Clean up your floor vents!

A few days ago I taught a class on painting furniture in Idaho for some ladies in the ward that I grew up in. We had a great time. I am going to try to post a few of the things that I mentioned in the class on my blog in the next couple days. 

I saw this today on a pin that someone shared on Facebook. I mentioned this in my class. 

I actually did this in our rental house about 3 years ago. The vents in the house were dirty and rusty. I soaked them in some warm soapy water and scrubbed all the dirt (or as much as I could get to) off. Then I took them in my garage and painted the vents. 

First I laid down some newspaper on the garage floor. I opened the vents and sprayed the bottom of the vents first. After that was dry, I flipped over the vent and sprayed the top. 

I gave the top a couple coats of spray paint, following the instructions on the can. 

I also did this on my vents in my current home. They didn't turn out as well, our home was built in the 90's and the vent covers were shiney gold. I should have roughed them up a little with some sand paper first. 

I don't know where this photo came from, I snapped a screen shot of it with my phone. If this photo is yours I would love to give you credit, just let me know!

Thanks for stopping by! Give this quick project, it's a fun way to make those nasty dirty vent covers look like new.

Chalk Dust Paint

I had a great time tonight sharing painting ideas with some friends. 

Here's the link to the chalk dust that I was talking about. 

http://www.mysavvysisterchalkpaintdust.com

Remember if you have any questions just let me know! 

The best way to contact me is on Facebook, my page is: www.facebook.com/downvintagelane 

Hutch Makeover - Madeover

French Provincial Hutch Makeover - Over     

A couple years ago I picked up this hutch at a garage sale for $50. Score! I bought it to use in my daughters room, it would be perfect to display her dolls. I had dreams of her taking perfect care of her dolls, brushing their hair, dressing them in their little clothes and then lovingly displaying them in this beautiful hutch. She could pass the dolls and the hutch down to her daughter someday. And she would love and appreciate all her mother did for her. Sigh.....

Hutch purchased at a garage sale in 2004.

Reality hit - Sadly, the beautiful dolls soon became unappreciated dolls with matted hair and ripped clothes, carelessly thrown into the hutch. I soon hated looking at it when ever I walked into her room.

A couple years later there was a new need for the beautiful hutch. A little sweet little boy would soon join our family. A new use for the hutch! A place to put his little clothes, diapers, and baby things. After several trips to the store I realized that I couldn't afford the beautiful baskets that I had been dreaming of. 

A new plan was hatched: A Hutch Makeover - the glass had to go! 

Rubber strips holding in the beadboard

Replacing the glass with beadboard was really pretty easy. The glass was held in place with rubber strips. I carefully removed the glass and saved the rubber strips. I used the glass as a pattern for cutting the beadboard. I placed the glass over the top of the beadboard, making sure the lines would look good when it was in the hutch. Then I cut the beadboard with a jigsaw. I used the rubber strips to secure the beadboard in place.

Black Hutch with beadboard in place of the glass

This is how the hutch looked after it was all done. (above photo, please ignore the clutter) Over the last 10 years it has been used to hold many things, baby clothes, dvd's, books, toys. 

Notice the handles - you can't hardly see them! (I will talk about them more down the page a little)

This spring I finally got around to setting up my craft room. I pulled this dark hutch into my space. As it sat there it reminded me of something dark and dreary, something like you would see in a haunted house! As my room started to take shape, something had to be done to this beautiful hutch!

I think I coated this hutch on a whim at 11:00 at night, gotta love chalk paint - no prep needed! I used Annie Sloan Old White chalk paint. I usually do two coats on my furniture, a full strength coat and then a watered down coat. But I wanted the paint to look worn, with the dark kind of showing through.

You can see in the picture above that the paint isn't stark white, the black is slightly coming through. I sanded all the edges and the lines in the beadboard.

Accentuate the flaws

In the photo above you can see where the beadboard was damaged when it took a direct hit from a football thrown by a 16 year old teenage boy. Instead of trying to hide these little flaws, I sanded them down a little until the black paint showed through. I think it adds to the character of the piece and makes me think of that sweet 16 year old boy who felt so bad about hitting (and denting) his mother's hutch.

Hinges

I painted right over the hinges, I didn't take the time to tape them off - there was black paint on the hinges from my carelessness the last time I painted it, or I probably would have. They look great! And blend in nicely.

The original Beautiful French Provincial Handles

Here are the beautiful handles that I mentioned above. In 2004 I had replaced these handles with silver drawer pulls and knobs that I purchased at Home Depot, the more modern silver knobs were a better fit for my little boy hutch. After we moved I found these beautiful handles in a bin in the garage. It was like striking gold! I was so excited and glad that they hadn't been discarded or taken to good will during the move.

Don't they look beautiful? And they really pop out against the white paint.

Broken knob

Another reason that I replaced the hardware was because the knob in the photo above is broken. Someday I might find a replacement, but for now - who cares!

Beautiful knobs

Drum Roll please.....

Here it is! The makeover - madeover!

Beautiful!

What do you think? Beautiful! I love how this turned out. This is a piece of furniture that will always be treasured. It is my first true furniture transformation. I loved it back in 2004 and now in 2014 - I love it even more!

It now has a permanent home in my craft room. I will talk about what is hidden behind the doors in another post. Coming soon - my big craft room makeover reveal! I am just putting the finishing touches on it. Can't wait to share it with you all!

Check out my facebook page for more frequent updates: www.facebook.com/downvintagelane

Thanks for stopping by!

Rustic Kitchen Table Top Transformation

Jerry did a beautiful job building a new table top for this table. He build it so that the leaf of the table could still fold down into the table. Edie refinished the bottom of the table and the chairs. It turned out beautiful and our clients were very happy with it.

Paris Gray Night Stands

I have had this night stand in my garage all summer. Picked it up at the goodwill for only $5. I didn't know what to think if it. It is nice and sturdy, the drawers work good, but the front is that weird plastic fake wood. 

Getting kids ready for school is an expensive and daunting task. At the first of August I always try and get the kids rooms clean and organized. Top of the list for my 11 year old son was a nightstand and I thought, why not. 

I painted the night stand with Annie Sloan Paris Gray chalk paint and the next day I distressed it and gave it a clear coat wax. I wanted to paint the brass handles black, but was out of black spray paint.  So I just used the oil rubbed bronze spray paint by Rustoleum. I love how this turned out. The plastic fake wood looks awesome! 

I'm not scared of the plastic fake wood anymore. And I kinda get excited when I see plastic fake wood. 

What do you think? Are you intimidated to try painting something like this? I would love to see your plastic fake wood transformation project!

Playing Dress-Up with my front room

The first room that you see when you walk in my home is this room. We call it the front room. It's a nice size room. But honestly, it is a complete waste of space in my opinion. This is the most unused room in the house. It's the Christmas tree room, that what we called it when we were looking at this home. And I was so excited to have a Christmas tree room! But what about the rest of the year?

Well, here's a look at this room over the last year. It's embarrassing but, gotta keep it real. 

January 2013, the tree is tipping. Kids playing tag around the tree, ornaments falling off. But at least it's been vacuumed. 

April 2013, yes the tree is still sitting there. Along with the pile to go to good will, hand me down bags of clothes that need to be gone through, and hidden back on the left are all the boxes of Christmas decorations.

April 2013, The other side of the room. The furniture cart sitting there ready to move things around. I refinished the vintage buffet in this room. I had just finished it and moved it into the entry.

For a few months I used this room as a storage room for furniture that was waiting to be refinished. 

July 2013, Here it is all clean and empty. Ready for a couch and loveseat. Looking for one in the online classifieds.

August 2013

So things are starting to come together in this room. Here's what we have so far:

Couch & Loveseat - $350

Vintage Trunk/coffee table $50

Clearance Rug - $39

Antique WWII trunks - $45

Old doors - $25

I just grabbed things from around the house to try and give this room a decorated feel. It was kinda fun, kinda like playing dress up. But playing dress up with a room is harder on your back then playing dress up with clothes. Still lots to do in here. I don't like the rug, it's way too dark. I need to find a new home for the entertainment center. And paint the piano. I better hurry, Costco already has their Christmas stuff on their shelves and I want to put my tree back up!

Seashell Dresser

There is one room in the house that will always be a work in progress. That is my craft room. Right now the craft room is the little formal dining room right off of our entry. With French doors with windows this room has to look neat and tidy. So I'm going for the office look instead of a craft room look. 

I decided to use furniture to organize all my supplies. I wanted to use armoires all along one wall to hold the supplies. But after purchasing one armoire I realized that the armoires were too deep. So I decided to try 2 long dresser on either side of a hutch. Here is the first long dresser that I found. It was a total impulse buy and at $80 wasn't a good deal.

I got it home and hated it. The only good thing I could say about it is that the drawers all work. 

First thing I had to do was get rid of the little mermaid seashell on the front. 

I saw on Pinterest how someone filled the design in with wood filler. 

It worked great! I put the wood filler on it, let it dry overnight, sand it down and then put on another layer of the wood filler. After letting that dry, I sanded it nice and smooth and gave it a coat of primer. 

I had planned on staining the top of the dresser, but after stripping the varnish off the top the wood wasn't that nice so I decided to just paint it. I sanded the entire piece and then taped off the drawers so they wouldn't get sprayed.  The paint I used was from Home Depot, it was the Martha Stewart color - Lagoon in satin finish. I sprayed it with 2 good coats of paint and them let it dry real good. I distressed and beat it up real good. At this point I always vacuum it off really good in the garage and then move the piece inside. 

The next step is pretty stinky, so I try to do this with the windows open while no one else is home. But it is my favorite method of adding the antique look to a piece. 

I always put on rubber gloves for this step. I love the staining pad from ace hardware. The stain I use is Providential  by Minwax. You just dip the pad into the stain and then wipe it onto the surface of the furniture. 

Wipe on a liberal amount if stain and then let it sit for a few minutes. 

Then using an old t-shirt wipe off the stain. I try and leave some stain in the grooves and cracks of the wood, so that it looks like it was cleaned and the "dirt" stayed in the cracks. 

The wood that you distressed will soak in the stain and it won't come off when you wipe everything down with the t-shirt. 

Let it dry completely. At least overnight. And then wipe the entire piece down with Minwax wipe on poly, it will give it that old rubbed look. 

This is my favorite process for aging a piece of furniture after you have painted it. 

Here is the dresser all finished. I sprayed the handles with the Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I did the night stand the same way as the dresser. The knobs and handle on the nightstand were not sprayed in this photo.

I sold this set very quickly, I am still looking for a nice sturdy dresser for my craft room.