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

Antique desk for my daughter

My daughter is in grade 4 and she'd never had a study desk.

She usually does her homework in the nook or at the dining table.

One day I bugged my husband to take me to a thrift store hoping to score some cheap but can be potantially nice furniture to work on.

.....and there she was!

(I don't know why I always treat furniture like a human being..)

Isn't she a beauty?

Sure, it had to be repainted but drawers worked perfect and nothing was broken, except the top left handle, it stays intact like this but it's broken and completely in two pieces. No big deal. I definitely wanted to have this desk.

I also found a good size chair to go with it.

From the first moment I laid my eyes on this desk, I knew I wanted a dark stained top so I decided to get rid of the laminate top.

Please don't mind the darker part of the top I just wanted to try a natural stain method which I had found on the internet, but I'd have liked it darker.

BTW, I'm a big sucker for anything natural, organic, sustainable stuff & food.

My ultimate goal of furniture restoring is to use products which are all earth-friendly....I know, it's a long way to go.

Then I primed white and did the demo.

My very first trial of staining.

Finished.

I really love the contrast between the dark handles and light baby blue drawers.

First, I was thinking to distress these, so I went ahead and distressed the chair first.

When my daughter came back from school and I proudly presented the distressed chair, the corners of her mouth went south right away.

"Oh....mommy, it looks so old..."

I explained her that's a good thing, but she didn't like it.

I was glad I didn't do the desk first, imagine having to paint the whole desk again, oh, no.

Anyway, I love her desk and I hope she'll do lots of studying on this desk for the  many years to come :)

 I'm currently working on this dresser.

Thank you for reading, have a great day!!!

Princess Chest

First off, I love love love French Provincial furniture.
The design....the curves....they are just my kinda girls!

When I saw this at a thrift store, I knew something had to be done!

One of the drawers was broken.

 Rreconstructing is not my speciality, so this poor dresser was used as is by my daughter for so long...

um...excuse her mess on top!

I knew I can't look the other way everytime I go into her room, so one day, I finally gathered my courage and started working on it.

With this stripper, I removed the white paint.

At this point, it's fun to scrape all the paint...

...even though you know the-big- messy-cleaning-up is coming up next :(

and look!!
Gold lining underneath started to show through.
It's fun to know how it looked like before.

It took me all one afternoon to clean it up. Boy was I so tired.

The decorative part of the legs was made of wierd plastic or something and as I applied the stripper, it started to melt........Aaarrgghhhhhhhh!!!

 After panicking a little while, I grabbed again my beloved wood filler and smooth the legs out.....

OK, looks not bad now ;)

Then, it's fun time! Painting time that is.

From the beginning, I had a vision for it.

Pretty pink and white knobs.Yes.That'd look super cute!!

But first, I had to ask my client (daughter )cuz it'll be in her room.

She has to LOVE it.

She came to the shed and look at my (small) paint collection and she picked the different pink with a little purple tinge to it.

Also, she wanted to have silver line and (fake) diamond piceces ALL OVER the chest.

I did the demo.

I love to do demos, it gives me something really look forward to in the end :D

And it looked so pretty!

Then my daughter say: I told you so!!

OK, you were right, sweetie.

After so much struggle with the silver lines, I finally finished it.
Oh, I forgot to take any pictures of the broken drawer redo.
I glued a piece of wood , filled the gap with wood filler,sanded,
then you can't really tell which one was broken. Done.

What do you think?

Sleek Black Nightstand

This was my very first attempt to redo old furniture.

I didn't even know we had this, it was in the guest room we used to rent to a good friend  of us, it turned out that my husband picked it off the curb, good job, buddy!

Well, my first attempt to use the orbit sanding machine and paint stripper.

Oh my, scraping the paint bits is such a messy job! it took me a good 1hour to clean it. But I love every minute of it! I don't know why, I'm usually not so fond of cleaning....;)

...and my first attempt to paint. I was SO nervous!

Painted twice and applied clear coat, put back the spray-painted-silver original handles, it's ready to go back in the house.

Not so bad for a first timer,eh?