Blog - Page 53 of 77 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on June 23, 2015June 22, 2015 by Sarah

Rustic Hand Built Table and Oak Wheel Back Chairs – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How was your week? We had a busy one! We were prepping all week for Troy’s annual River Festival. It was so much fun and our best day of sales. A big thank you to all who came, shopped or offered a positive word of encouragement. You’re the best!
Of course this weekend was also Father’s Day… Things that I remember most about my dad as a child. The words “I love you” freely spoken so we would never wonder if it was true. The words “I’m sorry” said genuinely… even to a child. Teaching us humility and grace. Hugs and more hugs – anytime. A life of conviction and an honest heart that wants to serve our amazing Savior. I’m thankful for you, dad, and am overflowing with the blessing of a husband who is leading in those ways to our children, too. Most of all – thankful for my heavenly Father and His great love.

This week’s before and after is a custom built table we recently did for one of our customers. They also needed chairs and they had a little bit of a question mark in their eyes when I recommended this oak wheel back chairs to go with the table. Here they are before:

For the table, they wanted to go with a rustic chic design. We kept it all a custom color that we make mixing gray and brown stains. We lightly distressed the table after building it and a added protective clear coat to protect it long term.

What a transformation on those chairs, right?? I LOVE the chairs now that they are painted. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted these with Simply White by Benjamin Moore, lightly distressed them and put a protective clear coat over the top. Dining room chairs get a lot of abuse so I always recommend that extra step. :)

If you like this table, we can custom build it to a size that would work well in your home! Use our Contact Us form to send us a note. You can also so our Custom Built Furniture page for more examples and pricing.

Here are few of the many table designs we’ve built.

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 June 15, 2015June 16, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Painted Black Vanity For Sale- Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends,

How was your week? The biggest news this week is that our little Harmony graduated Kindergarten. She was chosen to be Goldilocks in Goldilocks and the Three Bears on graduation day. She was sooooo excited to be Goldilocks and couldn’t wait for us to see her. Look at all the cuteness.

Josh also was awarded the highest honor roll student in his class. We are so proud of him for always striving for excellence.

So many things have changed during this one school year. We found out Harmony has celiac disease. When she started the school year, her stomach hurt every day. She would ask her teachers to let her sleep through recess and she would thank me when I put her to bed at 7pm. She also was very sensitive and easily emotional. Figuring out the cause mid year was amazing as we watched her disposition change, her grades go up, and her energy sky rocket.

We also found out toward the end of the school year that Josh had hearing loss and must have been reading lips to understand his teacher. With a minor surgery, he is hearing great and loving it! I asked him what he heard in school after going back from surgery and he said “I heard everything mom”. “I couldn’t hear anything before.” So seeing him walk up there and take the highest honors knowing how hard it must have been for him to even hear this year, left me so very grateful.

Opening our storefront happened during this school year, too. I don’t know if every mom feels this way, but with every major decision we make, I think about the possible effects that it could have on our kids. I so worried that Harmony’s exhaustion or emotional moments were directly related to how busy I was opening the store during the holiday season. I worried that they wouldn’t see me enough and that our decision would make them think money was more important to me than they are. Looking back over the year, it’s been quite the opposite. The struggles with Harmony was a disease, we caught it (thank God) and it’s better. The store has allowed me to actually be with them more now then before. It’s helped me separate work time and family time. It’s helped to teach me that time with them is so precious so I need to be present and work hard at keeping my family at the forefront of my mind That’s harder than it sounds when you have 100 voices a day telling you they are the most important things. Either way, I came to the end of the year and am so very thankful for how God worked in our family. Watching Him provide, seeing Him heal and feeling His peace day by day is a beautiful thing.

On to the furniture, shall we?

We found this little desk at a 2nd hand store and it needed LOTS of love. The legs were scratched like the dickens, whatever that means! There was also lots of surface damage and back repair needed.

I thought it was a little simple by itself and thought it would be nice to turn into a vanity so I purchased a mirror at the second hand store to go along with it. Here they both are before. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted it with black enamel paint, distressed all of the edges to show some of the wood and replaced some of the hardware.

Are you ready for the after? Here you go:

It’s also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

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 June 8, 2015June 9, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Antique Lion Head and Claw Foot Sideboard For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

How are you?? We have had an exciting week here. John and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary over the weekend. I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since we said “I do”… I sound so old. lol Thinking about the fact that I was only 19 when I made a life long promise is a bit unnerving to me now. I think about how wrong I could have been, but God in His grace gave me a keeper. The last three years have had tough days. One day I’ll write a post about the pro’s and con’s of working with your spouse. We’ve learned so much about each other and it’s been hard work, but I can say we’ve been enjoying each other now more than ever! I couldn’t do this without my Johnny and he couldn’t do it without me. <3

We went to Country Living Magazine’s flea market in Rhinebeck on our anniversary! We had so much fun! We met other people who have been on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip and met new show hosts on HGTV. The ideas there were wonderful, too! I can’t wait to create some new pieces based on ideas I saw there.

For today’s makeovers, I know some will disagree that I shouldn’t have painted this piece. There was a decent amount of veneer damage so know that’s one of the main reason’s we painted it. If you disagree, no need to comment below because you are on a furniture painters blog by golly. ;) It’s pretty much what you should expect to see each week. :)

Before:

If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted it black, lightly distressed all of the edges to show some of the wood and replaced all of the hardware.

Are you ready for the after? Here you go:

It’s also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

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 June 2, 2015June 1, 2015 by Sarah

Gray Buffet For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your weekend? On the last Friday night of each month, downtown Troy shops stay open late and many of the restaurants have live music. We stay open and it’s such a fun night! If you have time this summer, you should mark your calendar and definitely plan to stop down. So. Much. Fun!!

If you missed it on Sunday, we are auctioning off this adorable wicker chair to raise money for Hope Internationale. Stop by the post to bid! The bidding ends at noon today.

This week’s makeover was so fun! John did a great job with the finish on this piece! Here is the buffet before:

We painted it using the color Cracked Pepper by Behr and glazed it with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze. 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 and replaced all of the hardware as well.

Are you ready for the after? Here you go!

Remember, this is currently for sale on our website. Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

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 May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 by Sarah — 4 Comments

Hope International Fundraising Auction Today! – Coral Wicker Chair

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 (or can pick up at our store – 272 River Street, Troy, NY 12180). (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!

Light Coral Wicker Chair with gray paisley cushioned seat.

Retail Value: $225

Starting Bid: $75

To see what furniture we have for sale, check out our Furniture For Sale Page! Here are a few of the new pieces!

Happy bidding 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 26, 2015May 26, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Gray and Blue Secretary’s Desk Cabinet for Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Did you have a happy Memorial Day? We went away and it was the first time we didn’t run the store on a Saturday. My mom offered to run it and I was nervous to leave it on a Saturday. It’s always really busy!! Mom rocked it, sold so much and kept me in the loop all day. Thank you mom for giving my little family time away,

We stayed with our friends Caleb and Chrisie. Caleb just published his first book and I can’t wait to finish reading it. You should read it, too! Click here to buy it: Space Empires: The Rising Darkness. We’re even one of the characters in the book… Tropnia. I feel so honored and am so proud of you Caleb for pursuing this passion of yours for 13 years. If you know anyone who likes Star Wars, they’ll love this book.

We also had a chance to hang out with our friends Theresa and Erhen. Theresa is an architect and we spent a long time chatting about some additional services that we may be adding to our site soon. I can’t wait to share those with you as we work out all of the details.

This week’s furniture transformation is one that I adore. Ever since we did our last Art Nouvea Secretary’s Desk makeover, I couldn’t wait to get my hand on one for our store. When I saw this for sale, I looked past the damaged wood and missing glass. I couldn’t wait to buy it! The kind gentleman who I bought it from said that it’s been in their family for years and he just didn’t have the time to redo it. I told him we would bring it back to life. He was so cute and thrilled to hear it. Here it was before:

I went back and forth a ton of times on how I wanted to redo this piece. The details on the hinges made it look Gothic, but the mirror was chic. I thought about working with the Gothic and going dark, then going neutral. I finally decided the ornate metal had to go. It just wasn’t working with the design I wanted to do. We removed all of it, repaired the wood (and it needed so much repair). Thankfully, it’s solid oak and structurally sound which was a great start!

We painted the outside using the color Silver Fox by Benjamin Moore and the inside is Rainwashed by Sherman Williams. 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 and replaced all of the hardware as well.

Are you ready for the after? Here you go!

Remember, this is currently for sale on our website. Check out our Furniture For Sale page 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 ;)

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Turn an desk into a vanity – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How are you? This past Sunday was the last day of being part of the interior designer show house to raise money for the Albany Symphony Orchestra. If you didn’t see it yet, go here to see the porch project at the Vanguard Showhouse. All of the pieces in that room will be for sale at our store later this week or you can purchase by using our Contact Us form to request an invoice.
Another exciting news event! We were voted the #2 furniture store in the Capital District by the readers of the Capital Region Living magazine!! I could NOT believe it!! The #1 spot went to Mooradians furniture which has been in business for 75 years. I’ll definitely take the #2 spot after them. Thank you to all who voted!! We are honored!

If you’ve ever been on the lookout for an antique vanity, you’ll know how hard they are to come by. We have quite a few people who are on a waiting list for them. I thought I’d try to be a little creative and make a vanity out of a desk and a spare mirror I had. Here’s the desk before:

If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted this with Sherman William’s color Rainwashed and glazed it to deepen the color a bit. Here it is with a mirror and chair! Isn’t it the cutest little vanity now?

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 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 ;)

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 ;)

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 ;)

It’s also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

It’s also for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

Remember, this is currently for sale on our website. Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!! These are just a few of the new pieces on our for sale page this week.

Remember, this is currently for sale on our website. Check out our Furniture For Sale page here!!

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!

Sarah Trop