Tales From the Crib

Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is having a great week.  Last week school started again so I only have 2 kids at home.  At least for now.  Baby girl will be here very soon! 

I thought since baby girl will be here before we know it I would share the details on the crib makeover that I finally completed. 

We bought this crib almost 7 years ago off Craigslist when I was pregnant with Levi.  Back then I had a love of cherry wood cribs and dressers.  My taste was totally different then.  After seeing this crib white I wish I would have painted this sooner.  Oh well!

Since this is our last baby I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a new white crib so I figured I could just spray paint this for a lot less.  After 3 boys sleeping in this crib there were a lot of teeth marks, scratches, and scuffs but I didn't care.

 

I wasn't about to sand this whole thing down so I saved myself the trouble and bought 5 cans of the oil based primer.  It worked perfectly.

I sprayed all the pieces down on one side then I let them sit for a few days.  Once the side I had painted was cured I flipped the pieces over and did the same thing.  I did lightly sand down any rough spots from the primer in between coats on each side. 

I made another trip to Lowes and picked up another 5 cans of spray paint by Valspar in just plain white with a Satin finish.  Then I went back to work painting.  When everything was painted all white I sealed it off with Valspar Clear Gloss Sealer in the can.   

 

 

Overall, painting the crib took about a week.  It is not perfect but ask me if I care!  I spent around $50-$60 on all the spray paint which is cheaper than a new crib. 

I'll be back soon with the details on the bedding that I used and how I made the crib skirt.  Yeah, I busted out my sewing machine for that one.

Goodwill Rescue: Old Chair-New Life

Hey hey!  It seems it has been a while since I did any sort of post on the good ol blog.  I haven't really done any projects over the last few months due to moving and the growing monster in my stomach.  But I do have a "to do" list that I would like to get completed before baby arrives in just a few weeks. 

One of the projects that I wanted to complete was finishing up the Goodwill chair I bought last November while we were still in Wyoming.

When I saw this chair I felt like I did the slow motion run across the store to snatch it up before someone else did.  Why would someone give up such an amazing chair?  I do not know!

Back then I got busy as quickly as possible to finish the chair.  But it was already November and it was freezing or way below freezing at times which made it very difficult to complete this makeover. 

I did manage to prime the chair, take off the fabric on the cushion, and take off the fabric on the chair itself.  I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and picked out a clearance fabric that is soft and I loved.  Then I recovered the cushion and dragged it down to the basement.

This is how it sat in the basement until we moved back to Texas in May.

Once here in Texas I pulled this chair out of our storage unit and realized there were a lot of nicks and scratches where the primer had come off from the move.  I pulled out the putty and filled in nicks and dents to make it look good again. 

I went to Lowes and bought Valspar Primer+Paint in white and got to work finishing this chair off.  After letting the paint sit for a few days then I sealed it with a clear gloss coat of spray paint also by Valspar.

Here is the beauty as of today.

I added the nailhead trim at the bottom to hold the fabric in place. 

Sidenote: doing nailhead trim just about drove me to the crazy house.  I'm too much of a perfectionist and that trim is anything but perfect.  But it works for now.  Notice I said "for now" because I'm not happy with those nails.  I discovered the nailhead trim by the yard and will eventually replace all that crookedness. 

I can officially mark this project off my list!

My Grandmother's Table



Before we leave I wanted to finish one last furniture project.  It was a total last minute project and I knew I had to finish it quickly or Matt would go crazy. 

 

In our room in Wyoming we won't have much space.  Matt will need a place to do his school work so I came up with an idea for a desk.  I believe this will fit in our room but we'll see when we get there in a few weeks.

 

This is my Grandmother's sewing table.  It is very special to me.  I remember when I was younger my cousin and I would play "bank" with this desk.  I would open the door to get the money out and hand it to her.  I love this table and will cherish it forever. 

 

 

The sewing machine that was in here weighed a ton!  A while back I plugged in the machine to see if it still worked.  Surprisingly, it did still work but it started to smoke.  I figured that's not good so we took out all the "guts" and now the table is so much lighter. 

 



I used oil based primer and primed this whole piece.  Sadly, this is not real wood so sanding this wasn't an option.  In the picture I didn't prime the top because I originally thought the top was real wood but later I discovered it wasn't.

 

After priming the whole table I took out that wood piece that was behind the door.  I wanted to add a place to store the computer or to put papers that Matt needs so I added a shelf here instead.

 



All the years I've had this table I've always thought the handle was black.  As I was just about to spray paint the handle black I saw a glimmer of something in the light.  So I started scrubbing this handle.  The more I scrubbed the more brass I saw underneath.  After 1 1/2 hours of scrubbing this handle it almost looks new.

 



So pretty and I love that there still is a little bit of the aged look to the handle.

 

Are you ready for the final product?

 

 

 

See how gorgeous that handle is with the new paint color?  It's perfect! 

 

How about a look at the set up?

 



The piece that the computer is resting on will have support brackets underneath it so that it won't break off when using the computer.  The printer is resting on a platform that I made to cover the hole where the sewing machine folded out.  I painted the platform gold to match the handle.

 

Oh and the inside looks like this.

 

 

I had to cut new support pieces for all four corners and put a new magnet in for the door.  The computer fits perfectly in here.  The basket on the door can hold pens, pencils, or whatever else Matt may need.

 

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

I think that my Grandmother would be proud of me and ok that I painted her table.  I love the way this turned out. 

 

Do you know the best part of this project?  It was all free!  I think that was Matt's favorite part too.  I used everything we had on hand.

 



Have a great week!  I have another room in our house coming up this week.

 

 



Side tables to benches

One of my favorite things to do is to give new life to something old and forgotten.  So many good pieces get thrown out and if I could collect them all I totally would.

While in Canton I found these end tables.  I was just about to leave and I decided to go back through the junk section one more time.  I just couldn't go home empty handed.  As I walked through these ugly end tables caught my eye.

I called Matt and had him measure how tall our current chairs were at the dining room table.  The nice lady that was selling these had a tape measure and these were the perfect height to turn into benches.

I paid $15 for these two ugly forgotten about end tables.

It took me a few weeks to have time to work on these but I knew exactly where I was going to start first.  I thought these looked a little too boxy for my taste so those support pieces had to come off.

 

Let me tell ya something.  Those support pieces were not meant to come off.  I was sweating trying to pull those blasted things off of there.  But I didn't give up and alas I won!  Taking the pieces off did not affect the balance of the tables either.

 

So next I sanded the legs down to smooth out the rough spots.  I also filled in holes and nicks with putty.  There was no need to sand the tops since I was going to cover them up eventually. 

 

Once the putty was dry I sanded all the spots down so they would be smooth and blend in once the legs were painted.  So two coats of spray paint primer and two coats of latex paint later this is what I had.

 

 

It was getting hot out so for the next part I came inside.  I turned the benches upside down and traced the shape of the top on to the foam with a Sharpie marker. 

 

I purchased the foam from Hobby Lobby.  To make the bench comfortable I knew I wanted 2 inch foam on top.  It was cheaper to buy the one inch foam and just cut out two pieces and stack them on top of each other.  To get the foam to stay in place I sprayed the foam and table with spray adhesive. 

 

  

Cutest photo bomb ever!!!  Just had to put this one in here.

I used an old sheet to cover the foam.  It gave the foam a smoother look for when I put the fabric on top.  I think I used about 2000 staples to get this sheet nice and tight.  Not really but there are a lot of staples underneath. 

Finally, I put the fabric on and again used 2000 more staples underneath. 

I love the way these turned out.  I still need to spray these with Scotchgard.  It's only a matter of time before these boys get stuff all over my pretty benches.  I will just enjoy them for now though.

Sources & cost:
Tables-$15
Primer-already had
Paint color-Swiss Coffee by Valspar $3 sample size
Foam-Hobby Lobby $15
Fabric-Hobby Lobby $9 

Total-$42 or $21 for each bench