Tag: furniture

Furniture

Mid-Century Modern End Tables

Jessica Smith

Who is getting snow today? We’ve gotten a bunch of snow — well, a bunch of snow for Maryland. My dog is LOVING IT. He loves being outside and he loves coming back in to lick the snow off his paws before going back out again. He is addicted to the white stuff… at least the powder on his nose is snow, right?

Remmy in Snow

I shoveled the driveway, twice. I figured since I slept through the gym, I should probably do something like exercise today. Plus, I saw that shoveling snow for an hour burns something like 400 calories! Winning!

ME in Snow

Other than that, the hubs and I took it easy today. Earlier in the week, I worked on a pair of tables I purchased from a thrift store. I scored a pair of American of Martinsville tables at a local shop that were beat up but had a ton of potential. I wanted to try a new refinishing technique I had heard of, so I quickly snatched them up before anyone else could get their hands on ’em .

Table Before

The tops of the tables had seen better days. Other than that, a piece of gum on the bottom and a spill in a drawer, they were in great shape.

Table Before1

The technique I used? I tried a new product called Howard Restor-A-Finish, which allows you to touch up banged up wood without having to sand and strip the existing stain.

I brought one of the drawers with me to Home Depot to pick the finish that best matched my tables.

To used the Restor-A-Finish, I wiped down the piece to get the dirt and grime off. Then, I poured a little of the liquid onto a paper towel and generously wiped the product onto the table. Once the whole piece was coated, I went back and wiped off the Restor-A-Finish.

Once the finish was completely dry, I went over each piece with another Howard product called Feed-N-Wax. I applied the wax on both pieces and let it soak in for 20 minutes. Again, I went back and wiped off the remaining product.

Table AFter1

Don’t the tops look SO MUCH BETTER!!??!! The metal Xes, which are found on many American of Martinsville pieces, pop with the rest of the table looking so nicely. I think they turned out beautifully.

Table After

And that was it! It worked beautifully. The Restor-A-Finish doesn’t work 100% as well as if I’d stripped the whole piece down, but it does restore the original integrity of the piece, which I really liked. Plus, it is way easier and less time consuming for great results. All in all, if I just wanted to touch up a piece, I would definitely use this again. If I wanted to change the look and a feel of a piece, this wouldn’t be the way to go.

Stay warm out there! And enjoy the snow 🙂

Furniture

Reveal: Wooden Trunk

Jessica Smith

After lots of painting, my little wooden trunk if finally complete! I’m pleased with how it turned out and am very excited to share it with you.

Remember this bad boy?

Two coats of primer and two coats of paint later and this trunk was ready for some fun.

I wanted to play with the Martha Stewart Metallic paint I’ve seen in Home Depot, so I snagged some silver paint and dragged out the white paint I had left over from other projects around the house.

Using painter’s tape for delicate projects, I taped out a funky stripe pattern with a zig (but no zag) on the top of the trunk.

I also grabbed a couple of packs of sponge brushes from the dollar store (sweet score, huh?). These came in pretty handy for this project.

I decided to create an uneven pattern with the width of the stripes.

I painted every other stripe silver and the others white.

I did two coats of each and got quite painty while doing so.

Time to take the tape off… *drumroll, please*

Sidenote: Make sure you take painter’s tape off before the paint is completely dry, otherwise you’re more at risk for peeling off paint!

Once the stripes dried completely, I spayed the whole trunk, inside and out, with a sealant for an extra coat of protection.

I am really pleased with how the metallic paint turned out (I’m already working on a few other projects using this paint!).

I don’t know about you, but I think this $3 was totally well spent 🙂

Furniture

Wooden Trunk (part two)

Jessica Smith

Whew, this little wooden trunk is taking a lot of prep to get to the fun part. After two coats of Kilz primer (I’m gonna try the spray paint primer next time), I painted the trunk with two coats of Behr gray paint. I used Porpoise, which is the darker shade of gray that I painted below the chair rail in our dining room.

It looks really nice — sorry for the cruddy pictures, it was getting dark!

The inside of this little trunk was also rather nasty, so I painted this gray, too.

I am so excited to get home from work tomorrow so I can do the fun part of this project. I’ll give you a hint– it involves metallic silver paint 🙂 Woo!