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Pottery Barn Inspired Dresser Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? Things were good here! Getting back into the groove of work and family balance felt good. Catching up with friends after work was great, too! Simplifying feels good friends! Keep striving for it!

This week’s furniture makeover takes a bedroom set that screams outdated and turns it into something that looks like it should be in a Pottery Barn catalog. Laurel emailed me these pictures of her bedroom set and asked me if I thought we could bring the pieces new life. Of course we can!!!

She reserved time on our schedule for the project and then we met to discuss the finish that she wanted. She brought a picture of a Pottery Barn dresser that she liked. She wanted slightly different colors, but with a finish that was a little less common than what we normally do. I’m always up for that challenge!

Here’s a picture of the dresser from Pottery Barn’s website:

This was a tricky finish…  . We painted it Benjamin Moore’s color kendall charcoal first and then painted the second coat rever pewter. Here’s the tricky part – you have to hand sand it so that the second coat comes off and the first coat of paint stays on. It’s so hard to do that without going down to the wood everywhere. It took John two full days to sand this set – just the sanding part! Be ready to be very patient but I think you’ll see it was worth the payoff.

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

Ready for the afters?

Pottery Barn Style Dresser Makeover


   

Such an amazing transformations, right?

This set 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.

 

 

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Two Black Secretary Desks – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Sometimes I’m asked to speak on how to be a successful entrepreneur. I’ve been thinking about that idea quite a bit lately. Being a successful entrepreneur has so many components and probably the most important would be that you’re passionate about what you do. I don’t think it’s possible to be a successful entrepreneur without that passion. In the same sense, I don’t think it’s possible to stay as a successful entrepreneur without harnessing that passion. It can easily consume too much time and make the really important things in life get pushed aside. I find the practice of simplifying and finding balance to be my biggest struggle. Learning to be present with my family instead of thinking about what needs to be done for work, trying not to talk only about work with my husband so our relationship feels like love and not a business partnership, and making friendships and other people priorities instead of the last thing I think about. Because in the end, the people in this life and the family that we love are really the definition of a successful person, right?

When we came home from vacation I was feeling really sad about coming home which was a feeling I haven’t felt before. I think it’s because I have been so busy and let my priorities get out of whack. A busy business is a blessing and I’m not complaining about that one bit! My own mind and self discipline is what I’ve slacked off on. Every business has to continually be stretched and is always changing.

We thought through this at length, prayed over it and asked for wisdom from other business owners. I’m so excited to tell you all that we are expanding the FunCycled team with my very own assistant. Pam is starting in April and I’m so excited!! Our store will be open more hours (Tuesday-Saturday) and I will have help with emails, quotes, marketing. The goal is to help bring that balance back to our family and keep customer service high. It will give me more time do design – what I’m truly passionate about. With that, I also want to say thank you to those who have been patient with my slower response times and our limited store hours in the past! To say we are ecstatic is an understatement! We are so thankful for all of the business you send our way, the positive word of mouth, and for sharing our blog, Facebook, and instagram posts. It’s means so much to us! Please keep it up!! :)

For this week’s furniture makeover, I wanted to share two different secretary desks that we recently redid. Both in black but with completely different style!

Here they are before:

We painted the tall secretary’s desk with Valspar’s Lincoln Cottage Black and we painted the shorter secretary’s desk with a black enamel.

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

Ready for the afters?
  

Such an amazing transformations, right?

These desks aren’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.

 

 

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How to update an old cedar trunk? – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your winter break from school? We had a great time! Typically, this is our slow season so we decided to make vacation happen a little earlier than we normally would in order to seize the slow time. Thankfully this year hasn’t been slow!! So grateful for that!

We went on a road trip to visit different family and friends! We had so much fun soaking up sunshine and warmer weather.

Harmony was in all her glory getting to spend time with my little nephew. Feeding him and being the mother she already wants to be. She told me while we were away that she wants 7,000 babies one day but that might be too hard so maybe just a few kids instead.

The beach was beautiful and the time with friends was even sweeter!

Thanks to everyone who welcomed us into their homes and freed their schedules to spend time with us! It meant so much!! <3

This week’s makeover may be a fun inspiration for you because you may have an old cedar trunk laying around in your house somewhere. This is called a waterfall cedar chest and it’s pretty common. Our amazing mechanic Tim at RMW asked us to redo his wife’s old cedar trunk. Side note… if you need a mechanic in the area, we HIGHLY recommend him. We’ve been working with Tim for years and he has always been fair, professional, and really helpful.

Here’s the trunk before:

The top had quite a bit of veneer damage and his wife Stephanie wanted it to be two toned. So I recommended that we repair the damaged veneer and paint the top. We painted the top with Benjamin Moore’s color Mink, glazed it and did a protective clear coat. The base seemed a little simple so we thought adding a wooden detail to the front would bring some visual interest. We bought this one at Home Depot. Stephanie also wanted legs added to give it more interest. She went with these legs:

After we added the new legs and the wooden decorative piece, we painted the base with Benjamin Moore’s color Carlisle Cream, glazed it with Valspar’s antiquing glaze, and sprayed the whole piece 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 after?

Such an amazing transformation, right?

This trunk 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.

 

 

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Ugly Dresser Gets a Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s your week going? I hope all is well there! We are enjoying a little family time since the kids are on spring break. Excited to see them more!

This week’s furniture makeover is quite the transformation. It started out so ugly!! Take a look. ;)

This one was done as a custom order! A customer came into our store and saw a dresser that he liked but it sold before he had time to snatch it up (the lesson here? snatch it up if you love it friends). I had this dresser on our Upcoming Projects page and knew it could be something great with a little love.

We painted the outside with a dark gray first and then Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White. After it was dry, we heavily distressed it by using an orbital sander. All new hardware was a must, too!  If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Ready for the after?

Such an amazing transformation, right?

This dresser 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.

 

 

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Cream and Wood Top Dresser

Hi Friends,

How’s your week going? Enjoying the snow?? The kids are having a blast and I’m actually enjoying snow this time around. ;) I’ve felt tired so having a couple of days at home with more of a low key schedule has been nice.

Look how cute? She even took her teddy sledding!

Josh tried standing on a board for sledding and LOVED it! 

For this week’s furniture makeover, I wanted to show you a more traditional makeover. Here are the dresser and night stand before:

Barbara wanted a mix of distressed and wood top, but not too country. She also asked us to build a custom headboard from an old door.

Wood Top Cream Dresser Set
Headboard from an old door!

We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color Carlisle Cream, gave it a medium distressing, glazed it, and sealed 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 after?

So beautiful, right?? This set 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.

 

 

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Kitchen Makeover Time! -Tuesday’s Treasures

Hey Capital District!! It’s time to share what’s been keeping us so busy the last few weeks. Since we rang in 2017, we’ve already finished two kitchen makeovers. One isn’t ready for pictures yet because we are waiting on some finishing touches, but one is ready and I can’t wait to share all the pictures with you!

Interior design takes a while for everything to come together, but once it’s done, man oh man is it worth the wait!

Theresa called us because they wanted the kitchen cabinets painted. When I went to her house to finalize the color of the cabinets and hardware, she mentioned that they wanted the kitchen to feel bright. That’s why they painted it yellow years ago.

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I explained that to really brighten it up, we should lighten up the walls to a different color. She was also open to painting her pub table which was awesome because that would help her little eating area look more up to date, too! Then she asked if there was anything else I would want to do if I was given free reign. Add a shiplap wall of course!!! That would take this design from up to date to magazine worthy!!

When we start a kitchen project, we take all the doors off and the drawers out, then we hand sand the outside of all the cabinet boxes, prime and paint them by hand (outside only). We take the doors and drawers home and paint them using our commercial air sprayer. This one of the things that set us apart from other cabinet painters and gives a hard, professional finish. Once the doors and drawers are finished being painted, we bring them back and install them. We use Benjamin Moore Advanced paint which is designed for kitchen cabinets and I highly recommend a protective clear coat as well.
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 Remember a couple of important things when you’re redoing the cabinets. If they are oak, the grain is going to show through a bit unless you fill it all first with wood filler (which takes MUCH longer – such a pain). You can see how it looks better in this picture:
Last but not least, hardware makes all the difference! It’s like jewelry with the dress! Make it pop!
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Does your kitchen look like this?? We can help! Check out our kitchen cabinet painting page and ask for your quote today! 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 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.

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Modern Farmhouse Hutch – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How was your week? I realized mid week that we had very few plans for the long weekend so we seized the moment and went on a road trip to visit my high school best friend Theresa’s family. Our friends Caleb and Chrisie live near Theresa so it’s a win win whenever we make that trip!! A weekend filled with great friends! Here’s a picture of us enjoying a salted lavender latte at a local coffee shop. Theresa is an architect so it was fun staying up late chatting about jobs we are both working on, and encouraging each other in our relationship with Christ. It was a weekend of relaxation and beautiful friendship.
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This week’s furniture makeover was inspired by one of our teal hutch makeovers from 2016. You should check it out here.

See this hutch before?
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Now… look past all the ugly and look at the clean lines. That’s just what I wanted for this piece.

Just remember, barn board makes everything better so we put that on the bottom. We removed the doors completely and built new doors in their place. :) We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color Feather Down, gave it a medium distressing, and sealed 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 after?

Rustic Chic Hutch
Rustic Chic Hutch

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So beautiful, right?? This hutch is available to purchase and 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.

 

 

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Red Buffet Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? Ours was good! The normal pace of post Christmas work is great! We were able to work on our family room this weekend. I can’t wait to show you the pictures soon!

Every new year reminds me of new life, new beginnings, and bright tomorrows. So it’s no surprise that I started the year with bright new colors and beautiful new pieces. This week’s Tuesday’s Treasures is a piece that was gorgeous from the start but we added a fun new look. Here it is before:
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We added a fresh coat of paint and new hardware. We painted it Divine Red by Benjamin Moore, glazed it to deepen the color, and added a protective clear coat. It also has dovetail drawers!

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

Ready for the after?
010617-15 010617-16 010617-26Such a difference, right?? This buffet is available to purchase and 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.

 

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Navy Striped Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Did you have a fun New Year’s weekend?? Happy 2017 to all of you! I’ll write more soon, but I wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who made 2016 a success for us. You trusted me with designing your home, redesigning your furniture, redoing your kitchen, and shopping in our store for furniture and decorations. We couldn’t do this without you and we are humbled by the love and loyalty you have for FunCycled.

Once we reached Christmas day, I felt like I had run across the finish line of a marathon. It was such a busy, busy November and December (thankfully)! Last week I tried to work less hours and make memories with our kiddos. Building lego sets, coloring and painting. Things I have not had a moment to do and I was so grateful for those moments.

We went on a day trip to NYC with our friends! Got to check out the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.
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We hosted a New Years Eve party at our house for the 2nd year in a row. I dare say it was the most exciting dry party in all of Rensselaer County!! ;)
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Last but most certainly not least, I went to visit my friend Carrie in Connecticut. We lost touch after she got married and just recently reconnected after 16 years!! It seemed so weird that it has been that long but at the same time I felt like the time and distance had never happened. Her beauty inside and out is just as it used to be… and I am so blessed by her friendship.
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While I was there, I designed a quick gallery wall in her adorable home.
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You’re here for a furniture makeover though, right? Ok, ok!!

This is a huge makeover!! You can barely recognize the pieces! I don’t have an amazing before picture, but here it is:
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The first thing I felt like it needed was height. I didn’t like that they sat flat on the ground so I ordered mid century maple legs for both dresser.

Then I found vintage hardware that I wanted to use!

I also really wanted a stripe on this set.

We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color Old Navy. For the stripes, I wanted the wood to be darker so we sanded and stained the section for the wood stripe darker. Then I also wanted to have white to make the wood pop so we did the white stripes next. Final steps were adding new hardware and spraying 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 after?

Navy Tall Mid Century Dresser
Navy Tall Mid Century Dresser

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Such a difference, right?? These dressers are available to purchase and 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.