Blog - Page 48 of 77 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 by Sarah

Striped Farmhouse Plank Table – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? We had a wonderful week away on vacation! When we first started FunCycled, I read an article about how to successfully stay in business for yourself. One of the things mentioned was traveling often. Weekend get aways and a couple vacations throughout the year. You don’t have to spend a lot – stay with friends, go camping. Just make sure that getting away from home happens and happens often. I have found this to be so very true for us. Our home is beautiful, I adore being in it and filling it with friends and family. Every day, I design and meet with creative people so I also love what I do, but home is also work. That being said, we also need to get away to think of nothing but our family. These years will slip by with my kids. I already can’t believe Josh turns 8 this week. I can’t believe how much he’s changed… toddler years didn’t bother me when they flew by, but I would love for this stage to stay forever with my kiddos by my side.

I want to encourage those who do what I do or work a lot of long days to get away and unplug. Look at those babies and not your phone. Listen to your husband. Laugh with him. Work doesn’t matter all that much at the end of our days, but the family that surrounds us and the people whose lives touch ours – they will matter. Family time makes memories, creates impressions and teaches our children what we value.

That being said, you’ll be seeing some changes here in the next few months. When I get away, I get time to think, my creativity is invigorated, everything comes alive in me again. I have some designs I want to try, some restructuring to do. Hopefully you’ll like the changes that you see! I think you will! :)

Here are some of my favorite moments from vacation…

For this week’s furniture design, I don’t have a before picture because we built it from scratch. The story behind it is fun and the design is unique so I thought I’d share it anyway.

Jackie came to us because she wanted a table built that wasn’t like anything at a store. She loves teal and red and her kitchen and dining room have that color throughout them. Jackie and her husband were on HGTV House Hunters to help them find a house locally. We enjoyed chatting about what it was like being on HGTV and had so much in common I couldn’t believe it.

She wanted a table that looked very rustic, not smooth. We had to custom order rough cut maple from a lumber yard because they don’t keep it in stock. We bought all 8 inch boards and had to plain them down. We cut them into different sizes so it had an even more unique look.

I very light painted over the table so all the grain was still showing and then John lightly sanded it so their kiddos wouldn’t get splinters.

The paint colors are Benjamin Moore’s Azurite Blue, Exotic Red and Simply White. We left one board with no paint to break it up a bit. I knew those colors would be a bit bright but once we stained it, they would be toned down quite a bit. See!!
We stained it using Minwax Dark Walnut Stain.
Here’s the rest of the table! I think this would look really nice all one color, too! Such a rustic industrial look! The best part is, House Hunters – Where Are They Now will be coming back so this beauty will be on HGTV soon! Keep an eye out for it, won’t you?!?

You can have a table like this too, just use our Contact Us form to request a quote based on the size you’d like.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Furniture For Sale page you should right now!! We are having a Mother’s Day Sale until Mother’s Day! 20% off any furniture piece! Here are some of the many pieces available!

We also added lots of new furniture to our Upcoming Projects page this week! You can pick anything you’d like and I can paint it however you’d like! Win Win!!

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 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 furniture for sale page.

Posted on April 26, 2016April 30, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Gray and Teal Secretary Desk – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? I hope you’re enjoying a great week! We are enjoying some much needed family time this week. Taking a quick break before the hectic (yet fun) summer begins!!

I can’t wait to share this transformation with you!! It combines my favorite colors and favorite new fabric.
Here’s the secretary desk before we got started!
It’s not that this piece was in bad condition, it was just that it had an outdated look. I wanted to take people’s breath away when they opened the front.
Closed:
Wait for it…. OPEN!
We painted the outside with Valspar’s Lincoln Cottage Black and the interior with Repurpose Recolor paint in Mohair Blue. You can purchase Repurpse Paint from our store any time! If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. After we painted both pieces, we lightly distressed them and put protective clear coat over the top.

The best part?? This set is for sale on our Furniture For Sale page right now!! Here are a few other new things, too!

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 ;)

Posted on April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Upcycled Vintage Record Player – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you?? If you follow us on Facebook, you know that two weeks ago was rough, but this week was much better. Thanks to all of you who took time to send me encouraging notes, texts and check up on me. It meant so much!! John cheered me up by installing a barn wood wall in our entry way that I had been wanting to do this since we moved in last fall. I ADORE it !!

The wood came from a barn in western NY! Our friends Caleb and Chrisie just bought it and were going to throw this wood away, but offered it to us first. I’m SOOOO glad they did!! A huge thank you!! I heart it.

For this week’s furniture makeover, we repurposed a vintage radio/record player. It was a custom order for a new customer named Amanda. She was absolutely wonderful to work with. She said, I trust you so do whatever you think would look best. Whatever color, whatever style, whatever you think works best for this piece. That’s like music to the ears of a designer!! Thank you, thank you for being so wonderful Amanda. You were such a bright spot in my week.

Here it is before:

We talked about turning it into a wine bar, but Amanda really just needed extra storage. I thought we would take the bottom speaker section off and make the area with the record player some hidden storage. It definitely needed love and the bottom needed repair. We refinished part of the top and front and left some of the wood exposed. Then we taped off the refinished section and painted the whole piece with Valspar’s Lincoln Cottage Black. We let that dry all weekend, then taped it off again so we could paint the white stripe.

Here’s how to record player section looked after we boxed it in:

I think the top part looks like a little bird, don’t you?

And that barn board back drop is just marvelous isn’t’ it??

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Even though this is a custom order, we have new pieces available for you to buy on our for sale page right now. Here are just a few:

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 ;)

Posted on April 12, 2016April 12, 2016 by Sarah

How to update your dining room table? Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? I can’t wait to share this week’s furniture makeover with you! Not because it’s a one of a kind piece, but because we took something ordinary and made it anything but ordinary!! This set was a custom order for Genevieve and Telly. They had already bought our most recent Chevron Dresser and then decided to upcycle some furniture they already owned. They are in the middle of some major home renovations so forgive the before pics.

We recently posted a tutorial on how to get a rubbed through Restoration Hardware style finish. When they sent me over this set, I instantly thought that finish would look great! Most often we sand and stain the top of a table, but with the more modern style of this table, I thought the rubbed through look would be perfect.

We used a black enamel paint and then sanded through it with a 200 grit sand paper! You can read the full tutorial here. The only additional step is that you need to put at least 3 coats of a protective clear coat over the top since dining room tables get a lot of wear and tear and could get scratched easily. I also adore the fabric for the seat from Hobby Lobby!
Even though this is a custom order, we have new pieces available for you to buy on our for sale page right now. Here are just a few:

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 ;)

Posted on April 5, 2016April 4, 2016 by Sarah

Medium Gray Cedar Trunk and Mirrored Dresser Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week? We had a stressful work week. Trying to get all of our custom orders done for pick up or delivery on time led to a hectic week. And of course, on the busiest of weeks, what can go wrong … well you know the rest! We had an unexpected bleed through the day before pick up on one dresser, one of our staff used the wrong screws (they were too long) on a finished piece of furniture which led to a redo two days before that piece was to be picked up, and then, we had two customers make last minute changes the day before they were each to be delivered. All this happened when we had 16 furniture orders to wrap up. Man oh man! This is becoming a vent session. Lol! To end on a positive note, if it was easy, everyone would do it right?? ;) Also, as a small business owner, I’m very thankful to be busy. Slow is a harder type of stress than busy stress. All in all, God is faithful, He gave us strength and we started our new week with encouragement from His word with a new series at church called 30 days to live. This truly brought my perspective and attitude into check.

Josh came home from church wanting to build a Lego set based on what he learned!

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27 NLT

Also, we have our Easter pics!

For this week, we have two furniture pieces, I wanted to show you how a simple transformation can definitely revitalize a classic furniture style. Carmen came to us with her dresser and cedar trunk! The pieces had special memories for her, but she didn’t like the outdated finishes. Here they are before:

We tested out 8 different grays to makes sure we had the right hue for her bedroom set. She decided her favorite one was Chelsea Gray by Benjamin Moore (which is my favorite medium gray, too). If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. After we painted both pieces, we lightly distressed them, glazed it using Valspar’s antiquing glaze and put protective clear coat over the top. All new hardware sealed the deal on the dresser! Love, love!

Even though this is a custom order, we have new pieces available for you to buy on our for sale page right now. Here are just a few:

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 ;)

Posted on March 29, 2016April 2, 2016 by Sarah — 2 Comments

Gold Dipped Navy Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi All!!

Did you all have a wonderful Easter? I get so excited at Easter! As a Christian, I believe if Christ didn’t have power over death, He wouldn’t have the power to forgive our sins and his teachings would’t be truth. “If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.” – A.W Tozer

To say thank you doesn’t even seem adequate but getting the opportunity to have a relationship with God is one of the sweetest things in my life. On the good days but even more so on the bad days. God is right here with us and He loves us. He gave ALL for you and me.
We were able to drive through Grace Fellowship’s Passion Road last week. Man oh man was it awesome! My kids were quoting parts of the Bible they’ve memorized about Christ’s resurrection as we drove through the different scenes. Here’s some of what it looked like from our car.

Thanks to all who volunteered to make this event so special!

For this weeks furniture makeover, let’s start with the furniture that is fondly known as the mermaid dresser set. Here it is before:

I know a couple mermaid lovers like the scales, but I wanted them to go bye bye. So, we flipped the panels so the scales are hidden inside the doors and painted the set a dark navy with gray undertones. I went with Benjamin Moore’s Wescott Navy. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. I wanted the base and legs to have a gold dipped design. To achieve that look, after you paint it navy, you’ll have to tape off the top and spray paint the base/legs with gold spray paint. Finally, I added gold hardware.

Here’s the after!

The best part?? This set is FOR SALE!! HORRAY! Head over to our Furniture For Sale page for more pics, pricing and sizes.

Here are a few other beauties that are for sale right now, too!

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 ;)

Posted on March 22, 2016March 21, 2016 by Sarah — 3 Comments

Restoration Hardware Style Finish – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

How was your week? I was talking to a friend today who was sad about the cold temperatures in the northeast this week. Are you feeling the same way? Just remember it’s mid-March! That means we’re almost done with the cold weather. April should be warm more often then it is cold and then comes the green grass and flowers. Speaking of flowers, we went to the HVCC flower show this weekend and it was breath taking. Here was one of my favorite arrangements:
Here were my kid’s favorites (wonder woman and spiderman):

John’s birthday was this weekend so we took off from work on Saturday and enjoyed a day trip to NYC with our friends, the Fishers. We went to see the aircraft carrier, the Intrepid. It was SO MUCH FUN! The kids had a blast and it was a treasured time with our family. With working 6 days a week, time flies by a little too quickly around here.

Oh those three are just too cute!!!

You’re probably here to see more about restoration hardware than to see about my little family, right?

Have you seen this finish by Restoration Hardware?
One of our clients loved this finish, and wanted us to try to create something similar with a dresser set that he already owned so he was reusing instead of buying new. Gotta love that, right? Here’s the set before:

The tricky part about getting this finish is that you can’t prime before you paint because if you do prime, once you sand it, the white primer will show through and it won’t look right at all. A lot of this finish is in the prep work. You’ll need to start with a good sanding (150 grit sander). Then, you’ll want to paint it with a black enamel paint. Most brands will do just fine if you do the right amount of sanding prep work before hand.

Often times wood can “bleed through” which means it can change the color of the new paint due to the original wood colors or oils underneath. Usually you can combat that with a good primer to seal in the wood stain or colors. In this case since you can’t use a primer, you’ll want to paint the first coat and see if there is any bleed through. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. If there is bleed through, do a protective clear coat over it and a second coat of black enamel.

Up next you’ll want to use 220 grit sand paper and hand sand it to get a “rubbed through finish”. Lower grit will make it look scratched off. This is the tedious part, but it’s what helps give it the right look. I’ve also used denatured alcohol to rub off paint which has worked well in the past. In this case, the clear coat from the original finish left white blotches all over it once we used the denatured alcohol so we couldn’t use that. We just hand sanded to make it looked rubbed through.

This is an important step! Clear coat the dresser with a Satin water based poly. It’s going to look too shiny with the enamel and won’t look good from the sanding if you don’t clear coat it.

We also added new hardware to give it a more modern look!

Here’s the afters for you!

We can make your furniture look like this, too! You’ll save tons of money, rescue an old piece of furniture and have a classic look in your home for years to come. If you’re a DIYer, I hope this helps you save some money!

Here are a few other beauties that are for sale right now, too!

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 ;)

Posted on March 15, 2016March 15, 2016 by Sarah

Dressers Got Back…er Board :) – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How was your week? We had a good one! Last week was the first week since early January that I didn’t feel sick and man oh man was that nice!! I could breath, not cough, not puke. Win, win, win!! We even spent some of the week working on our house projects after working on yours. I painted our front door Dark Teal by Benjamin Moore.

So pretty, right?? I can’t wait to add hanging plants! Unfortunately, in the Northeast putting anything green outside is risky until at least the end of April :(.

For this week’s furniture makeover, I wanted to share this dresser transformation. Here it is before:

When we bought this originally, we really wanted to add barn board to the front of the dresser, but with the angle of the trim work on the drawers it just wasn’t going to work. We had another idea to add backer board instead because it’s so much thinner. So we stained the backer board with a gray stain and attached it with Liquid Nail.

We painted it using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White and then lightly distressed it. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also added new hardware to give it a more modern look!

The best part?? IT’S FOR SALE!! HORRAY! Head over to our Furniture For Sale page for more pics, pricing and sizes.

Here are a few other beauties that are for sale right now, too!

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 ;)

Posted on March 8, 2016March 8, 2016 by Sarah

Blue Country Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s your week going? Last week was pretty terrible for me. I either had food poisoning or a horrific stomach bug that took me out of commission for some of the week! So, I don’t have much exciting news to share with you or cool places I went. Other than taking my kids to see Zootopia after church on Sunday. My favorite line was when the mole says, “I have to baby. Daddy has to!”.

This weeks furniture makeover was really fun! I promised to share about it when I did the recent post about the table and chair set that we custom made. This piece complemented and completed the room. You should go check that out here.

The dining room that this was going in needed a more narrow buffet than normal so finding the right buffet was tricky. When I saw this one on craigslist, it was just the right size and I wanted to snatch it up as quickly as possible. I emailed the person selling it and they told me to be at their house at 4pm. I picked up the kids 10 minutes early from school, then grabbed John who had to stop work early and we headed up to Clifton Park to pick it up. As we were on our way, the seller texted to say that someone else who had originally canceled was now coming at 4 and they were early so if they wanted it, it was theirs. There is probably very few things more annoying to me in this business than when someone tells me I can come get something and then they sell it to someone else first! People rearrange their day to make this work and then you don’t honor what you told them! Meh. So in mourning for the loss of this buffet, we headed to Salvation Army and looked to see if they had furniture to buy. Which they didn’t. As we were shopping, the craiglist guy texted again to say they didn’t want it. Then he said someone else was coming at 4:30 so if I didn’t get there first, we couldn’t have it. Oh my word…. could this be any more dramatic. Lol! Anyway, I ran through Salvation Army calling for John and the kids to run and we made it at 4:15. Just in the nick of time! Then John goes… I don’t know, do you really like it?? OH YES I DO! I snatched this beauty up with a heart full of glee.

For the design project we were working on, I had originally wanted it to have a more country look but knew this would work. I haven’t painted anything blue in a while and I realized after doing this piece how much I’ve missed it! We painted it all with Benjamin Moore’s color blue heron (832). It doesn’t look much like this color at first, but then we deepened the color by using Minwax Early American stain over the top. And I heavily distressed it. New hardware was a must and it sealed the deal on this buffet for me!

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!

Also, there are some new stunning pieces on our website for sale, too!

: Black Queen Anne’s High Boy

: Ombre Antique Dresser

: Antique End Stand

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Sarah

Tables, Tables Everywhere – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your week?? It was a fun week for me!! In addition to repurposing furniture, I had a few interior design consultations, spoke at the Clifton Park Library, and taught a class on painting furniture at the Art Center of the Capital Region.

If you didn’t get a chance to come hear me speak at the library, you can read all about it on the Troy Record’s site.
It was also in the print paper!! Yippee!!
The class at the art center was so much fun!! I really enjoyed this group of fun loving repurposers. We laughed together, painted together and 3 hours flew by!! I simply must share the pic of this class (thanks guys)! If you’d like to sign up for the next class, go here to learn all about it.
I’ve been hesitating a bit about sharing all of the custom built tables we’ve made in 2016 because there are no “Before” pics to show you. It would be just a pile of wood! At last, I decided they are too pretty not to share! Take a look at the tables and remember, we can custom build your dream table, too! Check out more of our custom built goodies on our Custom Built Furniture Page.

This was the most recent dining set. This set is for an interior project that I’m working on. We painted 8 chairs in four different colors. The table is actually my kitchen table, but it’s very similar to the one we built for our client Ann. We used an old door for the top and used beautiful large turned legs for the base. See the buffet in the background? That was repurposed for our interior design job, too! I’ll share more about that in another post.
Here’s another tiny table that we built to have a rectangular base! Our clients’ wanted a rectangular base because it was being used with a built in corner bench. They wanted as much foot room on the corners as possible. I love the ship lap look on the base! John built a lip on the table top to make it look 2 inch thick and a bit more rustic!! LOVE LOVE that, too!
Let’s go back a couple of weeks to a stunning table that was done as a custom order as well! This is a SOLID 1 1/2 inch maple top table. The top alone weighs more than most tables and it’s beautiful. We stained the top with a mix of brown and gray stands and painted the base with Benjamin Moore’s Navajo white and glazed it.

Next is my very favorite table because it’s my own table… a twist on Rustic Chic. Two thirds of the table is rustic barn board and one third is a chic white with fancy legs.

If you like the look of my table, we also built a similar table and it’s for sale online or in our 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!

Also, there are some new stunning pieces on our website for sale, too!

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Sarah Trop