Hutch

A few weeks ago, my mom sent me a text asking if I wanted this hutch. Someone had left it at her rental house when they moved out. I can't say no to free furniture. Especially, because I have been looking for something like this to fix up. 

It was a blue, but it wasn't all painted. It needed some love. 

The top was this awful speckled fake counter top material. 

So I got some gel stripper and stripped it off. 

Only to find out it was fake wood.

I gave it a few coats of Mother Earth White Lace paint.

I Loved it, but really wanted to do something with the top. 

I had my friends look at it and we brainstormed. Grey, white, new wood?

The hardware also got some Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint love.

The blue shines thru where I distressed it.

The top came right off!

I ran to Lowes, and got 3 boards that were the same as my kitchen table. The nice guy at Lowes even cut them for me!

A little stain action and sanding and they were ready to be put on! 

I LOVE IT! The best part it was under $50!

The hard part is decorating it! I've had about 12 different arrangements. 

Pink Dresser

My sister is an expert garage sale/estate sale shopper. She texted me a picture of this dresser that she found at an estate sale.  It was perfect for the pink dresser I had dreamed about for Little G's room. It was $150. But, it would go half price at noon. She decided to risk it and wait until noon. A little before noon she came back, and it was still there. She sat on it and waited until noon. Another lady was stalking it as well, so Becky just kept waiting. She even went a little early to the register and said she wanted to take this dresser and the one that matched it. She snagged them both for $120. 

The drawers are huge, and the top is perfect for a changing table. 

She bought a can of Annie Sloan Scandinavian Pink Chalk Paint, and when I arrived in Cali, I got started! We wiped it down and took off the hardware. That was all the prep that it needed! 

It took 2 coats of paint, but it turned out awesome! 

Nursery Reveal is tomorrow!

Mother Earth Paint Dresser Makeover

One of my friends asked me to help her paint her dresser. This time I tried out Mother Earth Paint. It works very similarly to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. However, it is more natural.  

You do not need to prep the surface, however, she did, because she wasn't sure how she was going to paint the dresser at first. Sanding it made it soak up paint a lot more! 

We wanted to keep the keyhole hardware, so we taped over it and used an exacto knife to cut around the keyhole. 

We used 2 small sample sizes to cover the dresser. This paint can be watered down, and it can cover a little more!

To distress you can sand it or use handi wipes. The handi wipes need a little more rubbing, but leave a nice distressed look. Finally, I covered it with a wax. 

Before & After Bookshelf

It is amazing what paint can do! I used Annie Sloan chalk paint to paint these! I really did just slap the paint right on the wood! No sanding or priming!! 

Vivi even helped me a bit! I rubbed the wax on using old t-shirts. The wax has a little more of an odor than the paint. It works better to do it in a well ventilated area. 

We were sure to bolt these big bookshelves to the wall, so they wouldn't fall on the kiddos!

Before & After! LOVE! 

Farmhouse Table: Part 2

You may remember Farmhouse Table: Part 1 from way back in NOVEMBER! I finally got around to putting the final coat of poly on it! I used Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane in the clear satin. I also bought a nice natural bristle brush. Before I started I used a tack cloth to make sure there was nothing stuck on the table. I also stained a few more spots that needed it. Make sure you let the stain dry!

                                    

table before poly

Coat 1 still wet! 

After coat 1 

I put 2 coats on. I did not sand in between. I attempted it, in a small area, but it didn't look good, so I just let it be! When I was painting it on, I went all the way down the table and went back over thick places a few times. 

It is so much easier to wipe down now, and I don't have to worry about staining or warping it.

Sorry for the millions of photos, I was trying to get all angles! :) 

                                                

Next up, figuring out the chairs!!!

Farmhouse Table- Part 1

When Erica moved out, I was left kitchen table-less.  I needed a new table, but didn't want to spend $1,000 on a table at Pottery Barn. I wanted a farmhouse table.  I decided I was going to build it.  I looked online and found a bunch of designs that I liked. I found a few that we would need to build from scratch. I also found a few that used an old table and just built the top.  I was at Salvation Army looking for a lamp, and found this table.  It was $70 and had 4 chairs.  I called Kent, sent him a text of the table, and he said yes. Do it. It would save us a lot of time. So I had my friend Megan come help me load up the table and chairs.  The table fit perfectly in my car!

 I unscrewed the top and was left with this.  So we measured and planned, and went to Lowe's to buy wood.  We "made the table" in the store and made sure we had flat boards that would fit well together and look nice.

 The corners were a little unstable, so we used some scrap wood and made the corner supports.

We built some supports for across the table.  We screwed them in every 12 inches.

 Matt helped me cut the boards to my measurements.  Then it was finally time to screw them in! We started in the middle. We screwed them in using self drilling screws and screwed them into each support.

 We screwed some of them from the bottom, with the table upside down to make it easier to see!

Then it was time to plane and sand.  We were a little nervous about getting the table flat and smooth. But this tool did some magical numbers! I found it in my parent's basement. It is old, but it did the job!

We sanded and sanded some more.  However, the end boards didn't line up perfectly.  We needed to even it out so that the end boards would fit nicely.

 We lined up a board and clamped it. Then sawed off the edges to make it line up perfectly.

We added the final boards on. They were a little wobbly, so we used the nail gun to secure these boards.  We sanded and used the planer again.  FINALLY it was ready to stain!! I used some tacky cloth and the leaf blower to blow all of the little sawdust off.