The Door Coffee Table

My family room is smiling at me today. Why? Because my glorious door coffee table is done and it's perfect for this room.

A couple of month's ago, my dear, talented, gorgeous friend, Layla from The Lettered Cottage, did a design consultation on my family room. This coffee table creation was her recommendation because I have a large room and it fills the space so much better than a small table or ottoman. Not to mention, it's just plain-old cool.

As soon as Layla recommended making a coffee table from an old door, I started scouring salvage yards and junk stores until I found this one perfect door. I love the large, single panel. It was perfect for a table.

There's still a bunch of work to be done in this room (board and batten, anyone?), but this table was a huge step in the right direction. It's the perfect spot to set my morning coffee or play games with the kids. The Hubster can rest his feet there and I could probably throw a mattress on top of it for sleepovers.

I'm still fooling around with the display that I want to put on it. I'm not exactly thrilled with this one but it's working for the moment. I want something a little more natural, so I'll be outside hunting for rocks today. And I fear that my succulent apothecary terrarium will become victim to a flying ball at some point. Boys.

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If you want to know more about this glorious new/old table, click here I'll tell you a little about how it was made including the colors I used for the top and the legs. In the meantime, here's some more inspiration about projects to do with old doors.

Door dining room table ~ Design Sponge
Another door dining table ~ Apartment Therapy
The Nester is The Queen of hanging old doors on her walls...Here is take 1 and take 2 and take 3. ~ Nesting Place
Screen door as kitchen table ~ ASPTL

Kitchen Stool Makeover

I've been wanting to makeover my kitchen stools for ages and I finally got around to it this weekend.

Here's the before...There was nothing wrong with them. They are sturdy Target stools that I got on clearance when we were living in our old house. They matched our cabinets remarkably well and saved me from spending hundreds of dollars on fancy stools for the island.

And the after...I'm so happy with them! Black would have been the obvious choice for the kitchen, but the white brightens things up. And I have some other projects in this area that will be white so it will all tie together eventually.

Here's how I did it:

1. Deglossed the surfaces with Klean-Strip Liquid Sander/Deglosser (you can get it at any hardware store). I LOVE this stuff. I may never sand again. It removes the shine from the finish and preps the surface for painting. So easy!
2. Primed with Zinzer Bullseye 1-2-3 primer. Thanks for the recommendation Lindsay! The hardest part was letting the primer dry really well before I painted. I'm so impatient.
3. Applied two coats of white paint (Fence Post by Glidden in semi-gloss) with my spray gun. If I didn't have the sprayer, I would have used a brush because I really wanted to use this color. It's a perfect white for painted furniture. Thanks for the recommendation, Layla!
4. Used number stencils to add numbers to each seat with black latex paint. There was a good bit of touching up by hand for this part. If I wasn't in such a hurry, I may have ordered vinyl wall stickers instead.
5. Done!

Since this project isn't a makeover of a Goodwill find, I won't link it up to Thrifty Decor Chicks Goodwill party but I did link up a couple of older posts. You should check out her party!


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Want to see some other decorating projects using typography?
Shelves, a pillow and a school desk: {happy day}
Numbered dining chairs: The Shabby Nest
Kitchen stools and a pillow: The Shabby Nest
Number buckets: Therapy by Decorating

A Headboard Makeover

I've wanted a real headboard for my older son's bedroom for a couple of years, but just haven't been able to justify the expense. That doesn't stop me from oogling and drooling over those beautiful pieces of furniture in the Pottery Barn catalogue.

When I saw this old headboard tucked in the corner of the Salvation Army, I knew I could make it work for my older son's room. And at only $20, it was worth the risk even if it didn't work. I used liquid sander on the whole thing to get rid of the shine. This was the first time I've used it and I was really happy with the results.

Since it was so plain, a little trim work seemed like a natural addition. I attached two rectangles of premade molding that is usually used to create wainscoting. They are in with the molding at Lowes or Home Depot. If I had any patience at all, I would have waited until The Hubster got home and let him use the miter saw to make my own. They're attached with wood glue and a few finishing nails.

Then a couple of coats of Kilz primer. Oops! Forgot to take a picture before I started painting.

Can you believe that this Pottery Barn-ish bed only cost me $40 total? That's the cost of the bed and the framing. I already had the paint.

Edited to add: The paint color is an Olympic color (from Lowes) called Star Spangled. It's a perfect blue for this project...not too bright...not too navy.

~~~~~~Related Posts~~~~~~~~

The story behind that ragamuffin garland
Shutters as a headboard (in that same perfect blue)
Matching bench makeover (with tutorial)

Furniture Rehab: 5 Tips for Finding Pieces to Makeover

The weather is finally warming a bit up and my thoughts have turned to the boatload of rehab projects that I have planned for spring. All winter, I have been collecting bits and pieces of bedraggled and beaten furniture that I know will be beautiful again with some paint, fabric and love.

Since garage sale and flea market season is here for most of the country, here are a few tips for when you're hunting for pieces that you can rehab for your home.

1. Look past the surface- Forget the 1980's sponge paint job and see the shape of that dresser or chair. Does it have a traditional, modern or classic shape that would work well in your house? Some new paint and hardware can transform that horrible mess into something that you love.

2. Can it be repurposed? - Can that old changing table be made into a storage shelf or book shelf? Wouldn't that old door make a great headboard? Maybe the old TV armoire could be used for storage in the baby's room.

3. Is it fixable? - Simple repairs like smoothing out a scratched top or fixing a broken chair rung can turn that major bargain into a beautiful piece. When I want to try a repair, I google whatever I need to do and go from there..."fix a broken chair rung", "repair damaged laminate" or "replace rattan seat". But you need to know yourself. That $5 chair isn't worth it if it's going to sit in your basement, unrepaired.

4. Know where to look - Some thrift stores focus on clothing while others carry a nice mix. Check them out a few times or even call ahead to find out if they carry furniture. Some of the best pieces can be found at garage sales and on Craigslist so keep your eyes open.

5. What's it made of? - Is it real wood or particle board and laminate? Personally, I prefer to find pieces that are real wood. They're usually well made and are easier to paint. But don't let that stop you if you want to try making over that laminate bookcase. It can still be beautiful!

Wallpapered teacart: Crafty Nest
Secondhand furniture makeover: squirrels & tea
Her very first makeover: Creations by Kara
Before & After: Design Sponge
3 makeovers from BHG
Entertainment center into laundry station: BHG

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Two fantastic giveaways going on today!
$100 in CASH from The Inspired Room
Customized canvas prints from 4 Reluctant Entertainers

The Kitchen Table - A Tutorial

You all left such sweet comments about my painted kitchen table the other day. {blush} And a bunch of you asked questions about how I did it, so here's a quick run-down. Unfortunately, this was done in my PBD (pre-blogging days) so I don't have pictures.

We sanded down all of the flat surfaces (tabletop, apron) with a power hand sander. We weren't trying to get down to bare wood or anything...just roughing it up enough for the primer to stick well.

We sanded the legs of the table and the chairs by hand. Honestly, if I were doing it again, I wouldn't spend nearly as much time on this step. I don't think it made much of a difference.

We primed everything with grey Kilz primer (any good primer would work). We used a roller and brushes for the whole thing. If I were doing it again, I would have the primer tinted black. It would make applying the paint a little easier.

Next was 2 or 3 coats of black satin latex paint applied with a brush and rollers. Let the paint dry really well between coats. Like a day or so. If it doesn't dry really well, the paint will always feel a little bit soft.

Then two coats of satin polyurethane. Next time, I'll probably skip this step. I don't think it really added anything.

That's it! You may notice that there were a lot of "we's" thrown around in this post. That's because when The Hubster read the last post, there were a whole lot of raised eyebrows and "ah-hems" flying around. I think those meant "Who is this "I" that you speak of so much. I clearly remember there being a "We" involved with this project." So there you go...we...we...we...all the way home. Love ya, honey!

Here are some furniture painting tutorials that I've posted in the past.

Painting a kitchen chair
Painting a piano bench and recovering the seat
A technique for distressing a painted chair
Repairing wood veneer and painting a large dresser

And here's one of my my favorite tutorials on painting furniture from Rhoda at Southern Hospitality. She rehabbed her kitchen chairs and gave them a beautifully distressed finish.

Oh! That rug under the table? An indoor outdoor rug from Overstock. One of my favorite places for rugs.

PS - Clearly I'm hooked on painting furniture. You can visit Hooked on Houses to see what some other fine ladies are hooked on.

Pull Up a (Tufted) Seat

I've been wanting to add some extra seating to our kitchen table for a while and when I saw an ugly old padded bench at the thrift store a few months ago, I knew that it was the perfect size and scale to work with my kitchen table.

It's been a while since I've rehabbed any thrift store finds and I think I was going through a bit of spray-paint withdrawal. So yes, I spray painted in my basement in January.

Making over a bench like this one is really easy. If you want a complete tutorial, you can read this post where I gave detailed directions on a previous project.

A quick summary is:
Remove the seat (it's held on with screws from underneath)
Clean, prime and paint the wood parts
Recover the seat
Reattach the seat
Take pictures

And if you can do it while sitting in front of one of these, all the better.

This time, I wanted to try something a little different and tuft the top of the seat because I love the look of a tufted chair. Let me show you how I did it. I don't know if I used the Tufting Institute (I made that up) approved tufting method. As usual, I just kind of figured out how I wanted it to look and how to make that happen.

First, I took all of the fabric and padding off of the top of the bench. Then I drilled two holes in the wood part of the seat where I'll want the tufting buttons to go.

I reused the foam padding because it was still in good shape and covered it with a couple of layers of batting for extra fluff.

Then I covered the whole seat with the new fabric.

Now for the tufting...I wanted to use buttons covered in the same fabric as the seat. You can find self-covering buttons at the craft or fabric store and they're really easy to use.

Take a long piece of upholstery thread (or any thick, heavy thread) and make a slip-knot through the button shank. Then pull both pieces of thread through an upholstery needle (or other long needle).

Using the needle, pull the tread through the seat then through the hole that you drilled previously. Repeat for any other buttons.

Turn the seat over and pull the thread as tightly as you want your tufting to be. You're just eyeballing this until it looks right. You have both ends of the thread that you can secure by pulling them through a regular button and tying to secure.

Those directions are probably hard to follow. I hope the pictures help.

Furniture Rehab - An Update

Do you remember this stool from my giveaway a month or so ago?

Well, it was won by Valarie Lea from Tennessee. The deal was that I would rehab it specifically for whomever won my giveaway. And I did!

Valarie told me that it would be used as extra seating in her family room and that she had a lot of brown leather and black wood in the room. I have those same colors in my family room so I decided to make her something that I would like and hope that she would like it too.

I think she did. This was her comment on Twitter last night "Just got home!!! Opened my package from Kimba!!! All I have to say is I Looooovvvvvveeeeeee IT!! It is TOTALLY AWESOME!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!!"

Whew! She took even better pictures of it and posted them on her blog. Love her!

Make sure you check out my bracelet giveaway going on right now! And stop back tomorrow when I'll announce the winner and start another contest! More awesome free stuff!

And Nester has a Mr. Linky party going on for classy, crafty moms to link up with their online shops.

Furniture Rehab 401

Maybe I should have titled this post, "The Best Laid Plans." My plan was to get this project done over the weekend but Mother Nature simply wouldn't cooperate. First rain...then wind. Neither one helps when you're spray painting. But I finally got a finally got a break and we're all done!

Or maybe I should have called this post, "Bob Villa's Got Nothin' on Me" because I whipped out the power tools for this project. This piece was in rough shape so we're going to look at a method for repairing veneer which is what was on the top of this piece. And since my brother-in-law told me so and I didn't believe him, this one's for you, Greg! You were right! And I know he loves to be right. :-)

So here's the before...If you're not interested in reading "Girls With Tools", you can just scroll right on past the repair process to see the finished product.



I called him Great White. He was a $30 Goodwill find.




I loved the detailing on the drawers and on the trim.


It had clearly been painted a couple of times before and top was in really rough shape. The veneer was bubbling in a lot of places and needed to be repaired.



I started by pulling out the power sander and getting the top as smooth as possible. Do you like my safety glasses? A girl just can't be seen in goggles. :-)



Like I said, the veneer top was bubbled up in a bunch of places. You can't tell in this picture, but the dark area is where the veneer was raised.

There is a method where you can just slit the bubbles and put some wood glue inside. They you weight down the top until the glue dries and it flattens the bubbles. I tried that and it didn't work on this piece. I think the veneer was just too old.



Instead we had to start by cutting out the bubbled pieces of veneer. I used a utility knife to cut a hole in the bubble.



Then I used a putty knife to pry off all the raised veneer.



Now comes the fun part. Get yourself some wood putty. You can find it in the trim section of Lowes or Home Depot or in the woodworking section of the craft store.



This next part is kind of like spackling. Squirt some of the wood putty into the area where you removed the veneer.



Then spread it around until the whole area is filled.



Scrape off the excess and let it dry. It should only take about 30 minutes to dry. There's no need to worry about getting off every bit of excess wood putty because you're going to sand it later.


I used this process on all of the damaged parts of the top. Waaaaaay more repair work than I anticipated when I bought this piece.



Then I got the sander back out and went over the entire top again.



Now it kind of looked like a patchwork of painted veneer and wood putty.

Once all the repair work was done, it became a basic (although large) Furniture Rehab 101 project.

Sand

Wash

Prime

Paint



Done!



I still love the detailing.



And I decided to keep the original hardware because it is so unique.



It is definitely not perfect. The top isn't perfectly smooth and there are still some marks in the paint, but I love it anyway. It looks like it's lived here forever which I guess it has since we just moved in 2 months ago. :-)