Furniture Makeovers Archives | Page 9 of 111

Furniture Makeovers

All Things Home

dining table makeover

Independent of one another, two of my friends from church asked me if I could give them advice on refinishing a table. It occurred to me that I have a table I want to refinish, too, so why not make a day of it and refinished all of the tables together? Projects are always more fun when fellowship is involved and, as an added bonus, we have boys who are the same age and they could play together while we worked. Projects are also more fun with the kiddos are occupied and happy! Since I was working with friends on their tables as well as my own, I didn’t take the time to do a tutorial for this one, but I’ll share links to tutorials I’ve written in the past when I used the same techniques. Here is the table before… It wasn’t in bad shape, but it had a

July 30, 2018 42 Comments

All Things Home

milk paint mural tutorial

One of the reasons I decided to DIY my own dining room mural was so I could share how to do it with others. Well, I realized about 10 minutes into it that I was totally flying by the seat of my pants and I didn’t know if it would even look good in the end! It’s hard to teach something when I’m just making it up as I go. This project had been on my mind for a few months, but I kept dragging my feet on actually starting it. As I would begin to formulate a plan and gather colors, memories of a failed attempt at a chinoiserie mural haunted me and intimidated me. Years ago, pre-blog, I decided to paint a white-on-blue chinoiserie-style (sort of an asian toile) mural in our master bedroom. I knew just how I wanted it to look in my head. Jeff was

July 19, 2018 32 Comments

All Things Home

repainting the primitive blue cabinet

The primitive blue hutch has been one of my favorite pieces of furniture for several years, but it is a little too primitive for my current home. The shape is simple enough, so I think it has more to do with the color and distressed, worn paint. I have been debating painting it for months and I finally did it! Here is how it looked originally… And how it looks now… I know the blue paint on the cabinet looks like it’s old, but it had been repainted before I acquired it (I could see the roller marks) and I repainted it when I brought it home (to tone down the blue a little bit.) All of that to say I wouldn’t have painted it if the paint was original. The new coat of paint is Shutter Gray mixed with some Lucketts Green and Linen MMS Milk Paint. It made

July 8, 2018 88 Comments

All Things Home

milk paint landscape mural | reveal

Unless you follow me on Instagram, when you last saw the milk paint landscape mural in the dining room, it was just getting started with the watery Lucketts Green base for the land. Well, Friday it was hot as the blazes here in Rochester, MN (heat index of 104), so we all hung out inside and I had a lot of time to work on the landscape mural. I wasn’t planning on being able to finish it, but the work went quicker than I expected and the boys were content for long stretches, so I got it all done! And here it is… (Remember that the furniture isn’t done, yet!) (Or the butler’s pantry! You can see it finished HERE.) As I shared in my first post about the mural, this was inspired by Susan Harter’s mural style mixed with a hint of Rufus Porter in the folk-feeling of the

July 2, 2018 136 Comments

All Things Home

dining chair upholstery tutorial

I almost completely forgot that I left this chair makeover tutorial hanging after I shared how to make the slipcover for the seat! I was traveling and visiting family and wasn’t reminded about part two until someone mentioned it on Instagram. Anyway, I dusted off the video footage and got everything edited, so I could share how to strip and reupholster the back of a wood frame chair, like this one… It doesn’t matter if your chair has a different shape. If the back is framed in wood, this tutorial will work for you. If you’re new to upholstery, this is actually a great project to start with, because you don’t have any tricky places where fabric panels meet. Here are the supplies you’ll need… Upholstery Staple gun by Porter Cable Porter Cable Pancake Compressor 3/8″ staples Staple pulling pliers & Staple puller Fabric Foam/batting, if it needs to be replaced

June 10, 2018 15 Comments

All Things Home

kitchen chair makeovers

Remember the French-style chairs I purchased for our kitchen eating area last fall? Here’s a reminder of what they looked like… I knew when I purchased them that I would eventually make a slipcover for the seats and reupholster the backs. I can have some light-colored upholstery in the house, but I knew it was not going to survive in our main eating area long term. And it didn’t. Even Jeff pointed out how spotty they were getting and that’s saying a lot. They finally got so bad that it was time. I used a checked fabric called Zippy in the color Lakeland by P Kaufmann for the seat slipcover and the front of the back. The back of the chair is upholstered in an antique grain sack. Now, I goofed on the fabrics a bit. Not a big deal, but I was actually planning on using the larger scale

May 17, 2018 66 Comments

All Things Home

pine desk refresh

One thing that has been on my shopping list for a while is a desk for the master bedroom. Since Jeff has an office at the church, he doesn’t need one at the house. He occassionally does work at home and requested a desk in our room, since it’s a quiet room, pretty well removed from the rest of the house. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I would know it when I saw it. I was thinking it might be along the lines of a simple writing desk, but when I came upon this pine desk in a local antique shop a couple of weeks ago, it caught my eye and I thought it would work in the space… It had some short-cut repairs, was missing a knob, and it was dirty, but it was solid, had a nice shape, and a pretty

May 10, 2018 52 Comments

All Things Home

farmhouse table reveal & sealing chippy paint tutorial

The farmhouse table is finished and I’m so happy with how it turned out! If you remember, it was painted brown. I could see some original green paint showing through and I was hoping to reveal that through some chippy Farmhouse White MMS Milk Paint and that is exactly what happened. If you missed the other posts about this table transformation, you can check them out here… Prepping the table for paint Hemp Oiling the top & applying the second coat of milk paint Distressing & getting the “chippy look” Now, the table was distressed and ready for a finish. I chose Tough Coat, since that is our best finish for sealing in chippiness, so the paint doesn’t continue to flake. Here is a tutorial showing how I sealed the table base… This table was a great piece and I’m glad I was able to give it a fresh look

May 2, 2018 34 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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