RELIVING THE 70'S WITH AN EXTREME MAKEOVER!

Pin It I have no problem admitting I grew up in the 70's.  The 70's rocked!   The 60's gave up a few good tunes - the 80's....well with the exception of one Jon BonJovi, that decade was a downright embarrassment.  The Eagles, Journey, Kansas, Boston, Frampton....I could go on forever but I have to move on to some other stuff the 70's gave us - the not so great stuff...

Was there ever a more heinous piece of furniture.  And admit it, any of us over the age of 50 had one at one point or another!

And what the hell is that little trap door under the bed for?  I could only guess, having lived through the 70's!

This post is not about renovating a 70's waterbed.  However, it IS about renovating a matching dresser!!!

 Sorry for the blur.  I think I was quivering and asking myself "what have I got myself into now?"

 This guy actually had little apothecary drawers in all these nooks. Don't worry I kept 'em!

And look, it's already distressed!  I don't have to lift a finger!

 What craftsmanship!

I don't really get their "distressing" back in the 70's.  Big chunks of the edges were all "shaved" off in a very orderly manner.  Then some gouges that you could put a measuring tape to, they were so precise! What fun was that?

We needed a TV Console for our new TV and I just knew I could find something at my favorite thrift store.  Husband and I went down on a Saturday afternoon....I saw this monstrosity and knew exactly what I could do with it.  I screamed at husband "Quick, go get someone to write this up for us!"  and then I parked my ass right on top of it.  One guy came by and murmured "you gonna get that?".  Hell, yea - get away from it!  It was marked 80 bucks but because it was a Saturday, it was half price!  I love Saturdays at the thrift store!  And hey, one more year and I can take advantage of senior day on Tuesdays, also!!  Hot dog!

Let me tell you, after having hauled it home, we soon discovered that this thing stunk to high heaven!  I'm not sure what was going on with it.  Plus, someone had taped off all of the top edges of the drawers with masking tape and painted the inside of every drawer black.  Did a darn good job, too.  Except they left all that nasty tape.  So in addition to wiping this thing down with vinegar for the smell, I had to take my blow dryer to the masking tape just to get it off.  Then I had to use Mineral Spirits to remove the sticky gunk.  I'm really having doubts at this point!

But then the real fun began!  

First thing I did was remove the scroll-y old base  and replaced it with a solid piece of cheap base trim.  Nothing fancy.  I knew with the number of cats I had, I would have dust kitties rolling under that thing like a tumbleweed across west Texas! Not to mention cat toys and grand kid toys!

Simple to do and what a difference.  Yep, totally ruining the "integrity" of this period piece. 

Please, give me a break.

I lightly sanded the base.  I knew I wanted the top (horizontal surfaces) stained and the base (all vertical surfaces) a grey blue.  Because I was staining the two tops, I sanded those down to bare wood.  

We removed those cute little wing walls because I hated them.  Husband thought they were fine.  Typical....

Of course, removing them wasn't easy because this thing was built like a tank!  They used crappy wood back in the 70's but boy did they build them right.  Every screw was hidden by one of those little plugs that we had to dig out first then remove the screw IF we even had access to it.  After too much time spent trying to neatly remove those wing walls, I just told Husband to knock 'em off!   Of course after that, vast quantities of wood filler was necessary.  Oops!

I have yet to find a wood filler I like so any suggestions or tips out there would be greatly appreciated!!

I went with a Dark Walnut stain for the tops (doesn't EVERYONE in bloggie land use that color these days?) and Winter Flannel by Valspar.  It was the perfect blue.  Not too baby blue and not too grey.  

BTW, after staining the top, I stood back and said "gee, it looks exactly like it did before I sanded the original finish off"!  Oh well....

And here it is all finished!!!  Ain't she a beaut???

 How great is my staging???!!!!

 Each of these little drawers had white ceramic knobs.  I spray painted them and also some brushed nickle cup pulls and larger knobs for the drawers and doors.  I used my favorite Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  And of course, I added my own brand of distressing.  Husband made the comment "hey we can put the remotes in these little drawers!"  How many others of you out there laughed like I did when you heard that!?

 I gotta tell ya, I'm not crazy about the doors.  Too cottage-y for me.  But I just didn't have the time or desire to go hunt down new ones or build new ones.  Maybe this summer.  For now, we'll just pretend that Hansel and Gretel live here.

 They're like Hobbit doors!

I can't tell you how happy I am at how this turned out.  It looks awesome in the room and it's the perfect size for that giant TV!  Total, I spent about $64 on everything - the dresser, the paint, the spray paint, the trim.  I already had the stain and sealer.  Can't beat that with a stick. 

 Can you guys tell what a redneck I am?

Anyway, my FAVORITE part of it????

The safety straps to keep that TV from falling on any of my babies - furry or otherwise!

We removed the original flimsy backing that the dresser had - it may have even been card board - seriously!  We replaced it with a plain pine board attached very securely just to the top half.  We cut grommets in it for our wires and then secured the TV.  I was adamant on this after reading about how many children get killed from these falling TV's!  The straps were $16 on Amazon.

Not gorgeous - but no one can see it.  

Honestly, I think I may have exhausted all of my creative juices on this thing. Can ANYONE give me any ideas of how to make this very necessary piece of furniture in our home look better?????

Linking to "Mop it up Mondays"

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HOW TO PRESERVE YOUR FAVORITE T-SHIRT FOR ALL ETERNITY

Pin It Happy New Year everyone!  As usual, my happy slumber was disturbed by the stupid fireworks at midnight.  I can't remember the last time I made it past midnight to ring in the New Year.  Just don't know what all the hype is about....

Today I did something that I've been wanting to do for ages.  I have this T-shirt that I love, love, love.  And the only reason I love it is because I love the floral print that is on it.  It's not that it's one of those comfy T's that you want to lay around the house in.  No, I love these blue pansies screen printed on it.

When I was doing my twice yearly closet clean out, I almost put it in the pile to be donated.  Then I thought how much I'd miss those pansies.  So I did the smart thing and preserved it forever.  I guess I could have cut the T-shirt out and framed part of it but how much fun would that really be.  I looked at that shirt for a bit and then told myself "Self,  you can SO paint that on canvas!"  So I did.

When my Mom passed away in October of 2010, I inherited all of her paint supplies.  My Mom had dabbled with paints for as long as I can remember.  I never realized how talented she was until I opened up this box of art supplies.  The woman had everything!  I've been eyeing her paints and paint brushes since the day I got  them, knowing that one day I would dive in and use them.  Today was the day!

Here's my inspiration.  T-shirt from JC Penney's.  Definitely not designer wear by any means but I liked it when I bought it.

  Here is my canvas that I started with.  This happens to be one of my Mom's canvases  that she had in her stash.  Not sure if it was the last thing she did or if it was something she started early on but never finished.  I'm using it because I'm too lazy and cheap to go out and buy a new one.  Plus I thought it would be fun to include her in some way.  I think this may have been something she painted over because if you look hard you can see the faint outlines of trees and mountains.  There is also some cool texture she put in it. At first I was thinking how could I scrape that crap off but then I got to liking it so I opted to leave it.

She painted her canvas with a blue-greenish color - entirely too teal for my house so I painted over it.  No telling how many paintings lie beneath all this paint at this point!

Without thinking too much about it, I just used some beige-y latex paint that I had found in the oops section of Home Depot.  I talk about how much I love the oops paint here.  I haven't been over to HD lately because quite frankly, I'm running out of room to store these glorious little pots of color.

 If you want to consider this a tutorial on how to plagiarize someone else's artistic ability, knock yourself out.  I, however am not posting this so you can replicate it stroke by stroke.  For goodness sakes,  just throw some paint on the canvas.  I can give you a bit of advice though......DON'T OVER THINK IT!  Start with the image - loosely draw it on the canvas with whatever you want to use.  I just used some blue paint.  Then just go from there.  A dab here, a stroke there - this is not brain surgery folks.  Stop every so often and walk to the other side of the room and squint at it.  How does it make you feel?  Does it give you a headache or are you starting to feel all Van Gogh-ish?  Give yourself some credit....if I can do this, anyone can do this!

I didn't take my own advice and kept adding more and changing this and wiping down that until I had to really make myself stop!  No, it's not identical to my happy shirt but I'm digging it.

Paint is still wet here - I don't use glossy paint.

And since Betty Quinn (momma) started it, I felt it only right for her to add her signature to the masterpiece!

So feel free to email me and commission me to paint your favorite shirt!  Send a pic and I'll let you know how many thousands of dollars I'll have to charge you.  No Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, though.  There are SOME things you just don't mess with!

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