A Dresser Redo

Justice had  a hand-me-down dresser in her room. I think I mentioned (too many times to count) that we have a tiny budget. So replacing it was out. That means paint and lots of it. We started with this:

Before

Then we lightly sanded it to rough up the surface enough to hold the primer and paint. After sanding we gave it two good coats of primer, Kilz oil-based. We allowed the primer to dry for several days before painting.

Sanded and ready to paint
 

Already looking better with primer

On painting day, we filled up the paint sprayer with Olympic paint in Aqua Bay. I highly recommend the paint sprayer for a no streak finish. It's well worth the investment if you do a lot of painting. Paint goes much further with it too. I love this thing so much that it's difficult to get it out of my hands once the painting begins. It covers so nicely and so quickly.

Pop Pop gets a minute with the paint sprayer

The dresser was missing one knob. It consisted of four pull handles and originally eight knobs. It was decided that it would look more updated to change them out completely. We happened to have a set of oil rubbed bronze knobs in the workshop. Before we painted, the holes for the original hardware were filled in with pieces of dowel and wood filler. New holes were drilled in the center of each drawer. Fresh new updated look.

Gorgeous new dresser!

Money spent:

 $6.00 for the primer
The paint was purchased on a previous project.

Homemade Bookcase To Corral The Clutter

As I mentioned here Justice has a very old television in her room. I wish we could get rid of it.  The budget doesn't allow for a new one and she isn't willing to go without. So, I decided to put it to use.

Pop Pop and I built a small bookcase to sit on top of it to bring height to that side of the room and storage as well. We used plywood and some trim we had laying around the workshop. Filled dents and gaps with wood filler. Then sanded it as smooth as we could.

Ready to prime

Gave it a good coat of primer to make sure the paint goes on evenly.

Ready to paint

Then painted it a beautiful color. We used Aqua Bay by Olympic.

Cute storage!

Money spent: $25 for paint (we will be using it on other furniture items too)

Homemade Jewelry Tree and Ring Bowl

A young girl likes a little bling. So I thought Justice might like to have a place to keep her jewelry. In keeping with making as much as possible for this room design for free, I decided to make a jewelry tree. It was an easy project that will eliminate clutter and keep Justice's jewelry tangle free.

A jewelry tree fit for a princess!

Of course Pop Pop was there too. We took a 2x2 and cut it to the length we wanted.  A piece of scrap wood was routed around the edges to create a base. We then joined the two using a nail gun and wood glue. Holes were drilled in two places to fit our choice of dowel rod. We put glue into the opening and ran the dowel through and nailed from the outside to make the dowel solid. To keep necklaces and bracelets from falling off the end I added large beads to the end. Then I took the jewelry tree outside to paint. We had some shiny gold spray paint on hand. Two good coats were plenty. The bling on top was a rhinestone flower found abandoned in a parking lot. I hot glued it to the top to add some sparkle.  A little glitz and glam for Justice!

Bling!

What to do with her rings? Off hand I told my father I might pick up a bowl from the dollar store and paint it gold to match. He decided to give something else a try. We would build a bowl. What?

Wood scraps that came in handy

Yep! Laying around the workshop are circle cut wood pieces. We cut them out to create dog bowl caddies. Pop Pop used one as a base and using the router cut out the insides of two other pieces. When smoothed out with sanders and glued together they make a very nice bowl. The base had a little hole in it from the original cut. I cut a piece of dowel rod off and glued it into the hole. Then we added beads to the bottom with screws to make feet. I carried it outside and sprayed it down with the same gold paint as the jewelry tree.

This is actually a bowl we made later. It gives a good idea of how the rings are stacked.

Ring bowl made with love!

Matching set

After creating that awesome bowl Pop Pop wanted to try out some other bowls. Using the circle scraps we had already. We made a smaller bowl. Once it was complete it was kind of small for a bowl. It dawned on me that it might make a great coaster. So that's what we decided to do with it. Using spray adhesive I applied felt to the inside and bottom. We made three. One for each child. We are hoping that it will help to keep their furniture ring free.

Wood coaster

Money spent: 0

My Lucky Day

I always see these amazing refurbished furniture stories on Pinterest, blogs and in magazines. They find a great piece of furniture for a steal and turn it into something amazing. I never seem to have that kind of luck. EVER! Till I was out shopping with my niece Justice. We were at a thrift store and I saw an armoire with mirrored doors. One of the mirrors was missing. Since I was in line I sent her over to check the price. She didn't see one. I decided that even if it did have a price it would be more than I was willing to pay. That's my kind of luck. So I walked away from it. A couple days passed and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I went back. I took my father and his truck, just in case luck was with me. I didn't expect it to be there, honestly. I also didn't expect to really come home with it. My plan was to find out it cost too much and know I tried. With my father in tow I bought it for $40.00. Woohoo! Finally I found my steal. However, it was well made but a little rickety and it was a hanging armoire. I thought I'd find shelves far more useful. So my father and I had a new project.

We started with this.

As you can see it is missing one mirror and you may or may not be able to see the splotchy paint. It looks to me like someone tried to sand the paint off so the paint finish was not attractive. As I mentioned before it was a hanging wardrobe. So it has no shelves inside. Just a rusty bar. I wanted to add shelves to make it more user friendly and my father thought it would help to make the whole thing more sturdy. We are a thrifty pair - we tend to use what is on hand when ever possible. That meant plywood. Which was fine by me. It's inside after all.

Sanded down and shelves constructed

 Did you notice that in adding shelves we lose space at the bottom. I did... Thank goodness I have a quick thinking father. He suggested we build a shelf and put hinges on it. Wow! I now have a hidden chest within my armoire. Cool!

The trap door

After construction was complete we were ready for a new finish. So it was time to sand and sand and sand some more. This is also when my father mentions he has a paint sprayer he has never used before. Huh? While reading the instructions on how to use the thing I almost said it's not worth the trouble. But my father has far more patience than me. So he read and watched the DVD and we got it ready to go. WOW!!! I take it all back. It was well worth the effort. The paint finish is smooth and even. We only used one quart of paint for the entire armoire. A very pretty sage green by Olympic. It's a paint and primer in one called Cavern Moss. We kept all the original hardware except the door knobs. Those were not original to the piece anyway. I replaced those with oil rubbed bronze knobs.

 

I knew when I saw the missing mirror that I wanted to remove the remaining mirror and put fabric in the cut outs. I have a ton of fabric on hand so it would be easy to do. When we removed the mirror we found a date on the back. It fits perfectly into the door so it must be original to the piece. It was dated July 10, 1944. I love having that little trivia. I saved the mirror. I may find a project for it later I'm sure. We made wood inserts that fit into the grooved out opening. I used fabric spray adhesive to adhere the batting then I sprayed over that to adhere the fabric. Oh and I did spray the fabric down with Stainguard before I did all this (be sure to test it first.) We used the little plastic mirror holders to hold the insert into the door. It all went together perfectly. When I first started out, I had planned to distress this piece. I loved the end product so much after painting it I decided to leave it. If I tire of this finish I can always start over...

Beautiful

I am very happy with the finished piece.