Small 4 drawer chest

A friend of mine found this drawer chest tossed on the curb at his apartment building.
He took a picture of it, sent it to me and brought to his apartment so that I can transform it later.
I'm so thankful that I have a friend like him.

Nothing was broken,and I love the French Provencal handles, but it was ....um...yucky.....

This is the top.

Peeling veneer at the bottom, beaten up top, dirty interior.....
Worse the shape, more excited I am to work on  it :)

First off, I had to get rid of this gunky black paint.
I used furniture stripper.
Beneath the black paint, I found green, white and grey paints, oh the history of this dresser!

It took me good 3 hours to strip it.

Then I moved on to the drawers, it was lots of work....

But I love doing it anyway:)

To my surprise, handles had yellow paint as well!
I wanted to take them off the drawers but they were stuck so I tried to strip them both at the same time.

At this point, I said to myself " Hey, this is cute as is. Soooo shabby chic!"

but the moment I thought that, my kids came in and said

"uuurrrgghhh,what is that, mom? It's so ugly!"

So I decided to keep working on.

It's helpful sometimes to have such a candid comment from honest little people:)

I fixed the top with wood filler and sanded and repeated the process a few times until it's nice and smooth.

Primed and painted grey, then glazed.

But it didn't look like the way I envisioned it.

It just looked old and DIRTY! Oh No!!! So I repainted it yellow.

By the time I was painting the body, furniture stripper worked magic and all the handles came off. Phew.
It'd have been so difficult to paint the handles nicely had they not come off.
I spray painted them white.
The holes for the handles were in bad shape and many of them were too big I had to refill and rebuild new holes.
Also I distressed the entire piece with 120-grit sand paper then  poly coated and waxed to finish.

I think it looks better than before?

Here is the top.

                                                      
                                                       And the side.

It's snowing here in Surrey, keep warm everyone:D

Sayuri

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Starwberry Cream Nightstands

A good friend of mine gave me these lovely nightstands.
They were a bit tired but had a nice shape, definitely an old charm to it.

They are a bit smaller than the standard size night tables, so I decided to refinish them for a little girl.

It wasn't noticable before but when I primed them, there were some gaps showed between the wood so I filled them with wood filler and put 3coats of primer until I was satisfied with the surface.

Then I painted the same colour as the Union Jack table and a chair,

my custom made colour " strawberry cream ".

I decided to add cute papers on the shelves because I wanted to make them "super cute"!

These top papers are from Michael's and bottom papers were my daughter's, it was one of the scrapbook kit I gave her as a Christmas present, oops, I mean,  Santa Clause gave her.
She is 10 and VERY suspicious that Santa Clause is indeed her PARENTS,
and I kind of confirmed that when I said "Can I have that pink polka dot papers in the scrapbook kit that I gave you?"
She was " A-ha! I KNEW it was from you! I KNEW there was No Santa Clause!...Yep, OK you can have them."
I guess you must keep a track of what is from you and what is from Santa Clause.
So I told her that Santa Clause exists only for those who believe in him, I do!

Anyway, here are more pictures of the nightstands.
I glued and seald the papers with Mod Podge and waxed the eintire surface.
Also cute pink ribbon was added in the shelves, making them even girlier.

They'd make a cute bedroom set for a little girl, dont' you think??
They feel smooth and look delicious :)

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Little Girl's Union Jack Table & Chair

I bought this table at a thrift store.

It was overall in a good shape, except one of the feet was partly broken.
See the bottom of the right leg?
I forgot to take a picture but I glued a piece of wood cut into a shape so that it'll fit in there, then I put wood filler around and over it to make the same shape as the rest of the feet.
Now I can't tell which one was broken ;)

I see a lot of people do Union Jack redo on the internet and they do a fantastic job, but I never thought of trying it myself.
But this table had a nice cross pattern on top and I thought it'd be such a waste if I just plainly painted over it.
So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create my own Union Jack.

 I took it all apart and sanded, then put  primer on.

Using Frog Tape and painted the pattern.
Also, a good sized chair was given to me by a friend so I refinished the chair in the same color & pattern as well.
This pink colour is something I mixed myself because I didn't have the exact colour I wanted.
I aimed for "strawberry cream" colour.
It is Crimson Red from Premiere(Canadian Tire) and primer(white) from CIL, Natural Living mixed together.
I know, I know, I have to be careful with the floor, but I often get carried away and just go right ahead.
I was very careful and no paint spots on the floor...of course I wouldn't do this if kids were around, I have to set a "good example", you know ;)

I waxed the entire pieces, now they are oh so smooth.
I love the contrast of pink and white color, it's very girly :)


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Little blue shelves

This little shelves was actually made by my husband :)
He built it at WCB in part of physio/rehabilitation program, when he broke his left hand fingers on the job 15years ago.

Since then, it had just sat quietly next to a computer desk,

holding a fax machine unnoticed for...well,15years!!

It had a water mark or something on top, some sticky spots from stickers that kids had put on....

no one cared...sob...

One day, I was sitting at the computer desk and just looked at it.

Suddenly I felt like fixing it making pretty.

It's  small, sure I can handle it.

I sanded the entire surface lightly then put primer on, and dry-brushed blue over it.

So the white from primer still can show.

I also distressed it using 80-grit sand paper.

Then I grabbed a rug which I used to stain the top of my daughter's study desk

and rubbed the surface to make it look a little aged.

I know it's a weird way (but certainly cheap way!) to do it.

I didn't have dark wax at that moment and I just couldn't wait to finish this, so I went ahead...

I know I'm weird & impatient,but I'd like to call myself *flexible*. lol

I glued some decorative papers on the shelves using Mod Podge.

It was my first time to use it and I loved it!

It's easy to use, non-toxic, dries clear pretty quickly.

I also sealed the paper top with Mod podge.

I love Mod Podge!

Now it looks like this, much better don't you think??

Thank you so much for stopping by :)

Have a wonderful week!

sayuri

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Two-tier side table

One day I made a quick stop at a thirft store.
Becuase I don't drive ( I'm taking driving lessons at the moment.),
I ALWAYS need  my husband to drive me to...well, anywhere.
He said " OK, you've got 10 minutes to shop." oh my sweet hubby, lol
So I ran to the store and spotted this sad but lovely side table....
See the top is broken.....it was completely off.

When you see something that is meant to be yours, you know it right away, right?

So I just grabbed it, lifted it up and marched to the cashier,not minding people looking at me like " Why doesn't she ask any help to carry that table???"

Well, I was just so happy to getting it I seriouly didn't mind it at all.

I didn't take pictures but first, I glued the top together, took it all apart, cleaned it, stripped the old brown paint, sanded, then put back together....phew!
Then comes the primer. I use CIL Natural Living.
It's Low VOC and has not much smell, my kinda primer!

From not so nice thrift store floor to sun-bathing outside...I think she's happy!

I painted it yellow and distressed a little.

But it didn't look like nicely aged....

It just looked injured with lots of scrapes....ouch.

Oh the art of distressing.

So I repainted some parts and.....

Done!

Minimal distressing, I think it's better this way :)

I think she's happy holding books and stuff, instead of collecting dust,don't you think??

sayuri