15 Furniture Projects in 30 Days

I was just finishing up a blog post, my first in a long time, when my kid went nuts, computer died, and my content disappeared. Fudgesicles! <-- see Dad, I don't always have to curse. ​I am super mad, though; it took me about twenty stewy minutes before I partially got over it and could start typing again.

So here I am, sort of over it, and trying to figure out what I was saying. I'm getting angry all over again because my brain is made out of oatmeal and I really don't remember. It was witty and awesome, though. Ehem...

I know it's been a while since my last post but I swear I'm not a horrible, horrible, lazy, loafer type of person. I came up to Pennsylvania at the end of April because all (yup, all) of my friends are procreating, exchanging vows, *insert milestone here* and I missed my sweet nephew and his mama. I have one month to complete a lofty list of tasks. Lofty list is as follows:

See everyone I love Super secret bridesmaid/guest projects furniture projects Don't die

So far I'm not dead, and I won't be if I can stop living off of Chang Mao, Joey's Pizza, Walmart cheesecake, and Dunkin Donuts. I've gotten a lot done on my super secret white ops (get it) wedding related projects, seen a few people I love, and I'm in the middle stages of most of my furniture projects. That is only if the people I'm doing them for don't add fifty more things to the list. YOU KNOW WHO YOU LADIES ARE! Just kidding, I love this sh*t. I'll write a blog post sometime next month that is sooooo freakin' bridaly it's going to make your head's spin. Today's post was a toss up between The Notebook style tear-jerker or progress report on Kelly and Brandon's house. Progress report won out because I want to wait until I've racked up lots of cute moments from my trip so I can really ruin everyone's day. So here goes ze reporte.

I would define Kelly's style as Rustic Glam because she's neither afraid of sparkle nor is she afraid of wood. She's a healthy mix of traditional and rustic. You've got to appreciate roughed-up furniture when you have two ninety-pound German Shepherds. Before I came up I told her I'd refinish whatever she wanted as her wedding present. She bought about 50 pieces of used furniture in the month preceding my trip so that's occupying most of my time while I'm here. It's been so much fun hanging out with this coffee-guzzling lunatic in her beautiful home. Usually I'm coffee-guzzling alone, working in 90 degree heat out front of my garage and telling my neighbors, whether they like it or not, about what I'm doing. These are the pieces in Kelly and Brandon's house that are getting a face-lift:

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9 Drawer Dresser: this is a giant, crazy long piece of furniture that we're going to use as a TV console for Kelly's living room. It has oak veneers, so I've stripped them and "stained" them a grey color. I put 'stain' in quotations because the veneer wouldn't take the stain I bought, so I mixed grey paint and water and rubbed it in. I achieved the exact look I was hoping to, so it worked out! I taped off the top and painted the base in a gorgeous light blue. When I go back over there tomorrow I'm going to use black glaze to show off all of the pretty details, seal, and attach the hardware I painted black.

7ft Dining table with 8 Chairs: the chairs for this bad boy are really intricate, and solid wood with dovetail construction. We all loved them as they are, so I'm just going to do some light restoration work to the finish and re-upholster the chairs (that can get checked off my list) in the gorgeous fabric we picked out. The dining table has been the bane of my existence. I first stripped it to uncover gorgeous wood in the center, a laminate border, and laminate trim. Bummer. I tried staining the wood (it looked great), and white washing the laminate. I was able to white wash the laminate but the overall result looked too checkerboardy. I do not want anyone to see my work and think about old people in the park. So I painted the whole table white, distressed it, and antiqued the pretty details using black glaze. I LOVE how it turned out, and I think it was the right choice to coordinate with her teal walls and warm-toned dining chairs.

China Cabinet: this piece was a part of a set, so it is just like the table in that some of it is wood and some details are plastic. We decided to paint this out in Robin's Egg blue chalk paint by Renaissance, and then lightly distress it to show off the warm wood tones like in the chairs. Huzzah!

Buffet Table: This is a really pretty, oak veneer Broyhill buffet table that will go in the living room, so I wanted to coordinate it with the TV console. I haven't started this piece yet but my plan is to stain sections of it like the console, and then paint the rest white. It will get lightly distressed and the pulls will be changed to something simpler, and more rustic.

2 Nightstands: There are two nightstands in the master bedroom that are a dark stained wood. We're going to swap the pulls out on those and move them to the guest bedroom. She purchased two nightstands (in a set that came with the 9 drawer dresser, a wardrobe, and a bed frame) and they're going to get painted white, distressed and put in her bedroom as a replacement.

Lane Cedar Chest: I just refinished an identical chest in Florida, and went with a girly theme thinking it would make a great toy chest or linen chest in a kiddos bedroom. For Kelly and Brandon I'm going to re-upholster the chest in a burlap with silver detail (we picked this out when we picked out her chair fabric), fill the holes where the pulls were, paint the chest white, and replace the pulls with something simpler and rustic (cool knobs we got from Homegoods).

Dressers: The master has gorgeous solid wood dressers that just need some light restoration work. I'm not going to name names, but Kellyanne spilled nail polish remover or something on these bad boys because they're totally stripped in some spots.

Wardrobe: This piece came in the set with the bed frame, nightstands, and dresser. They're all going to different places in the house, and so they're all getting very different looks. The wardrobe will be painted white, distressed, and antiqued using black glaze. We'll have to replace the pulls because it looks like parts are broken and/or missing from one side.

Bed Frame: The bed frame that came in the set will go in the guest room with the wardrobe and dark nightstands. I'm simply going to paint it in a cool-toned red and distress it.

Entry table: This gorgeous piece of Broyhill furniture is going to live in Brandon's super manly man cave where really manly stuff happens. I'm going to restore the top and legs, and then paint the drawer fronts in a dark grey for a sleek look. The pulls are going to be sprayed oiled bronze.

Lane side table: The two-tiered table is going to be done the same way as the entry table, warm wood, grey and oil bronzed pulls.

Side table: They have a large entry way, but not a ton of wall space. This cool, round table with lots of detail is going to be stained and painted. The top dark, the base light, and distressed to show off the detail.

Heavy duty desk and chair: this mother is gigantic. It looks like very good quality, really heavy, and like some fool went over it with a coat of dark gel stain. I'm going to get 'er naked and see what's underneath. That's as far as my plan goes.

Current console table: I don't know what they're doing with the little media cabinet they have in their living room now, but once they move it it'll need a home and I'm not leaving it blond wood with gold pulls when it looks solid and loverly. Remind me to ask about that.

I think that's everything. I have 6/50 projects in middle stages so I'm moving right along. That's not including the projects I'm doing for my PA neighbor, Diane and Pete. I'll be blogging about their projects in the next couple of days!

I love all of you, and thank you for your continued support as I try to become an adult while covered in paint and stain. No, my fingernails aren't dirty. I'm a workin' gal.

Here are some before pictures, and I threw in a couple progress pics for your viewing pleasure! ​