Happy Earth day!!!

Here's a quick redo to celebrate Earth day today. We picked this bench up a couple weeks ago at a yard sale. We've been looking for a long bench or coffee table to make into a padded bench for the long window in our family room. So this one will do for now until another comes along:) I sent my husband to negotiate and the scary senior scared him into accepting her original asking price:) I really wanted it though, so I didn't give him too hard of a time:) here it is before:

And after:

It's always so bright right here, this picture of it in the shop is better. ( yes, someday I will get a real camera:) the iPhone can only do so much.)

Happy earth day! Go rescue some furniture!!!

Custom table

Here's a fun custom job I got to do last week. I was browsing on Facebook yard sale and saw someone who was looking for someone to redo her table. I messaged her, we chatted and she was kind enough to hire me:) I got to go to her home and see what we were working with. She was just getting ready to move so I got to see the new place and the furniture that would be going in the living room. This desk would go behind the couch, facing out to the lake. Ya, a desk with that view would definatly motivate me to work!:) I originally wanted to stain the top and paint the bottom, but her decorator said, and after seeing I agreed, that with the dark brown leather couch and the dark wood floors it may be too much dark. 

Here's is the before:

She gave me this swatch to use as inspiration from a chair she had upholstered in this:

I ended up using the color match machine at Home Depot and it worked smashingly!! That thing is always broken when I go there so I was thrilled to finally get to use it.  I got one of the blues and the beige tan under the yellow. 

I went home, made my paint into chalk paint, sanded the whole table to smooth it out a little and got to work. 

I ended up distressing the whole thing very lightly and a little on the edges. I also used a gray stain wash to dirty it up a little and meld the whole thing together.  Kathy also had a chair she wanted to use with her desk. I didn't like the idea of painting it too, I just thought it was TOO matchy matchy. So she said to do whatever I wanted, but that she did like whimsical. 

I loved the color this chair had. It was really beat up and a cool natural old wood. So I added a few details here and there that I think qualified as "whimsical" and then put a mixture of natural and a bit of a darker stain over the top to seal it and make it look a little more finished. 

Here they are finished:

And in their new home: 

I am so glad to say that She loves them. What a joy of a customer to work with! Thanks Kathy!

Linked up to Miss Mustard Seeds: Furniture Feature Friday!! 

and 

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The stools are done! And now I need new ones:)

 I got these barstools sometime last year and had only gotten one of them redone.  I had done one with aqua legs and the original wood top with a number '4' on the top. Last week I finally decided to tackle this second one and sand off those layers of paint, so I could restain the wood. They are not an exact match, one is 1 inch higher and has a more rounded edged top and square legs, and the other a square edge top and round legs. But I think they make a pretty good pair. 

Here they are finally finished for the house..........

....of course now that I finally redid them, I found some shorter ones that would fit my counter type better on Facebook yardsale, that I will now need to redo. So, these ones are being sold off. They really are just too tall for this counter, and our girls always want to sit at the bar.  Atleast we got one good week of use out of them:)

A halfway hutch

So I have this hutch done.....for now :) I have a few more plans for it, but I couldn't take our home being so empty any longer! I had to move it in for the time being. I do still plan on adding chicken wire and an X with strips of wood to each door, some kind of hardware on the right door and eventually finding a bottom cabinet for it and making this the top part of a 'hutch'. Also after taking photos, I realized if I am going to put this higher eventually, I may want to paint the bottom of the shelves. Whoops, missed those.

 I got this for FREE last summer and after the first coat of white stayed away from it for way too long. I decided to go with gray for it so that my white dishes would stand out a bit more.

Here she is before, in all her hippy contact paper glory:

And here she is now:

I'm so happy with it! My dishes that have been gathering in boxes for a couple years are screeching with excitement to be on display:) Also my globes, which are almost a collection. 3 of anything is a collection right? I'm on the lookout for one more:)

Linked up to Miss Mustard Seeds Furniture Feature Friday