TWO Lath Board Coffee Table Makeovers

This is one of those pieces that I picked up once, and the longer it sat in my barn, the worse it got, and the closer it came to getting thrown on the burn pile.  But after years of piling crap on it and working around it, I decided to just refinish the thing.  The bottom was the worst part about it.  Kind of looks like the neglected bagel in my bread drawer.  There comes a point when you just can't save it anymore. So once that wicker bottom shelf got popped out, it was fairly smooth sailing.

World's best dad.  Do I mention that in at least every other blog post?  He not only saved lath boards for me from helping a friend with an old house demo - but he took the nails out and bundled them up for me and drove them to MICHIGAN! Now my dad doesn't audibly say the words "I love you".... but this right here... says it.  

Pair those lath boards with the Ryobi brad nailer and you can't be stopped. 

When I use the staple gun, I say it's my favorite tool! Then when I use the nail gun, I say it's my all favorite tool!  GET BOTH!  They are the best. And then you'll find yourself like me, asking for weird things like V8 lithium batteries for Christmas. (And if you have an awesome Dad like me, you might get them!)

Just use a miter saw to easily cut four lath boards to the right size at the same time, then get them all in place and throw a short brad in each end of the lath board. It goes quick!  Run a sander over the whole top and if you really want it nice, you can dump a can of polyurethane on the top.  I say "dump" because just be aware if you're going to varnish, it will take 58 times the amount a normal surface would because the lath is so darn dry it soaks it up like a redhead's skin soaks up the UV rays.

I painted it with a homemade chalk paint in charcoal black, cleaned up the glass, and you'd never know it was the same nasty table.

And here's coffee table numero dos, a rather cheap flimsy-ish coffee table, 

but thought it'd be cute with the "lath board treatment" on top with a white structure.

Before we made her a house kitty, I had the best little sidekick out in my shop with me!

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Library Coffee Table And A Barn Kitty

For all the people I get fed up with, there are even more amazing ones out there.  (Okay honestly, I usually just love on people, but having PMS on New Years Eve and all my friends being gone or busy made for a crappy last couple days and I may or may not have been having a little pity party for myself while hubby watched nine hours straight of football. Haha.).  Back to the subject at hand - my friend texted me a picture of this beauty asking if I wanted it or his friend was putting it on the curb.  Ohhhhh yes, that should be a given! He even delivered it - SO NICE! It was a library table that looked like it had been shortened into a coffee table.  Aside from the rough paint finish it was in awesome shape - heavy, sturdy, easy sliding drawer!

I wanted to bring the top back to it's original wood beauty.  And yes, just the top, because the thought of stripping round legs and nooks and crannies makes me want to go to a remote island and never come back. Oh man, I used some paint stripper I had and for those of you who ask me for advice and I tell you "every project is an experiment and I'm not an expert" is totally true!  Under the black paint was white paint.  And it seemed like the stripper made the white seep deep into every little bit of wood grain and to get it all out I would have had to dig it out with a needle. And perhaps I'd finish in 2023. I threw up my hands and decided the bits of white added character. (Isn't that the favorite line of all DIYers??)

Okay, so here you can see how the bits of white paint are ingrained in the wood.  However, this is a close up and the stain actually made it blend in even better than I could have hoped... but it sure ain't perfect. I used a clean, dry rag to apply this Minwax Gel Stain.  After a few coats of the gel stain, I gave it a few coats of poly.

I liked the bottom black, so gave it a couple fresh coats of homemade black chalk paint and she was finished!  I didn't get a great picture, sorry, but I had it finished in time to sell at my barn sale in November and the weekend before the sale, I had some guests in Gidley Station, our Airbnb, who walked through the barn, spotted it (along with a few other things), and just had to have it! :)  They also wanted to buy my precious little barn kitty.  And they weren't kidding!

My fluffy little Muffin is a hit with every single person who walks into my barn. Cat person or not.  And if you're scoffing at that, well you just come meet him yourself!  Here's little Muffin getting loved on by the six hundred and eighth person - and this littler person is even cuter than the kitty, which is saying a lot!

He's growing crazy FAST and the fluffy little mane around his neck is getting thicker and thicker.  Here's me and my little ball of fluff.  Yes I know, SWEET vintage flowered barn couch, yeah??

This is the second time I've gotten off subject.  

Anyone wanting to see the finished coffee table??

Oh yeah, I'm not quite finished with the barn kitty subject....  it's not all roses....  LOOK WHAT SHE DID TO MY CHAIR!!!!! I can't believe it.  Good thing I got it free.... but still. 😭

But could you?  COULD YOU get mad at that little face???

Here's one final before/after shot!

Thanks for hanging out on Kammy's Korner!

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Huge Faux Clock From Repurposed Table

This "table" just keeps getting better and better.  This is the THIRD TIME it has been featured on Kammy's Korner with a new look.  Let's go through the stages of this here home made coffee table I found for a few dollars at a garage sale in my hometown of Parma.

It started like this:

Then went to this:

But I didn't have a place for it and nobody wanted to buy it sooooo I chopped off the legs and hung it on my wall....  (take careful note of this next picture... cuz not  just the clock changes as you scroll on down through this post!)

It was still a little blah.  And I know.  It needs hands.  Maybe they will come in a fourth post someday!

My grandma came to visit last summer and her mind is bad but she had suggestions about how to make my 'faux clock' look better and she mentioned them every time she stepped into the family room.  She used to have a great sense of style to so I decided I'd better heed her advice.  My mom actually grabbed a black paint brush one day to satisfy her and added some "minute marks" and also went around the outside edge - smudgy-like - so to make it look a little distressed and old.  She earns her keep sometimes.  Haha.  OH, we also stuck a sawblade in the middle - just hung it on the nail that's holding up the clock. It added the needed pizzazz UNTIL....  I got THIS in the mail!!!!!

A gorgeous medallion stencil made by Cutting Edge Stencils called Prosperity Mandala Stencil.  

It is beautiful.  I immediately took the big ole' coffee table top off my wall and laid it on the floor.  It was bedtime, so in the photo it's a little dark and yes, I'm in my PJ's.

I made two mistakes the first time around:

1. Used way to light of a color (since I thought I wanted it to be really subtle)

2. I used a stencil brush.  What was I thinking.  Way too time consuming for this big of a design!

This calls for a foam roller!!!!!  

So I redid it with a foam roller, and used black (which I rolled on very lightly so it looks more like dark gray) and was literally done in less than a minute!

The KEY to stenciling is to use HARDLY ANY PAINT.  I cannot stress this enough.

The other day I read a review on why a user did not like this stencil.  I was doing a big face palm when I read that no matter what the person tried, the paint bled though.  Are you kidding me?  Sorry Charlie, but that IS NOT the stencil's fault.  It's the users fault.  Plain and simple.  (Sorry, I feel like I'm being a big Negative Nancy here but sometimes you gotta set things straight!).   Too much paint will ALWAYS bleed under.  When you think you hardly have any paint and are ready to go, take more off!  Less is better!  You can always go over it twice.  When using a foam roller with a stencil, you should have to press down fairly hard to get any paint to come off, which means it should be nearly dry!  TRUST ME!

So above is what NOT to do, unless you have time on your hands,

 and below is what you SHOULD do:

YES!!!!  Doesn't it look a billion times more fabulous?  

And did you notice what else changed in this room?  I'll show you the old photo again and then you see if you can name five different things - GO:

And someday.....  If he's real good and listens to Jiminy Cricket, he might get to be a real clock.

Stay tuned for a Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway coming soon!

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Wow Us Wednesdays #302

Coffee Table Redo & Antique Mirror Tray Vignette

I've been using an old trunk in my living room for a coffee table.  It worked... but seemed to tall and bulky.  But I just hadn't found the perfect replacement so I left it. Turns out, the perfect replacement has been sitting in my garage for over a year!  My sister had given me a coffee table that HER sister-in-law gave her and it was no longer needed (the sister-in-law had moved to Hawaii, pshhh, and sister moved across town).  I love inheriting unwanted furniture!

I started out by painting the top with my DIY chalk paint - using a charcoal black/brown color.  Never know the names of my paint colors because I always buy mistints or make mix my own colors using mistints!

I painted the bottom with a slightly-off white (also DIY chalk paint) and then took my palm sander to the edges to distress it.  Distressing is the best thing since sliced bread.  Not just because it's the "in" look, but THANKFULLY it's the "in" look so that if someone scratches the leg of your newly painted table, chances are it will blend right in.  However, I must say that with my chalk paint recipe, I could hardly get the paint to sand off it dried so hard, let alone scratch it accidentally!

Then I used Mod Podge to seal it.  Yes I know, seems a little strange.  But after using it to seal my hand painted signs, I decided "why not on furniture too?"

Now if you've never used Mod Podge (decoupage) before, it might give you a heart attack when you put it on.  Relax.  The white WILL disappear and it will leave you with a clear coat.  This is the first time, however, that I was questioning if I should have used it or not.  The top of my table got a little wet and the dried Mod Podge turned white and then I did panic a little.  But once it dried, I wiped it down and it returned to normal.  The only downside with using it on this dark top was little dried flecks that fell into the container when I took the lid off got "painted" on and if I didn't get them picked out with my fingernails, they dried on as little white specks.  Not a big deal, but a perfectionist might have a problem with it!  It also goes on thick, so brush strokes seem to be inevitable.

I actually have been using this coffee table for a couple of months now but my staging abilities are not the greatest so I was waiting for my mom to come visit and help me in the staging department.  She must have changed this arrangement seventy eight times as you'll see a few pictures down....

Yes, my furball loves curling up on the rug under the coffee table. :)

And I think she's just adorable.  And now you can see that I didn't paint the underside! :)

Okay then mom gets the brilliant idea of using an antique mirror that I had picked up somewhere for a tray and rearranged the coffee table so I had to take new pictures!  :)  But I'm LOVING the final look - final only because she didn't have time to change it again before she left for Iowa.  Haha!

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