Trash to Treasure Take 2
Okay, maybe that title is a little hyperbolic. I didn't find this actually on the side of the road or in the trash or anything. It WAS a piece tucked away in a corner of Goodwill, though.
I love furniture upcycles because they just show such a stark difference what a little TLC can do for a solid piece of craftsmanship, even when it's seen better days.
We originally thought we wanted to construct a pallet bar like the one found here but... seems like pallets have now gone the way of mason jars... everyone seems to be using the free ones for projects!
I found this gem sitting in the reading corner of a local Goodwill store. It cost about $20, and had some pretty significant water damage where it previously held plants. It seemed to be made of pine since it was lightweight. I shoved that thing into my 2 door car (see, Tetris does have real world application) and brought it home where I promptly forgot to take a before picture.
I originally thought I was just going to use the table and cover it with some paving stones we bought last year, but this table had different ideas.
First things first, I started by sanding. I knew I had to get rid of that cherry finish... it just didn't look very good with the rest of our patio, and looked too indoorsy. I thought initially that I was going to sand it down and take it back to the original finish, but that stain just didn't want to go away.
So I sanded it down enough to get paint to stick, and I pulled out the paint. I thought initially I'd just use the white as a primer, but it looked so nice like this (kind of like the cart hack I did earlier).
And I thought, heck, let's just paint the dang thing white with a wooden top.
But then I remembered I promised Bob it'd be colorful. I tend to go neutral, but he likes pops of color. That led me to pull out the painters' tape...
I decided to do the blue/green combo that Bob really wanted -- so we started with a blue base. I stenciled over that with his neon green and a sponge brush ... used a technique I learned doing nail art to stencil.
I liked the original hardware, so I just cleaned it up a bit and reattached.
Next I finished sanding the top and sides of the piece in order to start with a clean canvas. I ended up using some leftover stain from the garden boxes and thought I'd tie it in with the rest of the patio through that.
It made a lot of difference. It helped get rid of the last traces of the red that didn't want to get out. The stain was applied with a wadded up t-shirt rag. I went over it twice, letting the first coat dry before starting the second.
Ta-da!
Until next time,
~K
I love furniture upcycles because they just show such a stark difference what a little TLC can do for a solid piece of craftsmanship, even when it's seen better days.
We originally thought we wanted to construct a pallet bar like the one found here but... seems like pallets have now gone the way of mason jars... everyone seems to be using the free ones for projects!
I found this gem sitting in the reading corner of a local Goodwill store. It cost about $20, and had some pretty significant water damage where it previously held plants. It seemed to be made of pine since it was lightweight. I shoved that thing into my 2 door car (see, Tetris does have real world application) and brought it home where I promptly forgot to take a before picture.
I originally thought I was just going to use the table and cover it with some paving stones we bought last year, but this table had different ideas.
First things first, I started by sanding. I knew I had to get rid of that cherry finish... it just didn't look very good with the rest of our patio, and looked too indoorsy. I thought initially that I was going to sand it down and take it back to the original finish, but that stain just didn't want to go away.
So I sanded it down enough to get paint to stick, and I pulled out the paint. I thought initially I'd just use the white as a primer, but it looked so nice like this (kind of like the cart hack I did earlier).
And I thought, heck, let's just paint the dang thing white with a wooden top.
I decided to do the blue/green combo that Bob really wanted -- so we started with a blue base. I stenciled over that with his neon green and a sponge brush ... used a technique I learned doing nail art to stencil.
I liked the original hardware, so I just cleaned it up a bit and reattached.
Next I finished sanding the top and sides of the piece in order to start with a clean canvas. I ended up using some leftover stain from the garden boxes and thought I'd tie it in with the rest of the patio through that.
It made a lot of difference. It helped get rid of the last traces of the red that didn't want to get out. The stain was applied with a wadded up t-shirt rag. I went over it twice, letting the first coat dry before starting the second.
Ta-da!
Until next time,
~K
Comments
Post a Comment