Oval pedestal table

I showed you this third oval table in the last post about the nesting tables.  Here’s the ‘how I did it’.

I’ve had this old pedestal sitting around for quite some time; pondering what to do with it.

This oval piece of wood was in a batch of stuff that was left behind at Michael’s house when I moved last summer; that I recently picked up.  It was the perfect size to use as a table top for the pedestal.  Since the pedestal was a dark brown, I did a dark brown base coat on the oval.  Two coats of aqua and lots of sanding.  I wanted his one SUPER distressed.

I painted the base aqua and distresses it to bring out all the pretty detail.  Once both were painted, it was time to put the two together.

Fortunately for me this pedestal base already had a cross bar for attaching to a top already in place.  (had it not come with one, it’s pretty easy to make and attach one)  First ‘found center’ on the underside of the table and marked it.  Then I glued the base to the top with e6000; and let that set overnight.  Then two screws on either side of the cross bar to.  Most people will JUST use screws.  I prefer to ‘glue and screw’.  (and if you’ve ever watched “Holmes Makes it Right”, Mike Holmes is a proponent of ‘glue and screw’!)

And here is the finished table in my booth at Stars.  I especially like that it is MUCH more distressed than the other two.

This is the current front view of my booth; the trio of tables is right behind this stuff.

Prettied up trinket boxes

Cute little trinket box with magnetic closure makes for a quick and easy make-over.  (found the box at dollar store!)

I cut a piece of paper big enough to cover the existing image; but left the pretty border still visible.

Then I glued a stamped piece of muslin on top of that; just a little off-center.

I added a little scrap of matching paper to the underside of the lid.

The sticky label on the bottom of this one just so happened to peel off perfectly; which is NOT usually the case.  IF it had not come off without damaging the bottom of the box, I would have glued another piece of paper to the bottom as well.

Just so happened to find another box at a different store, with the exact same design.  Went with a simpler design on this one.  Covered the whole top and front with vintage dictionary page; added a vintage post card image and a ‘paper’ key.

This one is a soap box that I saved.

This one had a very pretty design on the existing paper, so I just needed to partly cover it.  A piece of paper and a crown stamped on muslin, off-center.

A little piece of matching paper to cover the ‘non-removable’ label on the bottom of the box.

And a little piece on the underside of the lid ‘just for fun’ (this piece wasn’t really ‘necessary’ because it’s not covering anything  . . . I just thought it added a little interest!)

Another mixed media collage

I bought ‘a bunch’ of these wire topped wall plaques at the dollar store, YEARS ago!

I didn’t really like them for what they WERE; rather for what they could BECOME.

That’s what I did with them ‘back when’ we had our own gift store.  I found ONE last one recently and decided it was time to use it up.

First I covered with assorted papers; including some vintage pattern paper as the last coat.  Using them as the last coat adds a nice ‘softness’ to the look and sort of ‘blends them all together’.

I painted a heart with wings; glittered the wings, and cut out words form a old book to put on the heart.

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NOW I just need to figure out what I want to do with the rest of these backgrounds that are ‘ready to go!

Old shelf ~ New paint

Found this grubby black metal shelf in another booth at Stars.

Nice and big with lots of room for ‘stuff’, but it was very lightweight.

You can’t really see it in this photo, but the black paint was chipping off quite a bit here and there; and I didn’t want to completely hide all that naturally occurring distressing with the new paint.  I opted to ‘dry brush’ paint it.

The dry brush technique doesn’t completely cover the original finish; and it’s such a ‘light finish’ that the areas that had begun shedding the black paint, will more easily continue to do so naturally, over the course of time.

Dry brush painting is pretty ‘fast and easy’ too!

Perfect size for the crowns in my booth at Stars.

And lightweight enough to easily place on top of another shelf to get the crowns at ‘eye level’.

Outdated thrift store primitive pumpkin ~ updated to shabby cottage farmhouse chic

I remember when these carved resin pumpkins first came out on the market and were CRAZY expensive!  Now they’re on the shelf at the thrift store, out dated and no longer wanted.  And CHEAP!  A perfect candidate for shabby chic update.

I gave the whole thing (except the stem) a couple of good coats of antique white craft paint.  Unfortunately the paint seeped into the engraved parts, so those ended up needing darkening to show up.

Good ole Ralph Lauren tobacco glaze to the rescue. (ANY antiquing glaze would work; I’m just an RL paint products fan!) Generously applied the glaze to the entire surface, making sure is filled the engraved parts.  Then gently ‘dab away’ the excess glaze from the surface area, avoiding removing it from the engraved area. 

As is often the case, I couldn’t leave well enough alone though.  And a day later I added a spritz of some iridescent ‘glitter spray’; for a bit more of a holiday glitz!  Either way; a fairly simple update for an outdated decor item. 

The moral of this story is, the next time you decide to change up your decorating style, set the outdated stuff aside for a few days and ponder the possibilities of updating them before tossing or donating them.    Sometimes the change you need is as simple as a new coat of paint!

Good design . . . wrong color!

We made these little ‘bun foot’ shelves clear back when we still had our own shop.  This ‘granny green’ (as I call it!) color was pretty popular back then, so I used it quite a lot.

 The green worked well with pink, so I used it with the pink quite often.  Alas, the green shelves have just never sold.  Time for a make over!

I knew I wanted to paint them my signature beachy blue, but pondered whether they needed a little more OOMPH???

Finally decided to do a WIDE stripe like I’d done on the big dresser, so that they could work together.

And here they are, in my space at Stars; sitting atop my inspiration piece, the big dresser.

I can totally see these selling together and the shelves being used as bedside stands.

 

In case you’ve forgotten how I made those cute little bun feet, (or if you just haven’t been reading my blog for that long!)  click here to see the original post and what I used for the bun feet.  Of course you can BUY ready made, unfinished bun feet at a big box home and garden store; but they’ll cost you and arm and a leg!  Mine are very ‘budget friendly’!

Recent rummage sale finds

One good sized enamel kitchen table.

A few chipped and rusty spots  here and there. . .

Just enough to add some shabby chic charm and make it look well loved.  I seldom buy things that I don’t have to fix up, so this was an especially GREAT find!

From the same sale, a simple little wood table.

Already painted and sanded AND delivered to our space at Stars!

Shabby bar stool with nice turned legs.  Don’t see turned legs on bar stools much anymore; or the nicely indented seats for extra comfort!

Also already repainted, but not taken to Stars yet.  Waiting for room!

And my very favorite find at this sale, this chunky oak arm-chair!!  It was a tad dry and dingy, so after I took the pics I cleaned it with some orange oil to clean it and brighten up the finish.

Nice detail on the arms.  I’ve seen chairs similar to this (but usually upholstered) with the really SHORT legs, and always wondered WHY the legs are so short.  The seat is probably only 8″ from the ground.  If I sat down in it with my bad back, I doubt I could even get back up!  If anyone knows the history of these chairs and WHY they are so low to the ground, I’d love to hear from you.

It has one little chip on the front edge of the seat.  Not really any way to repair it.  Might just make a cushion seat with a big ruffle on the front to cover the chip.

Pictures of the Stars MAJOR booth re-do coming tomorrow!

Repurposed bar stool table finished

I showed you this much of it a few days ago along with some other ‘in the works’ projects.

Michael attached the stool to the thrifted wood top by screwing through the bottom.

The legs of this bar stool were in very good shape, so I wanted to see if I could use them ‘as is’.   I painted the top my signature aqua blue, then sanded.  The wood showing through the top was too light to match the color of the legs, so I applied a quick coat of stain ON TOP of the painted and sanded top.  Let the stain dry overnight, then applied 2 coats of a water based matte varnish.  finite!

These are very handy little tables for using around the house as a lamp table, bedside table, plant stand, end table or even a little kitchen table ‘for two’.  They are GREAT for use in retail displays too.  I loved using lots of round tables for display when we had our shop.  (no corners to bump into!)  And for some reason ROUND just seems more ‘inviting’.

The FIRST actually HOT day of the year!

Seriously, I think this is a RECORD late date in the year for it to get HOT.  Hot enough for me to wish the AC at home wasn’t inoperable!  Yesterday was the perfect ‘work outside day’, a little overcast, nice breeze and wonderfully tepid!

Got this little stand painted; still deciding on whether or not to distress it.

One of Michael’s ‘make do’ tables with a bar stool base.  We usually use plywood for the tops; just happened I’d recently found this nice butcher block top at a thrift store to use instead.

Nice drop leaf table. 

This one needed a bit of repair work before I painted it.

Old wood kitchen canisters with DOVE TAILED sides!!  I really hated to cover up the dove tail work with paint, but the old decals were really grubby and HAD to be sanded off.  And if I’m going to do THAT much sanding, I’m GONNA paint!

Also got a couple of ‘built from scratch’ pieces that Michael built painted.  A crazy productive day.  Making up for it today in the heat!  I can handle about 20 minutes outside then I have to go in and cool off.  Rest of the finished pictures coming soon!

Recent finds ~ sofa back table re-do

This is such a great SHAPED twill suitcase.  LOVE it!  There was a matching one that I really wanted, but the lock was broken and try as I may, I could NOT get it to open, so I had to pass on it.  Will probably leave this one ‘as is’ and work on getting some smaller black and gray ones to create a whole stack.

The sofa back table was pretty quick to spruce up.  Sanded the top real good (to take off all the SHINE!) and painted it a flat black base-court.  spray painted the legs with flat black.

Then hand painted the whole thing my signature color of beachy blue.  Sanded to distress a bit; then used a decorative sponge stamp for the design.

A wee bit more sanding to mute the center design a bit; then two good coats of a water based matte varnish.

It’s currently stashed away with the other beachy blue stuff; until the next big booth re-do.