Frenchy the Cocktail Table

Frenchy was Featured!!!!  Thanks so much, Lauren!





I found this little French style cocktail table at a yard sale way out in the boonies that Cassie from Rustic Raspberry and I visited a few weeks ago. She (the table, not Cassie!) was dirty but had lots of potential.  And, yes, that is bird poop-Gross!

I knew that she would be beautiful refinished as Miss Helix was on West Furniture Revival.  Thank you, Lauren, for your patience in explaining to me your process and products used! 

The first step was to clean all the dirt and spiderwebs off. Then I used CitraStrip to remove the old finish and stain.  (CitraStrip doesn't seem to irritate my skin like other strippers.) I put newspaper all around the table to catch the mess!

I usually use a metal scrapper to remove the gunk but am careful to not scratch the wood!

After stripping it, I wiped it off with denatured alcohol and then sanded smooth.

Before staining with Minwax Dark Walnut, I rubbed the top with wood conditioner.

After using the conditioner but before applying the stain:

And can you believe, after all these pictures, that I forgot to take a picture of the staining step? Well, I did!  You can see the stained top in this picture that shows the coat of red that I applied.  I don't know the name of the red, Cassie gave it to me!

After the red; I painted two coats of Behr's Emerald Coast. (Next time I may just paint one coat so more red shows through.)

I then sanded off some of the turquoise and applied Valspar Umber Glaze.

And here she is all prettied up!

I hope that this was an informative post! Miss Frenchy Helix is going to her new home tomorrow!

**Linking to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch**
**Linking to Masterpiece Monday at Boggieboard Cottage**
**Linking to Made By You Monday at Skip to My Lou**
**Linking to Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle**
**Linking to Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff**
**Linking to Piece of Work Wednesday at Primitive & Proper**
**Linking to Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed**

Thrifty Finds

Cassie from Rustic Raspberry and I hit a moving sale last night and a "cleaning out the sheds" sale this morning.

It was hot and we were covered in sweat and dirt by the end but we had so much fun digging for treasures!

So, without further ado, here are the pictures!

A watercolor of Pheasants and a metal sign for my Husband's Man Room. 3 1/2 yards of Thai silk and a cute book that I bought to read to the baby.

Well, maybe I won't be reading it to the baby! Check out this page:

Yes, those people are nude! The page reads:

The children often stayed with friends

Or relatives, for long weekends,

Then Charles and Gwen would slip away

to bathe in some secluded bay.

(I hope that you don't think it rude

to show them paddling in the nude.)

Too Funny!

I also bought this cute wall shelf. (I purchased the stool last weekend.) I don't know if I will keep the shelf or not. Still thinking of where I could put it.

These are the things that I found this morning. I have to admit that there was rat poop evident in the sheds and at one point a ran out thinking I had heard a rat. (Leaving Cassie behind to fend for herself!)

I will keep the wire baskets and Jack Daniels sign. The vanity stool will be refinished and sold as will the coffee table.  The tall board in the background is a tabletop.  It was only $1.00! I think Cassie turned green with envy!

Here are some legs that I bought a couple of months ago that I may put with the tabletop to make a desk.

A close up of the smalls that I bought. DH was happy with the signs and antlers that I bought for him.

Can't wait to find the time to get started on the projects!  

Linking to these parties:

Would You Buy it Wednesday at Junker Newbie

Treasure Hunt Thursday at Blue Creek Home

Darken wood furniture with Gel Stain

My Barrister Bookcase was featured!!!



Have you ever found a piece of furniture that would look great in your home if only it were a darker wood?  It's in good conition, no need to strip and refinish, it just needs to be darker?

When we decided to switch to a flatscreen t.v. I knew I wanted an old buffet as my t.v. stand. I found this beauty on Craigslist for $20! I didn't like the yellowish green finish. YUK!

And here she is after using American Finishes gel stain:

What a dramatic difference! 

Here is an oak barrister bookcase that I found on Craigslist for $10.  It was in my parent's hometown so I called my Dad and asked him to run over and pay for it so the seller would hold it until I got there. 

It was missing the bottom piece of glass but that was easily replaced with a quick trip to Lowe's. We just glued it in place~easy peasy!

And after:

We even used it on our ugly, 1980's bathroom cabinets! Here is a picture comparing the finishes. The door on the left is the after; the one on the right is the before. Sorry about the glare! I didn't know I would be blogging at the time I took the pics or I would have done a better job!

The American Finishes Gel Stain comes in several different colors.  I used the Java.

First I cleaned each piece really well.  Next, I simply applied the gel stain with an old rag.  I wiped off the excess and let it dry.  After a second coat, I brushed on the General Finishes Gel Topcoat with a sponge brush and I was finished!

I hope this post is helpful and saves you some time and money!

**Linking to DebbieDo's Newbie Party**
**Linking to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch**
**Linking to Take-a-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts**

Piper is Home!

Piper's blood work came back normal this morning so the vet let her come home.  We are so relieved!  According to some websites that I have read, she may not be out of the woods for a while so we will keep a close eye on her.
Within 5 minutes of being home, she had already tried to eat a paper towel and got all of her toys out of her toy box.  I'd say she is back to normal!

Here she is with her cute little bandana that the vet decorated her with.

Isn't she cute?!

$5.00 Makeover Part II

I've completed a second piece of furniture that I found at the neighborhood sale a few weeks back (Yay Me!). It is a sturdy, height-challanged corner cabinet.  It was DIRTY! I think it had been stored in the garage for several years. The best part is that I only paid $5.00!

Here is the before:

I sanded the top down thinking that I would stain it but the wood wasn't the prettest so I decided to just paint the whole thing. I painted it my standard black using a short roller brush on most of it and my angled 2" brush where the roller wouldn't reach! It went really fast which is good because I still have 3 more $5.00 makeovers to complete!

I didn't notice until after painting it that the knobs do not exaclty match up with each other!

My oldest Daughter will be using it in the bedroom of her tiny apartment to hold a tv and dvd player. (Well, she will be as soon as I find a good price on a used tv! Time to go to more yard sales!) 

Thanks for visiting!!!
Gigi

WARNING to pet owners! SAGO PALM kills dogs!

Sigh, I don't even know how to title this post. It isn't going to be fun to write but I sure hope everyone reads it and passes it on to all of their friends that own dogs.

We bought Piper, our Golden Retriever, as a Christmas gift for our daughter. She (Piper, not our daugher!) is soooo hyper. She hates her kennel. She loves to chew. She loves to destroy. She loves to sit in our daughter's lap! She loves to harass our old dog, Haus. She is a complete ball of energy!

Here she is as a puppy in her Christmas dress (which she hated!)

She loves water! If there is any water anywhere in the yard she will end up covered in mud!

Did I mention how much she loves her food?  She used to sleep by it!

She grew bigger and bigger. She learned how to swim and fetch!

About a month ago, Piper pulled one of my potted plants out of the greenhouse.  It was a Sago Palm.

I didn't realize it was toxic to dogs! She played with it often. She also dug up my other plants and shrubs to play with. This weekend, we were doing yard work and I decided to leave the dead palm in the yard so Piper would play with it instead of digging up even more plants. It was a horrible mistake!

Monday evening, my Hubby took her to our land to run off some energy. When he came home he asked if Piper had gotten into Haus' dog food because she had vomitted. I knew she hadn't because I had put his food away. Piper seemed fine and we didn't give anymore thought to it.

Tuesday morning I let Piper into the backyard after her breakfast. About an hour later I noticed she was vomitting in the backyard. I brought her in the house and hosed down the yard where she had been sick because I think it is gross when dogs eat their own vomit!  When I came back in the house, she had vomitted twice more. Back outside she goes so I could clean the floor and she got sick again.  At this point I recognize some of the sago palm in the vomit and do a quick internet search.

This is what I found: http://www.tonyspencer.com/2007/10/03/this-plant-will-kill-your-dog-and-maybe-your-kids/  It scared me; bigtime! I called my Hubby then rushed Piper to the vet.

The vet has had her on I.V. fluids to try to flush the toxins out of her system. She is also being given medicine to help protect her liver. Her initial blood work shows no liver damage. Unfortunately, the damage may not show up for 4 days. I've read reports that sometimes the damage doesn't show up for a month!

We went to visit her this morning.  I'm happy to report that so far, the vet is optimistic that she will be ok. She was really happy to see us and very animated. She has an I.V. port in her leg that she has chewed off more than once. It is covered in the pink tape. 

I am really fighting the guilt of letting her keep her sago palm chew toy. This was completely my fault and is putting a huge financial strain on my family.  Please, if you have a pet or know someone that does, let them know about the dangers of this plant!  Hopefully I will be posting a follow up in a month that Piper is her normal, hyper, crazy self.

$5.00 Makeover Part I

This post is going to be a challange to write because I am keeping my precious grandson and I have to hurry before he wakes up! I had forgotten how adding a baby to the mix makes doing things next to impossible!

I mentioned a while back about going to a huge neighborhood sale and picking up several pieces of furniture. One piece that I brought home was a pretty oak coffee table.  It was only $5.00, my daughter needed a coffee table and I need one more project like I needed a hole in my head!

Here is the before:

And After:

I used Citrastrip to remove the poly finish on the top and followed that with a light sanding.  There were a few nics that were pretty deep so I filled those with wood filler and resanded.  I knew these areas would take the stain differently than the rest of the table so I marked over them with a black sharpie.  Then I conditioned it with pre-stain conditioner and stained it dark walnut.  Well, dark walnut wasn't quite the color I was going for so I stained again with jacobean. Still not right! Lastly I tried dark mahogany. Perfect! 

I brushed on a layer of Minwax quick drying polyurethane then sanded lightly.  Wiped the whole thing down and brushed on one more layer of poly.

While waiting for the different layers of stain to dry I painted the legs and apron black. I think it turned out beautiful and my daughter loves it!

My Hubby said that this is his favorite piece of furniture that I have refinished! Here are a few more pictures:

Do you have a favorite furniture piece that you have refinished? I'd love to see it!

p.s. The baby never woke up!

**Linking to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!**