How are you? I hope all of you who are from upstate NY with kids enjoyed the winter break last week! For this week’s makeover, I wanted to share a project that I loved being a part of recently.
My brother, Jesse, asked for help redesigning his master bathroom. I love helping family with design projects and if you’ve followed our story for long, you know that Jesse has been a huge help to me throughout the years with FunCycled. So any chance I can get to help him, I’m excited to do so!
Here’s his bathroom before:
Pink Bathroom Before
Jesse made a list of the products that we selected so I could easily share it with you! Here they are (if the word is teal, it’s a link to click and order the product yourself):
Flooring: Dark gray / charcoal diagonal — Fordham Nero 12×24 Black Matte Porcelain Floor and Wall Tile – 70sq.ft.
Now that you have all the details, are you ready for the after photos?
My other brother, Nathan, who owns Revival Renovations was the contractor who actually did the work on this project. Reach out to him if you’re local and need a bathroom remodel!
A huge thanks to Jesse and Jessica for asking me to be a part of this project.
Could your bathroom use an update? We’d love to help!! We can help pick out colors, finishes, product for you. You can use our Contact Us form to request our design services.
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.
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.
How are you? I hope your week is going well! For this week’s makeover, I wanted to share a recent secretary desk makeover that we just finished and added to our store. You can purchase it anytime on our shop page!
Here it is before:
Even though I don’t often do this with secretaries desks, for this one, I wanted to keep some of the original wood and paint the rest. So we left the desk area and bookshelf area with the wood stain and painted the rest with Behr’s Winter Way. Then we lightly distressed it and painted the original hardware black. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.
Ready for the afters?
This desk is available now to purchase! Head to our Shop Page to check them out!
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.
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.
How was your weekend? I hope all went well and that you’re ready for some warmer weather this week! I know I am! I’m really excited to share this week’s makeover with you. Mandy reached out to us to see if we could help her with a project to create a bar out of her grandmothers old organ. She has a lot of special memories around this organ, but she didn’t need it to be an organ anymore. So we went over quite a few ideas for utilizing it as wine storage and a bar area. It’s going to be headed to Virgina soon to be enjoyed for years to come!
Here’s the organ before:
She needed a counter top area to serve up the drinks so we removed both levels of keys and created one, larger counter top area. We talked about doing wine storage on top, but Mandy didn’t want it to be too tall. So we gutted the base of organ and installed an X for wine bottles, wine glass hangers, and a shelf from one of the rows of keys. We also removed the music holder for a flat, top surface for more counter space. The legs needed side support so we build that into it as well.
We painted the outside Chelsea Gray by Benjamin Moore lightly distressed it. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also removed the top of the hutch to give it a more updated look.
Check out the afters!
Organ Recycled into a Wine BarMade a shelf out of the old keys.Built in an X for wine bottle storage.Got rid of the buttons, but kept the logos and framed them out.Wood counter top sealed with a food safe tung oil.Added supports for the front legs and lightly distressed the piece.
This project was a custom order so it isn’t available purchase! Head to our Shop Page to check out the other items available though!
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.
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.
How are you all? I hope you had a nice weekend! It’s been a little rough over here because I’m going on 2 weeks with kidney stones. The pain is no joke! This weekend was also our 10th anniversary celebration at FunCycled. Thank you for all who came out to celebrate with us! It was so nice seeing everyone and reflect on all the blessings over the last 10 years.
My brother, Jesse, snapped a few photos for me during the celebration so I thought I share some of those with you.
Here’s to 10 years! One of my favorite things about FunCycled is the friends we’ve made over the years. Friends like Katie and Dan who went from customers to dear friends!Thankful for Monica’s support every step of the way. Even when she couldn’t be at the event she sent flowers. My brother and his family have helped me so much throughout the years. He created our website, gave me my first professional camera, and offered so much helpful/advice along the way.
For this week’s makeover, I’m excited to share this kitchen makeover. Mostly because it’s different from the typical kitchen makeovers we do because Tim and Sumer went with Black paint for the cabinets.
Here’s the kitchen before:
We painted the kitchen cabinets Black by Benjamin Moore and sprayed them with a protective clear coat. We also installed shiplap on the back of the island, added new hardware, and took the scalloping above the kitchen sink down and wrapped the crown moulding on either side of those upper cabinets.
If you’d like to see how we paint Kitchen Cabinets, click here to check out our video on YouTube.
Ready for the after photos?
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.
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.
How’s your week going so far? If you read my blog post last week about the recap of our year, you’ve already seen a quick glimpse of this makeover, but I wanted to share more details of it with you, too.
When we bought our house, it was divided into a 2 family, but we wanted to convert it back to a one family. The first floor of our house has a half bath that we redid already. It’s part of the living room area which makes for an awkward night with friends. If you have to pee we are all sitting and chatting in the same area so we’re all going to know. Hahha It’s also in the middle of the house so anytime we have friends over and the kids were playing or anytime John came in with dirty boots… you betcha, it would track all through the house. A cleaning nightmare! :)
So we decided to take this small kitchen and turn it into a half bath:
It was a rough space… holes in the ceiling and a floor pealing up. We needed to keep the front half of the room where the fridge and stove are for a closet and mess sink for rinsing paint. So, it made the room even smaller, but it does what we need it to do. It’s right off our back door/mud room and is a cute space for staff and friends to use the bathroom.
One thing I love to do in small bathrooms is add a surprise element. It’s fun because when a room is small we can add something that is a little more expensive and not break the bank. It could be a unique, expensive tile, a one of a kind vanity, or beautiful lights. In this case, I went with a bold, beautiful wallpaper. I couldn’t love it more! The colors were perfect. My favorite colors all in one wallpaper. Teal, coral, mustard, black, and white. On top of that, the large floral design in a small room feels like just the right amount of sophistication.
We painted the walls with Valspar’s Lincoln Cottage Black. One of my favorite black colors for the wall. We also did board and batten on the bottom half of the wall.
To build the vanity, because it’s such a tiny space, we decided to order this sink top and build the vanity. I love when John builds a vanity instead of buying one because it can be just the right size and we can hide the plumbing. So in this case, you can’t tell from photos, but the vanity on the bottom has a fake back that hides the plumbing.
I also bought this beautiful door from a barn sale and frosted the glass so some light comes in, but still has privacy. To use normal door on a slider track, it has to be a large door so it’s tall enough to cover the opening. Barn door sliders bring the height of the door up a bit.
So here’s a quick items list just in case you want to order any of it for your own home.
How do you like it?? I don’t think I could love it more!!
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.
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.
How are you? I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to share some recap moments from FunCycled in 2021. It was quite a year!
First, let’s talk about how we just hit 10 years in business this month! How did 10 years already go by? I was just doing a virtual design consult this morning for one of my original clients, Nancy, from over 9 years ago. We were reminiscing about the good old FunCycled days of just furniture. When it was just John and me and old furniture. We laughed about when I tripped going out of her house with a huge piece of furniture and hurt my ankle. She had no clue I did because I would never want anyone to know. I felt invincible and insecure all at the same time in those earlier years. Partially from naivety and partially from the energy that youth and new adventure brings. We had no health insurance, no savings, and a 2 and 3 year old. I would work while they napped and late into the night redoing furniture and selling it.
So much has changed since then. We now have an amazing FunCycled crew of 5. We still redo furniture, that’s true, but we expanded into so much more. Kitchen cabinet painting is our most common request. Which makes sense. It’s like painting a really complicated furniture piece that gets a lot of wear and tare. You want to be sure it’s going to be done right. The work speaks for itself when people see the kitchen makeovers we do. We also build custom barn doors, tables, and create one of a kind pieces of furniture. Another huge part of my day to day is the interior design consult and virtual consults now. They keep me on my toes and I love every second of it. Curating new designs using repurposed items.
In 2021, we created changes first at home and then at work that really helped our family and our sanity. I hired a business coach at the begging of 2021 who helped me immensely. He talked me through our pricing, financial changes that needed to take place (we became an LLC, etc), marketing ideas, and overall structure of the business. When I first hired him, I assumed he’d tell me I couldn’t do anything fun, needed to save all my money, and would tell me I went to Starbucks too much. lol He has NEVER said anything like that. Instead, he started by asking me what I love to do the most and what I wanted life to look for our family. Then he encouraged me to make changes that would help make those goals happen.
Can I tell you amazing?? I saw them happening by the end of 2021.
Goal 1 – Travel More
I wrote a blog post this year about why I think it’s so important for anyone who owns their own business to travel often. Home = Work (especially when you own a fixer upper like we do) So unplugging and recharging – what I love to call “the practice of rest” was a priority for us this year. Each person rests in a different way. You have to take time to learn your way and create the discipline of practicing rest. It’s harder work than you’d think at first, but once you do it in rhythms that are consistent, I think you’ll see why you’ll never go back to “normal” life again.
Some of the highlight trips for me were:
My annual trip to Waco, TexasTrip to Williamsburg, VAOur annual Ocean City Family VacationA weekend in Lake George with friends.Buying a retro style camper for camping as family this summer.
Quality time and trips with the people I love fills my heart to the brim! We hope to travel (even if it’s just a day trip) at least once a month in 2022. We found this to be one of the best things for our family and our own mental health.
Goal 2 – Own and run our own commercial building and airbnb.
We went into 2021 with a brand new building that we purchased, renovated, and moved our store to. We also opened up an airbnb in the top levels of the store. We weren’t sure how we’d like it and some days I definitely didn’t like being a landlord and property manager if I’m being honest. Owning an airbnb is another part time job. Since I was already running FunCycled, homeschooling, and helping at church, adding this to my list was a big change in 2021. I’m not 100% sure we will keep the building long term. I’m still torn about it. I’m not sure FunCycled needs a brick and mortar. I’m also not sure I love having another part time job. I’m trying to give it some more time to decide. If any of you have experience in this area and would like to share input, I’d love to hear it.
It felt like nothing much was accomplished this year at the house because we traveled some and to be honest, we were tired. Two years of non stop renovations on an old house is a lot. We slowed it down a bit this year and hired out some of the work that we don’t enjoy doing.
Landscaped the front yard this spring.Had a blacktop driveway installed this summer. Our most expensive renovation to the Repurposed Idea House. 🤮 It made our house look like it turn into a mansion overnight though. I love it so much! Updates on the front porch. Ipe flooring to make it look period appropriate, new pillars and handrails. What was supposed to be a quick repair turned into a huge project for our side mudroom. We built a 1/2 bathroom for our staff to be able to use!
I guess now that I typed all of that up, we did do more than I felt like we did! lol
Goal 4 – Find a Better Life Balance
One thing I knew had to change in 2021 was finding a better balance to life. I was sitting at diner with new friends who asked me all that I do with work and home. As I went down the list, I felt myself twitching inside thinking… there’s no way anyone could do all of this well. I may be making it all happen, but not done the way I wanted it to be. I wanted things to be less rushed, I wanted to have time to be creative again, I wanted time with my kids that wasn’t just when I was telling them what to do (school, chores, house projects). So after a lot of prayer, after talking through it with friends from all different life circumstances who we respect, we made the decision this fall to send our kids to public school. It was a hard choice for me, I felt like a failure. Like it was the first thing that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make work. I could go into 1,000 more reasons why, but that’s for another post. This change has made the biggest impact on our family. The kids are thriving, I have so much more peace because I can actually have the time I need to get my work done and then enjoy my family at night. Such a gift!
John enjoyed camping in our new camper as a highlight of 2021. The kids enjoyed trips, time with their cousins, and go karting around our yard. I enjoyed travel and friends and leading a women’s event for over 350 ladies this fall. It was a beautiful year and we hope you all had beautiful moments you can think back on in 2021.
Here’s to 10 more years together FunCyclers!! You’re the best!
I wanted to do a beautiful post with a recap of 2021, but I’ve run short on time this week. I’m hoping to get that for you next week instead. For this week, I’m sharing a beautiful French provincial hutch makeover. This was done as a custom order. Here’s the hutch before:
Hutch Before
We painted the outside Simply White by Benjamin Moore and the inside Kendall Charcoal. Then we heavily distressed it and added new hardware. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also removed the top of the hutch to give it a more updated look.
Check out the afters!
This hutch was a custom order so it isn’t available purchase! Head to our Shop Page to check out the other items available though!
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.
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.
We are so very thankful for each and every one of you! It’s been another unusual year for so many. Unknown feels like the new norm and uncomfortable is becoming an almost daily emotion for many. We want to encourage you that you are stronger than you think, and we will get through this pandemic together. Press into your faith in the One who can comfort your hearts when nothing else feels comfortable.
Our idea of Christmas, whether vintage traditions or mid-century modern designs, is very simple; loving others because Christ loves us. A tiny, sinless baby born in a humble manger would live a perfect life and die a horrible death in our place.
Radical love was his anthem.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
1 John 4:9
As you start your Christmas week, whether happy, joyful, lonely, or anxious – please remember God loves you and we love you.
This year has been full of so many changes for us. We’ve had one full year at the building we bought and moved our store location, we have a full year of running an airbnb in that same building. I’ll go over more of the highlights of the year next week, but I say that to say change isn’t something I love. I like predictable and calm, but we’ve grown in this year, we’ve learned so much, and the God of all comfort has felt close to my heart. If that’s how you feel, I pray He feels closer and closer to you in 2022.
Thank you all for the impact you’ve had on our lives over the last 10 years and for the friendships we’ve gained along the way.
How are you? I hope your week is going well and you’ve been able to enjoy some holiday traditions! I’ve been really busy with interior design and loving every minute of it. I even shared our first design commercial online this week. You can check it out here:
FunCycled Repurposed Interior Design in Upstate NY
For this week’s makeover, I can’t wait to show you the project we’ve been working on over the last few weeks. You know how record players are hard to figure out good uses for? They usually have a speaker area and then a couple doors that might slide.
Well, one of our clients, Jennifer, reached out to see if we’d be able to update her old record player so she could use it as an entertainment center but also give it a whole new look. She wanted wicker added to the door fronts, more modern lines, and a bright white color.
When we started the project, it was actually harder than we anticipated. We needed to cut into the doors, but we couldn’t remove the doors from the way they were installed (which isn’t typical). We had to use a saw in place and cut it to shape which may not sound hard, but it really is. We cut out the rectangles and painted the whole piece with BM Simply White. Then we added the wicker to the front of each door and installed a low profile trim to the front to secure the wicker.
We left the back open because Jen wanted it off so she could put speakers in the sections where the doors don’t move.
If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Ready for the after photos?
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.
This record player was a custom order so it isn’t available purchase! Head to our Shop Page to check out the other items available though!
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.
How are you? I hope you’re doing well! We started all the things Christmas season over the last week. The house is decorated, we enjoyed the local Victorian Strolls (Saratoga and Troy).
Cut down and carried out our Christmas tree at Reilly’s Farm 149 Clarks Chapel Road. Nassau, NY 12123 Saratoga Victorian Stroll with the Fischer’sFresh Wreath from Reilly’s FarmChristmas Porch DecorationsAntique sleigh and ice-skates for our porch.
So beautiful, isn’t it?
For this week’s makeover, I wanted to share a grandfather clock that we recently redid. Here’s the clock before:
When you paint a clock, you have to be very careful to take out or tape off all the mechanics so nothing gets paint on it. We did that with this piece and then painted it with Benjamin Moore’s Midnight Dream 2129-10.
If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Ready for the after photos?
This clock was a custom order so it isn’t available purchase! Head to our Shop Page to check out the other items available though!
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.
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.
