Blog - Page 49 of 76 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on January 19, 2016January 18, 2016 by Sarah

How to Update a Drop Leaf Table – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Have you ever seen those ugly drop leaf maple tables?? You know the kind you couldn’t sell for more than $20 and you feel guilty about getting rid of it, or you were at a yard sale and couldn’t pass up the purchase because of the price? Well… we are here to help! Today I wanted to share a way to repurpose that drop leaf table into something amazing that you’ll be proud to show off.

Here it is before:

What I do like about this table is the wood grain on the top and the shape of the chairs. What I don’t like is the drop leaf, the color of the wood, and the base of the table.

Since we were taking off the table base, I wanted to find a way to salvage it. The only way I could think of reusing it was to turn it into a bench. Since there were only 4 chairs, I thought this might be a really good option for extra seating.

With the table base gone, we had to add all new legs on the bottom. In order to do this and breathe new life into the table – it is no longer a drop leaf!!

For the bench we had to cut the two base pieces a little shorter and then add a new piece of wood for the seat.

We painted the legs of the table Navajo White by Benjamin Moore and lightly distressed them.

The chairs and bench are painted Lincoln Cottage Black by Valspar. We sanded down the table top and stained it with Dark Walnut and Classic Gray Stain by Minwax. Maple doesn’t like to take stain very well so this would’t be the same color if you stained a mahogany or pine piece. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Here’s the whole set!

Even though this is a custom order, we have new pieces on our for sale page right now!! Check it out here.

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 January 12, 2016January 12, 2016 by Sarah — 2 Comments

My Favorite Furniture Makeovers in 2015

Hi Friends!

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

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

1) Barn-board Dressers

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

2) Duck Egg Blue China Cabinet

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

3) DIY Lego Cabinet

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

4) Bathroom Vanity from an Old Sewing Machine

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

5) Dark Gray Hutch Makeover

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

6) White Mid Century Dresser with Ombre Drawers

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

7) Black Retro Style Sideboard

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

8) Chevron Nursery Dresser

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

9) Hand Painted Designs

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

10) Custom Built Dining Tables

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

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

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

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

Posted on January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 by Sarah — 2 Comments

Top 10 Furniture Makeovers of 2015

Every year, I get so excited to pull the reports and see which of our blog posts were the most viewed in the prior year. Then I compile them into a quick list for you all to see and enjoy! You can click on any title or picture to see the “how to” for each makeover and a little of the story behind each piece. The story is one of the things I love the most about what I do, so take some time to check them out. A HUGE thanks for stopping by friends! The list starts with the most viewed post during 2015. Take a peek and see if your favorites made the top ten list!

1) White Mid Century Dresser with Ombre Drawers

Seeing this as the top post for 2015 made me so happy! Mostly because this is one of my favorite designs this year. I loved working with this mid century piece, painting the box a crisp color and staining the drawer fronts. I’m thrilled you liked it, too!

Before:
After:

2) Pantone’s Color of the Year Marsala Hutch

This hutch was painted Pantone’s color of the year for 2015 so it seems appropriate that it made the top 10 list. To be honest, it’s not my favorite color… but you all wanted to see it on a hutch and then you came here to check it out! Thanks for stopping by!

Before:After:

3) Art Nouveau Desk & Glass Secretary Cabinet Makeover

This is another piece I was happy to see on the top ten list. Mostly because it’s such a unique piece and I poured myself into the design. I wanted something timeless but completely different.
Before:

After:

4) Black Retro Style Sideboard

Once again… we had similar taste in favorites because this is decidedly one of my top favorite designs of 2015! I loved taking a traditional sideboard and giving it a retro feel with similar colors as the original. Melt. Swoon. Melt!

Before:After:

5) Gold Dipped China Cabinet

This makeover was so bold and I knew it would take just the right buyer, but I still thought it was the right look for the china cabinet. It’s actually still available to buy here on our Furniture For Sale Page.
Before:
After:

6) Gray Mirrored Dresser

I couldn’t wait to get started on this dresser and boy oh boy did I love the final result! It flew out of our store so I guess that means you all liked it a lot, too. :)
Before:
After:

7) Updated Ethan Allen Hutch

Fabric backed hutches were another popular design for 2015 so seeing this on the top 10 list seemed very fitting!
Before:After:

8) If Vera Bradley Had a Hutch

Here’s another go bold or go home hutch with fabric on the back that didn’t last long on our website and was shipped to Texas!
Before:
After:

9) Rustic Chic Dresser Set

Hands down… probably my favorite new design of 2015. I had never seen it done, but I wanted to add barn board to a dresser that had clean lines. Mixing modern and rustic in one piece – which is one of my favorite things to do. Thrilled doesn’t even begin to show how excited I was to see this on the top 10 list!
Before:After:

10) Gray Buffet Makeover

Last on the list but probably the most sought after from our posts is this gray hutch. Once people saw the transformation, they wanted one of their own.
Before:
After:

Also, to recap the year, we were beyond ecstatic when our episode of HGTV’s Flea Market Flip aired in March!
Winning the show was such a fun experience!!! You can click on the picture above to read all about it and see links to download our episode!

Also, on a personal note, we moved into our 1805 dream house this year. We weren’t even looking to move and saw this dream house of ours for sale. God worked out every detail and here we are as of November!

Last, but most certainly not least, you helped raise over $1,100 to help those in poverty around the world! We auctioned off a furniture piece every month that had 31 days and all of the proceeds was donated to Hope International.

As per tradition, next week, I’ll be sharing my favorite furniture makeovers of 2015. Some are in the list above, but you might be surprised by the others. Stop by again next week!! Until then, let me paint something to put your furniture in the top 10 list next year! Please, pretty please? You can use our Contact Us form to request a quote to redo a piece that you already own or you can buy something from our Furniture For Sale page.

Happy FunCycling friends!
Sarah

Posted on December 29, 2015January 9, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

White Antique Ornate Vanity – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your Christmas? We had a house full! This year, having the new house, we had room for my big family and hosted Christmas. It was the best.
I loved filling both tables with people I adore, setting the table with my great aunt’s fine china, singing Christmas carols around the piano, and listening to all of the kiddos take turns reading the Christmas Story from the Bible. It was such a beautiful day and my heart was full – this is what the spirit of Christmas and home means to me.

I hope that even if your home wasn’t filled with people or family wasn’t nearby, that your heart was full of joy and you were able to reflect on all the blessings 2015 has brought. Sometimes even the hard things in life can be blessings in disguise.

If you missed it, Fresh American Style featured an interview with us last week. You can read it right here.
Moving on to furniture as usual… This week’s makeover is brand new and it’s also for sale!! It was actually a desk and we had a mirror that would work perfectly for it!
Here are the two pieces before we started painting:

We painted this vanity using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted the top a dark charcoal gray and glazed everything. To add a little bit of pizazz to the piece, we went with glass hardware. Oh how it sparkles!

This vanity is for sale right now! We just brought it into the store last week. If you’d like to purchase it, please use our Contact Us form or stop by our store at 272 River Street, Troy, NY. I also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

6 Mahogany Chairs with Coffee Sack Seats

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 December 22, 2015January 9, 2016 by Sarah

Orchid Dresser Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

It’s the week of Christmas!!! We are so excited to celebrate our Savior’s birth! I can’t wait to spend Christmas singing about Him, sharing gifts that reflect the gift we were given when God sent Jesus to earth, and enjoying our new home with my parents and brothers and their families. We’ll be hosting Christmas dinner this year!

Here’s our store hours over the next two weeks:
I f you would like to stop by with family or look at a piece of furniture while you are on vacation, please email me using our Contact Us form! I would gladly meet you at our store anytime!

This past weekend we were able to go to Old Sturbridge Village. We’ve never gone to it before even though it is an easy drive! It was really great! They had people roasting chestnuts on an open fire (we tried them). Each house in the village had something special to teach us about. There was a horse drawn carriage. I would love to make it a yearly tradition for our family.

For this week’s furniture transformation, I wanted to share one that I enjoyed because I was able to freehand a design on the front. Jackie came to us with this dresser:

She loved this Fern Dresser that we recently did but really wanted orchids instead. She said I could paint it how I would like to. We sanded and stained the drawer fronts with a mixture of gray/brown stains. The outside of the dresser is painted with the color Navajo White by Benjamin Moore. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We replaced all of the hardware as well.

Have a merry and holy Christmas friends.
Photo from Pinterest.

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 December 15, 2015January 9, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Repurposed Simply White Ombre Mid-Century Desk – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? We’ve had back to back busy weekends at the store so thank you very, very much to all who came out and shopped so far this holiday season!!! I don’t know about you but I can not believe Christmas is 10 days away. I mean really… didn’t we just start 2015? This year I’m trying something new with my kids at Christmas and I wanted to encourage you all to consider it, too. We all want to do less presents, right? Then we never end up actually doing less. I know, I know. I tried to limit and I did pretty well but can’t seem to get it down to 1-2 presents. So, I tried to switch gears a bit and make experiences together the biggest part of their Christmas gifts. Something like this… I am putting Coupon Books in their stockings. You can get free printables for the books on Pinterest. I liked these by WonderMom Wannabe. I’m hoping it will be a good reason to make extra memories together this year. If your kids are anything like mine, they won’t let you forget that they have the coupons and will use them. We are also planning small trips with each child individually. The busier life gets the more I realize it’s not OK to have my kids be the first people who get pushed aside. They are what matter to me and they won’t forget. Friends come and go and life situations change but those little monkeys will always be my babies.

As for the furniture makeover, we have another mid century piece that is sure to melt my soul… as always. Here it is before:

Pretty UGLY! Right?

We sanded it down quite a bit to get it smooth since it had been painted before. We painted this desk using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We stained the drawer fronts using water down painted.

This desk is for sale right now! We just brought it into the store last week. If you’d like to purchase it, please use our Contact Us form or stop by our store at 272 River Street, Troy, NY. I also added quite a few other new pieces to the store!

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 December 8, 2015January 9, 2016 by Sarah

Deer Head Modern Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

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

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

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

Here’s the buffet before:

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

Here’s the after!

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

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

FunCycled Furniture Painting Classes in the Capital District

Hi Friends!!!

A highly anticipated time has come! We have partnered with the Art Center of the Capital Region to offer classes on how to paint your own furniture. This is such an exciting announcement for us!! I’ve considered myself an artist above all else in this business! I’ve been painting since I was a teenager. I was home schooled and my parents invested in having me go to an amazing art teacher to learn how to paint for years. I had art in galleries and loved everything about it. Then I started enjoying interior design and painting furniture. The rest is history! ;)

This class will be 3 hours long. You’ll bring your own piece (anything small that you can carry through a door by yourself) and we will paint it completely and distress it if you’d like, during that time period. I’ll show you painting techniques that I’ve learned over the last 4 years of re-purposing furniture full time. Bring your friends and make it a night (or morning) outing! You can see a full list of class dates and register for them here: Repainting to Repurpose with FunCycled

Here’s some examples of furniture finishes you’ll be taught in the class!

This class would make a great gift for a friend or loved one! If you have friends that love DIY or paint and sip classes, this should be the next outing for your fun night out!

Won’t it be fun to give new life and add character to your favorite piece of furniture? Thank you for appreciating art and supporting our local community!

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 December 1, 2015August 23, 2024 by Sarah

Broken to Beautiful by FunCycled

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

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

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

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

From our hearts to yours,

Sarah & the FunCycled Team

Here’s how to be part of this initiative:

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

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

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

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

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

OUR CURRENT INITIATIVE

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

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

MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION HERE

We look forward to hearing from you!

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

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on December 1, 2015January 9, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

The Furniture That Takes Me Forever to Figure Out – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? These couple of weeks are some of the busiest of the year for retail shops. We barely got a chance to take a breath after Thanksgiving before we were thrown into Black Friday and Shop Small Saturday – we love that shopping local is becoming a holiday tradition with new and old customers! This Sunday (12/06) is Troy’s Victorian Stroll from 11am-5pm. It is such a fun event; the streets are open with live performances, caroling and food vendors, and of course the shopping! If you’ve never been, it should become a new yearly tradition. Make sure to stop in and say hello!

With certain furniture pieces, I look at them and know exactly what I want to do with them the minute I see them. With others… not so much! I let it sit and sit and almost give up. Then I get a determined spirit and decide it must be conquered. The last time I remember feeling that way with a piece of furniture was with my aunt’s Gray and White Hutch Makeover. Then came this hutch…Something about it left me questioning which way I should go with the design. Until I found this hardware:
Continue reading The Furniture That Takes Me Forever to Figure Out – Tuesday’s Treasures

2) Duck Egg Blue China Cabinet

4) Bathroom Vanity from an Old Sewing Machine

6) White Mid Century Dresser with Ombre Drawers

7) Black Retro Style Sideboard

9) Hand Painted Designs

10) Custom Built Dining Tables

After:

Before:After:

10) Gray Buffet Makeover

Here’s how to be part of this initiative:

Sarah Trop