Blog - Page 58 of 77 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on October 7, 2014October 8, 2014 by Sarah

31 Dreams – Investing in Hope

Friends, today is my 31st birthday!

Every year on this day, I take hard look at my life. I long for every year that the Lord gives me to bring hope and joy to the people around me. Thus, each year on my birthday, I’ve chosen a way to do just that. Last year I spent the day doing 30 random acts of kindness for people in my neighborhood and local community. I was blessed more than I blessed others. It was an amazing experience.

I also attended the Hope Spoken conference this past year and was inspired to make FunCycled more than just about furniture. As small business owners, I want us to think outside of ourselves and somehow help others in need. John and I began planning/praying months ago, asking the Lord to show us what He wanted us to do. Until now, everything that I’ve done has focused on the community around me. This year, I began to feel pulled outside of my city, away from the people that look like me and talk like me.

John and I ardently believe that FunCycled is a gift from the Lord. He owns the business, and we are simply stewards of it. We have a deep desire to see global underserved communities blessed as a result of our business, and have been asking God to show us what that could look like.

Several months ago, I encountered HOPE International. HOPE is a Christ-centered microfinance organizations that serves over 675,0000 clients in 17 different countries around the world. Their mission is to invest in the dreams of the poor by providing people trapped in poverty a way out of that cycle by providing a small loan and Christ-centered business training. The idea is that much like John and I needed money to start FunCycled, impoverished people often simply need access to capital so they can start or grow their own small business and work their way out of poverty. Take a look:

http://www.hopeinternational.org/resources/videos/hope-drc-microfinance-a-life-changing-investment.html

John and I feel passionately about the work that HOPE is doing because as small business owners, we understand the value of start up capital. We see the sustainability in HOPE’s model—by providing a hand up instead a hand out, HOPE is empowering the poor to provide for themselves and their families through loans as small as $100.00. Even more than that, HOPE is introducing men and women around the world to the true hope that can only be found in Jesus.

We want you to be a part of it. This year, we are thrilled to link arms with HOPE and work to provide at least thirty one entrepreneurs with a $100.00 loan in my 31st year! We plan to work towards this goal with you in several different ways:

1. Through our fundraising page! 31 Dreams | Investing in Hope

2. Through auctioning off a custom Funcycled piece on ever 31st day in my 31st year! You get beautiful furniture, and entrepreneurs around the world get to chase their dreams and provide for their families. It’s a win-win, friends.

Look for our first auction on October 31st. In the mean time, please check out www.hopeinternational.org for more information on this organization that John and I are so impassioned about. Consider joining us in investing in the dreams of the poor!

Thank you friends!
Sarah

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Sarah

Lady in Teal – Tuesday’s Treasures

Lady in teal… is dancing with me. Cheek to cheek. Seems appropriate for this makeover… a retro design cheek to cheek with a fancy little lady in teal.

We have been busy… a word that seems like an understatement. We have so many things coming up here at FunCycled. Next week is my 31st birthday and I’ll be introducing a new part of FunCycled that has been over 6 months in the making. We’ve been praying, considering and carefully planning. So come on back next Tuesday to hear all about it, ok? ;)

My brother offered our whole family a free vacation on the ocean last week. We almost passed it up because of our workload, the big changes ahead, etc., but decided life is short and family is more important. We would try to balance both and go away. I am so happy we did as it truly was a special time!! My parents, all of my siblings and their kids were able to get away for this NJ shore vacation. All of us together, on vacation, has never happened before! Any time we get together, I’m reminded of how blessed we are. We all get along, that’s a simple yet complex statement, and it’s more than many families can say about each other. We laugh, tease, joke, cry… all of it, all of us -together. We tell each other what needs to be said, but in a loving way. We want to live for God and look for ways to show others love because of the love that God pours out on us. That’s probably my very favorite thing about my family; it’s a rare gift by God’s grace.

Here’s the whole crew… all 19 of us! In one house. For one week. Epic.

I really felt like this was a last calm before the real crazy begins here and it was humbling to have time with my family, too. Thank you, Jesse, for giving your hard work and money to make these once in a lifetime memories for us.

As for the furniture this week, I’ve been excited to share this dresser makeover with you. Theresa reached out to us after she saw the article about FunCycled in the 518 Life magazine. She loved the modern design in a piece that was featured, but wanted us to somehow mix that with the decorative design on a dresser that she already had in her dining room. Here it is…

Working for Theresa was like a breathing in wilderness air. You know… when you’re hiking and that smell makes you go, this feels right, I feel energized and alive. When I went to her house to pick up three pieces to redo, she let me pick exactly how to redo them… Color. Design. Everything. Lalalalove that! It made me want to work even harder to make sure she loved it because she gave me the freedom to design. Thank you Theresa!

Continue reading Lady in Teal – Tuesday’s Treasures

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Sarah

Painted Cedar Trunk For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hello friends!

Last week this girl turned 5. I can’t believe it!! I really, really can’t.

She’s a quality time little girl (I don’t know where she got that from??). ;) I love spending time with her. For realz. She has her fair share of drama, but overall she’s sweet, kind, caring – she wants to be a momma to everyone around her. And I mean everyone and everything! From baby birds to her big brother; from stuffed animals to my friends’ little babies. She loves to love and wants to nurture all the day long.

Since she’s a quality time girl, she chose to skip on the big party and wanted a girls only princess party for only her “good friends”. She wanted her hair, makeup and nails done. She wanted a Frozen party and she wanted there to be no boys allowed. Well Sweetie… your wish is my command.

My friend Kassy made this adorable cake for her. I felt a little disturbed eating Elsa though. Good thing she tasted so good I couldn’t stop. ;)

This furniture makeover is quick but super cute in my book. This is an old cedar trunk that actually is solid cedar. Most cedar trunks that we get are cedar interior and a different wood on the exterior. Not this cuteness. I also have never had one with original copper straps on it like this one.

I wanted to keep the original straps but also add some color. I also wanted to add antique caster wheels to make it more industrial looking. The nice part about this trunk?? It’s FOR SALE! You can see the pricing and dimensions on our Furniture For Sale page.

We painted the trunk using Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Grey, I distressed and glazed it as well. If you would like a tutorial on painting check out our How to Paint Furniture post.

Here are the after pics for you!
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 September 16, 2014September 16, 2014 by Sarah — 3 Comments

Mr. & Mrs. Sophisticated – Tuesday’s Treasures

Have you ever walked into someone’s house or a restaurant and thought… man, I’m out of my league? Should I take my shoes off or do they not want my sweaty feet on their cow hide rug? Which fork am I supposed to use for this course at dinner? Yeah, we’ve all been there, right. Right? ;) When I laid my eyes on this set, that same feeling filled my insides. I thought man you’re pretty… you’re too classy for me. But I soooo want to make you even more sophisticated. Ms. Mary is a self proclaimed FunCycled groupy. She came to my house for the first time and had almost everything on our Upcoming Projects page memorized. By that I mean she even knew what I called each piece and most of the measurements. She was impressive. She ordered a few pieces and when we delivered them I set my eyes on these beauties. I almost wanted to beg her to let me redo them, but I kept my cool like most people try to do when they are out of there league, meet a celebrity, get a job promotion. When Mary emailed me about redoing them for her I may have squealed.

Another random fact about me? I play this game in my mind where I try to figure out what a customer will pick before they actually do. Mary wanted me to send her a couple different ideas and when I did, my gut told me she would want the wood on the front and black exterior. As my son would say, Ding, ding, ding. I was right and thrilled to be because I thought it would look perfect in her home.

Here they are before: (You can’t tell well from this pictures but the top of this piece had tons of veneer damage.)

We painted it black using this….

If you’d like to learn how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Ready to see Mr. & Mrs. Sophisticated?

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

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on September 9, 2014September 9, 2014 by Sarah — 1 Comment

For Sale Mid Century White & Ombre Stained Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

It’s been a great week here at our house. The best kind of week! Some may want their kids to be rich and live a care free life, others want them to be cute, popular and good in sports. I get that. Those things can be good. My very deepest heart’s desire though is to have children who love God and live for Him. I know that means they might not have it easy or be the most popular. Our prayer from day one was that they would come to know Christ as their personal Savior and want to live life to honor Him. I know that religion and politics are no no’s mixed with business, but this blog is about our lives. I wouldn’t be myself or real to life without sharing the very deepest, integral part of our lives with you, too. Continue reading For Sale Mid Century White & Ombre Stained Buffet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Posted on September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 by Sarah

Upcycled Retro Console TV – Tuesday’s Treasures

Happy day after Labor Day and day before school starts for many of us here in upstate NY. I don’t know about you, but I love hanging out with my kids. Sure they can be naughty sometimes (but so am I). Over all they are funny and love to laugh. That being said, I am gonna miss them like mad when they go back to school, but at the same time I’m a creature of routine and structure. I thrive in that environment. Having a normal schedule again will help me make time for all of the ideas I thought of for FunCycled over the summer. I can’t wait to get going on them!! It will also give me time to get back to emails quicker, create new designs and post more on this site. So stay tuned fans (and thanks for your patience with me over the summer).

The Time’s Union interviewed us for an article about upcycling in their 518 Life magazine’s September issue. You should be able to find one at Price Chopper, Hannaford, Bruegger’s Bagels and some Starbucks. If you don’t live around here, but would like to read the article, here’s a link to the Upcycle Your Want to Unique Furniture and Decor article on TU’s website.

The last full week of summer vacation was packed to the brim with beach days, late nights, just ONE more quick play date. Crazy times and they were all a blast. That being said… I want share my favorite moment from this week. My friend, Jo Ann, bought us tickets to go see Josh Groban at Tanglewood. Tanglewood is a place that reminds me of life before children. John and I would get up on sunny, summer Saturday mornings, pack a late breakfast or early lunch, and bring it to Tanglewood. We would listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearse for the performance that night. It was much cheaper for rehearsal tickets and I enjoy it just as much as the live performance. I loved listening to the conductor tweak different sounds here and there. I can’t put my finger on what I love so much about live classical music, but it invigorates my soul. Maybe because I play the piano… or maybe because I love when people who are passionate about something actually get to do it as their job. But really it might just be the sound. When I close my eyes and listen I feel this overwhelming sense of how blessed I am. I’m living in a time when I can be exposed to this amount of musical talent, instruments. God is sooo good to us, friends. Even during the stressful seasons of life, God gives us moments like He gave me this week. He gave me a friend who has loved me like her own daughter for the last 8 years, a moment of kid free time to talk, beautiful music to enjoy, a hubby who never says no when I ask to go out. So so many great things to be thankful for. Thank you for this special memory, Jo Ann!

Are you ready for a retro makeover? Get ready. Get set. Go!

John built a shelf inside the TV and added a back to make it a small bookcase. We also had to order new knobs from ebay. I really wanted it keep its retro vibe so we attached new fabric on the front where the speaker is and painted it aqua. The fabric is from Hobby Lobby. If you’d like to see how we paint furniture, please check out our How to Paint Furniture post.
Cuteness, right? ;)

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

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Sarah

Slate Grey Hutch For Sale – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi Friends!

This is the last full week without school and I can’t even believe it!! We had a great weekend trying to savor the last bit of summer time with the kids. Our church reserves part of a camp in the Adirondacks and we all reserve spots if we want to go. It was so much fun hanging out with our second family… the friends that go to our church. The camp site was beautiful, the laughter was plenteous and the family time was refreshing.

I’m a visual person so I thought that I’d share the weekend quickly through mostly pictures. Probably my favorite part of the weekend was getting up at 6:30am and taking a walk with my little man. We walked, he talked and then we both played mini golf. I’m not a morning person so I’m surprised that this was my favorite part, but I very rarely get time with just him and we had a special one on one.

I came back to camp to find this handsome fella cooking breakfast for all of us. He goes all out when we go camping and the food is always so good!

Also, our little man learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. Yay!

Sweetie’s helmet, that has to be another one of my favorite parts of the weekend, everyone kept saying that the unicorn was riding by. I love her – her helmet, the way she eats a S’more, her laughter. She’s just the cutest little thing.

I loved sitting at the campfire and getting lots of time to chat with my friend Sarah. This summer has been a crazy busy mess so a quality time girl like myself felt great getting time to chat with all my friends.

I loved that the Vielleux family made us feel like we were part of their family, too! We all felt right at home.

Sitting around the fire on Saturday night singing worship songs with people from our different worship bands was a blast.

And I LOVED having church outside at the campground on Sunday morning. Nothing like a sermon in God’s great outdoors.

And the sad part?? Leaving

It was soooo much fun!

Ok, ok Furniture time now!! ;) We had this dresser:

And we had this top…

Doesn’t quite seem like a match made in heaven, right? Right! But I knew it would come together, well because the size was right and once I added unifying paint and new hardware, it would be sooo pretty. I’ve been wanting to do another grey hutch since our last Grey and Cream hutch, but haven’t had a chance. This hutch is painted with Benjamin Moore’s Wescott Navy which is a slate grey.

Drum roll please!! This hutch is for sale! We just added it to our Furniture For Sale page! It’s lighted with a mirrored back, glass shelves and glass in all the doors. The glass has been removed for the photos. If you’d like to purchase it, please use our Contact Us form to reserve it.

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

Having fun upcycling!
Sarah ;)

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 ;)

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!