Gypsy Girl Revivals

Last week I had a mental breakdown. I was on a mission. A refinishing mission of epic proportions. The kids went wild. I would share photo evidence, but lets just say that I was so crazy busy that my camera was WAY in the back of my mind. I usually try to do a redo slowly over the course of a week, or more so that life still happens. Thus why my productivity rate is usually low. So the week started off with something simple that then morphed into a full-on overwhelming project. Like doing eight of these suckers.

When we built our awesometastic kitchen a year ago we put in some cabinet framing on the side of our wall oven for the express purpose of having a chalkboard area. We bought our chalkboard paint, and no I didn't make my own. We bought Rustoleum Chalkboard paint. They only offer it in 12 different shades. So our choices were limited to say the least. I chose the shade Deep Teal. We were also going to be super cool, and use magnetic paint under so we would have a magnetic surface under the chalkboard paint. FYI if you are going to do this make sure that when you buy it, you use it immediately. We bought it WAY to early, and the metal shavings had become super settled on the bottom. There was no way to shake or stir those bad boys back in, short of heading back to HomeDepot to use their paint shaker thing. We tried in vain to make do at home. This was the result.

Most people thought this was the chalkboard, but this was the failed magnetic paint. We might try this again at a later date, but as of now it was scraped. Then we left it to sit for months...almost a year really. Because thats how awesome I am. Fast forward to last week. Señor Hotness and I were watching TV in the kitchen after the horde was blissfully in bed. I was wasting time on Pinterest, as usual, and the hubs was doing actual work. So to be productive I decided to pull out the chalkboard paint that has been taking up shelf space for a year. I can do that while we watch tv. See I do have great ideas for being productive. So I did this.

I'm not sure why this looks so stinking streaky in the picture. It looks fabulous in real life. Thats my completely honest observation. After getting it on the wall I made a discovery. The color was super close to some new kitchen rugs I had just bought...that I loved.

So I had the bright idea to finally paint my EIGHT barstools. Now I buy 99% of our furniture from craigslist, but these I had purchased brand new at a raw wood furniture place in Tyler a year ago, and was promptly stumped with how I should finish them out. So they sat, and sat and sat...for a year. Do you know what can happen to raw wood things in a house like mine over the course of a year? The result wasn't pretty. So it was a good thing I decided to re-sand the tops to better accept the stain.

This was one of the less gross chairs. We had six saddle style stools, and two with back and swivel seats. So because I've been on a bit of a kick here lately I did this to them.

Which prompted Señor Hotness to politely ask me not to chevron anything else. I thought that was sad indeed, but have respected his wishes...at least for the time being. Then I hit them with my stain combo choice here lately. I little bit of this.

And a little bit of that.

I let the Dark Walnut stain really soak in there. You should never allow excess stain to sit on top for longer than 7-10 minutes. Any longer and the stain becomes gummy and difficult to wipe off, and looks supremely awful. The end result was this.

See those swivel chairs in the back? Those were the really crappy part of this project. That and I kept changing my mind about how I was going to do them. So at first I stained the bottoms only, and then decided that the spindles needed a shot of stain as well. Only to then decide that the top above the spindles needed to be stained too. Be decisive. It saves you time, and sanity in the long run.

Then it was time to give the bottoms a paint job. I had decided on the chalkboard paint because I just really needed a clean dry surface, and then I could paint. No need to prime. This is where things got overwhelming. Each chair needed two coats for proper coverage, and it took me SIX stinking hours of continuous painting to get every nook and cranny these chairs had to offer.

That seemed too blue so I got out my trusty glaze, and went to town on them. A couple of things happened in the glazing process. Number one was I ended up putting it on WAY darker than I had originally intended. That and I missed some spots.

Dont glaze in a dark room folks! Things happen! Bad things, like you end up having a heavier hand with the glaze, and then miss super noticeable spots. Also when you tend to be heavy handed with the glaze it can greatly alter the color of an object so...

This

became this

Now the top color didn't look right with base, and apparently this rug looked like teal and pink to some of my Facebook peeps. Not so folks. The rug is cream and teal. So I was going to tweak the chevron color to cream to better fit in with the rug inspiration that I had used. However, at this point I had started a buttload of other projects, and we desperately needed our stools back. Our kitchen island is primarily where we eat our meals. So I just put them all around the island to use momentarily, and something magical happened. They didn't look awful. Which of course is high praise indeed.

Now I think they really tie in nicely with my other great kitchen love! My vintage blue jars. I'm going to finish painting that wall tonight...I promise. I have picked these up several places. They are mostly from the 1930s and I love them.

So the idea is to eventually give those chevrons a cream redo, but until then we are happily using them once more.

Linked up at: Kammy's Korner, internationalbloggersassociation.com

Okay so I started another project immediately on the heels of my last finished one. I have a good reason though...The kids made me do it.

Most of our home's furniture are from Craigslist, and most of them are in need of repair/refinishing. Which is awesome if your productivity level is especially high...which mine is not. However the day after I had finished my last project, the redo that will here after be known as the project from Hades, I sat in my recliner congratulating myself on a job ~~finally stinking finished~~ well done. When I spied a major problem. Our coffee table that I bought a year and a half ago for $40 on craigslist was being damaged. It had survived the craigslist guy's trashy warehouse where he kept his ~~junk~~ treasures, which could have easily been a feature on hoarders. It survived in our storage unit because I bought it WAY before it was ready to be brought into the new house, and the other house, where we were still living like rockstars, was freakishly small. Then I brought it to the new house, and it was beyond too big for the room I had purchased it for. So I had it on its side in the corner of the room waiting to be re-listed on craigslist. Sometimes being lazy pays off because on a whim I moved it into the family room, and it was a match made in heaven.

Please ignore the children (of which none are actually naked, honest) and mess. Its not worth cleaning it this early in the day because it will just get dirty again later.

I hadn't intended to bring anything into that room because that was where the kids could have space to function and play. Which brings us back around to how the kids were ruining our coffee table before I was able to bring out its inner beauty. I happen to be in possession of an awesomely destructive three year old that puts her older siblings' hijinks to shame.

See? She's deceptively cute.

This lovely three year old will, for our purposes today, be called Destructo Girl. It is a name well and truly earned, believe me. She also has a love for water. She likes to drink it, swim in it, bath in it, stick her booger picking fingers in it if its in my cup, and pour it in random places, and one of those places apparently was the coffee table. The issue wasn't the water so much as the fact that nobody saw the water, and it had soaked itself into the coffee table that didn't really retain any of its former sealer coat. It did things to the wood.

You probably can't see, but it had swelled this piece out. It looked ready to start splintering off with the littlest pressure, or if anyone picked at it...

Again, meet Destructo Girl.

She had also done a few other things to the table. Like...

this.

She also seems to possess an affinity for gouging wooden things. Heaven help me I was probably destructive enough as a child, that I brought this upon myself.

Sometimes in the course a DIY project, dark things are made known that will forever change the way you approach a redo. So very, very early on in my sanding endeavor I spotted it. The wrench in my otherwise smooth refinishing progress...

Do you see it?

How about now?

How about NOW?

That's right, veneer. This should be said with an intense sneer, showing our superiority over such an awful product. Giggling about the fact that veneer and sneer rhyme is completely optional but encouraged.

So that's a pretty big game changer that sent me back to the drawing board. Some heavy questions needed to be answered at this point. Do I lug it out to the burn pile where I will set a therapeutic blaze to it, bidding it adieu, or do I just proceed and hope that paint makes it look cool and the finish holds up after being heavily clear coated?

I should let you all know that I am not only a procrastinator, lazy, but also a bit a cheapskate. So the option was a clear one. While I enjoy a good fire as much as the next gal, I would use the supplies I had on hand to try to salvage this table and get my full $40 out of it. That and it would kill me forever if we had had that hideous piece junking up our house that never felt what its full potential could be...which is awesome.

So the center square of the table was the only part that was truly veneered so I decided that that would be the only place on the top to get a paint treatment. The outside perimeter would get the same weathered wood stain treatment that the last project received since they will both be squatting it out in the same room.

After finishing up sanding the perimeter I brought out the stain. I again started with Rustoelum's Driftwood.

Which looks like this when applied

And this when the excess is wiped off

Its positively gray-tastic

I then followed this up with Minwax's Dark Walnut. Which is my very favorite wood stain color EVER. I know they say you shouldn't pick a favorite, but I have and I have especially been loving it paired with the gray of the Driftwood.

This is what it looks like going on.

And this is the finish you end up with.

Now I will admit this was looking pretty awful. After thinking it over I decide a black center would help tie it in color wise with other furniture pieces in the room.

All taped up, and ready to get a new coat.

This is what I used.

For such a small area the paper bags work great, and I can toss them when I'm done.

First coat done. It looks streaky because its still partially wet in the picture.

I think the black in the center sets off the stained wood around the perimeter off to perfection.

Then it was time to turn my attention to the bottom of the table. So I pulled out my dark gray chalk paint that I had left over from the last project. It is Classic Gray made by Krylon, and I love it!

The first coat is the streakiest.

Here it is three coats later. Looking awesome.

This was not even the same looking table anymore. That is my favorite part of any refinish, when you have a completely different looking piece of furniture after a different color stain, and a a little paint thrown in.

The other tables had sported an awesome chevron pattern, and I wanted to tie this one in with it the same. However, because of the sheer size and shape of the table I opted to tweak it some.

So I measured out a grid on the top, and started taping off the pattern...with a little help.

I'm not going to lie I thought this was super cool looking.

Here's the bad. When repositioning tape I removed some of the finish. I'm thinking I didn't allow enough dry time before I started laying down the tape, but honestly I'm new at this. I'm refinishing all these with what I've learned from Pinterest and Bloglandia. Its very much trial and error.

What it looked like after the tape came off.

This coffee table came with a a drawer. Its flimsy and useless, but there none the less. The drawer pulls that came with it were wooden, and I opted to spray them an oil rubbed bronze. Mostly because I wanted metal ones, but was to cheap to shell out for new ones. So I sprayed these in hopes that they would look metal.

I think they look really great, and I'm totally glad that went the cheap route with this one.

So then it was time to start antiquing it. I pulled out my dark brown glaze, and my trusty trashy brush (my favorite to use for glazing). I then proceeded to dry brush it on. Which is done by barely dipping your brush tips in the glaze, and then wiping off most of the excess on a paper towel. You then dry brush whats left on your table.

This was how it started out, but I wanted it to be darker so I just made sure to wipe off less.

This was to light so...

I darkened it up. You just have to make sure you blend it well. My toe was to cute not to include.

I then decided that I needed to add some brown to the top so that the gray matched.

I loved it!! The slight brown really made it look awesome with the stained wood edge.

Then I was done for a while, or so I thought, but...

this little lady had a little something to say about.

Apparently the partially dried glazed top was WAY to much of a temptation for Destructo Girl. I left for five minutes only to return, and find that there were perfect three year old finger drag marks in the top. I don't have any pictures of this because I felt like I was playing a game of beat the clock. I tried to just dry brush over the top, but that just made it a weird dark spot. So then I discovered I could wash it off of that area. So I washed it off, and redid those areas. I then threatened her on pain of death if she even looked in the room where these were kept. I am proud to report that we have no more finger prints.