textures, incorporates layers and soft edges, and can be characterized by low or high contrast. What I love most about it, though, is that French Provincial design is not limited by “doing it just one way.”

I have put together a curated design board which features one of our very own black French Provincial dressers. I absolutely love this combination! I decided to maintain a color scheme rooted in neutral tones (a common choice with French Provincial design), but I wanted to mix it up with items that have a high contrast, so the dark dresser and the light chair for example. I would love to help you implement this beautiful bedroom into your home!

To purchase either of these beautiful vintage black dressers, you can go to our SHOP page where you will find the Tall Black Dresser and the Long Black Dresser

Below you will find links to some of the products I selected for this design! Note some of the the links provided are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from any qualifying purchases.

If you are interested in all of the products seen in this design board, I would love to share them with you and help talk through general color and style selections with you at a design appointment! Reach out to me today by visiting our Contact Us page. To learn more about my Interior Design Services, click here.

Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled

I am also excited to share that we are launching our Broken to Beautiful initiative again. Broken to Beautiful is FunCycled’s way of sharing love and kindness. Saying thank you to our customers and community!  We want to bless someone in the Capital Region by upcycling a furniture project for them for FREE!

Submissions are being accepted from August 1, 2024 to August 15, 2024. If you would like to submit a project for consideration, fill out this form: Broken to Beautiful Submission Form.

To learn more, visit Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled blog post.

We can’t wait to see what is submitted!

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture at the top of this page. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Note some of the the links provided are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from any qualifying purchases.

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Hutch Makeover with Wainscoting

Hi Friends!

How are you? Before I share the before and after of this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures, I wanted to share a big announcement. We are brining back Broken To Beautiful! We will redo one piece of furniture for free per quarter! You can read all about how to submit for it here.

Helping to spread the love – one dresser at a time. 💕

For this weeks furniture makeover, we took this outdate hutch:

We painted the whole thing Simply White by Benjamin Moore and lightly distressed it. We also added new hardware and sprayed it with a protective clear coat. One of my favorite parts is that we added wainscoting to the back of the hutch in a medium brown/gray combination.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. 
Ready for the transformation??

This buffet is available to purchase! You can check out even more new pieces on our For Sale page.

  • Gray Tall Dresser
  • Black Entertainment Center
  • Secretary Desk

Please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We also offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and furniture. We can deliver for customers in upstate NY and also help you ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our online shop.

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Tricks to Transform Oak Kitchen Cabinets

Hi Friends,

How are you? I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! Thank you to all who came out to shop small this Saturday. Those of you who support us are a gift – stopping by FunCycled to shop, to say thank you, and to reminisce on projects past. If you had only seen the morning we had when a “quick” project at the store at 9am turned into one disaster after another with kids in tow for over 3 hours. One kid was sick, sleeping on my coat behind the counter, our dog ran out of the store and almost got hit by a car, and I felt not so great myself. I looked around at all the chaos happening on one of the biggest sales days of the year for us and I actually found it so symbolic of this thing called small business. It’s working on the sick days, it’s bringing the whole family – even the dog, and it’s finding a way to succeed! I didn’t get annoyed actually; I just thought how will we make this work?. That’s one of many things that owning a small business teaches you; how not to freak out. You learn that it only makes things worse. Embrace the challenge and kick its butt… and that’s what happened Saturday. You all were gracious as my husband was drilling a barn door in the middle of the check out area, you were kind to my kids, you were encouraging to me, and you sent business our way to help us live our dream. Because even on the tough days, we are so very thankful to be doing this every day. We love watching things go from broken to beautiful, we love creating, and we love helping you love your home so it feels welcome to everyone who walks in. Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

For this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures, I wanted to share another kitchen project that we recently wrapped up. This is a set of kitchen cabinets are all oak!

This is probably the most common kitchen style that I see and this one had quite the transformation with a coat of paint and a new backsplash. Here’s a couple of tips for redoing oak cabinets.

1) Don’t sand too deeply into the wood when you’re prepping it because it will make the already deep grain stand out more. Just lightly scuff it with 150 grit sand paper.

2) Don’t go with a gloss sheen; go with satin. Gloss makes the grain stand out even more.

3) Paint them – trust us, it looks better and increases the value of your home. I know it’s ok, it’s ok. Just let us paint them.

For this kitchen, we painted the main cabinets Manchester Tan HC-81 and the island Dry Sage 2142-40 by Benjamin Moore. We also changed out all of the hardware and that helped significantly with this transformation. Ready for the afters?

What a transformation, right? If you’d like us to create this transformation for your kitchen, use our Contact Us form or check out other kitchen projects on our For Sale page. We’ll need to see a picture of your kitchen, a list of how many doors and drawers there are, and were you are located to email you an estimate. This change ups the value of your home and gives you a whole new look at a fraction of the cost of new kitchen cabinets!

Also, check out our store for new furniture available this week:

There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog. Please sign up today!

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. Last but not least, let us customize a furniture piece for you. We create custom furniture and will deliver for customers in upstate NY and also ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our furniture for sale page.

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My Favorite Furniture Makeovers in 2015

Hi Friends!

If you  missed last week’s post about 2015 Most Popular Furniture Makeovers, it’s definitely worth checking out! I promised in that post that I would also share some of my favorite furniture projects this year. Some may be the same but many are different. I like to start with the my favorite and go down from there. A little anticlimactic as one friend pointed out last week, but it’s how my brain works to I’m going to roll with it! Hope you don’t mind. ?

I also realized after I looked back over the year, I didn’t blog about some of my favorites so I can only show you the after’s.

1) Barn-board Dressers 

My favorite design of the year was figuring out how we could add barn board to the front of a dresser. I’m sure it’s been done elsewhere, but I had never seen it. That makes this design feel more like my “baby” because it was created in my mind alone. Sometimes that’s risky and often scary. It worked out great!!!

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2) Duck Egg Blue China Cabinet

I never blogged about this transformation, but it has a funny story. We redid it and on the way into the store, the door swung open and broke off. The funny part is that I liked it even more without the front door! Then we took off the door and turned into a wall hanger. We sold both pieces quickly! 
 16376509838_ee5e68f72f_k16973722237_d27a2714cf_z
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3) DIY Lego Cabinet 

Building this Lego cabinet was the best! I think because we are geeks, love Star Wars, and my son, Josh, just may live for Legos. Working together with him on this project was fun! He made the knobs out of Lego parts and John built all the drawers. We decided to keep this cabinet and Josh uses it every day to store his ridiculous amounts of Legos.

10-13e

4) Bathroom Vanity from an Old Sewing Machine

This is another project I haven’t blogged about, but it was one of my favorites. I had been wanting to change out my pedestal sink in the bathroom. John took this sewing machine and made it into a vanity by installing the vessel sink. It was my mother’s day gift and one of my favorite gifts from him. We sold the house a couple of  months after and the woman who bought the house was a seamstress and really wanted the sink as part of the sale of the house. Sad day… but it I hope she enjoys it for years to come like I would have!
Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 12.19.12 PM

5) Dark Gray Hutch Makeover 

This hutch was a little different than most for me and redoing it for a fun, a trusting customer was like icing on the cake. I loved the fabric on the back, it was my first time trying the color Urban Bronze by Benjamin Moore and I loved it. I don’t often leave the shelves wood, but I really enjoyed the contrast on this hutch.
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6) White Mid Century Dresser with Ombre Drawers

This was the most viewed post for 2015 and I definitely can see why! It’s one of my favorite designs this year, too. I loved working with this mid century piece, painting the box a crisp color and staining the drawer fronts. I’m thrilled you liked it, too!
2014-09-03_0019

7) Black Retro Style Sideboard 

I love love love love… you get the idea, this sideboard.

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8) Chevron Nursery Dresser

It wouldn’t be a good representation of me in a year if I didn’t show a chevron piece. So this year’s chevron piece came in the way of a nursery dresser.
2014-10-13_0042


9) Hand Painted Designs 

I’m lumping three dressers into one for this, because it shows how I’ve free handed designs. The artist in me craves drawing on furniture sometimes. And thankfully, sometimes customers are brave enough to let me free hand one for them.

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10) Custom Built Dining Tables 

Last but definitely not least, we so enjoyed all of the custom built tables that we were able to make this year. From mid century to rustic and everything in between. This most recent farm table was probably one of my favorites. If you’d like to see some of the many tables we’ve made this year, check out our Custom Built Furniture page.

Farm House Table
Farm House Table

23882514136_f795b74c77_kLet’s finish this post with answers to some frequently asked questions

Yes, we can definitely paint furniture you already own! 
Yes, we can change the color of pieces on our Furniture For Sale page for a fee! 
Yes, we custom build tables, bars, headboards, and buffets! 
Yes, we can deliver locally for a fee or you can ship it anywhere using ship.com!

So many yeses, so many reason to upcycle, so many reasons to relove your furniture, and so many reasons to enjoy the process of ordering custom furniture. Use our Contact Us Form to make a request today. Continue reading My Favorite Furniture Makeovers in 2015

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Deer Head Modern Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

It’s been such an exciting busy week here! This past Sunday was the annual Victorian Stroll in downtown Troy. It’s takes a lot of time to prepare for, but I enjoy the event so very very much! I wanted to say a huge thanks to all the staff and family who came out to help us! My mom, dad, friends Jo Ann and Stephanie, brother Jesse and of course, my Johnny made this day go seamlessly!  Mayor Rosamilia and his wife Peggy stopped by at the same time as Uncle Sam so we had to snap a shot! We really have enjoyed getting to know Mayor Rosamilia and his wife. Such kind hearted, down to earth people.
TT 23

Also, if you missed it lat week, we announced Broken to Beautiful!  We’ll be redoing 6 furniture pieces for free in 2016. Read all about it and how to submit here.
From Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled

Let’s talk about this weeks furniture transformation! We bought this buffet because I loved the lines… I just couldn’t wait to add some stained drawer fronts. Then I found deer head knobs and I had to add them to the design. There are deer heads everywhere lately and although I wouldn’t really want a real dear head on my wall, I like the geometric animal head designs for some reason. My mom thought I was crazy when I grabbed them at the store. Lol!

Here’s the buffet before:
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We painted this dresser using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We stained the drawer fronts using Kona stain by Rustoleum on the doors. Then the top drawer was stained with Weathered Oak by Minwax, the middle drawer was stained with Early American by Minwax, and the bottom drawer was stained with Classic Gray by Minwax.

Here’s the after!
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This buffet is for sale right now! We just brought it into the store last week. If you’d like to purchase it, please use our Contact Us form or stop by our store at 272 River Street, Troy, NY. I also added quite a few other new pieces to the store! Continue reading Deer Head Modern Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

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Galley Style Kitchen Makeover in Latham, NY

Hi Friends!

Do you have a kitchen that is ready for an update? This week’s post is a perfect example of how our kitchen cabinet painting, tiling, and new counters can totally transform a kitchen at a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen! I can’t wait to share the story of Tom and Mary Ann and how we transformed their kitchen!

If you are having trouble viewing images, click here.

A couple months ago when I first met with Tom and Mary Ann, I remember being greeted with excitement and joy! For over 20 years they had been waiting to update their kitchen and now the time had finally come!

Here’s a taste of what the kitchen looked like before we did our magic!

Tom and Mary Ann’s kitchen had many of the same features I see in older homes – oak cabinets finished in a medium warm wood tone and encased under a soffit that meets the ceiling, scalloped features around windows or above ranges, counters made from laminate or formica, and hardware and finishes that are basic.

After talking with Tom and Mary Ann, it soon became clear that we needed to look beyond just kitchen cabinet painting. They were ready to make bigger changes to this space and create a kitchen that would reflect their personality!

As you can see, we made a lot of changes in this kitchen. An important thing to remember when you are designing a space, and this is especially true when you are changing or altering a space that is already “done,” you do not need to start over! The small details added together make a huge impact on the design of a space! For this kitchen, we changed the drawer pulls and door handles to a matte black finish. And notice they do NOT need to match, they need to coordinate!

We added this beautiful green subway tile (Mary Ann’s favorite!) and made sure the grout worked with the paint color of the cabinets. We added the Shaker trim around the end of her upper cabinets and added crown molding to the top of the soffit to extend the eye up!

Crown Molding

Here’s a closer look at the before and after when we add crown molding to the top of the cabinets! As you can see before adding the molding and having a contrast between the cabinets and the soffit, everything is broken up, which actually makes the kitchen look choppy and smaller. In the after photo, by adding the detail of the crown molding where the soffit meets the ceiling and then painting it the same color (Benjamin Moore Simply White) as the cabinets, your eye goes all the way to the top, adding height to the cabinets and making the kitchen area seem larger!

New Counters

And look at that new beautiful quartz countertop! What a major difference just that alone makes!

Shaker Style Trim

Take a look at the before and after photos when adding Shaker trim on both the outside edge of the cabinets as well as the inside where the cabinets are next to the window. This really elevated the kitchen and adds such value!

New Sink and Faucet

The sink used to be this old worn out top mounted stainless steel sink. The faucet and handle were worn out and plagued with hard water stains that would not come clean. Our solution, change the sink to an under mounted one (still stainless and divided in two) and change the faucet to match the hardware.

Peninsula Upgrade

I especially love this upgrade for Tom and Mary Ann! We could have just painted the wood paneling that was on the back side of their peninsula, but I knew that adding the Shaker detail and changing the molding at the bottom then painting it would take this to the next level and would tie in the ends of the cabinets (already decked out in Shaker trim)!

And to tie in that green color that Mary Ann loves so much, we decided to paint the back side of this peninsula in Benjamin Moore Cushing Green but we kept the front of the peninsula the same as the rest of the cabinets, Benjamin Moore’s Simply White! Here is the front of the peninsula.

And here are the paint selections:

Benjamin Moore Cushing Green
Benjamin Moore Simply White

Making it Your Own

Another important thing to consider is making sure you know how to incorporate some of your treasured items into your newly refreshed and updated space! For Mary Ann, she wanted to find a place for her cow canister as well as be able to reuse the stools she and Tom had only purchased not too long ago. And we did it! Tucked in the corner of her kitchen, dwelling amongst the other canisters, resides the cow, and nestled under a the smooth, bright countertop sit the stools where Mary Ann and Tom’s grandchildren can enjoy snacks and time with their grandparents! Mission accomplished!

Thank you, Tom and Mary Ann, for choosing us to be part of this special project and for hiring FunCycled to do the kitchen cabinet painting, the tile/carpentry work, and the countertop replacement! We loved working with you!

What an beautiful transformation!! 

If you’d like to see how we paint Kitchen Cabinets, click here to check out our video on YouTube. 

Could your kitchen use an update? We’d love to help!! We can help pick out colors, finishes, product and do the cabinet painting, tiling, add new hardware. You can use our Contact Us form to request our design services or a quote for painting your kitchen. Please check out other kitchen projects on our For Sale page. We’ll need to see a picture of your kitchen, a list of how many doors and drawers there are, and where you are located to email you an estimate. This change ups the value of your home and gives you a whole new look at a fraction of the cost of new kitchen cabinets!

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

In addition to kitchen cabinet painting, we offer interior design, custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,

Sarah ; )