TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
by Patti 5 Comments
Yippee! It’s time for another break from all my writing and all your reading and get down to something fun. Today I’m sharing a cute table we found a few years back when we happened upon a junky little store in the Pacific Northwest. I loved her from the start. Every wobbly and cracked part of her.
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by Patti 24 Comments
It’s an ordinary Tuesday. The day of the week that I’m most likely to share a home related post. Well, I’ve still got one for ya’ but I couldn’t help but share that there is something about this Tuesday that had me singing in the shower and dancing down the stairs to my computer.
Sometimes our prayers are answered quickly, sometimes we never see the answer in our lifetimes, and sometimes the prayers go on for a long, long time until suddenly…
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by Patti 67 Comments
You know I love you right? Really I do, and I’m going to prove it today by sharing with you how to create a Pottery Barn finish on any piece of furniture in less than two hours! Yup! I transformed this scratched and dented thrift store trestle table by giving it the Pottery Barn look, and I’m going to tell you how you can do it yourself!
I was smitten the moment I saw this oak trestle table hidden among the other furniture in the back reaches of Habitat for Humanity. It was marked at $24. Yes, $24! As an older gentleman (near as old as me) loaded it into my car he exclaimed over and over what a great buy it was. I guess whoever marked the price on this was a youngsta’ who thought old meant outdated and not valuable. My oldish table-loading-friend and I knew better.
The top was in bad shape and that would have been an easy fix with a sander but I knew from the start that this one would be the perfect table for the Pottery Barn finish I’d been longing to try.
This is my inspiration photo, a very expensive PB media cabinet!
So let’s get started:
I began with plain old black acrylic paint from the craft store, which I mixed with calcium carbonate (per measurements in my chalk paint recipe). Since the paint will be sanded heavily and smoothness is not an issue you could use any of the three recipes in that post.
After painting two quick coats and allowing the table to dry thoroughly I sanded back heavily with my electric sander.
After brushing off the paint dust I applied Annie Sloan dark wax which darkened not only the paint but the wood as well, causing this beautiful warm color to shine through.
Note: Lately I’ve been using Min Wax Finishing Wax mixed with a bit of Min Wax Wood Finish Stain to create my own less expensive dark wax. It isn’t as easy to spread as soft wax (unless you heat it up a bit which I’m not telling you you should do, but it is something I just might do), but I like the end result much better than soft wax. It buffs easier, dries to a harder finish, and doesn’t get streaky weird like soft wax can sometimes do.
Painting, waxing, and buffing in less than two hours. Super easy for a super look!
Do you want to see a few more pictures? I knew you would because you are so amazing and love to humor me.
What do you think? Do you like the PB finishes? Do you have a piece of furniture you might try this on? Remember, it took less than two hours!
Don’t forget to PIN me, and if you like my new look please share it with others!
We keep this table in our Seahawk/Bonus Room. Most of the time it’s set up as a library table but I can also open the leaves quite wide to create crafting or sewing space. A couple of people who have offered to buy it, even when I gave them a very pricey Pottery Barn price, but in the end I never could actually let it go.
Now while I do “heart” this sweet table of mine it isn’t near as much as I LOVE y’all! Thank you for being my friends, for letting me share my creative exploits with way too much ramble, and for allowing me to show you more pictures than you ever hoped to see.
Blessings dear friends,
I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Monday:
IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired, InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStoryMaking Your Home Sing Mondays, The Beauty in His Grip What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking,SmallWonder, LifeGivingLinkup, MomentsOfHope, Glimpses, SittingAmongFriends
Tuesday:
TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CozyLittleHouse, CedarHillFarmhouse, KatheWithAnE,TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story, IntentionalTuesday
Wednesday:
SavvySouthernStyle, TheBlissfulBee, Posed Perfection, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays, ChristianBloggerLinkup, Whole Hearted Home, Mom’s Morning Coffee, Women with Intention, Coffee for Your Heart, MessyMarriage, ThreeWordWednesday
Thursday:
ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, MyRepurposedLife, ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner, PrettyPreppyParty, The Deliberate Mom/Shine Blog Hop, I Choose Joy, Live Free Thursday, Thought Provoking Thursday, PartyAtMyPlace, 100HappyDays, SincerelyPaulas, ThankfulThursdays
Friday:
FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday, ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration, Faith’nFriends, Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Dance With Jesus
Saturday:
FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet
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by Patti 53 Comments
Have you ever had a big project that you began with every intention of completing in . . . like 5 days? Then that 5 days turned into 5 weeks and the 5 weeks into 5 months . . . or even longer?
Yup, that’s pretty much the way my dining room makeover went. I felt quite vindicated on Sunday though when our Pastor, who is doing a series called Flip my House, talked about how building anything good takes time. It is a process. So I’m thinking this dining room of mine must be pretty good because it took way more time than I ever could’ve imagined!
It began with my trying to strip some very stubborn wallpaper, only to find out that it was applied directly to the sheetrock. Not a good situation. Believe me, I tried every method known to man to remove that paper and it wasn’t worth the time I would have had to put into it to get it to the point of being paintable.
So I repaired the damage I’d already done and moved on to Plan B, new wallpaper. Shopping, shopping, and more shopping, ordering samples, rejecting samples, ordering more samples and finally finding just what I was looking for The wallpaper application itself also took way longer than expected but it wasn’t such a bad experience because I had a good GREAT friend who came all the way out from Washington to help me. Pain shared is pain lessened!
Of course there was also the painting of the buffet and dining chairs, reupholstering the dining chairs, repairing and painting a hutch . . . you get the picture.
It would’ve been a whole lot easier to pick everything I wanted from a catalog and have it shipped but that’s not the way I roll . . . Mrs. Old Things New here.
This was the style board I originally put together for my dining room using Olioboard. This great design tool actually kept me from making mistakes when I realized that some of the things I originally planned on using in this room didn’t look good together. If you are interested in reading about how I came up with the inspiration for this room you can read the full post HERE.
Dining Room Before
This is a view of our dining room BEFORE, looking toward the kitchen. Very classic wallpaper in a pretty shade of red but, like some of the other changes we’ve made in this house, it just wasn’t me.
Dining Room Before
This is the dining room view looking toward the front door, where Sasha hangs out all day long looking for something to bark at.
And here she is, my somewhat glam, somewhat rustic new dining room.
The hutch is the first piece I worked on, using a color wash in different grey tones. You can find the tutorial for that HERE
These old doors were taken from another large piece that I’m working on for my bedroom. I used liming wax for the first time to give them this weathered look.
Then I attached some vintage wall sconces for that Rustic Glam look that I like.
You may have heard about my chandy before. It was a birthday gift from my husband the first year we were married. Even though we had to pay a small fortune to have it specially packaged and shipped across the U.S. it was worth it!
An antique frame turned chalkboard so I can write messages to myself.
This is a close up of the wallpaper we used. I like that it has a very subtle pattern in pearly greys, cream and tan. The pattern is Brunate Damask from Seabrook Wallcoverings.
This is the little redeemed and restored hutch I recently wrote about HERE
The pattern in the glass of the hutch . . .
. . . matches the pattern in the fabric I used to recover the chairs . . . and also the pattern in the rug that once belonged to my mom.
I’m either very clever or very lucky 😉 You guess which one it is.
I painted the dining chairs with the same color wash technique that I used on the buffet.
One of the items on my style board was tufted and upholstered chairs for each end of the dining table. These are Bennett Camelback armchairs from Restoration Hardware and they were on sale at the time I purchased them. Though the price was pretty good I guess you could still say they were my big splurge since all of the other dining room furniture combined cost less than one RH chair.
That doesn’t include these vintage Florentine nesting tables. They don’t normally hang out in this room but needed a place to stay while the Christmas tree takes up their nook in the living room.
This antique frame holds blue and white vases filled with dried roses.
An antique French mirror hangs between the two dining room windows.
This, of course, is my favorite thing about this dining room makeover! I have loved this painting from afar for years, ever since I began following Sherry’s blog, No Minimalist Here.
Sherry and I at her home. Eeek! #bloggerfriendsnowreallifefriends
Sherry’s was one of the first blogs I followed. I’ve always loved her style (being a non-minimalist myself) and I’ve always admired this painting which hung in her home. Several months ago, after downsizing, she had an online garage sale through her blog. Would you believe that we drove the 7-1/2 hours to get this painting? It was actually hubby’s idea because he knew how much I loved it. It not only makes my dining room but it also has a special history behind it, in that it comes from the Jamestown Plantations in Virginia.
Ever since I put the last sprig of greenery in my centerpiece in preparation for taking pictures for the blog I’ve been walking by my dining room and feeling delighted at the transformation that I knew would one day be. But you know what? When it comes right down to it, it is all just stuff! Temporary treasure that brings some temporary pleasure but nonetheless, just stuff.
Because of that mindset, and because I’ve had times in my life that I’ve struggled financially, I have a hard time spending too much money on the temporary things. That’s also why I like to restore things that others have no use for, or to create things myself to add beauty to my home.
I know that not everyone is like me. Not everyone enjoys searching through junk stores and spending hours in a hot/cold garage restoring their finds, and I certainly don’t begrudge those who have decorated their homes with high end furnishings. In fact, I love going to into their homes to OoHH and AaHH and gain even more inspiration! Like I’ve said on my sidebar, I believe anyone can create beauty on a budget.
Now, because I can’t help myself . . .
Another BEFORE
And AFTER
BEFORE
And AFTER.
Yup, I like it better this way!
Blessings,
P.S. I have one dirty little secret. It is the dirty, scratched up dining room table hiding under the tablecloth I made to hide it. It is a table just like the one on my design board except beaten. One day I will be stripping and restoring that final piece to it’s original wood tone. One day . . . but probably not too soon.
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NiftyThriftyThings, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome RusticAndRefined
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