DIY Project: The Time I Stained the Vintage Side Table

So, once upon a time I lived on a Navajo Reservation. I got almost all of my furniture at Goodwill, with the exception of the leather couch my dad bought me at basically an abandoned warehouse in Gallup, NM called Big Bears Furniture Depot or Big John's Things and Other Stuff or something.

After my first year, this kid Josh moved from the Reservation to a real place like California and he gave a lot of his crappy stuff away.
He piled up everything on his porch and was like "Hey guys, I'm leaving stuff I don't want on my porch."
I acquired a really beat up vintage side table and a crooked wooden stool. When I left the Rez, I gave a lot of my stuff away, included the crooked wooden stool, but brought the table with me to Alabama.

The table was a...meh... color, beat up, and bothered me with its 70s-ness. I hated the table, but it's still a table, you know? And who am I that I think I'm too good to need this table. I can put things on it. And you can lift off the top and there's this little tray inside, which is nice. Also, it's real wood and not particle-board or something, so, a win there.

Here is the top of the table before. It had tons of scratches and marks and sadness.

The bottom of the table before. 

It still had some varnish and clear coating on it, especially on the lower part and the tray.

So I sanded it. A lot. 

A LOT OF SANDING HAPPENED. 

It would have probably been a lot easier to strip the table instead of cleaning and sanding it. 

But stripping furniture is frightening. Also, it was a zillion degrees outside that day so 

sanding inside > using chemicals outside

 

 (Ever noticed that my dog finds his way into a lot of the photos on this blog? I don't know how, but I think he senses the camera. Also, he's very clingy.)

I bought Minwax "Jacobean" stain. It's the darkest stain that isn't black. 

Here's how staining works:

1. clean and sand wood

2. brush on even layers of stain in the direction of the wood

3. wait for a few minutes...like 5...or 15 if you want to give it more time

4.  wipe off the stain with a cloth that doesn't have a lot of lint....

5. Repeat, or don't. It's up to you. 

I don't know what I thought staining would be like, but it wasn't really what I expected. I guess I thought you brush on the stain and it dries and you're done. I had no idea you have to let it kind of soak into the wood then take it off?

I did not, repeat, did NOT sand this enough. The parts that weren't bare enough and took about 2 days to dry and I felt very foolish because I wanted instantaneous results. 

Anyway, here's what that looked like after the first stain:

After the second stain:

After it fully dried, which took way longer than it should have if I had just followed directions, I put on the first clear coat of polycrylic.

After I brush on the first coat, it dried, I sanded out the brush strokes, and put on another layer.

 After it was fully dry.

BAM! done.

The Time I Made Mint Ice Cream

So here is what happened.

I came across an ice cream maker for 50% off. So I bought it, because, obviously.

Also, I'm a stress baker. Some people drink or gamble or scrub bathtubs (I'm looking at you, college roommate). Normally, I bake things. Today it was really hot, and I had this new ice cream maker so I made what I really wanted: Mint Chocolate Chip.


 So I googled. And I found an egg-less recipe. This was important because I am both impatient and lazy. Egg-less means you don't have to heat anything up. It also means there are no eggs, so it's less of a custard base? You just throw ingredients in a bowl and stir them.

Let's go on this journey together, shall we?

Supplies

Sugar, Cream, Milk, Salt, Peppermint Extract, Vanilla Extract, Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup of Heavy Cream. 1 cup of milk.

1/2 cup of sugar

Add Vanilla to taste. You're supposed to measure it, but, you know. I added drop by drop and taste-tested it until it was good.

Add peppermint extract to taste (same as the vanilla, drop by drop.) This stuff is strong so take it easy. Also, in my extensive 5 minutes of research, I learned one should not use peppermint oil. Extract is where it's at. Now we know.

Stir it until the sugar dissolves.

Into the ice cream maker we gooooo...

So, you wait about 10 minutes until it's firming up a bit and then add the chips.

I thought the regular sized chocolate chips I had on hand might be hard to eat once frozen so I put some of the chips in a ziploc sandwich bag and beat the crap out of them with a meat tenderizer. I added them, handful by handful, into the ice cream maker.

I waited 20 more minutes.

If you were smart, you'd use this time to clean up.I did not. 

Instead, during this time, I got a spoon and tried to sample the ice cream while the machine was stirring. I knew this was a bad idea as I was doing it. However, I thought if I timed it juuuuuuuuuuust so I could get enough on the spoon to taste. What actually happened is that I almost broke the machine by sticking a spoon in it. So...don't do that.



I lifted off the top of the ice cream maker, and it looked like this:

I used a spatula to spoon the ice cream into 2 small tupperwear containers, and put them in the freezer.

After two hours, I took one of the containers out and made a bowl of ice cream.

Here's the Final Product!

What I learned:

- You have to freeze the bottom of the ice cream maker (I'm sure it has a name but don't know what it is) before you can make the ice cream. Probably overnight to be safe. What this means is you should always have it in the freezer JUST IN CASE the spirit moves you and you need homemade ice cream right. now.
- The peppermint tastes much stronger in the mixture before it gets frozen. Next time, I'm going to add the peppermint to taste and then add a bit more than that.
-  The recipe called for green food coloring, but I'm not a child. I knew I wouldn't be confused by something that isn't green tasting like mint. But. You do what you want to do there.
- Peppermint extract, not oil
- Don't put spoons in the mixer.

House Music: Saturday Morning List

• Sara Bareilles - King of Anything 
• Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind 
• Gillian Welch - Elvis Presley Blues
• Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
• Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning
• Colin Hay - Beautiful World 
• Ben Folds - Sentimental Guy
• One Republic - Good Life 
• The Avett Brothers - Laundry Room
• Bonnie Raitt - Angel from Montgomery 
• The Civil Wars - I've Got This Friend
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - Tiny Light 
• Eric Clapton - San Francisco Blues 
• Amos Lee - Southern Girl 
• Ray LaMontagne - Old Before Your Time

If Purple Chairs Could Talk

Looks at these!





These chairs say:

"Oh, hi! I'm pretty traditional but sometimes I like to convince myself that I'm fun and funky and maybe a little bit crazy!"
You've considered purchasing an electric toothbrush, mais non, too indulgent. But you might! Someday. Someday... You like to watch Grey's Anatomy and cry sometimes. "Meredith! She's an everywoman," you say to yourself.
Maybe you like to pretend that Hugh Jackman is Leopold and he's all like 'Oh, hello m'lady! Care for a carriage ride? Also, I have purchased you several expensive gowns and would like you to wear one for a fancy dinner!' and you're all like 'Oh, Leo, you shouldn't have! But thanks! I'll take them!'




Anyway, I don't have any room for purple anything in my house so I'm not going buy these.
But someone should.
Maybe you!

DIY Project: Prime and Paint Gross Bookshelf

Things I know (not a comprehensive list):

a. I have no money.
b. I want my house to look nice.
c. I want to have cute things in my house.
d. I have no money.

A solution to problems a and d is to buy cheap stuff.
A solution to b and c is to make that cheap stuff look nice.

I saw a bookshelf at a thrift store. It was $5.88.

And I was all like "Hey, I should buy this ugly bookshelf and paint it a nice color and put it under the wall of picture frames in my house!"

...and so I did. And so I did.

Here is the before!

I know. 

Right now, you are all like "Betsy, why did you buy this?" 

Because it was 5 dollars and 88 cents.

The first thing I had to do was clean it. You can buy a spray to do that. So I sprayed the stuff on. I wiped it off. Boom.Clean.

The next thing I had to do was sand the crap out of it. Because the surface was uneven and weird. So I did that. That took longer than I wanted, but eventually I evened things out.

I got some primer. I painted on a coat with a paint brush.
Waited an hour.
Sanded the primer.
Waited 2 hours.
Sanded it with a really fine sandpaper. (to get some larger brush strokes out)

I probbbbbably didn't sand it as much as I should have, but these things happen.

This is what it looked like after the primer:

I bought high gloss black spray paint because I wanted it to be shiny.

This is what it looked like after first coat:

And after the second coat:

In its new home, empty.

In its new home, with THINGS, you guys:

(Ed. note: I just piled a bunch of stuff in there.Other things will end up filling the shelves. I know we were all very concerned.)

House Music: Early Morning

Music in a home is very important.

There are different songs for different situations. We all know this.
 There really isn't any sink full of dishes that cannot be slayed by Aretha's "Chain of Fools", whereas the occasional Avril Lavigne should be saved for the very darkest of days (or, simply, not at all). For me, "Werewolves of London" is pretty universal, but Rap should be relegated to something up-beat. Like getting ready to go out....or vacuuming. No? Just me? OK.

Let's all be honest here.

Anyway, Adele is my early morning stuff. For the type of mornings when you have a bit of leisure time. This is not for the mornings when you need to pull your shit together and get to work on time.

So, for all you early morning coffee drinkers and newspaper readers, try this little ditty on for size.

Real Home: Decision Made!

Last week, I showed you some options for the nook.


After a successful stripping, priming, and painting of a bookshelf (that post will be up shortly) and the fact I'm halfway through a (so far) successful refinishing/staining table project, I've decided that I want to tackle reupholstering those two chairs. God help us all.

So if that ever actually happens, I'm thinking black high gloss paint for the wood and a bright pattern for the cushion (that post will come later with several fabric options).

Here are the chairs. Please ignore le mutt in the foreground. 

What this means for the nook is that I'm going to need to hold off on purchasing a bench/chair for it.

I still, however, needed additional seating for my living room. A few of you weighed in, in various ways, with your picks and opinions and you are all wonderful and smart and fashionable. I decided to go with...(drum roll please)...

The Gray Armchair!

 

  Here was the little picture window corner before:

 I had my plant, my little vintage table and the slipper chair. It was fine, but not like...AWESOME.

 And here it is after!

 I moved the armchair into the corner, moved the table to the side, and added some additional treasures/tchotchkes to the table. I also put two of my red picture boxes with stationary and other craft supplies underneath. Perfect storage opportunity, for the win. And...AND...I got to introduce some red into the mix. So, you know, big moves were made there.

Boom!

Good call on this one. It really is very comfortable. 

In the window, I'm seeding some of my little plants. 

(Front left to right: Red Peppers, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Strawberries)

 I moved the slipper chair to the other side, and added a folding table on the side. 

I now use it to pile my stuff on top of when I get home. 

BAM!

 And here's a view of living room looking into the kitchen. 

Ignore the disaster in the rest of the room. 

(You can see a sneak peek of the beginning of my wall gallery and newly painted bookshelf there on the left!)

xo.

Real Home: Decision Time

 Hey, remember this photo?
This is the nook. Remember the nook? 

 

And it is sooo beige right now. So vanilla. Which isn't terrible. But it isn't great. 

I'd like to get a few things here. 

1. Bench 

2. Comfy Chair

I don't actually need both. Maybe one or the other. Or maybe both. Whatever. It's fine. Stop yelling.

Here are my limitations:

1. I have to lift and move it by myself 

2. It has to fit into the Pathfinder

3. I'm poor. 

4. Seriously. I'm so poor, you guys.

So, here is what I did. I went to TJ Maxx. I took pictures of things. Things that I liked. And things that were terrible. The former, so I could think each item through. The latter, so we could make fun of them together. 

 Here are two armchair options. 

Gray armchair, Cream armchair, and Ottoman.

 

 So Gray Armchair is up first. 

Pros:

It's gray. 

It's a darker color, so it won't show dirt or stains as much in the future. 

In my next house/apartment, it could go with anything, even if I change my mind on brighter colors. 

It matches the living room rug PERFECTLY. (cream, gray, sage green, robin's egg blue) 

Cons:

It's gray. 

It doesn't go with the rug I have in the nook right now. 

 Your turn, Cream Armchair. 

Pros:

 It's a lovely cream color

Goes well with the rug I have in the nook now. 

I can bring in any other color by adding to it 

It would match the red leopard bench. (we'll talk about that later)

Cons:

It's cream, and will show dirt, stains, etc.(especially with how often I move)

It's cream

It does with that cute ottoman...LOOK AT THE OTTOMAN.

 Here's a little thing. A little chair with a little something.

The thing though: I have a slipper chair already. With a modern leaf-type pattern. 

This is robin's egg blue (which I do like these days)

The floral looks old. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

OK...so probably not this one.

 Alright. It's bench time. 

The Contenders:

Red Leopard with Nail-head Trim

Pros:

It has nail-head trim. I love that ish. 

It's leopard. And in another life I maybe was some sort of big game hunter. So I dig it. 

If I get it, I can finally introduce some RED into the room. 

It's a pattern (see: not beige) 

It would go with the Cream Armchair

Cons:

I mean...it's leopard. 

Nothing else in the room is red right now. 

It doesn't go with the living room rug (If I end up using that one for they gray chair)

It doesn't go with the gray chair and I like the gray chair.

 Leather Bench

hahaha. Just kidding. What am I - a bachelor in the 1980s? 

Although, I wonder if it comes with the empty plastic bag...

Here was the other bench option. 

Beige. Safe. Nail-head trim. Goes with stuff. Yawn.

 

Velour Purple Bench!

 Earlier, when we talked about the ridiculous things I took pictures of? This is my favorite. 

It is a velour purple bench.

Velour, friends. 

And there are two of them!

Here's this pillow. 

It's regular leopard. It's smaller than a normal pillow.

And this one has a pattern. It's embroidered, which is nice. 

Sorry. I got fatigued near the end there.

I have a lot to think about.

I'll probably go back tomorrow night or Friday, so if any of these things were sold, I guess that makes my life easier.

Crossing my fingers the purple benches are still available!