Blog - Page 62 of 74 - FunCycled - Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, Furniture Repurposing in Upstate NY

Posted on August 20, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

The Hutch with a War Wound – Tuesday’s Treasures

So many people have been asking me how John’s hand is doing. Thanks so much for checking! Since more of you read this blog than actually chat with me in a week, I thought you all might like an update. He’s doing great! His hand is healing well and all of his bandages are off already. It still grosses me out to look at, but he’s not complaining at all. :)

Before I start that story, I’ve got to tell you that Amanda from South Carolina custom ordered this piece. I don’t know about you but I would worry whether to trust someone from thousands of miles away to customize a furniture piece for me. She’s been so much fun!! Many nights I’ve spent laughing reading texts from her. We’ve talked about everything from how Pinterest makes everything look easy even if it’s not, to how she thinks I must look like Joan of Arc in the paint aisle picking my colors fearlessly. lol! How can a girl not laugh at these notes? Made my day.

Do you want to see the hutch he was working on when he chopped up his hand? I knew it! Let’s start with the tool first. This baby did the dirty deed… Not that dirty deed. Sickos! To the pure all things are pure as my mom would say. We like to call it the death machine.

Here was the hutch that we were working on.

We (which means John now) took the doors off the top sections to make custom wine racks… or should I say sparkling juice racks. Here it is after we removed the hardware and doors.

He was cutting holes for the wine rack and the drill came off the press. The night that everything happened, Amanda shot me a note asking about how John was doing. I told her that her hutch now has an interesting story. She said her hubby knew that his hand accident was for her wine rack and she doesn’t even drink wine. All that pain for a sparkling cider rack. It brought some comic relief to John and me that night.

Ready for the after picture??

Thanks for the exciting customization, Amanda! Thanks to all of you for looking. Hopefully it’s inspired you to try something fun and to be careful when using a drill press. :)

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

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 20, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

Vintage Teal and Lightning Bug Yellow Hutch

Hello Friends!!

The 2nd hutch on this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures is painted Vintage Teal by Valspar and the interior is painted Lightning Bug by Benjamin Moore.

Kelly reached out to me looking for a hutch and I didn’t have any on our Upcoming Projects page that would fit the space she was looking to fill. We were pretty quickly able to find this hutch for her and it was the perfect size.

When Kelly came over to talk about colors and styles, I thought she might love a teal and yellow hutch. It was a shot in the dark since I knew very little about her, but I apparently shot in the right direction because she loved the idea.

We joked around about different hardware for the hutch and I think I even interrupted her mid meeting at work. Oopps. Felt bad about that one. She took it in stride and her up beat attitude and smile is infectious! Thanks for that Kelly!

She really liked the look of our Vintage Teal Hutch but a pop of color inside was right up her alley. You ready for the after picture?

Wait no longer my friends!

Oh and it couldn’t have gone to a better home. When we walked into Kelly’s log house filled with eclectic designs and bright colors, I knew this hutch had a perfect home. :) It makes me happy when I invest time in a piece and know it will be loved for years to come.

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

Posted on August 13, 2013August 10, 2015 by Sarah — 1 Comment

Mirrored Buffet Before and After – Tuesday’s Treasures

Have you ever gotten in a rut with creativity and felt like you want to do something new? Well since John’s been home, I’ve felt a little less than creative mostly because he’s been doing all the work. Even though I’ve told him the color and design I wanted, it’s not quite the same as digging in and getting dirty myself. So, it was time to play.

Last week my kids were at Vacation Bible School at our church which gave me extra time to work on pieces for our for sale page. I’ve been itching to get my hands on this buffet for a couple of different reasons. I think it’s ugly. Yup, it’s true! Mostly because I don’t like the wood or the ornate detailing or the hardware on the doors. There is something about ugly that makes me want to conquer it even more, I guess it inspires me! lol It’s a sickness I tell you!

The minute I saw it, I wanted to add mirrors to the doors. John gave me the “look” of doubt but trusted my gut. (One of the many reasons I love that guy!)

The details on the front of the door were actually made out of plastic so we just broke them off and filled the holes from the hardware. Then John sanded the whole thing and primed it.

Now that the dirty work is done, I came in and painted it. :) I did a different technique for this piece where I made my own chalk paint using Benjamin Moore’s Shaker Grey and brushed it over the primer. Then I made chalk paint using Benjamin Moore’s Simply White and did a second coat brushing it on.

I took a palm sander and used 220 grit paper to sand away part of the white to reveal the grey. I call this the art of imperfection. I’ve seen this done wrong or should I say… done in a way that I wouldn’t buy it. The love of distressing is in the eye of the beholder. I also like when distressing is done in a way that says, “hey, this was on purpose”. In my mind that’s what happened when we added the mirrors. I ordered them at a local glass shop and attached them using liquid nail. My Little Man helped me with that part and did a great job!! Even a 5 year old can add a mirror!

The hardware is from Lowes. I wanted it to have a chic, modern and rustic look. The hardware brought in the rustic I was going for.

Here it is all done and pretty!!!
Thanks for coming along for the ride. :)

Here’s a side by side picture for pinning purposes!

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

Posted on August 13, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

How to Gold Dip Furniture – Tuesday’s Treasures

What’s a gold dipped piece of furniture?? Well, it’s just what is sounds like. A piece of furniture that looks dipped in gold. Dipped furniture is so “in” right now. It doesn’t just have to be gold, but I want to share this gold dipped dresser set that I’m over the moon about. Theresa bought other pieces from me in the past… she’s likes different styles and I love that about her. From her son Colin’s Chevron Dresser to her Pottery Barn Style Coffee Table, she knows how to pick ’em. She noticed this dresser on our Upcoming Projects page and gave me a call to see what I had in mind for it. When I told her I really wanted to gold dip it, she thought that sounded weird. I showed her what I meant by gold dipped and she was all in!! Thanks for being open to new styles Theresa!!

If you haven’t heard about gold dipped furniture, it’s all the rage!! Homedit called paint dipped furniture the new trend for 2013. I totally agree!!

Here’s the beauty before…

We painted the whole dresser using Benjamin Moore’s Decorator White. If you want to see how we paint furniture, you can check it out here. We used green Frogtape to tape a straight line wherever you want the gold dipped section to come up to.

Use another pieces of masking tape attached to a roll of paper and attached that to the green frog tape to prevent any over-spray onto the white. We used Rust-oleum’s Metallic Gold spray paint on the bottom section.

See the tape on the left of the dresser as we pealed it away? Use high quality painters tape so it leaves a straight line and press firmly over the tape to ensure there are no air pockets that the gold can get into. After a couple of coats of gold spray paint, pull off the tape and you’ll have a stunning, hot new piece of furniture.

Here she is!

Straight on…

Theresa also had a couple end stands that were a similar style so she brought them over and I sprayed those as well to match. Super cute, right?

Happy redesigns everyone,
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 6, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

Bird and Tree Headboard and Dresser Set – Tuesday’s Treasures

Good morning friends! Last week was insane here… insane on so many levels. The furniture projects were some of my favorites in a while. I was able to work with fun colors including orange, yellow, vintage teal, exotic lime, and white. It was also fun because I was able to try new techniques like gold dipped furniture and had fun doing some hand painted designs like you’ll see on this post today. I asked our Facebook fans to vote on all of the pieces we did this week to see which one they would like to see the before and after pictures of on Tuesday’s Treasures. The bird and tree headboard with the matching tree branch handled dresser won the votes by far! Want to be part of the fun in FunCycled and help us make decisions on projects? Like our Facebook page today!

Here’s the before picture of this dresser.

Amy had bought pieces from us in the past, but is buying a new house and wanted us to customize pieces to go in each room. She stopped by to check out what we had and liked the look of this dresser.

She also saw a headboard that I had on hand that never made it to our Upcoming Projects page. It was solid wood and cute from the get go.

We decided to paint both pieces Benjamin Moore’s Decorator White and distress them. Then I hand drew the bird and tree design on the headboard and painted it black. The dresser pulls are from Pottery Barn.

I love how it works together as a set and can’t wait to see it in her new house. We also went and did a Color Consult to pick the wall colors for her new house.

That’s the excitement for this week folks! Stay tuned for more soon!

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

Posted on July 30, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

Majestic Blue Buffet Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

Another Tuesday’s Treasures today? What!! We’ve had so many fun pieces and I am having a hard time narowing everything down to just one piece a week. This cute little cabinet was given to us when we went to buy a different piece from someone. Our church is making a cry room which is a room where families with little kids who don’t want to be in nursery for some reason can go to listen to the sermon and keep their kids with them. So, my friend Kim and I went to work picking color and decor for the room. I’ll show you an after picture when it’s all done. One of the walls in the room was painted with Benjamin Moore’s Majestic Blue 2051-40. We had some extra paint and needed some additional furniture pieces for the room.

Since it was given to me, I thought that passing on the buffet (with a face-lift of course) was the perfect plan!

Here it was before. I didn’t like the back wood because it made it look a little more girly than I wanted. So, we removed the back and repaired the damaged veneer which is hard to see in this picture.

Then we painted and distressed it… and here she is with a matching end stand.

Philippians 4:6: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

Posted on July 30, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

Cream Farm Style Hutch with Chicken Wire – Tuesday’s Treasures

Good morning!! I’ve been waiting and waiting to do a piece with chicken wire and this hutch was asking for it! Do you see it?? Can you picture it??

No? Well, let me explain it a bit. If you find a hutch that doesn’t have any of its glass, chicken wire can be a great alternative. It’s a much more cost effective option than replacing the glass, not to mention it’s adorable and gives a farm house feel to any piece.So, we sanded, primed and painted this piece using Benjamin Moore’s Navajo White, distressed it and glazed it to give it an authentic aged look.

We bought chicken wire, spray painted it with Rustoleum’s Hammered Bronze spray paint and sprayed the knobs to match the chicken wire. John also cut wood to replace the glass that would have gone on the shelves. We attached the chicken wire using a pneumatic stapler and small staples.Look at the distressing first…
See the cute red bird in the chicken wire??? Well, I dropped it when I took it out of the hutch and it died. Poor thing… I guess it didn’t like being caged up. Ha ha! I crack myself up.
Here it is! Let me know what you think!

Oh, and a I can’t leave without a cute kid moment to share. This week our Little Man picked a red berry from a bush outside and said, “Mom look at this berry… it’s pointless!!” “Pointless??” “Oh, you mean poisonous?”, I said. “Oh yeah, that’s what I meant!”Love him!! :)

Happy redesigns everyone,
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 July 23, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

Bar Harbor Beige Buffet Revamp – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi! How has your week been? So many people have asked me how everything has been going with John quitting his job to join me at FunCycled. Since I don’t get as much time as I’d like to to chat with everyone, I thought I would share what it has been like for him making this transition.

The 1st weeks was busy… almost like a whirlwind. We had custom furniture orders that were time sensitive because of people moving; it was crunch time to get everything ready. John rose to the occasion and pushed and pushed to take care of everything without sacrificing quality. That’s what I love about him. He’s a perfectionist which is a good balance (yet sometimes annoying) to an artist like me. I honestly think he is a better painter than I am, but he doesn’t have an eye for the design or antiquing of a piece. That’s where I come in now.

The 2nd week was equally busy, but this time everything John put his hand at went wrong. From bleed through to knobs not fitting right on a dresser, and then replacement parts not working with an older piece. I’ve been dealing with those problems for over 1 1/2 years so I know some of the tricks that he just hasn’t learned yet. It was a very frustrating week for him and I thought he might have wanted to call it quits. He said he didn’t know how I could do this for the last year and a half. I assured him he was just learning and working together I showed him how to fix the troubling problems.

Time to reevaluate, right? I was a manager for 7 years before doing this so I’m all about making sure you’re on the right path and doing what you love. I would even say that to my staff at my last job, this is America and if you don’t love what you do, let me know and I’ll help you find a job that’s a better fit for you. We went out to dinner, just John and I, and talked about went wrong and what went right. He asked me if this was his “evaluation” and chuckled. John reassured me that he loved doing this and was sure learning more would only make the job easier. Up until this week, he had never even used an air sprayer. For those of you who have ever used one, you can understand why that alone can make you want to cry. He’s a hard working, patient guy and was ready to dive into this past week with gusto and excitement. Also, note to the DIYer’s out there that think what we do is easy. Some projects can be easy, but others definitely not so much. It’s a learned skill and you have to love it to do it every day.

So, this past week came and went and was SO much better! Things went smoothly and we’re starting to get a good schedule down. We definitely complement each other. I’m honestly not sure how I did all this without him. I really don’t! The only one flaw this week was ordering a gallon of the wrong color paint in a miscommunication. That doesn’t sound like much, but that’s a $45 mistake and a $45 mistake to this family is a big mistake.

Ok, I’ll stop blabbing on and get to the furniture makeover. That’s why you’re here anyway, right? Cheryl reached out to us because Dawn over at Botanic Studio told her about us. If you haven’t been to the Botanic Studio or met Dawn, you simply must go. Her terrariums will take your breathe away. I’ve been hinting to John for years that I want one… hopefully some day soon. ;) If he reads this blog, that is. lol. Seriously though, her pieces are amazing and Dawn is right up my ally. She’s kind, professional and encouraging. Definitely go see her and the beautiful shop in downtown Troy.

Here’s the buffet before. It was in good shape, but Cheryl wanted a different “look” in her livingroom. We went back on forth on some colors… should it be black, teal, red or beige? After a few days, Cheryl went with beige. Benjamin Moore’s Bar Harbor Beige 1032 to be exact!

We kept all of the hardware original because they were in good shape and Cheryl liked the color. We primed, painted and distressed the whole piece and then sealed it with a water based clear coat.

Are your ready for the after??

You might have missed Cheryl’s daughter’s dresser and end stand makeover earlier this week. If so, check out the Pottery-barnish Dresser Makeover.

So classic and stunning, isn’t it?? Thanks for stopping by today. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below. Have a wonderful week!

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

Posted on July 20, 2013October 2, 2013 by Sarah

White Pottery-barnish Dresser Set

It’s Saturday!! Why am I posting on a Saturday?? Well, I was up early and with having John home I’ve had time to get more pieces done in a week. That being said, I have so much to share with you and not enough time to write up the posts and share it. Since I’m up early, I thought I would share some before and after pictures of a dresser set we did for Catherine! Stay tuned for next week’s Tuesday’s Treasures to see her mom’s cream buffet makeover.

Here’s the before pictures of this set. It’s very little girl-ish; Catherine is moving away from home and into her own place. She is ready for her furniture to look more mature… {Pottery-barnish} as I like to call it. I’m was so happy she wanted to give life to her old piece instead of buying new since it was structurally great and solid wood.

Catherine ordered the knobs from Anthropology. Do you know how much I love Anthropology knobs? It’s one of the things in life that melts me inside. Just sayin’.

I painted it white, glazed it with Valspar’s antique glaze and distressed it a bit.

Catherine already had an end stand in white that she wanted to match it so I distressed and glazed the end stand at the same time. Here’s the set together!! So beautiful, right??

Catherine, I hope you love your new job and the area you’re moving to. Thanks for being so sweet to my kids! Keep in touch!

Happy redesigns everyone,
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!

Posted on July 16, 2013July 16, 2013 by Sarah

Coffee Table Inspiration From a Canvas Shopping Bag – Tuesday’s Treasures

Has it really been a week since I wrote my last blog post?? I feel like I was just here telling you all about John starting to work with me, I blinked and now I’m back at the computer again. lol That’s how wonderfully busy the past week has been. I’m not complaining, in any way, because I LOVE what I do. I’ve been loving the custom orders, color consultations, and creating some of my own beauties. Check out this new piece on our Furniture For Sale page: Yummy goodness… don’t you want to make it yours?? I know I do! ;)

But for this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures, I found inspiration from what?? A canvas shopping bag!! Say what?!? It’s a true story. My mom’s friend Susan had this coffee table that was given to her from her father years ago. She wanted to keep it for memory’s sake, but wanted more color to brighten her small sitting room. (Sorry for the bad picture! I forgot to take a before picture)

Susan came over to talk colors with this canvas shopping bag in hand. She loved the design and the color combinations so we decided to take the plunge!
It’s super cute right?? So, I painted cream on top (I know it looks really white, but it’s not), graphite grey on the base and I drew the top design by hand. I changed the design a bit, but not too much. Then I sealed it for an extra layer of protection using a water based polycrylic.
Here it is… cute as a button. Or cute as its’ buttons. Ha ha! I crack myself up.

Susan is moving out of state (back to her VA home) at the end of this month so I’m happy she’ll have something to remind her of her NY friends. We’ll miss you so much!!! “Y’all” have been a huge blessing to my parents and I am so thankful to have met you this year. God knew we needed you here in NY for a while. Thanks to everyone from back home for sharing you with us. :)

Happy redesigns everyone,
Sarah

If you like what you see, please like our face book 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!

Sarah Trop