Zack’s Room: Oak to Espresso

I have a friend who’s been putting gentle pressure on me to refinish some furniture for her son’s room (I painted a desk for her daughter last year). 

I kept telling her, “Wait till spring!”

As soon as we had two consecutive days of 60-degree weather, she was calling me 

The tricky part was that she didn’t want painted furniture this time, she just wanted to darken the existing stain on some pieces she already had.  I will frankly admit that I was NOT excited about that plan.  The only way I knew to get a good, stained finish was to get down to bare wood as best as possible—and anything with creases and corners is a nightmare.

One lucky day, however, I came across this project from Monica Wants It where she used General Finishes Gel Stain to change a boring oak vanity to a beautiful espresso.

Can blogs be answer to prayers?  I think so!

And is it OK to be in love with a refinishing product?  I hope so!

I am SO impressed with the gel stain!  I did NOT have to strip or sand to bare wood.  After scuff-sanding all the surfaces…

And trust me, there were a LOT of surfaces…

A dresser with nine drawers and two cupboard doors…

…a TV stand-turned-nightstand (also has two cupboard doors)…

…and a bookcase headboard with two shelves…

Sorry, that’s all the “before” pictures I remembered to take!

I applied the gel stain (espresso color) using my husband’s old socks!  (That’s what Monica recommended for her project.)  It worked GREAT!  I may have to buy my husband some more socks so I can have the old ones!

You can’t freak out after the first coat goes on…it’s going to look at little splotchy.

OK, maybe it will look a LOT splotchy!

But it’s better after two coats (I waited 24 hours between coats)…

…and SO much better after three!

The funny thing about this gel stain—it smells sweet!  And it looks (and feels) like chocolate pudding.  I was almost tempted to take a taste! 

No, not really!

To finish things up, I used two coats of General Finishes Top Coat (using more socks), and I painted the hinges and the casters with ORB spray paint.

Then I pestered my friend until she let me come take pictures of everything in Zack’s room!

Zacky was happy to show me his “new room.”

I always like to see a satisfied customer!

Featured on Better After!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	{aka} design

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Tuesday’s Display Chain, photos

I’m a day late (well, that’s not unusual now is it?)
Misi over at http://1890gablehousemusings.blogspot.com/ host’s a Tuesday Display Chain and this weeks theme is:  “A Crafting Secret Exposed”

My contribution this week is using Brown Paste Shoe Polish.
I had some faux pumpkins I purchased at JoAnn’s a few years ago and they were extremely yellow orange and bright so this past Fall I got out my trusty wax shoe polish and gave them a good rub down.

The two of them left not done, right finished

All finished and displayed

I hope you learned something new from this display chain this week…I know I have after reading everyone else’s tips.

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On Sunday we received our CD from church of our granddaughters confirmation from a couple weeks ago…goodness the photographer took some fun shots…he just kept clicking and although lots of them are silly we enjoyed looking at them.

 

No, I wasn’t smelling her flower – the photographer said something funny to Emily and she cracked up and it was infectious
 

This is the picture that will be going in the church directory…we have finally joined a church we like!!!!

Brett’s family

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I have a difficult time growing flowers because of the neighbors Black Walnut trees (there is something in them that kills many, many plants and food bearing plants).
So last year I bought some Marsh Marigolds – said they can grow almost anywhere especially in shade which is all we have.  They were very tiny last year but this past month they exploded…I wasn’t sure about the growth but they spread and that’s perfectly fine because we can’t seem to grown much else.  I love yellow and these have a very delicate flower

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Last Saturday we stopped at a consignment place in town here and she had some ‘new’ items for sale – one being this Americana table square.  I like the quality of it and it’s even quilted. Not sure where it’s going to find a home at but probably in the screen room.

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Please check out Lori at http://farmhousenotforgotten.blogspot.com/ and read about how some people are pirating our designs and patterns…she along with some others are trying to put a stop to this…it’s just not fair to those of us that are trying to make an honest living from our craft.
If you would care to grab this button and put it on your blog and websites it would be so helpful. 

 
Thanks for visiting and till next time be happy and stay safe

Karen

 

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Bubble Boy!

My daughter took this picture when we were visiting my parents last week.  It makes me feel like spring!

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For the Sun Room

No, it’s not MY sun room; I don’t have one!  But I got to have the fun of helping—in a very small way—to decorate one, and that’s almost as good, right?

Lisa asked me to make one of my “You are my sunshine” canvases for her sunroom.  She believes in the motto, “Go big or go home!”

Although I had only ever made this one in an 11 x 14” size, she wanted a 24 x 30” size.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

However, I’m even happier that she sent me a picture of it in it’s new home.

OK, so I lied before. 

Just helping to decorate a sun room is not at all as good as having your own!  <sigh>  Isn’t it a lovely space?

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I love to make signs and canvases!  Please e-mail redhenhome@gmail.com if I can make one for you!

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Linking up here:
 

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Someday Crafts
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	Domestically Speaking
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri

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Timeless

I love it when people are happy with the stuff I send them 

Angie, from Knick of Time, won my latest giveaway for a beadboard sign.  Angie has an amazing collection of old clocks that she displays on her piano, and drawing on that love, she chose the word “Timeless” for her very own beadboard sign.  I *love* it when people choose something that has special meaning to them!

I was ornery and didn’t send Angie a picture of the sign ahead of time—I wanted her to be surprised when she opened the package!

Here’s what it looked like in my house…

…but today she posted about it in hers!

I love it!  What do you think??

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P.S. If you want to see more of Angie’s great collections and projects, be sure to visit her at Knick of Time.

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P.P.S.  I love to make signs and canvases! Please e-mail redhenhome@gmail.com if I can make one for you!

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P.P.P.S.  I’ve had a couple of inquiries as to what happened with my ill-fated table purchase, but they have come from readers who are “no-reply” bloggers!  To those who asked—the store would NOT give me my money back.  So I had a LOT of store credit stashed away, waiting for the day I find something fabulous!  I hope it comes soon!!

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Linking up here:
 

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Someday Crafts
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	Domestically Speaking
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri

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Earth Day Activities

If you love to garden, you probably have a greater appreciation for and sense of responsibility to the Earth we all share.  Earth Day falls on April 22nd this year and every year, so after you finish your taxes (ugh), take some time to perform one Earth friendly task in honor of the big blue marble.

These days kids are pretty ecologically aware, but you can still bring home some important

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Just a fun day!

Not a lot going on in my world right now…rather quiet and that’s perfectly okay.
Sometimes I have so much going on it overwhelms me.

I have been taking time to finish up my existing orders and then it’s designing time.  Yeah….can’t wait to have the time to create.

Oh I have to tell you – I was asked by Patti Leitzel  from Porch Sitting Time and Brickhouse Crafts Primitives in Millersburg, PA to carry my products.
She received a large box of them on Thursday and replied back that she loved them…THANK YOU PATTI…good luck selling.

Thursday was a play day here…we had our youngest grandson Aidan and Emily and Joe…it was one loud and busy day to put it mildly…Aidan did nothing but run, jump, play and laugh – but that is GOOD…never seen that little guy cry!
So I will leave you with just a few photos…nothing else to report on.

Naturally at almost 4 years old they have to be their own person…remember last weeks post??  So he walks in with his Camo coat and sunglasses

Before they went outside to play they did some ‘food prep’ play – Aidan was the grill master. Notice the gloves?  This is another one of his ‘THINGS’ of late.  He wears his brown gloves whenever he can (he’s such a silly fun boy)
The two rooms were a total mess but at least they were playing…not whining about what to do.

 
We had lunch and then went outside for some fresh air and bike and scooter riding.

 
 
 

 
 
 
So there was our Thursday…full of fun and laughs the whole day.
Aidan got a hold of my camera and took lots of pictures…this one is a fun one – Emily and I decided to do some cheesy smiles for him…he’s always say ‘say cheese’ even if he’s getting his picture taken.
Emily and I were going to plan a luncheon for her 8th grade graduation that I’m giving her and a few of her friends that are graduating with her in June…but there was just no quiet time available.  Next time…then I’ll share with you what we came up with. 

He got one of Lola but I think he had the zoom on so you can see it’s very blurry

And then the ‘hmmmm’ shot of gram – with his finger over the lens – which was most of the time.

And his play grill…he sure does make me giggle
 

Has anyone found a good on-line photo program?  Picnik is not going to be anymore after the end of April and I will miss it so much for the collage feature it has – especially for our blog headers.

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be seeing you around blog-land
KAREN

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