How To Mod Podge Furniture DIY

How to Mod Podge furniture

I bought this cute little desk from a garage sale for $10. In great shape but the colors were dated and the knobs didn't match. 

First, I removed the knobs and bought 4 faux glass knobs from Home Depot, $1.99 a piece. Then, I sanded down the piece with my Ryobi sander and white washed this piece for a shabby chic look. To white wash, I use two parts paint and 1 part water.  Make sure your brush stays dry and only apply a small amount of paint at a time by swiping the strokes back and forth. 

The top of this piece was a glossy formica that wouldn't take paint and would take too long too sand off. I wanted a quick fix so I grabbed a roll of houndstooth wrapping paper and a jar of modge podge. Once you are finished painting the piece, apply a small layer of modge podge directly on the top of the furniture piece. Then unroll the wrapping paper onto the table top smoothing out all the air bubbles. Once you are satisfied with it's placement, cut off the excess paper around the edges with scissors and apply another thin layer of mod podge on top of the wrapped table top. Make sure to wipe off the sides and under the overhang with a wet cloth and allow the piece to dry overnight or until it isn't tacky to the touch. 

After the top of the table dries, touch up any areas where the mod podge can be visibly noticed. Screw the knobs back on and Voila! The $10 desk looks fashionable and new again!

P.S. the insides of the desk were pretty clean so I used some drawer liner papers from the dollar store and lined the insides of the drawers and used a grey paint to accent the indentations!

re-upholster a chair in one hour or less

How to quickly, cheaply and easily re-upholster a chair

So I bought this adorable chair at a yard sale for $5. I loved everything about it, the colors, etc. 

Even the details were perfect. However, the cushion looked flat and made the colors look dated because of its condition. I decided the cushion had to go. I have a few other tutorials in my blog see: chevron-rocking-chair and chevron sea foam chair re-upholstery

As with every chair re-upholstery, turn the chair over and unscrew the cushion.  

Remove the Cushion, if you wanted to paint the chair now would be the time. 

I didn't feel like trying to start from scratch so I cheated. I cut open the existing upholstery which was old and deflated. Then I took some craft stuffing I had lying around, and began to fill the back of the cushion up. I  used an old wooden spoon to fill the crevices evenly. 

As you can see, there was plenty of room...

Filling the back of the cushion up still seemed to leave some uneven lumps and bumps so I cut a small opening in the front of the cushion to move stuffing around and create the most even appearance I could. 

After I felt satisfied I grabbed a cute piece of owl duck cloth and went to work, stapling the fabric directly over the existing re-stuffed cushion, pulling as tightly as possible. 

Once you've covered the existing cushion, screw the cushion back on and Voila!
Now I know some of you may wonder why I painted the chair white, I re-did this desk for my niece and I needed a chair to match. Whooo Hoooo

Before

After

DIY Shotski

DIY Shotski

If you are like me you were mesmerized after watching Bravo Andy. He always has creative drinking games on his Reality TV interview show. When I first saw this I knew I had to re-create it to make an awesome Christmas present for some friends who have everything. 

As a guest on 'WWHL,' Jimmy Fallon presented Andy with this homemade Shotski. Andy has now made it a tradition to use the Shotski every Wednesday night!

Photo Cred: collegecandy.com

Well, I set out to make a couple of shotski's of my own. Luckily some old man sold me these at a garage sale around the corner from my house $3 bucks for both. He thought I was crazy for buying junk. 

Obviously they were sitting outside in the Arizona sun for years, luckily it doesn't matter what condition you find ski's in !!!

First I tried to chip off this top layer to make a beautiful exposed wood shotski like the one Bravo Andy has but it was too difficult for me so I used the nearest can of spray paint. 

Let you creative juices shine through, I happened to be making this for a friend who has a Cabin in Flagstaff Arizona. He named it Casa in Los Pinos so I got some stencils out and painted it on in yellow paint. 

I found these sake glasses in an abandoned house I was listing and figured they'd do. Space them out to give people enough room to stand next to each other while taking a guzzlet.

The best glue I found that worked even on top of the paint was liquid nails, hot glue won't work, trust me we tried it. Wood glue can also work.  Make sure to set something heavy on it and let it dry over night. 

Let this dry overnight. 

Finished shotski

Now for your viewing pleasure!
It brings the family together and is fun for all ages!

Thanks for reading!!!!!! XOXOX Happy New Year!

Striped and Checkered China Cabinet

I'm sure my lack of before pictures make reading this a little less interesting, but I have been re-doing furniture for 6 years now and have only most recently started to share my projects.

Let's just say that this china cabinet was a poorly cared for piece with water damage and I bought it for 8$.

The original piece had doors covering the two bottom shelves. I tried to make them work but how else could I display all my knick knacks and pictures?

The item inside the crystal ice bucket on the bottom left is my broach bouquet I made for my wedding. So worth the money and DIY time. Maybe someday I'll post about how I made that. Here is a great tutorial that I used: DIY Broach Bouquet

As you can see here one of these drawers is not like the others. The wood work was missing, I considered ordering all new overlays from myoverlays.com but then figured that if I was trying to re-sell I wanted to keep my costs down. I decided on a MacKenzie Childs Inspired checkered pattern. 

I took the original hardware off and hand painted it with Martha Stewart Metallic in Thundercloud. I also turned it up-sidedown to give a different look. 

Originally I left it with just two different silver colors. But I was bored and wasn't proud of my piece. 

I used the frog tape to do the edges but in the future I would probably just try and free hand. It didn't work so well on this piece because of the texture. 

I changed the backsplash from Thundercloud to a gloss black to give the piece more contrast. 

Now it's got a POP!

I accented the different areas of wood work!

Since the top of this piece reminded me of an awning on a little french shop I thought I would paint it as one. Measure the piece and tape off the different sections so the stripes are the same size. The two stripes on the ends were skinniest. 

Still wasn't what I'd pictured.....

So I painted the silver on the top with a light white wash coat. 

TaDA!

To paint a checkered pattern. Tape off the area and label.

Mackenzie Childs inspiration

Pinterest Inspiration. Follow me http://pinterest.com/laurenforster/

Cute silver furniture at Z-Gallerie that inspired me!