Posted on by — 1 Comment

Basement Renovation Project

Hi friends!

This week’s basement makeover has a very special place in my heart. Not only was it our first ever basement renovation, but it also has a wonderful backstory. Will and Jaimie called me in February asking me to come for a design consult. When I got to their house, I asked what their budget was and they said $0. Why would someone hire me when they have no money to redo the space? Well, they wanted a design goal to know how to save. That is actually really smart! People often purchase things within their budget that don’t work for their space to save money. Jaimie and Will were doing the opposite, they wanted to know what would be good and right as the first step so they didn’t waste any time or money. I came up with a design and they came back loving it and letting me know they would save monthly until they could do it one piece and one project at a time. Here’s the basement before:

That sounded like a sensible and smart plan to me and I was thrilled that they liked the design. Fast forward about a month… their sub pump somehow got unplugged and their basement completely flooded. Up to where the sheetrock was cut in the pictures above. I felt so bad for them because insurance covered nothing!!

About a week after they told me about the flooding, someone asked to speak with me because they had heard we had done a design plan for Jaimie and Will. They told us that they wanted to pay to have their basement redone under two conditions: 1) it remained anonymous 2) we did all the work. WOW!!! Big big WOW! I couldn’t even believe what my ears were hearing. To do something so kind and so expensive without wanting any recognition at all and wanting to support a small business… it was the knock-my-socks-off kind of amazing. They said God blessed them and they wanted to bless others! Little did they know that the day before they told me this, I had hired an assistant and was asking God how we were going to swing it financially. This moment for me spoke truth. He will provide if it’s what He wants. Nothing is too hard or too much for God if He’s directing. It gave me such encouragement and strengthened my faith in so many ways.

We went to work! First things first… make a mess!

I helped pick out the flooring color but Jaimie and Will did the installation of the laminate flooring. Originally, we were going to paint the concrete to save money, but a family member donated the flooring so Jaimie could get the flooring she so badly wanted!!

We ripped more of the sheetrock up so we could install the wood on the bottom half of the walls. We used rough cut wood that we lightly sanded and sprayed with grays and whites to give different tones throughout the space.

They already owned the entertainment center and coffee table but we painted them white and added an end stand to the design. Then we used barn board to encase the poles and beam in the basement to add texture and age to the room.

They have limited storage in their house so they wanted to add as much hidden storage as possible. We closed off one closet with a single sliding door.

Then we turned the whole back section into a closet. The right barn door is stationary, just working as a wall but looks like a sliding barn door. The second barn door slides in front of the stationary door to get into the closest. Swoon! 

We also repurposed a hutch for the space! You can read all about that transformation here.

Also, Jaimie is short and adorable! For her job, she needs to use a pedal with her computer. She hasn’t had a work set up so where she can touch the floor. She needed to sit at the end of her couch and have a laptop on her lap so she could reach the pedal. Oh no no! That just won’t do!!! Not in my opinion at least! After 2 hours of searching, I found a chair that would fit the length of her legs. Then we customized this desk for her:

We cut the sides off and extended it out to 6 feet so she had enough room to work on the top but also had storage space on either side. I didn’t get a good “after” picture of this piece but you can see it here:

I didn’t want to waste the old desk top so I repurposed it into an art display station for her kids artwork. Can you see it in the back left of this picture?

Let’s not forget about the cute little electrical outlet door that we made to look like a tiny barn door. Awwwweee!

Then a friend from church heard about the project we were working on and asked to go with me to help pick out decorations for the space and she paid for it all! Talk about blessing after blessing!

Here are some before and after side by side shots for you:

If you love today’s makeover, reach out to us using our Contact Us form to ask us to help you reinvent your space! You can also check out new furniture for sale on our website here! 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’ve also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

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.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

An Ugly Dresser Upcycled Into a Hutch

Hi Friends!!

How are you? We’ve been loving the interior design projects we’ve undertaken over the last month! For the last two weeks, we’ve been working on a basement renovation. I am hoping to show you the before and after’s of that project next week! This week, I wanted to show you the before and after of a furniture piece that went into the basement.

One of the basement walls was large and empty so we needed an ample sized piece for balance, and then we could add smaller decor/accent items later. We knew we wanted it to be a hutch but when I showed Jaimie (the customer) this picture, she replied with the puking emoji! I knew when I sent it to her that it would take some faith to even imagine we could make it beautiful. It was really, really ugly! Scratched, with gaudy scalloping everywhere and the mirror… ugh, that had to go, too. The good part was, I could picture it beautiful! The hard part? Trying to convince any customer that I could. Thankfully Jaimie was a great sport and said she trusted me and was willing to go for it.

Bad, right? lol! First things first, we removed all the ugly scalloped edges, then filled all the large gouges and scratches with Bondo. Then of course, sanded the heck out of it!! New hardware was a must so we filled the all the holes while we were fixing the scratches, allowing us to choose whatever sized new hardware we wanted. Jaimie’s kids love all things crafty so I switched out the mirror to chalkboard instead. We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color Gray Mountain and lightly distressed it.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters?

Such an amazing transformation, right?

Do you have a piece of furniture that’s really ugly?? Let us make it beautiful for you to love for years to come!! You can also check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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!

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.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Navy Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? We are doing well! We started a complete basement renovation and are trying to wrap it up this week! I can’t wait to show you the before and after pictures. There will be barn doors, wood walls, and all around adorableness!! :)

This week’s furniture makeover is a traditional style, but such a transformation.

Here are the dressers before:

They needed some love, am I right? We sanded them a lot, primed and painted each with Benjamin Moore’s color Old Navy. Then we glazed them using Valspar’s Antiquing gaze, sprayed with a protective clear coat and added new hardware.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters?

We also painted an adorable end stand to match. :)

Such an amazing transformation, right?

Not only are these pieces currently for sale, but you can check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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!

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.

Posted on by

Mid Century Modern Hutch ReDesign – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s your week going? Ours’ has been great! Feeling healthy and enjoying the sunshine over here. I can’t believe we are already into May!! How has that happened and how is my BABY turning 9 this week?? Time’s flying by!

As for furniture, here’s a beautiful hutch that I had to buy the minute I saw it. These don’t come around often. I loved the lines of the bottom section of the hutch and knew that I wanted to keep a lot of the wood and add a stark contrast with paint.

We deepened the original wood with an ebony stain and painted the other sections using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters?

Mid Century Modern Hutch

Such an amazing transformation, right?

Not only is this hutch currently up for sale, but you can check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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!

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.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Sitting Room Redesign

Hi Friends!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a great week and were able to enjoy spring break with your littles – if you have kids in school. :) We were still fighting off a nasty cold (probably flu) here at our house. I finally feel like myself today and I’m so excited to get caught back up on work and life. It’s been a long two weeks of sickness at the Trop’s!

If you stopped by last week, you saw Noreen’s Dining Room Makeover and today we’re moving on to her sitting room. Here it is before:

This little sitting room was tricky because of the size. Trying to figure out how to make it a usable space while trying to reuse Noreen’s furniture made it a design that had to be tweaked a couple different times. We started with benches against the wall and two chairs on the left with a round rug. It didn’t work at all so I asked Noreen if she would let me start from scratch without using any of her furniture. She so graciously let me go for it and here’s what the original design board looked like!

Sitting Room Design

I loved the idea of a comfy love seat and centering it to the window. Unfortunately, I’m not giving away all of the info about the chosen design elements simply because it takes a lot of time and research to come up with wall colors and find products, that’s why you should hire me to help you. :) I did want to give you some visuals for those who want to do the research yourselves.

I was able to find a less expensive love seat that I liked even more than the original design plan at our local Home Goods. Noreen also wanted to reuse a table she already owned which is a little smaller than I would have picked, but in person it didn’t seem out of scale with the room’s size.  Decorating while watching your bottom line, isn’t about being cheap, it’s about considering options and making informed decisions. You don’t have to replace everything to make a space feel new again.

Ready for the after?


 

If you love today’s makeover, reach out to us using our Contact Us form to ask us to help you reinvent your space! You can also check out new furniture for sale on our website here! 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’ve also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

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.

 

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Transitional Interior Design Project

Hi Friends!

I usually show you before and after of furniture makeovers on the blog, but today I thought I’d mix it up a bit and show you an interior design job. I’ve been working on this project with Noreen since November. Design takes time and I’ve so enjoyed working with Noreen during these past few months. She trusted me on some decisions she wasn’t sure about and also was willing to make adjustments that made a huge impact on the final look

Here’s the dining room before:

Unfortunately, I’m not giving away all of the info about the chosen designs simply because it takes a lot of time and research to come up with wall colors and find products, that’s why you should hire me to help you. :) I did want to step you through how it works and also give you some visuals for those who want to do the research yourselves.

When I looked at the dining room (the room with the rug), I loved the rug but knew it needed to be bigger to anchor the space. Noreen returned it and upgraded to the next size up.

Here’s the design board for her room:

Dining Room Design

As you walk into the room, your eyes wanted to go to the far wall, but it was lacking in wow factor. I wanted to make the room feel like it kept going so I went with a dark blue/gray/teal color and then changed the other three walls to a warm, brown friendly gray.

I so badly wanted Noreen to get a hutch for the large wall because I knew that would send this design out of the park! I took a risk and bought this hutch without Noreen knowing and practically begged her to buy it for the space. :) She did and I’m so glad!!

Here it is after:  

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

We also custom built the table:

The rest we let Noreen know where to purchase (light, picture, chairs).

Here’s the room after:

Next week I’ll continue her design by sharing the before and after pictures of her sitting room… here’s the before (get ready for the after):

If you love today’s makeover, reach out to us using our Contact Us form to ask us to help you reinvent your space! You can also check out new furniture for sale on our website here! 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’ve also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

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.

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Mid Century Modern Painted Hutch – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How was your week? It’s been great here! A bit crazy trying to keep up with everything, but that’s life for most of us, right?! I was able to work on my first ever commercial design job this week. It was so much different than home design but I really enjoyed it, too! They loved the designs and I’ll be doing three new rooms next!

Also, big new on the FunCycled front… at long last, we finally hired an assistant for me! Pam will be running the store with my mom and helping me with all back end customer service work.

Thanks to her, we have new store hours!! 

This week’s furniture makeover has a cool story! We bought this from a barn sale that raises money for an orphanage in Haiti. When we bought it, I really couldn’t picture what to do with it. It sat in my storage unit for months and months and months. I asked John to prep a mid century hutch for the store and he thought I meant this one. I didn’t. When I came out to look at it, I said, that’s not the one I wanted! I can’t picture the design for that one yet. John smiled and said, “Well, it’s all prepped so time to make yourself figure out a design.” He was right, it was high time.

I had recently redone a buffet with similar lines, and I thought this piece could look great in the same finish.

We painted the box with Benjamin Moore’s color Urban Bronze, glazed it and finished with a semi-gloss clear coat. For the drawers, we lightly sanded then stained them a light gray. I love the stripe on the drawers to make it look even more retro! Then we added new hardware.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters?

Gray Mid Century Dresser

Such an amazing transformation, right?

This hutch is available to purchase; you can check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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’ve also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

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.

 

 

Posted on by

Hot Pink Vanity for the Vanguard Designer Showhouse – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? We had a great one, catching up on lots of furniture projects and wrapping up another kitchen job. We took a family day on Sunday. Went to church then drove to Hudson, NY for the day. It was so much fun walking the shops and seeing all the cool vintage finds. I even bought a mid century modern clock radio that still works… it was aqua, I just couldn’t resist. :) 

One of the things keeping me busy this month is designing and making furniture pieces for the Vanguard Showhouse. Do you know what that is? The Vanguard asks different interior designers to redo rooms in a historic home. Then people can tour the house (for a fee) and the money raised goes to the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Since I always enjoy a design challenge, I happily said yes when they asked! Not to mention, I love love the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

The Vanguard-Albany Symphony, Inc. Designer Showhouse for 2017 will be located at 14 Pheasant Lane in Menands.  The Showhouse will be open to the public starting on Tuesday, May 2, and will run through Sunday, May 21.  It will be open to the public every day of each week, other than Mondays.  You can purchase tickets ahead of time at Price Chopper. Here’s a sneak peek of our design board.

This year, I went with a  Moroccan design for the guest bedroom I’m working on. There will be dark hues on the wall and bright pops of hot pink and yellow. The first thing I wanted to make sure we had, was a show stopping vanity in hot pink! We just finished painting it and it’s done in Benjamin Moore’s Fuchsia Berry, glazed and sprayed it with a protective clear coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters? (The close ups are the most accurate color)

Such an amazing transformation, right?

This vanity isn’t available until June 1st because it has to be on display at the show, but you can purchase it ahead of time so I can mark it sold. Also, you should check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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!

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.

Posted on by

What it’s like being on Flea Market Flip – Day 3

If you missed Day One or Day Two of our experience on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip, just click on the days to see the full blog post about it.

Day 3, the last day of filming is the Sell Day. The timing of when the filming will occur varies but our filming days ended up being about a week apart. On the final day, we went to a different flea market from where we had purchased the items. The goal was to sell the finds that we repurposed at a higher price point. Whoever makes the most profit wins the show! I’ve sold furniture at markets before and it’s a hard sell. Mostly because furniture is so big and people are coming to find quick deals not to find large items that we’ve spent a lot of time repurposing and have to charge retail price for. We only had 4 hours to sell everything so the staff encouraged us to take whatever offer we get because it’s better to get a little than nothing. We filmed at the Long Island City Flea market.

It’s a really small market and not many people were there. Driving into the city that morning, my brother Jesse called me and asked if I was nervous. For some reason that day, I was. He told me not to be nervous because everything we were selling had a story and I am the girl with the story. He was so right, that is what set us apart and hearing that helped calmed me down. I told everyone that came to our booth about the history of each piece and what we did to transform it.

When we walk into the flea market everything was wrapped up so we unwrapped it and staged it in the booth. We priced each item and of course checked out  what our competition was selling. Each team doesn’t know the other teams price point until the prices are already set. The cameras started rolling and people started to slowly trickle in. Not that many people were walking through the market but with film crews and Lara Spencer, we had the attention we needed to get those pieces sold. The bar went fairly quickly to a sweet young woman who just moved to the city to be a writer. We paid $10 for the parts and sold it for $450 for a $440 profit right off the bat! 

The second piece that sold was was the coffee table and that was maybe an hour or so after we started. We paid $50 for the parts and sold it for $300. $250 more towards our grand total! Yay!

The last thing to sell was the desk made from the old trunk. I was surprised by that! I thought the bar would sell first, then the secretaries desk, then the coffee table. John thought the desk, then bar, then coffee table. We were both wrong! :) Right toward the end of the 4 hours a lady came by and wanted the desk but couldn’t pay much. As she was asking me if we would take less, I heard our opponents yelling “fire sale, fire sale” so I knew they were selling everything cheap. That’s why I took the low ball offer because at least she could get a fun piece of furniture and we would add a bit to our total. She was thrilled and I was thrilled and it was so fun!

We knew before they announced it that we had won just because they didn’t sell anything throughout the day and did the fire sale at the end of the day. The producers were really encouraging about our work and kind! It was our anniversary on the sale day and they bought us celebratory lemonades at the end of the day! That’s why our episode is called Happy Flipping Anniversary. WE WON HGTV’s FLEA MARKET FLIP! Sayyyyyy whatttt??? So exciting!

If you missed Day One or Day Two of the experience, just click on the days to see the full blog post about it.

It was such fun experience, I would love to do it again in a heartbeat!! Thank you to Lara Spencer for being approachable, for the producers for going out of their way to make us feel comfortable, and to the work day helpers that made it all doable in such a short time. You’re all awesome!!

Do you live in upstate NY? We can custom build furniture so you can have one of a kind flea market upcylced furniture in your home. Use our contact us form for more information. You can also purchase already finished furniture on our Shop page!

We offer Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, and custom Furniture For Sale.

Here’s a quick snap shot of some of our furniture makeovers. You can see more by clicking the See on Pinterest  button at the bottom of the page.



Follow Sarah Trop – FunCycled’s board FunCycled Painted Furniture Projects on Pinterest.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Happy upcycling 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. There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address in to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog.

Please sign up today! 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 will 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.

Posted on by

Mid Century Vintage Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? We had a busy, busy work week trying to wrap up a huge kitchen job. Check out the before and after on our Facebook page – click here!

We also finished a lot of furniture projects which felt good! Over the weekend, John got his birthday wish to go to NYC for the day as a family. Here we are in Little Italy trying the best cannoli and gelato in town!

One of the many furniture projects that we finished last week was this mid century buffet makeover. Check out the before:

This was a custom order for Natasha. At first we were going to stain it, then she wanted to paint it, and we ended with a little of both! Win win!

We painted the box with Benjamin Moore’s color Urban Bronze, glazed it and finished with a semi-gloss clear coat. For the drawers, we lightly sanded then stained them a light gray. I love the combination of both and using the original hardware kept the vintage feel I wanted this piece to have.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the afters?
 

Such an amazing transformation, right?

This buffet isn’t available to purchase, but you can check out other new furniture for sale on our website here! 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!

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.