Dining Table Upcycle

Craigslist is amazing. Can I get an amen? Amen.

Alex and I have moved to a much bigger apartment and we (mostly I) have lots of projects and ideas on how to make it more homey. One of my desires was to have a large dining room table. There was only one problem, dining sets are stinking expensive! $350 for a table from Walmart?? No thank you. So what's a girl to do? All I had was our dinky little kitchen table (see here) which fits four, and nothing else and that fits perfect in our new kitchen. Well, when you're poor you can't be too picky, so we have a lovely large folding table and chairs borrowed from my Mom and Dad. Classy, I know. Hey, I put a tablecloth on it...

So craigslist to the rescue. I scoured craigslist day and night for about a week (literally day and night...). Finally(!) a dining set came up that I could afford. Long story short we got the table and 4 chairs for $25. Woo!

Good news, it's solid maple and seems to be a good builder (Cushman Carpentry). Bad news...it was in rough shape. Just how I like things :)

Here's pictures of the table and chairs when we bought them -

We decided to sand down the top of the table and the seats of the chairs and stain it while painting everything else black (I am really fond of black furniture if you haven't already figured that out yet). This is how far we've gotten so far. I'm loving it!

Still have two chairs to sand and paint and then the bazillion coats of polyurethane to put on everything but with a 3 month old it's a little difficult to find time to do everything.

Nursery Projects #2: Ship Wall Art

Alex and I are regulars at our local Goodwill. He searches for books while a comb each shelf of the random decor items for hidden treasures. We don't find things very often, because let's face it...most people's junk is not our treasure. But a few weeks back we were looking and stumbled upon some metal art that was pretty cool and would definitely fit into our nursery themes. 

The first thing I found was a set of copper wall hooks that were shaped like bows...super cute for a little girl nursery! You can see how I upcycled them here.

Then Alex and I discovered a real treasure - a large metal-worked ship! It was ugly...the color was this icky copper with like burnt edges and it was all dirty and cob-webby, but we saw the potential. Especially for a boy nursery that is going to be storybook/Narnia themed!

So we brought it home and it sat in my corner of the office for a while...a week went by, and then a month and I still didn't know what I was going to do with it to make it look as cool as I knew it could. 

Well, we were painting our changing table (see it here) and it came to me - paint the ship the same color gray! That way if I ever get the chance to have a real live nursery I can hang it above the changing table and it will look all cool and modern and stuff. 

I was afraid the paint wouldn't take to the metal, but it actually worked really well and only needed two coats. 

Nursery Projects #1: A New (Old) Changing Table

About a year ago some friends of ours were getting rid of a changing table. They asked if we'd like to have it we said "sure!", thinking we'd just put it in the basement and use it as extra storage shelving. So we've had this semi-ugly changing table sitting in our basement being used for everything but it's intended purpose. 

It looked something like a changing table you could get at ikea (it may even be from ikea...I'm not entirely sure...Just basic blonde wood and white shelves (very dirty, almost gray, white shelves...). 

In light of our recent baby news we have been trying to put a nursery together as cheaply as possible, and since we'll be moving a few months after baby is born, we won't have an actual nursery here (sad day...). But I've been researching things to put in a nursery, such as cribs and bassinets and changing tables and suddenly I remembered that I have a changing table! 

But it was ugly...

Alex and I decided to make a weekend project out of it. It took much debate on what color to paint it since our crib is a dark wood color and we weren't sure of gender. Couldn't just paint it pink or blue...We finally decided on gray, since I wanted that to be a main color in either nursery. We went to Walmart (cause we're poor college students...) and got some gray paint from the nice man in the paint section, got some paintbrushes at the Restore and went to work!

Unfortunately we live in Wisconsin where the temperature drops considerably for no reason in October...and it was going to be too cold to paint it outside if we didn't do it that day. So we set up a painting station in our landlords garage (he's really nice...) and got to work. 

After we finished painting both Alex and I decided that the shelves were beyond hope...paint wasn't sticking and the dirty white and particle board just wasn't working for me. I got some shelf liner at the Dollar Tree that was the color of dark wood and stuck it on the shelves. I also picked up some fabric storage baskets from Walmart  for the top shelf and added some little, faux chalkboard labels to the little label pocket just to make it look like I know what I'm doing...I really have no idea what I'm actually going to put in them, but I'm sure I'll find plenty of things when the time comes. 

I think in the end we ended up spending about $25 on the whole project. Not bad! I have one more project for an extra storage basket for the bottom shelf, but I have to wait until the next trip to Walmart for my supplies (you have to learn to be patient when you live half an hour from the nearest Walmart!).

Anyways...Here it is!

New (Old) Pillows

My latest project has been updating my living room couch pillows. Lately I've gotten on this peacock/teal accent kick...Hopefully it's more than a kick since I painted the front door peacock teal...

I have been slowly adding teal accents around the main floor and I decided it was time for a pillow update. I've looked everywhere for pillows that are cheap reasonably priced, but alas...poor college students cannot afford $20 pillows. 

I made the last set of pillows using some Goodwill pillow forms (a.k.a. matching pillows from Goodwill). I really liked the size of them so I decided just to recover them.

Old Pillows (and old picture...)

I had done a previous project for our canary and had a significant amount of fabric leftover from it that I was quite fond of. I used it for my main cover fabric. Because the print on the original pillows was so bright I had to have a lining fabric. I bought some tan clearance fabric from Walmart that was a thick cotton. I figured for $2.50 a yard I couldn't go wrong. 

I measured and cut and made an envelope cover for both pillows. I think they turned out great (if I do say so myself..). I now have two new (old) pillows to freshen up the living room that only cost me about $2.50 a piece. Not too shabby!

Kitchen Table Re-do

When Alex and I got married we were going to be moving up to Wisconsin into our own apartment (obviously...) so I had to collect some furniture. Our parents were kind enough to donate some of their old furniture, including a kitchen table set.

My mom's kitchen was white and red and all that good stuff, so the table had been painted white originally. I had nothing white in my decor (I'm rather fond of black furniture...). The table worked fine in our first apartment because the kitchen cabinets were white and the trim was white. But in our current apartment it just didn't fit in. surrounded by black and natural wood it stuck out like a sore thumb. 

I decided to do something about it.

I knew that I wanted to keep the natural wood (it seems to be a theme in my decor), but I was nervous to paint the table black. Afraid it would be too dark. But one week before school started and I didn't have to work I got brave and got to work. 

I used a foam brush and some black medium gloss paint that my dad had given me for a wreath post project. It took FOREVER to paint everything...all the little spindles and legs and stuff. But the end result was totally worth it!

Before

After

Big improvement in my eyes!