and here's how we did it...

well first i went to http://www.ana-white.com/ for the instructions...here they are http://ana-white.com/2010/04/furniture-plans-apothecary-cabinet-console-part-1.html  ...if you have never gone to her website...you must go.  she has FREE plans for all kinds of stuff.  so then off to the hardware store we go.  we had the pro-fessionals cut our big pieces.  then we came home and laid it all out and started building our "box".

see how easy that was?...well it WASN'T.  that right there took us forever.  but we got it.  and let me tell you the nail gun we got for Christmas was AWESOME.  if you actually get the nails IN the wood, it makes this stuff so much easier.

see that perfect row of nails NOT in the right spot.  yeah.  anyway.

after we got that built, i worked on the "drawer" fronts.

i bought these 7 x 7 wooden plaques at hob lobs (on sale, of course).  they came out to about .70 a piece.  stained them and rubbed soap all around the edges.  see chippy paint tut from last year.  then painted my first coat.

its kind of a light gold...made up of these colors

there was a very scientific measurement process...a little of this and a little of that.  i let that dry and rubbed a little more soap on over the the gold and added my red color.

after that dried, i scraped off all of the soap to reveal the "chippy" paint.  and then rubbed the whole thing with dark walnut stain.  you can see the before and after.  same song...second verse for the knobs.

same song...third verse for the sides of the cabinet.

we added the "drawer fronts" to the doors and added the top and stained the whole dern thing.  oh yeah and we added trim to the fronts of the shelves.  we used the cheapest plywood you can buy so the ends of the wood were not the prettiest, but with a little $3 trim...they are beautiful.

ooohhhh, it's kinds messy in there... oh well.  there's the hubs with that nail gun...macho man.  nice photography too.  dontcha think? 

there's little man with the nail gun...good times.  another award winning photo.  anyway...here's the finished product.  i am sure i have missed 100 steps but i tried to cover the highlights.  we really did follow the instructions on ana white. 

And here it is...

what i was going for...

and what i got...

wanna see it again???




going for...

and got...

i think we did pretty good.  yay!!!  i'm working on the "how we did it post" now.  forgive the photography...not my strongsuit.   have a great day.





okay we are going to try this again...

i have resolved to blog more.  i'm pretty sure once every six months does not a blogger make.  i am working on (hopefully finishing tonight) one of my favorite projects i've ever done.  this is what i'm going for:

i have been in love with this cabinet fo-eva. 

hubby and i have worked on it for 2 weekends and are nearing the finish line.  this project has had its ups and downs but i am soooo excited.  ya'll come back ya hear now.

i made it!!!

my factory cart coffee table made it to pinterest.  i haven't talked about it before but i am ADDICTED to pinterest.  like it is so bad i might need professional help.  after reading the comments about the coffee table, i tried to comment back to all of you who left comments, but i couldn't figure out how.  i know...lame.  i've tried a million times.  why can't i figure this tiny thing out???  i can build a factory cart coffee table, set up a blog, post about my table, upload pics to go in the blog...but i can't figure out how to reply to a bleepity bleep comment.  really??  anyway enough of my ranting.  my coffee table made it to pinterest.  i tried to tell the hubs it was like making it to the NBA of crafts  and you know what i got...chirp...chirp...chirp.  he didn't get it.  oh well, i get it.  it's PINTEREST.

so with all of that said...thank you to all who commented on my post.  i appreciate all of your support.  and thank you to the great folks at www.knockoffdecor.com for showing my post.  gotta go pin.

chippy paint

okay, i HAD to talk about this.  i am usually not this excited about a craft i do.  but i have been trying to figure out how to get the look of "chipping paint" for a long time.  i have tried using a candle to rub wax on the wood and that works pretty well.  but i LOVE this look. 

here's what i did.  i stained my wood (with my new favorite color - provincial) and then took soap and scraped it along the sides and corners.  i rubbed the soap over the top of the detail part of the piece as well.  this wasn't just any soap though.  i got it at michaels or hobby lobby.  sorry i don't have a pic.  i bought it a long time ago and the package is long gone.  it is over in the soap making section of the store.  it comes in a bag (pink bag maybe) and it is small white squares.  this soap is softer than regular bar soap.  as i scraped it on the wood i kind of pressed it down onto the wood.  i so wish i had taken pictures of the process, but i had no idea i was going to love the outcome so much.  i promise to do more and take pics.  after i soaped them up, i sprayed them with heirloom white spray paint.  after they dried, i took a metal scraper and just scraped away.  anywhere there was soap, the paint just comes off.  here's a close up.

and here's a "B"

i realize it is sideways.  i'm a little sideways sometimes.  anyway, this is my new fav distressing method.  try it.

jb

factory cart coffe table

well school is back in.  YIPPEE...oh, did i say that out loud?  both of the kids had great days and had A LOT to talk about after school.  i guess i should be grateful, before long they won't want to talk to me at all.  anyway, in my last post i mentioned the factory cart coffee table shown in the last pic of the tut.  well despite the fact that i could not come up with a more clever title for this post, here goes...

i have wanted one of these FOREVER.  i had seen one at restoration hardware years ago http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1558003 it is just a tiny bit out of my price range.  so i just forgot about it...until a few months ago (i really don't even remember what i was looking for) but i came across http://ana-white.com/2011/07/factory-cart-coffee-table this website is awesome.  they have plans for everything.  well it just gave me the boost i needed and so there i went half cocked and decided to try this myself. 

i first searched the internet for new casters.  i wanted the really big wheels.  i didn't have much luck so i went to ebay and found some vintage ones.  i searched for "vintage cast iron wheels".  there were a lot to choose from.  the price wasn't too bad but the shipping was crazy because they a soooo heavy.  this is what i came up with.

this is actually a vintage pulley wheel

these are cast iron antique wheels.

i also went to my neighborhood lowes and had a few pieces of wood cut.  they were very helpful.  i wasn't the most decisive person that day.  i had all of my measurements written down and changed my mind at the last minute and i do mean last minute.  he was about to bring the blade down and i am running down the aisle like an idiot screaming "have you cut yet???  have you cut yet?".  in the end we got it all figured out and these are the measurements we used.

1 - 2 x 8 x 6 board cut into 2 - 20 inch lengths
1 - 2 x 8 x 6 board cut into 2 - 40 inch lengths
2 - 1 x 6 x 10 boards cut into 8 - 24 inch lengths

save the scraps for other projects.  i had the guy cut mine for some picture holders i will tut about later.

i brought all the wood home and let the kids loose with hammers, kitchen utensils, screw drivers, etc.  we need some distressing.  this table is 100 years old ;).  it didn't just come from lowes 10 minutes ago.  i just noticed that the kids do not look all that enthused about helping me with this project.  it is about 4000 degrees outside.  but they pulled through for me and beat the crap out of those boards.

our next step was to make the box with the 2 x 8 pieces.  we used wood glue and long screws.

we then dry fit the 1 x 6 pieces on top.  (i have no pic of that ????)  when we had them even on all sides we glued and nailed them.  yes, nailed not screwed.  according to my wise husband "they would not have used screws back then."  so we pre-drilled and nailed all the boards in.  and then the stain went on.  i am usually a dark walnut girl but i am going a little lighter these days so i used a color called provincial.  and i love it.  it may be my new fav.

i wanted all of the detail of the restoration hardware table so i had to put my thinking cap on to replicate them.  here's what i used.  corner brackets, nuts, super glue and thumb tacks.  i glued the tack to the nut...the nut to the bracket.

okay...the super glue was making me mad so i got out my old trusty glue gun (not the best idea)...here is what the finished product looked like.  then i spray painted everything black.

here comes the tricky part.  adding the wheels.  my wheels i ordered came with an axle holder (technical term) so that made it easy to thread the dowel through.  here is a close-up of it.  you could also use a "u" bracket (the ones they use to hold up pipes.

once we added the axle holder and threaded the dowel and wheels, we had to level the table.  we added the pulley wheel to one end and evened it up on the other with a 2 x 2.

nice flip flop under the table

we added all of the corner brackets.

and a little extra detail.

wanna see it all together???

 

LOVE IT. hope you do too.

things i learned:

*  this project was not as easy as i thought...mostly from mistakes i made.

*  DO NOT use a pulley wheel...that was not the best choice.  i liked the way it looked but i should have gotten an actual wheel.  it was not easy to attach to the table.

*  hot glue does NOT stick metal to metal.  remember when i said the hot glue gun was not a good idea?...that is why.  i have had to go back and reattach them with super glue.

*  i wish i had gone bigger...although my hubby loves the size sooooo.......

*  this was really hard to blog about.  sorry if i totally confused anyone.  please contact me with any questions and i will do my best to answer them.

see you later.

jb

ready 1...two...III and 4

hey every one...this is my first tutorial.  but first, just a bit about myself.  i am a "most of the time" stay at home mom.  i work for an oil and gas company two days a week.  i know...good gig, huh?  i also have a website featuring my handpainted childrens wall art.   i have two well behaved, quiet, still, well mannered, neat and clean boys 9 and 11 (we can all dream, can't we? ) and a wonderful husband.  i LOVE all things crafty and will try almost any craft.  i believe spray paint is a girls best friend and if you haven't noticed i like to type in lowercase.  i love me some lowercase letters.  i know...weird.   i have a ton of projects all going on at once and hope to get them all on here at some point.  my first tutorial is a set of numbered pillows i did.  i saw these on one of my fav blogs http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2011/04/link-party-tuesdays-one-project-at-time.html .   here's the how-to.

i started out printing out the numbers and letters i wanted on my printer.  i think it was called imprint something.

next i laid freezer paper on top of the image.  yes freezer paper.  who knew?  it's over by the foil at the grocery store.

i cut out the image with an xacto knife to make my "stencil"

REALLY???? my hands look like i'm 80.  anyway.

you then iron the freezer paper "stencil" to your fabric plastic-y side down.  i have no idea if it matters but i turned my steam off on my iron.  it will attach the paper to your fabric temporarily.  btw- the "fabric" i used is painters drop cloths from Lowes.  i washed and dried and iron them before i statred any of this.  i may have to do a whole post on drop cloths.  they are AWESOME.



 again with the 80 year old hands.

after i ironed the paper onto the fabric i spray painted the pillow making sure the whole pillow was covered.

i absolutely could not wait until it dried so i peeled the freezer paper off right away.

after doing all of my pillows i let them dry overnight.  and then sewed them to fit my pillow forms. and here's what i ended up with.

wanna see them all together????  huh????

things i learned:

* i would have made my font bigger...much bigger
* the fabric spray paint is MESSY.  i think i will sponge it on next time.
* maybe i would be a little more patient before i pull off the paper.

see that coffee table???...that will be in a post soon.  my hubby and i just made that for our living room.  hope you like this and i hope you'll come back.  and don't forget to follow us and comment on posts so you'll be in the running for a giveaway.

jan
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