Park Bench Restoration

I have always had a thing for park benches.

Maybe it's because they are made out of two of my favorite material:

wood and cast iron.

What's not to love about that?

Don't you just want to sit down and read a good book?

I do.

I was blessed to receive this bench.

It needed some TLC, as the wood was very dry and worn out and the cast iron showed some rust.

I used only 1 product to restore this 

Farmhouse Kitchen Island DIY

When we moved south, we had to sell and give away a lot of furniture. 

We could not move everything with us.

So, naturally, a few days after the move, I was already looking to buy some furniture pieces for our home.

I needed to find a wooden table or desk to be used as a kitchen island.

I know I had plenty of inspirational pictures on my Pinterest board.

I luckily found this table for only $15...and it was only a couple of miles from us.

Price and location were a plus, if you know the feeling of moving to a totally different area and not knowing were everything is.

I soon got to work to clean and sand it down.

I liked the patina, but you know...germs and

Chairs Rehab

Today I will share my chairs rehab story.

It kind of happen when I was not looking to replace our dining chairs.

But you know the moment you see something and you think 

"I like that!".

And the moment you realize that something is not expensive and sometime even free?

I know.

My usual reaction is

"SCORE!!"

So back to the chairs...I'll spare you the pictures of the completely before.

But this is the picture of the back of one seat.

Recycling and Coffee Station Combo

This is a project that anyone could do in those occasion when you are limited in space,

or when you just want to be efficient in using the square feet your house has to offer.

If you remember, right before Thanksgiving,

I tackled this coffee station project.

(project here)

I initially used the bottom part of the table to store my 45lb pail of hard wheat, 

and several pounds of dried beans.

(as a long distance runner, 

I eat plenty of both. 

I love my carbs, vegetable proteins and iron)

One thing though was not working out very well in our kitchen,

and that was our recycling bins situation.

We recycle pretty much 

Coffee Station

I like both coffee and hot teas.

You would think that I had a coffee and tea station all my life.

Not so, not so.

But I had been thinking about having one in our home for quite a while.

Our kitchen has a limited space, 

and I didn't want to cram too much stuff so not to be able to walk in there.

But I finally came up with an idea...

the day before Thanksgiving.

Because you know,

when creativity strikes,

then you must act...immediately.

So I moved the microwave station to the side of the fridge, 

took the pantry door down (to make room for microwave cart thingy),

sewn a curtain to replace the door,

disassembled a sewing machine table,

Easy Wooden Headboard

If you remember,

almost two years ago, 

I built 2 wooden twin size bed frames (project HERE) out of a futon frame.

I initially just used a canopy to hang over the beds,

but this week I decided to build the headboards.

I looked in my stash and found some pieces I could use.

These were the backing of 2 solid wood bookshelves we got on

Dresser to Buffet

This dresser to buffet makeover that I am sharing today, is one of my favorite.

I like how it turned out,

and it was a FREE dresser that I got to play with.

My inspiration was this box.

Don't you have an inspiration box?

This buffet is going to stay in our rec room converted garage,

so I wanted this to have wheels for easily roll it out the door when needed.

I started by removing the

Barstools and chairs

Today's post is about bars tools and chairs.

Actually counter stools, not barstool.

Counter stools sit approx 24-25" high, and barstools sit approx 29-30".

Anyway, I have been looking for a couple of backless stools.

Since our kitchen is not big, I wanted backless stool, to visually open up the space.

Thing is, I really liked how comfortable our stools were.

I didn't want to get rid of them.

So I got out the measuring tape, skill saw and hand sander.

In less than 10 minutes 

Bedroom Set Revamp

A couple of months ago I was about to start building a wooden bed frame for our son.

A few days later, a friend of mine called me asking me if I had any use for a twin size bed with 2 smaller dressers.

Well, of course. 

I was ok with the bed and dresser being mostly white, but the blue drawers needed to be toned down a bit.

I got my homemade mod podge and this "pallet wood" paper 

Fabric lined and painted pine wooden crates

Today's project was one of those impromptu

project.

Fabric lined (on the inside) and painted pine (on the outside) wooden crates.

 

It was fast and turned out great.

I started with two wooden crates that I already had.

The crates are the plain unfinished pine ones.

Until I stained them (about 8 years ago).

Today I added some painted numbers and some dropcloth.

I use those crates to store clothes, 

so I wanted to be able to "hide" the inside by adding fabric on the inside. 

(the easy way)

I drew the 

Storage to seat

Since I was able to refinish this old desk,

I wanted to make a seat suitable for the space.

I decided to use this storage basket we kept in our bedroom and use it as a seat.

I painted the wooden top,

then added a strip of dropcloth.

I attached the fabric at 

Desk Makeover: paint, stain and dropcloth

I bet you have some piece of furniture that you have moved around your house plenty of times, and that you have used it with a different purpose.

Well, here is mine.

This desk was passed down to my husband by his father.

We used it as a desk for a couple of years, it had a dark stain to it.

Then baby #1 came along and we needed a changing table. 

So I sanded the desk to the bare wood (minus

Painted Chair $1 (no sewing)

I have to admit, 
I can sew slipcovers, and I have in the past, but it is a time consuming job (for me).

That said, I did wanted to change up this rocking chair.

It went 

Unused drawers project

You know the feeling when you do a project (my Ikea recycle/trash cart), 

and you are left with things that you don't want to throw away 

(drawers)?

recycle-trash cart

Well, maybe I am just one of those people...

So here I was left with 3 unused drawers.

I also had eight little plastic 

Ikea dresser turned into kitchen recycle/trash cart

We had an Ikea dresser was ready for a total makeover.

This is not a dresser anymore.

You can't even imagine how excited I am.

I have been wanting to do something like this for several months already.
And finally I did it.

My little one loves to pull stuff out the recycling bin, so I HAD to do something about it.
I wanted to built one myself, 
then I found a beautiful dresser on Craigslist that ended up in the girls bedroom.
That left me with two spare ones that we got at Ikea few years back for $20.
The dresser was originally unfinished pine, and I painted it white back then.
So this is what I did.
I took the