All things mirrored: The Discovery of One King's Lane

Lately I've been dreaming of all things mirrored, as I say "I wish I had a credit card that never had to be repaid"...

Like these end tables from Pier 1.

Hayworth Night Stand, $249

Hayworth Chest, Silver $599

A friend of mine recently hosted a housewarming party at her new place, where everything was decorated impeccably. I kept seeing cute thing after quaint accent after great decorating idea. 

When I asked about these awesome little details, she told me about a site called One King's Lane.

 WARNING: stay far away if you're on a budget!  This website is like decorating madness! 

Needless to say, I'm addicted. These items range in price from about $10 up to things for several thousand dollars (WAY out of my price range!)

And the categories and specials change daily.  What a gem for a Bargain shopper!

Still dreaming of mirrors....

Loren Mirrored Chest $899

Sully Side Table $129

But since those were all a bit out of my price range, I got this great mirrored tray!

For only $19!

That I think may become my coffee table centerpiece once it arrives.   So far, I've been very happy with it!  Happy Shopping!

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DIY Tufted Vanity Seat

For years, I have been moving around an old piano bench I bought years ago- a $10 thrift store find. 

Once we were all moved in, it no longer had a functional home as a table (its previous purpose) so I decided to turn it into a vanity 'seat' if you will, for my bathroom. Lots of extra space in there!

Step 1: tighten all the screws :) 

Step 2: clean & paint with Krylon Rust-oleum 'Antique Bronze' paint. 

Sorry there's no before photo, but it was all originally the light wood color of the seat.  You can imagine. Notice the lovely rings from a lack of coaster utilization. 

I had no need to paint the whole piece, since I just planned to cover it again anyway. (And I ran out of paint...it must have been meant to be since I had the perfect amount of paint!)

Step 3: Paint a clear top coat over the Bronze color. 

Step 4: After this, I drilled the holes which I would later thread buttons through to make the tufts. 

My Motto before cutting or drilling into anything is: Measure, Measure again, and Remeasure!

Step 5: I used a generic spray adhesive to attach the 1.5" foam padding for the seat. (This I had leftover from the headboard project).

No need to cut these perfectly straight either, since you will pull the fabric taut around it again. I actually pieced mine together, and it worked great. Notice the seam.

 

Step 6: Just as in the headboard tutorial, I layered the batting over the foam before covering it with fabric. 

Step 7: Beginning with the corners, I pulled the fabric taut, and folded the corners smoothly down before stapling with a staple gun into the underside of the bench. 

I did detach the actual seat from the frame for the added maneuverability of the upholstery step. 

Step 7.5: Alternating sides, I pulled the fabric taut and stapled, until it was smooth to my liking. 

Step 8: Then came the tufting step, which again, I did exactly the same as in my headboard project. (Check it out).

And this is my finished product! 

I'm very pleased with the way this turned out. The bench can live as a bench again and makes my master bath a little bit more luxurious! 

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Fancy Fingers

We're going to a black tie event this weekend, and with all the necessary purchases (dress, shoes, etc) I decided id save a little money on the hair and nails and do them myself.

I'm testing out the ring finger thing- What do you think? 

I thought the pewtery glitter would be great with my new shoes: 

Audrey Brooke Hawkins Bootie in Pewter from DSW.com.

For the nails, I did a basic nude polish from OPI called "Don't Pretzel My Buttons"  and for the ring finger I used actual pewter glitter from Hobby Lobby I had originally purchased for another craft project that I sprinkled over a wet top coat.  And then coated with a finishing top coat.

(The hardest part for me about doing my nails is sitting still and. Not touching anything when they're wet!) 

Hair photos to come after the event! 

And my apologies for the poor photo quality! This post was en route to the event location via train.  

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Goodwill Dresser turned TV Stand

This is where this project all began...
A $30 goodwill find that I knew would be just perfect!- solid wood, that just needed some TLC to bring it back to life!, coincidentally, I needed a TV stand.

Lovely, isn't it? I particularly appreciated the high gloss white paint that was over the finished piece of furniture- luckily it came off relatively easy.

This was my inspiration:  I fell in love with the idea of texturing furniture with -yes- wallpaper!
You can check the original project at: California Callahans. Hers was an ikea hack, but any piece of solid furniture would be great.

Since I didn't need as much wallpaper as was in this inspiration project I just ordered a sample here. ($6  for a 20" x 20" sample vs $18 for a full roll at the hardware store) 

After I removed the high gloss white, I primed it.  Taking off one coat of white to paint another sI used Zinsser again on this project (no sanding required!) Though I did give it a quick sand with a fine grain paper just to smooth everything out before painting.

(Thanks again, mom & dad for the use of your back porch!)

As a tip, I have found that old shower curtain liners are my favorite form of drop cloth, but, back to the dresser...

I hope you noticed the hideous painted pink hardware- it was a must to update this for more than just aesthetic reasons, but if you do want to use your original hardware that's painted, here's how you get it off! (Unfortunately, these were still hideous so I purchased some new hardware for the drawers.)

Since I didn't need as much wallpaper as was in this inspiration project I just ordered a sample here. ($6  for a 20" x 20" sample vs $18 for a full roll at the hardware store)  I attached this with mod podge, and noticed some peeling, so I went around the edges of the wallpaper with super glue, just to make sure it was good and stuck. 

Painted............

For the hardware, I bought these oil-rubbed bronze drawer pulls on eBay for a fraction of the cost they would've been at the hardware store! 

 In order to use my newer and sleeker drawer pulls, I had to drill new holes in the front of the drawers to fit this hardware... Only slightly intimidating after everything was painted, primed and finished, but I measured and re-measured and all worked according to plan. (sorry, no photos of this part) 

 And voila!- the finished product!

I bought these cheap green pulls for the top drawers- which were great for about a year and am now coveting something a bit more elegant....

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Chevron Dining Table: My five dollar find

For a first blog post, this was a successful project!

I moved out on my own early last year, and had ZERO money to buy new furniture.  So, logically, I decided I would hunt for some good thrift store finds, and paint it myself.

My first project happened when I stumbled upon this gem at a local thrift store for only $5.00! (I paid cash. And it came with the matching octagonal piece of glass.)

The table had some scratches and dents that I sanded down to create a level surface, and this is the closest to a 'before' photo that I've got!



My parents were kind enough to let me turn their back porch into a craft studio. Thanks mom and dad. ☺

️

 

I found this primer via a Pinterest blog on how to refinish furniture and it really is pretty awesome! It took a couple of hours for the first coat to dry. I covered it again with the second coat, just to be sure that everything was coated evenly.
 

Be careful with this primer, because it's oil-based. That means it doesn't. come. off! Of your skin, or your hair, or your furniture- which is a good thing.

After I had it primed I went over it with a fine grained sandpaper because I noticed that some of the primer have a little texture on the surface of the table that I didn't want on my finished product.

Then came the hard part, I remembered from my high school art class to make a grid. I knew I wanted my Chevron Lions about 4 inches thick, so I made 4 inch squares. 

After I had the grid drawn out, I erased the extra lines so that only the Chevron remained.

For the painting, I didn't use painters tape because I haven't had good luck with that in the past. It always seems to leak underneath the tape. Instead I just used a large palette knife and painted it by hand for precision.

I chose a very pale creamy yellow, and a grayish blue for the Chevron colors to stay neutral with my color scheme. Here it is after I started with the yellow:

 

After the yellow coat came the gray, if there was any overlap of colors or I accidentally colored outside the lines, this was an easy fix.  Be sure that every coat is dry before starting the next one!

 

 

And then the finished product!

I probably spent somewhere between 10 and 12 hours on my parents back porch for this project. Don't choose a months like July to paint furniture outdoors...

 

I did finish with a polyurethane seal which was a little pricey but I used only about a quarter of the cam so that price even without when you consider that you can use it on other projects in the future.

I was really pleased with the way this project turned out and it was sort of a starting point for my new upcycling hobby.

Cost breakdown for this table:
$5.00 for table and glass top
$ 22.18 Paint
$23.19 Polyeurythane
The Primer was about $17 for a full gallon

$67.37 !

In the end, I had to spend a little extra for all the paint & supplies, but you can't beat a five dollar find!

 

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