Short and sweet show and tell

 Today is show and tell time! 

We have been busy practising our prepping and painting skills and are pretty chuffed with the end results!

This chest of old pine drawers was given a new lease of life!

So crisp and clean with a coat of antique white paint.

a little "shabby-ing"...

we added some black drawer handles!

After giving the drawers a light sand we gave it a few coats of paint using a water based acrylic in antique white by Dulux.

Next we moved on to using a spray gun for the first time! So much fun! But be warned there are a few things you need to know before pulling out your compressor (please see our next post)!

In the meantime, here is the before and after.

before

after

---Mr and Mrs---

Shabby chic timber hutch

A while ago I bought this hutch and have finally got around to giving it a coat of paint, or 4!

I admit I enjoy painting but four coats on the one piece of furniture was tedious. It was not that the stain bled through that was the problem but Master 2 who found some stain that had not been put out of his reach. After seeing that mummy had been painting he thought he would give it a go too!

Needless to say it took a little longer finishing this hutch than I planned. But we got there. 

I decided to see what it would look like to paint the whole piece white and not worry about staining the top of the buffet. I used a water based acrylic, semi-gloss in antique white by DULUX. The 4 litre tin cost around $80 and I used around 2/3's of it (including the extra needed for the extra coats due to the attack of the toddler with paintbrush!) . 

 As you can see, I didn't paint inside the drawers or buffet but I did paint both sides of the cupboard doors.
I went to the hardware to find some suitable drawer knobs as I was not a fan of the previous handles. I decided to spray paint some pine knobs black rather than purchasing metal handles. The price difference was staggering! These knobs cost me around $30 all up but could've cost anywhere from $63 and even up to $90 for a similar look. I think these do the job just fine.

The glass didn't come out of the doors or if they did I didn't know how to get them out so I taped around the edge of the glass. It seemed to do the trick!
Finally, I sanded the edges a little rougher and shabbier than I did previously with the 2 door hutch.
I hope you are feeling inspired to get out that old piece of furniture that has been in the garage for years and treat it to a coat of paint!

                                                                           ---Mrs---

The three hutches

The Story of Mrs and the Three Hutches

So you may have already read about our humble beginnings in furniture restoration 

($100 in hand and a curiosity about ebay). 

Included in that bulk purchase (which filled a large trailer and ute) 

was this two door hutch...

This hutch was definately not as pretty as the photo suggests when we picked it up in BrisVegas, but for $20 I thought, "eh."

Mrs seemed to be keen on this whole 'Shabby Chic' thing and even when she explained it to me I wasn't totally convinced. But again, "eh." $100 for an experiment is not an exhorbitant amount. Very long story shortened significantly saw a very unpretty two door, pine hutch turned into this very presentable (and practical) piece of work which went on to sell at a nice profit! Once I had retrieved my jaw and congratulated Mrs, I suddenly found myself in a state of convincedness (I've just officially made that a word) and asked her what was next."A three door hutch." was the response. Mmm, ok. 

three door - before

four door- before

"But we haven't done the three door hutch yet"

"I know, but they're willing to accept $200 and we're going to Brisbane anyway"

"Grrr"

The photo's don't really show that the four door totally dwarfs the three door (that white box above the four door is the air con head). I'm actually quite impressed with myself that I was able to transport it from Brisbane to Toowoomba in a rusty old dump trailer that lost its tail gate and ply floor on the same trip (there aren't any police officers reading this are there?...nah). A trip that had us lost countless times all over Brisbane and spending lots of money on petrol. I was not a happy camper and Mrs and I agreed that this would most likely be our last 'ebay run' to Bris, especially when the Tender Centre is just 10 mins down the road. 

To be continued...

---Mr---