Blog - Page 49 of 77 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Sarah

A Dresser Goes from Gross to Gasp – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

Did all of my friends who juggle full time jobs and being a mom make it through winter break ok?? Typically this time of the year is our slowest, but we’ve been running on all cylinders this year! Which is wonderful!! John and I have both been working 6 long days a week and trying to keep up. Thankfully, I have a husband who can see when I’m starting to loose my “spark”. He was so wonderful last week. He encouraged me to go to NYC for the day with my friend Tara. We went through the Museum of Modern Art, window shopped and enjoyed some pretty amazing food. It was just what I needed to put a spring back in my step. Then John mentioned that I should take a day with the kids that I had planned to work and man oh man was I glad I did.

I promised last week that I would tell you all about a project we have been working on since Christmas. We are launching the Troy Repurpose Project this week!! If you are local, you can repurpose ANYTHING, send me the before and after pictures, and the project with the most votes wins! If you’re a Troy Resident or business, you can also choose to sell the item you’ve repurposed if you’d like. Email the before and afters to sarah@funcycled.com.

This week’s furniture makeover was from a while back actually, but I didn’t get a chance to post about it yet. This is a pretty common style for older furniture; it’s so orange and clunky! :( The good news? It was an awesome transformation once we were done with it!

Before:
This set was done as a custom order! It was in our customers family for years so she didn’t want to part with it. She also REALLY didn’t want to use it as is. I can’t blame her!

We painted it using Benjamin Moore’s color Silver Fox. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. After we painted it, we heavily distressed and glazed it. New hardware always helps. If you’re going for a traditional look, try hardware like we used!

Ready for the after??

Have you ever checked out our Custom Built Furniture page? We can make furniture that will fit perfectly in your home! Here’s just a few that we’ve made:

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 February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Late 1800’s Gray Vanity Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? Did you have a fun Valentines Day? I posted this on our social media sites and I hope you know how true it is…
I wanted to remind those of you who struggle with Valentine’s Day because you don’t have a Valentine or because you don’t have the Valentine you pictured yourself with when you were a little kid. You are significant and so loved! God is all around you – loving you. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. God loves you so much he sent His Son to die on the cross for you.

For this week’s transformation, I wanted to show you a vanity that we just finished. The man we bought this vanity from said it’s been in his family for generations. He believes its from the late 1800’s. Here it is before:
We painted it using Benjamin Moore’s color Silver Fox. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. After we painted it, we lightly distressed and glazed it. We also found this adorable chair…
It was just the right height and the curves of the legs matched perfectly with this vanity.

Ready for the after?

Late 1800's Gray Vanity — Late 1800’s Gray Vanity

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 February 9, 2016 by Sarah

White Breakfront Hutch Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a fun weekend! We had a house full and enjoyed a Super Bowl party at our house. My very favorite way to spend a weekend is by filling the house with friends and family, old and new. It was such a treat!

I’m also working on a city wide project that I’ll tell you all about next week! I’m so excited about it; I can barely stand it! Even though I can’t share the details on that yet, I can share the before and after pictures of my dining room like I promised I would last week.

For this week’s furniture transformation, I get to show you a hutch makeover. You know how much I love a good hutch transformation!! This one melts me as they often do! Here’s the hutch before:

It’s a breakfront hutch which means the top drawer pulls out so it can be a hutch or bar. It’s more difficult to find this type of hutch and I was really excited when a customer emailed me to see if I’d like to purchase this one.

We painted this hutch 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 used some of the original hardware and then added marble pulls to make it more one of a kind! I also used fabric on the back of the hutch to add a pop of color. That can be easily change out if it doesn’t work well with your decor!

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 couple 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 February 2, 2016February 1, 2016 by Sarah

Mid Century Chevron Dresser – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

How are you? Our family has had a week of catching horrific colds, but also catching up on projects around the house while we’ve been homebound. You know life giving us lemons and we’re making lemonade and all. :)

Here’s the quick before and after of our living room!
I’ll share the before and after pictures of our dining room next week. It’s my favorite room in the house so far so come back next week!

For this week’s furniture makeover, we had fun with chevron! It’s been awhile since I’ve painted chevron furniture and I’ve missed it!

Here they are before:

This set was in great shape structurally but the surface needed to be sanded smooth to make it look nice. We painted this dresser/end stand using Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White and the chevron is Silver Fox color by Benjamin Moore. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Here it is after!

THIS SET IS ALSO FOR SALE!! HOORAY! Head over to our Furniture For Sale page for more pics, pricing and sizes. Here are some other pieces we recently added.

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 26, 2016 by Sarah

Campaign Dresser Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

It’s been a rollercoaster of a week! Remember how I mentioned that we wanted to give our kids experience gifts rather than just tangible gifts for Christmas? Josh’s experience gift was to go see his friend Carter in Florida with me. When I found flights that didn’t cost much more than a Lego set, I thought… this is perfect. Here he is about to go on his first flight.

He was just the cuteness on so many levels!! Here he is with his buddy Carter and I don’t think they could look any happier.

While I was away, my Aunt Alice passed away. We flew home late Wednesday night, prepped for the funeral Thursday and the wake, funeral and burial were on Friday. I’m sad I didn’t get to say goodbye to her. While my family was going through her old pictures, they found two pictures of her that meant a lot to me. In 1947 she lived in downtown Troy on 8th Street and she was upcyclying furniture outside her house. She would have been 17 and these pictures have brought me so much happiness.

It was kind of like her own goodbye to me… I’m so thankful for it.

I know, you’re here for furniture, too! This makeover is so exciting to me! John came home with this dresser and asked me if he could burn it! Oh no no no!

Right away I knew how I wanted to redo it. I have never redone a dresser with a campaign style. Campaign style dressers usually vary a bit but always have corner brackets on each drawer or just on the corners of the piece which add a refined touch. The styling is inspired by vintage British campaign trunks. Most campaign dressers have inset knobs, but I thought that might be a little too much on this piece so I did drop down pulls instead.

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 filled the inlays on the four top drawers with Bondo to make them look more modern. Are you ready for the after?? I know I was!

Can you even believe it? I know I couldn’t!! The best part?? IT’S FOR SALE!! HORRAY! Head over to our Furniture For Sale page for more pics, pricing and sizes.

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 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 ;)

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

Sarah Trop