Roadside Rescue Dresser Turned Entertainment Stand

Have you ever been on your way somewhere and you spot a discarded piece of treasure on the side of the road?

Then you have to rush home and figure out how you're going to ask your loving hubby to take the truck and make a trip to grab it before some other DIY'er nabs it?

Well that is what happened....

He said seriously honey, not again......dont you have enough projects going on?

He graciously agreed and off we went.

All he could say as we were loading it is babe, this is a piece of garbage.

I said It may be a laminate top but I would not call it garbage......just help me load it.

So he did and off we went with a big smile on my face!!

As you can see it was missing all the drawers except for two and I put those on the bottom.

The dresser was not solid wood

but that is OK I saw some potential and I had never painted a laminate piece before so I wanted to dig in and get some practice.

 I took my favorite tool, my sander and sanded all the laminate until it was dull.

I have read that laminate has to be primed so out with the primer.

I wanted a grey undertone since I wanted to paint it barn red and have some grey color showing through after I distressed it.

So I added some black acrylic paint to the primer to turn it grey.

Here she is with the first coat of primer........

Now the second coat of primer just to make sure the laminate is good and covered

after a light sanding .....

it was time for a purdy coat of barn red paint

Once I had the two coast of red paint on

 I lightly sanded..........

I love the way glazing on furniture looks

It gives it a rich antique look

It makes the color pop as well

I chose to Mod-Podge a cool woodsy turquoise paneling scrapbook paper onto the backboard of the dresser/entertainment center.

This is not easy to do for someone who likes things perfect......

because when the paper gets wet those of you that have done this know exactly what I am getting ready to say.

it wrinkles and bubbles up............

you have to be be patient and work it and work it to get out the bubbles and wrinkles.

I have learned to get the worst out and the rest will usually take care of itself once it dries.

I distressed it with some sandpaper so some of the grey would show through.

The inside walls were painted a pretty turquoise color to match the scrapbook paper I put on the back.

I ask my wonderful hubby to cut me some pallet boards down so we could make rustic shelving to replace the missing drawers.

I Love me some pallets that you can get free at so many places.

These come in handy when you need some rustic wood.

I stained and added a semi-gloss poly on them to bring out the grain of the wood.

can you say beautiful!!

All the sliders were removed of course from the side walls when I paint the the yummy turquoise color.

I used the original hardware and spray painted them a color that contrasted with the inside of the dresser/entertainment center.

With a little hard-work and creativity this roadside find turned out beautiful.


My girlfriend Kaye moved into her new home and I gave this to her as a housewarming gift.

She loves it!!

She has it in her living room with her TV on top and all her goodies nestled inside this warm trash turned to treasure.




What have you rescued from the side of the road lately?



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

Kitchen Shutter Valance

For many years now I have not had a curtain on my kitchen window over my sink.

 Is that bad?

Have any of you left your window lonely with nothing to cover it?

If you remember reading this Farm Fresh Egg Sign Tutorial

......................I put her above this lonely window.

One day I ran to restore and found these cute shutters.

a Score for 3 bucks....

OK they had a few flaws but nothing that Mr Color It Simple could not fix.

The one thing he couldn't fix was this blurry (before) picture I took (grin)

I went to my supplies and thought to myself what was I going to do to this shutter to make it warm and inviting.

Do you love Stained wood?  I love me some stained wood.  So I knew that would be just the ticket

I pulled from my stash of paint goodies my Minwax Special Walnut Stain.................

and my special stain brush.

I proceeded to stain that beauty.  Have you ever tried to paint or stain shutter slats?...

..........well let's just say it was a little tedious!

I pressed on and decided to give it a two toned look so I painted the frame with a cream color.

                                                             I just love it!

Now my farm fresh eggs sign is right at home with the window topper shutter valance

Don't you think they make a great pair?

No more curtain-less window.

So let's talk, tell me about your re-purposed projects made from a shutter

Until next time,

sharing at:  addicted2decorating

DIY Chalkboard Play-Station

 It has been awhile since I last posted due to so much going on in my life.

 I am here to show you this fun project I have had in mind to do for months and just got around to putting my thoughts into action.

My kitchen and living space are open to each other and my fridge sits at the dividing line so I wanted to make something to hide the big black side view of the fridge.

I had an old door that I took off of my bedroom closet when I replaced them with an upgrade back last summer of 2011.  I saved the two doors and one I used for this project.  The doors were hollow core and not in great shape, hence the reason we replaced them.  Hubby took off the front and this is what I used to make the playstation chalkboard project for my granddaughter Kinley.

I filled the holes and sanded lightly.


I made up my own chalk paint with some different color blues mixed together. Then I painted two coats, let dry then primed the board with chalk and wiped down.  Pretty simple actually.

I knew I needed a frame to finish this off so I went dumpster diving over in in neighborhood that had new construction.

You will not believe what these construction workers throw away.  I found over $100 worth of trim baseboard molding that they just threw away, I guess cuz they used all they needed.

However that was to my gain!

They were 20 ft in length so I had hubby to cut and miter the corners, then I took a staple gun and stapled the molding to the board.  I painted the molding a nice white first and then filled in the corners with some paintable caulking to finish it off nicely.

Once I had all that done, now to figure out how to hang it on the side of the fridge.

Here is what I came up with.  I bought some heavy duty mounting tape that holds up to 5 pounds per every 5 inches.  This was double sided sticky of course.  I placed that along the top, sides and bottom and a couple strips in the center.  I then bought a roll of magnetic tape from Walmart in the craft section and peeled off the sticky back of that and stuck it on top of the mounting tape and stuck it up on the side of the fridge.

It is holding up beautifully and Kinley my sunshine is loving it.

Kinley my Granddaughter.....my little sunshine

So what projects have you hung on your refrigerator?

Until next time,

Linking up to:

addicted2decorating.com, my1929charmer.com

Mom's are Special

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out their in blog land.

Mom's are special, they sacrifice and give so much to their families.  So a day is set aside so we can honor our mothers with thoughtfulness letting them know how much they are loved and appreciated.

In honor of my mom and mother-in in law I decide to make something from the heart instead of buying them something.  Of course buying something would have been much quicker but I know they both will appreciate the love that went into making their individual gifts.

My husbands mom is a crafter.....

Her hubby just built her her own craft room in their log home in Wyoming. It is so spacious and beautiful.

So for her gift, I thought I would make her a sign to hang in her craft room to remind her of us every time she sees it, to know how much we lover her.

She is so creative and crafty so this was a perfect saying...

  "CREATIVE ADVENTURES HAPPEN HERE"

Because we all know crafting is an adventure, a fun ride!!!

These are a few pictures I wanted to share.

I really love the way it turned out.

This was my first chalk paint experience and I loved it but I did not look up the directions on how to make it......

I just guessed on how much non sanded dry grout to add to my paint.

Well let's just say I should have looked it up before I began :) I can tell you it was an adventure, kinda like driving to a new location hoping you remembered the direction because you left your GPS in the drawer.

I ended up with sorta a paste conglomeration.....

Boy was it ever thick...so a word of wisdom from experience, read the directions before attempting this....grin

So how did I do it???

easy peasy..... went out to my wood pile, found a board.

.......yeah that looks nice, threw some thick homemade chalk paint onto it (2 coats) adding water every 2 mins to the thickening concoction.

Picked out a font on the PC, printed it out, used some transfer paper and traced the words onto the board.

I then proceeded to fill in the words with my paint pen.  Added a whimsy picture traced and painted and their you have a homemade sign for mother-in-law and my mom.

BLESSED......................

This one I made for my special mother. I was inspired by the scripture out of Proverbs 31.

I love proverbs, such good wisdom to live by in that book.

I had fun making this little flower, a nice addition to her sign.

I took a paper towel ..viva brand not that it matters but this brand is nice and thick so it does not tear easy.

I cut 5 pieces in a square folded it accordion stile.....

snipped off both ends, rounded shape, wrapped a little stretchy hair band around the center to hold it all together.

Then I started pulling all the layers apart and fluffing.

It still needed something, I wanted an aged worn look so I took a lighter to it......

 yeppers I started lighting the ends of the paper then blowing it out quickly ( or the whole thing would have gone up in flames) :)

It was perfectly singed and aged.

I also added a watered down brown glaze over the whole thing to give it a worn look.

Her children rise up and call her blessed

I found some left over white flowers which I tore off the stems and tucked underneath securing with some hot glue.

Ephesians 6:2..... says Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise.

What is the promise, the bible says so that you may live long!

So we honor our mother all year long yes, but a special day is set aside for just her every year.

Father's you are next!!

To all the Mother's

So how did you honor your Mother this special day?

Inquiring minds want to know.



Until next time,

Linking up to:    Funky Junk Interiors, Cherished Treasures, DIY show off, my 1929 charmer, addicted 2 decorating