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Oh Colorful Chairs How I LOVE YOU!

I hope you are all having a great weekend. I just couldn’t wait to share these colorful chairs with you. We just created them as a custom order for my friend Tiffany. Stay tuned for this weeks Tuesday’s Treasures to see some of the other pieces were designing for her new home. I love these chairs so much that I may do a set for my dining room. (I have more available if any of you are interested, too!)

Here’s what they were before…

BOOOORRRRING! Right??

After some color…. I can’t resist!!

Have a great weekend!
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

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Tuesday’s Treasures Aqua Dresser with Mirror

This week’s Tuesday’s Treasure started in shambles – read through and you’ll see what this beauty was to begin with.

Here’s what she looked like before. I really couldn’t even do a before picture of the mirror because it was broken into about 20 different pieces. Anyway, here is the bottom part.

You can’t see it well in this picture, but there was quite a bit of damage to the top of this dresser. We had to repair it using Bondo and lots of clamps. We then primed and painted it. You can see how we paint furniture on our page How to Paint Furniture.

John very carefully put the mirror together piece by piece and added a new back to make it nice and sturdy!

I had quite the amazing handy man help me with painting the mirror. Cute as a button, wouldn’t you agree?

Here it is after the first priming.

After the first coat of paint. I know it looks more green then blue… I blame it entirely to horrible lighting. It didn’t look that green in person. :)

Then it was time to slightly glaze it. Here’s a close up of the bottom.

I liked the look of the bottom handles and wanted them to blend with the rest of the piece so that the crystal knobs on the top would really pop.  One more time, the finished product!!!

Happy Redesigns,
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

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Tuesday’s Treasures – Antique Patio Set

Tomorrow is the 4th of July! I hope you all have some fun plans for the day. We are planning to take the kids to the roof top of a parking garage in downtown Albany to watch the fireworks. We bring pizza, popcorn and lemonade and it’s the best time ever! :) This week, I thought I would show you some outdoor furniture that we just finished. You may have already noticed it on our For Sale page, but here she is!

This set came from my mom’s long time friend, Wendy. Back when we were little, if anything had happened to my mom and dad, we would have been taken care of by Wendy and her husband Mike. For my parents to ask them means they are pretty awesome people. This is just one of her many examples of awesomeness! :) Her neighbor was cleaning out their house so Wendy asked if we could come take some of the pieces headed to the curb. Along with chairs, a dresser, lamps, an antique fan, etc., was this beautiful antique lawn set. It has been sitting behind Wendy’s garage for years and years and she pulled it out and said “I would love to see what you can do with this”. Thank you Aunt Wendy! :)

Oh, and I have to tell you, my favorite moment in this visit was when Wendy had three vintage hats she wanted to show me. Our little Sweetie went up to Wendy and said, “I would like to buy one of your hats please”. She said it so matter of factually for 2 year old and it just cracked me up. Wendy said, “Which one would you like to buy?” to which Sweetie replied, “the pink one”. But of course!! How could you say no to that. She wore it all day and even to church that night. What a cutie pie!

Here’s what they looked like before:

All rusty and pretty plain old, plain old! :) I went to Lowe’s and they told me this would be best for covering the rust:

First, I hosed everything off well and then scrubbed the dickens out of it with a scrub brush to remove the rusted bubbling spots. Once that was all done and it was dry, I sprayed it with this primer. It comes out brown and I used 2 full cans for this project.

When I went to the store, I picked out the the cushions first and matched the paint accordingly. I really like this cushion set (of course I did, that’s why I bought them). They are a nice deep navy blue with cream and brown patterns. I decided to then paint them all using Valspar outdoor spray paint.

You’ll probably need around 4 cans.

I covered the wheels with plastic bags.

And started spraying!! After I was done spray painting all the metal, I took the bags off and scrubbed the wheels with plain old bleach and water. Then I painted the spokes using black Valspar enamel using a foam brush. Here’s how they turned out.

Now how about some close ups of each piece?

And once again, the whole set all done (yes, I know, I know, I need to mow my lawn). I’ve just been a little busy these days. :)

Have a wonderful Independence Day and remember what our country was founded on!

John Adams
2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”

Blessings,
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

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Tuesday’s Treasures – Cedar Chest Turned Into a Coffee Table

Hope you all had a great weekend! This week’s redesign was a lot of fun! It was one of those project where everything went RIGHT for once. :) Gotta love those! My friend Jo Ann and I went shopping at our Habitat for Humanity local shop in hopes to find a trunk to make into a coffee table.

Jo Ann has been obsessed with this idea since she saw a trunk that she liked at Pottery Barn.  Fortunately it was on a couple of months back order so I convinced her that we could find something to make over and for a cheaper price. Nothing had been right – Jo Anne is a “I am not sure, what do you think, will it work ….?” type of person (she told me to write that). Idea after idea had been shot down, but  today we were in luck!  We came across this Lane Cedar chest and it was the perfect size… but not the perfect look for her house. It wasn’t a cheap find, but I in this case we thought the quality was worth the price. ($150 to be exact) So she grabbed it, and here’s what we started with.

I don’t have many pictures of the process because I was in the middle of a million project during this time. Forgive me friends! :) First things first… that hideous top. We simply had to do something about it. Do we recover it, do we replace it?? Well, we went with replacing it with a wood top. Home Depot has solid wood boards already fit together for around $15. It was awesome in this case because it fit EXACTLY the way we wanted. We didn’t have to cut it down at all. Just deep enough and a little wider than the base which was perfect. It was easy to remove the cushion top, just unscrew 8 screws and it popped right off.

John sanded the new pine top down and had an allergic reaction to the pine. Did I say nothing went wrong with this project? Opps, I forgot about that part. His hand almost doubled in size for about a day. Note to self – remind John to wear gloves next time he sands pine boards. Or be nice and just do it for him… nah, just remind him to wear gloves.

We painted this one a little differently. I primed it like normal, but then I used Benjamin Moore Aura Satin paint and painted it with a Purdy brush. I was so impressed by how well it covered. The first coat was almost enough, but I did a second coat to be safe. She’s almost done… one more coat of paint and stain.

Here she is nestled nicely into Jo Ann’s living room. (Sorry the pictures aren’t that great, it was night time and the lighting was a bit rough)

How do you like it??

Happy Redesigns,

Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday’s Treasures – Antique Aqua Desk

Hello to our new fans and to all those we met at the Troy River Street Festival this past weekend. I hope you had a great time at the festival, I know we did! It was so much fun working next to Tim from Mr. Doodles, meeting our previous Mayor Harry Tutunjian, getting to know some of you for the first time, and seeing friends from the past (including my old art teacher’s son).

On to this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures… our beautiful Aqua and Milk Chocolate Antique Desk. (click on any photo to enlarge)

Are you ready for what she USED to look like?

We had to completely rebuild the front of the bottom two drawers using Bondo. This may sound like no big deal, but it takes a long time. John sanded for about an hour one night and I sanding for about 1 1/2 hours the next day to get them the way they needed to be. I sanded with gloves on, even so my fingers were raw when I was done. Note to self… don’t sand for that long at once again. :) I am the pianist at our church so playing the piano with raw fingers is no fun. What was I thinking??

After repairing and sanding, we did all the typical painting steps. To see how we paint furniture, check out How to Paint Furniture.

We used Benjamin Moore brown paint and wood enamel for the top. It worked great and gave the exact finish I was looking for. The bottom was a mixture of teal and white that I had on hand, which was great because I wanted it to be a soft teal and I love when I can use paint that I have left over from other projects.

This desk has amazing detailing in the woodwork so it simply HAD to be glazed. That took quite a bit of time, but it really paid off. I am planning to do a step by step post on how to glaze furniture because I keep getting questions about it. Stay posted! I wanted to use as much of the original hardware that I could, but I also added a few new knobs that I thought might work. It definitely needed some crystal and I didn’t want them all to match. So, I bought similar styles and spray painted them all using  Rustoleum hammered bronze. Oh, and while I was at Home Depot buying the spray paint, my 2 year old sweetie decided it would be a good idea to grab the can of paint and when mommy wasn’t looking, spray it IN her mouth. She screamed like a maniac,  while I was on on the phone with poison control, yup the whole nine yards. Just keeping it real! Thankfully, she was just fine and we are alive and well –  ready to conquer another day in the land of furniture repurposing.  Man oh man! Enough about that! Here she is with an antique chair that is almost complete.

A huge thanks to Lindsey over at Better After for featuring this desk on her site. Check it out, won’t you!

Happy Redesigns,
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

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Tuesday’s Treasures – Distressed Sage Green Dresser

If you aren’t a fan of our Facebook page, you may not know yet that I quit my job. I officially finished last week and I’m nervous, but really excited about having the extra time to devote to FunCycled and custom furniture for you. I had worked at this job for almost nine years so I have to admit, it’s a bit of an adjustment, but life is ever changing and I’m excited and humbled to have this opportunity. As part of the new changes, I would like to introduce Tuesday’s Treasures! Each Tuesday, I will post one of our new creations! I may add others during the week, but I’m planning, at the very least, to show you a new piece each Tuesday. To start of our Tuesday’s Treasures list, here is a beautiful, pale sage green oak dresser and matching night stand that we just finished.

Some close up (click to enlarge):


I did a totally different technique on this dresser using Benjamin Moore paint and primer in one. I applied it using a dry brush onto wood that was old and ready to soak up the paint. It wouldn’t work well with anything that has a poly or high gloss finish. This piece was asking me to try the new technique and I LOVE how it turned out. I watched a few videos on it to make sure my idea was going to work. I always like when someone else has done something that I thought might work. Lol! If only I was the first one to think of it.

Here’s what it looked like before:

It needed knobs, repair, and plain old paint lovin’! :) Let me know what you think and thanks again for all the encouragement from our readers this week. You guys are the best!!

Blessings,
Sarah

If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

 

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Why does Polycrylic yellow?

Have you spent hours and hours working on a piece of furniture, got to the final step of sealing the piece, and the Polycrilic turned your piece yellow in spots? I’ve read so much about the fact that you shouldn’t use polyurethane on anything light in color because it will turn yellow (or ember) over time. Well, I just did 4 different pieces in four different styles and paint types and then had the polycrilic yellow. Everything I have read online says it should never yellow! I took the gallon of Minwax polycrylic back and was told that it says right on the back of gallon that it can ember. I couldn’t believe it, so the nice guy actually read it to me. I haven’t been able to find much online about this problem so I thought I would share my frustration, find out if any of my readers have have had this problem and found a solution,  as well as offer a couple of ideas that have worked for me since then.

The guy at Home  Depot recommended that I try Minwax Lacquer instead. Here’s what that looks like next to the polycrylic that I bought to replace the gallon that I believed to be bad.
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He said lacquer will never ember. I didn’t really like this solution because it isn’t water based so it stinks, ruins my brushes and really should be done outside. I can’t always do that here in the Northeast –  thanks to winter or rainy weather, which we’ve had a lot of lately!

So, stubborn me used the Polycrylic again on another furniture piece (why didn’t I learn my lesson already?). This piece was BEAUTIFUL and I was so excited about it. I used the carefully stirred (don’t shake it) polycrylic and started applying it to the dresser. It started turning yellow again. I could NOT believe it. I walked away before I lost my cool. I searched online again thinking I could find a way to fix this problem, to no avail. (Maybe you all have found a good article or tips on polycrylic – if so, please share!).  Once I recovered from my angst,  I stopped and thought about the fact that God cares about the little things in our life. So, I prayed about what to do. I really believe He gave me the wisdom to try this. I just grabbed a spray bottle and did a 1 part white vinegar to 10 part water mixture. While the polycrylic was just a little tacky (mostly dry) I sprayed it lightly with the mixture and wiped  it down with a clean clothe. It took the yellow right off and it has never returned. And- it still left a protected layer over the paint. This technique has worked for me about 4 times since so I feel comfortable sharing it.

For surfaces that don’t get much wear and tear, I’ve started using spray Polycrylic. It’s much more expensive, but I’ve found it goes for a long time. I have covered about 6 pieces and I’m still on the same can.

It dries much faster, too!  I just wanted to share one of my mistakes that has happened along the way to hopefully save you some time and frustration. I would love to get your feedback on this problem!

Blessings!
Sarah

If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

 

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How to Paint a Chevron Dresser

I’ve been wanting to do something with a chevron design for what feels like a bazillion years. OK – maybe 4-5 months and here it was, finally – this dresser screamed “give me chevron!”. My mom called me because she was at a yard sale and found this dresser.  She said it was a high boy and I asked how tall it was, she said it came to her chin… and since my mom and I are about the same height, I got the idea of the size.  I went to pick it up and stood next to it only to find that it came about 7-8 inches below my chin. I think in pictures so I could only imagine my mom’s chin drooping 7-8 inches. John commented,”wow, I didn’t know your mom’s chin went that low”.  I couldn’t stop laughing.

So, here she is to begin with. This one didn’t need any work as far as the wood goes, but it definitely needed  an updated color and style.

I did all the typical steps and painted it a medium grey using Behr paint. To see the step by step instructions on how to paint furniture see my post on How to Repaint Furniture.

Here it is after two coats of a warm grey satin finish paint.

I read up on all different ways to paint Chevron. I tend to be impatient and really didn’t want to measure all of the angels and draw the lines of each zig zag. I found this pattern, cut out the grey larger sections and used it to trace my lines along the dresser drawers.

I then hand painted staying in the lines using a satin white paint. Looking back, I think it would have been better to use painters tape because the lines would have been much  crisper.

Here’s one drawer after the first coat.

I also didn’t like the handles that were originally on it so I bought matching glass knobs and pulls.

Here’s the finished product (click on any picture to make it larger)!

Oh, and here’s a teaser of some of the other retro dressers I will be posting tutorials for in the next few weeks.

Happy Redesigns,
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

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1970’s Console TV Makeover

As you know, we’ve been busy here and I’m not complaining!! I’m loving the custom jobs and new creations! It’s just that I haven’t had a ton of time to post all of the fun things. I simply MUST make time for this one. ;)

This 1970’s console TV came from a wonderful lady right in my neck of the woods in Troy. She even showed me the inside of the house she was selling. When we walked in, it was like stepping into the 1970’s. All original wood work, carpets, even a coal stove and old washing machine. We fell in love! Then we had to lug this RIDICULOUSLY heavy TV down a flight of stairs… and I was in a dress. What was I thinking? Anyway, a HUGE thank you for this piece!

Here’s the before:

It was so girly that it screamed “paint me pink”. I kept second guessing myself… or maybe I should say John was second guessing me. So, I took a vote on our Facebook page. The voters were definitely not in any type of agreement. Then my friend Lara posted, “Whatever your first instict was my dear…” so I went with pink. John was still picking on me, but he knows he likes it deep down in his manly heart. :)

We pulled out the tube, but wanted to keep the metal section of the TV. We removed the metal as well so I could paint all of the wood sections with the air sprayer. We then removed the speaker. The inside of old TV’s are pretty cool and  our son enjoyed taking all of the pieces apart like he was a scientist. If you want to see how to paint this piece, check out How to Repaint Furniture.

We went with a pale pink and I was going to glaze it with silver because of the sliver part around the TV that we were keeping. Once we put the metal section in it looked more green than silver. So, I ended up using watered down military green paint to glaze the piece and finished it off with a light silver glazing. After that was all set, John made a custom book shelf to install in the back and then I painted it a metallic silver.

Sorry I don’t have the best after picture. We finished it the day we went to the Waterford Canal Festival and it sold that day so I didn’t have much time to get a good shot. I’m just thankful I remembered to take a picture at all. :)

Oh, and this piece went to an awesome couple! Thank you Frannie and Jimmy! Most of the 1st floor of their home was destroyed by the flooding we recently experienced so I was thrilled to have one of our pieces be part of their new remodel!

Happy Redesigns,
Sarah

If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.

 

 

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End Table Makeovers

We’ve been busy here redoing a few different end tables. Instead of doing a post about each one, I thought I would show you the before and after of them. To see how we painted each one, visit our post How To Repaint Furniture.

All of the end tables are currently for sale so shoot me an email at sarah@funcycled.com if you’re interested.

This small table had a crack in the bottom section that needed to be repaired and some of the joints were coming apart. We mended it and then painted it a light, light blue. We then distressed it and sealed it for quality.

This antique pie shape table was painted teal, glazed using a chocolate coffee color and lightly distressed.

I love the shape of this end table! I painted it a sage green and used black glazing to antique it.

This retro orange table was a mix of John and I. We both worked together to come up with it… hence the more manly look. ;) It was given to me by a lady who was like a 2nd mom to me growing up. Thanks Mr. Irish!!

This table was completely designed for the knob! I fell in love with the knob at Hobby Lobby and couldn’t resist.

Happy Redesigns,
Sarah

PS- If you like what we’re doing, please like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/funcycled or share this on Pinterest! Also, you can now get each of our new projects emailed to you when you enter your email address in the box at the top right side of this page.