Thursday, April 23, 2015

Dressing up an old side table with spray paint

This lovely table started out life in the mid 60's or 70's most likely. Made mostly of particle board, I really had to look past what it WAS to see what it could BECOME. But I liked it's lines.

 

   You can see it in the photo below on the work bench, along with a couple of other tables I picked up for projects.



First I took the table apart. The center spindles just unscrewed from both levels and the legs screw off easily as well.

I sanded and sanded the tops, and after masking the edges with blue tape, I spray painted them several times with white spray paint, sanding between coats.

As for the legs, I wanted to give them a dipped look. To keep the legs standing for their painting, I used the screws that were already there and screwed them into a piece of scrap wood.  This allows me to spin them around etc without touching them.

 I masked them off with tape. this is a bit tricky because they are tapered.
Step one is getting a strait line.
I used old plastic bags to protect the parts I did not want to paint.

After that I oiled the wood parts of the legs with some Howard's and painted the edges of the table tops,  by hand with  brown paint and a small artist brush.

I'm having trouble deciding whether to keep this one or sell it. I love how it turned out.
Now on to the next table project.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Mid Century Desk Update and makeover

 

 I've been looking for a smaller mid century desk for awhile now, and I had some ideas of what I wanted to do with it.

 When I spotted this one I knew it would work, but...
 It had a few problems, and needed a complete makeover.

 First I had to sand the top, and glue the veneer back down. This desk was not top quality even when it was new.  So it was gonna need a special touch.


 Sanding, spray paint and glue would be needed in abundance, as well as what ended up being a complete dis-assembly.
Anything and everything is a work surface in my workshop.


Once I removed the "gold tape" from the spindles and sanded them down a bit they only needed a couple of coats of spray paint to bring them back from ugliness.


I wanted to give the legs a "dipped look" which you'll see all over pinterest.  


 I knew I wanted the drawer red, but beyond that I really had no clue about colros. I used pinterest as my guide and came up with white as my accent color and it worked great. 

Only a little color in a few places was all that was needed to give it some pop, and the rest was left brown or painted brown. The top was in such bad shape, once sanded I just painted it brown.

I found this piece of fabric in my stash and it's perfect for lining the drawer. Gotta have some Orla Kiely in there somewhere :)

I'm really please with how it turned out and plan to put it to good use.  I'm always amazed by what a little spray paint will do.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Barkcloth projects



 I love vintage Barkcloth and I especially love the retro designs.

 Used mostly for curtains, you can still find large panels of barkcloth at estate sales and antique stores. I recently picked up 3 nice sized panels and began looking for projects for this lovely pattern.  Here are a few, common and unusual projects I tried, or found on line.

 Dress up an old dress form, with some groovy barkcloth scraps.


Laminate   an old school chair that has seen better days. 
See before and after photos at the end of this post.


Use mod podge to decoupage some old trays. For instructions look here.

 
Cover some shoes, See here for instructions



I keep my collection on display using vintage wooden hangers



My friend Karla makes some fun Flea Market Aprons out of vintage fabrics, including barkcloth. You can view her store here.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RemixedStitches


 found on Etsy are some amazing and beautiful pillows and pillow covers.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SouthendDesign?ref=search_shop_redirect



And a lot of totes and bags using old barkcloth. See more here
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NancyAnneDesigns


I saw this pillow in Minnesota at Hunt & Gather.

Of course you can always make curtains, cover chairs etc.

 So keep your eye out for this nubby fabric with fun designs for your next project. And if the price is good, don't hesitate to purchase.

Chair Project

This old chair was in poor shape. first I used wood glue to secure the layers of plywood as much as possible.
I sprayed it with spray adhesive, pressed the fabric down. Painted with several layers of Mod Podge, Using the same technique I use with my trays. See details here

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