Refreshing a Piece of Furniture

Try Me Tuesday

After last weeks Christmas decorating challenge, I had some extra furniture that needed a home. One of the end tables was displaced by the tree and I decided that the best spot for it was next to Jon's side of the bed. See, neither of us have a nightstand, so I'd been making due without one, and Jon had been using an old trunk that I've owned since before I can remember.

There is no problem with the trunk. It functions great and does a good job of holding old clothes that I don't want to throw away yet, but... it was covered in kitties. In fact, my whole family refers to it as "the kitty box." Putting the table on Jon's side of the bed resulted in putting the box on my side of the bed, which is very much visible from our hallway. Every morning I would look in and think, man, the kitties are cute, but that does not belong in an adult bedroom.

Behold the Kitty Box

So... the gears started turning in my head and I knew this would be the perfect Tuesday activity. This week I tried to...

refresh an outdated piece of furniture.

What did I need?

• An old piece of furniture
• Blue painters tape
  
• Craft paint (costs like $.85 at the grocery store)
• Gloss clear spray paint
• Clearance vinyls from DB ($.49)
• Paint brushes
• The front of an old greeting card
• Craft glue
  
• Card stock and an exact-o knife for a stencil

I cleaned off the kitty box first, then painted two coats of the light blue paint on the entire box. This used less than one bottle of paint. I pulled out the hairdryer to help the paint dry a little faster.

Then, I printed out the letter H on some card stock to create a stencil for the front and back. Using the exact-o knife I cut that out carefully and taped it to the box with the painters tape. Using metallic gold paint from the grocery store, I sponge painted the H on both sides. Then, using some craft glue I glued the greeting card picture where I wanted it in the center of the top of the box. It looked weird, but I felt committed to having it there, so I sponge painted the gold all over the top of the picture and box. I used the hairdryer to dry the paint again.

I looked at it and it still seemed like it was missing something, so I grabbed the vinyls from my craft bin and put one on the front and back over the H. It seemed complete so outside I went with the gloss spray paint to give it a final coat. Et Voila! One completely refreshed "kitty box."

A completely refreshed trunk. The colors even match our bedding.

Here's the challenge to you... Have an old piece of furniture that doesn't really fit in? Try this yourself. I think the whole thing from start too finish took me an hour and a half and that included going to the store to get the paint. Send me a picture, let me know how it goes.

Oh, and to Vicki's comment from last week, I found this awesome video at the dollar store and took your advice.