Rescue Hutch

Hutches are my new obsession. In the last two months, I've bought three of them and worked on a fourth one for a friend (see it here). They are oh-so-fun to makeover! They go from looking like something your grandma kept porcelain figurines on when you were eight to something BEAUTIFUL... not to mention the awesome storage they provide.

In fact, right now the hutch in my dining room (a Salvation Army find for $75, total bargain) hides a jumble of board games and seasonal decor underneath and displays books and photographs above! Maybe I'll post pics of it later, but back to the rescue hutch.

So, when I found this baby on Craigslist, I jumped at the chance to make it over. The sad thing was a victim of basement flooding and had some damage to the finish  on the bottom portion, but glass doors, an interior light and those fabulous engravings more than redeemed it!I knew I could refinish it and make it shine like new. So, I got to work.

This hutch was a mixture of solid wood, most likely pine, and composite wood. Sanding was a bit of a challenge. But I managed it. Then, I put it through the usual routine: prime, paint, distress, glaze and seal. The end result is stunning! (And sold.) :)

Shabby-Chic Nightstand

So, my daughter sent me a frantic text saying her friend's neighbor had just put some furniture out on the curb and would I be interested? I texted back saying, "Send pics!" THIS is the result of that fateful text.

I decided to ask my teen daughter if she'd like to take on this little nightstand and keep the profits. Like any American kid, she perked up when she saw the dollar signs and agreed to make-over the nightstand. It was a pretty little thing with good bones. I knew it would turn out great!

So, my darling daughter began sanding and scraping off veneer. It was a lot of hard work, and I honestly expected her to give up and lose interest, but she didn't! She persevered and by the end of the day had scraped and sanded that little nightstand so much that we actually had to get out some wood filler to repair the little dents.

She painted a couple coats and then got very busy with school. So, I decided to put the finishing touches on it myself, wondering if I was stealing her thunder. I knew it was a mistake. She was disappointed she didn't get to, "Put the little knobs back on" herself. I should've let her finish the work she'd begun, and I promised next time to let her do it all herself. But when she'd heard that it had sold for $55 on Craigslist, she forgave me. ;)

Hutch Makeover

All sanded.

What I Did
Something I realized over the past two weeks is that refinishing furniture for a client is SCARY. I don't know if I want to do it ever again. See, when I buy something from Goodwill and decide to fix it up, the worst thing that can happen is it looks bad, or I dent it, or I just can't sell it and get my thirteen bucks back. Really, the consequences aren't all that dire. But when I'm working on someone else's furniture, I have to worry a little more about if I'm doing everything right and if it will stand the test of time.

Left unglazed. Right glazed.

That being said, I really did LOVE working on this hutch, despite my fears. And in my opinion, I think it turned out BEAUTIFUL. The client seemed happy, too, which was my biggest fear.


How I Did It
First, all the hardware was removed. Yes. All of it. Next, I sanded the whole thing. Yes. All of it. My fears here were if I didn't sand it, the paint would slide right off. It's a lot of work, but in the end, sanding really pays off.  Next step was priming, then painting with a creamy satin latex paint. It took a few coats to cover it all up. After that, I sanded all the

I also painted the hinges to match the
new hardware.

edges to bring out the details of the molding. Next, I glazed it with a mixture of burnt umber acrylic and water, brushing it onto the surface, then wiping it away, leaving just a hint behind for that aged/worn look. And finally, I coated it with a clear acrylic sealer. I used spray matte finish Mod Podge and then also brushed on few coats of matte finish furniture-quality Mod Podge.

Random Porch Projects

So, I finished up the chairs to go with my French country table. They started life as purplish-red with nasty green cushions. With a little sanding, painting, distressing, aging and re-covering, they have transformed into something charming and lovely. And clean.

 A few of my other projects/finds:

Some great hardware from my a box my hubby has been hiding from
me in the basement. Steampunk-a-rific!

Excellent find at Salvation Army! I LOVE this piece!
My daughter said it looked like Sara's from Labyrinth... where she keeps
her stuffed animals, including Lancelot, the teddy bear!

This was an old project I did a while back.

Finally, a great use for an old drawer. The wood was pretty. The handle
adds a charming touch. This drawer has dividers for sorting all my art supplies!

Lesson from a Pedestal Table

I am what the world would call a dreamer. Impossibly big ideas + impossibly big ego = dreamer. I see a project and think, "I can do that!" Sometimes it's true, and other times it isn't. Let me explain this using the project On My Porch this week: Free Pedestal Table.

If you recall, my hubby found this baby FREE on a curb! I was so excited for this project and had Really Big Ideas for it. So, I got to work.

First, I sanded the table using an orbital sander and also a sanding block. I started with the top, but since that's where my Impossibly Big Idea and Impossibly Big Ego were both shattered, let's talk about the base instead.

The Base
The lovely angles of the base would not permit orbital sanding, so it was all done by hand. I just roughed up the surface, not bothering to remove ALL the old finish. I mean, it's only the bottom, so why bother? I also covered the brass plates with card stock, cut to size, to keep the paint off. Then I painted the base with a creamy interior latex, sanded the edges by hand for a "worn" look, and finished with my own homemade version of an antique glaze, which is basically dark-brown acrylic paint and water. I brushed this mixture over the white paint, then wiped it away, leaving a slight hint of the brownness behind for an aging effect. Beautiful.

And now, we come to the table top. The sanding went... (wait for it)... SMOOTHLY! The old finish practically melted off like butter on a hot corn cob. It was perfection! Then I did something really, really stupid. I did a stain/varnish combo in walnut. This, in itself, was not stupid. It actually turned out very pretty, especially after two coats (4-6 hours of drying time each) and a final clear coat over all.

Soap-paint was the only thing
that even slightly transferred.

Here's where the stupid comes in.
You see, I was planning to put a very elaborate French graphic (from the always-amazing Graphics Fairy) onto this table. I planned and measured it PERFECTLY. It took me hours of Photoshop work and looking up the French word for shoes on Google translator (chaussures), and then using the existing words in the same font to actually write the French word for shoes into the design. I thought I was very wise in planning for the extra table leaf, too, since the leaf could be removed, and the graphic would still look AWESOME, and the seams would match up to perfection! Clever me! Except for one fatal flaw: I cannot transfer this graphic onto the shiny slick surface of the table top.

SPLAT!

I tried. A lot. I tried black crayon, black paint, black paint mixed with soap, which almost kinda, sorta worked. But didn't. And to top it off, I splattered it all over my shirt. In the end, I realized I was defeated by the amazingly shiny, slick surface that I, myself, had created. I realize now I should have put the graphic on BEFORE finishing the table. And there is no way that I can possibly freehand this design without it looking like a four year-old did it. (No offense to four year-olds.) If only I had a projector! Alas, I do not.

French graphic I
was not able to use.
(This time.)

And so, my French graphic, French country table is just a regular old French country table. Which really isn't so bad. Hubby fixed the slidy mechanism for the leaf, which works like a dream! I can put in and remove the leaf myself without any help thanks to his skills and a little WD-40.

So, sans-graphic, this baby is ready to sell except for the fact that it has no chairs. Don't get me started about my quest to find reasonably-priced chairs, though. That is a blog for another day!