home decor and garden are very famous in the world

I haven’t really fallen off the planet, I promise.  I just seem to have come down with a serious case of blog ennui. 

I don’t think it’s terminal.

All my kids are back in school this week, and the weather seems to be cooling down a little bit.  So the urge to work on some furniture has finally hit, and that’s a good thing (I have quite a stash accumulated).  One of this week’s projects was this coffee table:

It started out like this:

I doubt you can tell from the picture, but the finish on the top is almost completely gone.  What did someone do to that table, I wonder??  Not that I care, really, because it makes refinishing it much easier!

I went through my stash of French typography (mainly courtesy of the Graphics Fairy), and decided this table wanted to look like a vintage French postcard (similar to—but not exactly like—my white postcard table I painted last summer).

There have been a LOT of typography tables since my first French Chocolate table, so it’s a challenge to change things up enough not to be boring!  So for this table, I played around with a little color.  Although the address is in black, the note that crosses the top corner is actually in a dark charcoal to differentiate it.

But my favorite is the postmark in my favorite color…RED!

The base of the table got a good scrubbing and refreshed with a little oil-rubbed bronze paint.   Doesn’t it have a pretty shape? 

So there you have it.  I’m still kicking and still painting  ;-)

Happy Fall, ya’ll!

This project has been featured at the Graphics Fairy, Elizabeth & Co., From My Front Porch to Yours, and aka design.

I have been working like crazy to finish projects for the Whitaker Flea Market this Saturday—I haven’t even had time to read my favorite blogs (now that’s busy)!

But I thought I’d pop in and show you one of the projects that will be going with me.  A neighbor of mine was cleaning out her garage, and would you believe she was going to take this table to Deseret Industries (that’s Utah’s Goodwill)??

OK, so I forgot to take a real “before” picture…but here’s the top, being sanded my my handy-dandy-helper-who-wants-to-earn-money-for-a-new-game…

…and here’s the base (which is actually a dark green color).

I decided to make another coffee table along the lines of the French chocolate coffee table, so I chose a graphic and pulled out my overhead projector:

…working on it…

…done!

The next day I distressed the lettering and gave the table top a coat of antique walnut stain.  I sanded back the stain in places, since I didn’t want it to look too perfect—it’s supposed to look like an old crate, after all!

I painted the base in a creamy white, and glazed it with antique walnut stain.  This table has LOTS of distressing, and the glaze makes it look “on purpose” rather than “beat up.”

This coffee table is HUGE:  40” x 50”.  Perfect for games, puzzles, or pizza!

I really enjoyed doing another graphic project like this…it has been too long!

This table has been featured at aka design.

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Linking up here:

Last fall I was contacted by Shelby, who was interested in having me re-do a coffee table for her. She wondered, “Had I ever seen the round table at The Painted Hive?”

Have I ever!

Kristine’s beautiful furniture makeovers are an integral part of my Pinterest “Great Furniture” folder!

Shelby brought me this lovely coffee table which she had found on KSL.com, and asked me to refinish it ala “Painted Hive,” although slightly less distressed.

The base was painted in a Behr Ultra paint color-matched to Sherwin-Williams “Creamy” paint. The top is stained with three coats of Minwax Antique Walnut stain, and then I hand-distressed and glazed the base to bring a little “age” to the piece.

I love the way the white shelf looks on the bottom!

Shelby also brought me this little pine table to get a similar makeover.

She planned on replacing the knob herself, so her it sits—knobless…

…but I think it will be a great complement to the “Painted Hive” coffee table!

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Linking up here:

Oh, coffee tables…how I have missed you…

After my coffee-table-painting-spree last spring (all beginning with the French Chocolate table), there has been a dearth of coffee tables in my life.

It’s been very sad.

OK, that’s not really the truth.  The truth is that this particular coffee table has been sitting around half-finished in my garage for months.  But my post-Christmas don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself-itis finally made me get it done!

I fell in love with Vintage Revival’s painted compass rug back in…let’s see, I think it was May—and promptly saved it to my “bookmarks.”  (See, it was so long ago, it was pre-Pinterest!)

I thought the compass idea would be great for a table, so I went on the hunt for a round coffee table and found this one:

After sanding, I base-coated it white, but then I dry-brushed two or three (I can’t really remember anymore) other shades of white and cream onto it to give the color a little depth.

Then it sat…and sat…and sat…in my garage.  It got dusty and dirty; it got paint remover spilled on it…it got circles of stain from the stain can on it…

I call it “character–building.”

Finally this week I decided to just GITTER-DONE (ala Funky Junk)!  After touching up the paint, I generally followed Mandi’s tutorial, and with the aid of a yardstick and a 45-degree triangle, I drew my compass with a pencil.  (I also did a Google search for “how to find the center of a circle,” because I no longer remember.  I used the instructions here.)

Guess what?  You can erase pencil marks off of paint pretty good.  Thank heavens.

I painted the compass design with plain old acrylic paint, while crawling around on the floor next to the table.  My knees are still sore. 

I don’t really have too many intermediate pictures…sorry; my kids have to go to school sometimes…so let’s just jump in to the “after,” OK?

The distressed the table pretty heavily, going down to the wood in places, but also showing off the layers of “white.” 

I glazed the whole thing with Jacobean stain mixed with Martha Stewart glazing medium.

I really, really love it!

Hmmm…maybe I should try this on a rug!

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This project has been featured at It’s So Very Cheri, Better After, Stylish Once Again, Elizabeth & Co., Bless My Nest, and…

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Stylish Once Again
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Too Much Time on My Hands	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Artsy Girl Connection

I have very sad news to share today…this is going to be my last coffee table post (for a while, at least). Yes, it is true. After refinishing FIVE coffee tables this spring/summer, I am out! There are no more in my garage. (I think I might cry just a little.)

For the record, there was the French Chocolate table (that one is mine), Café table, the Postcard table (that one my little sister claimed), and the Black Coffee table! Oh, and then there was the French Twist table (not technically a coffee table, but sometimes I put my hot chocolate on it).

For this last one, I did branch out a little…no French ads here! Instead, how about a little….Roman??

Ever since I made this clock table in the spring, I wanted to do it again, but on a smaller scale, and more like the Pottery Barn clock I have admired so much…

. So…I had been on the hunt for a round coffee table!

And what did I find? This beautiful $8 maple table from a garage sale.

You can’t see it, but there was quite a crack in the top, and that’s why I got such a great deal. For my purposes, a little crack wasn’t going to deter me!

I painted the whole table barely off-white, but then I also brushed on at other shades of white and cream to give it some depth.

Not wanting to waste paper or vinyl, I used my Silhouette to cut a single I, V, and X out of paper, and traced them with a pencil onto the table top. (No, I did NOT use an overhead projector! That’s a shocker.) Then I filled in the outlines with black acrylic paint.

I heavily distressed this table (well, it was heavy for me), and then I glazed it in both black and brown.

I really loved the aged feel of this piece.

Hope you enjoyed a coffee table in a different language!

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This project has been featured at Saved by Love Creations, Knock Off Decor, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Copy Cat Crafts, A Little Knick Knack, Bless My Nest, Sisters of the Wild West, and The DIY Show Off.

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I happened upon this little pine box at Savers a few weeks ago. It was obviously handmade, but quite nicely done.

It had ugly yellow rope handles, but it had the coolest latch! It told me it wanted to come home with me, and I rarely argue with furniture.

I really didn’t want to change much about my little pine box. I liked its rustic qualities, but it did need a few minor improvements.

A coat of antique walnut stain…

…front and back…

New handles I made by braiding six lengths of twine together…

I didn’t touch the latch!

But I added casters on the bottom! I have had these stashed away for at least a year (I found them inside another piece of furniture I purchased), and they’ve been waiting for new home.

I think this would make a fun coffee table, maybe!

What would you use it for?

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Linking up here.

Can you stand another French typography coffee table makeover? I hope so, because I’m not tired of them yet! I call this one “Black Coffee!”

Here’s how it started out. It was a good Basset coffee table, with two drawers. I loved the plank-style wood top.

I chose to only sand the center section of the top down to bare wood. The plan was to paint the base and the “frame” of the top. Then I chose my graphic and got painting! You can see that I didn’t worry about bits and pieces of the old stain being left behind. I think it adds to the character of the finished piece.

French ad from The Graphics Fairy.

After the lettering was painted and distressed, I stained the top with Minwax Antique Walnut, and painted the rest of the coffee table black (get it??), using Behr Ultra paint.

I kept the original hardware, including the decorative metal scrolls in the corners.

I like how the top looks like it was framed!

And of course I had to play with a couple of accessories…

So there you have it! If you want more information on how I create my tables, be sure to check out the French Chocolate table, Café table, French Twist, and the Postcard table!

This project has been featured at West Furniture Revival and Perfectly Imperfect.

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Linking up here!