It’s all about the FEET!

I showed a few of the recent projects that I’ve added FEET to in the previous post. Something about adding feet just gives everything that extra OOMPH!

When I bought my current sofa (long ago!) the ONE thing I HAD to have was BUN FEET. And I’ve been drawn to bun feet ever since. You can buy unfinished furniture size bun feet at the hardware store, but they are like $8.00 apiece! Which isn’t bad added to the price of a sofa; but for little craft projects, ya gotta be more frugal!

Here are my ‘frugal bun feet’:

Just a very simple little plywood shelf that Michael made. But these bun feet just MAKE it really stand out. Bet you can’t guess how I made these sweet little bun feet???

Maybe you can tell now with this closer look. No???

How about NOW??? Can you tell how I made the bun feet?

How about NOW???? Yes, they are small wooden BOWLS!!! I had Michael drill a hole in the center, and we added a little wood wheel (which you can see better in the 2nd picture) as a spacer/washer; then just screwed them on from underneath.

Perfect little faux and FRUGAL bun feet! How’s THAT for a unique way to repurpose old wood bowls?!?!

We haven’t tried these on anything TOO large. If we DO ever use them on a larger piece of furniture we would add a solid block of wood to the inside of the bowl for added strength. That way the item would actually be being supported by the piece of wood, with the bowl over it just for decoration. I’m not certain just how strong these bowls would be on a large piece just by themselves.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And, yes, MORE tables!

More like GOOD RIDDANCE to 2009, eh?

Onward to better things and the grandest of possibilities in this new year.

I guess I’ve been on a bit of a ‘table binge’ lately.  Here are a few more I finished last month, awaiting our bigger space at Stars.  For these I re-purposed a couple of bar stools for the table bases.

The ‘vision’ I have for this whole slew of round tables is to fill the middle of our space with them, all grouped together.  Different heights, sizes and styles . . . but all in shades of white and cream.  Then a small grouping of accessories on each table.

I guess we’ll see if the reality measures up to my vision.  I’ve never seen an arrangement like this and it could well look totally STUPID.  But, no harm in trying.  How else are new decorating trends started.

Both of these tables were made  the same, using an old bar stool for the bases; one taller than the other, both spray painted white and both tops painted the same shade of tan.

I started this project EONS ago, and took pictures of the stool bases back then, and of course I can’t find those pics to show you now!  Just basic wood bar stools.  The tops are ‘scrounged’ plywood that Michael attached to the base for me (screwed on from underneath)  Had to fill a few tiny holes.  Sand.  Paint.  Sand to distress, add foam stamp border in contrasting color.  Sand off some of border to distress.  Add a quick coat of RL tobacco glaze.  Let dry.  Add a couple of coats of satin varnish.

What I’ve been working on lately

Since we’re done with shows for the season and don’t have the  store to stock anymore, I’m not doing much in the way of holiday themed stuff.  I’m actually ‘thinking spring’ already!  And working on some ‘general stuff for our space at Stars.

I actually ended up filling this cloche with gold and platinum glitter ornaments, but forgot to take a picture after I added  them!

I started with a thrift store wood candle holder, and glued (epoxy) a craft store 4×4″ wood routered edge plaque to the top and bottom.

I find I can use these things for ALL KINDS of crafting projects, so I always keep a good-sized stash of them on hand by stocking up when they are on sale.

Then I added the feet, again using epoxy.  I’m really ‘into’ FEET lately.  Especially BUN feet.  You absolutely will not believe what I came up with to use as inexpensive bun feet for small furniture pieces!  So fun!  Real bun feet are ridiculously expensive.  Too expensive for me to use on anything that I want to sell.   For this little project I used some small candle cups I had on hand.  I’ve used wood spools and round wood knobs in such situations as well.

It just so happened to be a DRY fall day here in Oregon; so I took it outside and spray painted it with flat black paint.

For the cloche to top it with, I had these bell-shaped chandelier globes.  I needed to ‘plug up the hole’ at the top (which is really the bottom in its original use) to make it look more like a cloche.  I used a tiny clear glass remekin, which I epoxied on.

I’ve also used these aemekins as knobs on glass vases the I inverted to make into cloches, like the ones below.

Here are more recent projects, kind along the same theme, pedestals with cloches.

Vintage milk glass cup and bowl (or it might actually be an ashtray!) epoxied together and topped with a cut glass candle cup, used as a cloche.

These are itty bitty and OH so cute!  Made using a silver coaster and napkin ring, epoxied together, and topped with a candle cup.   These are the perfect size for holding a single chocolate truffle or maybe for presenting a special piece of jewelry to a special someone.

Thrift store mini glass ginger jar with vintage shrimp cocktail glass epoxied on for the base.

Filled with handmade paper shred made from an old book, and a black silk ribbon tied to the lid.  I have an awesome full size ginger jar that I did similarly.  It’s buried somewhere amongst the 40 boxes and bins of craft show left overs at the moment though.  I took a pic of it at the show, but it kinda washed out because of light coming in from behind.  But you can kinda see it:

Next project: A thrift store resin finial and ceramic pillar candle holder.

Epoxied together and then both spray painted black.

Sanded the finial a bit to bring out the design.

More finials:

I actually made these a while back, and I don’t think I took any ‘before’ pictures.  I used a craft store 4×4 plaque for the base, a piece of a 2×2 for the core.

Glued on some carved wood appliques to the front side, and topped them with a craft store week finial.

My new PANTRY!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

Look how ROOMY this baby is???

Soooooooooooooooo much nicer than the 2′ deep kitchen cupboards that I never knew what the heck was shoved way in the back!

We used an old pair of shutter doors that I had painted turquoise to use for display at shows, and some old copped color door pulls.

I decided to paint the inside yellow instead of white. Still nice and bright, but easier to keep clean.

Designed it to perfectly fit the canned goods stacked two high.

Close up of the construction detail: A basic ‘bookshelf’ with added front trim, which is what we attached the doors to. Michael thought the extra support would be a good idea since we’d be storing a lot of heavy items. As you can see, his forethought was WISE!

Picture at the base. As with ALL the items that Michael and I build from scratch, here’s who we did it:

* I give him an idea of what I want.

* He sketches it out and figures measurements.

* He cuts all the pieces.

*I sand and paint all the pieces BEFORE he puts them together. MUCH faster to paint that way!

* Then he puts it together using an air nailer, and I touch up the paint a tad.

VOILA!!!

NOW, I just have to figure out what to do with this STUPID little accent window. WHY in the world would you put a frosted window on the wall between the kitchen and dining room?!?!?! I hate them! And this is just ONE of Four of them throughout the house. As you may be able to tell in the photo, we have a bookcase in front of the window on the other side. How can I disguise this one?!?!?

This is my cute little turquoise ‘retro’ clock that I got at Target. I also have a bunch of vintage red/white enamelware pans that I will probably hang on this wall, and maybe on the side of the pantry. Maybe I should just make a curtain to hang over the window??? I’ll have to search for some vintage looking red and turquoise fabric.

Didn’t get a heck of a lot else done in the kitchen last night. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO hot and I was pretty fatigued after they took so much blood yesterday. I did get one tiny corner of the counter ‘prettied up’ though:

Still awaiting the HIGH temp for the day to hit. Last I looked at our home outside thermometer it was 110!!! (I wish I was kidding!)

Put on a pedestal

Making LOTS of these glass pedestals lately. Dome lids on them when I can find the domes. Found some cute ‘bon bon’ shaped candles to put on some of them. Some strawberry shaped candles to put on others. This one I filled with a nest and bird:

These domes were tall enough to hold a little faerie and a ceramic angel:

A big one holds a sweet mini crown:

Some very small ones with a tiny nest and egg.

Sometimes I leave them just plain and empty.

Another with a little nest and egg.

This one in a beachy theme with shells.

I even make some into candle holders.

Sometimes I just use them to display stuff in, and add height to a display. This one holds some little bags of nest grass and an egg.

Here are a couple that I decided to give a ‘fancy skirt’:

Can you guess what that ‘skirt’ is??? Because you KNOW I didn’t do all the work of cutting and tying on all those individual strands of ribbon on! Nope! I found a ‘quick and easy’ and even inexpensive way to create the look:

Pretty pony tail holders from the dollar store! They had a little plastic Tinker Bell charm on them, which I just clipped off with wire cutters. (Sorry Tink!)

Ah ~HA! There’s that picture of the one with the strawberry candles! (Can never find the right pictures at the right time in my post!)

And the ‘bon bon’ candles!

No dome for this one, but what a GREAT cake stand! I found the plates AGES ago, knowing I wanted to make them into a cake stand. Tried many, many different things for pedestals but none of them had ‘enough weight’ (visual weight) . Finally found these FESTIVE coffee must at the dollar store. PERFECT!

Found all three of these bell jars at the thrift store, each one on a different trip! Debating whether I should put them on a pedestal too. For now they are filled with nest moss and eggs.

Sometimes just a little snippet of ribbon is all they need.

LOVE the blue/yellow color combo of these little vintage bowls!

The bigger plate in this photo is from the dollar store. It’s the PERFECT size to fit a dome from a cheese board. Just waiting to find a dome at the thrift store. On the one I use a cheese dome I make sure my ‘pedestal’ is a sturdier and WIDER piece to hold the weight.

For the bases, sometimes I use thrift store finds of old candle holders or even old stemware. But when I want to make a BUNCH of them, I’ll just buy the candle holders at the dollar store.

Most of the small domes are actually candle holders turned up side down, and the rubber tip just removed. Occasionally I’ll find an actual dome.

Be sure you pedestal piece and plate piece have FLAT surfaces that will stick together well. Use EPOXY glue that says it is suitable for glass, and follow the package instructions

What do YOU have that you could put on a pedestal today???

Nice legs!!!

This old oak stool had really nice legs, but the seat . . .. not so nice!

It had kind of a ‘carved out’ middle and was probably quite comfortable “in it’s day”.  It looked like maybe someone along the way had glued some sort of seat cover onto it.  And I really thought about just sanding off the gunk and refinishing it and leaving it as a stool to sit on.

But I really wanted the LEGS to stand out more, so I painted them  a flat black, then came across a small pine table top that would fit perfectly to make it into a little table.

The round pine table top (a thrift store find) was a tad ‘grimey’ and had lots of scratches in it.  Appeared that someone had ‘oiled’ it and used it as a cutting board.  (um, NO, as a matter of fact, PINE is not a good wood to use as a cutting board.  It’s much too soft!)

So I just gave it a good sanding and a bit of medium stain and attached it to the stool.

A bit different from my typical styles of primitive or shabby chic, but I really like how it turned out.  the legs really ‘show off’ much more now.  And here I go . . . .  filling up the trailer again!  (hopefully just temporarily until there is room in the store for this and the other stuff I worked on over the weekend)

Trash to treasure chest of drawers (made from al old desk!)

Well, Michael chopped off the desk part before I could get my ‘before picture’. This was one of those smaller ‘student’ desks with drawers on just one side. The top and the other side of the desk were beyond repair, so I had him cut them off and just use the drawer part for a small chest.

I took the knobs off and gave it a good once over with the orbital sander. The varnish was pretty dry and crackley, so it sanded off quite easily. Then I painted it my favorite Robin’s egg blue; and added some pretty white ceramic rose knobs.

I just LOVE this size of chest of drawers!

Another old drawer made into a shelf

Bought this big ole drawer at a salvage yard many years ago to use a a display ‘crate’, for which it served many years of gracious duty. Now that I’ve ‘evolved’ to using furniture to display on, it has sat in the storage shed for YEARS, awaiting a new mission. So, we decided to ‘gussy it up a bit’ and turn it into a shelf.

Michael filled the hole where the knob used to be, and cut the shelf and two pieces of 2×4 to use as feet. The drawer front (shelf top) had glossy paint on it so I sanded that down for the new paint to adhere better. As always, I paint the piece BEFORE Michael assembles it. MUCH faster and easier to paint that way. Then I just have to touch up the paint a tad where the nail go in.

How cute is that?!?!? I seem to be in the mood lately to leave painted items NOT distressed. But it could have easily been sanded a bit along the edges had I wanted the distressed look.

Got any old drawers laying around that need a make over????

Repurposed suitcase table

This suitcase is the largest of a set of three that I got a couple of years ago. The two smaller ones had sold LONG ago, but the biggest one just sat and sat! Time to toss it or re-work it. And you KNOW we never TOSS anything. Here is how we re-worked it into a table.

Michael cut down some porch posts from the Re-store for the legs.

Attached the legs to 2×4′s placed inside the suitcase.

Actually, the legs sat, unattached for a good month, waiting for me to paint or stain them before Michael attached them. I just couldn’t decide on what color would work best with the color if the suitcase?!?!?

So, I had Michael go ahead and attach the legs UNpainted, then I decided to spray paint the whole thing black.

Sophie’s price on this one of a kind table (with storage!) $50.00.

A little brain teaser for you . . . When is a drawer NOT a drawer?

ANSWER: When Michael and I turn it into a cute little treasure shelf!

I just LOVE how this little shelf turned out!  We started with an unfinished drawer that Michael dragged home.  I had him add the middle shelf; then decided it needed some ‘feet’ too, so he cut some hunks of 2×2.

I filled the holes for the drawer pull with filler, attached the feet with some tacky glue, painted it black and gave it a little sanding around the edges.

It is in our shabby Paris apartment booth at Stars.

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