Nightstand Makeover

I picked up this cute little guy at Goodwill for $5.99. It was not half off day so I almost passed it up but then decided even for $6 it could still be a good project.



I have a feeling this was high school woodworking project or something. It's definitely homemade. But it's solid wood and came with a key for the little lock on the drawer.

At first I was going to go with a bright colour for the paint but in the end I just went with boring old off white. I have painted so many things with the same gallon of off white paint it's ridiculous!

I applied this striped paper to the drawer front which I have had in my scrapbook paper stash for over 5 years. Sometimes it pays to hold onto things! It's the exact same colour as my paint, it looks perfect together!





It came with a giant ugly handle in the middle so I took that off and used some wooden knobs that came off another dresser. I used the wooden knobs because it was hard to match the finish of the lock. It's a very light brass colour but looks silver sometimes.



I love these little projects and everything I used I already had on hand.

Party like it's 1999!

Thrifted Pillows

When we purchased our sofa it came with some interesting accent pillows. When I say interesting what I really mean is fug. Straight outta the 80's with radical geometric shapes. I immediately went to Ikea and bought some covers for them. They were okay, just plain brown, nothing fancy. They were good enough for a while. But then they really started to show some wear and it was definitely time to replace them.

Pretty pathetic looking, right?



I drew some inspiration from a couple pages I had torn out of Canadian House and Home and/or Style at Home and headed to Goodwill.

I really love the texture of these pillows and thought they would really add to the room.





I went to the mens sweater section and looked for some neutral knits in good shape. I found a nice cableknit and a plain knit both in beige. I also grabbed a plaid skirt and a red cardigan sweater from the womens section. I took everything home and threw it in wash. When it was all dry I got to work.

I don't have any "befores" of the sweaters but you've seen sweaters before, right?

I took a measurement of the old covers and then measured and cut from the fronts and backs of the two beige sweaters. I put in the pillows and sewed them in. Unfortunately they do not come out for easy washing. One of the sweaters had leather buttons down the front so I took them off and sewed them back down the side of the pillow for a little added interest.





I had new inserts for the red sweater and the plaid pillows. The red cardigan was actually a little easier than the beige sweaters. And it just unbuttons if you want to take the pillow out.





All new pillows for under $10! I love them, they're so cozy.

Linking with:
Apron Thrift Girl, Thrift Share Mondays

Alphablue Dresser

This is a dresser that I picked up at Goodwill for $5.



By the time I came back with a salesperson to put a sold sticker on it there was someone else looking at it. I kinda felt bad but those are the breaks on 50% day! You gotta be stealthy, like a ninja.

Since I usually do dressers more geared towards little girls I thought it was time to do a dresser for a little boy. So I used the Benjamin Moores, Montpelier that I picked up in the oops section.



I gave the dresser a really good sand (since it had a really thick, super shiny, bad stain job on it) followed by the usual prime & paint. After I painted I was left with a beautiful blank blue/gray canvas. Hmmmm. I really went back and forth on what to paint on the dresser. Numbers, letters, elephants, robots? The possibilities were endless! I was thisclose to doing elephants but, in the end, the alphabet won out. I just thought it would appeal to more people.



I re-used the handles that came on the antique dresser. They're not very pretty but they're masculine and I thought the brushed nickel would look nice with the paint colour.



For the letters I used my super high-tech method of tracing the letters right from my computer screen (because I don't want to waste toner) onto paper and then cutting out the letters and then tracing them onto the dresser. I then painted in the letters with a small brush using acrylic paint.



Hopefully it finds a home in some little guys room.

**** Please enter to win giveaway in my previous post****

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Pretty Paisley

I went looking for a new dresser to makeover and I hit all my local thrift stores. No luck at the first and second one but at the third store I spotted this dresser and quickly checked it out. A little too quickly. I wanted to get a sold sticker on it so no one else would try to snap it up. I should have taken a closer look but I was looking for anything to take home at that point.



It's an okay dresser, but not great. The top and drawer fronts are pine (a very soft wood) so they are kinda banged up. I thought the drawers were wood at first look but they are actually MDF with a pretty convincing woodgrain-looking paper on it. Boo. Even though the dresser was only $3.50 (yep, you read that right, only 3.50!) I felt like I should have passed on it.

I got it home and tried to rough it up with some sandpaper but it seemed the stain on it was too thick. It didn't work very well. Although the dresser has some problems, the drawers do slide smoothly and it's clean, so I went ahead with the paint job.





I still had paint leftover from the can I bought for a previous dresser so I used that. I also had more of those wooden oversized knobs that I bought at the Re-Store (aka my favorite store) for $0.25/knob.

Since I had already done two dressers with pink accents I thought I would change it up and do one with blue. I went to Michaels and picked up some Robin's Egg Blue acrylic paint and a paisley stencil.



I tried using a sponge brush with the stencil on a practice piece of wood but it didn't have a crisp enough outline for me. So instead I used a light blue pencil crayon and traced the stencil in the corner. I then used a tiny little brush and painted in the stencil with the blue acrylic paint. It was pretty tedious but only took an hour and half while I watched some tv. Not too bad.




I like this dresser but I don't love it. I'm having a hard time pricing it (so far I've sold all the dressers) because it's not solid wood. It's cuter than anything you can buy at Walmart (not that I'm biased or anything) which is all MDF but this dresser is not new. I guess I'll just have to pick a price and go with it and see what happens!

Two Chairs, Two Makeovers

I found these two little chairs at Goodwill and thought they would appreciate a new look. They were both in really good shape, very sturdy. And both were only $3.99....but it was 50% off day! So only $2 bucks a chair!




After Goodwill I headed straight to Fabricland. Which I think is only a Canadian store because I never hear any US bloggers talking about it. There were pretty good sales that day and I picked up a pretty green paisley for $3/m and a blue stripe for $5/m. Each chair got a good sanding (okay maybe a quick sanding) and fresh coat of paint. I had bought a quart of off white (a mistint for only $4.50) and that little can lasted me for one dresser, a nightstand, two chairs and a side table. I think when you're using a sprayer your paint goes farther. Anyone else agree?

The hardest part was removing all those staples! And it's really hard on your hands. I used a flathead screwdriver and some plyers (or is it spelled pliers?). After I removed the old fabric I decided the padding of the chairs was still in good shape so I used it again.

For the green chair I just traced the size of the old fabric onto my new fabric, cut it out, stretched it tight and stapled. I stapled in the middle first on each of the four sides and then worked from the corners. Easy Peasy!





For the blue chair I had to use my sewing machine for the back cushion since the fabric is visible from the back. I just sewed a simple slipcover like a pillowcase and tried to taper the corners. Then I stapled the fabric to the bottom of the cushion. For the seat of the chair I just wrapped the cushion and stapled. The original fabric was more tailored but I was being lazy and didn't do it the same way. I should have because I'm not really happy with the way it turned out, but live and learn. Next time I should just take a break and come back to it later.





Isn't great what a little paint and fresh fabric can do?

Linking with Today's Thrifty Treasure at Southern Hospitality