The name is Red...Farmhouse Red

Happy Independence Day everyone!  We have some History Channel special going and probably will most of the day.  I think Andy is planning on washing the cars, and I am sure I will busy myself with some project.  But you didn't stop over here to find out how we are spending the day.  So, on to the project!

The story starts with the day I found this gem in the store for $10...

Solid wood, vintage look, good size (about waist height), and a doable project.  Plus, I had been pining over this project by Katie Bower and was just waiting for my piece of red furniture to come along.  It took me a while to figure out where I'd use it, but I did and so I snatched it up and brought it home with me.  It found it's new home here:

To house this hot mess:

Much better already, right?  It was, but it needed some work.  The finish was, shall we say, yucky.  Plus, we'd need to reconfigure the doors to allow the garbage can to pull out without having to open both sides.  Also, the garbage didn't pull out very easily.  Oh, the wheels began a turning.  But first, I had to get that finish up to par.  

I started by sanding down the top and then applying two coats of Minwax Polyshades in Antique Walnut Gloss...

And went from this:

To this:

So much better!  The stain settled into the kicks and dings the top had acquired over time and gave it that old look I love.

Now, onto the body of the cabinet.  I opted not to sand but to just put on the paint.  This is where things get interesting.  The color we had selected was not doing it for me.  I was going for Farmhouse Red--a muddy, dark, red color.  This color was full on Salmon Pink.  100% the wrong color.  I gave it two coats and let it dry but no dice.  At this point, I headed back out to the store and picked up a couple test pots of Red Chili Pepper by Valspar.

I could tell by the first coat that this was what I had imagined all along.  So, the cabinet got two good coats, time to dry, and then a light sanding with 220 grit paper.  To give it the Vintage Farmhouse look I desired, I went back over it with Minwax Jacobean stain. 

Oh, you can't see the label?  Let me explain.  In the process of discovering that the first color was the wrong color, I kicked the can of stain over.  Totally by accident, not out of frustration.  But frustration did ensue after that.  Most of it ended up on the garage floor, but some of it was on my leg, my socks, my shoes, and even less in the can.  There was enough left though to complete the project. 

Once I put a quick swipe of stain on the cabinet (quickly followed by a wet cloth), I ended up with the following:

Yeah, they do look like two different colors.  It's really somewhere in between the two (click the pictures to enlarge).  

Now, let me explain how we reconfigured the doors.  We decided we wanted a pull out option, so our first step was to fuse the doors together.  We laid them down with the right spacing and attached a piece of plywood with the nail gun.

We then attached the drawer rollers, first to the inside of the cabinet:

And then to the shelf that the garbage can would sit on:

These come in packages of two.  We used 16 inch, medium weight drawer glides.  They were $4 at Lowes for a set.  The last thing we did was attach supports to the door and shelf:

You can't see the shelf here, but imagine it propped up along the upright piece of the brace.  We just used metal braces, also from Lowes.  I think they were $6 each.  So once we had that done, we brought the whole thing in the house, and set it up...

I'm having a hard time getting a picture that shows the rich red this really is, but this is pretty close.  And here is an 'in-use' shot...

We might need a slightly smaller garbage can, but for the time being, it works.  We also need to get the handles attached to the corners of the now-faux cabinet doors to match the rest of the kitchen hardware, and put a weight on the back of the shelf (its front heavy right now). You can see pictures of the rest of our kitchen here and here.  Its amazing how the door/drawer style matches our current cabinets to a T.  

Can I just say I L-O-V-E this cabinet?!  It turned out exactly like I thought it would, and it plays into the Vintage Farmhouse look I'm shooting for in the kitchen.  Its a great pop of color in the light kitchen and helps pull in the dark color wood in the dining room furniture.  I have more plans for this color, so stay tuned, but in the meantime, here are a couple more things I have picked up for cheap to play into my VF theme...

     

These sit above the double window in the kitchen.  The double window is right above the new cabinet.  Picked these up for $1 each.

 

Remember what I said about roosters?  These fall into Vintage Roosters, so they are acceptable.  A set of four canisters, they hold dog treats (flour), candy (sugar), my work laptop cords (coffee), and pens (tea).  I want to say I paid $20 for the set.  

Did you happen to see that wire basket on the top of the new cabinet?  I picked that up for about $1.50, and initially bought it to house Christmas balls during the holidays, but I am kind of thinking it's also Vintage Farmhouse-y and now on the hunt for a couple dozen fake eggs to put in it.  

This project for sure stretched us.  Retro-fitting a piece of furniture isn't the easiest thing to do, but we made it work (with a lot of measuring, thinking, and time).  When it was all said and done, Andy said "That is beautiful!"  Now I call that a successful makeover! 

A-Round We Go

So, do you remember when I gave you a sneak peak of these guys?

Three round, metal mirrors.  In three different colors of metal--Gold, Silver, and Bronze.  These colors might look good next to an Olympians' medal case, but not in my house.  But, I could see they had potential in a different color.  I debated and debated on whether or not to get them.  I was trying to visualize where I would put them, but couldn't settle on a place.  So I left.  In fact, I left the store twice without them!  I should add here that the merchandise in this thrift store goes fast...they have good stuff.  So, imagine my surprise when I went back a third time and they were still there.  I declared it meant to be, and in my cart they went.  

When I got home, I gave them a quick coat of primer (just to make sure the new paint would stick) and then gave them a few thin coats of this stuff:

This is my favorite spray paint lately.  It gives a really cool bronze luster when the light hits it right.  This shade has been my anchor color in the living room.  Not sure if 'anchor color' is really a design phrase, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

So anyway, after I painted them, it took me about three weeks to figure out where they would go.  But last weekend, we made a couple new shelves for our living room to go in Gramma's Corner.  I knew once we got those shelves up that I needed to think outside the box and just set them on the shelf.  So, without further adieu, here they be:

Now that these pictures are on here, I can see the reflection of all the other unfinished projects in the rest of the room...as in no crown moulding, and empty picture frames on the other shelves across the room.  Here's my excuse...the motivation has yet to come upon me to finish those other projects.  You understand, right?  Right.  Ok, now on to the tour of the other items on the shelves...

 

I'm a sucker for apothecary/candy jars, so when I found this one for $3, I had to have it.  And here she sits, with some potpourri to show off her curves.

I love this article so much I framed it!  It's titled 5 Things I Have Learned from my Pets.  It was in one of my issues of Real Simple.  I love that magazine.  I keep every back issue.  I'm ok with it, and Andy has learned to be ok with it.  Ok back to the article...if you are interested in reading what it has to say, you can click here.  We particularly like the phrase, "You should have a cupcake for that!" 

This little guy I picked up in Goodwill for a couple bucks.  No story behind him, he's just cute and plays into my obsession with animals.  Moving on...

I dearly love this mommy giraffe and baby giraffe brass set.  At one point, I was going to strip the lacquer off and tarnish the bronze (you can kind of see where that backfired when I tried a homemade method of doing so) but now that they are up there, I'm kind of liking the brass color.  Thoughts?

Speaking of thoughts...this also came from Real Simple.  They have several of these in each issue, and I've made a habit of tearing them out and stockpiling them for uses such as this.  It's a girl on a bike riding through a city park and it says: 

"Having money is rather like being a blond.  It is more fun but not vital. --Mary Quant

So now, here's what the corner looks like from a couple angles...

I'm liking it!  It's a fun corner and it plays off all the other colors in the room.  The shelves are from plans from Ana White and can be found here.  No joke, they really are $10 ledges, and a snap to put together.  We've now put together two sets and have plans for at least one more set for the kitchen (that's a sneak peak, by the way!)  Once they are together, I paint them white and give them a found-style finish by distressing them and then using stain to age them.

I'd like to leave you with a wish for a Happy 4th of July!  Let's not ever forget the sacrifices made for the freedom we celebrate.  God Bless America!

I love a good rummage sale!

Last weekend when Andy's parents were here, they tipped me off to a rummage sale that would be taking place this Saturday at the parish they attend when in town.  Now I have quite the running list of ideas in my head for projects around the house, and a rummage sale sounds like a good place for cheap materials!  So yesterday morning, we stopped by the sale, and was it a hoppin'!  While I didn't find anything for the big projects I had in mind, I found some really cool home decor stuff for next to nothing.  With a little TLC, they will easily be able to find a place in our home.

First up is this set of wood candlesticks.

I'm seeing a new finish or coat of paint.  I almost want them to turn into the unexpected element in a room.  Maybe a really bright, bold color?  Who knows.  But, for 25 cents each, I couldn't pass them up.

Next up is this rooster wall hanging/hook.  Or maybe it's a turkey?

I'm going to go with rooster for the time being.  Now, I like roosters, but I am very picky about which ones I like.  They have to be vintage country or I'll keep walking.  This is vintage country, and I'm digging it.  I am guessing it's real copper as it has started to patina (either that or its grease from someone's kitchen) but I'm kind of digging the copper color and I probably won't change him.  There wasn't a price on him, but I took a chance.  The lovely lady checking us out said 25 cents.  I said sold. 

And last, but certainly not least, is this beautiful regal boy.   

He was covered in something, still don't know what.  I am guessing he was living in somebody's plant jungle and was covered in dried plant junk.  At any rate, a little bit of Dawn and a firm bristle brush cleaned him up good as new.  He's just beautiful, and probably my favorite buy of the day.  He's gong to live in our living room, but I'm not sure if he will keep his post by the TV or not.  That's where he'll live for now though.  At a dollar, he wasn't the cheapest thing I bought, but still quite a steal.  Last night, Katie realized he was there, got up on her back legs and gave him a sniff.  He is now her boyfriend.  

Speaking of Kater-Paws, she'd like to let the blog world know that this is how she plans on spending her Sunday afternoon.  

Well, that's all I have for now.  Have a relaxing Sunday afternoon, and I'll be back with some more projects soon!

Project Headboard

As you might remember, I tossed out this picture earlier this week:

Yeah, not so pretty, but it had potential.  At least that was my opinion when I found it on Craigslist for $20.  For quite some time, I had been scouring thrift stores and Craigslist for a full size headboard to put in our small guest room.  I even considered making one myself--either with fabric or an old door we had.  But when I saw this for sale for $20, I decided to give it a shot.  I took this little baby home with me for $15 and started thinking about how I would make it look, how shall I say this, not so 70's?  

Well, it only took one day and really stressful day at work for me to start work on it.  Not sure that you can see it from the picture above (sorry it's so bad, I took it on my phone), but there are a lot of round areas that would be tough to sand.  I knew from the beginning I wanted it to be white to go with the other furniture in the room.  So I opted to not sand, but rather use this wonderful gem called Zinsser.  This stuff is awesome--it sticks to everything and dries fast!  Perfect for my impatient self.  

So I gave it a nice coat of primer while the doggies watched from the backyard.  It seems to dry on impact, so I was able to start the next phase--spray painting!  I love spray paint.  Again, perfect for items that have lots of crazy curves and antsy people like myself!  I used this lovely stuff:

It's a nice off-white color.  Just right for the room it would be going in.  So, two and a half cans later, this is what I ended up with:

We liked it, but we both agreed it was too...too...too...perfect.  So, I took a piece of sandpaper to it's lovely new finish, and came out with this revised option:

Yes, much more our speed.  The new finish would go a lot better with the desk that's already in the room too.  What's cool is that because I didn't sand it down in the beginning, the dark finish came through when I distressed it later on.  I tried to use the sandpaper in the normal places it would get worn, had it actually been used with the solid white finish.

The next night, I put a very light coat of poly to seal everything in, and let it set till the next evening.  The back of the can said three coats of sealer is best, but I was happy with one coat, and again, I am impatient.  So, once it had set for 24 hours, we took it in to see how it looked.  Once we got it attached to the frame, we really liked it!  Except for one small problem.  Take a look and see if you can figure out what the problem might be...

Yep, it's a wee bit short.  But, for the time being, it serves it's purpose.  No more pillows getting tangled up in the curtains.  Also, we were having company the next day, so no time to make it perfect (and it still hasn't been fixed!) but it would be easy to add a couple inches with a 4x4 post added to the bottom.  Here is a picture with part of the pillows moved:

And maybe just one more...

I'm pretty proud of this little guy!  Maybe we'll get around to adding some height to this...sometime.  But for now, it works!  And, it was easy and fun!

Something to whet your appetite...

Want to find out what I did with this:

and these?

Well, stay tuned!

My first post!

Welcome to my new blog!  I've lost access to my old email address, so I also lost access to my old blog (thefreemanadventures.blogspot.com).  It's been so long since I have even posted on there anyways that I thought it might be a good idea to just start from scratch.  My platform has changed; the previous blog was to document our move to CA, and then back to the Midwest, and then I tried to make it a home update blog, but that did not happen.  So here goes, with a new idea and a new blog.

For a while now, I have been purchasing things (furniture, home decor, etc) for next to nothing off Craigslist or in thrift stores, and with a makeover, turning them into a prized possession.  It never gets old telling someone that I refinished this, or I picked that up for $1.99.  So, while I was at work today, the bright idea of starting a blog of befores and afters (and maybe some in-betweens and how-to's) would be fun!  Now, I am by no means an expert, and some of my methods may make some cringe, but hey, it works for me and I enjoy the results!

I have a few projects up my sleeve that have already been completed, so in the next few days I will share those.  In the meantime, thanks for visiting my new blog, and stay tuned!