Seriously, contact paper.

Contact paper, scissors, an exacto knife and about an hour of time is what it took to make a regular old filing cabinet (that had seen better days) cute.

 

I'm not going to lie and say it was soooo easy and there were no bubbles or creases... because there were LOTS of bubbles and creases. (LOTS!) But it wasn't hard, and for the couple bucks I spent on the contact paper I figured I wasn't going to be heartbroken if it didn't work out. So I smoothed and smoothed, and I poked pin holes and rubbed out the bubbles... and you can see a crease on the side - but that's OK... people won't see that! ; )  It's our secret.

A breath of fresh air...

Except for the paint smell, but that will fade in a minute or ten.

A few months ago I found the most perfect little coffee table on Kijiji for just about $30. It had pretty curvey legs, a glass insert top, details upon details. I had to have it. So I got it.

Check out the brass claw feet! *swoon*

After cleaning years of other peoples dirt off this baby with an old toothbrush, and not having much success getting into all those grooves and details I busted out the dremel. It's was lots of work... really.

But wasn't it oh so worth it in the end?

I think so!

Just because I had to dremel out all those grooves in the top, here's a close up picture of how pretty and clean and soft celery green they are now:

Sidewalk Boutique

My new favourite store is this amazing local place called Sidewalk Boutique. I tend to find the cutest things there when I am not even looking...

Like this side table:

OK OK OK.... Sidewalk Boutique is also probably called "garbage day" for most people. You got me.
But come on people, sometimes you just have to keep your eyes open and see the possibilities.

A little paint... a little fabric... some elbow grease.... and you have your own very unique, solid wood, clean and shiny, and (minus beautification supplies) free piece of furniture.

Like so...

Curbside.... is now side table.

The Never-Ending Side Table

A long time ago I decided I needed a side table or a night stand for the bedroom. So I purchased a little cheap thing that looked OK and did the job. Something like this one from Walmart:

Then after a few years, and a few forgotten water glasses, and baby bottles the table was looking a little bit rough and worn... and well.... cheap. So I thought about replacing it, but thought I might hold out for a new bedroom set instead. Then I realized that my 65 year old house was not built to hold a big bedroom set of today and we would never have the two-nightstand-queen bed-dresser-hutch combo that sort of defines "bedroom set".  So I decided to just work with what I had and try to make this table with the sad top shine again. I have a couple tables with these sad tops, I think it's because I am the only female in this house! Coasters are not indoor Frisbees. They are for preventing this:

There was an obstacle to making something out of this table... It's not real wood. So painting the top would be a challenge because it would only chip and flake like it did before. SO I went with something a little more durable, and water friendly. Tile.

I bought a 2 sheets of tile from the local home improvement store, some rubber cement

and a tub of ready to use grout (no mixing? yes please!) and went home to get creative.

Turns out tile requires patience and maybe even a ruler... I could locate neither. So I slapped on the sticky like I have never seen sticky cement and placed my tiles.... a little off kilter. Crud. Then I grabbed my handy rubber special grout float... basically a grout squoosher inner.

OK, OK... I used the letter N from my kids foam bath toy set. Same diff. ;)

Then I remembered I wanted to paint the table. Le Sigh. Should have done that BEFORE messing around with all that tile. So I covered up the tile, took this bad boy outside and spray, spray, spray. Wonderbar.

Then I determined that tile and  fake wood is an ugly edge and ran back to that old faithful home improvement store and got a length of fancy trim. My husband took it downstairs and cut all the pieces perfectly. Then my dad used some other kind of power tool to attach them all. Some day I will get over my fears of power saws and air tools.

All that work for a crappy cheap side table. (That I am not that in love with... it's still.... meh, I need more practice with tile... and perhaps patience would help. Oh while I am at it I would like the ability to start and finish a proect in one day or less. ha!)

Tea Time

I promised you a reveal for a little tea cart I came across and decided to update. But in the process of doing that I got all caught up with that neat site Picnik I keep hearing about before uploading my photos. Oh my word a girl could get lost in there... so many options, and many of them are free. Definitely check into it if you have a free moment. Onto the reveal!

I wish I had the foresight to take some during pictures of this transformation of my $5 tea cart(thank-you Kijiji.ca) But I can walk you through the process! (and promise to take the during photos in the future!)

First I spray painted the cart a nice antique white, with a spray paint meant to cover metal/ plastic etc. The frame of the cart is metal, but the trays are a Formica plastic covered... thing. If the tray area was a lighter color to begin with I wouldn't have bothered spraying it at all, but I was trying to block that wood grain from showing through.

Next I covered the tray in good old Mod Podge... and this was my second experience with it, so I am no pro! I just put a heavy coat on with a brush and then placed my fabric ($7/yard... and I only needed one to cover it!) on top and pulled it smooth and let it dry. I should have protected the edges of the painted cart before doing this, because once the podge dried and the excess fabric pulled away it took some bits of paint with it. Oh well - live and learn

In the end, it serves it's purpose!

(Um, which is pretty much just to look cute in the corner of my tiny dining room).

If this is something you think you might want to try out for yourself, this entire process took me very little time. 15 minutes to spray paint the cart, and then once it was dry maybe 20-30 minutes to cut the fabric and stick it on.

A little note that you could add a Plexiglas top to make it waterproof, I just left mine naked as it's not often a functional piece and when it is I use a placemat under the coffee maker just in case!

By the way, my inspiration for this project came from an amazing orange number over at Craftynest