Blog - Page 56 of 74 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Sarah

Black Furniture Makeovers – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

This mid August week in upstate NY has felt more like autumn than summer. It’s been great sleeping and working weather. Perfect for meeting friends for a bonfire or enjoying a walk at the park. We seized those moments and loved every minute of it. Sadly, I shared the summer cold that took me out of commission a few weeks ago with John last week. He was out for the count poor guy! With owning your own business, sick days don’t seem as relaxing because you know tomorrow you’ll have to work twice as long to catch up. That being said, John did and was a real trooper about it. We had some very long days and worked throughout the weekend, but in the end I’ve got to say that the work was just beautiful. Every piece this week I wanted to keep in my home. You’ll have to keep an eye out on our Furniture For Sale page this week as I’ll be adding a rustic industrial bookcase, a retro TV makeover and a stunning dark grey hutch. Just beautiful!

I have to share my favorite moment from this week. We went to Washington Park Playhouse for the August performance of Oliver. If any of you local readers have never gone to a play in Washington park, you must. It’s AMAZING. The talent is unbelievable and it’s FREE. F.R.E.E!! I’m a musician and a lover of so many Broadway musicals but could never afford to bring my kids to NYC to experience them. It means so much to me that Albany cares about the arts and so many people give of their time to make these performances possible. You have to get there early so pack a picnic dinner and some games, go at 5:30 or 6pm and wait for the show to start. It makes for a fun, free family night out. Or bring friends… we brought our pal’s the Fischers! :)

And John and I were delighted to have these guests of honor with us. Our little monkeys…

Yeah… he could use a hair cut, I know. ;)

As for the furniture this week, I’ve been featuring bold modern designs and colors lately, but I thought it would be nice to show you some of the classic, timeless pieces that we’ve also been creating as custom orders for our clients. They knock my socks off in a traditional, ritzy sort of way. Does that make sense?

Here’s a buffet that we redid a while ago for our returning customer McKenzie. Before:

After:

This piece was from our Upcoming Projects page and was redone as a custom order for a first time customer Kelley. Before:

After:

Another black transformation… for Jill son’s Kevin. Jill has many pieces from us and always knows which ones will go quickly and snatches them up just before everyone. Here’s the bed we redid and posted on our For Sale Page and she snatched it right up.

Before:

After:

And one more black pieces that we just added to our Furniture For Sale page. Go on and check it out… I think it’s calling your name. :) Especially if your name is “buy me, buy me”.
Before:

After:

If you want to see how to paint furniture like this check out our How To Paint Furniture post. I almost always use Benjamin Moore’s black enamel and we paint it with a sprayer. I’ve tried brushing it on and it doesn’t come out with a professional finish.

The furniture photos are by Chelsea Bos Photography. Have a great week friends! Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Having fun upcycling!
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 August 12, 2014August 12, 2014 by Sarah

Orange and Ombre Mid Century Desk – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How was your first full week of August? And when I say that, I really want to know. ;) Leave me a comment if you have a second so I can keep up with you all, like you keep up with what I am up to. We had an AWESOME week at Vacation Bible School at our church. Being a pastor’s kid, it’s ingrained in me to want to be at everything and help in any way that I can. This is our first summer of full time FunCycled with the kids at home, so I ended up dropping the kids off and worked while they were at VBS. With over 200 kids most days and over 100 volunteers, I felt so humbled to have this time to work the day away. I wanted to officially say thank you to all who took off work or took a part of their summer to serve. You made amazing memories for our kids and impacted them with the truths of God’s word. They loved it more than you even know!!

So many things are in the works over here. We’ve been looking into getting a store front (with no definite answers quite yet) just praying, walking through opened doors and waiting to see where God directs. We are more than happy to stay as is, but also had this opportunity arise that we didn’t orchestrate and wanted to see if maybe this is what God wants for us. I’ll keep you posted as we have more details either way.

Also, this week Chelsea from Chelsea Bos Photography sent over all of our family photos and I updated our About Us page with them and wanted to show you a few of my favorite here.

As for furniture, I have another modern one for you today with a bright pop of color. Here’s a picture of it before.

It was going in a room designed for our customer Jessica. It is her son’s, Oliver, room. Oliver wanted the room to be orange and blue. So we went with a slate blue grey and orange palette. We incorporated orange on the desk and blue accents while still keeping wood grains on the drawers and chair.

If you would like to learn about how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. We painted this using Benjamin Moore’s Festive Orange. We also painted the hardware Old Navy by Benjamin Moore.

The after pictures are done by Chelsea Bos Photography. Have a great week friends! Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Sarah

White Distressed Hutch For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Happy August! Say what? Yeah, I blinked and there went July. We had a busy final week of July working on creating a farmhouse table for our home. We plan to start offering custom made farmhouse tables on our for sale page. You’ll be able to pick the wood, finish and size of your table. I am sooooo excited to have it done and I can’t wait to share it with you! We should have pictures and more information for you later this week so stay tuned!!

I also added a new page to our website where you can see a quick gallery view of our furniture projects. You can check it out on our Pinterest Gallery.

Hayley reached out to us to find out if we could revive her mom’s favorite piece of furniture. It was a hutch and she wanted us to have it, hoping to see it upcycled, given new life and loved by someone else for years. The top was too damaged to repair easily so we ended up only keeping the base.

Then I looked through my inventory and found this hutch top with no base that was just the right size. I love this hutch top – I love the curves, lighting and detailing.

We tried them out together and I loved how they looked. I bought this fabric for the back from Hobby Lobby. It was brand new to the store. (It’s a little sad that I know when fabric is new in a store… lol)

It’s a very warm teal with grey undertones. I melt over Quatrefoil patterns!

So on to painting we went. I asked John to paint it white for me. He did and I went out to “inspect”, as he calls it. Well… it was cream. I wasn’t quite sure because it wasn’t that noticeable but when I asked him if it was white or cream, he fessed up that he had added a little cream to the white… Oh nay nay… just won’t do! So, I was THAT wife who asked him to paint it again but white this time. Yeah. He was a really good sport about it which I don’t think I would have been had the roles been reversed. He painted it Simply White by Benjamin Moore.

This piece is on our Furniture For Sale page now! If you aren’t a fan our our Facebook page yet, you should like it. Last week we offered 25% off all our furniture for sale pieces to thank our Facebook fans for over 2,500 likes.

If you want to learn how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Here are the after pictures for you friends!

Hayley, I hope your mom would like the transformation! Everyone else who’s reading this… I hope you love it so much you want to buy it. ;)

The after pictures are done by Chelsea Bos Photography. Have a great week friends! Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on July 29, 2014July 29, 2014 by Sarah — 3 Comments

Stained Ombre Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Once upon a time there was a lady named Jessica, Jessica with the curly auburn hair. She came to my house for the first time to look at customizing the Teal Mid Century Library that we had on our Upcoming Projects page, and brought her entire family along. Her little one had to go potty and my house was… let’s say, less than company ready. ;) Jessica handled all of my mess and the chaos with grace, treating me like a respected friend, not like just someone to buy furniture from. She and I liked so many of the same things – modern furniture with pops of colors, Jonathan Adler, teal and aqua, fine foods.

Our month of July has been filled with projects for her and her family. After custom painting furniture for her dining room and living room, Jessica and Brent decided to go ahead and have us redo 13 furniture pieces for 2 of their children’s rooms, a guest bedroom and their master bedroom. In addition to the furniture makeovers, we did all the interior painting. We worked with them to pick out paint colors and we talked through so many of the small details that make the room – the bedspread, wall treatments, lamps, lights. They had us over for dinner last weekend and when asked who my favorite customer to work with so far was… I could honestly say she is. She makes me coffee. She brings us sweet treats. She claps and squeals as we bring in the furniture pieces. She invited us over for dinner and the word kind would be an understatement to describe her family.

We were planning out her master bedroom and we both agreed that this Mengel dresser set would do the trick. It’s modern lines were perfect so all we had to do is add a pop of color. Mengel Furniture Co. was started sometime just after the Civil War in Louisville, Kentucky. They made household furnishing and also wooden washing machines. They also started making wooden toys. These are high end solid oak pieces. Not something I’ve come across too often.

Here they are before. We were going to paint them all one color, but once we realized that they were solid oak, we just couldn’t cover it all up. We painted the outside of each dresser with Benjamin Moore’s Teal Tone 552. Then we stained the drawers – 1st drawer stained driftwood, 2nd drawer stained weathered grey, 3rd drawer stained dark walnut, 4th drawer stained ebony. Continue reading Stained Ombre Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Posted on July 22, 2014July 22, 2014 by Sarah

For Sale!! Shutter Cabinet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s it going? We’re enjoying such beautiful weather here in upstate NY! It’s been great to work in the sunshine and have very few rainy days causing paint dripping and long drying times. If you missed our mid week post last week, take a second to go see all the pretty pics from the Interior Design and Painting Project that we just finished for our church.

Want to know the highlight of my week?? Getting to meet my newest nephew Elijah. He’s already 7 weeks old. One quick look at him and I fell in love…

Soooo cute! Now no piece of furniture will compare. ;)

One of our friends, Beth, owns a demo company in Troy. She calls me when there is something that she has been asked to trash that she thinks may be FunCycle-able. When she sent me this pictures, I just loved it! I couldn’t wait to transform it, but it’s been waiting for months and months for us to get time to transform it.

Once we started prepping it, we started sanding the shutter doors and found all of this beautiful red scrolling popping through.

I just couldn’t paint over it!! I wanted to find a way to keep the detailing while giving it a new look and feel. We decided to make it into a wine cabinet, but it could also be used for extra storage anywhere. We can take the X out of the bottom as well.

I mixed a couple of different reds together that I had and repainted the outside. I cleaned the original shutter part well and clear coated the entire thing to seal and protect it.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How To Paint Furniture post.

If you’d like to buy this piece, see our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available, check for pricing, and size info. Here’s more photos for you!

The after pictures are done by Chelsea Bos Photography. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on July 17, 2014September 25, 2017 by Sarah

Interior Design, Interior Painting Project and Custom Furniture

Often when we go to clients’ homes to deliver furniture or when we meet new people, they will ask what our business is. When we tell them refinishing and painting furniture, color consults, design and interior painting. They are usually surprised, especially about the interior painting and design. Most people know about the furniture, but I don’t often get to share the “afters” of our interior painting projects.

Well, here is one of the interior painting and design projects that we did for our church a few months ago. I’m glad I finally took time to post about it because it was a fun project and shows how “funcycling” can be so much more than furniture makeovers! We worked with my friend Kim (who goes to my church and was given the design job) to pick out decor, paint colors, furniture finishes, and room design/layout. We also ordered furniture that we didn’t have – like couches and chairs, and rugs. It was sooo much fun to turn empty. lackluster rooms into beautiful, welcoming places for visitors and church members alike.

First we picked out the paint colors for the family room. It’s called a family room because it is a place for families to go sit with their kids and listen to the sermon. Sometimes when parents aren’t comfortable putting their toddlers/babies in nursery yet, or they have a talker or crier who might distract other people – it is a great room to retreat to. The sermon is played live in that room so people can hear the whole thing.

We wanted the seating to be comfortable but easy to clean. So we went with leather chairs and a couch from Overstock.com. Very cost effective and surprisingly comfortable. We painted the one large wall Benjamin Moore’s Majestic Blue and the other three walls Benjamin Moore’s Carlisle Cream.

We painted this cabinet with the same color Majestic Blue. When you paint furniture with the same paint that you use on the wall, it almost always looks one hue lighter which makes it blend well in the room without being too matchy matchy.

Continue reading Interior Design, Interior Painting Project and Custom Furniture

Posted on July 15, 2014November 11, 2014 by Sarah

My Porch Swing From an Old Bed – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

If you’ve been on Pinterest or googled “porch swing images”, you’ve probably seen beds turned into a porch swing. I saw one years ago and fell in love. I wanted a porch swing made from an old bed soooo badly!! I found a bed on craigslist TWO winters ago and actually paid the guy to bring it to me in the middle of a snow storm because I knew it was exactly what I wanted. You know how they say the shoe makers kids have no shoes… well, this has been one of those projects we just didn’t make time for. John finally decided enough was enough and he set aside an hour here and there for a couple of weeks to make me the porch swing of my dreams.

John was speaking a girls love languages over here… a place for quality time, acts of service, gift. Overall, I’m feeling the love from John and want to give him a public thanks because I’m impressed by how he made it, too! :)

Sadly I don’t have ANY before pictures. Just picture an old headboard and foot board. John took the headboard and made it the back of the swing, took the footboard and made it the front of the swing. Then added side boards and wooded slats for the seat. We painted the swing with Benjamin Moore’s Advanced paint in Atrium White.
Continue reading My Porch Swing From an Old Bed – Tuesday’s Treasures

Posted on July 8, 2014July 24, 2014 by Sarah

Red, White and Blue, Take 2- Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!!

Around this time last year, I did a post about Red, White and Blue Furniture. So I thought today might be a good day to do another Red, White and Blue post – take 2! It’s fun looking back to see similar pieces that we’ve done and also notice how things have changed a bit. First off, my pictures are now done by Chelsea Bos Photography and man you can see the difference. Secondly, I love vintage, rustic and chic but I also have part of me that craves modern designs. I think you’ve all seen that more this year with our West Elm Inspired Patchwork Dresser and our Aqua and Ombre Mid Century Desk.

I hope you all had a great 4th!! We had a super busy day with deliveries, pick ups, and customers stopping by because they had the day off with no parties to go to until the evening. Then we hosted a party at our house with about 25 of our closest friends and family. Usually when I have a party at my house, I feel this pressure to make sure everyone is having a good time and end the day totally bummed that I talked to everyone for 30 seconds and had no good conversation. Do you ever feel that way? Well, not this year. This year was marvelous. I chilled, let everyone chat naturally. It was so relaxing and I left the house that night feeling so thankful for all of the friends and family God has blessed us with and for the many freedoms we enjoy as American’s.

John decided that he wanted to do a smoked turkey on the grill for the 4th. I was on the front porch trying to make everything look pretty for our soon to be arriving guests. John came out front with a look of fear in his eyes and says “the turkey is on fire”. To which I laughed and said sarcastically, “isn’t is suppose to be? it’s on the grill”. “Yeah, but I can’t get the fire out”. Oh man! A grease fire and all the meat for our large party was now destroyed 2 1/2 hours before party time. I actually laughed. What can you do in those moments?? Off to the store I went to make pulled chicken then all was right with the world. lol

Onto furniture! Before I start the before and afters, remember if you’d like to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

A red hutch for Susan from Troy. I loved working with Susan because she has a good eye for design and totally gets upcycling. She’s upcycled most of her downtown Troy home. Coming from someone who had a downtown Troy home and loved it’s historic charm and beauty, I appreciate so much when people bring the original beauty back to a home that really needs it. Oh, and she has a cool doorbell ring. I know that’s random, but I like it.

Here’s the hutch before:

After with a custom paint color from Sherman Williams, hardware from Home Depot and glazing with Vaspar’s Antiquing glaze from Lowes… Here is the label for the color of this hutch from Sherman Williams so you can ask them to duplicate it if you’d like.

White… This is Hannah’s dresser that she bought at an auction. I know there will be some that say don’t paint this wood. It did have veneer damage that you can’t see well in the picture and the style just didn’t fit the look that Hannah wanted. What I love about Hannah, she was raised on a dairy farm like my mom. She has this hard working, genuine heart and she understands and appreciates what it takes to own a small business and work hard to make ends meet. Not to mention… she trusted me with the design. Thank you, Hannah!

Before:

We painted the bottom using Benjamin Moore’s Navajo white and distressed it. Kept all the original hardware because it was so pretty. No need to change it out if it’s as beautiful as these were… we just cleaned them up.

On to the blue… I love how this one came out, but to be honest, it wasn’t worth the work it took to make it this beautiful. We got it on garbage day in a pile along side the road. It needed a lot of veneer repair. John built most of the back up and repaired the top. Then he primed it and when he did all the veneer bubbled. That means somehow the moisture was getting to the under side of the veneer so we had to rip more veneer off and more off and more off. It took John hours and hours to redo this. So, to the novice or even semi experienced DIYer, let me say steer clear of furniture with veneer damage. It can be tricky! Unless your up for an adventure, then go right ahead. ;)

Here it is before.

We painted the outside Benjamin Moore’s Silver Fox, the 1st drawer is Spirit in the Sky by BM, 2nd drawer is Meridian Blue by BM and 3rd drawer is Navy.

Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks to all those who serve our country or support those who do!

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Sarah

Modern Cedar Trunk For Sale and Katie’s Cream Dresser- Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

Summer colds… that’s the banner that we’re raising this week and it may not be a banner… it may be the red flag of defeat. Why does it seem like summer colds never end? That being said, a quick recap of two furniture makeover is in order and I promise that I’ll write a much more exciting Tuesday’s Treasures next week.

Oh, except to say we went strawberry picking. The first time of the season here in upstate NY! Fun times. :)

This old cedar trunk is really unique in my book. I’ve never come across one quite like it with modern legs and a bottom drawer that opens. One thing to know when working with old cedar trunks is that you have to remove the lock part of the trunk otherwise it locks automatically and that’s not safe if a little one climbs in and it closes behind them. Not to mention, legally you have to. :)

Here’s the trunk before:

We spray painted the base with Rustoleum silver spray paint and painted the box with black enamel paint from Benjamin Moore. If you want to see how to paint furniture yourself, check out our How To Paint Furniture post.

This piece is for sale!!! Check out our Furniture For Sale page for pricing and size info. Plus we added quite a few new pieces this week to the For Sale Page.

I also have to sneak in one more makeover… all my friends say they like what I do, but one friend is such a FunCycled supporter. She’s always telling people about us and sending business our way. Even though I wish I could do more to repay her, a quick furniture makeover for her is all I have to offer. Thank you for your encouraging words, excitement and genuine interest in every little detail of our upcycling. (This dresser is painted with Benjamin Moore’s Navajo White and lightly distressed. We used all the original hardware and spray painted it oil rubbed bronze.

You always bring a smile to my face, Katie! Here’s your before and after:

The after pictures are done by this lovely lady at Chelsea Bos Photography. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on June 24, 2014February 27, 2015 by Sarah

Aqua and Ombre Mid Century Desk – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

How’s it going? It’s been quite the week over here! We’ve survived our first week of no school for my kids and still running a business full time. Last year at this time FunCycled was just part time so it’s been… interesting. I love having the kids around, but boy oh boy did we forget how many times mom or dad could be said in 30 seconds. One time I didn’t reply on purpose just so I could count how many times they would say mom without an answer. I gave up… it was that many times. lol

We were able to squeeze some fun and relaxation in by some miracle. We enjoyed a fun day with our friends Sarah and Jeremy with a historic cruise of Lake George. I don’t know why we haven’t spent more time in Lake George especially since I grew up in this area. It’s so beautiful! Not to mention spending time with them was so relaxing and fun.

After wayyy to long of a wait, I finally got to go visit my sister in Maine. John had never been to Maine and Portland is right up our alley. All the unique downtown shops inspire and make me want to spend all the money I have. I am so excited about anyone who’s passionate about what they do. It uplifts the soul.

My brother-in-law Jess is in the coast guard and he gave us a tour of the boat he works on. My kids looooved it! I can’t say thank you enough for all the people who serve and protect our country. I see through my sister what’s it’s like to be a mom without a dad more than half a year and moving all of the time. It’s not easy, but they sacrifice and give for our safety.

Just like the downtown Portland shop owners, I’m beyond excited to share this thing that I’m passionate about… furniture designs. Continue reading Aqua and Ombre Mid Century Desk – Tuesday’s Treasures

Sarah Trop