January 21, 2023
I have been trying to get my house a little decluttered, and trying to get rid of things. Sometimes you have to get creative with that. There are some things that are just to sentimental to throw away or give to just anyone. Some things need to stay in the family. Considering that, I had a couple of pretty worn and beat up pieces of furniture, that needed to be rehomed, because my house is just too small to keep it all, so I had to get creative, to be able to convince one of my kids to take it and keep it, so here is what I did. I started working on one of my grandkids, convincing her that I had treasure that she needed to take home and keep and take of care of. I took some doing, because, the furniture was pretty beat up, but, with a little elbow grease, and some paint, and furniture transfers, I got them transformed enough to convince both my daughter and my granddaughter, that they needed these pieces of furniture. Here is what I did....
I pulled this old dressing table out of my attic...
As you can see, it was lookin' pretty rough. It was my girl's when they were little. Before that, it was mine, when I was little. Before that, it was my mom's when she was little, and she said it wasn't new when she got it, so I am not sure how far this thing goes back. My granddaughter will be at least the 4th generation to have it.
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This thing has been painted many times over the years. I wasn't lookin' to get it perfect, but I did manage to get it pretty nice. First, I sanded it down and repainted it. Then, I found a new little white knob to put on the drawer, since the original one was missing.
Then, I got my cricut warmed up and started making me some stencils. I printed them out, and then looked at my paint supplies. I didn't have the colors that I wanted. I didn't really want to run to the store either, so I got to mixing paints to try to get the colors that I wanted. I wasn't sure how that was going to go, since I hadn't done that kind of thing since I was in grade school art class, but it didn't turn out too bad! Then I went to painting some more. After that, I decided to pull out some furniture transfers and experiment with that. I had never done that before either. That turned out to be the easy part. Especially, since I had my little helper telling me which ones that she wanted and where she wanted me to put them.
Ok, we weren't done yet. This thing is supposed to have a skirt on it, so I had to go unbury my sewing machine, and get that thing warmed up. We had to do a princess skirt, which included the tulle and that slippery fabric. Not my favorite fabric to work with. That was a little frustrating here and there. I might or might not have said a bad word once or twice, but thankfully, my little helper wasn't here for that part. It wouldn't have been quite so frustrating, if I wasn't always in a hurry, but I am, so it was, but we got it done. lol!
But hold on... we weren't completely done, because this thing needs a chair. I was originally going to take an old computer chair and spray paint it and reupholster it, but... I am really not sure how to spray paint in the winter with out destroying the interior of a house, so I went to plan B, and went back up to the attic and found this...
It had been sitting up there for a long time. Another family heirloom. I have no idea how far that chair goes back, but I had it when I was a kid, and it was an antique at that time. I went and pulled the sander out again, and then went to painting this, putting a good primer on it first...
This too, had many previous coats of paint on it. I was never going to get it completely smooth, but that's ok, we just decided to go with the "rustic" look. lol!
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Next, we had to make it go with the table, so I went back to my cricut, made another stencil, mixed up some more paint, trying my best to match it with the table, and got back to painting.
Now, we couldn't just leave it like that. We NEED more butterfly transfers, or so says my granddaughter. So we got more butterfly transfers...
Now, there we go. All done! She is a happy camper, and so am I. Didn't turn out too bad, considering! I think it is going to look really cute in her bedroom, and she is pretty excited to get it to her house, so it was a win win.
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by KJE