Kitchen Nook for the Newly Weds

Hi Everyone!

 I hope you are all having a wonderful, creative, summer. We just visited our home country, South Africa, in April and May, and I came back all enthusiastic to do STUFF!!

But first, I need to catch up on showing some older projects that got "Left Behind".

About a year ago, when my son and his new wife were getting ready to move into their own place, I saw these cute chairs at Savers, for $5 each. They reminded me of a bentwood chair, but were metal (of course...geez, wouldn't it be a bargain if it was a real bentwood chair...).

This picture was taken after I had already spray painted the frame. It was a bad paint job with beige paint before. The plastic cover screamed "family with small children!" , and somehow I did not think it would fly with my two newly weds. They are very young, and still have a lot of adventures planned before parenthood "cramps their style". 

Luckily I had this sweet fabric that I got a while before that. I intended to add splashes of yellow, grey and aqua to my living room at one point, but somehow never got around to it.

Covering the seats was an easy job, thanks to my handy dandy staple gun.

Pretty, isn't it?

I bet you spotted the turquoise piece of table in the pic, right? How could I not make the table turquoise? It was perfect!! 

I bought this table at  Goodwill years ago.

     It began its new life in my home with a pretty red, distressed coat. In the early years I never painted with a brush, always spray painted. Now it's just the opposite. But, all this to say, this table was spray painted red and glazed with black. If I could find out how to add a link with my iPad, I would link you to that post, but, until I learn how, you will just have to either believe me or go look for it on my blog. ( sorry!!)

I loved it just like that for many years, but now it was time for a change yet again.

I painted it with paint I already had on hand. It came in handy, since we were also moving, and I wanted to get rid of some of my open paint containers.

Of course it also got some very light distressing and a smudge of charcoal glaze.

...and there it is! A fresh, sweet breakfast nook for the newly weds! ( the fourth chair was late, and could unfortunately not make it in time for the picture.. ;). )

Spot the chaos of moving boxes in the background.

I'm very happy how this little set turned out. So bright and cheerful, don't you think? 

Well, hopefully this inspired you into some action, if you needed a little kick in the bee hind! 

                                        Cheers!!

                                        

                                      Suzanne.....

                              

Pop Art Side Table

This is a time for celebrating...whether you are religious or not. Most of us associate the Holidays with seeing loved ones, families getting together, having fun, making memories, etc etc. Why then, is everybody so miserable and impatient and stressed out? Isn't this supposed to be a happy time?

I have a theory about that. What makes us miserable this time of year, is expectations. We are told by the media that this time should be and look a certain way. Happy families smiling in the warm glow of crackling fires, perfect little children with cute outfits playing sweetly together, the smell of good food wafting in from the kitchen, loads of presents under a perfectly decorated tree.....
The truth is that most of our realities are very different from that. And so we start to strive for that picture perfect Christmas .. And if we fail, we strive harder, and become unhappy and stressed out. And what was supposed to be a festive time, becomes the time of year with the highest suicide rate, stress and huge credit card bills.
Maybe we should just relax, and appreciate our own reality for what it is.See the blessings in the little things. Appreciate the people that are with us, instead of being resentful for the one's that are not.
 Maybe we can even reach out and be a blessing to someone else....
Maybe this is my advice to myself, since Christmas started to become such a burden  having to spend it without family since my husband and I moved to the US 10 years ago....
Maybe I will take my own advice and just be happy  this Christmas.

ALRIGHTY THEN!  Enough talking...


Check out this ultra cool little side table I painted a while back. I am sooo stoked about it.  I loved doing it so much, I just want to make more. Even though it's not selling. Go figure. Probably not everyone's cup of tea.

My friend bought me this at a garage sale for $3

I painted the body black, and did this Roy Lichtenstein pop art on the front.

I used my trusted projector to do the drawing.

I googled the image. Funny how I always think I have an original idea, but when I start to google it, I discover that some one else has done it already! I found a lot of cool pop art furniture online.

At first I was thinking of putting something humorous in the thought bubble.

Something like: " I wanted Chick-A_Fillet, but it's Sunday..." 

or any of those First World Problems, but I eventually just went with the original saying, which was:" that's the way it was supposed to happen, but now its hopeless!"

Unfortunately I did not take another pic after I wrote the quote in, before I took the table to the consignment store. 

So, there it is! Hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Thrifting and (Truly) Happy Christmas !

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From Toy Chest to Shipping Crate

Hi Everyone!
I have heard and seen of shipping crates being turned into toy chests, but not the other way around...yet that is what I did with this ordinary, run of the mill chest I got on Craigslist.

I remembered to take the "Before" after sanding and stripping off the layers of thick, enamel brown and beige paint. The sides are MDF, and the top and ends are pine.

I roughed it up with some screws, a hammer, and even took a firelighter to it in some places...lol!

Then I applied some ebony colored glaze. I did not have anything else, and I was too impatient to make the steel wool in vinegar mix, which has to soak for at least 24 hours. There are many tutorials on how to do that, but here is a link to one. I was going for the look of old cedar. The pine part turned out pretty good, but the MDF was a different story....

I ended up painting this part red...just could not get it to look right.
I then dry brushed some more red on the other parts, too, just so it would look like it fit.

I found old vintage magazine ads of Pfluegers, a fishing tackle and equipment company, on line,  printed it out, and decoupaged it to the side. The writing was done free hand, from an example I found when searching for "shipping crates" images.

I don't know if you noticed, but I tried to make the corner strips look like metal. Painted it silver, and screwed some screws in. On one side I stenciled "THIS END UP" ,

 and on the other side I decoupaged a sign that says "HANDLE WITH CARE" .

I also drilled some holes and made handles out of rope for a more authentic look. (or so I thought, anyway)

I distressed the edges and sanded the  chest all over a few times during the process.

Also applied and wiped off the same ebony colored glaze  a few times. I just played until I got the look I liked. The decoupaged parts were sanded pretty heavily to make it look really old.

This is what the back looks like. Some random stenciling, and another sign decoupaged on.

O yes, and see the little stamp in the right corner? It says "product of the USA". I just used a plate as a template en drew it on with a thin brush. The words were just done freehand.

Well, I had a lot of fun doing this, and I can just see it in a boy's room with a fishing theme, or even as a rustic kind of coffee table in a TV room. 

What do you think?

Until next time, 

happy thrifting!

Suzanne

Joining...
A Little Knick Knack's EBTKS Party

Union Jack Coffee Table

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there! Hope you are spo

iled and appreciated, not only today, but every other day, too. I want to show you my version of the Union Jack trend...

I have been itching to paint something in Union Jack, and thought that this little table was due for another make-over.  This is how I transformed it when I first got it.
It was perfect, since it already had the red, and I just had to add the white and blue.

Although I did touch the red up, some, too, to make it brighter.

 

My husband really liked it, all perfect and flawless, like above...

 He was a little disgusted when I started sanding and distressing it! LOL.

But I like it more just a little bit distressed and imperfect...don't you agree?

I sold it to a guy in Phoenix who bought it for his girlfriend, who is from Britain..

Perfect!

Have a great Mother's Day!

Suzanne

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For the Love of Turquoise

Hi There..

I have to blame the blogging community for my love of all things turquoise. Don't get me wrong, I have always liked the color...

So tranquil, and beachy, yet cool and modern.

But ever since I have seen what some of you have done with this coolest of colors, I have deepened my relationship with Krylon Aqua...in a can, of course, because I'm lazy ..impatient, remember?

Oops, I did it again....
I forgot to take a "Before" picture. This was an old beat up little cabinet /end table, that nobody at Goodwill wanted. So I waited patiently for Dollar Day, and grabbed it for only...you guessed it....a dollar.
Sprayed it with Kilz primer (you'd think they would have offered me some commission by now for tooting their horn like this, but no..)

Then sprayed it with Krylon Aqua, and distressed with a little charcoal tinted glaze.

The handles were just sprayed with black, to freshen them up. They were a sort of coppery color...you know the look.

I love how very cool and different this little piece of furniture looks now.  

I have more turquoise stuff to show you later this week.

For now...

See ya!

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A Not so Happy Ending for a Mosaic Table

Hello Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful, creative, weekend.

I did ...wonderful, that is...not creative, though.

We took my FIL and MIL to see Tucson, and Tombstone(AZ). They are visiting from South Africa, for those of you who are new to my blog.

Look at this beautiful Tucson sunset photo taken by Wonderhusband!

At least I caught up on some long lost sleep, because I could not craft or blog, and had to go to bed at a decent hour with the rest of my company.

I was so well rested by the time we got home this afternoon, that I decided to tackle and finish a long overdue project....my patio coffee table.

Inspired by a lovely mosaic mural in Mexico I saw a couple of years ago, I started to mosaic the glass top of this generic little outdoor table.

My friend had recently done hers right on the glass, and it came out fine, so I decided to do the same.

I wanted a different, artsy look, not a balanced , formal look where all the pieces are the same size, etc.

I have been saving broken pieces of pottery and china for a while now ( I think since I saw that wall in Mexico, to be honest), and I probably have enough to cover the outside of  a small house by now..

I started by gluing on the pieces, making sure to "build in" some coasters so that a glass or coffee cup can stand without tipping over, since this a favorite place to have our morning coffee. 

(See the coffee rings on the tiles? I'm not kidding.)

Do you see the cup on its side with the black "coffee" spilling out?

That was my favorite part of the whole table.Yes, I said "was".

After  gluing on all the pieces, I applied the grout, and wiped off the excess so that all the tile pieces were visible. Then I got the brainwave to tilt the table to get rid of all the grains and dust....

Bad idea!! The whole piece of glass slipped off onto the floor...

Duh! I guess I was lucky that the only things that broke were the two whole (half) cups, and not the whole piece of glass..

(OK, I realize that last sentence is very confusing, but you're still with me, right?)

And that is why the table has been standing on my patio half finished since June....

Tonight I decided to finish it ..one way or another. I did not replace the cups, but just filled in the holes with other tiles, and added some

more grout to even it out.

I don't know if I'm just sick of this project, but I did not like the end result. (I have to admit, this picture look way nice now..)

So I got out my Behr Glaze in black, and painted some on, then wiped it off.

And now I like it even less..Ack!

Maybe this table is doomed for the curb..

I don't know. I'm sick of it, and have been miraculously cured of  the "mosaic-itch" .....

Two days later......

After seeing the pictures and your comments, I decided to re-apply more white grout over the black, and this is the end result.

Little happier now, but still done with mosaic for a while...

I am linking this post to:

Keeping it simple Crafts Party

It's So Very Creative

Meamorphosis Monday

A Table is a table is a table?

This was my first one dollar find on Goodwill's Dollar Days.

It is not something I would normally buy, but, come on...one dollar???  Surely somebody somewhere will love it after I'm done with it.

So, after priming with Kilz spray primer (remember? I'm the Spray Paint Queen), I sprayed on some Krylon Cherry Gloss.This was, of course too bright for what I had in mind, but would have actually looked great in a kids room or playroom...

I sanded a little, and then wiped on some black tinted glaze.

Now it had a country feel to it. Of course, I felt it needed some more "pop", so I experimented with stencils...

First this...

Then this....

But in the end I changed it back to this...

Still not bad for a one dollar find, right?

I love all your comments, please keep them coming!

I am linking to A Stroll Thru Life Tabletop Tuesday

                           Debbiedoos's Garage Salen Party

Southern Hospitality 's  Today'sThrifty Treasures Party