Sunday Photo Gallery

So many new projects out of the shop this week and a ton more are in process. No rest for this girl in the coming weeks, so keeping it short today and simply sharing a photo gallery.

Buffets. Clocks. Custom Industrial Signs.

Enjoy the first week of Autumn---I love these cooler temps and gorgeous fall colors!

~Crystal

Midweek Makeover: Mid Century Buffet

 Who can deny that we tend to gravitate to comfortable situations and familiar territories. It's so much easier in every way when you know what to expect. I know that is certainly the case for me most of the time. However, on occasion, I force myself to try something that is not in my wheelhouse...this Mid Century buffet was one of those projects.

It's really hard to articulate the frustrations that went into this project. Simply looking at the before and after pictures, you're probably thinking 'she's just being overly dramatic'...'how could this project have been that tough!' I should have captured some 'in progress pictures' so you could thoroughly enjoy the chaos!

But since I don't have detailed pictures to share, imagine if you can, two solid weeks of:

Paint a little bit

{notice poor paint coverage issues}

Stand back and critique

Apply a clear coat to seal the entire piece in hopes of better paint coverage

Paint some more

Critique some more

More coverage issues

{vow that I'm never taking on another mid century piece AS LONG AS I LIVE}

Contemplate throwing the buffet in the fire pit

{no that's wasteful, I'll put it out at the curb for some eager passerby}

Apply more sealer

Resolve to leave it sit for another day and assess the mess in the morning

Repeat

This went on for TWO, LONG, FRUSTRATING weeks. I thought I would never get this nightmare out of the shop!

'How could one piece be so finicky and temperamental', I would mumble as I stomped through the shop. {I may have used some graphic language too, but I'll spare you those details}

And then it happened...I began to see the progress unfolding and I was actually starting to like what I was witnessing before my eyes. Who knew it was possible!

I can honestly say that I'm happy I stuck with this project and finished it up because it's quite the looker now!

~Crystal

One Nightstand {Nope, Two!}

My husband brought home this antique vanity for me earlier this spring. Seriously, how lucky am I! Some women get excited when their man brings them flowers...not me, I get all silly over a junky piece of furniture. To each their own I guess:)

This vanity is a different style then I'm use to making over, but it's good for me to work on pieces that are outside my comfort zone. {I just kept telling myself that as I stared at this piece in the garage for THE ENTIRE SUMMER!}

Finally a couple weeks ago, as we were embarking on Operation: Park in the Garage Again, I forced myself to tackle this makeover.

What's not apparent from the before picture is the abundant veneer issues and the broken mirror. After chewing on this girl for a few months, I decided to deconstruct it into two compact and functional nightstands.

After applying loads of wood filler, sanding and then more wood filller...somehow these little gems came to life. I used my favorite ASCP in Graphite and some new cream colored ceramic knobs to update the pair and make them uber cute once again.

Here's the before and after as well as a bunch of closeups for your viewing pleasure.

 As always, thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest makeover. Hope you are enjoying a beautiful Labor Day weekend!

~Crystal

This week's link ups include:
Finding Silver Pennies
 Vintage Inspiration Party

Modern Rustic End Tables

Leather tops on tables.

You know the ones...they only looked good until someone spilled a drink or burned a hole in the leather. Well my latest project was a textbook case of yucky leather tables in dire straits and in serious need of a makeover.

 I started by removing the four leather inserts on the end tables.

What was I left with?

A clean slate and lots of potential.

When I removed the leather, I was left with a slight dip on the tops. I've seen a lot of makeovers where people use yard sticks to resurface the tops and i thought i could possibly do that. But I really wanted a cleaner look, something without all the advertisements that you see on yard sticks.

So I decided to use plain strips of wood cut at different lengths. I sanded, stained and sealed each one to create a rustic look and feel. I know it looks like I used different stains on the wood, but I didn't. Each piece of wood took the color differently, a pleasant surprise!

Now the hard part...trying to organize and fit them all in place, It was like a puzzle nightmare! I was sorta regretting my design decision a this point. {'Oh Crystal, you've had better ideas than this', I thought over and over in my head!}

I didn't throw in the towel, and man oh man am I glad I didn't!

Once I had all of the strips in place, I painted the table bodies with Annie Sloan Old Ochre and Old White, heavily distressing and then sealed them with clear and dark wax. To finish off the look, I tossed the old hardware and updated it with some new chunky silver cup pulls.

A few more shots of the tables.

Despite the moments of doubt and frustration, I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Well, that's all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this project makeover and I've inspired you to take on a leather top makeover of your own!

-Crystal

Linking up to:
Vintage Inspiration Party
Dream. Create. Inspire.

Antique Chest of Drawers {Reggie}

Please allow me to introduce you to Reggie.

He's rich and sophisticated. He knows and embraces his assets and he highlights them naturally! He's sturdy and glides effortlessly on his beautiful roller feet.

He's every girl's dream.

So why do I call him Reggie? Well...when I was prepping this tall beauty, I found a letter carefully stowed under a drawer liner. The letter was to Reggie from a lady that had apparently made a romantic move on Reggie and was apologizing if her actions had caused problems between Reggie and his wife. There wasn't a date on the letter, so I don't know exactly how old it was, but the fact that Reggie had kept the letter all these years was intriguing. I love finding little nuggets like this inside the pieces I restore. 

Here are a few more pictures highlighting the beautiful wood grain, the new hardware and the birds eye maple drawers.

Thanks for looking at my guy Reggie!

Have a great Sunday!

~Crystal

Hepplewhite Style Dresser Set

Couldn't have been happier when I found this set at local second hand store. Seems as though I've been getting many requests for dresser sets lately so I'm always on the look out! A quick cleaning and various repairs to the drawers and I would be on my way with this transformation. {various repairs to the drawers is sort of a lie...we rebuilt most all of them because their previous life was not so kind. But at least they were super clean so with a fair amount of glue, nails and clamps; they are as good as new}

 

This is a custom color...I created a medium cool grey by mixing Graphite and Paris Grey. The result is this very cool grey with some blue undertones. I love mixing Annie Sloan paints, creating my own color allows me to get the exact shade I'm looking for. 

I very lightly distressed these pieces and then sealed them both with clear wax. 

 All those drawers and all that storage are going to be perfect heading into winter! {room for lots of sweaters}

that sheen + original hardware =  show stoppers!

That's all for this morning, have a great weekend everyone!

~Crystal

Reclaimed Grainery Bench

A small, modest, and weathered grainery in Savage, Minnesota.

  

But not so fast, the wood that was reclaimed from the inside of this little building is jaw dropping.

  

This grainery building was constructed by a friend's father many years ago. What is extra special here is that the wood used to build the structure was made from lumber that was reclaimed previously from a local homestead.

Our friend entrusted us with some of the reclaimed boards to create a family keepsake. Of course we were honored and excited to get started.

When we were cleaning the boards, the layers of beautiful paint colors were reveled. Blue, red, yellow...it screams Americana! We also discovered lots of square nails in the boards which leads us to believe this lumber was probably close to 100 years old and quite amazing.

Here is the industrial bench that we created from those boards...

 

It was truly an honor to be able to create a bench for our friend and know that she is able to keep a piece of her family farm with her for many years to come!

~Crystal

Driftwood Cedar Chest

When I started the makeover on this project I had a vision to create a warm driftwood look with layers of texture and depth. 

That was the vision...but actually getting there was more challenging than I thought. I went through every stage of the creative process...

image credit, www.bloglovin.com

It's a funny graphic, but sadly, it's all too true for most of my projects! Ha!

Anyhow, back to the Cedar Chest, here is how I accomplished the driftwood look:

First I gave the entire piece a real rough coat of ASCP Country Grey. By rough I mean not thorough and in a real whimsical fashion, imagine brush strokes in all different directions.

When that was dry, I waxed the entire piece with ASCP Dark Wax.

Then I washed the entire piece with ASCP Graphite and wiped the wash back leaving just a hint of the graphite.

I sanded a few spots, areas that would typically show wear and tear.

Finally, I waxed the entire piece again with dark wax and gave it a nice buffing to make the finish shine.

I went back and forth on whether or not I should paint the cute feet, but ultimately decided that leaving them natural and giving them a quick coat of dark wax to freshen them up would highlight them the best.

I'm smitten by the layers and texture that I achieved on this cedar chest. I guess the morale here is to keep pressing on when you have a vision and hopefully it all turns out just like you had hoped!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great week,

~Crystal