What a Hoot

Last month, I went to NYC  to visit my sister-in-law and drag her around antiquing/thrifting.  It was a learning process, so I didn't come home with the thrifted gold I was hoping, but I did get a few neat items.  One item that I adopted is this cute little owl votive holder.

I left him untouched by my DIY wand for a few weeks, but after much internal debate, I decided he needed bit of pizzazz.  Whenever I looked at him, I couldn't help thinking of these guys from West Elm.  (I may be irrationally drawn to owls lately, seems to be a common ailment though...)

Now I obviously couldn't turn him into mercury glass, but I started experimenting.  I had been wanting to try silver leaf for a while, so that's what I did.  My little orangey-brown owl got a coat of spray adhesive then I used a paint brush to apply the silver leaf.  It was kind of a big mess, so I'm glad I did it outside.  I was on the fence if the finish was worth the time and mess, and I may have ruined the finish a bit when I finished him with a matte finishing spray (live and learn).  He sort of looks like I spray painted him silver, though.

Despite my incompetence with silver leaf, I still like the outcome- he's fancy.

Isn't he snazzy?  I think so.

Even though he came out different than planned, I'm really glad he's not orangey-brown anymore.  I'm not giving up on silver leaf altogether, but I think next time needs to be more strategic and researched for the best techniques.

Have you had any projects lately that didn't quite end up as planned but still had a positive outcome?  Do you have any silver leaf tips?

How to be a Bench

Did you catch my big coffee table bench reveal yesterday?  Here's how I got there: I started with this

The first step was repair.  It needed love: popping veneer, broken off corners, and cracks everywhere.  I glued the veneer back down and the broken off pieces back into place, then went nuts with the wood filler.   Next step?

I finally had an excuse to buy a new power tool!! It's nothing complicated or technical, but I am now the proud owner of a Ryobi Pad Sander.  You have no idea how excited that makes me (a wee bit pathetic maybe).  I got the sander so I could spare my arm- that thing needed a shit-ton of sanding.  Now my extensive power tool collection includes my drill, jig saw, and sander.  Keep em coming!!

Hubby could care less about tools, although that works for me because I could generally care less about cooking which he's into.  He gets to enjoy the product of my power tool adventures and I get to enjoy the product of his attempts to be an iron chef.  Win-win!

Ok, back to the bench.  After sanding the crap out of the uneven top and smoothing all the wood filler, I went over the rest with deglosser.  First time trying a deglosser, but it seemed to work well.

It then got 2+ coats of Minwax Polyshades in American Chestnut and it dried to a fantastic slick glossy surface.  I used Polyshades on my dining table a few years ago and really liked how easy it was to get an amazing finish.   It acts more like a paint than a stain, which some might not like.  Not perfect for all projects, but perfect for this one!

While the base dried, I got started on the cushion.

My supplies were:

• 3" foam
• Plywood
• 1.5 yards of fabric
• Batting (to put around the foam)
• A staple gun (and staples of course)
• Fabric button making kit
• 1 super long needle
• Strong thread

Before I went to get my supplies, I measured the size I wanted for the cushion.  Your friendly local home improvement warehouse store will cut a sheet of plywood to your needed size for free.  Since you buy the whole board anyway, I had them cut 2 to the right size in case I needed a do-over.  I got the foam at Joann Fabrics and I had to get creative.  You buy it by the yard, and 1 yard of 3" foam was almost $50!  Luckily, it was 2' wide and I only needed it 1' wide.  I left with 22" of foam which I then chopped in half with a super duper expensive (or not) bread knife from Christmas Tree Shops.  You want your foam to be larger than your plywood by about an inch on all sides.  Then comes the stapling fun!

I stapled the batting to the plywood, securing the foam.  After the batting was stapled, I trimmed the extra and brought out my fabric.

I was SUPER careful with this step since my fabric is a geometric.  Crooked fabric or wonky lines would be VERY obvious.  I started at the center of each side and pulled the fabric tight  as I went along.  When I got to the corners I tried my best at hospital corners, which was not an easy feat (and didn't come out perfect).

I'm not gonna lie- the neat way this worked out on the back makes me kinda happy.

So for the buttons, it took me a bit to figure this out.  Making the buttons out of the fabric was easy (I followed the directions on the package), but trying to figure out how to attach them to the cushion was the tough part.  After a few failed attempts and a few Google searches, I figured it out.

With holes drilled in the bottom plywood, I hooked the button on the thread (several strands together), and threaded that onto the longest needle I could find.  Once I got the thread through the foam and the button in the right place, I pulled the thread tight and stapled the thread a few times.  Rinse, repeat.

It was agony waiting for the last coat of stain to dry on the base before I could assemble the 2 parts.  Once it was FINALLY dry, I centered the cushion on the top of the former coffee table and screwed through the bottom to attach the 2 parts.

Ta Da!!!

This totally makes me giddy and fits in the bedroom like it was MADE for that space (ya know, cuz it was).

I'm revved to do more in the bedroom now- the rest of the room needs to live up to my awesome new bench!

Coffee Table Transformations

I am BEYOND excited to share this project with you!  It's seriously one of my favorites that I've done.  It makes me giddy! Last week I told you a story about a lonely coffee table that needed a new lease on life.  As a part of the Pinterest Challenge: Fall Edition, I decided to give it a drastic make-over.  Mission accomplished!!

The coffee table started out in a sad state.  It was structurally stable and had great lines, but there were a lot of aesthetic issues.

Two corner pieces were completely broken, there was some popping veneer at the seams, but the worst issue was the burl wood center of the table.  It was warped and cracked beyond repair- I could see through the cracks to the floor underneath.

With its flaws, this coffee table was not so functional as, well, a table.  But a week later, it's a refinished, functional, beautiful bench!  I re-glued the popping veneer, glued pieces back into place, filled in the gouges and cracks and sanded the crap out of it.  A few coats of stain and a brand new cushion later and....

VOILA!

Can you see me grinning from ear to ear?  This is totally what the bedroom needed!  It works so much better as a bench than its previous purpose as a substitute tv stand.  Looking at my pictures, they seriously don't do it justice.  It looks amazing in person, if I do say so myself.

Here's a reminder of where my new bench was hanging out last week.

And NOW:

How amazing is the yellow chevron??  I'm swooning over it.  Seriously.  (I ordered it on Tonic Living a few months ago for another project, but never got around to it).

I do need to get used to it being at the foot of the bed, though.  I kinda walked right into it when turning off the alarm this morning.  Ouch.

See how I did this project here (I figured I'd spare you a novel post today and split it in 2- you are welcome).

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Did you partake in this season's Pinterest Challenge?  Post your link in my comments, I'd love to see it!

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Random side note: I think it's time I took a photography class, my skills are abysmal, please accept my apologies!