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Ladies and Gents Dressers – Part 2

This is part 2 of our Ladies and Gentleman’s dressers. This is the hardest dresser we’ve done so far, but definitely one of my favorite finished products. Thanks for pushing me to try new things, Macknenzie! This dresser was so ugly as you can see below; I really think you won’t believe it’s the same dresser in the end.

First, I took all the knobs off because we were getting new glass ones for it (well, actually Mackenzie was getting them). I then painted everything with all in one primer that doesn’t requires sanding using our air sprayer. Then, we painted it with two coats of flat black paint. As I said in part 1, don’t use flat black. Lessons learned! :)

Another lesson learned, don’t work on too many projects at once. I was priming another piece and the spray must have floated in the air and landed on the dresser. It wouldn’t come off, so I had to paint it AGAIN. See!

Can you tell what tools I had sitting on top? Sand block and paint brushes! :) lol
After the black was done, we added paintable wallpaper to each drawer. When you’re picking out the paper, make sure the design goes the right direction because usually wallpaper is not wide enough and you have to run it length wise. The only tricky part about it is making sure all the designs line up correctly. It wasn’t that hard though. After each was cut, I used spray adhesive to attach it to the dresser (make sure you do that outside as the spray is very potent).

After it completely dry,  I sprayed it with black paint. After the black was dry, we added white trim. We had to use a hand saw to cut the trim because a circular saw chopped it apart. What a handsome guy that is working away? ;)

Then we glued it on using liquid nail. You’ll have to put something on top to push it down and have it dry correctly. After it’s dry, fill in the corners and touch up paint.

Once everything is all set, we painted it twice with Polyacrylic. Then the final step was to add the glass knobs and that’s what pushed me over the edge on how much I LOVE this dresser.

And the finished product!

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Thanks for learning with us,
Sarah

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Ladies and Gents Dresser Set – Part 1

For this dresser repurposing project, we had quite the task ahead of us. My friend from work, Mackenzie, asked us to design two dressers for her and her boyfriend. We had two non matching dressers that we wanted to make different, but still match enough to put in one room and have unity. I need to forewarn you, these two dresser are not for the faint of heart. :) It took a lot of time and effort, but in the end we love them.
Today is part one…. I like to call it the Gentleman’s dresser.

It was in not so great shape, as you can see! It needed a new bottom board, new handles, the top two drawers were broken and not repairable, and there was a crack on the main board between those two top drawers. On top of that there were lots of  dents and chips all over it. We first used Bondo to fill all of the scratches and cracks.


Then we sanded it down..

Ok, onto the top drawer problems… we had to wood glue and clamp the center board to fix it. This was the before.

We took the top two drawers and cut the fronts off using a small hand saw.

Then we primed all of the drawers.

Then we primed the rest of it two times and painted everything two times with a flat black paint using our air sprayer. Word to the wise, don’t use black flat! Go Satin if at all possible. The Polyacrylic that we sealed it with was satin so it evened out in the end, but flat black is really hard to work with all along the way.

John put the “guts” of the drawer back in and framed them out with an L shaped trim. He used his nail gun to actually nail the boxes into place and nail the trim on. After you nail the trim, you’ll have to fill it with wood filler or putty and paint over it again.

When we removed the old handles, we filled the holes because Mackenzie wanted glass knobs which required only one hole instead of two. We filled it just like it any hole and sanded it down. Two days before we were suppose to deliver this one, I realized that we forgot to attach the bottom board that was missing. We hadn’t even cut or primed it!!! What in the world?? How did we both miss that? So, John worked hard and late to get the bottom board cut, primed, painted twice.  Once everything was repaired and painted, we sprayed it twice with satin Polyacrylic. Here it is before we added the handles.

Now that it’s all set, we quickly brought it over to Mackenzie which is why I forgot to do an “after”picture. Mackenzie took one for me at her house. Thanks Mackenzie!!

She will also be getting baskets for the top two openings and I think that will finish this one off handsomely. :) Stay tuned for part 2, the Ladies Dresser! I LOVE the 2nd dresser!!

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Thanks for reading!
Sarah

 

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Pine Dresser DIY Refacing

This solid pine, antique dresser was so much fun to make over; my favorite project so far. We found this on craigslist and drove 40 minutes into the country to pick it up. The trip out there on a Sunday afternoon was an adventure. I had never been to the area, but found out John had family who lived two houses down from where we picked up the dresser. It was on a long, creepy dirt road. We would pass by a dilapidated shack with a tarp for a roof that was being lived in and then the next house was a mansion. We turned into the driveway and it was this long, icy road to a house that we couldn’t see yet. I then told John we were going to be murdered by some crazy craigslist killer… to which he laughed (as usual) and told me it was fine. He was more than comfortable in that “neck of the woods”. The house ended up being hand built and amazing! The woman was so kind and gave me a free Craftsman shop vac while we were there.

Ok, ok, enough about the pick up; onto the pictures! I know that’s what you’ve been waiting for. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The left side of the dresser had a chuck ripped out of it. Almost like a dog had chewed on the side. Other than that and a couple dents here and there, the structure was perfect. So, we started by building up the damaged section with Bondo. In case you haven’t read our other blog posts, we find that it hardens better than wood filler so it’s our filler of choice.
We then started the typical painting steps…
Prime with Zinsser 123 primer (no sanding necessary and it covers really well).

 

 
After priming, I painted it with two coats of teal. Speaking of the paint; I learned on this project that you can mix paint finishes to get the look you want. So, I had this awesome teal (the same one I used on the Teal Chair), but it was high gloss and too bright for what I was wanted. I mixed it with a little bit of flat black paint; the color and finish came out just like I wanted. I then used Martha Stewart’s Coffee Glaze to give it more of an antique look. Remember when glazing, less is more. You don’t need much on your paint brush at all! I originally planned to leave some of the wood exposed and only paint part of it.

Then after looking at it for WAY too long and asking lots of friends advice, I decided to paint the whole thing. Oh, and I also took the handles off, primed and painted them a flat black. At first I painted all the wood except the bottoms of each drawer. I didn’t like that either,  so the next step was to change that wood into black strips on each drawer.

After the painting, I hit it with one coat of Minwax Polycrylic using our air sprayer. I finally figured out after using the air sprayer for other projects that you have to turn the pressure really low on your air sprayer when you are on using polycrylic. Otherwise it sprays way too much and you end up having dripping, and an uneven gloss. Ok, the last step was to use wood wax on each drawer to make sure that it slides easily. All you do it rub it on the bottom of each drawer (a candle would work just as well, too).

Are you ready for the finished product??

Hope you enjoyed!
-Sarah

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For the Love of Teal! Chair

This is a really simple chair makeover that was a lot of fun! Here’s the before picture:

My mom grabbed this chair at a yard sale for me last summer. I really like the style, but it needed a pop of color… yes, for the love of teal! The first thing that had to go was the seat cover. I found fabric that I loved at Hobby Lobby in the clearance for around $3 per yard. 

I almost thought I liked it with the original wood color.

Then I changed my mind and decided it needed color for sure. So, I just had to prime it, paint it twice and here we go.

Happy redesigns!
Sarah

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Antique Night Stand – Sanding and Glazing

This night stand was in rough shape when it was given to us. The nice part about getting a furniture piece for free is that I don’t feel so nervous about messing it up! This is my first attempt at sanding a piece and glazing it without John’s help! :) Here’s the before (I forgot to take a before picture so all I have to offer is the picture they texted (is that a word?) me of it to see if we wanted it.

I wanted to try sanding the top and the front of the drawer to see how they came out because they were very distressed and I liked that.

I really liked how it came out so I went ahead a painted the rest using our air sprayer. First, I had to cover the top so I grabbed what I had handy… an Aldi bag. That’s right, sometimes I forget to bring my big IKEA bags and have to spend money on a bag… tisk, tisk.  Anyway, it did the trick and I used painters tape to seal it around the top so the top didn’t get any paint on it.

Pretty already, I know! Ok, so on to the hard part. My first attempt at glazing. I went and bought Martha Stewart’s coffee glaze at Home Depot. I read about it on other sites and loved the look in the end. So, based on everything I read about glazing… less is more! I started with a little bit on the bush, then dabbed it in a cloth to make it even less. Here’s what it looked like when I first brushed it on.

Then, I took a cloth and rubbed it out until it was a look that I liked.

LOVE it! Now I need to keep myself from wanting to glaze everything. It’s a sickness… I’m sure of it!
Here’s a couple pictures of the finished product.

I had to also display a couple cool antiques that were given to me this weekend from my Aunt Alice.

-Sarah

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Half-Moon Hall Table Face Lift

Our good friend, Jo Ann,  (you will probably hear her name mentioned quite a bit) had this little hall table that was her grandmothers. It had a crack on one side and she wanted that fixed, to have us paint it a yellow color (we are all still debating on what color this actually is… lol), and then have us sand the edges to keep the antique look to the piece. Here’s our set by stop how to on refacing it.

Here are the before pictures…

We sprayed it with a first coat of primer. If you look at primers when you get to the store, you should always buy the kind that says no sanding required. It will save you a lot of time. We always use a water based primer and put it in our air painter that is hooked up to our air compressor. If you don’t have an air sprayer, you could buy spray primer and paint.

One little trick that John learned while working on the trim in the different mansions he worked on is that when you are fixing wood you can use Bondo instead of wood filler. He said it hardens much more quickly and keeps hardened better than wood filler. So, first we filled the crack with wood glue and clamped it down so that it would stay level (sorry I forgot to take a picture of that). Once it was dry, he put Bondo on the crack to level it with the rest of the wood.

This is the tricky part, you have to sand it by hand until the Bondo has the same shape as the wood’s edge. This took him quite a while and he used a regular piece of multi purpose sand paper.

Time to get our color on!

We painted it two times with Behr interior satin paint. Color TBD… lol!

After that was dry, John hand sanded most of the edges to expose the original wood and give it that antique look Jo Ann was looking for.

Then we sprayed with with a layer of Polyacrylic. This is is different from Polyurethane and it won’t leave a yellow tint in time (not to mention it doesn’t smell as bad).

Here’s the finished product! What do you think?? What color would you say it is?

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Buffet Bliss

This buffet was given to us from a dear friend, Janet. It was her great grandmother’s. We still have the matching table set, but the buffet ended up not fitting in our new dining room. Our friend Jo Ann had a spot in her dining room that was just asking for it. :) This was a pretty easy makeover. We simply used a rough paint brush and regular latex paint. (Behr Oops paint of course!)

Here’s what it looked like to start with:

I took the doors off and hand painted them.

Painted the bottom and sides a matching yellow.

Reattached everything…

Decided it needed a little more yellow and we’re done!

 

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Antique Rocking Chair Make Over

My Aunt Alice gave us this rocking chair. I loved the style instantly, but it needed some work. Here’s step by step instructions on how we fixed it up.

The wood underneath the back of the chair had split so John cut a new piece, drilled new holes to screw back into the existing seat and reattach it.

Next, we took our paint air sprayer and sprayed the rocking chair twice with primer. This rocking chair has some rough spots from the paint, but we didn’t sand those out because we wanted to keep the “antique look”. We just primed over the paint without sanding. If you want a smooth surface, sand it first.

We waited a day for the primer to dry and then sprayed it with latex grey paint. We always look at the oops paint at Home Depot, Lowes or Sears and pick up whatever we think might look good. This was a $5 can that we liked and it only used about 1/3 of the small can.

Up Next, I added a crackled effect using brick red over the grey. It’s simple, you use Elmer’s Glue. Water it down a bit, paint it on the piece, wait a couple minutes until the glue is tacky, and then paint the next color. At first I didn’t think I was going to like it, but once it dried I fell in love!

Here’s the finished product!!

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Hello world!

Welcome to FunCycled! This is all about our families adventures, trying to find new ways to upcycle and recycle furniture or other products into stylish works of art or helpful hints to save you time. We love modern designs, we love God’s creation and want to do the best we can to preserve it how ever we can through recycling, and we love sharing those ideas with YOU! We hope you have as much fun reading as we do designing!

Sarah & John