Meet Aggie, The Step Back Hutch Transformation

Trash To Treasure

Miss Aggie

I found this less than to be desired solid wood hutch at one of my favorite thrift stores "Restore"

Hubby and I went a few weeks ago looking for some furniture that I could refinish, then sell to use the profits towards my son Jared's health care expenses.  You can read the story here overcoming-lifes-struggles

Look at this original hardware......

It was all rusty and needed some serious help.  But oh my, you can't buy hinges that look like this with the rope detail.

Look at the date on these pull knobs...... 1967.......

I was not even in Kindergarten yet.

So Hubby and I took this girl home, took her apart and stripped the paint off the two shelves and I stained them a warm walnut.

we removed the ugly, Uh, bulky corner round molding.

After starting this project,  I thought self, you have bitten off more than you can chew.

Honestly, when I saw her in all her solid wood dirty glory standing in the restore isle, with her quirky curves, along with her 1960's contact paper on the shelving, I was smitten, I saw beauty......

I knew what she could become after her transformation.

Mr. Color It Simple said you see something in this ugly duckling.    REALLY?????

I said REALLY!!!!!  I know she will be a one-of-a-kind unique show stopper........

WE can transform her in to a beautiful loved vintage piece.

He agreed ...............so off we went

This piece had not been factory made, it had been hand made which excited me even more.

After all the cleaning and boy this piece was disgusting she was sanded and painted.

I painted her a beautiful shade of Marlboro blue From Valspar.

That would be the color on the bottom shelf above.  It was not what I had in my vision but it was a start. 

We painters know it is all about the layers.

Being that this marlboro blue was to baby bluish for my vision, I dry brushed her entire body with another shade of blue-grey.

Now we are getting somewhere........


After that step I distressed then glazed her with a warm walnut, then waxed to finish her off

 ..........now it was time for the details.

Yes details all wrapped up and topped off like a beautiful bow on that special gift. 

If you noticed the walnut stained rope molding above, I added this to her sides to set her off.

At this point she is beaming with pride.

 However, she needed some more jewelry.......

 A Necklace? that's it a Necklace........ she was adorned with two wooden stained embellishments in the center of her curvy shelving. 

Last but not least she was screaming for some designer fabric.

Aggie wanted to feel oh so elegant and shabby all at the same time.

 Instead of painting the back piece of wood, I covered her in a beautiful cream and black printed French Typography print.

Now she was ready for staging.

Standing tall in all her glory, ready for her runway debut on Etsy for the world to see.

Even down to the pretty embellishment that were added to grace her two doors.

A little sanding her hinges and some brushed oil broze spray paint she looked polished.

A ton of hard work and love went into Aggie's transformation.

I love Aggie, she turned out beautiful.

Aggie is up for SALE, Now she is waiting for someone to love her as much as we do and take her to her new home.

You can find her in Etsy at my shop "The Distressed Nest"

So what do you think?


Sharing at,

Until next time,

Closet Door Art...I'm No Picasso

I'm No Picasso

It all started when hubby and I replaced our bedroom closet doors.

These were hollow core doors, almost 30 years old and not in great shape.

But as any DIY'er would do, I did not want to throw them away.

 I knew they could be used for something.

Being 7 ft tall doors I knew this would make a great canvas for a piece of artwork, however that presented a hug problem because............. I'm no  Pablo Picasso

Here I had this burning desire to paint to create, to flow in the arts but I had no vision.

So what did I do????        GOOGLE........

I looked at artist work......

I looked at abstract art because I cant even draw stick people (seriously) but I knew I could do abstract and mixed media art.

Needless to say I repainted this door 3 times with colors and designs until I was satisfied..... 

or should I say tired of all the do overs :)

 Here is my door art proudly hung over our couch.   It makes a big statement in the room ..... I so needed something over my couch.

Think of my excitement when my kids came over and said wow mom where did you buy that at.

They liked it ......they really liked it, or they were just being sweet.....whatever they were doing I just smiled and said ah! thanks

I love me some animal print so I took some zebra wrapping paper and cut out these triangles I watered down some brown paint and painted over each piece to give it an aged look.

Then I just mod podged it right on the door canvas.

See the lines in the wall under the right side of the picture?

Yeah, well that is another project...we had a busted water pipe so hubby had to cut out the wall to replace the pipes.  

 I have an idea of what I want to do to this wall.

That is for another post once I get it done.

I really had fun being creative with this and it was all free......... I love free

So do we have any Picasso's out their?  

Please share what you did, I would love to see pics.

 

Until next time,

partying at,

I should be mopping the floor

Trash to Photo Treasure....Wood Pallet Art Tutorial

  I finally got around to posting my reveal that I have been so excited to share.

I could never find the time to sit and get all the details out, hence the delay.

Remember the post I talked about my daughter-in-law Ashley?  

 If not, you can view it Here

She dreamt about me making her the pallet art frame that I had made for my home but did not want to ask me.  So my son told me all about her dream and I got busy making one for her. 

Well, my friends this is the reveal~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAMILY, FRIENDS GATHER HERE

this lovely piece is the original one I made for myself...isn't it fun and big...makes a big statement and a great way to display pictures of family and friends.

I will walk you through the tutorial from the one I made for my daughter-in-law so you can find a pallet and make one for your home.

Who loves pallets? 

google sorce

Who likes to make cool stuff out of pallets?

 I  had some pallets in the back yard for some time.....

I had been wanting to make something fun out of them. So I got out the hammer & crow bar to tear those bad boys apart. (and bad they are)

Trying to get those boards off was like trying to climb Mt Everest walking backwards in a blizzard blindfolded!!!!

google source

alright! alright! I have never climbed Mt. Everest....... I'm just say'in....... it was really hard.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

at least not without Mr. handy to help you.

So after an hour of huffing and puffing, straining, banging and pulling and breaking boards I threw in the towel and called for reinforcements.

My partner in DIY crime or "do it for your wife" DIFYW.........

Mr. CIS was happy to help me, within 15 mins he had all the boards off the pallet with no breaking or cutting them wow he made it look so easy, but I asure you it is not....

Oh yeah, I save the rusty nails that come out when puling them apart to reuse I just like the old rusty look mo better. CAUTION when handeling these, use safety.

.......So now you have picked out the boards you want to use.  I love pieces with holes and cracks it gives it so much character and chippy warmth!

You will need 5 boards for this project.  I picked  two wider boards when making Ashley's for the top and bottom and just regular size for the other 3. You will need your tape measure to get the board cut to the length and width you want your frame.

I did not want it to be exactly square shaped so I had him cut the length of the boards down and left the width alone. I think it was 40x32

 Now he was getting my piece of palett art squared up and ready for nailing.

Ok got it squared with the metal squaring tool my hubs is using. I would have just eyeballed it but that it what I have him for right to help me do it the correct way.  

Let the nailing begin!....now this beauty is starting to take on it's form. 

Once it was all nailed down, it was time for the fun to begin. I retrieved my handy sander from the shed and gave it a light sanding to get all the splinter off and smooth it out just a tad.

From there I started the layering....I chose special walnut I already had from another project and began staining. I let that dry overnight since it was already evening ;)

Then the next morning I started on it by adding a red paint over the stain

then the next layer of antique white

Now I took my sander and got to distressing it so that the red and the stain would peek through. Then with antiquing glaze brown and black I toned down the white with this process. And this is what we have.

The next step was to start the words....Family, Friends Gather here.

Now this part is time consuming but worth the out come. I dont have a fancy way to transfer but this way works better for me than stenciling. The one I made for myself I did use stencils and boy was that hard to get the letters perfectly straight and in line with each other.

So with the next one I used word to create and print out my font.  Great thing about using your computer is the font selections are limitless.  Get's me in trouble trying to decided on all the beautiful choices.  Of course I take into consideration how easy it will be to trace and paint inside the lines. 

It took me a few tries printing to get the font the correct size for the boards. The word family was printed on two sheets FAM....then ILY.

I get my center line on the board and the paper then draw the center lines to mark. I measure the width of the largest letter and start from the center of the word working out to find out where to place the word on the plank.  

Now this frustrates me because it is time consuming and I want to get the words on and start creating.  

But patience is a virtue and it pays off in the end.

I use the chalk transfer method to get my words onto the wood. After all my measuring, I flip the paper over on the wrong side and color it all over the back of the words with chalk.  I use this blue since I can see it well when the transfere is done.

Then I flip it back over chalk side on my board line up my markings and tape it down so it won't move around on me. Then all ya do is take a pencil and retrace each letter.

And there ya have your beautiful blue letters transfered onto the wood ready for painting

Now it's time to fill in the letters with our color.....I chose black.

I take this awesome Elmer's painter pen in black and go back over my blue outline, this just defines it so much better than my non artsy free hand ability.

Then all ya do is fill it in with your paint color!  how fun.

The embellishing can be limitless....let your creativity take over.

I chose to wrap the four corners in jute to give it some more texture.

I strung 3 strands of the jute across the width of the frame and stapled it to the back.  This allows for hanging pictures.

For mine I added these sconses I got at restore for 5.00 each to the sides.

For Ashley's I got these cute pieces at Hobby Lobby in the drawer knob section for 4.99..... 2 for the price of one...I love their 50% off sales.

I added these to each side and hung these cute green lanterns with tea lights I got at Ben Franklin Crafts..... both for $2.40 on sale.

are they not just too cute and perfect for a pop of color and some ambiance at night.

Lastly I made two fabric flowers out of muslin and 1 fabric flower out of burlap.

They were hot glued to the top board in a cozy threesome

And now Ashley's finished pallet art picture frame for her home.

here is a look again at the one I have hung in my home

So what are you doing with pallets?  

What have you turned into a treasure for your home or loved one?

Please share your love for pallets!!

PS: If you enjoyed reading my tutorial please consider joining Color It Simple. 

Thanks for stopping in.


Please check out this fabulous WEBSITE with 35 Creative Ways to recycle Wooden Pallets by DESIGNRULZ

35 Creative Ways To Recycle Wooden Pallets by Designrulz

Until next time,
Linking Up To: