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My front porch and a bistro set makeover on Tuesday’s Treasures

Hi everyone! If you aren’t from upstate New York, you might not know that we had quite the storms last week. Wowzer!  Wednesday night I was at church in a meeting about our new Mom’s Group starting in the fall. We had just started the meeting and someone came in to let us know that there was a tornado warning and we all had to get to a room with no windows. Out we all went… you can tell we’re seasoned mommies because we continued with the meeting during a tornado warning with major chaos was going on around us. lol  If you have kids and want a fun couple of hours out with adult interaction and childcare, send me a note and I’ll get you info on our Mom’s Group! I’m really excited about it!

Once the storm was over, we headed home and look at the site above our church on the way home!! God’s the best artist, hands down.

Thank you for the amazing picture, Veronica Smith!

We headed home and I thought I had picked the best way home. Oh nay nay! Here’s a bit of our trip.
First, a river on Route 9.

Round about we went and got to route 7… which also had parts that were like a river.

And huge trees uprooted! (look at the car next to it)

Downtown Troy didn’t look too great either…

We didn’t officially have a tornado in Troy, but Schenectady did. It was messy, but we’re are so thankful for God’s hand of protection on the ride home and for no damage at the house.

Speaking of our house… I thought I would share some recent small revamps to the outside of our home. I just bought pieces to add to the front porch, but wanted to change the door color. Not that I didn’t like the red, but I wanted to change it up a bit. Here it is before:

I went with a beautiful teal from Benjamin Moore. You’ll want to buy a high build exterior paint. The color is Meridian Blue and I glazed it after to give it a darker, antiqued finish. Thanks for helping me pick out the color, Jessica! :)

I picked up these two wrought iron chairs for free on trash day. Yup, I’m one of those. Move on! ;)

I’ve been wanting a new table for the front porch. Tricia gave me this table and I MELTED when I saw a good distressing done all on its own. So I cleaned it up and sealed it with a few coats of poly to keep it looking original. Then I repainted the metal base and chairs with black enamel paint. Mom came over and helped me re-upholster the chairs in burlap. It makes me happy to have natural textures and distressing together in a set. I don’t know why, but it does. :)

Here’s the porch before I added the new set.
Here’s the new set on the porch!

And look what I found last week in my hanging flower basket!!

A robins nest with eggs to match my door! Perfect, right??

I hope you were all safe from the storm and that this makeover gives you the motivation to make your porch a little prettier this summer.  :)

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!

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.

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Red, White and Blue Furniture – Tuesday’s Treasures

Happy Memorial Day from the daughter of a Marine. “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” – Thucydides. We are so thankful to all who have served this country.

In light of the holiday weekend, I thought I would share some before and afters in red, white and blue.

Another Red hutch?? Yes, it’s true. This wonderful piece went to Heather in Wisconsin. It’s painted in Benjamin Moore’s Poppy Red 1315, distressed and topped with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze.

Before:

After:

You know how much I love red hutches by now, right?? :)

Onto the white, shall we? This dresser came from a fun loving, kind lady named Jacquie. A customer I love to chat with like an old friend. I pretty much have to make myself leave when we’re talking furniture. We have the same style completely and I LOVE her eye for the house she’s redoing.
Jacquie had pretty specific measurement requirements, but wanted to turn a dresser into a bathroom vanity. So, she found this dresser that was the right size and it was my job to give it the right look.

Here it is before: (sorry I forgot to take a picture before I started sanding the top) The top was in rough shape so it actually looks better sanded.

Here’s after I stained the top with Minwax Special Walnut.

I painted the base with Benjamin Moore’s Paper White and distressed it. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby and I added the mismatched key hole covers to give it an extra pop. Love them! The carpenter will  be adding the bowl top and faucet for the sink and I’ll do another post when it’s all done.

Thanks for being a bundle of fun, Jacquie. I can tell you’re a keeper friend already.

Up next, the blue! This desk and chair set is currently for sale. Check out our Furniture For Sale page to see if it’s still available.
I took this old desk.

The top was sanded down and stained with one coat of Minwax Espresso to give it a modern, rustic grey color on top. The bottom was painted with Benjamin Moore’s Old Navy.


I spray painted the chair silver and the knobs are little padlocks. LOVE them!

There you have it!! Some red, white and blue. I hope you had a great weekend with your family and took some time to thank God for all who have served this country. 

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!

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.

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A Buffet and a Fern on Tuesday Treasures

Good morning! I hope you all had a nice weekend. If you all are Pinteresters (is that a word?)… well, if any of you look at furniture on Pinterest you’ve probably seen this dresser by Art is Beauty. If you haven’t been to their site, you should. The talent is just overflowing everywhere! Wow! What an amazing design… I just had to try something similar!

Along came this buffet and it wasn’t exactly the same, but I thought the design could definitely still work.

We sanded down the top and stained it with Minwax Special Walnut. Then filled the holes for the handles that we were going to replace. We painted the bottom with a Behr grey/blue (sorry I forgot to keep the name of it). The glass hardware is from Home Depot.

I slightly distressed the bottom, drew the fern and then painted it by hand with a light cream. After that we sealed the piece with a water based poly.

I hope we did you proud Art is Beauty. Thank you for the inspiration!

Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I hope you have  a great week. :)

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!

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.

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For Sale! Pale Grey Hutch

I know, I know, two posts in one day?? lol I just finished up this makeover and put it on our Furniture For Sale page. If you’re interested in buying it please use our Contact Us form or email me at sarah@funcycled.com

Here it is before! It’s really tall and I liked that it had glass shelves and was lighted. What I didn’t like?? It was on a 3rd floor apartment with no elevator!  Now that’s a fun family night out. Insert sarcastic tone there. ;) Thankfully the man we bought it from was very nice and helped John lug it down all three flights.

We removed the metal sections on either side of the glass sections on the hutch, filled the holes from the old handles,  and sanded all surfaces with 180 grit paper to create a “tooth” for the primer. We prepped it with Glidden’s grey bonding primer. Love this stuff!

Then the we painted it with Benjamin Moore’s Silver fox which is a light grey. I also removed the back and added a white/cream wood plank backer board to give it more texture and dimension. I also distressed the edges and glazed it with Valspar’s antiquing glaze.

The hardware is from Hobby Lobby and I sprayed it all to match using Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

Here’s the after for you. Would you like it in your dining room?? Remember, it’s for sale! :)

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!

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.

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Cream and Black Antique Buffet and China Cabinet – Tuesday’s Treasures

Simple. Classic. Elegant.

I think that sums up this week’s makeovers. Audrey welcomed me into her home to show me the furniture in her dining room that could use a face lift. Here they are before. Sorry I don’t have better pictures, but  I was so excited to start them that I forgot to take my own.

Audrey and I went over quite a few paint/design ideas and landed at cream with a black top. We used all of the original hardware and just repainted them with a hammered black.

Sometimes pictures are better than words so I’m just going to show you the after and hope you like them as much as I do.

Keeping it short and sweet today. Have a blessed week enjoying God’s very best for you!

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!

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.

 

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Grandma’s Vanity for a Playground

If you are sentimental like I am, you’ll understand my struggle with this next story. See this vanity? Well, it was my grandmother’s and I remember as a child looking at it and loving everything about it. There is something about it that is princess-like or so I thought when I was little and loved all things “princess”.  Doesn’t every 5 year old girl want to be a princess??

Well, it’s been sitting in my barn for quite some time only because I couldn’t fit it in any room in my house. If you don’t know much about me, let me tell you a little secret… I live in a small, modest house that is perfectly pretty in my opinion of beauty, but definitely not the large, grand house that you often see on other blogs. I’ll most likely never be featured for my staircase or have anyone covet my living room, but I don’t mind. It’s more than what I ever dreamed I would have and I’m so thankful for what God has blessed our family with. Plus larger means more to clean, right? lol :)

I reluctantly put this piece on my upcoming projects page and Heather from Wisconsin emailed me asking if I could redo it for her. After talking to her and making her promise to will it to my little Sweetie one day : ), I gave her a quote to redo it. To most likely be overly transparent, I promised myself that I would quote her the money I would need to buy the kids a play set. They are outside all summer with me with not much to do, but we haven’t had the extra to get them a play set. I think my grandma would agree that it would be a good trade for my little ones. Heather accepted the quote and I ordered the play set!

Picking paint colors from over 900 miles away was actually pretty seamless. We went with Benjamin Moore’s santa clara # 753. I distressed this piece quite a bit which was SO much fun. Usually people want light distressing so this was an extra fun treat for me.

Here she is Gram… I hope you still like her. ;)

Oh, and I redid a small bench to go along with it.

So here’s the moral of this story. If you love a piece of furniture and it has sentimental value, make it pretty again and enjoy it for the next 30 years. If you love it but have no room for it and no money to store it, let someone else love it. Life is too short and one day someone else is going to have to get rid of all the things you’ve collected and no one wants. In the end, it’s just stuff. Trust me, I’ve been through it many times. It’s a true story.

The sentimental Tuesday’s Treasures is now coming to a close. ;) Thank you for reading.

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!

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.

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Two Black Beauties – Tuesday’s Treasures

I’m really excited to share these before and after pictures with you. This kidney shaped buffet is stunning! I loved it from the day I bought it. I really wanted to keep it myself, but decided that it was way too big for my living room. When we went to pick it up, it was on the 2nd floor of a house with a tiny staircase. Fun times! It’s probably the heaviest piece to date so I thought I might die carrying it with John. Lol! Then we remembered that there was another flight of stairs when we got outside. I don’t regret it though! This baby was worth it.

I put this piece on our Upcoming Projects page and it was much loved, three people wanted it on the first day. Thankfully, the first person to get back to me was Chad. He wanted to buy our Grey and Cream hutch on our Furniture For Sale page, but missed it by a couple hours to another family. I felt really badly about that and was thrilled that this beauty was going to his home.

Chad wanted all the original hardware and wanted it painted black and lightly distressed. I thought that would be perfect for this piece, too! We had quite a bit of veneer damage that you can’t see well in this picture. We used bondo to patch all of the damage and sanded it flat.

Here’s the finished product. O0h la la!

Chad also noticed this hall tree on our upcoming projects page and asked us to redo it to match the buffet.

We kept all of the original hardware, painted it black and distressed it a bit. I LOVE this piece! I’m pretty sure Chad and I have the exact same taste because all of the pieces I want to keep, he’s quick to grab. lol

After the love.

That’s not the end of this story… we delivered both pieces to Chad and Joe a couple of days ago. When we got there… I melted. Yupppp… designer gushing. Their house is better than any words I could think of to describe it. I had to try not to covet and my confession is that I failed. ;) Everything from their kitchen with a large black medallion over a elegant chandelier to their original subway tiled bathrooms… oh so perfect. On top of all that, they were uber nice to us. I had to bring the kiddos along last minute and they welcomed our family with kindness. The kids were even dancing. ;)

Thank you Chad and Joe for being such huge fans and sharing your beautiful home 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!

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.

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Pretty in Purple End Stands

Good morning everyone! Since there was so much excitement on our Facebook page over our purple end stands, I thought it would be a good time to share a quick before and after post about it.

Here they were before we added some color. :) The guy I  bought them from actually said, I don’t know what you can do with these. lol If he only knew they would  be purple.

Meghan and her mom Barbara came over to talk color and when they said purple I nearly vomited. Ok, ok it wasn’t QUITE that bad. lol I’m just not a purple furniture person. As our facebook page proved, plenty of you ARE purple fans. :) We went with a deep dark purple called Blackberry wine by Benjamin Moore (color 2069-20). After it was painted, I glazed the entire piece with Valspar’s Antiquing Glaze. That darkend the color and made me like it even more. We used the original knobs, just spray painted them silver and glazed them, too, so they weren’t as new looking.  Are your ready for the after?? I know you are! :) 

 

I think they look a little more blue in this picture than they actually are, but you get the idea.

I hope you all have a great week. God bless.

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!

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.

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Repurposed White Dresser – Tuesday’s Treasures

Hello everyone! I’m sorry for posting this Tuesday’s Treasures a little late today and for not being online as much as I usually am. I decided to take a week off from furniture projects so I could catch up with undone projects around the house, spend time with friends that have been neglected, and enjoy my babies before they are no longer babies. :) School starts for both of them next year and I think that’s making me want to soak up these precious days with them.

Since most of you are here for the pictures, right? ;) I thought I would share a quick before and after today. Look at this beauty!! Who could not love all the lines and detailing of this piece.

Amber and Brian decided to have this dresser painted for their babies room. We painted it a standard white and then used Valspar’s antiquing glaze to bring out all the details. We really liked all of the original knobs so we just painted them in silver to go with their grey and white nursery theme.

One added touch was putting liners in the drawers to make it fun.

I love how this one came out in white.

Oh, and we removed the wheels to make it a little shorter because it is going to be the changing table, too. A huge thank you to Amber and Brian for custom ordering this piece with us.

I hope you all have a great week. God bless.

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!

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.

 

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Antique Desk Makeover – Tuesday’s Treasures

So, who remembers this desk from our Upcoming Projects page? The leg was broken, but we had all the pieces to bring it back to life. :)

It’s a beautiful piece, right? I fell in love with it right away and was so excited when John told me the leg was fixable. Jennifer noticed it on our upcoming projects page and asked me to redo it for her. I was so excited to hear that she wanted it in teal and dark brown. John had to take the base apart, add new dowels and glue everything back together. We also had to repair some damaged veneer using Bondo and sanding it flat. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out this post: How to Paint Furniture 

I painted the bottom with a custom mix of teals that I used for a different dresser that Jennifer liked. After everything was painted, I distressed and glazed the entire piece (even on the brown top) and added new hardware.

Stunning, right?

I also redid a marvelous chair in brown to go with it. Yummy goodness!

Oh, and I think Jennifer needs this desk lamp, too. ;)Vintage Teal Phone Clock Lamp

It’s for sale on Etsy from The Vintage Tree House. Full of cuteness!

I hope you all have a great week. God bless.

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!

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.