Tag: spray paint

Twofer Tuesday

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Today I’m coming atcha with two different makeovers from one room. I guess it’s technically a bedroom, since it has a method of egress and a closet, but it really serves as more of a walk-through space for me. But I wanted a spot for a sundry niece or nephew to stay, so I stuck a daybed in there! But a naked closet and a 1980’s daybed would not do for a spot in Chez Redopalooza.

Funny story about the daybed – I was cruising Craigslist with the vague idea of buying one, when I discovered one that was listed just down the street from me. I leaped from my chair and went running out the door in my comfortable clothes (okay, they were pajamas) and hustled down the street. There I met the nicest woman and carried the daybed home with me in pieces. Later on I would discover that she is the owner of this amazing etsy shop: ReMain Eco Designs, where she sells incredible pieces made from bicycle parts. Small world!

After many nights in my chilly basement and a substantial mattress investment, the daybed is now a much more palatable and comfortable orange. And just so the closet wouldn’t feel left out, I dressed it up with some cathedral windows fabric from Joann. That was another funny story – I bought the remaining fabric on the bolt and when I got home discovered that it was EXACTLY the right size! I didn’t have to cut it once. Okay, that’s not that funny. Sue me.

Anyway, here are the afters, in all their glory!


Hope you like them! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!

I linked this post up to

Who’s Your (Fry) Daddy

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I mean no patriarchal disrespect when I say this, but nobody needs their daddy around anymore. Not with all the bad news out there about the evils of cholesterol and deep-frying. Oh! I meant to say nobody needs their FRY Daddy around anymore.

I’ve never been much of a deep-fryer person anyway – every time I attempt it, everything in my house (clothes for work the next day) ends up smelling like a greasy strip mall Chinese restaurant. So I didn’t have a Fry Daddy to dismantle, but somebody did and this fry basket ended up at the thrift store.

I grabbed it with a light fixture project in mind, thinking I might stick something in those holes or hang something beaded off of them. But the longer I had it, the more its industrial vibe spoke to me and I decided to go a more purist route. All it took was some spray paint (of course), tin snips, and a light kit from Cost Plus World Market.


If you insist on keeping your Fry Daddy intact, you can purchase this light fixture in my etsy shop! Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

I linked this project up at:

DIY Show Off

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/11/10/that-diy-party-42/#zVc44gcySUZXJ3Zz.99

Reflections of the Past

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Geez, that title probably made you think you were going to see some kind of Lifetime for Women movie, didn’t it?

Well, I’m happy to say that’s not the case (or sorry to disappoint, depending upon your feelings about Lifetime…it DOES have Project Runway going for it)!  This is a post about mirrors.  See what I did there?

I found a set of four Burwood pictures at the thrift store.  Only three of them would fit in the frame for these pictures, but rest assured, they all came out the same.  I LOVED the shape of the frames, but the finish on them was hideous, as Burwood/Syroco/Home Decorators vintage items usually is.  And the “artwork”…?  Ahem.

Can ya guess what I did?  Of course you can.  I painted them.  And, after nearly severing a digit while trying to do it myself, I had a glass shop cut some mirrors to fit and glue them in place of those sad, 70’s butterflies.  This all happened about four years ago and I still love them just as much!  I hope you like them, too.  Thanks for stopping by!

I linked this project up at

DIY Show Off

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/10/06/that-diy-party-37/#8tiwySeCxXhDtBoh.99

Jewelry Jail

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I don’t know about you, but the last thing I need when I’m rushing out the door to work in the morning is a pointless obstacle in my way (you hear that, Bonnie and Clyde?).  That’s why I didn’t really understand the added level of “security” on this jewelry box – aren’t the drawers enough?  You need doors in front of drawers?  Was someone afraid the jewelry would escape?  The bottom drawer is reserved for the trustworthy jewelry, I guess.

I decided the doors were just for decoration, and I endeavored to add to the ambiance without upping the obstacle ante.  You KNOW there was spray paint involved, and this time I busted out my scrapbook paper stash for a little Mod Podge action on the drawer fronts.  Lastly, I added new wooden knobs where the janky old door pull (singular!) was.

This puppy got snapped up a couple days after I listed it on etsy.  I hope the buyer is independently wealthy and never has to rush out the door to work….  AND I hope she buys more stuff from my etsy shop!  🙂

Turn an end table into . . . a bed!?!

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Well, yes – a bed for your cat!  In the spirit of interspecies peace, you could make one for your dog, ferret, or iguana, too.

I didn’t even know I needed my cats needed a cat bed until I saw Ki’s creation at her blog, Junk Camp!  But once I saw it, I immediately set my thrift phaser to STUN and aimed it at every end table I saw.  Eventually, I came across a suitable specimen and hauled it home.  I dove in too fast to snap a before pic, but it looked a little something like this:

Spray paint, wood finials (Hobby Lobby has a good selection), thick foam and some fabric was all it took to produce my interpretation of Ki’s masterpiece.

Clyde seems to like it!

I hope you like it, too!  Thanks for stopping by.

Lamp Redemption!

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Sometimes when I’ve had a craft misstep like the one I related in my last post, I like to take some time to refresh my memory with a walk down Craft Win Lane.  To that end, I bring you this horror show:

What?  What IS that thing (besides a crime against humanity)?  It’s a fake marble ceramic lamp, of course!  And if you’re wondering why the shape of it gives you have a sudden hankering for a PB&J and a juice box, see if this jogs your memory:

When I first saw this lamp, I had a murky idea that I might open up a can of polymer clay whoop-ass on it.  I wasn’t sure how my idea would play out, but I brought it home anyway and introduced it to the other occupants of my craft room, a.k.a. Craft Purgatory.  I allowed it to marinate for a few months, and then it was ripe for redoing.  I decided not to devise a polymer clay treatment and instead took a healthy helping of spray paint, a lampshade, a dash of spray adhesive and fabric, and look what happened!

 

 

 

 

YES!

And craft balance is restored.  Thanks for stopping by!

Lameshade

Posted on Posted in Furniture fixups, Thrifty finds, Uncategorized, UpcyclingTagged , , , , , , 3 Comments

It may be blog suicide to mention a craft fail this early on in my blogging life, but I can’t continue with this on my conscience – I had a lampshade catastrophe over the weekend.

It all began so innocently: a girl (me), a thrift store, a shapely brass lamp . . . but little did we know that the joy we all felt at stumbling upon one another in this crazy world would be short-lived. Oh sure, there was the honeymoon period during the priming and painting of the lamp – the lime green gloss spray paint behaved better than expected, the painter’s tape successfully sealed the forbidden zones, and no unfortunate paint-in-the-hair episodes occurred. Good times.

Next step was the lampshade. Oh, I found one easily enough – I tried Lowe’s with no luck but one more stop at Lamps Plus was all it took. I took that mother home, fantasizing all the way about how awesome it was going to look wearing the excellent fabric I already had on hand! I felt like the planets were lining up just for this lamp to happen! So with hope in my heart, I stood at my ironing board on Saturday night (yes, my life IS that exciting) figuring out how to make it happen.

It turned out I only had a fat quarter of the chosen fabric, so I decided to just do a stripe of fabric around the shade instead of covering the whole thing. That would have been great, except that I discovered, to my horror, that I DID NOT HAVE A DRUM SHADE. If you’ve ever covered a lampshade, you feel my pain right about now – the top of the shade was slightly smaller than the bottom, which meant that a strip of fabric would not go evenly around it.  As if that weren’t bad enough, the pattern repeat would not allow me to use the part of the design I wanted, and I didn’t have enough fabric for the stripe to go where I wanted it, around the widest part. But I was undaunted! I forged ahead and cut and pressed and sewed and tested and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I started sewing tiny pleats in the top of the fabric every so often until it looked like it would lay right.

It took some serious intestinal fortitude to continue at this point, but I was determined to see it through. So, armed with my trusty can of spray adhesive, I began to spray and stick the fabric onto the shade. After considerable maneuvering, I thought I had gotten most of the wrinkles out as I stretched that material to within an inch of its life and it finally met at the seam.

I popped it on top of the lamp and walked away. I was pretty sick of looking at it by then, and I wasn’t completely happy with the way it turned out, but I thought maybe if I “snuck up on it” its appeal might surprise me.

Yeah . . . that didn’t happen.  Then I opened the blinds the next morning and the wrinkles appeared in all their glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I tried to fix the wrinkles and I tried not to swear.

But when I discovered that the ENTIRE lampshade was sticky, I may have let a few indelicate words cross my lips.

 

 

 

 

I guess it could be a Post-it lampshade or something.  But not if I burn it first.