Follow Friday Party- September Favorites

It's Follow Friday and for our link party, lets share our favorite posts from September. Choose your favorite DIY project, trash to treasure makeover, or post that will inspire us all to try some project of our own.

Follow Friday Blog Hop Party

Blog Party Instructions:

• Be sure to link to a specific blog post not your home page so that we can find your fab projects and posts easier. 
• It's always courteous to include a link to my site in  your blog post  OR Mention on your twitter account that you're linking up to Trash to Treasure for the blog hop and include a hyperlink to this post. If you tweet a link please mention my twitter name: @trash2treas in your tweet.
• That's it! Now it's time to use the linky tool below to link up a blog post and a photo thumbnail.

T2T Featured on The Best of the Web

Looking for some new ideas and fun blogs to follow? I was featured this week on Be @ Home Best of the Web . You'll find some great ideas for fall and don't forget to enter the Halloween Giveaway Contest for a chance to win an Amazon gift certificate. The site has a blend of decorating advice, crafty ideas, practical information, and links to other blogs and websites. 

 While you're there, check out the rest of the blogs in the Pocket Change family. They have help for electronics, style, home, pets, sports, going green and so much more. 

Thanks Be @ Home for the feature!

What Would You Do- Antique Scale #2

Last week's winning idea for what to do with an antique baby scale came from Late Night Coffee who suggested I paint it with Rustoleum, then roll up towels in it and put it in the bathroom. Your ideas were all great! Thanks everyone for participating. Someone asked what I sold that scale for. I sold it for $5. I had paid $3 for it at a sale when I bought it. Yes, I know, they sell for a lot more than that online. But it's out of my basement, and sometimes, that's priceless.

What Would You Do With This Wednesday

Since there were so many great ideas from the last scale, and since I sold it at my garage sale and cannot implement any of them myself, how about another scale for WWYD this week? A friend of mine gave me this antique scale (a friend who still owns her own antique baby scale BTW). She thought I could some up with a T2T idea for it.

I brought it home and mentioned to my husband that it would make a good patio decoration with a plant or something standing on it. However, this caused him to freak out. "This is a perfectly good scale! See how it still works? You can't put this outside."

So, now I'm passing the WWYD challenge on to you. What would you do with this antique scale? It has to be an indoor idea to satisfy my husband. And whatever I choose as a winning idea, I will attempt to duplicate and post the results.

Just to appease my husband, I did check online. And yes, these scales, like my baby scale, are worth a little. This one is probably worth around $25.

I'm looking forward to your WWYD ideas. Leave your comments below and I'll name a winning idea next week.

Transformation Tuesday- Continuation

This week, for transformation Tuesday I'd like to continue from last week when I showed you how I used recycled kitchen cabinets in a new cabin that I've been decorating at the camp where my husband works. Now that the faux finish is complete on the cabinets, I've been working on making over some donated furniture.

We received a set of pine furniture that's solid, but dated. It's made from pine two by fours and fortunately, the design wasn't so much dated as the look of the finish. I'd say it's probably early nineties or late eighties furniture. It had just a little bit of a finish on it, but when my husband first tried varnishing right over it, I thought it looked horrible, like varnished plywood. So, I had him sand the varnish back off and I did an old world finish to look like walnut.

Here is what it looked like before: 

For the first layer of finish, I used some old water cleanup stain that I found in my basement. So many stains and paints were left here when I moved in, and I'm trying to be "green" by using them up instead of purchasing new. The stain was a little chunky, but I made it work. The shade of "antique oak" was enough to darken the pine for the first layer.

After letting it dry, I added a glazed layer using the same brown glaze that I mixed up for the cabinet project. 

I brushed on the brown glaze with the grain of the wood being sure to leave it a little streaky and not solid as if I was completely coating something in paint. 


When the glaze was dry and had a day or two to cure, I coated everything in three coats of polyurethane. I used oil based, but acrylic would work great too. Here's how the table, bed, and bedside tables turned out. The kitchen chairs still need to be done in the same finish and reupholstered but it will give you an idea of the old finish versus the new, dark finish.

It's a very peaceful space and I'm so happy with how the donated furniture turned out. All of the windows, doors, and trim in the space is also recycled salvage from a home that was torn down. The following pictures show how additional new purchases complement the donated furniture and finish out the space. 

With a blend of old and new,  you can create a fabulous space on a much lower budget than you would if you purchased everything new. Next, I still need to figure out how to decorate the walls! And maybe scout out a few end tables for the seating area. In the meantime, the space is now ready for guests.

What Would You Do With This Scale?

I had an old baby scale that I kept on hand for weighing packages for E-bay, but since purchasing a digital scale, I hadn't used it at all. So, last week, I sold it on my garage sale. An Amish family bought it. But before I put it out for sale, I snapped a picture so that I could ask you, "What would you do with it?"

It's WWYD Wednesday and I'm wondering of any of my readers have an idea for how an old scale could be used for trash to treasure decorating.

Now, I know, I'm taking a risk since I've already sold the scale. Some of  you might come up with a great idea that makes me wish I hadn't. But I'm willing to take that risk. What would you do with an old scale? 

Share your ideas in the comments below and I'll pick a winning idea in a week.

Recycled Windows Become Art

Over the summer, I worked on transforming some of my old windows into pieces of art. I had hoped to sell them in my Etsy Store, but once I found out that shipping on some of them was $70, I didn't think anyone would care to purchase them. However, I'm hoping to take them to some local craft shops for consignment. And yes, I did check out both UPS and USPS for price estimates on shipping. The smaller ones could be shipped for under $30 but the bigger ones were a problem.

Using my Silhouette cutter (if you don't have one, you must check them out) and some beautiful papers, these old windows are ready for display as artwork.

What do you think? Do you think there is a market for them?

Today is My Blogiversary!

It's the one year anniversary of Trash To Treasure Decorating, but I've been so swamped this week, that I haven't been able to do anything special. That makes me sad. So for today's What Would You Do Wednesday, I'm asking you, what's a great way to celebrate a blogiversary?

Should I have some sort of give-away? How can I do something special for my readers that doesn't break the bank? (I really need to find me some sponsors, don't I !)It's hard to believe a whole year has already gone by.

Anyway, I'm thankful for all of my loyal readers. You're the ones who inspire me to keep coming up with new projects! Thank you for all of your reader mail. I love getting your messages and hearing your ideas and encouragement.

Right now, I'm in the midst of prepping for a speaking engagement where I will be doing one 45 minute session on T2T decorating and then several other sessions and some singing. It's fun putting all of my recent pictures into my power points. I've also found some terrific redneck recycled decorations that will give my audience a good laugh. Even men are getting into their own version of T2T decorating. 

Happy Anniversary to T2T!

Inspiration Monday

I shot this photo out of my office window (thus the screen visible in the photo). My flower gardens draw hummingbirds and birds, a great place for relaxing and thinking. Sometimes, it's so tempting to quit my work in the office to go rest in the chair.

Imagine yourself in this chair. What inspired thoughts come to mind as you sit back in the chair, close your eyes, and listen for ideas?

Follow Friday

Time for another Follow Friday. It's been a few weeks since we had one. Stop by and leave a link to show what you're cooking up or crafting up for fall. Or share what you're posting on your blog in memory of 9/11 this week.

Guess what? In just a few days, I'll be celebrating my blogiversary. My first year of T2T blogging! Now I have to think of some way to celebrate.

Follow Friday Blog Hop

Blog Hop Instructions:

• Be sure to link to a specific blog post not your home page so that we can find your fab projects and posts easier. 
• It's always courteous to include a link to my site in  your blog post  OR Mention on your twitter account that you're linking up to Trash to Treasure for the blog hop and include a hyperlink to this post. If you tweet a link please mention my twitter name: @trash2treas in your tweet.
• That's it! Now it's time to use the linky tool below to link up a blog post and a photo thumbnail.

Transformation- Faux Finished Cabinets

This summer, I took on a huge project as a volunteer at the Bible camp where my husband works. They've been building a new cabin from mostly donated materials that were salvaged from buildings being renovated and torn down. This meant that we needed to come up with a way to make it all look as though it belonged together. Not an easy thing if materials come from multiple sources.

The lower level of the cabin is an apartment suite for our guest speakers, so it has a sleeping room, private bath, and an open kitchen and living area.

I got to choose the colors for paint, flooring and counter tops and then I worked on the laborious process of taking white cabinets and making them look more in tune with the flavor of the warm pecan and cappuccino colored paints. Today, for Transformation Tuesday, I'll walk you through the process.

 The counter top picture was not the final one. We used a scrap for sink fitting purposes and the real counter top arrived after I'd completed the painting process.

 The peninsula provided a challenge since the back side would be facing the sitting area.

This pantry is on the wall where the refrigerator would go. It shows the cappuccino color really well.

 This shot of the doors spread out for priming shows the pecan color on the accent wall.
Once I removed all of the hardware, I primed everything with a 123 primer by Zinsser.
I  used a water-based paint, but thinking back, it might have been smart to have chosen to sand the cabinets a little to rough them up and use an oil base primer for a little better guarantee of adhesion. It worked as it was, but I had to be so careful not to scratch them at all until the final protective coat was on. These cabinets were almost more like vinyl coated than painted, so they were pretty shiny when I started out.

After priming, I began the faux finish with the same steps I used in my lamp tables. My goal was to end up with a dark, antique or old world finish. I used the same pecan color on the base coat that I used on the accent wall. Then I used a glaze mixed with a dark brown paint to streak on (with wiping and a brush) over the top. Once the paint and glaze had cured for a week (not necessary but with the humidity I wanted it good and dry), I gave everything three coats of oil based polyurethane. You can use water base poly, but since we already had the oil on hand and I was working with a camp budget, I used that. If you're going over a lighter color, be aware that oil poly can yellow.

And now for the after pictures...

This is the back that I mentioned that faces the living/sitting area. I kept the white ceramic door knobs for now just because we can't afford to replace them until I find a deal that fits the camp budget. since the sink and refrigerator are white, the contrast is okay.

The base trim under the cabinets hasn't been installed yet, but I couldn't wait to show the finish!

Once the varnish is cured, I like to finish everything with a paste wax from Minwax. It helps take away any tackiness in humidity and if you have any tiny paint bubbles, you can sand with a little super fine grit sandpaper and polish with the wax. Makes it smooth as, well, you know.

 I love it so much that I wish it was my kitchen. I really like the stone look on the laminate counter tops. (Again, imagine that the baseboard fronts are in place along the floor). Speaking of floor, do you like what I asked the flooring guys to do? I asked if they could randomly scatter a lighter tile among the dark ones without a geometric pattern. I like how it turned out.

 

By making over what was donated and keeping it from a landfill, this was a trash to treasure success. Combining it with new counter tops and flooring, this is a budget friendly makeover you can do it your kitchen too. Just be prepared for investing some time in the layers it takes to get a faux finish right.

My next project is taking some 80's 2x4 pine furniture that was donated and giving that a similar makeover to the cabinets. That will complete the eat-in area of the kitchen.

I'm linking this post to "Look What I Made Day" at Creations by Kara.Check out other great project ideas on her site.

I'm also linking up to "Best DIY Projects of September" on Beneath My Heart link party. 

Photo of the Week

When I spoke at a conference recently, I had to walk up and down this little alley way several times each day. The narrow passage framed by a large rose garden made it feel somehow European, even though I've never been there. It inspired me to slow down, take my time and enjoy the sensation it gave to walk the corridor. That's where ideas and inspiration are born, in stopping for a moment to think.

Here are some other scenes from the conference that made me stop and enjoy...