Shelstring

March Madness #10- {Round Table}

Welcome back to March Madness!

For those of you who are just joining in on the series, I have been really busy these last few days trying to get my garage cleared out.

Being that I have a shop space where I sell refinished and refurbished items, I have quite the collection in my garage. With my older two boys coming home for a few months, we have a real need for the garage to function the way it was intended. That does not mean hording and storing all my junk. 😉

Shall we get on to the project for today then?

Great!

I’ve had this round table in our garage for For-Ever!! Meaning, waaaaay too long.

The reason is, I have struggled with what I have wanted to do with it.

Originally I wanted it to be white. Naturally, right? So one day a friend of mine and I painted the pedestal just that…white.

(You can see the results in the collage above. Due to computer issues, I don’t have the original picture, darn it!)

Later I sanded the top down to stain it, for that beautiful two-tone look. As it turns out though, it is just overlay and I sanded to much.

Grrr!

I ended up needing to paint it.

Still wanting the two tone look, and with the white not covering the table too well, I didn’t love how it
was turning out, so I finally I purchased some General finishes Chocolate brown for the top and Sage Green for the pedestal.

I tried doing a white washed glaze over the top, but it was looking sickly. So I decided to keep it the pure chocolate color.

I love the detailing in the table. To be quite honest, I am still not satisfied with how this poor thing turned out, but for the sake of right now, I went ahead and styled it on my front drive.

Here are a few of my favorite dining pieces to cheer up the look.

Blah!

Sometimes things don’t turn out exactly the way you intend. Isn’t that just life?

I will be revisiting this table again.

I think I have the perfect solution!

See you tomorrow for a fun garden feature with March Madness #11.

Tootles,

March Madness #9- {Open Top Coffee Table}

Hey there sunshine! I’m glad you dropped by and thank you for joining me for my March Madness #9! I’m 3/4 of the way through my March Madness Twelve Days, 12 Projects and I’m happy to share this Coffee Table I bought on Craigslist.

I have been wanting a coffee table like this for years. Well, not really like this, but one that could open and is an adequate size for our living room. Speaking of opening, when the guy opened this one up to show me inside, I was thrilled to see these inside!

The legs weren’t mentioned in the listing on Craigslist. I had decided that if the table was real wood and in good shape, I would buy legs to add on to it. I’m so glad I didn’t have to, these are perfect! Not only that, but the inside appears to be cedar.
It took me awhile to decide how I wanted this piece. To start, I sanded it down real good. Then I gave it a couple or 3 coats of General Finishes Antique White.

I used an Antique Mahogany stain on the top, but I’m not really pleased with it.

To be honest, I’m still thinking this one over.

I’m thinking to add some sort of hardware or detailing…I don’t know. I had thought to use glaze to enhance the details, but want to be sure before adding it.

I do love the look of it, so while I’m thinking it through, we are enjoying this table in our Living Room. It will soon be a great place to store our blankets and throws we use on these still so chilly nights.

What do you think?

Which project do you think is coming to you tomorrow? I completed everything in the last collage (YAY!) so here is a new one!

March Madness #8- {Queen Bee Coffee Table}

Hello March Madness Friends! I know you were just dying to come back and see what I have in store for you today!! What did you guess to be the next target on my March Madness list?

I’ve just about finished this group off, so you had a 50/50 chance to be right at this point.

Haha!

If you guessed this baby, you were right!

I found this table during a quick trip to the thrift shop.

It was 1/2 off that day, so I got it for $14.99.

Nice for pure wood, right!?

I have been dying to refinish a coffee table, so this was the perfect opportunity to do something nice. I immediately sanded it down to the bare wood.

Then I painted the legs with lamp black. I used my favorite brand milk paint by General Finishes.

I gave them a couple of coats while propped up against another table.

Next I painted the top using Seagull Gray.

I gave it a good 3 coats. I love this brand because it has a slight satin sheen to it, unlike most chalk and milk paints out there.

(Not an affiliate, by the way, just love their product!)

After the 3 coats, I just styled it and took pictures…

I was still debating whether I wanted to do something on the still blank slate.

Then a few days later, it came to me.

It needed a little vintage touch.

With Spring and all, I have been really loving the Bee theme.

Don’t ask me why.

I made a vinyl stencil with my Sillhouette and stenciled it on.

The perfect touch!

Don’t ya think?

I’m so ready for Spring to be here. The dandelions are in bloom (begging for fertilizer)

and the grass is green.

Now all we need is some sunshine!

Want to see more amazing coffee table ideas? Click HERE and get some inexpensively creative inspiration.

….AND…

Come back tomorrow and see what I did with the last one on this collage’s hit list!

March Madness #7- {Old Shutter and a Cotton Wreath}

Welcome back to my March Madness Twelve Days, 12 Projects!

The end goal for this event is to clean out my garage trying to use what I already have on hand.

Since today’s project lands on a Sunday, which is the one day I give myself to relax and enjoy honoring the Sabbath day with activities that are light and can be enjoyed with my family, this project is going to be simple.

Do you love a good and easy craft as much as I do?

Well, old shutters are always a favorite of mine because they have so many possible uses.

I bought these at my favorite antique store.

I seriously think it was last year, but can’t tell you for certain.

Although I bought them together, I decided to use just one. I was debating about this until I realized I only had enough spray paint on hand to finish one of them, then the choice was pretty much made for me.

Haha!

Anyway, I just took this old shutter to the back yard and spray painted it with a coat soft coat of green. I wish I could tell you what color it was, but I honestly don’t remember. It ran out halfway through the project.

I used to think this sort of thing was tragic, but now-a-days, I find this a good time to discover something I never would have before.

While spray painting, the wood was bleeding through the paint.

At first I wasn’t very happy about it, but then I realized that it was creating a pretty neat patina.

The paint was able to go on all of the surrounding frame and then the outside edges of the slats. There were some sporadic spritz in the center as the can was running out. Then I took green leaf and filled in everywhere else and spot sprayed different areas. This ended up giving it a unique weathered look that I absolutely love.

I don’t like to share blurry pictures, but to show a close-up of the patina, this is the only one I have. My lens is having trouble focusing, so it didn’t capture it well. I think you get the idea though.

The splitting and separated look is due to the lacquer that isn’t worn off of the wood. This is what I think adds to the look so well.

While the shutter was drying, I pulled out a few supplies I had on hand for a wreath:
1. glue gun
2. grapevine wreath
3. cotton stems
4. white flower sprigs
5. jute
6. sizzors.
I started by placing the cotton stems evenly apart, dabbing with glue as I went. After placing them every couple of inches all the way around, I added a flower sprig to the base of each cotton stem.

I think this added the perfect fresh spring green touch.
Don’t you love how those flowers are paper coils? So neat, huh!
This project literally took me more time to gather supplies than to put together.
I had it assembled in less than 5 minutes!

I hung it up in the entryway and love how it looks. I intended to take it to the shop, but maybe we’ll enjoy it for awhile. 😉

Now what am I going to do with the other shutter?

I guess you’ll have to come back and see!

😁

I’m so glad you joined me today!

Hope you’ll come back again tomorrow.

Hugs,

Can you guess what the next project will be?

Come back tomorrow and see!

March Madness #6- {Vegetable Bin}

Hello my devoted friends! Today is the 6th day of my March Madness event. I have shared 5 other projects that you can find at the end of this post if you missed them.

I was pretty stumped over this project, so honestly it was in line as the first project and I am just finally able to share it as my sixth. Wow, mid-way through the 12 days and my little vegetable bin finally makes the cut!

So here go the little deets….

First I gave it a good sanding.

Then, the inside was pretty dirty, so I cleaned it out real good. I already planned on painting it all over, so a good coat of primer was important. This also seals out any odors (I didn’t notice any, but you never know) and any bleed from previous stains.

Next I gave it a coat of black milk paint.

I wish I had a picture of that, but I don’t.
(darn it!)
This gives the piece a little dimension and character.
No matter how hard I tried to work with the top, I just couldn’t find a way to cover the taters etching. I didn’t want this and the onion etched in there to show since I want this bin to be versatile, so I ended up making a brand new lid. This was super simple since I had the right size board in the garage that I could just cut to the right width.

This is the real reason this little makeover took so long.

Once it was painted, I was liking it a lot. I just gave it a quick sanding to show the black underneath.

To hide the onion etching in the front, I covered it with a chalkboard I got for under $3.00 at JoAnne’s using my 40% off coupon.

It didn’t look right until I framed it out with some molding I had leftover from another project though.

The knob and drawer pull are from Hobby Lobby.

I like the way they make this cute little bin look important. 😊

Add some potatoes and our little bin is serving its purpose!

Funny thing is, it’s smaller than an old potato sack.

Thank you for sharing in my fun here for March Madness!

See you tomorrow,

If you’ve missed any of the other Madness, you can find them

here, here, here, here

and here.

March Madness #5- {French Bed Tray}

Welcome back to March Madness Twelve Days, 12 Projects where I am cleaning out my garage!

Now, seriously, I don’t have the lofty idea that I will have the whole garage cleaned out just by doing 12 projects. But I think I could be pretty close. So I’m working my way up to the bigger things by first getting projects that have been waiting awhile complete.

This little bed tray has been in the garage for quite some time, so I thought it would be a good idea to get it done.

I have to say that I think some of my favorite projects are now bed trays. If you’ve never made one over, I encourage it, they are so fun with a quick satisfaction return.

This one was like a white board type.
I guess it would have been fun to write messages on it, but I didn’t care for the style and had other plans for it when I bought it.
So I sanded it down to take away the sheen and
gave it two coats of Husky Gray by Glidden.
Also used on this chair.

And used my Paris stencil.

Also used on my Latch Box here, and Plant Stand here.

Just a couple coats of clear wax, and my little tray is finished!

I love the options of sitting it on a flat surface,

or Standing it up over a lap.

I love how it looks with our Paris Canvas.

You can read about that here.

So, another project finished, and just in time for Mother’s Day and breakfast in bed. 😉

Making headway on my list, which one do you think will be tomorrow’s project? It’s been long in the waiting, so come and check it out!

If you’ve missed any of the other Madness, you can find them

If you missed them, you can see the other projects here, here, here and here!

March Madness #4- {A Glazed Chair}

Hey! It’s been a productive few days and I’m excited to share part of it with you today for my 4th March Madness project! If you’ve missed the first three, you can find them at the end of this post.

In order to really make headway in my garage, I’m starting to get bigger pieces of furniture finished and out. You can see a bit of what the garage looks like in this picture. It can really help you understand the need for order. Especially since I worked so hard on it a few years ago and it was looking U-mazing!

I guess you can argue that amazing has reached a whole new level…

*wimper*

Anyhow, I sanded this chair down pretty good.

Actually until most of it was down to the bare wood.

Then I found this sample paint I had in my stash from Glidden. It has a little bit of a gray tone and is called husky gray.

First I primed the whole chair with an oil base primer since some of it was too difficult to sand.

Spindles aren’t my favorite.

Then I gave it two coats of the husky gray.

To bring out the details that I love so much, I added some glazing.

This last week I had a pretty serious stomach ache and went to the E.R.

One sweet friend brought us dinner the next night that fed us the whole week.

Another took my children to play.

Another brought me these flowers.

What a beautiful touch of spring and a wonderful surprise!

It turns out that I had a blockage in my small intestine.

I won’t go into too much detail, but I am feeling very blessed that within about 5 days time it worked itself out.

The same friend that brought the flowers brought a platter of some delicious frosted banana bars over a few days later.

*I will be sharing the recipe soon!

This was such a great service because I could only eat bland foods and clear fluids. My family enjoyed them so much that they were gone within the day. It’s a good thing too or I would have eaten the whole plate!

At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the look of the chair.

But now I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Happy Spring!

Can you guess tomorrow’s lucky candidate?

If you missed them, you can see the other projects here, here and here!

March Madness #3- {Latch Box}

Hey there my amazing friends! Welcome back to March Madness 12 days, twelve projects where I am sharing project #3. This madness is all about cleaning out my garage. We’d like to use it for what garages were made for, you know. Parking cars!

What a novel idea, huh?

Let’s see if you guessed yesterday which project I would be working on today!

If you guessed this wooden box, you were correct!

**DING DING DING**

It’s about this time of year that I feel ready for some sunshine. I’m ready for warm afternoons and the perfect cool nights, where you want to star gaze and sit outside with your family enjoying the peace at the end of an activity filled day. I suppose that is what inspired today’s project and my working on this little wooden box.

I just needed a little something with that coastal influence!

It all started when I picked this box up at the thrift store a few months back.

When I first laid eyes on it, I thought what a great blank canvas it was.

My imagination could run wild!

…and it did. That was the problem. So wild I lost inspiration altogether.

Then I started feeling ready for warm weather, and it hit me.

This box was meant to have a french coastal feel.

Because it was bare wood, I primed it with a water based primer after a thorough sanding.

Next I gave it a coat of white milk paint.

Then I spray pained it with Krylon’s Aqua in a matte sheen that I found in our paint cupboard.

(Not an affiliate!)

There.

It was perfect!

Right?

Well… to be perfectly honest, at first I wondered if I should just paint over it in white.

Color scares me sometimes.

Not because I don’t love color, but because it seems daring sometimes.

Even so, I decided to just go with it and roughed up the box a little.

Then I added a knob to the top and tied some jute around it.

A little stenciling and sanding over that…

And I was glad that I hadn’t painted over the aqua.

However, I did leave the inside white because it needed a fresh coat of something. 😉

I really like the contrast.

I decided to paint the latch too after thinking about replacing it.

Sometimes you just want to complete a project without having to run all over town to get anything for it. Plus if you saw our garage and craft stash, you’d definitely agree that the last thing I need is to buy yet more stuff.

I think it was a good choice.

I love look.

For now, this box is the perfect addition to our bathroom.

We can always use more storage containers in there.

Thank you for joining me on my March Madness journey!

I hope to see you again tomorrow.

Toodles,

Can you guess what the next makeover will be tomorrow?

Come back and see!

If you enjoyed this project, you might also like:

Umbrellas For Rent

A Planked Wall

March Madness- {from print to chalkboard}

Welcome to day 2 of my March Madness 12 days, twelve projects!

If you visited me yesterday, then I’m sure you just can’t wait to see what I did with this framed print! I just opened up a new shop space a lot closer and much more convenient to my home in a little farmtown community called Junction City. In my space I wanted something that was a focal point for the wall. Little did I realize at the time that I already had plenty of focal points.
Let’s just hope that some of them sell. 😉

Unfortunately my idea isn’t anything new. It is one I saw a couple of years ago from my good friend Holly at Down to Earth Style when she painted a print into a chalkboard that had a frame she already liked.

I got this print because of it’s size, not because of it’s frame, so

the difference between hers and mine is that I decided to paint the frame as well.

I wanted a fresh look, so I went with my favorite Rust-Oleum Heirloom White in satin. I sprayed it twice and loved it so much that I decided not to distress it this time.

I know, shocker!

I wrote the same message as Holly did. It is very much my style! This isn’t what the message says in the shop though. I changed out the phrase to “Probably So”, which describes my husband.

I think that’s why we are such a great fit for each other.

I plan to change out the message every time I go into the shop.

This image displays the proportionate size of the chalkboard.

I love how it turned out!

I’m thinking to give my Rain Gutter Antique a fresh coat of paint eventually…but not before I clear out the garage!

Can you guess which of the images below is on my hit list for tomorrow?

You’ll just have to come back tomorrow to find out!

Other projects you might like using chalkboard paint:

Chalkboard Closet Doors

Metal Frame Chalkboard

Bed and Breakfast Bed Tray

March Madness- {12 days, twelve projects}

I’m going to spare you the bitter picture in your brain of what our house looks like after I’ve gotten the kids off to school. Frantic racing around while making lunches and breakfast, while helping children find their clothes and doing their hair. It’s utter chaos. As I walked back into the house after the kids got on the bus, I thought of how I needed to summons my cleaning help. I don’t have someone come in regularly right now, I can usually keep up okay, but every once in awhile… it’s nice to have somebody come in and help get you ahead of the game. Such is the case with my wonderful cleaning lady and friend! She’s seriously an angel. It is the word summons that got my mind to thinking. It took me back to the endless episodes of Bewitched that I watched as a child. (Okay, so
maybe not all of them were while I was child, heh-heh!) It reminded me of how Samantha and her mother would always summons Dr. Bombay, “Calling Dr. Bombay, Dr. Bombay, come right away!” If I remember correctly, there was an episode where Samantha had a bunch of bright dots all over her that wouldn’t go away…something like that. You could call that an emergency, undubitably! So here I stood in my kitchen, thinking of all that I need to accomplish today and all that needs to be done this week, surrounded by all the chaos and crazy from the morning, AND without question, the last 3 months or so since the kids have had a lot of days off, and thought of my wonderful cleaning lady and how I need to summons her. All the while so wishing I was like Samantha. Just a wiggle of the nose and it would all be cleaned up. Then again, where would it all go? Do you know? Possibly the garage. In fact. Quite certainly. For this purpose I have decided to take the leap and do somewhat of a March Madness. Not the kind that keeps life in utter chaos, but the kind that cleans up and organizes. The kind that puts your life back in order after the chaotic life storms. So today I’m going to share a cluster of pictures that could most certainly frighten you. They give you a small idea of what our garage looks like right now. Plus…I’ll include a promise that is hard for me to make.
Ready?
Here goes.
I’m not going to purchase any more projects until my March Madness days are over. Yep. When we can park our cars in the garage, that will be the day I can buy another project to work on. But for now, I feel I have enough to go WAYYYY-hayyy beyond the month of March. So, fair enough? Want to see the first candidate?

Meet my lovely typerwriter cart. Where was this cart purchased, you ask? If you hang around here often then you probably guessed…my favorite antique store called Treasures from the Heart. I will admit that like most every piece that needs to be re-finished in my garage, it’s been there awhile. I won’t get into the gritty details, let’s just say I’m not really sure how long. 😒
But not to fear, that’s what this March Madness is all about, right?!
First off I cleaned that baby up real good. You know, dust and cobwebs. You see that beautiful contact paper?

Awww, you thought that was staying? I’m so sorry, I thought it looked too easy to remove.
So using my trusy straight edge razor and some goo gone, I was able to get things cleaned up rather quickly. 😄← (gotta love emojis! lol)

Next, I spray painted the cart in the back yard (yes, we just happened to have a sunny day, go figure! Love it when that happens.)
While I was contemplating what character this cart needed, I was thinking of all the homework I have been doing lately. That’s when the @ symbol came about. Everything I do seems to be associated with a website, and of course, well, you know how it goes. It’s used for everything! So I made a stencil on my sillhouette, made stripes on with frog tape, and used black acrylic all surface paint to paint it all on.