How was your week and weekend? We had an epic week, redoing about 20 furniture pieces. Man oh man was that a good thing, but by Friday night we were definitely ready to collapse! Thankfully we were able to enjoy some awesome family fun this weekend, from Harvest Parties to dinner with friends. It was reinvigorating and we are ready to jump head first into another hard work week which features some unique designs!
Before we get to furniture, I want to share a couple of pictures from a family photo shoot we just had done.
This week’s makeover is so pretty! We started with this antique drop front desk (circa 1930’s) that had beautiful wood grain but needed to be brought up to date style wise. Here’s the desk before:
We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White, medium distressed it, and sealed it with a protective clear coat. We also darkened the drawer fronts so they didn’t have as much of an orange hue. 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 desk 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!
Black Long Mid Century Dresser
White Queen Anne Armoire
White Rustic Chic Dresser
Mid Century Dresser
Black Distressed Dresser
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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.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted about going to help my friend Marcie who’s in Atlanta taking care of her 3 year old son Asher after his liver transplant? Well, I didn’t actually go that week! I was proud of myself for getting that post written before I left for the trip – but that plan backfired when I ran out of time to edit it after my change of plans. I ended up needing to reschedule the trip for a couple of weeks because Asher was still in the PICU and visiting during that time would have been tricky. Last week I was finally able to go and man oh man is he doing well! Thank you so much for praying for him!
Marcie doesn’t love having her pic taken but here’s a selfie I asked her to take in the drive through of Starbucks! lol!
We took one day and went to Decatur to walk and window shop. It was fun to get out and spend the day with Marcie, Asher and Piper. Here’s a thumbs up for the healing little guy!
For this weeks furniture makeover, I wanted to show you this beautiful empire dresser. I believe it’s from the late 1800’s. The dovetailing on the drawer sides is unique and of very high quality. It’s really a good-looking piece of furniture.
I bought it from a barn sale in Columbia County. All the money made goes to an orphanage in Mexico. Love giving to a good cause and I hope that you do, too! Here it is before:
We painted it with a black enamel paint, lightly distressed it, added new hardware and sealed it with a protective cleat coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Ready for the after?
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.
How’s your week going? It’s a good week here! Keeping busy with interior design jobs and custom furniture orders – loving every minute of it!
This weeks makeover is a fun one because this dresser was SO ugly to start with. Truthfully, I almost didn’t buy it. See for yourself!
We painted the outside with Benjamin Moore’s color Tropical Teal, glazed it with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze, and finished it with a clear coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.
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.
How’s your week going? I can’t wait to share with you this amazing find. I was out shopping for furniture and actually found a Haywood Wakefield matching dresser set!! Ahhh!! I look for makers marks which you usually find in the top left drawer or on the back. That helps me to know if it’s a quality furniture maker. Haywood Wakefield is a top mid century furniture company. All solid wood and amazing quality pieces. I’ve redone them before but only as custom orders. So to find a set that I could design and redo as I’d like was so exciting for me!
Here they are before:
I loved the hardware, but wanted to brighten them up so I painted them all gold. Then we painted the outside of the boxes with Benjamin Moore’s color Simply White. We deepened the color of the wood fronts with a darker stain. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also replaced the hardware with traditional bale pulls.
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 pageto 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.
How are you? I’m out of town spending some time with my friend Marcie. Her son Asher has liver cancer and is in a transplant center getting his new liver so I flew into Atlanta to see if I could be a help to her or at least help pass time in the hospital together.
Here’s a picture of Asher and my kiddos a few months:
Please be in prayer for Asher as the healing process is taking longer than anticipated. Also, pray for his mom, dad, two brothers and sister. It’s a hard few months for the family with his mom being away at a hospital.
This week’s furniture makeover has a special place in my heart because I’m a pianist. I went to a barn sale that I go to every year. All the money that they raise, they give to an orphanage in Mexico so I’m also happy to shop and support that!
This is an antique organ which I believe is from the late 1800’s based on other’s I’ve seen online. When we saw it at the sale, someone else had already moved the keys up. We just had to do some finishing touches, paint it and glaze it. Here it is before: We painted it with Sherman Williams color Rainwashed, glazed it with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze, and finished it with a satin clear coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.
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 pageto 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.
Thank you to everyone who’s been keeping me so busy with interior design work!! We started to officially offer interior design in May and have been busy with it ever since. Getting the right design is the result of asking questions, listening, understanding what you want, planning, experience and your budget. How I structure the design and cost is by scaling it to the your needs and resources. I charge per hour while I’m at a client’s house and a reduced per hour rate when I’m at home doing research and making a design plan. Typically the initial consult takes about 1 1/2 hours for a couple of rooms.
I’ve gotten many questions about how the process works so I thought I’d step you through a recent design for a client in Saratoga. Kirsten emailed me to ask about booking a design consult with us. She and her husband had recently bought a home and wanted help with each room in the house. It doesn’t have to be the whole house – I’ve done everything from a gallery wall layout, to redecorating one bedroom, to starting from scratch on an entire home.
Before I go to your home for the consult, I will ask for pictures of the house, find out who lives there and the purpose of the room(s) I will be designing. This give me time to plan some ideas before getting there – saving you time.
In this case, after I reviewed the initial information, I scheduled a visit (the initial consult). I asked Kirsten for her vision of the rooms/her home, identified the furniture or decor pieces available (as is, or to be re-purposed) and what was on the wish list to be purchased. Typically, and as was the case during this consult, my head was already over flowing with ideas so I started to make preliminary suggestions on the layout, possible furniture and decor items, choice of colors, etc. And we had to talk budget and timeline, based on the scope of the project, what could reasonably be accomplished and how best to utilize the money to obtain the desired results. Letting me know how much your budget is one of the first questions I ask!
So I went home and worked room by room on designs, starting with the first room that she needed to have done. Usually a room takes 2-3 hours for me to complete the preliminary design – with wall color, rug, lighting and furniture choices. As I create the space I like to make a Mood Board to show how everything is going to look together. Here’s an example of the mood board that I made for the mid century modern sitting room.
After review of the mood board, and the back and forth discussions with the client, I may also need to go back one more time to measure out each piece and make sure it feels right in the space before hitting the order now button. Also, sometimes clients need to make changes to the designs because the rug doesn’t come in the size they wanted, etc.
At the end we hope our customers have rooms that reflect their style, make them feel relaxed and will be welcoming for family and friends for years to come! If you would like help with your next room or even the whole house, please use our Contact Us form to set up an appointment. I’m here to help come up with a plan that works in your budget, create beautiful designs, and make the process fun, not stressful!
In addition to beautiful rooms, remember we make beautiful furniture. Here are a few of many on our Furniture For Sale page:
Teal and Tiger Oak Dreser
Red Rocking Chair
Mid Century Long Dresser
Mid Century Tall Dresser
Organ Desk
Ghost Blue China Cabinet
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 pageto 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.
I’m sooooooooo excited to share our first ever kitchen makeover with you!! Do you like Fixer Upper? If so, you’ll probably enjoy this kitchen makeover. It started back in June with the Interior Design phase. Ann hired me to be the interior designer for her dining room and entry way. The week we finished the entry way, she stopped by our store and said, “what room would you like to design next?”. I felt weird about telling her a room needed a makeover but she promised not to have hurt feelings! So I jumped at the idea of redoing her kitchen! She has a small kitchen but I knew we could breathe new life into it and make it a fun place to have friends over. Ann had other people give her quotes to redo the kitchen but they wanted to rip walls down and make it a major renovation project. Ann didn’t go for it and loved that I wanted to keep the original shape and size, but give it new life again.
To share the pictures of the kitchen after the remodel wouldn’t be the same without showing the before pictures.
Here we go! Let’s start with the fridge wall, shall we? I didn’t like the placement of the fridge or that the island was all wood. You’ll see in the next few pictures that there is very little kitchen cabinet space so I wanted to make the island look like the rest of the cabinets and add exposed shelving above it. I sent Ann three different design ideas for the kitchen but my favorite design was one that included all retro style appliances from Big Chill. With such a small room, a retro design could incorporate fun appliances. I was elated to find out that she wanted to go with the retro appliances plan!!! We also added white shiplap to the bottom half of the wall to add even more texture to the space. I wanted to make the fridge the focal point of the room so I moved it to the middle, then put the island on the left and built exposed shelving to go above it. We also added LED lights under each shelf to brighten up that corner. Let’s move on to the wall with the stove. The stove needed to be replaced, but I felt like this space also needed more storage. Here it is before: Storage was tricky because behind the butcher block was a heater that couldn’t be covered. We decided to build a cabinet that looked like a counter but with metal on the bottom to let the heat out but still give her work space and built a custom cabinet to also provide more storage. Scroll back up and take a look at the door to the left of the stove. The rest of Ann’s house has beautiful mahogany doors and I wanted these to match so we stripped off all the paint, sanded them down and stained them to match. I love the timeless look that gives this kitchen. Refinishing the doors was probably Johns least favorite part of this renovation. Now check out the difference!
Let’s take a look at the ceiling now… not so pretty wood that was an orange/brown. With a light that needed to go for sure!
Here it is now… sooooooo pretty, right? Moving on to the sink section. The dark color of the cabinets made this space feel small. The doors and drawers were really basic so John added decorative trim to make it seem more modern and high end. Here’s a close up on those: John also build the counter top from scratch using solid maple. That was probably the hardest part of the remodel. Not the install, but the build itself. It was definitely worth it though!
We went with a GE retro dishwasher because we wanted white. The hardware is all from Restoration Hardware. What would a kitchen makeover be without a farmhouse sink anyway?? The rug added another deign element that made the kitchen fun and fresh. The tile is from Lowes and we went with a dark gray grout. Since the windows look out to her back yard, I wanted to skip on curtains and leave it open and sunshiney.
Ann already had this antique coffee grinder and I definitely wanted to incorporate it into the kitchen design. Isn’t it awesome?!? The cabinets, trim, and ceiling are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White in Semi Gloss. The walls are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White in Satin. When Ann walked into the house for the first time after the remodel and sent me a text saying, “I can’t stop smiling”… and that says it all friends.
Here are some other pretty pictures that we thought you might like!
We can help design or remodel your home! If you’d like help with either, use our Contact Us form! We would love to create one of a kind deigns for you!
We also have lots of one of a kind furniture for sale right now if you’re in need of that. Here are a few of those pieces:
Organ Desk
Teal Mid Century Dreser
Ghost Blue China Cabinet
Blue Low Boy Dresser
Black and White Hutch
Mid Century Dresser
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 pageto 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.
How was your week? Everyone start school ok? My kiddos started at a new school this year and I was a little nervous for them – hoping they would make new friends easily and like their teachers! Thankfully, they absolutely love it, and I’m thrilled at how easily they integrated into their new school. Oh, and having normal work hours again feels so good, too Here are a few pictures of my babies on the first day of school!
This week’s transformation is on the simpler side, but still so classic and pretty. I bought this dresser set a while ago and have been wanting time to redo it!
We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color New York State of Mind, glazed it with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze, and finished it with a satin clear coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also replaced the hardware with traditional bale pulls.
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 pageto 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.
How was your holiday weekend? My amazing friends Chrisie, Dione and Bethany came for a girls weekend and we had a blast! It was so nice to get time to laugh, have fun, not work and feel like a 20 year old again! I’m so so thankful for the blessing of their friendship!
Since they are here, I’m keeping this post short and sweet. It’s a transformation of an ornate but ugly buffet that I took the risk of painting in a bold way! Here it is before:
We painted it with Benjamin Moore’s color, glazed it with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze, and finished it with a semigloss clear coat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We also replaced the hardware for that extra pop with the design.
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 pageto 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.
How’s your week going? We are knee deep in a kitchen remodel project while getting goods restocked at FunCycled and getting the kiddos ready to start school next week. This is the time of year that I feel ready for school. The kids are ready not to be around each other all day and I’m ready to have time to catch up with work. Work has been busy this summer and we’ve had added in a lot of non-work fun, but I’m ready to feel like I’m not running on all cylinders again.
This week’s makeover is actually much harder than it may look. We took this old oak dresser:
We’ve tried to redo an oak dresser with a gradient ombre stained finish, but sometimes oak doesn’t like to take the stain colors as well as pine or a softer wood so it hasn’t come out right when we’ve tried it. But we decided to give it another go!
We painted the outside with a black enamel and heavily distressed it. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. For the drawer fronts, we sanded down into the oak pretty deeply. We needed the grain to take the stain. Then we stained the drawers in this order with these colors:
1st drawer (top) – all natural (no stain applied just a protective clear coat)
2nd drawer – Minwax 1 coat of Early American
3rd drawer – Minwax 1st coat Early American – 2nd coat Dark Walnut
4th drawer – Minwax 2 coats of Dark Walnut
5th drawer – Minwax 1 coat of Ebony
Sometimes seeing it in a picture is helpful, right? On photo day, I also had a helper to do the pictures. She’s just the cuteness.
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 pageto 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.