Blog - Page 51 of 74 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on May 13, 2015May 13, 2015 by Sarah

FunCycled Designs at The Vanguard Showhouse 2015

What is the Vanguard Show House? The Vanguard is an organization that raises money to help support the Albany Symphony Orchestra. You can see the Vanguard’s website for pertinent details such as the hours the house is open. This year’s home is at Rockledge at 158 Van Wies Point in Glenmont. This historic home, started in 1904 as a summer retreat on the Hudson River, was refurbished and decorated by fourteen designers representing twelve Capital Region businesses. It’s easy to get to, all you need to do is park at the Glenmont Price Chopper (the intersection of Route 9W and Glenmont Rd.) and they will shuttle you to the house.

The show house is open to the public. Visitors pay to tour the home and the money raised goes to support the Albany Symphony Orchestra. This year they asked us to consider taking on the screened porch area. We gladly accepted! My vision for the space was for it to have a relaxed feel, with plenty of seating, offering indoor comforts with outdoor style – creating plenty of reasons to spend as much time outside as possible. I also wanted the furniture that we made to be rich in history and full of charm.

You’ll definitely want to go see the house because all of the designers did amazing jobs! You will find something(s) to love about every room. Here’s a tour of our porch design. (And FYI – almost everything you see in these pictures will be for sale in our store on May 23rd or you can pre-purchase anything starting May 18th).

The dining area was designed for plenty of seating and visual impact. We built the table using parts from historic homes in Albany. The indoor/outdoor table was built using a door from an old home that was torn down when Albany Medical Center expanded and the pillars (table legs) are from an historic Albany home as well.
The spiral staircase plant stand is one of a kind. I’ve never had one like it to work with. We sanded, painted and added a pop of color on the steps.
We included additional storage with this shelving unit that came from an old home in Saratoga that we added legs to.
The orb pendant above the table was created to bring your eyes up a bit when you walk in the room. We may end up adding lighting to it, but for this room there was no electricity run to the ceiling so it couldn’t be lit.

The seating area was so fun! We painted wicker furniture to compliment each other. The love seat and chair have been reupholstered and are ridiculously comfortable.
We made the coffee table from an old cable spool and added legs. We have more cable spools available if you would like to custom order a table. The bar was custom built as well and we used metal from an old yoke to give some fun detailing to the front of the piece.
I painted and designed a large art piece saying RELAX. Just what I wanted the space to be… a place to relax.

Thank you to the Vanguard for asking us to be part of this design and to all the designers who treated me like family from day one! We had a blast and hope to do it again next year. Also, a big welcome to all of our new customer, friends and followers who learned about us while touring the Vanguard house. We would love to create custom furniture, paint furniture you already have, or have you buy one of our own designs!

If you like our Facebook page, we will be giving away 2 tickets to tour the house on Saturday or Sunday (May 16th or 17th), The show house closes on May 17th at 5PM. Also, 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 May 12, 2015June 4, 2015 by Sarah

Gold Dipped Antique China Cabinet for Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

How are you? Did you all have a nice Mother’s Day?? I could do a whole blog post praising my mom and it wouldn’t be enough, but let me quickly say that she’s a huge part of my every day and this business. She finds me all the deals, creates most of my crafts, does our upholstery, helps with the kids, helps with the shop. She’s just amazing! Thank you mom for caring so much about your kids… it’s true, we NEED you! :)

As for me, my kids are at the age that they really, really wanted to make Mother’s Day special for me. From extra hugs and kisses, to words of affirmation, to little gifts and holding the door open for me, I was treated like a queen. Love my little family.

As for the furniture this week, I was in the mood to be bold. When going through the furniture on our Upcoming Projects page (which you can have me custom design for you), I decided to do a fun, fancy makeover of this hutch.

It needed quite a bit of repair and the top was coming off. We repaired, sanded and painted it using Simply White by Benjamin Moore and used a metallic gold paint for the top and bottom. We put new hardware on it that was actually antique hardware from anther piece.

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

After it was painted, I didn’t really love.
I thought the detailing on the door was too mid century looking so I removed it. Ahhhhh now that’s better!! :)

Remember that this china cabinet is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

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. There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address in to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog.

Please sign up today! 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 will 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 May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 by Sarah

Coral China Cabinet For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you enjoying this beautiful weather? Man I love it!! Every over-70-degree minute of it. Not only am I so much less on edge because I’m always cold when the weather is colder, but it also makes work so much easier, e.g. much shorter dry times and more space to work. I’m loving it!

Last week was fun and so very busy! The Vanguard Showhouse opened to the public last week. We would love for you to stop by! Here’s the info. for the Vanguard Showhouse. It’s only open until May 17th and the time is going to fly by – so make your plans to visit!! Also, downtown Troy’s first outdoor farmer’s market of the season occurred this past Saturday. If you’ve never been to the Troy Farmer’s Market, you HAVE to stop by. It’s huge, the vendors are amazing and all of the parking garages are free to park in on the weekends. It’s held outside on River Street (the street our store is on) every Saturday from May-September from 9am – 2pm. Things were selling like hot cakes at our store so thank you to everyone who came and shopped local!

On an even important note, our little man turned 7 in the past week. Why does he have to get so big? It makes me sad. I feel like 7 sounds so much older than 6, We’re more than half way to his teenage years. Meh… He’s just the cutest little thing.

Now that you’re all up to date on our week, I want to share an adorable before and after china cabinet makeover. I’ve been wanting to try a new coral because coral can be a tricky color. I don’t like it too orange or too pink. I think this color is so soft and beautiful… just what I wanted.

Here’s the china cabinet before.
If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. The color we used was Ravishing Coral by Sherman Williams. We lightly distressed it to highlight the detailing.

Here’s the after!

Remember that this china cabinet is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on April 28, 2015April 28, 2015 by Sarah

Updating an Ethan Allen Hutch – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How are you? We finished up the Vanguard show house design last week and it opens today. We would love for you to stop by! Here’s a the info for the Vanguard show house. It’s only open until May 17th and the time is going to fly by!!

Once the set up was done, we had really fun weekend with my high school pal Theresa. It’s been over a year and a half since she’s been at our house so she hasn’t gotten to see our store before. We worked together at the shop on Saturday and then went hiking as families. It was a blast!
Then on Sunday night we went to the preview party at the Vanguard Show house. Getting a night out with the hubby, getting all dressed up, and talking to designers and music lovers all night was my kind of evening. I so enjoyed it! John was looking pretty handsome, too! ;)
Let’s talk furniture makeover, shall we? This hutch was in great shape originally, but needed a little updating.

I wanted to do a bright pop of color because it’s spring! Who doesn’t love color all year long? I know I do! If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted the outside with Benjamin Moore’s color Topeka Taupe. The inside fabric and knobs are from Hobby Lobby.

The best part is, this hutch is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on April 21, 2015April 21, 2015 by Sarah

Rainwashed Dresser For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s it going? Today I’m headed to the Vanguard show house to hopefully finish the interior design project we are doing. We’ve had many questions about what the Vanguard Albany Symphony show house is. It’s a historic home on the Hudson River in Glenmont and different designers were selected to take a room to redesign. You buy tickets (which can be purchased from most Price Chopper’s) to tour the home. This event helps to support the Albany Symphony orchestra. Here’s a link to more information about the times and directions: http://www.vanguard-aso.org/pdf/SH2015/SH_2015%20rev%203.pdf

It will be open starting April 28th until May 17th so plan to pick up your tickets and stop by. I will be there for the designer days on 5/2, 5/6 and 5/12 from 12:30-3:00pm and I’d love to see you there. It’s a stunning house!

The week before last more than half of our store sold out! Thank you so much for that! I was stressing out a bit because I found out with one weeks notice that we owed a TON of money for taxes. I had been filing quarterly and doing what I thought was all the right things, but I must not have claimed enough of the deductions. So the sales made it possible to send in a good chunk of what we needed to pay. I was thanking God all week for providing.

Not to be a complainer, but taxes are the toughest part about what we do. For those of you who don’t know much about how small business work, we have to set aside about 30-40% of whatever we make to go back to taxes. That’s what makes our prices quite a bit higher than someone who’s redoing furniture as a hobby and selling it on craigslist without a business name. Ok, I’m going to stop ranting about that now.

I was able to update our About Us page thanks to a family photo shoot with my friend, Nancy. Here are some of the many new pics I adore. Thank you, Nancy!

You’re here for a furniture makeover… that’s right. This one is simple but such a transformation. Here it is before.

I wanted to try a new color called Rainwashed by Sherman Williams. I was reading in HGTV magazine that it’s one of Joanna Gains favorite colors and I decided to give it a try. Is there anything she’s done that I haven’t liked? Nope. Don’t think so. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. I can definitely see why she likes this color. It’s subtle and sophisticated. Almost a robin’s egg blue but very very light and soft. (It looks more white in the pictures than it actually is)

Then I lightly distressed it and added all new hardware. New hardware with a dresser like this is a must in my opinion!

I also did a small waterfall end stand in the same color, but added a poster of postcards to the front of the door.
Before:
After:

The dresser and end stand arecurrently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on April 14, 2015April 14, 2015 by Sarah

How to Make a Lego Storage Cabinet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi All!

Last week was school break for our kids so we wanted to incorporate a fun project to get the kids involved a little bit. This cabinet has been sitting for months and months in our barn. I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it and no design ideas came to me. It was pretty simple from a detailing perspective and nothing seemed quite right.

Then last week this idea hit me! Let’s make a cabinet for Lego storage!! What took me so long to think of that??

To make the Lego brick style drawers. We started by gluing two 1 inch pine boards together so that the knobs would be thick enough to stick out from the drawer fronts. Then we used a 2 1/4 hole saw to cut each circle. The size of your hole saw may need to vary depending on the size of the dresser drawer.

You’ll want to draw a grid to make sure each circle is attached with equal distances apart.

We then used liquid nail under each circle and screwed through the back of the drawer to attach each circle to the drawer front. Then you’ll need to fill each hole that is made from the center of the hole saw with wood filler and sand it all smooth.

Now it’s time to paint. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.
Our son, Josh, helped us make the knobs for the dresser. I’ll do a tutorial about that soon!! Check these out!!

Here the finished product and it’s FOR SALE!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available.

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Posted on April 7, 2015April 7, 2015 by Sarah

Art Nouveau Desk & Glass Secretary Cabinet Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your weekend? As you know, we celebrated Easter. My favorite celebration… because as the old hymn says, -John Wilbur Chapman You can order that canvas here. Happy Easter from our family to yours.

This Easter was also my mom’s 60th birthday and my brother’s 38th birthday. For my mom’s 60th, we planned a surprise birthday party. Mom loves birch trees so I wanted to do a mostly white party with flowers, and a few light colors. I thought you might like to see all the decor and the best part? Mom was actually surprised!! Miracles of miracles. lol

For the plate setting, I used plastic plates from Target. First a large plate, then a white napkin, then a live greenery, and then the small plate on top. It added a unique visual component to the setting that I loved.

Speaking of a visual component that I love; wait until you see this transformation. Beth found this secretary cabinet along side the road for free. Holy cow!! Why would anyone chuck this?? I wanted it so badly. Now granted, it needed a lot of work but we can do that. It had no back panel, no front door, and peeling veneer.
(photo from Beth)

It was going in a white hall so Beth gave me creative freedom to design something unique! Boy do I love when that happens!! It needed structural help, too, which made the project much more difficult than we thought. Probably double the time. In the end, I think it paid off?? You tell me.

If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We lightly distressed all of the edges to show some of the wood through the black as well. This was painted with Benjamin Moore’s Dragon’s Breath color. We spray painted the original hardware with oil rubbed bronze and a new knob for the door that was built.
Here it is!!

The moral of this story?? If you find something like this… please don’t throw it away. Give it to me or let me make it beautiful for your home!!

Happy FunCycling Friends,j

Sarah ;)i

Posted on March 31, 2015March 30, 2015 by Sarah — 4 Comments

Hope International Fundraising Auction Today!

FunCycled was thrilled to partner with Hope International in October 2014 as a financial advocate. We were motivated by the call to serve and invest in entrepreneurs in developing nations. Our fundraising provides money for small business loans – a loan as small as $100 can change a family forever. This is called Hope Rising!! John and I are passionate about empowering the poor to provide for themselves and their families through the life changing power of Christ-centered microfinance. It’s our heartbeat and we hope to show you enough that your heart will be encouraged to help in this way too.

During 2014-15, on the 31st of those months that have 31 days, FunCycled will auction off a piece of furniture and donate the proceeds to HOPE. Here are the rules:

1. All bidding will take place on the FunCycled blog. You can bid by commenting on this blog post, utilizing the comment box below. Bids placed on Instagram or the FunCycled Facebook page are invalid.
2.The starting bidding price is listed under the picture, and bids must go up in increments of at least one dollar.
3. Bidding will be open for 48 hours. It will open at noon on the 31st, and close at noon two days later. Once bidding has been closed, I will announce the winner and contact them with payment instructions. The winner has 24 hours to respond before the piece is offered to the runner up.
4. The purchaser will be responsible for all shipping fees. (If you live out of state – please check shipping pricing with uship.com before purchasing to ensure you can afford the out of state shipping costs)

You get beautiful furniture, and a family trapped in poverty has a pathway to income and a sustainable future. That sounds like a win to us!t

Please help spread the word by sharing. Thank you for your support!

Mid Century Chair Set painted grey with white dipped legs. The fabric is chartreuse, white and grey.

Retail Value: $550

Starting Bid: $175

Happy bidding friends!
Sarah ;)

Posted on March 31, 2015March 30, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Gray Dresser For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How are you? We are doing great! We’ve been working hard on the interior design project for the Vanguard Showhouse next month and pushing to restock more in the store. Here’s a sneak peak of the indoor/outdoor table that we built for the showhouse using salvaged parts from historic Albany homes that were torn down.
It melts me. Would you like a table made from salvaged history? Use our Contact Us form to email me for pricing info.

We celebrated John’s grandma’s 90th birthday. She’s such a sweet, gentle lady who taught my husband so many things. We all love you GG!

We also started offering home decor arrows at our store and mirrors made with old wood frames. So stop by and check them out (272 River Street, Troy, NY 12180).

This weeks Tuesday’s Treasures is a stunning makeover because the dresser itself was beautiful to begin with. Please no comments about how I shouldn’t have painted it (you’re on the wrong blog if you don’t want to see furniture painted). lol

Here it is before! A heavy, deep beautiful dresser.

If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We lightly distressed all of the edges to show some of the wood through the black as well. This was painted with Benjamin Moore’s color Silver Fox and glazed with Valspar’s Antiquing glaze.

I added new hardware on the top to give it a softer look. Then we added a protective clear coat.

This dresser is also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page for size and pricing info. Happy funcycling friends!

Sarah ;)

Posted on March 24, 2015March 24, 2015 by Sarah — 2 Comments

Black Hutch For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? I’m super psyched that the snow is beginning to melt and the brown grass is peeking through. I was convinced my husband’s nose would never not look like Rudolph’s again from working in freezing temps all day long. Projects are going well, you all are buying our designs and for that, I am excited! Thank you!!

Another big announcement is that we were asked to design a room in the Vanguard Showhouse that will be opening at the end of April. We’re designing custom pieces and some will be made out of repurposed parts of old homes that were torn down in Albany. I am excited about this opportunity to completely transform a space in this house and I can’t wait to show you some of furnishings and decorative details we create.

Today’s transformation is classic. I usually try to post designs that I love that aren’t as commonplace but, it’s always good to be reminded of timeless beauties that I adore, too!

Here’s the hutch before:

The size of this hutch is perfect. Not too big, not too small. It’s solid wood, but man it needed some updating. The glass is the first ugly thing that caught my eye so we had new glass cut for the top doors. Up next would be the hardware… it had to go and I went with a more “Stickly-like” drawer pulls that can stand the test of time.

We tried a new black paint and were pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.

If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We lightly distressed all of the edges to show some of the wood through the black as well.

Here’s the transformation for you!!

This hutch is also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page for size and pricing info. Happy funcycling friends!

Sarah ;)

Remember that this china cabinet is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

Remember that this china cabinet is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

The best part is, this hutch is currently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

The dresser and end stand arecurrently for sale! Please check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available!

This dresser is also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page for size and pricing info. Happy funcycling friends!

This hutch is also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page for size and pricing info. Happy funcycling friends!

Sarah Trop