Monday, November 26, 2012

A co-worker and friend wanted a simple desk painted teal after she saw the dressing table I had painted for my daughter.  So, I told her I would keep my eye out for an old desk on the cheap that I could paint for her.  Well I found the desk for $5.99 at thrift store.  I completely sanded it down to bare wood (there was much carving of unsavory nature done by previous juvenile owners).  She had picked out some really pretty knobs that were a wonderful pop of color.  I mixed some different paint colors to come up with a close match of the knobs and painted the drawers all but the front with that color.  So here are some before, during, and afters.  I was really pleased with it and so was the new owner!








Here are a pair of Christmas stockings made from an old burlap cattle feed bag.  They are for my daughter and her boyfriance.  This is their first Christmas in their new house, so they needed something really old to hang on the fireplace!


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Old bed gets new life as a bench

 This is my daughter's old college bed - it was bought second hand.  It started out as a French Provencal creamy white with gold embellishments...
 My husband helped me by cutting the footboard apart and attaching the two smaller end pieces to the headboard...
 we then added stabilizer boards to the back.  The brown piece in the front was attached at the same height as the top board in back - to which we will connect the bench seat.  The front board came from the side stretchers of a Jenny Lind bed which will also be made into a bench.

You can see some white places - this is wood filler to help repair some areas which were either broken in the moves or needed filling just because.  You will also see that we added the board for the bench seat and attached some small spindles in the front of the arms.

 Close up view of the new spindle - isn't she cute!!!
Next, primer - the bench will be white when finished, so this primer is perfect - no sanding needed - wonderful!

 Back view of headboard.
 And she's all painted white with the bench seat covered w/foam and batting - masking tape is in place to hold the upholstered oval which will go on the back.
 ...and we are almost done.  Only need to add the finishing touches to the oval.
 I just love this fabric...


and was very fortunate that I already had the lace and blue rope edging from previous projects.



This is the finished bench...in my garage...
...and this is the bench in my daughter's home...by the back door in the kitchen.  This was a great way to repurpose a piece of furniture which was no longer needed as it was, into a whole new useful piece of furniture.