The ‘periwinkle’ seahorse vase

A reminder of the ‘before’ picture. Not sure what kind of paint had been used on it originally; but it was NOT a fired ceramic glaze, no sheen to it.

Still I wanted to be sure my paint held on so I gave it a quick spray with KILZ primer. Then I rummaged through my stash of spray paint and found some tan color. Sprayed the whole thing tan. (had I not had the tan spray, I would have just used my acrylic craft paints and brushed it on.)

Then. to give it some depth, I sponge painted a slightly darker shade of tan onto the raised parts.

And I just used my finger to put a dot of black paint on the eye.

I think he turned out pretty darn cute! Anything that has to do with the beach/ocean theme seems to sell well lately. It’s such a popular decor theme for bathrooms.

So, as i said yesterday, don’t avoid things at garage sales and thrift stores ‘just because’ they are the wrong color. EXCEPT if it has a VERY SHINY finish, you can almost always re-paint it. The shiny finishes can be tricky to paint over, and always need a coat of good primer.

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.

The ‘pink parfait table’ tutorial

 Remember this pretty little table from a few posts back?

Here’s how we made it. 

In Michael’s dumpster divings he found this nice plywood round AND a circle (I call it a donut because of the hole in the middle).  I wanted to give the table a scalloped edge so we needed an ‘inset’ space.  But since the donut was the same size as the table top we had to do some cutting.  To try and shave 1/4 inch off the outer edge of the donut and keep it even would have been nearly impossible.  So my thought was to cut the donut into four even pieces, then cut an equal amount off each end until we got the right size.  Since the donut would not show at all once we were done, the extra cuts were no biggie.

Once we got the right size, Michael glued and screwed the donut to the underside of the table.

Michael went on a ‘bar stool binge’ a while back and we’ve got a bunch of them awaiting a purpose, so I decided to use one for the table base.  I just spray painted it a flat white.  (it’s much more TIME efficient to spray paint things like chairs and stools.  Brush painting around the legs and spindles is just a pain!)

Then Michael attached the top to the base, screwing it in from underneath.  Now I was ready to work on the top!  I gave it a good sanding, two coats of pale pink paint, then sanded to distress it.

For the scalloped edge I painted four pieces of lathe, two shades of pink (one the same color as the table) and two shades of white.

Then cut them into pieces using my scroll saw.  I just cut them ‘freehand’ because I didn’t want them to be perfectly the same.

Once cut into the rectangular sections, I ‘carved’ them and distressed them using my 1″ belt sander.  Again I did this ‘freehand’ not wanting them to be perfectly matched.

I decided to stamp a little bit of a design around the edge of the table.

Using a foam stamp and craft paint.

You can see the design much better in person than in these pictures!  This pale pink paint just does not photograph very well.  NOW it’s time to add the scallops!  I flipped the table upside down:

And just glued them along the inset under the rim of the table.

Alternating the colors.

Left it sitting upside down for the glue to set overnight.

Turned it right side up the following morning and gave it a couple of coats of waterproof matte varnish.

Had a bunch of the scallops left over so I glued them onto a couple of white shelves.

Ah-ha!  You can see the stamped design around the edge of the table better in that photo!

One thing I learned from this project is that the ‘donut’ for attaching the scalloped edge to was NOT the best idea.  It worked ‘okay’, BUT with all the scallops added, the table is a little ‘heavy’ on the outside edges and will tip if you lean on it.  Next time we make one of these we will make the inset a solid smaller piece of wood to better balance the weight of the added scalloped edge.

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY:  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

Little orphan Annie

Michael found this sweet, but unkempt darling on the side of the road with a ‘FREE’ sign taped to her, and brought her home.

Missing her bottom drawer . . .

Dotted with happy face stickers . . .

She was tired and dirty . . . but she had a spirit worth reviving!

Her drawers were still sturdy and clean.

Because of the missing drawer, Michael’s first thought was to remove all the drawers and make her into a bookshelf.  But we had too many orphaned drawers laying around already, and didn’t really want to add to the pile.  HMMMM!!!!  Maybe one of those other drawers would fit! Nope.  BUT, that gave me another idea!  Michael had brought home some skinny cupboard door fronts . . . maybe one of those would fit and I could just make a faux drawer!  EUREKA!  It fit!

But first I had to scrub her down and scrape off those stickers.  During that process a LOT of paint peeling occurred, so I brought out the sander and gave her a good sanding.  Which brought through a lot of the dark mahogany color from underneath; which determined my color choices for the faux drawer front. 

To help prevent further paint peeling, I gave her a coat of clear varnish, which kind of helps ‘glue down’ the loosened paint.  And I wasn’t too fond of those big bulky knobs, so I used some architectural star knobs.

Ta DAAAAAAAAAAA!

And here she is, in all her glory in our space at Stars Antique mall in Sellwood; awaiting her adoption into a loving home!

 OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY:  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

What to do with a rusty, crusty old electric light fixture:

Clipped off the wires, cleaned away the cobwebs, brushed off all the loose rust, sprayed it with some clear ma tte varnish to keep the rust from shedding,  glued on a rusty tin candle pan, added a candle and a BOW!

Put it in our space at Stars Antiques in Portland with a grouping of white wood distressed candle holders.

 OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

Primitive grubby candles and tray

Started with a long skinny thrift store metal tray ;

I really liked that ‘faux rusty look’ once upon a time.  But I got over it!  Time to update it!  A quick coat of flat black spray paint and a light sanding will do the trick:

 

It’s not a HUGE difference, yet it looks sooooooooooooooo much better!  Then I just added nine  (because you KNOW it has to be a ODD number!) grubby candles.

You can buy my instructions for how to make your own grubby candles in our Etsy Shop.

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

Another bistro table and chairs set

The first bistro table and chairs set in our booth at Stars Antique mall sold in a week!  One of those “yahoo!” ~ “uh-oh” kind of times because I didn’t have anything ready to replace it!  I had JUST spent several hours rearranging the space to accommodate a table and chairs and was not in the mood to fully rearrange it again.  What do we have that I can quickly fix up (IN ONE DAY!) to make another bistro set from?!?!?

We have several barstools and plywood tops for tables.  Those are pretty quick to put together and paint.  But all the chairs needed a lot of work.  All we had that would be ‘quick was a pair of these gar stools with white metal bases for the chairs:

The PROBLEM was the table and the stools were the same height!  So we had to devise something to raise the table.   Michael suggested a ‘box’ to mount to the top of the wood stool we were using for the table base.  Sounded fine to me.  I figured you wouldn’t be able to see it anyhow.  I went to work painting the tops of the two stools.

I just happened to wander back into the workshop as Michael was positioning the table top on top of the stool base with the ‘box riser’.  “No, no, NO!  That’s not going to work!” exclaimed the designer.  (moi!)  “Sure it will,” said the builder; “I’ll attach this here and that there and it will hold plenty tight.”

“But it looks WRONG!”  bemoaned the designer, who had thought the wood box would not be visible, but had discovered that it GLARED it’s presence!  “We’ve GOT to have it round all the way up for it to look right!”  she added.  “And you want to have this done WHEN?????” asked the builder.  Today, of course, so it can be delivered tomorrow!  Think . . . think . . . think QUICK, what do we have that we can use to make that square riser ROUND?  How about some metal flashing?!?!?

I was SOOOOO focused on getting this thing done that i didn’t take a picture of what THE BOX looked like on it’s own.  But seeing how much the metal flashing is visible in this photo, you can imagine what it looked like to have a square there instead of a round.  Michael just used some super tacky glue to ‘place’ the flashing, them nailed it to the wood seat of the bar stool base!  TA~DA!!

I LOVE how the flashing looks!  Might even have to use this method again ON PURPOSE!

I painted the table and seats ‘opposing’ colors and pattern. 

Here it is set up in our space at Stars:

Another successful trash to treasure mission!

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~

Mini conservatory made from old windows

I love old windows!  Always ‘on the hunt’ for them.  Michael drags home as many as he can find too.  USUALLY we try to find multi-paned windows to just sell ‘as is’.  But in one batch that Michael got there were a whole bunch of these single paned windows.  We did a major window purging a while back and I cleaned them all up and took a big batch to both the store and our booth at the antique mall.  But not the single paned ones.  They’re just not that ‘interesting’. 

No one wants to buy an old single paned window!  Michael kept bugging me, asking me what I wanted to do with those single paned windows.  So I gave him a project!

And here it is all displayed in the store:

He used FIVE windows.  Two for the top, and three sides; leaving the back open for easier access.

It looks really neat just left ‘empty’.  But I decided I’d best fill it up lest any wee visitors to the store thought it was a fort to play in!

I wanted to embellish it a little bit to dress it up.  I played around with my box of carved wood mouldings and corners and stuff for about an hour and just didn’t like the way any of them looked on it.  I finally settled upon these resin ornaments that I just pulled with wire hanger out of.

I MUST figure out a way to put a little lit up Christmas tree in there when I decorate the store for Christmas.  (IF it lasts that long that is!)  Right now the ONLY place there is room for it is right in the middle of the floor, so no electrical outlet access.

What would YOU put inside this if you had one of your very own?  Would you change up the contents seasonally, or have a year round display in it?

 OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~