High Gloss Campaign desk and chair....

Happy Tuesday!
 Hope you all having a great week! As for me kinda sad to see 3 out of 4 kids back to school.  I enjoy having them all home. Hearing them laugh, play, screaming even fighting lol. Summer flew way too fast.

This past week I have been working on a new project. I was able to find this beautiful 70s campaign desk and Drexel chair.  It was in good condition. Lately, I have been stockpiling furniture in our garage. Hubby is not too happy with my new junk but I love giving them a makeover!

Came home cleaned them up, took all the hardware off.  Lightly sanded with 220 grits to just take the shine off. Wiped the hardware down and primed twice. Chosing the color I decided to do high gloss in Blue.  Must I say High gloss paint is a pain. I should have known. I did high gloss a couple years ago on another furniture piece that took  many coats. Well this campaign took 5 long coats. The key to high gloss finish is Patience!! The end result was great!

 I used Rub n Buff silver leaf on all hardware. First time I am using this stuff is amazing. Best is to rub it with your finger to get even coats on it.  I totally forgot to take a picture while painting through the desk. Once, I had hardware painted next was to put them back on. NOW this is the part where I went online searching to figure out how the hell do I put these corners back on.  I struggled so much with the 1st 3 corners. The nails wouldn't go in and using a mallet didn't help much. With NO help on internet on how to replace these back on I went out in the garage looking at my husband's tools I found this drill. See below pictures I used a very thin drill to open up the holes again.

Make sure it's the same size as the hole before.

Once you drill all the holes all you have to do is push the nails right in! Goes in so smooth I had to redo the 3 other corners again and use new nails. After, all that  hard work in the heat! I absolutely love this desk.

                                                          New chair fabric

                                                                   Vintage  Desk

Smooth, glossy and vibrant blue at the end! All worth it! I am ready to take on a new project! 

Major redo! What do you guys think?

Have a blessed Week!

Maria 

Desk makeover

Hi Friends!

This week I worked outside in 100 degree weather. Sweating bullets over this antique desk in the heat! Well, here is what the desk looked like before..

As you can see there are some chips and scratches on it. The drawers were veneer. I had to use wood filler, sand, repeat till I was able to get a smooth touch. Must have done it about 5 times. As you can see the picture below being filled with wood filler

Once I was able to get it smooth. I cleaned it up prime it and painted. The top is stain with dark wood. Bottom is painted a very pale gray with a tint of blue color. Love how it came out..

Thanks for stopping by

Have a blessed day!

Maria

Nightstand makeover to a Faux Library card catalog dresser

So excited to see how this little nightstand had a cute face lift! I have been wanting to have a library card catalog dresser for a while now with no luck in craigslist. Thanks to my mother's neighbor who had the estate sale She showed me some of her furniture pieces and I knew this little 9 knobs night stand was perfect for my project! Turning this small dresser into a Faux Library card dresser.

I sanded it down starting with 80 grits, 120 grits, and last 220 grits. Thank god for my little helper here! He did an amazing job sanding it.

                                                                  Such a great helper!

All sanded and bottom legs off. Now for the legs I left that up to Hubby to do. He came up with a cute idea. 

Once he added the legs I took over to paint it. I used whatever paint colors I had at home 

I painted a medium gray color.  Order the library card pulls and had hubby put them for me.

 I'm super happy how this little dresser turned out!

Have a great day!!

Maria

New Face lift for my milk jug....

Finally, it's done!  We went to home depot and Hubby picked up a ready round wood for the table top after I had to make a quick stop to Joann's Fabric store for something else. I ended up finding a cute black/white milk sign. My idea was to stick it on the jug. Well, thanks to my wonderful husband he said NO we won't do that. He had a better idea. Told me not to touch the jug or tabletop. Working in the garage for another project hubby takes the milk sign traces it and decides to fit it to the wood top.  Excellent choice he made! Took him a little over an hour to cut the the top. I must say for the 1st time attempting this, he did a very good job! Thanks Sweetie!

Back to work again once he finished I put some wood filler, then glued the top down. Sanded around the top. Stained it with my favorite stain. Steel wool and apple cider vinegar. This time I also used coffee with it! Gave it like a weathered wood grain top finish. Next added poly to it. Last hubby got the top attached to the jug!
                                                            Remember looking rusty and plain

                                                                       Now final results
                                            Love how it came out from looking like this too.....

THIS

Thanks for stopping by!

Maria

Painting with chalk paint...Simply & Gorgeous

I have always wanted to try out chalk paint so I finally got some Valspar Chalk paint. $30 for a quart of paint! YIKES!! Plus add the wax was about $17 bucks! Either way I always wanted to paint my boy's oak dresser. At Lowe's I  made the boy's pick the color out. It's called Sapphire bracelet Valspar Chalk Paint. It looked dark blue on the picture sample.

Now here is what I plan to paint. This plain ugly oak dresser..

 First, I wiped down with soapy water. Took all the hardware off.  What's great about chalk paint is that you don't have to sand or prime the dresser. Just go ahead and start painting. Once I started painting I noticed the color does not look like dark blue it's more like green/blue or teal color.
Picture below is with 2 coat of paint. Still you can see streaks.

 I ended up doing 3 coats. I left it overnight to dry. Next day I applied the wax with a paint brush then wiped it off after 1 minute with a clean rug. I waxed it twice. Last, I bought some cute pull hardware knobs.

                                                             

                                                                New pull hardware

                                                Mod podge  wrapping paper inside drawers

                                                           Simply Gorgeous

                                                          Love the way it came out!

I have been asked how do I like using chalk paint. Honestly, I like it but not crazy in love with it. A few reasons why.  The high cost of the paint and I really didn't like the way the wax on it. Also, there are not many colors to chose from. I have about 1/3 paint left. Would I do it again? Most likely  I would use chalk paint again but will use it for smaller furniture. I would like to try another brand name too!  Overall I am happy that I finally got myself to try it out. It came out nice not the color it shows on picture but boy's are happy with it. Now I would like to see how long and well this will hold up without chipping.

If you used chalk paint what are your thoughts about it? Would love to her from others..

Thanks for stopping by
Maria

Strawberry Fruity Shakes

This recipe has been one of my family's favorite strawberry shakes. With only 5 ingredients to use.

1/2 cup boiling water
1 pkg  any flavor Jell-O Gelatin Dessert ( In picture I used strawberry flavor)
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup ice

Pour hot water in electric blender container. Add your flavor Jell-o Gelatin. Cover and blend at medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape sides of container.

With machine running, add ice cream by spoonful through hole in lid of blender.

Add milk and ice, blend for another 30 seconds.

Serve immediately

Enjoy!

Maria

DIY Crate side table..

I needed  something to cover up my speakers in the family room. Thanks to my lovely husband he has to have speakers in every corner of the family room. Drives me insane to see them! The 1 big size speaker near the couch and t.v. is the one I want to cover up. I am in love with the idea of using crates to decorate and thought to make it like a table.  As you can see I have 4 speakers there. Plus, 2 more in back of couch.

So, hubby ended up cutting all the wood to the size. Using 2 x 2s and 1 x 3 x 8 boards. Leaving gaps in between the boards.

 Finally, looking like a table or a cage?

Left it open in the back!
Once he finished nailing it was my time to sand the edges a little. Then the fun part begins. I made my own stain with steel wool and apple cider vinegar. This stuff really works! Stained it then once dried I gave it some rough 80grit sanding to make the wood look aged.

                               As you can see below I am using  steel wool and apple cider to stain

Final results no more looking at the speaker. It's hidden....

Looking much better!

Have a blessed day!
Maria