Little Red Riding Hood, Oh Wait, That's Already Been Done, How about Little Red Bench

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 Wow, benches are just as popular this year as they were last year.  I will do my best to keep this trend going :)

This one started with a piece of a headboard that a friend gave me.  It was a little wide so I cut a little off the sides. I gave it a good sanding, added some back legs from a chair, and some embellishments, then I went to the scrap pile cherished salvaged wood stash for the rest of it.

I struggled over this one a little bit, first I was going to paint it white and add some subway style text, but I felt like it needed to be brightened up a bit.  Do you think this is bright enough?

I primed it and then painted a couple of coats of "Red letter day".  Then I antiqued it with ebony stain.  Next step is a coat of polyurethane.

For me it's just not done until it has a nice comfy foam seat cushion on it, with some gorgeous fabric of course.  I felt like the print was offset just a little so I took it off and redid it, but I didn't take another picture.

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100th Post, Woo Hoo! Pallet Coffee Table and Yet Another Bench! Oh Yeah, and a run in with a moose :(

Pin It I can't believe it but this is my one hundredth post! I started this venture in June 2012, it was such a scary endeavour for me, I mean, really, I was slow even to join Facebook and didn't do it until the family pressure finally convinced me. After that I wanted to start a blog for quite a while before I finally did it, and now here we are 2 years and 100 posts later.   Honestly I can't believe you people are interested in what I do, but I am so thankful that you check out what I have worked on, and truly, truly love the comments you have written.  I was always afraid that my friends were just humouring me when they told me my projects were good, but when total strangers take the time to comment it makes me believe I do good work, so thank you to all that have left comments!  Except the spammers, I mean really, why do they do it, I just delete them anyway, and even if I didn't, what would they get out of it?  Do they really believe that someone coming to my site to look at furniture or baking is going to read their comment and go to their Viagra site, or whatever it may be? Seriously?

I need to update my information since I am now retired!  Selling a few pieces of furniture won't make up for the loss of a regular wage, but it gives me slightly more time to produce more furniture, and life is short people, go out there and enjoy it!

On to the main topic of the post, it's a double whammy today.  First up, another bench, are you all getting tired of seeing my benches?  Well, sorry about that if you are because I don't see myself stopping, ha ha.  I try to make each one different and creative so I hope I don't bore you.  I just never knew so many people needed benches, but I'm glad they do!
I don't have a before picture for this one because it would just be an old window, some scrap wood, and a couple of chair legs, so you will just have to picture that in your head, okay?

The second project is something I was considering since I had just obtained a couple of pallets that were heading for the dump, then a friend called and asked if I could make him one.  I asked so many questions about what he wanted that he finally told me he just wanted a coffee table made out of pallets and stained, the rest was up to me.  People don't realize how many options there are when working on a piece of furniture, which is why my preference is not to do commissioned work, it's just easier to suit myself, and if you like it, awesome.  But of course that doesn't stop me from taking commissions, hey, did I mention I have no income now, ha ha.  Anyway, no before photo on this one either as I'm sure you all know what a pallet and pile of wood looks like.

This picture was taken before I added the shelf.

Here is the finished product!

Oh, as a little side note, our daughter graduated Dental Hygiene, yay!  Unfortunately, on the way home from Thunder Bay we tangled with a moose on the highway!  Fortunately Johnny and I were unhurt, which is truly amazing, God is good people, God is very, very good!  Here are a couple of pictures of my poor car.

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Bedside Table Makeover

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Aren't these a couple of beauties? Ummm, no, no they aren't, but they could be!

I sanded them down.

I didn't take pics of the other steps, so here is the finished product.

That may have been picture overkill, but it's late and I'm just too tired to be selective ;)

I painted these for a customer and she picked the finishes and knobs from choices I gave her.

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Vintage Suitcase Makeover = A Compact Desk

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Before I get to today's post let me tell you what has been happening in my life.  First my husband and I, along with our daughter and son-in-law just got back from Europe.  This is a long awaited holiday for us.  My husband was born in Croatia, and emigrated to Canada when he was 13 years old, after being orphaned a few years earlier.  We sought out his exended family and childhood friends and it was absolutely awesome!
Also, while we were away the paperwork went through for my retirement from Health Canada!  Yikes!  This is quite surreal!  So although I know I can keep myself busy, it is a scary realization that I gave up my job.  More time for furniture and blogging I guess.  So on to my little project that I mostly completed before our trip.

I decided to makeover this little vintage suitcase.

Before I knew it I had the lining torn out, whoops, no picture.

I painted it white, stencilled it with stencils that I cut with my Silhouette machine.  Then I used polyurethane to protect the paint.  I relined the inside and added a removable shelf for a writing surface.  I also added legs and antiqued the whole piece.  After we returned from holidays I added supports to the legs to make it a little sturdier.

I hope you like it!

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Modern Magnificence, A Beautiful Dresser Makeover

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I bought this dresser at a yard sale, the finish was bad, but it was still good and sturdy.

I sanded the top because the finish was very worn.  I lean toward curves and scrolls etc, but I have to admit sanding something flat is so easy!  The top looked so good that I decided to sand the front.  Then the front looked so good I decided to go ahead and sand the whole thing.

At this point I was still planning to use some bright coloured paint somewhere on this thing.

I stained the top and front and was going to paint the rest, but I just couldn't commit to a colour.

I decided to move on to choosing hardware since I couldn't decide on a colour. 

 So... go modern?

Old school?

Add a little bling? (Always a good choice.)

And the winner is...

I love these little guys!

Now the problem with choosing the modern hardware is that I needed to cover the little holes left by the old hardware.  I had a few ideas but settled on this one, numbers.  At this point I was planning to paint the rest of the dresser white to match the numbers.  I asked my friend Laura what she thought and she suggested leaving the trim natural.  After much thought I decided to stain the sides and leave the rest natural.  It was a "natural" choice for this one, and I believe it was the right choice.

I know I probably say this every time, but I really LOVE this one!

I know this deserves some gorgeous background and beautiful staging, but my workshop is on the second story of my little building and I just can't wrestle my furniture around by myself (well, not once the finish is so pretty at least), and I can never wait to get them posted, so please try to ignore the mess and just feast your eyes on the beauty of the piece. :)

I think I will take wheels off of it, but for now it was so nice to easily be able to wheel it around to work on it, that I think I will leave them on for now.

Big news here, in less than 2 weeks My husband, daughter, son-in-law, and I are heading to Croatia.  Croatia is my husbands homeland and he has never been back since he came to Canada as an orphan in 1972.  When we get home from there I am taking a year off work, possibly leading to retirement.  We have starting gutting a stone house that we own, and are planning on redoing the whole house.  Life is going to be getting busier than ever!

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Blue Moon, You Saw Me Painting Alone; Blue Dresser Makeover

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This dresser was one of my daughter's finds at a garage sale.  She finds me great stuff and totally supports my junking habit!

At first glance it looks like it's in great shape, but it did have some problems.  I filled some holes and sanded it down to get rid of some ugly looking stuff.

The veneer on one side has gone wavy, I have painted over it but am not sure if I am going to leave it like that or scrape it off and repaint, the jury is still out.

I painted the whole thing in a soft blue, I struggled with whether to add a design that would enhance the little bit of original carved design on the drawers, or ignore it and go ahead with something more bold.  I decided to go with a bold design.  As I was cutting out the stencil my plan was to paint it with white or silver, but I was leaning toward white, once I put the stencil on it I realized it needed to be black.  In the '70's my cousin had a baby blue Plymouth Duster with black stripes, since painting this dresser blue I couldn't get that colour combination out of my head.

The picture above is a look at my first attempt.  It was still lacking, so I added to the design in the top right corner and decided to carry it onto the top.

Now the ever present question, to antique or not to antique?  You guessed it, antiquing won out again.  I love the clean crisp look of fresh paint, but also love it when a little character is added.

I spray painted the original hardware, and it's done! 

Isn't she pretty?

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Lady in Red, Dining Table Makeover

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I loved this table as soon as I saw it.  I love the shape of the legs.

Although I liked the grain of the wood, I knew I didn't want to strip it, I decided to paint it and leave some of the grain showing through.

Do you see the grain peeking through on the legs and the apron of the table.

I made stencils with my Silhouette machine, and stenciled the designs on.  That might sound easy, but in truth it took over 10 hours to choose a design, size it properly, pick out the coordinating design for the edges, cut it, prepare it for painting, etc.

But, you know me, once I have a vision in my mind, I need to carry it out.

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