$2 Chalkboard Sign - Home Sweet Home

A few weeks ago, I decided to decorate the second story shelf in my entry, and this sign ened up being part of my decor.

I found the frame at Goodwill for $1.99.  Since I purchased it on the first Saturday of the month, I only paid $1 for it.  I didn’t have a purpose for it at the time of purchase, but I loved the color and knew I could do something creative with it.

While thinking about things to put on my shelf in the entry, I remembered I had the frame and decided to make a chalk board sign out of it.  I wanted the sign to be light-weight, so I completed this project using a piece of foam board from the Dollar Tree and supplies that I already had in my craft drawer.

First, I cut the board to fit the frame.

Then, using chalk board paint a foam roller.....

......I painted the board.  

Once the paint had dried, I lined the board up with the frame to make sure it fit perfectly….

….and then I hot glued the board to the back of the frame.

Lastly, I took a piece of chalk and wrote “Home Sweet Home” on the board…..

…before enlisting my husband to climb on a ladder and arrange a few things for me.

Not too bad for a $2 project if you ask me:)

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Furniture Redo - from dresser to TV stand

I spent much of last fall furnishing our loft.  Because this is a large space, I wanted to utilize the area for several different purposes.  I wanted one half of the loft to be utilized as an office/library area, and I wanted  the other half  to be utilized as a family/media area.  Above all else, I needed the loft to have lots of storage.  This was the space in the house where I would store my craft supplies, games, DVDs, books, etc. 

 

I was ideally looking for an old dresser…… with lots of character…… and plenty of drawer space…..at an affordable price…… that with a lot of TLC could be repurposed as a TV stand/craft storage.  It took me over a year to finally find this dresser at Goodwill for $35.

This piece is heavy-duty solid wood!  The Goodwill guys helped me load it up, but Matt wasn't home  when I had to unload it. Let me tell ya, that was no easy feat!  I managed to slide it out onto the garage floor until he could get home to help me with it. 

 

In my mind, I knew exactly what I wanted the repurposed dresser to look like, and I knew that I was going to use ASCP (Annie Sloan chalk paint) to achieve my vision.  You can purchase chalk paint on the internet, but I have recently found a local vender who sells it. 

After buying my paint, it was time to get started.  First I painted the drawers with an ASCP paint brush. The color of the edges is province, and the other color is versailles.

After two coats of ASCP dried, I sanded the edges of the drawers to give the piece a more vintage look.

If you have ever used ASCP, you are familiar with the finishing wax. The wax comes in both a clear wax and a dark wax.

When using the wax, I brush it on with the ASCP wax brush and then wipe it with a rag.  The rag will be ruined when finished, so it is best to make sure it’s  an old rag.

This was my first time using the dark wax. I chose the dark wax because I wanted to make the piece look aged.

The three top drawers were a little difficult to work with because of the detail, but I managed to get by.  When working with something so detailed, be careful with the wax.  It tends to clump if you aren’t careful.

Once the drawers were finished, I moved on to the actual dresser by applying two coats of province ASCP and one coat of dark wax. 

This picture shows how the dried wax looks after being wiped with a rag.

In the end, this was the finished piece!

I absolutely adore this piece of furniture!  I love the dark wax over these two colors!

The dresser was too heavy for Matt and I to carry up the stairs on our own.  Thankfully, a guy from church graciously volunteered to help Matt carry it to the loft.  Once we got it upstairs, I had one final thing I needed to do…..add hardware to the top three drawers, while keeping the original hardware on the bottom six drawers.  Oh, and of course we now needed a TV for the loft, which was the perfect excuse to do a little Back Friday shopping with the hubs;)

 

So let's break down the cost of this project. The dresser was $35 and the paint....welll the paint is not cheap. After two colors of paint and a dark wax, I walked away paying about $100 for supplies. I personally think the cost is worth it. I love the character ASCP gives to certain peices of furniture, and the supplies last a long time. I have plenty of paint and wax left over for other projects. Bottom line is that I created a piece of furniture for a total of $135, but I would pay $400-700 for a similar piece of furniture at Home Goods. Obviously, refinishing something with ASCP is still cheaper.



A few months have passed and the loft is pretty much furnished.  Originally, I wanted to mount the TV to the wall and use the top of the dresser for decorative purposes.  After talking to an electrician, we learned that it was going to be really expensive to mount the TV, due to the electrical set up of the room.  It may not have been my original plan, but the dresser ended up making a perfect TV stand and it has fantastic storage for all of my craft supplies!  It may just be my favorite piece of furniture in the loft:)

Just for fun, I’ll end this post with one last before and after picture of this successful furniture redo:)

Ordinary Bar Stool Repurposed - Rope End Table

 

Last summer, I found a couple of barstools at a yard sale for $2 a piece.  One  is used as a plant stand on our porch.  The other has been repurposed as an end table in our loft.

 

 

To do this, I took a traditional barstool….

….and a package of rope that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.

Starting from the outside edge and working my way to the center, I hot glued the rope to the seat of the barstool.  I unexpectedly ran out of rope just as I got to the center......

...but lucky for me, I had some scrap rope in my craft drawer that I saved from the packaging of a gift set someone gave me.  Yeah, I keep stuff like that for moments like this;)

I love the texture the rope adds, and that’s why I chose to use it. 

Lastly, I painted the green legs with some sample Louis blue ASCP (Annie Sloan chalk paint) that was sent to me with a recent purchase, and then I finished it off by applying a coat of ASCP clear wax.

 

 

The seat of the stool is the perfect size for a lamp, making a barstool a really great repurposed end table.

Goodwill Barstools Painted Black

 

I’ve  been wanting a pair of barstools for the island in the kitchen since we moved into this house.  Not wanting to pay $20-40 for a nice bar stool, I knew I needed to get my thrift on and keep an eye out for a set that I could refinish.

I did eventually find something that I could work with.  That's how these barstools…..

…..turned into these barstools…..

…..using the same method that I used in “Refinishing CraigslistKitchen Table – No Streaks and No Sanding.”

The black barstools look great with my inexpensive placemats and napkins from World Market and my clearance dishes from Target.

 

I love them!  The black paint makes them look just like the barstools I’ve seen at Target, only I didn’t pay a Target price for them.  Which reminds me….. I almost forgot the best part:)  I scored these barstools at Goodwill.  They were $5.99 a piece, but…..wait for it…..I purchased the barstools on the first Saturday of the month, making them just $3 each! YES….definitely a GREAT BUY!

Refinished Craigslist Kitchen Table - No Streaks and No Sanding

Would you believe that this table….



….used to look like this?

 

Yep, when we bought this table and chairs off of Craigslist for $50 last summer, this is what I had to work with.  Many might have overlooked it, but I saw a diamond in the rough.  Who wouldn’t want a beautiful pedestal table and chairs that if purchased brand new, would cost anywhere from $500-1,000?

 

I was glad to finally replace our old table and chairs.  There was nothing wrong with the old one.  I've just  been wanting a black pedestal table for a long time, so I was very thankful to find such a great deal on Craigslist.

When it came time to refinish the table, I found myself in a dillema. I needed the finish to be smooth yet durable. I really wanted the finish to look sprayed, but I didn't want to purchase a paint sprayer.

 Because I was wanting a certain look, I knew I needed to find a different technique than the one I used in “Painted Furniture.”

 

Using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for this project was also not gonna happen.  ASCP worked fine for “Craigslist Dining Room Table and Chairs

 Makeover”, because we rarely ever use our dining room table.  What I didn’t know about ACSP when I painted the dining room table was that it is not a very durable paint, even though it is very easy to work with.  Because we use the kitchen table on a regular basis, I needed to find a more durable paint.

While I love the technique that I used for the master bedroom furniture in "Trash to Treasure”….

….and in “Refinished Craigslist Armoire”, the finish was too glossy for what I was looking for when painting the kitchen table. 

That’s when I came across this post from Just A Girl.  Much of her technique was what I was already doing, but she used a black paint that was completely new to me.  As you can see, her technique paid off! My table ended up having exactly what I was looking for – a matte finish that looks sprayed without any streaks.  I have no idea what is in this paint to make it so special, but I can tell you that it is my new favorite paint for refinishing furniture with a clean modern finish.

 

Her method was pretty straight forward.  Start out by cleaning the furniture with TSP cleaner.  You can find it in a spray bottle or a powder at a local hardware store.  I buy the powder, add water and put it in my own spray bottle to make it last longer.

 

After cleaning the furniture, I applied one coat of Zinsser primer.   I love this stuff, simply because you can usually skip sanding when using it.  It comes in both oil base and water base.  Oil base was suggested for this project.

Then it came time to apply the black paint.  I called every paint store that carried Benjamin Moore asking for the paint that she used, only to be told that they didn’t make it???  I was completely bummed!  Fortunately while calling the last store on my list, a guy who had been working with Benjamin Moore paint for years answered the phone.  He said the paint is just called something different now, and he had it in stock.  I ended up driving out of my way to get this paint, but it was completely worth it!  The paint that I bought was Benjamin Moore’s DTM Acrylic Low Luster Black 25 80.  I used two coats for the table and chairs.

 

And of course I used the magic of the simple foam roller for this project.  It does really well preventing streaks.  Combine the roller with the paint, and my table was lookin’ pretty good.

Add a bouquet  of $4 flowers from Trader Joes and some pretty napkins from World Market, and I was in business! 

 

I really love the finish on this table!  The only thing that I noticed about this finish is that when we had kids over for the holidays, their greasy finger prints did not wipe off easily. Once I sprayed some citrus table cleaner on it, it came off just fine.

 

Overall, this was a great investment for us.  After a year of searching for a pedestal table and chairs at Goodwills, garage sales and Craigslist, I finally found one that I could work with.  My patience paid off!  Definitely $50 well spent:)