Just can't keep up

I love reading other blogs, and I have really good intentions (you know what's paved with those), but... here I am a year later writing my next blog post.  One doesn't keep followers that way 😊

Anyway, as a brief followup to my last several posts with the floor painting.  IF you choose to do this do plan to wait a LOOOOOONG time for the floor to dry (my son tells me it's "cure").  At any rate, apparently it takes a long time and you shouldn't put furniture on it before it's ready.  Well, obviously I was considerably more ready than my floor was.  It has MANY spots where the paint has pulled up.  Most anything heavy sitting on it that's been moved has removed the paint.

Very, very annoying... but it is what it is.  I did follow directions and read what other people had done... but I didn't ask the person who absolutely knew - my son (who is a Plant Manager in a paint company).

Why would I have thought of asking him? 😕

So, live and learn.  The floor is still a lovely painted aqua and it's still better than the carpet, thank you very much!

Second end table finished

The last post with the dog bed end table turned out too long I thought, so decided to keep this table for another day.  It's not nearly as exciting as the dog bed one, but it's sitting at the other end of my love seat and I think I'm gonna love it.

While it's all wood, it does have laminate, so that presented a whole other challenge.  I'm just hoping my paint stays on.  It was really scratched and banged up, but has two drawers.

Actually found this one first when I was looking for the dog bed table.  Bought it thinking if I couldn't find the one I wanted, I could remove the large drawer in the bottom and use it as the dog bed.

Then found the one I really wanted and decided this one would work great at the other end of the love seat.  The drawers are going to be a real bonus - I've already eliminated a lot of the clutter I had on top of my old end tables.  Found it at an antique store and here's how it looked.

So, like the other one - sanded (though laminate doesn't sand well).  Two coats of primer, cured for 7 days, 3 coats of yellow paint, 3 coats of Minwax polycrylic, cured another 24 hours, new drawer pulls, and 'walla'...

So, here they are together...

You can see, the cats think the love seat belongs to them.

The coffee table is in the works, had it's first coat of paint on the legs today... it'll be ready soon (I hope).

Refinished furniture - almost done

Both end tables are FINISHED.  So, here are a couple of photos - recapping the process (which was very slow - by my standards anyway).  So, here we go.  I found this ratty old table - and it was ratty.

Took the doors off and sanded... and sanded and sanded and... well, you get the idea

Primed with two coats of primer - let cure for 7 days, then 3 coats of yellow and then 3 coats of Minwax polycrylic on the top - which took more time and had to cure 24 hours.  Interior has upholstery fabric glued with spray adhesive, and stapled inside with the nail trim finish.

Emma Grace wasn't shy about trying it out.

So after the last coat cured, they were FINALLY ready to use today.

Instead of adding the custom cushion, I decided to simply move Frosty's existing bed inside it for the time being.  Thought he might be more willing to use it with his own bed.  Had to 'encourage' him at first.  And, Emma Grace is still curious.

So a little while after putting it all together went back in the living room and there's Frosty - I think he likes it :-)

This picture is the inspiration piece:

I'll post the before and after of the other table in another post - it's already being used also and I'm loving the bright color.  Did I mention my favorite color is yellow.

Coffee table starts getting paint on Monday.

Furniture refinishing update

I've added a coffee table to my projects!  And no, not nearly finished with the two end tables.

Here's the coffee table sitting on saw horses ready to be sanded.

I'm pleased with my coffee table find.  It's pretty rough and beat up, but solid wood and I paid practically nothing for it.  Since it's not a family piece I am comfortable doing 'whatever' to it.  Plans are to stain the top and paint the sides and legs - haven't decided on a color yet... something to coordinate with my living room.

I sanded it this morning - and about did myself in doing it.  I didn't get the entire top down to bare wood like I wanted, my back gave out first.  Will get the primer on legs and sides later this afternoon after I recover a bit.  Then it sits for 7 days and I'll be able to work on the tables.

The primer on the tables had to 'cure' for 7 days so the first ones have just been 'sitting' and waiting.  Got the first partial coat on the dog bed table this morning.  Partial because the table is upside down getting the 'underside' of everything painted. Second coat goes on that later today.

These projects were much easier when I was younger :-)

Refinishing furniture

Found a great idea online to create a cute dog bed from an old end table.  FINALLY found the old table - really ratty and beat up, but that's okay.  Actually found a second (very different) table about the same time and decided to use both of them - after all, my love seat does have two ends.

Here's the original idea - I love it.

I still have to choose the fabric for the inside.  Looks like I'd better get busy with that.

Anyway, thought I'd have to wait a bit to start work on them but yesterday turned out to be a pretty, and relatively warm day - so I dashed out to Lowe's, got my supplies and got started.

Sanding was first.  Well, no that's not actually correct.  FINDING the sander was first.  Son finally found it in hubby's shop.  (The shop is such a mess it's difficult to find anything - we've GOT to clean it up - but that's another story.)  My patience level is zip and I'd probably have given up and bought another on... so I'm especially thankful that he found it.  Of course, there was sandpaper galore - hubby always had plenty of everything.

Took the entire project outside as I didn't want fine powdery dust over everything in the garage (the shop is in too big a mess to work in there - oh yeah, think I mentioned that).  So, got the sanding done.  (Yes, I wore a dust mask.)  I hate sanding! 

This is the table as I bought it - you can't really tell, but it's REALLY rough and beat up. Found it on Craigslist for next to nothing.

After sanding - but before cleaning.

This is the second one - has a little drawer in the top and then a file drawer in the bottom.  One can never have too many drawers to put "stuff" in - right?  Got this one at an antique mall - also really cheap.  This picture is before any sanding or anything.

Cleaned all the fine dust off both tables and moved everything back inside (well, son moved everything back inside).  Got the original idea table up on saw horses and applied primer.  Now, this table doesn't look very big, but there's LOTS of wood surface so that took awhile.

It's been drying overnight and now son has switch the tables and I've just finished putting prime on the second one this afternoon. Then they need to cure for 7 days before first coat of paint is applied.

When I was younger, I loved doing this sort of thing... (except the sanding - I always hated that part) but my back is still bothering me from yesterday, and I have body parts that hurt that I'd forgotten I have.  And you know - it's not like I really needed any more furniture in my house.  But, I've been slowly morphing my living room into something different for a couple of years now and I think I'm gonna like these little tables.

It's a good thing I didn't have room to work on both of them at the same time though or I probably wouldn't be able to walk. 

More on this project later...