A Tale of Two Tables

Both of them red, actually:

Exhibit A:

A little maroon table with a weird black lace trim glued onto the side aprons, used for a long time as a little house-altar.  It was a little afterthough-ish, though, and far too small to even light a stick of incense comfortably.

The blue thing underneath, by the way, is a glass planter from Ikea.  I honestly have NO idea why it's there, but it's been there for like ever.

Exhibit B: 

Enter my friend Sylvan, who recently procured for herself a new bedside table, and needed to find a new home for this old one.  "It's such a great red!"  I said.  She looked at me like I'd grown an ear out of my forehead.  Once I got it home and looked at it in a different light, though, I realized that  it was not a great red.  It was at her place, but not mine.  Since the finish on it was a factory spray-job (over MDF), I spray-primed this thing the second I brought it home.

The next step was to actually paint the thing.  And until I did it, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.  It just sort of evolved (sometimes that's good, and sometimes not so much).   I've been really into the two-tone furniture thing lately - wood + stone, wood + paint, etc.  Turns out, I  just happened to have some dark brown spray paint, and some in a very light almond color as well.

 plain brown + white

Which doesn't remotely look like anything except a table spray-painted in two different colors. 

click on these to expand

You guys know what my favorite paint treatment is, right?  Faux bois.  A bit of black, a bit of a dark gold, and a bit of water, and the body of this thing was done. 

  "alabaster" top!

The next step was something I'd never tried before.  I've done stone textures with sponges, rags, plastic bags, specialized rollers, even bits of torn cardboard...but I've never done veined marble before.  I was going for a sort of alabaster look here, with the warm almond-colored base paint;  for a first try, I don't think it sucks too badly! 

I have an alabaster compote (on the smaller red table in the first pic, actually), and was going for something along the lines of that look. 

OMFG!

But then, the failiest thing ever happened.  The top and faux-bois both came out beautifully, and without a single problem.  Since I didn't want brush-marks in my finishes, I opted to clear-coat this thing with spray, which went just fine on the body of this table.  But on the top, well...look at the picture.   I have no idea why this happened only in a couple of spots, and only on the top.  Maybe something was spilled here once; or maybe I didn't clean it as well as I thought I had.

There was nothing to do for it but wait til it dried, scrape off the wrinkled, bubbled paint, and sand it back smooth.  Fortunately I didn't have to strip the entire thing - but you can see that whatever happened with the clear-coat went straight down to the original red finish.

Sigh.

Fortunately, the rest of the process went off without a hitch.  The veining on the "alabaster" came out a bit differently than the first time, but I like it better, actually.  I only used two colors in the first draft;  this one has five:  white and brown for the stony background; two shades of brown, black, and silver in the veining (the silver to give it some sparkly where the "rock" is "broken").   This time I sealed it with plain old brush-on Polycrylic;  I crosshatched it with the brush to eliminate brush marks and to give the clearcoat a burnished look/feel.  It came out really well.




After: 

I am IN LOVE with the way this little table came out!!

Here it is replacing that dinky little red altar table in my living room, shining in the morning sun.  Heart!

The top, including the alabaster compote.  Pretty good match, yeah?  

Last but not least,  the inside of the drawer.  I love little color surprises inside drawers and cabinets, and this piece seemed like it needed something more than just a hidden paint color.  I printed this out on my color printer, set it in with spray adhesive, and sealed it with that damned spray clearcoat. Thankfully, it didn't ruin anything this time.









Oh, and what about that dinky little red altar table?  Here's it's after:  

This little thing got a paint job, and is now being a plant stand in the window corner of the living room.  It looks lighter than it is, in the picture:  it's actually an intense cobalt blue, with a black fade on the bottom half of the legs.






Later this week:  another table,
and more on that Day Sofa cover.








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Month(s) In Review

Whoops.  Forgot a month again!

August In Review: 

• Spent most of the month on my butt, recovering from a massive lung infection in July.  
• Painted little chalkboard labels on my kitchen canisters
• Hung a mirror in the master bathroom, and painted its frame, and the two picture frames in the room
• Also put knobs on the master bathroom cabinets

September In Review: 

• Painted the fireplace tiles
• Experimented with a brass-cleaning method I saw on Pinterest
• Re-arranged my mineral collection into the china hutch in the dining room
• Painted and hung a $6 thrift store mirror in the front hallway
• 
  

Resurrection of the Day Sofa

I didn't waste any time putting my World Market sofa back together when that hardware came in the mail.  It  took longer to bring the frame pieces in from the garage than it took to put the arms onto the base.  The back, though, not so much.  Turns out they've tweaked the design of this thing just a tad since I bought mine, and the bolts for the back didn't fit quite right.  They'll be easily replaced at Home Depot on the way home from work later this week, though.

The next step was to create a cushion for the thing (see previous post).

Enter  (1) two salvaged couch seat cushions and (2) an electric turkey knife.  No, I'm not kidding.  A serrated blade cuts foam really well, but a hand-held one leaves little bits and chunks.  Two fast,  reciprocating, serrated blades cut through this stuff like buttah.

cat-approved

Once both cushions were split into four, I cut two of them down to fit the arms of the couch (a little longer, actually, so that the entire finished cushion would be long enough when the couch was laid out flat):

notice the Jiffy Pop Method of  cat deterrent for plants in the background. 

Next step is the cover.  That's going to be made from a cotton upholstery twill that was, actually, once another couch cover - the cover for the seat of the couch, actually, which I had first made into a cushion for this sofa, LOL.  The fabric is in great shape, though it's a tad discolored, as old as it is (and as many dogs as have sat on this couch.  It took a long time to train them to stay off the furniture when no one was looking!)  The inside, however, is still nice and fresh-looking.

The basic idea is a variation of this:

source

The seat cover I'm using is already mostly sewn.  I just have to trim the seams and flip it inside out, shorten it a bit, and throw a zipper into one side.

More on that when it's done. :)


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Wanna Screw?

Oh, come on - no need to bolt at my bad puns.  You guys already knew I was nuts, right?  Okay, okay, enough with this particular thread of conversation...

OMG LOOK: 

So, a couple of weeks ago, I drug out the frame pieces for my World Market "Studio Day Sofa" from the garage, cleaned them off, and went to gather the hardware so I could put it back together...and the hardware was GONE.  Now, I'm really good about saving stuff like this.  I know for a fact that it was in a baggie with a label.  But all I could find was one loose bolt.

WTF.

I puzzled about it for a week, looked for the hardware, and then finally gave up and emailed World Market last week.  And TODAY a new hardware kit for the sofa came in the mail, free of charge!  World Market IS AWESOME!!!

I'm one step closer.

Now I just have to make a new cushion for it.  The original one was a bit flat and uncomfy, so I harvested the couch cushion from an old couch I was getting rid of and made a new one, which was awesome.  But by the time I decommissioned the World Market sofa, the cushion was a bit doggy and worn, so I just got rid of it.  I have another set of salvaged couch cushions and the fabric I need, I just have to find the time to make the new cushion.

Maybe World Market will send me an eighth day for the week, too.  o_ô


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Bulk Day Bookshelf Turned Nightstand

Remember the little ex-cabinet bookshelf thing I picked up last week from the curbside?

(this one)

Here it is now:

(ooh, ahh)

I didn't do much to it, just hit the body of it with a deglosser and painted it black; and sanded down the top and stained it with a light walnut with an oak all-in-one stain/sealant over the top (it's actually far darker than it looks in the picture - so is the floor. I suck at taking pictures of black things).  It needs books and stuff, but since this is Kress' side of the bed, he gets to fill it. :)

Rabi seems to approve.  Just like he approves of that new blue coverlet that he's got his hind legs on: 

This was a gift from a friend recently, and it used to belong to her grandmother.  It's the same shade of blue as the walls in my bedroom, and it's sooooo soft and comfy, and just exactly the weight that I like in a blanket.  I'm completely in love with it already. :) 

TER SHERT HERCK Encore

Hey guess what?  I haven't painted the bathroom yet.  I'm better, though - it took nearly two months, but I'm back to my old self...actually, scratch that:  I feel healthier than I've ever felt in as long as I can remember.  It's been nearly three months since I quit smoking, my asthma's pretty much gone, I'm all healed from the narsty lung infection I had in July, and I've been working out like a fiend for the past three weeks.  My voice is back and I'm singing again - and I have a new guitar!  Well, I'm taking care of it for a friend for a while.  At any rate:  I feel awesome, and things are back to normal.  Better than normal!

And yet!  I haven't gotten much done around the house, for the usual reasons:  SCA stuff has been taking precedence.  But I'm way ahead in my sewing, enough that I think that bathroom might get painted next weekend!

In the meantime, I've cut up another shirt.  This one was a crap shirt I made out of a scrap of fabric:

Um...no "before" pic, sorry.  It looked like this, but dark green.  And it was always falling off my shoulders, which was a pain in the ass.

So I braided the top of the neckline, because I still love this braiding technique, and I wanted to give it a try with wider, longer slits.  As you can see here, they're nearly 3" long.  Same distance apart as on the black dress, but in relation to the length of the slits, it works better.

This is the stage at which I go, "GAH!!!"  Except that this is totally normal.  If the fabric between two slits is a loop, then what you're doing here is pulling one loop back through the one before it, and then forward, then pulling the next loop back through the previous one, etc.  Just folding them over each other - the effect looks like a braid.

Well, actually it looks like this until you pull it flat with your fingers.

Okay, that's better, see?

The wider slits were definitely  easier to work with, gathered the fabric up much less, and produced a more even, flatter braid.

However...

Overall, I like the finished product.  A couple of things about the neckline came out...not badly, just not as expected:

1.   It's higher than I wanted.  I like cleavage.  This shirt has no cleavage.


2.   The braid is smaller than I thought it was going to be.  it's about an inch wide, as you can see in the pictures; on the shirt, though, it still looks tiny.  I don't know what to do about that.  I could cut the slits longer still, but then the shirt would draw up even more, so...?

Anyway. I DO like it.






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Bulk Day Loot & Embarrassment

Monday was Bulk Trash pickup, yay!  I hauled the frikking mini-couch out there, finally.  I had such plans for that stupid thing, and they just never went anywhere, and I ended up hating that thing so hard.  So it's gone, now.  Sometime Tuesday afternoon someone actually added their trash to my pile -  a foldable football stadium seat and a yellow plastic hard hat.  The hell?

I found a really great little shelfy cabinet thing down the street.  I let it sit there for a couple of days, and then finally caved and went to pick it up, on my way home from work.  I had it halfway into my truck when the little girl who lived at the house came out of the front door and bounded across the yard to go play, but then saw me and just...stopped...

it looked a bit like this

We stared at each other for a sec, then I put the piece down and started trying to explain what I was doing.  She shrugged at me, said, "Whatever!" and then bounded away.  I'm not even ashamed to admit, I drove around the block in a circle to get home so she wouldn't see where I lived.  LMAO.  Fail.

Anyhoo, here's the piece:

It's about 27" high, and nearly as long.  There's a hole in the wall of the back for cords to go through, and you can see in the picture a pair of magnetic door closures where the bottom of this used to be enclosed.  No hinges or doors, though.  Aside from the finish being a bit bunged up (and some hearts drawn on the top with marker, tee-hee), the piece was in really good shape.  I glued a couple of loose joints back together, cleaned the whole thing, de-glossed the finish on the body with Liquid Sander, and sanded down the top.  

None of it took much time or effort; and I'm already most of the way done with the new paint job.  I don't have pics yet, but I can show you some of my inspiration: 

FabRehab

Better After

Pinterest (no source)

We'll see how it turns out.   I'm still trying to decide what to do with the thing.  I think it might end up being a nightstand in the bedroom - it'll balance out the tiny dresser on the other side, and replace the Victorian plant stand that's there now, which I'd really rather have it in the living room where I can look at it all the time, because I love it to itty bitty little pieces.


Meanwhile, I'm KICKING MYSELF over not picking up a gorgeous bu thoroughly trashed Queen Anne table I saw in my neighborhood - I didn't have time to grab it the morning I saw it, but it was gone when I came back later that day.  It was in serious disrepair, but didn't look beyond saving.  In fact, it looked full of potential, and the legs were strong.  I'd have fixed it up and painted it black, and done this with it in the now-empty window corner in the living room, with a pretty little plump reading chair next to it:

But alas.  :'( 

ERMAHGERD TER SHERT HERCK

You know that thing I never do on this blog?  I'mma do it again.   I can't help it:  I LOVE T-SHIRT HACKS.   I saw this one on Pinterest:

blog entry + how-to from the Pin  HERE 

And had to have it.   But that's not all I had to have.  I had to have a cute, sassy little black dress; but what I actually had was this:

pose and dress re-do also inspired in part by
The Refashionista! 

Now, before I go any further, let me note that my boyfriend took these pictures, and he's a giant.  I'm five-nine, people, and in these pictures I look like a stumpy little log with hardly any legs.  He's six-two, and taking these shots basically from his face-level.  I look silly. Heehee.

Anyway - how boring is this dress?  It makes my tits look saggy, and while it's comfy, it's just not remotely interesting.  There's no cleavage!  There's no shape! At least I took the short sleeves off of it years ago so it doesn't look out-and-out grandma-y.  But still.  It needed something.  It needed a lot of something.


First it needed to be either longer or shorter, and since I can't add length out of thin air:

I cut off about 7-9" and curved up the side to form a sort-of mans'-shirt slit on both sides at the knee.  Ish. 

And from the piece I cut off, I removed the original hemline, to use as a thin tie belt on the finished dress.

It's kinda awesome!  And my head is all weird!  Tall boyfriend!

The overall shape is much better now, the neckline is waaaay lower, which I love, the length is comfy, I love the tie belt, and...

 There's that cute little slit/curve in the side.  Yay!

"But Laura,"  you ask, "What about that braided neckline?"   

I did the braided neckline.  I cannot get a single picture of it to turn out.  Black fabric - whaddaya want, yanno?   But it looks COOL AS HELL.  You'll, um, just have to trust me.

I will note, mostly for myself, for next time, that the way that I cut the slits  in the fabric around the neckline for the "braid" (see the original tutorial here) made it very difficult to accomplish said braid.  I meant to try it on like a sock or something first to get a feel for it, but I got all gung-ho and just went for it.   I did two things, not "wrong", but that I'll change next time:

1.   The slits I cut were smallish (they look to be about 2.5" in the tutorial, and mine were at most an inch and a half), and too far apart in proportion to their length, which meant that the loops resulting from the slits had to stretch really far, which made them thin and tight and hard to work with, and also really small.

2.   I also graduated the size of the cuts  - smaller in the back and shoulders, gradually widening towards the front of the neckline, for a braid that gets bigger around the front and then tapers off again.  But since the slits were so small and the loops so tight, what I got was a braid about 3/4" in the front and barely as wide as a pencil in the back!

Also, with such a tight, small braid, even though it looks really awesome, it drew the fabric of the dress up a LOT.  You can see it above in the pic from the Pin/tutorial - how the braiding pulls and gathers the fabric?  It's a really lovely effect.  Except that it pulled the straps on my dress up so much that they're quite a bit narrower than they started out, and that's the only thing I'm not happy about.  But I can live with it.

(And yes, I tried un-braiding, thinking I'd just adjust the slits.  No dice: the fabric stretched so far and pulled so tight the first time that undoing it and doing it over would have just broken it in places.  I'll just make the slits bigger next time).

And oh yes, there will be a next time.  And if I can manage a decent pic of that braid, I'll post it.

Ta!


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