She's CRAF-TAY!

Refinishing the Desk Stool

Before:

After Sanding, ready for paint.  Note the white shelf/coat rack I also painted in the background.

And here is the finished product!  So PUR-TY!!  I love how it is shiny on top.  Lacquer baby...lacquer.

NEXT.....

Refinishing old bathroom cabinet from Target 

Had to sand that bad boy...it was a BITCH.  Generally, this thing is thisclose to being a piece of crap, so I wanted to repurpose it.  I had to tape the window...in hindsight, I should have just taken the window out.  I almost did and then got lazy.  Not so smart.  Below is after the first painting.  I had to paint it several times because of drips that I had to sand down after it dried.  RRRRR.

BUT...look at the finished product!!!!  Our nice china now has a place to be admired.  And there's a little hook lock on the door so Kellen doesn't get into it.  He's currently not smart enough to figure out a hook lock, thank God.

I put Kellen's College Fund piggy bank out so that visitors could deposit their change and help the kid go to college.  :)

NEXT!!  PROJECT IN PROGRESS!!!!

Here is the inspiration, from a do-it-yourself blog; as you can see it is a wall with two boards attached, clips attached to the boards for all the little ones MASTERPIECES.  (Which is says beautifully above on the wall.)

From directions on her website, I was able to download the exact same font for free.  Then I typed "Masterpieces" on my word processing program, made the letters HUMONGOUS, and printed them out.  Then I had to use an exacto knife to carefully cut out each letter; the paper left behind would become the stencil.  But look at all the pretty letters!

OH YEAH, forgot to show you the wall that I will use.  Note that the current paint color is rather dark.  It's not as evident in this picture, so you're gonna have to just trust me.  The "Masterpieces" wouldn't show up as well.  So, I had to paint it the same color as the formal dining...which was just an extension from the wall next to it.  So, there was flow.  Flow is good.

Here we go!  Wall painted (PS: edgers are AWESOME!!) I did some measuring and drew a line with a level and hung the paper stencils.  Did I mention that you should NEVER use paper as a stencil?  They have special stencil paper.  I was notsosmart.  Oh well.  

So, here I have painted over the stencils.  Not an easy job, took about an hour.  I couldn't roll it, like I thought, I had to use a paintbrush, and the only one I had was the size of my fingernail.  

TA-DA!!!!  After removing the paper.  NOT EASY...a bunch of little pieces stuck behind to torture me.

Now, in the garage, are sitting two 1 x 2's painted black.  Can I just tell you it's frrrrrreeeeezing in there???  That paint ain't drying anytime soon.  Tomorrow morning I will be able to sand the edges to give a nice worn effect.  Then I will screw them to the wall, and glue on some cool clips I got at Walmart.

MORE TO COME............