A Schooling On Vanity

Probably not the best title, but appropriate to my post today!  We found an old broken antique school desk and I immediately saw some potential.  My husband immediately saw some work :)  We spray painted the metal parts with rust-o-leum black paint.  He glued the boards back together and fit them onto the metal grooves.  He uses wood glue and clamps the wood together so the glue does not expand when it is drying. He reinforced the top of the vanity and the seat by fastening wooden bars on the bottom of both.  He made the frame for the mirror out of the extra wood leftover from the back of the school desk.  We then attached small wooden embellishments to give the mirror a little character.  We painted all the wood with a primer.

After the primer was dry, I painted the vanity with an antique white paint.  It doesn't look that much different.  

I brushed on a dark wax and buffed it off with a clean t-shirt rag.  I distressed the edges and decorative pieces of the wood with sandpaper.  I brushed on a coat of clear wax and buffed it off with another clean t-shirt rag.  

Dave attached the metal legs to a wooden board we painted black so the vanity would be very stable.  This old school desk got a brand new look and is ready for any child's room.

 If you are interested in this piece please contact us at davewhit4@gmail.com

My Mistake, My Triumph

I have already told you about how much I love the ease and look of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I have used, but now I will tell you of my attempt to make my own.  I am a somewhat frugal person and paying 3X as much for a quart of chalk paint went against this frugal fiber.  I had seen some homemade chalk paint recipes on some very good blogs, so I decided to try the best reviewed one.  I tried the plaster of Paris chalk paint recipe as follows: 1 cup latex paint, 2 1/2 TBS Plaster of Paris, and 1 1/2 TBS cool water.  I used some antique white latex paint we had on hand so it was not the newest freshest paint I had found.  I forged ahead and started painting a wooden bench seat Dave had finished putting together. The chairs were all wood and had a coat of old stain and polyurethane on them.  I didn't want to sand the whole thing but I did sand the paint off the bottom leg so it wouldn't bleed through. Here is the before picture:

I made the mistake of being way to confident and I painted the whole bench seat, minus the part that was to be upholstered. The homemade chalk paint went on thin, but I still painted.  The second coat didn't look that much better, but I still painted.  I let the whole thing sit to dry overnight. In the morning, to my dismay, the paint could be scratched off with my fingernail.  To those of you who don't paint furniture much, this is a very bad thing.  The homemade chalk paint had not stuck to the surface at all. The original idea of painting the whole bench in this homemade chalk paint now seemed rather foolish.  I had to strip the whole thing and still sand the whole bench again.  Here is a picture of the how the bench looked with the homemade chalk paint and a picture of it being stripped of the homemade chalk paint.  The chalk paint doesn't look that bad in the picture, but you could still see some of the dark wood showing through.

I let the bench sit for a day because I was mad at it, and I persevered with the homemade chalk paint recipe.  This time I got a brand new quart of red latex paint I was going to use on a table.  I looked up varying plaster of paris recipes, and read over the comments that other people made about homemade chalk paint.  I made the original recipe and painted a test patch (I learn!!) on the table.  I then changed the amounts of the recipe and mixed 1/2 cup of plaster of paris with 1/4 cup of water and 1 cup of the new latex paint.  They both mixed up beautifully with no problems.  I then did another test patch on the table.  The homemade chalk paints still went on runny.  I let the first test patches dry and painted a second coat.  I let the second coats dry for a whole night.  IT DIDN'T WORK :(  I don't know what I did wrong since it seems to work for everyone else on line!(I'm being slightly dramatic).  All this to say that I tried, and failed but I did finish my projects and they look great regardless of the time wasted.

I ended up lightly sanding the chair bench and then using a primer.  I used my handy paint sprayer to paint the bench in two coats of antique white.  Here it is with out its seat.

I painted the bottom of the wooden bench in the same color and let it dry.  I wrapped the top of the bench in three layers of batting and staple gunned it in place. I wrapped the chevron fabric over the batting and staple gunned the fabric into place.

Dave screwed the seat into place and this very long project was done. The bench was a triumphant success. Here is the end result.

 Please contact us with any interest at davewhit4@gmail.com

Sometimes We Just Refinish!

In our picking adventures  my husband and I sometimes find lovely furniture and lovely people.  In my search for chairs, we found a very nice man who had whole storage rooms full of furniture just waiting to be taken to a good home.  We had a great time talking to him about restoring furniture and we bought four chairs, a small table, an antique school desk, chair legs, and two wooden frames.  I was excited to take these great finds home and start working.  We started with a table and chair that just needed some sanding and staining.


My husband worked on putting the small table and chair back together.  This is the chair un-sanded and ready for  re-finishing.

We hand sanded the chair and the bottom part of the table with 60 grit sandpaper.  We power sanded the table top.  

 Dave made a new wooden seat for the chair, and stained the chair and table with dark wood stain.  After the stain was dry, he polyurethaned the table and chair with a satin poly.  

I covered the wooden seat with batting and secured the batting with a staple gun.  I then covered the seat in fabric and stapled that into place.  Dave attached the newly upholstered seat onto the chair and we had a beautiful table and chair set.

For interest in these pieces or in having some of your own furniture re-done, email us at davewhit4@gmail.com.  Check back later to see what I did with the rest of the furniture!

From Couch to Daybed

We found a Duncan Phyfe couch online that needed some work. The couch's structure was in great shape, but the upholstery was beyond ruined. Couches are very expensive to re-upholster even if you do it yourself, so I decided to make it into a daybed.  When we got home we immediately donned masks and gloves and took all the upholstery off.  It was a dirty and painful job.  I forgot to take a before picture, but I found a picture online that is very similar.  THIS IS NOT THE COUCH WE ACQUIRED BUT ONLY A SIMILAR PICTURE.  I try not to ruin perfectly good antiques:)

Dave then went to work taking the frame apart and adding depth to it so a twin mattress could fit on it.  I took out all the nails, which was also dirty and painful.  I don't have many pictures or words for this process because it was long and hard to describe.  Here is the frame without the upholstery.

Once Dave was completely done with the frame, I started upholstering the bed.  This was also a process too long to explain.  I used batting, fabric, a staple gun, and decorative nail heads.  This is the end product.  Hopefully you can tell from the pictures that the front frame and back legs are in excellent condition and very beautiful.  A twin mattress can be put in without a box spring.

 Contact us at davewhit4@gmail.com, if you are interested in a piece like this