Furniture Makeovers w/ Cassie from Primitive & Proper

I'm so excited to have Cassie from Primitive and Proper here today.  She's such an inspiration, and every time I need a kick in the butt to get motivated on a project, I visit her blog.

Hello to all of Marcia's fans!  I am so excited to be here today on Marcia's blog.  She is so sweet, and talented, and MUCH better in the kitchen than I am!  I am Cassie from Primitive and Proper, where I blog about furniture makeovers, my home, crafts, life, and anything else I feel like.  In my few years of blogging I may have shared one recipe, maybe two.  So I am not here today to share any cooking tips- you don't want them from me!

Today, I am going to share with you some of my past furniture makeovers, with a little twist.  We all have the right to change our mind, right?  It's our prerogative.  Don't need permission, make my own decision... he he.

The makeovers I am going to share today are going to be madeover makeovers.... meaning pieces of furniture I have redone not just once, but twice.  We moved into our current home last fall, and with moves come change, naturally.

Recently in another guest post, I shared this Dorothy Draper knockoff I found.  When I first found it, it looked like this....

Then I gave it its first makeover, and it looked like this and was used in our family room.

And finally, the last outfit it wore before I decided to sell it.....

We also had these cute chairs that were in our playroom in our first house.  I can't find a picture of what they looked like after we painted them (they came unfinished) but here they are unfinished, prior to being painted blue and green.... (and that little baby is just about to turn 7, sniff sniff!)

When we redid the playroom in our last house they were repainted a pretty shade of turquoise...

And in this house, they are now being used in Sawyer's room and needed a makeover again!

This time, he chose the color- glossy cherry red, and it adds a nice pop to his Star Wars room.

Emmy also had a piece that had been done for her old room, and then needed another makeover after moving.  We bought this vintage vanity and stool for her room at our old house...

In her old room, orange was perfect....

But in her new room, pale pink was the best choice...

And finally, here is the last redone redo I will share today.  I bought this dresser intending to redo and sell a while back....

It had a nice clean modern shape that was perfect for a simple white treatment, so I painted it white., but then I loved it too much and kept it in my room!

Well, then I found THE MOST AMAZING dresser that was actually a little larger, too and gave us more storage.  This one needed some touch ups, so of course I just decided to repaint it entirely. :)  I wanted to give it a new, fresh look.   Here it is now....

Of course, the problem now is that I love it even more.  It won't work in my own room in pale pink, so for now it's sitting in my garage waiting for me to find a home in our home for it.  Or waiting for me to get up the courage to say good bye, and I am not sure that will happen any time soon!

Thank you so much, Marcia, for having me here today and allowing me to show that it is ok to be fickle indecisive lacking direction confident in whatever direction you want to go!  Never be afraid to change your mind!

(Me again) Big ol' Thank You to Cassie from sharing some of her amazing furniture makeovers while we're in Hotlanta.  Isn't she amazing?  Hop on over to Primitive and Proper to see even more awesome transformations.

Built-In Bookcase - Finished

I know you've been waiting for the final reveal.  I've been waiting, too.  It doesn't matter how many times CG and I DIY something, I always think we can just bang things out in an afternoon that will actually take a full 3 day weekend.  If I plan for a weekend, you better believe it'll take 3 weeks.  I am in awe of DIY bloggers like John and Sherry at Young House Love or Justin and Cassity at Remodelaholic who seem to be able to crush projects in their sleep.  Here's where we left off last week.

living room side

foyer side

We needed to fill all the cracks and nail holes with some wood putty.

After sanding, and spot priming, we were ready for paint.

I brushed some Minwax wood conditioner onto the top,

and stained it using an old rag.  I used one coat of mahogany, followed by one coat of black walnut.

It still needs a coat of poly, but I'm waiting for a nice enough day to do that outside.

The shelves sit on some chamfered cleats along the sides and back.  I checked the shelf length against the weight of the books with the online sagulator tool, and no additional bracketing was needed.  Here she is all decked out with my home decor and gardening books and the book vases I made here.  The top shelf holds a phone, notepad and pen, and the local coupon book for those days when you've spent the entire day painting, staining, moving furniture, and running kids around and would rather check for restaurant coupons than mess around in the kitchen.

I love the detail of the v-groove back paneling.

And here's the foyer side.  Love that we decided to add the horizontal battens.

You may have noticed that there was some furniture moving this weekend, too.  I felt like the loveseat was crowding the new bookshelves.  The wingback chair that I covered here sits in this corner of the room now.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with me and CG.  Check out parts 1 &2 of this project here and here.

Built-In Bookcase - Part 2

I had high hopes that our new bookshelves would be in use by now, but as is often the case with DIY, regular life stuff gets in the way.  There were lacrosse & soccer practices & games, party planning, Mardi Gras, and helping some good friends with moving(their new home is so ridiculously gorgeous, that I can't wait to share it with all of you sometime after the official housewarming party.)  Here's where we left off last week.

Some luan was added to box in the open 2 x4s.

My Handy, Hunky Computer Genius

Everything gets pre-primed before being attached.

We used some scrap to make some mockups of the molding.  I knew I wanted to do a board and batten treatment for the bookcase, and needed to figure out how we would integrate it into the baseboards.

The top and base molding were mitered on the chop saw,

and the battens that wrap around the sides were mitered on the table saw.  The battens were ripped from a sheet of mdf to save on cost.

Again, everything was pre-primed before fitted.  We haven't really had a real winter at all this year, but it is still NY, so painting was done inside.

After the notches had been cut in the baseboard to accept the battens,

and the battens fitted, everything was glued and nailed into place.  The grey wall panels will be painted out white.  Please ignore my filthy foyer floors.

And here is where we stand at the moment.  The top has been cut, and the vertical battens are in place.

We still need to stain the top, cut and fit horizontal battens, create shelf supports and install shelves, and paint the whole unit.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with us.

Vintage Chair Redo

Remember way back in November when I posted a How to Reupholster Tutorial starting with deconstructing a chair here.?  I promised a follow up Part 2 Putting the Chair back together post that never happened.  My camera had died, and then the hubbub of Christmas took over the house, and I never got the post up.  Well here's what she looked like put back together.

Let's rewind a bit.  Here's what the chair looked like when I pulled her out of my friend's attic.

After completely stripping her down, and removing springs, horsehair padding, and about a million tiny little nails, I was left with a bare frame,

and some repairs to make.  A little bit of wood glue and some clamps tightened things up.

Inspired by some fabulous red-tagged outdoor fabric, I spray painted the frame a hammered metal gun-metal grey.

And then it was just a matter of replacing the upholstery strapping, cutting foam to fit, and using my handy dandy pneumatic gun to blast a couple hundred staples into the fabric.  I wish I had more detailed pics of the process, but it's really just pulling the fabric tight and pulling the trigger.

I added some upholstery tacks to hide any visible staples.

This chair will be my new office chair for my planned new closet office space.  Look for some future posts about that upcoming project.

Thanks for popping in and upholstering with me.