Repurposed Twin Bed.... Bench!

A few months ago, a twin headboard and footboard showed up in the garage. I asked my mom what she was doing with them and she said... "making a bench." She began to explain to me that the headboard is the back of the bench, the footboard becomes the sides... so it sat for awhile... and finally this weekend I got my hubby to help me make it into a bench. The first thing we did we measured how deep we wanted our bench to be. We wanted it to be 18" deep, so we measured 18" in from each side and marked the wood. We then cut the footboard to length. We then attached the two footboard pieces to the headboard to form a bench.... And we needed a place to sit. We used some scrap 1x4's that we had laying around. Make sure your bench pieces are sturdy because.... well, they have to hold your weight. We wanted our bench to be about 18" off the ground, so with our design, it worked out to screw the wood into the top board from the bottom.... it all depends on the style of your bed. Now I have to paint it.... -Anisa

My first try at Glazing

I love to paint furniture... and I have quite often. I usually spray paint and then sand and distress the furniture.

However, my latest project was a little different. I bought this hutch at a garage sale. I wanted to paint it red and I knew that if I distressed it, the green would show through. So, I came across this tutorial on glazing on All Things Thrifty. I painted with a brush this time because I didn't want the dusty mess of spray paint.

So this green ( I really didn't like the color... it was a little outdated) hutch transformed into this red hutch! I love the red.... Here are some close-ups of the glazing. I did a dark brown instead of black.... I was a little nervous my first time around. But I still love the way it looks! -Anisa

From Drab to Fab!

So, my son tipped himself over on one of our bar stools and broke it. As you can see, I have decided that it isn't worth buying brand new furniture just to have one of my rough and tumble boys break it. So, I have decided that refinishing is for me. And my husband LOVES it when I spray paint in the garage:)

So, here is what I did. I took these adorable barstools that I purchased from our local thrift store. I took the cushion off the top. I lightly sanded the wood. I used spray paint primer to prime the wood. Then I spray painted them a fun color of green. Then I removed... or rather had my husband remove the old fabric from the cushion. I bought some cheap plain white fabric to cover the cushion and used my staple gun to attach it to the cushion. I screwed the cushion back onto the chair. Super easy!! But, wait, it's not covered with cheap white fabric! It's covered with this adorable fabric from Hobby Lobby (which right now if my all time favorite fabric). Well, that's because I have 3 boys. And I knew that fabric would get dirty. so, I made the cover removable so that I could wash it!!! What I did was I sewed elastic around the end so that I could easily remove it. (seriously, I had started a tutorial for you, but then I forgot to keep taking pictures.... sorry.)

I've already had to wash them and I'm super glad I made the covers removable. I'm going to make a cover for a bench by our dining table and I've got to figure out how to incorporate more of this fabric into my kitchen.

-Anisa

I love Spray Paint!

Another project I thought I'd do this week was a chair for Cami. I had an extra chair, I had two cans of extra red spray paint and a yard of extra black and white fabric. Cami is decorating her craft room in reds and blacks and I thought this would be perfect since she needs another chair for in there!

I LOVE spray paint. I spray paint a LOT of stuff at my house. Our garage has several colors of paint on the floor and there is always spray paint dust on everything in our garage (including my husband's motorcycle... which he is NOT happy about.... come on, it washes off!) So, since I do this so often, I thought I'd give you some tips on spray painting....

1. Clean whatever your are going to paint. Just wipe it down with a wet cloth and let it dry.

2. Always use primer. I don't like to sand the stuff that I paint and sometimes when you're painting metal or plastic or other such things it's kind of hard to sand. But if you use primer, the paint sticks well and covers well. Most primers are white or gray. I usually use white if I'm painting something white and gray for all other colors. But the Smith's Marketplace near us sells black HD Designs brand primer that I love because I spray paint a lot of things black.

3. I paint in my garage with the door all the way open or part way open to let things ventilate.

4. Primer the top with a coat, flip it over, primer the other side. Then paint the other side with the paint, then flip it over and paint the top side.

5. It will usually take about 1 can of primer and 2 cans of paint for most pieces of furniture... like a chair or headboard.

6. Distressing is your friend! If you have paint runs or places that didn't get a good coat, just use your little electric sander or sand paper and sand off those places.

7. Finish your project with a clear coat to protect the places that you distressed.

*You can spray paint almost anything as long as you primer first. If you are doing a piece of furniture that has a lot of smooth flat surfaces like a dresser, table, bookshelf, etc, I wouldn't recommend spray paint. Spray paint will usually leave spray lines on things like that. I would use a small foam roller and brush to get in the corners. However, spray paint is great for things that have rounded parts or hard to reach in places.

Here are a few other projects I have painted since I moved into my new house...

This cute headboard to matchthis cute mirror in my guest bedroom. Most of my kitchen chairs. This cute chair goes in my craft room, but it is so cute I couldn't resist taking my baby's picture on it!