debor026

My mother bought this table when I was in middle school and several years ago she passed it on to me. Between my sisters and I, and now my kids, this poor table has been through quite a lot. A lot of wear and tear and a fair bit of water sitting on the table (my kids used to leave spills for the magic fairy to clean up) and the clear coat broke down. The table was pretty damaged and I considered building a new one. Here's a wider shot that also shows the water rings, paint spots, and marker streaks that have graced the table over the years. So I thought maybe I would try to refinish it first and if it didn't work out then I would build a replacement. I bought some Citristrip and liberally sprayed the table then let it sit for about 3 hours. I then came back and scraped off all of the goop (eww), wiped it down, sanded a little, and tried to stain it. I say tried because what I ended up with was an ugly blotchy mess. I was pretty sure the table was ruined and it's been s...

It was time to get a little more grown up in tables and the train table needed to move on.  So I turned to Ana White and her awesome plans.  I modified her plans for the Adirondack Coffee Table and created this a little wider and longer (49" x 33") with a lower shelf that will hold up to 6 of our toy buckets.  It's 20" tall to accommodate the extra storage.

With the boys moved in to their rooms we are working on the cabinets on the outside of the wall. I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out so far. I didn't want to buy expensive countertops for this and even the cheap prefab laminate counters were $100 each and I needed two. Yeah, no thanks. So I built my own counters for about $55 total. Thrifty Decor Chick just did something similar here and I thought I could work that idea in to my project. Because I was putting this on top of 12" cabinets I couldn't use 1x4s only (at 3.5 inches it would only be 10.5 inches total and I needed more like 12.5 inches). I did still want it to look like it was intentional so I didn't want to tack a random 2" piece on the back.  Luckily, it turns out the measurements worked out for 2 1x4s with a 1x6 in the middle which looks way more balanced. In order to hold it all together I put a 1x12 underneath to screw through but since that's only really 11.25 and not 12 i...

It's almost done! I bought this baby a couple weeks ago and I've been chipping away at the project in between work, kids, camping, etc. All of one's time seems to disapear in the summer but it gets done eventually. It's still missing two doors that I'm finishing up in the garage and I still haven't decided if I'm going to stencil the back but otherwise it's looking good. If you remember I started with this off of Craigslist. She was $60 and had a few scratches and dings and whatnot needing repairs and some paint. (Awesome quality Craigslist picture here). I started sanding her down in the driveway the same weekend I brought her home (yes it's a girl). I could have tried to sand in the garage but as you can see that's a bit of a tight space in this picture with that never ending project list hiding in there. For the hardware I gave it a good scrub and a few coats of ORB paint to match the ginormous light fixture in my living room (that I sti...

Last night I scored on Craigslist. I know that sentence sounds bad but really it was a good thing. Who would sell a solid wood buffet/hutch for $60? It's beautiful and I have a new paint project. That's right, MORE PAINT. Aw, yeah! Luckily I just about have one of my other paint projects done and ready to leave the garage so I have space (hubby will appreciate that). This is the picture from the ad. I need to take a better one but last night it just got put down in the middle of the living room so I haven't gotten one yet. I have to tell you I was so nervous I wouldn't get it. With a price like that (when all the others were $250+ and not as nice) I figured it would go pretty quick. I called 50 minutes after it was posted and I was already the 5th call BUT he said he was first come/first serve and I was the first to make arrangements. Booyah! (Can you tell I was excited? Haha!). Anyway, so we made an appt. for 6 but then I was reading Mandi's blog an...