Antique Coffee Bar

I picked up this great antique buffet recently and thought it would look cool made into a coffee bar. If someone had one of those old fashioned stores where they served up tea, coffee or drinks, I think this would look cool as an accent piece. I wish I had room for it my kitchen!    

                  Oops. Little late on the before shot. Already started sanding. The drawers needed some stoppers, so I made those little guys (otherwise the drawer pushes in too far. see above?)

 I love my turquoise milk paint on antique oak. I also love the ultra-marine blue. So I used both. And I think I may have used some CeCe's turquoise. Layering is the way to go with this paint. 

The top got stripped and stained in walnut, and I finished up the top coat with a walnut shaded top-coat. I like that it deepens and enriches the final finish. 

 Didn't have enough of one of these patterns, so I used all three! Hey, it works for pillows! Oh, did you want to see the final result????? My bad....

I hate how the flash washes out these colors! I'll just post a bunch more ;)

Drexel Campaign Desk, Cerused Custom Top, and a New Paint!

Campaign desks are hard to come by. Good ones by Drexel are really hard to come by,,,at a decent price. I got this one for a steal because it was in such poor shape. It was a nice oak veneer, which you don't usually see in these desks. Legs are solid oak. The hardware was in pretty good shape.

               After removing the brass corner and T-plates. Lovely laminate top, eh?

This laminate needed to go. I needed to get some white oak planks and change it up! 

Why, yes, this is the same desk! How did I get to this point??? Read on!!! 

Another Horrendous Waterfall Piece gets New Life!

Why is it that these waterfall pieces I come across are so messed up?? I want you to see that just because wood seems like it's beyond repair or refinishing, it usually is not.
With some care you can transform the wood back to it's original look.  

My very first one was a desk that was deplorable! I refinished it way back when I was first starting out. This horrendous desk has been pinned to the moon and back on Pinterest! 

Here is a before pic of that desk and a link to my blog post so you can see the finished result! I know. Sneaky. HERE is the link Seriously. I did not replace the top. 

So todays post is about another waterfall piece. A dresser. Same messed up top and almost the same messed up body. Not quite as bad though. 

                           This was another piece that came to me by way of Las Vegas.

So here's the top. Pretty bad. Very rough and stained. Because the body is pine, it had dings and gouges everywhere. The top got a gentle sanding. It's very easy to burn through this walnut veneer. So be careful. Do the curved part by hand, otherwise you will burn through, and there is no fix for that. 

Look at how well it cleans up! I think I used an 80 grit and worked up to 220.

After a coat of the stain (i think i used a walnut. I can't remember!) and trying to decide on some colors. 

From right to left, the stages of sanding and staining the drawers. But, I realized at least 4 of them had so many chips in the veneer, it would never look good stained. 

 The body was done in a very pale gray and the black was GF Lampblack. Can you believe the top??? I did a satin topcoat of Deft acrylic topcoat. 

 I thought about leaving the original gold, but ended up doing a metallic light silver. 

Ok..the pic of "Mama" just had to be shown! I love the one on the right! 

 GF Corinth Blue on the sides for some color. 

Last look at that gorgeous top! 

Although this is the pic of the desk, I used the same Deft topcoat on this one too.

One more before and after:

Domestically Speaking - The Power of Paint Party   DIY Vintage Chic-Friday

 Stacey Embracing Change - Thursday  Miss Mustardseed - Furniture Feature Friday

The Painted Drawer - Friday Link Up Party Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Night Special

A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday COASTAL CHARM-TUES Party

Tuesday-Elizabeth and Co., Treasure Hunt Thrus..FMFPTY

Savvy Southern Style. Weds, Beyond the Picket Fence, PJH Designs

From my Front Porch to Yours,  The 36th Avenue, Monday-Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, My RePurposed Life, No Minimalist Here-Thurs.  
UncommonDesigns-Monday Party  

Pet Beds by Design!

Since I just finished a vintage table/pet bed, I thought I would take it over to Hometalk to share and look to see what other ideas people have had. I was surprised to find quite a few beds! Take a look at my clipboard from Hometalk!  

Some of these beds are quite unique. To see each individual bed, head over to my page by clicking the Hometalk link, and then clicking on each individual bed. 

And while you're there, take a look around and check out all the posts on the home page! 

Vintage Hexagon Table Gets New Life

Quick post on what do with those old so lovely vintage, weirdly shaped, side tables from 

the 70's. Paint them to start with. And why not give them double duty as a pet bed?? 

Mine started out something like this (I forgot to take a before pic). 

                                                                     With a little paint,

 And a fresh new pet bed,

Viola'

 It's painted black all around the back. I would have like to do some black on the door, but way more work than I wanted to spend on this guy. 

 Damian is testing it out....

Mama is just a matching accessory for the photo! 

Either way, it's a cool little addition to the family room or as a night stand for the bedroom. 

Domestically Speaking - The Power of Paint Party   DIY Vintage Chic-Friday

 Stacey Embracing Change - Thursday  Miss Mustardseed - Furniture Feature Friday

The Painted Drawer - Friday Link Up Party Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Night Special

A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday COASTAL CHARM-TUES Party

Tuesday-Elizabeth and Co., Treasure Hunt Thrus..FMFPTY

Savvy Southern Style. Weds, Beyond the Picket Fence, PJH Designs

From my Front Porch to Yours,  The 36th Avenue, Monday-Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, My RePurposed Life, No Minimalist Here-Thurs.  
UncommonDesigns-Monday Party  

How to properly measure for a new desk top.

Just a little quip I'm writing about today on the bonehead mistake I made.  Perhaps someone else can learn from my errors! So. Drexel Campaign Desk. Suh-weet! 
Friend found it in Vegas and hauled it back for me. Thought it was a good deal until I 
got a close look at it. 

You're probably thinking what's the big deal?? A little veneer action. So what.  Um, no. I forgot to snap pics before hub and I got all the glue and clamps on. 

But you can probably get the gist of just how tore up this baby was. 

 It was lopsided because it was out of the grooves. Now the drawers will close well. 

 Ok. This post isn't about the desk so much as what I did wrong while measuring for a new top. Below is the laminate crap top that it came with. I like real wood.  I have done this on a previous mid century desk using cherry HERE.   

This desk is made of oak. So I went to the lumberyard at bought some white oak planks. As you can see the desk top is 46". So I measured the planks at 46", thinking it would work. 

 Uh, no. Just a tad off.  What the heck??!!! 

 So. What I SHOULD have done, and what I did with the last plank before I cut, was to measure it from the desk itself, not the MDF top. I guess the other top had a beveled edge that made up that 1/2" difference. Oh well. Lesson learned. Went back to the lumberyard and bought 4 more pieces. This time had the old man do it.   Sigh. 

 Stay tuned for the finished product. I plan on doing a weathered gray ceruse on this top. 

A New Chinoiserie Re-Do

I'm always on the lookout for unusual dressers to rehab. And I love the mid century stuff. So when I came across this one that my friend found, I pounced on it. I had already done this style in a little cabinet awhile back. HERE. I gave it a gray weathered top and coral body.  But this one I envisioned in glossy white. I had hoped to keep the wood top, but after stripping and sanding a bit, it just wasn't all that great. The body and top had gouges and missing veneer patches. 

And here's what I came up with! 

Heres the little cabinet I did from the same line. 

At first, I wanted to do the handles (the vertical gold parts are the drawer pull-outs) in black. The horizontal gold parts are what the drawers sit on. I wanted those gold. 

So first I did Klein Blue, didn't like it. 

 Then I did it in black. Didn't like the contrast. Thought I did. But my friend Jennifer over at

MiVidaVintage "made" me change it! Lol. Thank-you Jennifer. Keep in mind that every time I had to paint these handles, I had to tape off around them to keep the white clean!! 

I have to admit, the gold with the gold and white does look better. 

This was all brushed by the way. Except the bottom fretwork. I sprayed that. 

So just because I have to have something different, I give you peacocks! 

 More taping. All the white surrounding the inner portion of these drawers were all taped off and sprayed. I took a lot of time with the details on this piece. This is fabric that was applied using ModPodge. Also used it on top after watering it down. When dry, just sand the edges. 

I left the doors in their mahogany state. Yes I did sand off the old finish. Jennifer wants me to paint the inside of the doors white as well.  Any opinions??? Wood or Paint?? 

This piece would look amazing in so many different decor options!  It's For Sale! 

Domestically Speaking - The Power of Paint Party   DIY Vintage Chic-Friday

 Stacey Embracing Change - Thursday  Miss Mustardseed - Furniture Feature Friday

The Painted Drawer - Friday Link Up Party Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Night Special

A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday COASTAL CHARM-TUES Party

Tuesday-Elizabeth and Co., Treasure Hunt Thrus..FMFPTY

Savvy Southern Style. Weds, Beyond the Picket Fence, PJH Designs

From my Front Porch to Yours,  The 36th Avenue, Monday-Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, My RePurposed Life, No Minimalist Here-Thurs.