Love My DIY Home

“From Messed Up to Dressed Up” An Accent Table Update

“Clarissa” Just before I opened up my new membership site, Furniture Flipping Forum, I put together a three day course showing how to take an all wood accent table “From messed Up to Dressed Up.” It was a big challenge because it was in very rough shape to begin with and took longer to prep this piece than anticipated. The old varnish was thick and all crackled with parts falling off because it was so old and dried out. Pieces were falling off and there were gouges and loose veneer. Every time I look at it I stare in wonder how something so unattractive can be turned into a masterpiece. But when you learn the steps, it can be done with a bit of elbow grease and know how…with lots of patience. If I hadn’t planned on providing this three day course to those interested in Furniture Flipping … Read more

“Augusta” Coffee Table Opts for an Old-World Style

#sponsored Different Products, Different Techniques, Same Old-World Look Augusta, a long coffee table, was originally part of a trio – her children were refinished in an old world style but with different products. See Cora and Nora’s transformation here. I only have one before picture and it’s of Nora, the matching end table: Augusta and her 2 matching pieces came home with us from an estate sale two summers ago. They were crammed into our van, taken home and sat in our basement for more than a year waiting to be given new life. No one else wanted the three pieces. I set my price, made my bid and got them easier than I expected. I had no problem envisioning how I wanted them to look. From the start knew I would split them up and do some experimenting. The first set, the end tables, Cora … Read more

Did someone saaayyy, “Bombe”?

#sponsored My DD tagged me on a FB bombé chest ad. So we drove out to take a look. As I was looking at it, the lady told me she kept getting “no shows” and was so tired of people saying they’d come by to take a look and then never show or message her. She took $10 off just because she was happy I showed up! They just don’t show up. I’ve experienced that same thing over and over too. Hundreds on our Forum tell the same tale. People message me and say they are coming to buy a piece and then don’t show up. Only one out of half a dozen lately bothered to let me know something came up or they changed their mind. Not long after my DH’s knee surgery, I had two people make appointments to buy three … Read more

Steam Punk Mixed Media Nightstand for DH

#sponsored While shopping at a Restore in MI We happened upon their 50% off furniture day. I found a three drawer nightstand that would be perfect for my DH’s (darling hubby) side of the bed. I already had one that I had repainted for my side of the bed and he had my mom’s little antique table that wasn’t nearly big enough for him and all his junk…all his precious possessions. He needed drawers to hide all his stuff, so this at $20 fit the bill. And of course I have to start with the before: There is so much to tell about about this one. Lot’s of improvisation, creativity, and experimentation was called for, and I’m glad it turned out well because it was for my DH’s Christmas gift. I used a ton of resources for this project – I’ll list links below, … Read more

A Christmas Gift for Jillian

My DD, Jillian, is my Social Media Specialist for my furniture flipping business and is way under paid. Picture her holding up a sign that says, “I work for paint.” Not to mention the patience her DH, Taylor, has shown in regard to her time spent on the forum. So I figured I’d grab one of the pieces she’s hinted that she’d like to have one day with a, “So…what do you plan to do with that piece?” We find so many cool pieces, and she spends so much time on my social media accounts, how could I not paint her something for Christmas? So here is the “before.” Nothing special, just an old outdated three tiered plant stand. BUT, “nothing special” can be so easily turned into, “This is amazing,” with a little paint and creativity. BEFORE I never did get any ideas out of her … Read more

6 Adirondack Chairs Cloned for Christmas

Christmas Time is a GREAT Time to DIY To buy an Adirondak chair, just one chair, will set you back about $50…EACH. Jillian and I wanted to go in together to get my DD, her sister, a set of Ardirondak chairs, but they were out of our price range. Well, one isn’t, but six? No way. We love her, but $300 is a bit steep for us. So, Jillian found some hither and yon, advertised on Craig’s List and FB, used, beat up and for a decent price. I already had the supplies, so we got busy and fixed, sanded, painted, dry brushed and topcoated all the chairs to match. Our guys, Mark and Taylor, repaired and scraped and sanded off the old paint. Then we primed with our HomeRight sprayer. And then painted with our HomeRight sprayer. We mixed several colors to get the blue we had in mind … Read more

An MCM Road Rescue by the DH

#sponsored DH brought home a side of the road freebie last summer. 14 months ago I cleaned and sanded it. A few months ago I primed it. Just yesterday I finally got to painting it. Go Bold or Go home, right? So here it is in the raw…sad and unwanted, tossed out for the garbage truck. It’s a Mersman MCM. And it was Uggg-Lee. Here is my disclaimer regarding the MCM label in case anyone cares: When researching this table, we could find nothing that placed it into the mid-century or mid-century modern category. Though Mersman tables are plenteous, there aren’t any out there like this one. So who knows? Mid-Century…Mid-Century Modern? Vintage? Antique? Either way, it’s old and not from this era. The store closed down in the mid 90s and produced more than their share of tables for around 100 years. … Read more

A Great Stocking Stuffer and a Little Bit of Christmas Nostalgia

#sponsored First I’ll tell you about this great new product and then I’ll share some of our family traditions… TopGreener offered me a couple of (afflink) USB charger receptacles to try out – and I obviously couldn’t say “No” since I love techy things. I’ve wanted these for a long time, so it was a no-brainer to review it for them. You can find them on Amazon at a decent price here. The (afflink) USB charger receptacles would make great stocking stuffers if you’re at a loss for an interesting addition to your DH’s stocking this year. They were super easy to put in and look very nice in our master bedroom. I have a couple of time-lapse videos for you to show you how my DH put them in. First you turn of the electricity and take out the old one: Next put the … Read more

Hannah, a Parlor Table Beauty, Lives to Serve Again

#sponsored I’d Never Noticed Parlor Tables Before It’s a funny thing. You buy a white car and all of a sudden you notice every white car on the road. That’s what has happened to me. I saw a really cool table at an estate auction a while ago and won the bid. After I refinished it, all of a sudden I saw parlor tables everywhere – antique stores, estate sales, online… Today I introduce you to Hannah, named after the man who owned the store that made her – Hannah’s Furniture in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She had a tag on her underside: She was quite beat up with gouges on her table top. We decided to pretty her up with Pure & Original Classico in Black Hills (a deep green) and add a bit of glitz with Champagne Metallic accents. Materials (Most are … Read more

Pure & Original Meets HomeRight to Create a Sweet Bedroom Suite

#sponsored NOTE: All affiliate links are in BOLD red. Gathering pieces of furniture all over town and making them all match is a huge project – but it can be fun if you have a plan. Decide what pieces you need and the sizes. Do you want them matching or of the same style? Set a budget Look for garage sales, estate sales, Craig’s List postings, etc. Patiently wait to find just right pieces. As you look for your pieces, decide on the look you are going for – search blogs, Pinterest, Facebook forums, etc. for ideas. Choose colors and buy your supplies to repair, prep, paint and protect your pieces. We had a little help HomeRight furnished the Finish Max Extra (now called the Super Finish Max) and a Large Spray Shelter. Pure & Original gave us two quarts of Classico, Silk White to paint all of Jillian’s pieces. … Read more