My first tiling project

We found this piece of furniture at a yard sale in tiny Troy, MT during a downpour.  It was soaking wet but appeared to have some sort of potential....Cost me more than I like to pay for things but $20 wasn't too terrible... :-) I'm cheap what can I say. I picked up most of the material at Home Depot....they had a bucket that came with basically everything you need tool-wise: trowel, float, sponge, gloves, etc. for $18 which is cheaper than if you buy everything separately.  The acryl pro container was $5...I bought my grout at a yard sale (of course...) for 50 cents....and the paint I had left over.  The tile was super cheap at Home Depot.

First step was to remove the wobbly top and paint the base with some left over paint I had...

Next step was to screw on a piece of plywood, I used 1/2" thick plywood and the Home Depot guy cut it to size for me. I made sure I had long enough screws and made sure it was secure on top.  

Next step was to use AcrylPro to adhere the tiles to the plywood....Take a notched trowel and goop it on....make sure it is thick but even throughout.  Starting with the center of the surface, start laying the tiles down.  When finished, pound it in gently with a rubber mallet or just press hard with your hands like I did....

Add in accent tiles if you wish...

Let sit for 24 hours before grouting.......

After waiting 24 hours....its time to grout!  Mix your grout (I used non-sanded simple stuff...) 1lb of mix per 7 oz of water is what the container said....Goop it on and spread around with a "float" tool held at 45 degree angle.  Spread the grout evenly and make sure to get every nook and cranny....

Let dry slightly, but not fully.  Take a wet sponge and wipe off excess grout....and let sit for 24 hours.  After 24 hours take a dry cloth and "polish the tiles".  And after that you're done!

Cute lil cabinet revamp

This was another simple make over....here is the before pic, sorry its sideways!:

Just a cute little cabinet that was $5....First step was to remove the hinges...which was a pain in the @$$.  One door i had to completely rip off because the hinge wouldn't come off.

Next I just used the same green paint that I used in the radio cabinet project, dark green on the doors and light green on the rest.  Used nickel plated knobs I already had, and I had a basket that fit perfectly in the bottom.

After, again sorry its sideways! :

Make that particle board hutch into something better!

I obtained this white and wood-colored particle board hutch used from someone.  I wanted a hutch, but couldn't spend a whole bunch for something I wanted, so this fit the requirement.  Materials needed: aqua blue paint that I already had (Walmart clearance for $5...still have over 3/4 of the can after doing multiple projects), paint brushes, and new hardware/handles.

First step was to disassemble the piece.  The top hutch part came off....next was taking the ugly wooden knobs off.  After that, the doors needed to come off along with the drawer face.  After that was done it was time to paint.  For this project, I decided not to do a solid paint job on it, making it have a white wash feel by having the white from the cabinet show through the blue.

After everything was painted, it is important to spray with a clear gloss (or paint it on but I prefer spray paint...)  Once everything is completely dry, it is time to reassemble the piece and put the new knobs on it.

Sorry for the sideways pictures! :-) It was an easy overhaul and pretty simple but i like it better than it was so thats all that matters!

The dresser that made me mad once upon a time

After finishing my chair and cabinet projects, I started thinking---what to do now??? Well, we don't have room for anything else in our apartment currently, so I started to look around here, nothing came to mind...bummer!  But then, as I went to get a small appliance out of the dresser that we have in the kitchen (old old dresser with a few coats of paint on it), the drawer would NOT open.  No amount of force would open this drawer.  It was then when the lightbulb turned on---ah ha!  I should sand the sides of the drawers and then they will open easier, right?, and of course that led to a much larger project, because I started to think (which sometimes is a good thing, sometimes not so good...)

We have had this dresser for a few years now, and it was painted a lovely grayish blue color.  Not sure where we got it, I think it came along with Eric and his things.  Well, everytime we went to get something out of a drawer, 9 times out of 10 the drawer would get stuck.  Therefore, I would shout obscenities and kick the thing, hoping the drawer would magically open--it did not.  Here is the dresser before (mind you--not ugly, just annoying when the drawers don't open):

First things first, remove the drawers from the dresser (duh!), then remove all of the nobs, clean the inside of the drawers if they're nasty, like mine that had batter acid all over--hmmm.  Get out your handy dandy electric sander with extra coarse sand paper (40?) and go to town!  I started out with "fine" grit and that was a big no no....it did not work well for all of the paint.  I went through about 7 sander disc things throughout this whole process (pack of 5 is like $3.50 or so).  P.S. do not think it is okay to try and stop the sander with your hand, it hurts very badly ;-)  After sanding all of the drawer faces and sides (did not sand the inside, but instead just did a simple paint job over the top of the existing paint), I started sanding the rest of the dresser.  Be sure to get all of the paint off if you plan on STAINING rather than repainting.  After sanding, be sure to get ALL of the dust and dirt off of the surfaces before staining---this is VERY important!

After getting ALL of the paint off (yes I said all, however I did not sand the inside of the dresser shell (see where gray paint still exists) and the insides of the legs are not sanded, but its an accent color, ok?? ;-) ).  Anyways, after sanding and cleaning the wood, it is time to start staining!  This dresser only used a tiny can of stain, the smallest can you can get.  You can either use a brush to stain or you can use a terry cloth.  I used a cloth.  Make sure you have gloves on because stain does not come off your hands easily.  Dip your cloth into the stain and the take the cloth and apply to the surface in even lines, not letting the stain soak in to long.  Go back and forth the length of the dresser. Do one coat, and then take a dry cloth and go back over where you just stained.  Let that sit for 15 minutes or so, then apply another coat, wipe a dry cloth on it, and let it sit.  Repeat until you get your desired darkness.  Do this to all sides of the dresser, and all drawers.  Be sure to do the same number of coats on each part, otherwise the color will be off.  After staining and obtaining the desired color, let it dry for a few hours (I am no expert but I let mine sit for about 2 hours or so).  Apply a clear polyurathane to the whole thing.  They have spray cans with this but I used just regular cans and applied it with a cloth.  I applied it thick. Once it dries completely, put the knobs back on the drawers (I am reusing them since they are fairly new-ish, but you can buy new ones).  Put the drawers in the dresser and viola! You're done! :-). 

Revamping the old radio cabinet--Step 2

So, once the cabinet was all sanded down and veneer ripped off, it was time to figure out a color, because restaining it would just not be possible now. First, I primed it with white, because I am the most indecisive person in the world and took forever to figure otu what color to paint it.

  Beautiful, eh?

After priming, it was time to figure out a paint color.  Off to Home Depot I went!  After spending time in the paint aisle, looking blankly at all the paint samples, Eric and I decided that green would look nice with the rest of our stuff.  So, there I stood, with about 6 paint samples in my hand....finally choosing a darker sagey green color.  Although I was not planning on doing an accent color, they had a sample paint can on clearance for 50 cents, and guess what?? It was a darker green that went well with the color I picked out! Awesome!!!......Finally left Home Depot, went home, and started painting.

Done!  Inside, there are two shelves.  Eventually I will figure out something else with the weird doors but for now, it will have to do :-)

Revamping the old radio cabinet--step 1

About a month or two ago, I was out at yard sales on a normal Saturday morning, except this particular Saturday I had to be at school by 9am--limiting my time!  At the last yard sale before class, I came across this really cool cabinet, appearing to be a radio cabinet from, I don't know, the 1950s or so.  It was apparent it needed work, so I asked how much they wanted.  They reply with $20....Whoa, way too much!  So I said, well maybe I will be back later.  During my lunch break from school, I went back to that yard sale, and sure enough no one came along and bought that cabinet for $20, so I asked what the lowest they would go on it, because it really needed a lot of work.  They said $10....I offered $5...they accepted.  I get it home after class, unload it into the storage room, and it sat for a week.  The next weekend, I started to sand it, however the cabinet was covered in veneer from, what I learned, was from the 1920s or 1930s.  So, out came the handy scraper.  Sanding the entire piece and ripping off all the veneer, then sanding again, took a few weekends to complete, and probably about 15-20 hours.  Here are some before/during pictures.  Sorry for the sideways pics, not sure how to flip them.... :-)

So, that is it for prep work :-)

That Ugly Green Chair

Well, here goes nothing!  I've been told by many to create a blog about some of my bargain "finds" that I repurpose, yard sale tips and awesome finds, etc. so....here it goes!  I'll start with this ugly ugly green pleather chair that I found at St. Vincent during their usual Friday morning "make offer" sale.  It was sitting all alone, just waiting for someone to take it home.  I sat down in it (afterwards lysol-ing everything) and viola, love at first sit.  I asked the lady what they were wanting for the chair, and she said, of course, "make offer".  So, being the low-ball-offerer that I am and always probably will be, I offered $5....she took the offer.  I put the lovely green chair in my SUV and took it home, of course making people think I was crazy.  See below for the "before" shot:

First step was to remove all 1,476,992 brass brads that were probably about 150 years old (give or take ;-) ), then remove all 3,651,935 rusty nails underneath the brass brads.  Time to remove brads and nails: approximately 4 hours.  

After all that was removed, the nasty green pleather could be removed, and boy was that messy.  Underneath the pleather was "batting", and a straw material used for padding.  After that, cleaning out all the nasty cherrios, crumbs, a couple centipedes, and rusty nails from the batting I again Lysol'ed everything.  Time to remove nasty green pleather: 3 hours. 

After removing the pleather, I sanded the wood parts and restained them which thankfully only took 30 minutes, WHEW! 

After that, I took each piece of pleather, and wrote down where each piece went on the chair (VERY helpful, I might add....) Next step was to drag my loving boyfriend to Joann Fabrics to carefully choose the appropriate fabric for the chair that would match our decor (and I had him calculate how much I would need......).  After that, I laid down each and every piece (18 to be exact), traced, and cut out the pieces.  Next it was time to whip out my staple gun and get staplin'!  This part was not as frustrating as taking out all the nails, but it ranked pretty high, along with sewing the damned cushion!  Once all the fabric was stapled on all pretty-like (about 3-4 hours), the old brass brads made a reappearance!!  I only allowed a small percentage of them to come back home as there was no way in hell I was going to go through that torture again.  So, after about half of the nails became bent and my thumb being hammered, that process was done in about 1 hour. 

WHEW my first reupholstry project is done.....but wait, wouldn't it be lovely to add a nice little pillow too??  Okay, after 12ish hours, the chair was FINALLY done. 

Mind you, this was not done in one day or even one week.....Here is the finished project (although no where near perfect, I love it :-)  )