A Coffee Table Joe Could Be Proud Of...

Not any Joe, ya'll, your cup of Joe!!

A mid winter trip to the city during a snowstorm in rush hour landed me another Craigslist Super Buy for a mere 15 smackaroos. Here is how this frumpalicious table looked when I first brought her home...

Kind of Blah and Boring but a hearty piece made of solid wood...I simply couldn't resist and certainly nothing a good coat of white can't fix!! Of course, since then this baby has been drifting from room to room in hopes of a decent makeover. First the family room, then the living room, then back to the family room for a party, then back to the living room where she sat undisturbed for at least 2 months. Well, the time has come. Time to rip off the braces, trade the glasses in for contacts, and tame that frizz. It is makeover day here at LBR!!

First things first...Start sanding! I use a Ryobi 5 inch orbital sander...I bought it a few months back for the door project and, though it isn't as powerful as one would hope, it gets the job done.

OK - you caught me...the first pic is from the door project but the camera was charging and you know I have patience to wait!! Anywho, I had to take to hand sanding to get the legs and sides done...

When painting it isn't necessary to sand the finish down to the wood - all you need is a good scuffing. I did the top REALLY well because I know it will be getting a lot of use and I wanted the primer to have a good hold of the wood. I may have gone a bit overboard but I was soooo in the zone!

Once she was sanded I dusted her off with a tack cloth and went to priming. I used 2 coats of Kilz Premium Primer with a few hours in between. You will notice I didn't take too much time fixing up her imperfections...wood putty is super stinky and for this piece I didn't mind showing off a bit of her past life...she is an antique, after all! Here is the first coat of primer...

and the second...

After that I waited 48 hours for the primer to cure REAL GOOD before I painted. I Waited and Waited...and waited. Have I mentioned how impatient I am...yeah, I thought so...

Since the weather was crappy outside I had to paint inside...painting inside = NO SPRAY PAINT!! I had to hand paint it which I feared would cause brush strokes but I referred back to the Painting Queen, Centsational Girl, and got me some paint conditioner as suggested. This is my first time using the stuff and I have to say I was quite impressed! Using a conditioner gave me a little more time to fudge around and touch up if my strokes weren't quite even...or if i happen to notice one of about thirty Bubba hairs that wound up on my ticky tacky paint job. It just goes with the territory...

I added a few tablespoons floetrol to my trim cup and filled it up with some leftover white semi gloss I happened to have lying around. Mix mix mix and the painting began... SIDE NOTE - there was no exact floetrol to paint ratio with the small amount I was mixing so I put in about 1-2 TBS in my trim cup...refer to instructions for larger quantities but this seemed to do the trick just fine.

First coat of paint...plus a gratuitous Bubba shot....

Second (and FINAL!!) coat of paint...

It is still a bit wet in this picture hence the moussed up "wet look" we all aspired to achieve in the 80's but I can assure you she dried like a charm. I love that you can still see the wood grain even after 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint!

I used then brushed on two thin layers of SafeCoat Acrylacq for added waterproofing and durability. I use the same technique when making my old office desk so I was sure it would withstand the test of wear and tear....I can not believe I still haven't posted that project!! I am, like 6 months behind on that one...ooops....

Once everything had cured up and dried I took some time to put the original hardware back on. My original intentions were to paint them another color but, for now, I am going to try them on as they are.

Give me a week or two and I'll probably be spraying them either oil rubbed bronze or maybe something a little more fun like red, yellow, or green for a little pop of color...let's see where the day takes me! One thing is for sure, whatever I do I will certainly be keeping you in the loop! Here are a few shots of her all finished up!

How bout a close up of 2 of my favorite Joe coffee table books?

The perfect spot to stop for breakfast...oh, and a cup of Joe if you'd like...

Don't worry - Ill be including the recipe for these goodies sometime this week!! Stay tuned for that because they are SUPER simple and so so delicious!!

What were you up to this weekend? Any special painting projects? Did you take advantage of the super weather and get outside? WE DID!! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what's happening in your part of the world!

Linking up to the following: It's So Very Cheri, Thrifty Decor Chick, Keeping it Simple, Today's Creative Blog, Organize With Sandy, New Nostalgia, All Thingz Related, Hope Studios, The Thrifty Home, My Backyard Eden, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, At Home With K, Someday Crafts, Night Owl Crafting, A Little Tipsy, Beyond The Picket Fence, The DIY Show Off, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Stuff and Nonsense, At The Picket Fence, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Home Sweet Farm, Finding Fabulous, Between Naps on the Porch, Dittle Dattle, Organize and Decorate Everything, Coastal Charm, Miss Mustard Seed, The Frugal Girls.

Bianca

Paint Supplies - Reunited And It Feels So Good....

 In the past few months I have had my gypsy pack of tools and supplies meandering about from room to room...truly, they meander. A paint brush here, trim cups there, and rollers everywhere. In honor of Spring Cleaning Month, I finally got a hold on the situation and brought the whole fam-dam-aly back together again.

We have a paint station in our basement where actual paint cans and my HUGE tub of primer are kept. Taking a look at the situation I thought it best to move the paint cans away from our furnace...flammable substance + fire not so good. They have since been relocated to a closet on the opposite side of the basement. All the other tools and paraphernalia that I use has been wrangled together and is now resting nicely beneath my office daybed.

First I took these huge under the bed bins from Ikea (As Is, of course) and put some felt sticky feet on the bottom...this way when I pull them out from under the bed the plastic wont scratch up against our wood floors:

Need a close up of that price tag?? You know how eager I am to show off these lovelies...

Next, I went about the task of gathering all things paint:

See all those rollers? We have 6...if we were more organized we wouldn't of had to keep buying them!! Hmmm...but now that we have them we have plenty to hand our friends when they come over and happen to find us mid project!!

The other bin has my boxes for spray painting small things (like our doorknobs seen here), all of our extra roller inserts in every size and finish imaginable, a leftover vent cover (remember that project?) which we may need down the line, and paint swatches galore!

And there ya have it!! Everything in it's place. Under the bed boxes are not just for your winter clothes anymore!! The bins sit nice and snug under the bed and can be pushed back to the wall so you can't even tell they are there...

OK - ya' got me...this is an old picture of our cutie foster pup, Driver, but you get the idea. Under that bed is a plethora of painting paraphernalia to scratch ones itchin' desire to paint!! :)

How is your Spring Cleaning coming along?? It used to be it would only take me a day or two, then a week, now I have devoted the entire month of April to Spring Cleaning!! Feel free to leave a comment with how your cleaning has made an impact!!

Bianca Decorah Eagles, live feed of eagles, streaming decorah eagles, iowa eagles, npr eagle project,

TOTD - How to Remove Primer from Leather Shoes

First ask yourself why you used spray primer outside in windy winter weather wearing your leather work shoes.  Then proceed to the tutorial portion of this post...

As many of you know we live in Chicago where the winters are harsh and there is little to no sun for months at a time.  This can make even the most sane of people go crazy but, in my case, it made an already crazy person go insane.  Mix that insanity with my desperate need to accomplish some DIY and the fact that I have no place to do projects in the winter and you get this:

My poor old Danskos with paint splatter everywhere!!!  OK - so they aren't the prettiest of shoes to begin with but they are comfy, have good support, slip on and off when going through airport security, and do wonders for you when pacing a steel tube for multiple hours a day at 35k ft in the air...did I mention I am a Flight Attendant?  These babies are Flight Attendant tested!

Now - this wouldn't be such a big deal for some people as they could easily go out and buy/replace said shoes with  new ones.  I, on the other hand , have 2 very restricting issues with that:

1. The obvious - I AM CHEAP!!
2. The not so obvious unless you know me - I no longer buy leather.  Don't worry - I am not going to get all preach-a-licious on you!  It is just a personal choice that I am doing my best to stick with.  Since I do not buy leather I make sure to do what I can to repair the leather items I still own.  I ♥ my Calvin Klein brown belt, my Steve Madden cowboy boots (see profile pic), and my Dansko work shoes. 

 This primer has been on there for quite some time.  I probably would never have decided to fix them up if it weren't for the fact that I have a trip I need to fly coming up and had no other shoes to replace them with.  Did I mention they are super cozy and broken in?

I decided to go the unconventional route of trial and error.  After trying to scrap the paint off with my nail, which works so easily on my wood floors but not so great on leather, I considered another option.  Nail Polish remover... Here I am preparing for take - off:

One down one to go:

And in for a smooth landing...

Not too shabby...actually - still shabby but minus most of the paint!  With help from some Vaseline (a little Flight Attendant trick I learned on the road) these babies will shine up quite nice.  Also - with a view from 35 thousand 5 ft up you can barely tell how they started out:

Lovin' these uniform pants!

Mission accomplished.  Oh - and I promise never to use airplane puns again...ever.  So annoying!  I suggest doing a little test spot before applying this to your everyday uses.  I am careless and tend not to do that which, if it hadn't worked, may have resulted in a costly error.  For now the worse thing about this little project is that my shoes reek of nail polish remover.  I am off to give them a little scrub down with soapy water then a quick rub of Vaseline.  These Dansko's will be rocking the runway shortly!

Anyone else have a good tip to share?  Post it in the comment section below and if you're bloggin' feel free to leave a link!

♥ Bianca

Weekend of White - Fireplace Remix Part 2!

Hey all!  

This weekend was full of fun as I conquered my To Do list (seen here) from Friday and got the lead white out.  I managed to finish both doors for the hallway, update the hardware on said doors, as well as the fireplace priming.  Since I did the priming last night I needed to wait and make sure it was fully cured before moving on to paint.  Brick, even veneer brick, has a habit of soaking up paint due to its porous nature so I wanted to make sure it was nice and dry before proceeding.  Even with just primer it looks WAY better than what it was before...lets review!

Before Tuck Pointing

After Tuck Pointing

Things were looking up!  Then yesterday they were looking upper...more up...uppity?  Whateve...

POW!

Granted this is just the primer but she is lookin' MUCH better already.  I used an oil based primer and super nappy 6 inch roller.  I don't like to use large rollers on smaller areas so I have more control.  I also took this chance to prime the last bit of paneling that for some reason was missed during Operation Tear Out the Paneling NOW!  In all our haste to get it out ASAP nobody saw the strip of paneling left under the fireplace until the molding was going in.  Attention to detail during demo is not always the first priority!!  Anywho - it is primed now and you can barely tell the difference.  Now it is time to start thinking about a mantle to tie this baby all together...let the planning begin!!

In the living room - the weekend began like this:

And Ended like this:

SWEET!  I have 2 more doors done and 6 to go!  Not exactly putting a dent in it but success is in my future - I can feel it...then again, that may be the paint fumes?  How 'bout a before and after side by side?  I don't have a pic of the closet door before with the tacky brass hardware but I have a horrible one of the during process..check it out:

Obviously we need to work on organizing the closets...

Pretty in Pink White!

And thus ends my Weekend of White.  For more how to on painting the doors and updating your hardware check out the posts here and here.  If you missed how to Tuck Point your fireplace in preps for painting check out the post here. 

I am so happy to have half of the fireplace done!  Did anyone else get a project accomplished this weekend?  Feel free to share down below.  If anyone has mantle suggestions please pass them on.  This fireplace is looking pretty week without one!

See you tomorrow!  :)

Bianca

PS - this post is on a DIY parade hosted by a couple of other blogs. If you have some projects you need to get done or are just looking for some decorating/design inspiration join the party here and here and here! 

Presto Change-o

Ok - Yesterday I talked about my newly painted white door as seen here.  The transformation would not be be complete had I not switched up the brass hardware by spray painting those suckers in oil rubbed bronze.  So here is your step by step (Ohhh Baby) directions to paint them like a Rock Star...or a New Kid...

Presto Change-o....ohhh...ahhh...

1.  First remove hardware and, if needed, number them so you know which doors they go to if you are doing multiple doors.  Like this:

2.  If your knobs are exceptionally greasy and gunked up or have paint build up on them feel free to boil them with a dash of liquid soap to get all the crud off.  If your hardware is old and painted be very careful of lead paint!  If yours are not cruddy skip to step 4.

3.  Once they are boiled pour everything into a strainer over the sink and let cool.  DO NOT touch these babies while they are hot as metal + boiling water = bad burn!!  Once they are cool you can go about your business in step 4.

4.  Start sanding!  I used 220 grit sandpaper and a sanding block to get in all the crevices.  By far this is the most tedious process - word to the wise - you only have to sand the side that will be exposed.  On this batch I couldn't remember which was which (because I didn't label!!) so I did the whole shebang...

5.  Once they are done being sanded, rise and  lay them out on a paper towel to dry.  Once they are dried you may notice a little touch of rust - just buff it off with your sandpaper and it will be gone in a flash!  The end product should look a little something like this:

6.  These babies are now prepped for priming.  I stuck everything in an empty box and on a tray and went outside to prime.  Since it is super cold out I then had to bring everything in to dry...not recommended but if you do then OPEN A WINDOW!!!  Rats...I  forgot to take a photo of the primed pieces!

7.  Once they are dry (about an hour) head back outside, looking like a lunatic to the neighbors, and spray with a thin coat of whatever color you have decided to go with.  I am using Rustoleums Oil Rubbed Bronze.  If that coat didn't do the trick then wait another hour and spray once again.  End product should resemble something like this:

8.  From this point you will want to give them a few days to fully cure.  Of course, I did not wait a few days nor did I wait a few hours.  I gave them a good 60 min and went about installing them on my still not yet dry door.  I can't help myself!!!  Here is the finished product:

Lookin' good!!!

I can't wait to get my hands on the front door shown here...  Just a few more months to go before I can tackle that project!  Oh how I am wishing for sun instead of this...

 So what do you think?  Are you ready to spray paint some knobs and hinges??  What color are you into??

Due to weather issues I have had to put my sanding of the other doors on hold for today.  I thought I might look a wee bit too industrious to E if I moved my sanding operation outdoors during this snowfall in fear he might expect this project to be completed by tomorrow.  That is sooo not going to happen.  Today is a Me day - I'm off to read a wonderful book under the warmth of my cozy comforter!

Ta Ta, Darlings!

Bianca

Also - if you are interested in more projects like this then follow this link to the DIY Show Off blog parade...