{Sad to Fab Table Makeover}

There's not much I love more than a good furniture makeover, especially when it costs next to nothing!  No, I haven't been digging in my neighbor's trash again.  My uncle recently found a table with a cracked leg and some table legs from an unsalvageable table, and, of course, he thought of me.  :)  He brought them to me, and with the help of my dad, I now have a fabulous-looking table in my craft room! 

 I don't have a true "before" photo, but I have bits and pieces so you get the idea of what it looked like before.  This is the table top as I was sanding it down.

I sanded the varnish off, and in the picture, I've done the top half but not the bottom.  As I mentioned before, the table had a cracked leg.  My dad fixed that for me.

We took off all the table legs and replaced them with the other table legs my uncle brought.  Wasn't I lucky that they fit?!  Then it was time for my favorite part: stain and paint!

I used a dark Minwax stain that my dad had in the garage.  I brushed it on, then wiped it off with a rag.  (Yes, that is actually me in an "in-progress" photo.  My mom snapped it while I was working.) When the table top dried, I covered it with trash bags and primed and sprayed the table base white.  After a few coats of polycrylic, my table now looks fabulous!

I LOVE using a satin polycrylic on the pieces I refinish!  It has just enough shine without being too shiny.

I am really loving the dark wood top paired with the white base.  I so want to find a dresser to use this pair on!

Since the table is small, it fits well in the middle of my craft room.  I love having two surfaces to work on now.  I pull all kind of junk out when I'm working on a project, and now I have two places to put said junk.  :)  If you haven't seen my craft room reveal you can find it {HERE}.  Thanks for visiting me today!

{Craft Room Corner Desk}

I realized the other day that I have not posted the how-to for my craft room desk.  I find that a bit weird because it's a really important part of the room.  So here's how it came to be.

If you look at the photo above, you will see my craft room desk.  You can't find it through all the clutter, huh?  Well, it's behind the white stool in the corner.  It has the Audrey Hepburn picture on it.  Do you see it now?  If you still can't, that's okay.  It's a bit pitiful and covered with junk.  It consisted of two filing cabinets with a board over the top of them, and there wasn't much space for working on that thing.  When I decided to make over my craft room, I knew I had to have something bigger and prettier to work on.  So I started by painting the filing cabinets from the original desk white.  If you want the how-to on painting laminate, I discuss that {HERE}.  Once they were painted, I added some new drawer pulls I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I knew I needed a new top for the filing cabinets, so who did I turn to?  Anna White, of course!  She had the PERFECT corner table top plan that fits over two filing cabinets!  Click {HERE} to see the full plans.  With the help of my dad--well, I actually just helped him--we built the table top out of MDF.  (It was our first time using MDF, and I would MUCH rather use wood!)  I wish I had more pictures of the process, but I was on deadline to get this thing done, and I didn't have time to take a lot of photos.  Anna has great plans, though, so just follow those.  :)  Once we finished building the top, we put it on my newly painted filing cabinets, and here it is.

For the finish on the table, I primed it with Zinsser primer, and then I painted it with the same paint I used on the walls in the room.  Looking at this picture, though, you can tell that the desk top is really plain.  And if you follow my blog, you know that I don't really do "plain."  So I decided to add a little something to the table top--a white stripe around the edge.  Here's how to paint a perfectly straight, crisp stripe around the edge of a table top.

1. Tape along the edge of the table top following the straight edge.
2. Tape another row of tape right beside that tape, making sure NOT to overlap the tape.
3. Tape another row of tape right beside that tape, making sure NOT to overlap the tape.  At this point, you should have three rows of tape going along the entire edge of your table top.
4. Carefully remove the middle row of tape.  Now you have a perfectly straight border to paint.
5. Paint over the inside edges of your tape with the same paint you used on the table top.  This will keep the border paint from seeping under the tape and messing up your straight lines.  Then use a pouncer or a foam roller to apply the stripe paint within your taped border, being careful not to overload your brush with paint.
6. When your paint is almost dry, remove all the tape.

After I was finished painting, I applied three coats of Polycrylic to my table top to protect it from all my crazy crafting!

You can see that just by adding the white stripe around the edge of the table top, I was able to give the table top some definition.  It stands out much better now against the walls.

If you compare the new desk to the old desk, well, there is no comparison!  I have so much more room now, and since the desk is lighter, the room seems lighter.  You can see the full room reveal {HERE}, along with links to all the projects I did in the room.  My craft room is definitely my favorite room in the house now!

{Book Page Wreath}

You would think that by now I would have shown you tutorials for everything in my newly redecorated craft room, but that's not the case.  I still have a few more projects to share with you.  One of those is how I created my book page wreath.  It started with a wreath form that I purchased from the dollar store.

I cut LOTS of circles out of a large book I also purchased from the dollar store.  And to mix it up a bit, I cut the same size circles from coffee filters too.

I wrapped each circle around the end of a pencil, put hot glue on it, and stuck it to the wreath form until it dried.

Yeah, this step took a while.  When I had the wreath finished, it definitely needed some embellishments.  I purchased a paper mache bird from the dollar section at Michaels.  I covered it in glue and glittered the body of it.  I painted the beak gold, and glued rhinestones to the bird for eyes.  (I sprayed the bird with clear spray paint to try to keep the glitter from ending up all over the house.)  I used my Silhouette to create a banner that says "Create."

I glued the banner to some thin rope.  I glued some small clothespins to the wreath to hold the banner, and I glued the bird to the wreath.  But I needed something to place the wreath on to make it stand out.  I had this mirror laying around the house.  It needed a new look.  (And it really just needed out of the pile of junk it had been sitting in forever.)

I gave it a new life by spraying it with same the turquoise Valspar spray paint that I used to paint the bench I stole saved from my neighbor's trash.  I hung the mirror on the wall.  Then I hung the wreath on the mirror using one of those suction cup hooks.  (I don't know where it came from.  I found it when I was organizing my craft room.)  It's the perfect decor for the wall over my desk.

I love the glittery pink bird.

I HAD to have something glittery and pink in my craft room.  It just wouldn't be fair to my blog name if I didn't!

With a few dollars and a lot of work, I now have something pretty took look at when I'm crafting.  And that, to me, is inspiring.  :)

{Book Page B}

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of hanging out at Through the Eyes of the Mrs.  Beth (We almost have the same name!) invited me to share a project, so I shared how I created my book page B.  Y'all probably know by now that I like finding ways to use book pages in my crafts.  Recently when putting the finishing touches on my craft room makeover, I needed a little something to add to a vignette in the room.  I had a paper mache B in my craft stash, and I have LOTS of old books that I've bought from thrift stores.  I decided to combine the two with Mod Podge to create a vintage looking B.

I tore the book pages into different size pieces.  I like using pages that have different yellowish tints to them and that have different size print because they add interest.  I coated sections of the letter with Mod Podge and layered the paper.

When I finished covering the letter with the paper, I let it dry.  Then I got out my brown and black ink pads and rubbed them over the edges and some of the surface of the letter.

I covered the letter with a coat of Mod Podge to protect the paper, and my B was complete.

I love the aged look of the letter.

It's the perfect addition to the vignette I created on the table my dad and I made.

It's a small piece that adds a great personalized touch.

 Little pieces like this letter are what make a room design fun and unique.  It would be great to be able to afford pieces from great stores like Pottery Barn or Ballard Design.  Those pieces just aren't in my budget, though, and, in reality, they are pieces lots of other people have.  So don't be afraid or ashamed of creating inexpensive, unique pieces that make your home scream YOU.

{DIY $20 Vintage-Looking Table}

Do y'all get magazines each month?  I get two: Southern Living and Country Living.  My favorite of the two would have to be Country Living.   When the May issue came in the mail last month, I can't tell you how many times I looked at it!  It is probably the best issue ever, in my opinion.  There was one photo from an article called "600 Square Feet of Thrifty Style" that I think I drooled on.

{Photo by Victoria Pearson via Country Living}

Something about this photo just spoke to me.  I love the peacefulness of the room, the colors, the accessories, and THAT VINTAGE TABLE!  After looking at the photo obsessively many times, I decided that I just had to have a table like that.  I had the perfect wall for it in my craft room, and since my dad is pretty good with tools and building stuff, it couldn't be that hard to attempt to make one like it with his help.  So I took my dog-eared magazine to my dad's for us to come up with a plan.  Here's what we came up with, keeping in mind the dimensions of the wall I wanted to put the table on...

You can click on this picture to see a larger version.

I went to the lumber store near my house to buy the wood, but they didn't have 2x2's, so I had to buy fence pickets, which are the same size.  They were treated, which I hated, but it's all they had.  (That's why the legs in the unfinished table photos will look different from the other wood on the table.)  The lumber cost me $20, and all the other supplies either my dad or I had already. Anyway... First, we cut all our pieces according to the cut list above.  We cut the two 13 1/2" pieces to look like the inspiration table.  (See photo below.)  Then we made a box using the two 45 1/2" 1x6's and the two 13 1/2" 1x6's.  We attached the pieces to each other with wood glue and nails.

When the box was complete, we used a scrap piece of 1x2 to create a brace in the middle of the box to attach the top boards to.

We actually attached the piece sideways--different than my dad (J-Man) is holding it in the photo.  Then we started attaching the three 50" 1x6's to the top with wood glue and nails.  (I promise I really did help on this even though I'm not in any of the photos...)

Once we had the table top attached, it was time to attach the legs with wood glue and screws.  (I neglected to put screws on the supply list, but you could use nails if you wanted.)

At this point I was a bit scared.  It looks like a spindly legged baby horse.  You know...when the baby horse's legs look like they are WAY too big for his body when he's first born.  But I know from experience that there's, more often than not, a stage in a project where it seems like the project will become a weird looking disaster, so I didn't give up on my little pony yet...   The next step was painting the table.  I sanded it down really well.  Then I covered the top of the table and sprayed the bottom with white spray paint.  (I primed the legs with Kilz spray first since they were made from treated lumber.)

A vintage table would not be crisp white, though, nor would it be completely smooth.  So I got out nails, pliers, screws, chains, and my hammer and banged up the table pretty well.  Then I glazed the table base with Ralph Lauren glaze mixed with black paint.  (Brush on the glaze and then wipe it off with a cloth.)

The glaze stays in all the dings and dents, and it takes the new off the white.  When the base of the table was finished, I had to figure out how to make the top look like the inspiration table.  There are many tutorials on the web about using steel wool and vinegar, like this one from Our Adventures in Home Improvement.  I decided to try it.

I brushed it on and waited with excitement...and nothing really happened.  I put coat after coat of the mixture on, but it just didn't look like I wanted it to.  (I neglected to take picture during this part because I was getting really frustrated.)  Yeah, it looked a bit darker, but it wasn't the old barn wood look I was going for.  I did a Google search for aging new wood.  People were saying that when doing this technique, you don't have to sand the wood first.  I guess you shouldn't sand it first.  I saw that you can use lime (definitely didn't have that around the house...), tea, and Clorox to age wood too.  So while the table top was still soaked with vinegar, I brushed some tea on it.  Still not what I was looking for.  While the wood was still wet, I put some Clorox in a cup and brushed it on the top, going with the grain.  THAT was more like what I wanted!  (I'm not sure that you would get the same effect if you brushed straight Clorox on dry wood, so be careful!)  I let the table dry for a couple of days to before I put a sealer on it.

I like to use Polycrylic as a sealer.  I put a few coats on the entire piece.  When I finished, I was so flippin' excited!!!  I have my very own table that was featured in Country Living!!!  Okay, not really.  But it looks A LOT like the table from the magazine, and it only cost about $20 to make!

I am so in love with the finish on the top of the table!

The vinegar or either the Clorox caused the nails to rust, which I love.

I like how the glaze makes the imperfections in the table stand out, which adds more vintage-like goodness.

The table is part of makes this area of my craft room my favorite.

If you haven't checked out the entire craft room makeover reveal, you can find it here.