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.