Postcard From Hibernation #2

Hi everyone! I have done some research on behalf of us all, and I just had to share. First of all, let's revisit a photo of my humble little rental house in California, right after we moved in:

Ah, the green outdoor carpet. The abandoned flower beds. Lovely.

This spring, I've been trying to clean things up out there, on a very limited budget. I don't need Buckingham Palace here, folks. I'm just going for inhabited. So here's the look today, with some flowers, hanging baskets, and updated accessories:

And speaking of accessories, here's my new discovery: how to age a mirror (specifically the one now hanging in my outdoor entryway). I bought the frame below, complete with six individual mirrors, at a local thrift store for $12. And I love it when the original price is still on there. ($99.99 at Cost Plus World Market!) Please excuse the glass cleaner spray on the mirrors. I was impatient...you get the idea!

I took it apart (unscrewed the backing and took out the mirrors) and painted the frame with some off-white paint (Krylon Gloss Ivory), followed by rubbing on some stain (Minwax Dark Walnut) to age it. So then I had a situation where the frame looked all cute and vintage, but those mirrors were winking at me, all shiny and new. Can't have that!

So I looked up a tutorial of how to age a mirror (this one), and came up with this process. It works!

I started with some paint stripper (Ace Extra Strength Stripper) to scrape off all the paint on the back of the mirrors. Then I switched to paint thinner and scrubbed the backs with a steel wool pad. Then I washed them all off with some water. The last step was splattering liquid bleach on the mirror backs to get that spotted appearance, then blotting it off after a few minutes. (For more detailed instructions, follow my link on how to distress a mirror.)

Can you see how the individual mirrors look all beat up and old now, slightly foggy and age-spotted? Not bad for $12! I already had the rest of the materials on hand, but even if I hadn't, this project is much less expensive than all the other adorable-but-out-of-my-price-range antique mirrors I have seen out there!

Give it a try if you want the antique look without the price tag!

My Christmas Advent Calendar

If you've been around here for awhile, you know all about my Christmas advent calendar. I made it a few years ago, back when Nina was a toddler and Henry wasn't even born yet!

Now that I have two kiddos, it's proven to be a great tradition for our family! The boxes are cardboard, with scrapbook paper on the lids. They are a great size to stash little goodies for each day. This year I'm using little chocolate coins from Trader Joe's. The boxes have magnets on the back so they can stick to the metal sheet that I framed and painted black.

Anyway, enough blabbing, Carrie! I wrote a detailed tutorial on how I made this, so if you're interested, just follow the link for more info.

I hope you have a great Christmas week!

How To Make a Homemade Subway Sign

Hi girls! I promised a tutorial on my homemade subway sign, and here it is!

To start, I had a few inspiration photos and a $3 four foot tall frame. That's about it.

First thing I did was paint the frame. You can see how I did that here. Then I sweetly asked my husband to cut a piece of plywood to fit into the frame. He acquiesced, and I painted the whole thing black.

Then I chose some street names that mean something to our family. I just thought that would be a fun twist on the other signs I've seen, which seem to be specific to one city. But since we've lived all over, this works better for us! Mildred Lane was where I grew up in Cincinnati. My husband grew up on Clover Street in Winston-Salem. We have every major stage in our lives represented on this sign! I printed each street name to fit the frame, using a font called Impact, in varying sizes and spacings.

After that, I traced each letter onto the black plywood using graphite paper. You can see a tutorial on how to do this here.

After that, it was just a simple matter of using a million white paint pens in varying sizes to fill in the letters. I did a few coats over every letter to make sure the white really stood out from the black. Totally time consuming, but totally worth it! Ta Da!

But you want to know the worst part? We don't even have subways in Denver. I am a total fraud! Have a great weekend!

Using Antiquing Polish

When I shop my local Goodwill, I always keep my eyes peeled for interesting, well made wooden frames. I love decorating with them, and they're so easy to paint and fit into any room. Just the other day I found this frame, almost 2 feet square, for $2.50!

I painted it robin's egg blue, because I had some left over from other projects. (Color recipe here if you want it!) Then I took this sanding block (best tool ever, pick one up at any home improvement store) and roughed up the edges.

After I sanded, I could see the raw wood peeking through. However, I wanted the edges to be a little more noticeable, so I used some antiquing polish (found at Michael's) to darken them.

I tried to get good photos of "before" and "after" to show you what a difference antiquing polish can make. Above is the before, and below is the after!

A few tricks that I tried this time:

First, I used a damp cotton ball to apply the antiquing polish. This works well as long as you don't have too much surface area to cover. I let the polish soak in for about 10-15 seconds, and then I came along with a slightly damp paper towel to soak up the excess. Just repeat that until you get the color you want!

Can't wait to show you how the frame turned out! Stay tuned...I have fun plans for my $2.50 beauty!

How To (Kind of) Make a Rice Pad

A while back I told you about a silly little thing that I totally love.

My rice pad.

I have heard them called bed buddies, rice bags, stress busters. Who cares what they are called? I just love mine! I am always cold, and just three minutes in the microwave is all it takes to heat this up and make a cozy little pillow for your lap, your back, your feet, wherever. Today I thought I would give you a few pointers on how to make your own.

(Notice I said pointers. This won't be too detailed, so be prepared to improvise a bit!)

First, go out and get some unconverted white rice. This is the cheap stuff, not instant, uncooked. Wish I could tell you exactly what "unconverted" means, but I can't. But just think about how this thing needs to be able to go into the microwave again and again, so, you know, plan accordingly.

Below, you can see I fashioned a bag out of muslin, sewed it up (tightly, so the rice doesn't leak out), and left a hole through which to pour the rice. Make sure whatever material you choose is 100% cotton (again, that microwave element). Put in as much rice as you think feels good. Me, I like the rice bag to be full enough that it has a nice weight to it, but can still shift around. After I poured the rice in, I sewed the bag up with my sewing machine. It's not pretty. But it doesn't have to be.

Next, I chose a pretty 100% cotton flannel, and put together a pillowcase for the rice bag. It's kind of like a pocket pillowcase, just folded over onto itself and sewn together. I added some Velcro to the edges to seal it, but also to allow me to remove and wash it. (In case I spill red wine on it. Um...not that I know anything about that.)

While I was at it, I made one of these for Nina, my three year old. I can't tell you how many nights find us both "cozied up" with our rice paddies on the couch. And yes, I know rice paddies are something completely different in China. I can't help it! Someone (not sure if it was Nina or me) in my house started calling it the "rice paddy" and now the name has stuck!

Give this a try if you're always cold like me! Just pop it into the microwave for three minutes, then sit yourself on the couch. It stays warm for a long time...perfect for TV watching, reading, or even taking to bed with you. Because it loses heat slowly, the rice pad is great for sleeping. By the time it cools off, you're asleep, but you don't wake up all sweaty like I do if I forget to turn off my electric blanket.

OK, enough boring details about my life. Rice pad=Good. I hope you give it a try!

Flannel's Not Just for your Husband's Shirts!

A few weeks ago, I was digging through my Google Reader and found a fabulous tutorial by Eddie Ross. You can see Eddie's original tutorial here. I bookmarked it, and yesterday was the day to actually give it a try!

I've been looking for some cute things to jazz up my house for winter, since the Christmas twinkle is gone. These adorable little flannel-covered guys seem to do the trick!

So here's what you do. Start with some flannel shirts. I got mine at Goodwill for a few dollars a piece. Seems like it's better if they're 100% cotton; Eddie says you get fewer loose threads that way. I also bought some Styrofoam balls at Michael's. Mine are 3 inches in diameter, but you can go bigger or smaller, whatever floats your boat. The last thing you need are regular old straight pins.

Sit yourself down with a good movie and start cutting strips of the flannel. For my project, I ended up with strips about 9-10 inches long and about 1-1.5 inches wide. Just play around with them until you get the size you need, then use that one as a template.

Grab a few straight pins and anchor the material to the ball. Two pins oughtta do it.

Wrap the material around tightly. Then take two more straight pins and anchor it down again. I tried to cover first set of pins with the material as I did this, so I didn't have pins hanging out all over the place by the end.

Now start again and wrap another strip of material cross-wise. Anchor it again with more pins.

You can probably see from my photo above that I eventually needed four strips of material per ball. This, of course, will vary depending on the size of the ball and the width of the material.

But when you're done, you have these cute little things that look kind of wintery without being all Christmasy.

I have mine sitting in a little bowl in my front room. Next Christmas I could see myself using these in my holiday decorating (adding hooks to make ornaments to hang on a little rustic-looking Christmas tree, for example?). Or I may just save them as something fun to take out when I am packing away all the nutcrackers. Either way, I love them!

Furniture Renovation Part V: Painting and Antiquing

Phew! We made it to the final segment in this series! Painting and antiquing furniture is a lot of fun, and it gives you that instant gratification that we all love so much.

The first step is to prepare the surface to receive the paint. You can sand it, or, if you're lazy like me, this liquid sandpaper might be a good option too:

After doing all that sanding on my table, I was ready for a change. I applied this liquid sander with a steel wool pad, and it definitely "roughed up" the surface enough to be able to take the paint. Just let it dry for 30 minutes or so, and then it's ready to paint. However, if your piece will be taking a lot of wear and tear, I think sanding might be the better way to go.

Then I just started painting! I used Behr brand (eggshell finish) in a pretty robin's egg blue that I totally copied from Tracey over at Notes from a Cottage Industry. She has a custom color recipe that I just took to Home Depot and had them mix for me. Love it!

I applied two coats of paint. I didn't prime first. I am on the fence about priming because I am lazy! I have primed before, if I am using a darker paint color, or if I know the piece needs to be super-durable. But like I said, laziness wins sometimes. So I leave the decision to you!

After the paint dried overnight, I went back to start the antiquing process. First I grabbed some sandpaper (150 grit) and gently rubbed off some of the paint along the edges of the table. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it, you can see one of the raw edges.

Then I got out my trusty Behr Faux Glaze. This stuff is fun! As you can see in the photo below, it is white until you add some color to it. The instructions say to add 4 parts glaze to 1 part color. I just added some acrylic paint that I had lying around (purchased from Hobby Lobby, it's Folk Art "Coffee Bean").

Here's the glaze after I mixed it with paint.

Basically, you just rub the glaze on until you like the way it looks. I used a damp paper towel to apply. Just kind of goop it on there, wait about 30-60 seconds to let it dry just a bit, then go back again with the paper towel to "tweak" how it looks. Work in small sections at a time and let a little more of the glaze gather in the corners and the crevices of the furniture. I think it looks more natural that way, as if the piece has aged over time.

Below, you can see how the glaze looks when it is dry. To get this look I just wiped back and forth with the paper towel, trying to create light streaks of color. I was going for a very understated "antique" look, but certainly you can add as much or as little as you like. I think a brown glaze looks nice on lighter colors, like this blue or a white or cream. If I was antiquing a black or brown piece, I would probably just use sandpaper on the edges and forget the glaze all together.

I will leave you with a few links that were helpful to me. Once again, Tracey over at Notes from a Cottage Industry has a great post on how she "antiques" her furniture. Also, Kimba from A Soft Place to Land recently gave us her Ten Tips on Painting Wood Furniture.

Good luck with all your projects! I hope this series has been helpful to you. And next week I will show you the final product...my new cottage work table is complete and ready for action!

Furniture Renovation Part IV: Using Stain and Polyurethane

Time for the fun part!

Remember this table when I started? I still think it looks like a public library table from the 1970s. The wood is a little too orange and the legs are a little too modern for my taste.

So, I sanded the heck out of the top of the table, and my sweet husband replaced the old legs with these cottage-looking ones. Now, it's on to the rewarding stuff: making it pretty again!

Choosing a stain color can be overwhelming. That's why in Part I of this series I recommended that you go out and look for some inspiration photos before you head to the home improvement store and have a breakdown because there are too many colors. (The guys at Home Depot generally don't know what to do with a woman sobbing in the paint aisle.) Sometimes a little direction and inspiration can go a long way!

I have had a lot of luck with Minwax stain, but I know there are others out there that work well too. For this piece I used Minwax Dark Walnut, which I also used on my dresser. Just use a foam brush and brush it on in a thin layer, going with the grain of the wood. I prefer foam brushes because I am lazy and they are cheap and I can just throw them away when I'm done!

Let the stain sit and soak into the wood. If your piece of furniture is really old, or really dry, it will soak it up quicker. So I would recommend wiping the stain off (using toilet paper or an old rag) fairly quickly, just to check the color. If it's the color you want, great! If not, brush on some more stain and leave it on for longer before you wipe it off the next time.

Here's my table after about 15 minutes of soaking. I wanted it to be pretty dark, so I left it on for longer than I usually do. Let the stain dry overnight before moving on to the polyurethane.

Depending on how durable you need the piece to be, plan on adding 2-3 coats of protective polyurethane on top of the stain. I added three coats to this table, since it will take a lot of wear and tear. I am using a Clear Satin, which will give it just a little shine. You can go with just a Flat if you want it to be more casual, or with a Gloss if you want to be a little more fancy (at least that's how I rate them!). Just brush on with another foam brush, and allow it to dry for a day or two before you use the furniture. Also, it is good to sand the piece in between coats of polyurethane. Sometimes bubbles form when you use a foam brush and the sanding just gets rid of them. Just be sure to do it very lightly!

The last part of this series is coming up in a few days! It'll be all about painting and "antiquing" your furniture. See you soon!

Furniture Renovation Part III: Using Liquid Stripper to Remove the "Goo"

Are we ready to continue? (Wow, do I sound like an 8th grade teacher or what? Wait a minute, I did used to be an 8th grade teacher! I guess that explains it!) I'll try to make this a little more fun than 8th grade...

If you have a piece of furniture that is either a) too stubborn to be sanded down to the raw wood, or b) has lots of spindles, various other rounded surfaces or lots of little crevices that are hard to get with sandpaper, you may have to use a liquid stripping agent. It's not that scary, really!

First, head to your home improvement store and get some stripper. (Let's hope people don't Google "stripper" and end up here. This is SO not what they are looking for!) I would also pick up some acetone (also pictured above) for the post-stripping phase. Mineral spirits or denatured alcohol work just as well too.

You should also grab some steel wool pads and maybe some of these little metal brushes. The brushes work especially well if you are stripping stubborn paint. Then, head to the bathroom and get you a roll of toilet paper. My grandfather used to swear by it when he refinished furniture, and who am I to argue with tradition?

I have this little wooden trunk that my husband and I have lugged around to three different houses. We keep saying we are going to refinish it. I am hoping this tutorial will actually prompt us to do it! So we'll use it as an example.

First step: sand the wood as best you can. If nothing else, it breaks down some of the stubborn layers and might make stripping a bit easier. I sanded the heck out of this piece, though, and couldn't get down to the wood, so I knew that I would have to use the liquid to get the job done.

Next up: get to a well-ventilated area, and slap some of that liquid stripper onto your piece of furniture. I used a foam brush to apply mine. Word of caution: wear some protective gloves for this part. This stuff can hurt if you get it on your skin! And, of course, follow the directions on the bottle before you follow my idiot's version!

Let the stripper sit for as long as you have the patience, or whatever the directions tell you. Mine sat for about 30 minutes. Then, grab one of these little scrapey-tools (see photo) and just scrape the stripper off. You should have some kind of trash can or receptacle ready, but be sure it's not one you care about because it will get all gooey! In the photo above, I scraped most of the stripper to the edge, then used some toilet paper to soak it all up and wipe it off.

Then I went back with the acetone and my steel wool pad and gave the wood a good scrubbing. Steel wool works well because it gets into the grain of the wood and can remove more goo.

Then I went back with toilet paper and wiped with the grain of the wood to get the last of the goo. As you can see, it really works!

Finally, I let it dry and then went over the wood again with some sandpaper (starting with a 60 grit, then 100 grit, and then 150 grit). If you scroll back up to the first photo, you can get a good sense of how much crud came off this thing!

Stripping furniture involves a lot of elbow grease, especially if you are removing paint and planning to stain the piece. Somehow when you apply the new stain, it will reveal every last speck of that ugly green paint that you thought you had removed! But don't be afraid...you won't hurt the wood. It's very forgiving. Just get in there with your steel wool, metal brushes, toilet paper, sandpaper or whatever else you think might get the job done!

And once your piece of furniture is stripped, it's on to the fun part! Next week I will show you how to make it pretty again. :) Have a great weekend!

Furniture Renovation Part II: Sanding to Remove the "Goo"

**Updated to add: the legs were in the unfinished wood/crown molding section of Home Depot. They are actual legs that are meant for a table, not something we had to manipulate to make work. They just screwed right in to the existing table, and were even the right height. Yippee!

OK girls, are we ready for Part II in this series? I've been busy over the weekend, working on a few furniture rehab projects so that I could show you step by step what to do!

Below is a work table that we inherited from my husband's parents. It's served many different purposes, but I've been wanting to renovate it so that it can become my sewing table and live in our upstairs loft. Right now it's a pretty basic (read: boring) table. I think it looks like it came from a public library in the 1970s! I want it to look more "cottage-y." So, away we go!

If you are planning on staining a piece of furniture like I did with my recently rehabbed dresser, you first have to get all the "goo" off (by "goo" I mean the existing paint, stain or polyurethane). There are two ways to do this. The much easier way, if you can do it, is to just sand it. The other alternative involves using a liquid stripper, which I will talk about in my next post.

Sanding furniture requires nothing more than sandpaper and some elbow grease. Just jump in and start doing it! I found that this Norton brand sandpaper, pictured below and bought at Home Depot, is really great for starting the process. It's a 60 grit, which basically means that it is really rough, so it will really get in there and lift off the coats of goo, which is what you want.

I highly recommend using an electric sander for this. Of course, you can do it manually, but it will take much longer. Electric sanders are super-easy to use, and can cost about $50 at home improvement stores. I used an electric sander on this table, and even so it took me about 1 1/2-2 hours to get it done. Below, you can see where I stopped at the halfway point. I think it's pretty clear which side has been sanded!

There is no exact science to this! Just start with a really heavy grit sandpaper, and graduate to a finer grit as you go along. I usually try to sand along with the grain of the wood, as opposed to across it. As I said, I started with a 60 grit, then went over the whole thing with a 100 grit, and finally a 150 grit. (The grit gets finer as the numbers go up.) By the time I finished, the existing stain and polyurethane coats were gone, and the table top was almost as smooth as my baby boy's bum! :)

The goal here is just to reveal the raw wood, so that it will readily accept a new stain, polyurethane or paint. (Of course, if you are planning on painting it, rather than staining or polyurethaning it, you don't need to worry about removing every little bit of goo since you'll be covering it up anyway. Just "rough up" the wood enough so that it will take the paint. More on painting in a future post!)

You may notice that while I was at it, I (ah, my husband, actually!) changed up the legs for the table. The new legs cost about $12 each and I found them at Home Depot. I am planning on staining the top a dark color, and painting the legs and apron a robin's egg blue. I can't wait to see this project finished!

In my next post I will get into the (slightly more complicated) alternative, using a liquid stripper to remove the goo. Stay tuned!