Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Cheap Furniture make-over (with some painting tips)!!

Sometimes I wonder if when my husband is finished with medical school and we are FOR THE FIRST TIME making a decent amount of money, will I still be repainting thrifted furniture? Or will I just buy some new stuff? I tend to think it will be a mixture of both. I really love making the decor in my home. It's a way to create and express myself artistically even if I am not currently working on my fine art (paintings, etc). Anyway, long intro but here are my 2 latest re-dos!
BEFORE: $20 sideboard with hutch on top (wood covered in veneer).
1.Lots of taping (making SURE I got perfect little diamond points)
2. seal tape with clear polyurethane to prevent leaks under the tape!  (a little tip I learned from some furniture blog a few months ago!!!-best tip ever)
3. primed
4. painted and peeled tape while still wet. (Though since there were other dried coats underneath I still ripped paint off in a few spots. If you can take the tape off before the 4th layer then you have more luck and this usually doesn't happen:) )

AFTER!!!! I LOVE this thing. I still haven't unpacked all my books or display-type things, so it remains empty, but I love it even just like that!
BEFORE (well we are going to pretend since I really didn't take a shot of it before...) $5:

1. taped around the top circular veneer part
2. FORGOT to seal the edges of the tape, and painted 2 layers of Behr paint and prime in white.
3. taped off a bunch of stripes
4. SEALED THE TAPE WITH THE SAME WHITE PAINT.
5. painted the aqua color and immediately took off the tape
6. painted a layer of polyurethane b/c the original paint was flat.
ewwww! I  LOVE it!!!!
AFTER! yay! To do these two projects all I bought were the sample sizes of white and aqua ( and I actually painted a third piece as well with the same paint). The samples only cost $2.50 each, but since they only come in "flat" I had to polyurethane over top (I already had some). So for 3 pieces of furniture I only spent $5 on paint, and $27 (including the 3rd piece not shown) on furniture! That works VERY well into our student budget!!

7 comments:

Alice said...

That sideboard/hutch piece is a great find. I love it!

créations manuelles said...

Good idea. It's look very nice.
I like your interior !!
Sorry I'm french :(
Have a good day

Brit said...

where can I buy the stuff to seal the tape? These are both beautiful pieces!

Rina said...

Brad would have a heart attack if I tried to paint something wood.... even if it was ugly to begin with. But I LOVE your color choice! Very pretty.

Mora said...

Don't ever give up your creative side! Love the painted hutch!!! Amazing!

Claire Kiefer said...

These look amazing! I'm so impressed with your DIY skills.

SkinnyMeg said...

Wow! Gorgeous!! I love the color and the retro vibe!