Crafty McCrafterson

I've been immersed in projects lately.  When I did Drama's desk last summer, I started sanding down my bedside table - an adorable little provincial re-pro.  I never finished it, and just threw an old sheet over my mess until a few weeks ago. 

I don't have a "before" shot of this because, well, I just don't ok?  But I DO have an 'after'. 

I finished the table in a black satin, with the details highlighted in a smoky blue (which seems to photograph bright white, but whatever).  There she is!  Isn't she pretty?  I smile every time I see her sitting next to my bed, with my fugly lamp and cute depression glass bowl gracing her top.

Once Grump saw the finished project, he finally understood my vision for our room, and got on board the project train.  Since we only have 2 pieces of furniture that match, I've been itching to re-do all of our stuff to coordinate.  I'm so not matchy-matchy, and Grump is, so we've had this stalemate going for quite a number of years.  (The fact that we can't really afford new matchy furniture is irrelevant.)

So, he brought down his nightstand.  It's a heavy maple piece from the 60's, with eleventy-hundred bamillion layers of laquer on it.  Which I discovered after simply peeling off a water damaged layer to find no damage to the actual furniture itself. 

I decided we needed to strip the laquer off, rather than supporting my ortho doc by sanding and killing our shoulders.  Grump jumped in and took over this nasty job.  I was grateful - it looked like some snotty beast had an allergy attack in our sideyard, what with all the gooey denatured laquer lying around in glumps.  But surprise!  There was a very pretty surface under there!  The wood was exceptionally clear, and I considered just staining it for about half a second. 

Of course, Grump announced that I suck at painting, and so took over the job of spray painting.  Keep in mind, I said the paint was a SATIN finish. 

By the time Grump was through, the SATIN paint was GLOSSY.  I almost wore out my shoulder sanding down the details and stress points for antiquing.  And I had to sand off a couple of layers of paint to just get the finish right.  Oh well, it still turned out really cute.  Except for the hardware we have yet to replace.  The old dirty brass just doesn't look right, and I really detest brass. 

Here's the "new" old nightstand...

I also did a really cute shelf for my sister-in-law & eagerly anticipated nephew.  Standard craft-store pine plate shelf and pine letters, acrylic paints to match her bedding and some leftover wall paint from the baby's room.  I think I spent about $30 for all the materials.  It turned out REALLY cute, which I probably shouldn't say because I totally forgot to take a photo of the finished project.  Of course, I dawdled over this one, and what could have been done in a few hours on a Saturday took me almost 10 hours over about 3 weeks to complete.  I blame the kids.

Now we have a 10-drawer dresser/mirror that matches the nightstand, and an old decrepit waterfall dresser that all need this same attention.  The waterfall dresser is going to need some structural/functional repairs, since the glides and stays for the bottom drawer are missing, and the drawer bottoms are chipping, but that's easy to fix.

I'm also going to repurpose the old head/foot board from the bedroom set as a bench for downstairs.  I'm thinking antique white, maybe with a glazed or waxed finish.  It's a poster-bed, so I'm going to add some cure antique knobs to the headboard posts for hanging coats and hats, and maybe have Dad teach me how to build a box seat so we can have a bit of storage in it. 

Aaand I've decided that I need to do something about our funky kitchen table too.  We talked about buying, but I haven't found a craigslist treasure that I'm willing to pay for yet (I dream of a Duncan or Regency style table, with some mis-matched provicial woven rattan-back chairs, of course, that I can revive to my own style!), so our old one will also be attacked lovingly upcycled.  It's currently an odd 70's pickled oak finish.  I know it's going to be a bear to do, since the barrel pedestal is pretty much solid wood and weighs a ton.  We will also have to tack and glue the leaf in place, since the mechanism that allows the table to expand has been broken since before our last move (not a big deal, because we keep it expanded anyway).  I'm thinking I want to stain the top a dark walnut color, wax the finish, and do the base in either an antique white or black waxed finish. 

I know!  I'm all of a sudden crafty and handy (well, I've been handy for a while, it's more that Grump doesn't LIKE for me to be handy).