New Life for a 3 Buck Table

Today is a fun day Dragonfly Darlings. We are learning from the best upcycling, repurposing blogging group. It is March Thrift Store Challenge Day!!! Learn How easy is it to take a Three Buck Table to it's new life. Perfect for a Spring project as we clean up our yards, plant gardens and when done sit back and enjoy some lemonade.

The Rules:

• Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
• There's no monthly theme.
• There's no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Amanda | Domestically Creative Angela | Simply Beautiful by Angela - Michelle | Michelle James Designs Molly | Just a Little Creativity - Victoria | Dazzle While Frazzled Marie | The Inspiration Vault - Marie | DIY Adulation Lynne | My Family Thyme - Gail | Purple Hues and Me Jennifer | Cookies Coffee and Crafts - Ann | Duct Tape and Denim Michelle | Our Crafty Mom - Debra | Shoppe No. 5 Denise | My Thrifty House - Florence | Vintage Southern Picks Deborah | Salvage Sister & Mister - Yami | The Latina Next Door Pili | My Sweet Things - Kathleen | Our Hopeful Home Karen | Dragonfly & Lily Pads

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

Seven Layer Table Makeover

Today is DIY Furniture Girls Themed Makeover Day! Finding out the theme of the month is layers was awesome. Seven layer cakes came to mind because I love sweets. Funny! I have never eaten a seven layer cake. Chocolate is where you have my heart. You know a piece of dark chocolate each day is how I roll. Isn't it good for you?

DIY Furniture Girls Shades of White

January is a wonderful time to start new projects. This one has been on my list for a while but, when DIY Furniture Girls chose the theme, "Shades of White", for this month I knew exactly what I would do. 

This is my first furniture makeover with these talented ladies. Thank you for including me. Darlins' hold on for a crazy amount of creativity this year because there is an amazing amount to learn from this awesome group.

This is my Grandma's kitchen table. Since we have had our son she became Nana in our family. This table has a porcelain top which is spring loaded to pull out the two extensions. I can remember playing in the kitchen with toys or the Nesco roaster cooking the Thanksgiving turkey.

Boys Dresser to Nautical Nod

This month the Fab Furniture Flippin Contest is titled the "Icing on the Cake". I choose to add some shine to our boys childhood dresser. The people great people at D.LawLess Hardware sponsored this contest. They graciously provided the hardware for my boys dresser to help this piece of furniture grow up. Now this Nautical Nod is fitting for my sons room at the lake house. 

As you can see here this dresser is tired. We bought this when our first son was born 29 years ago. Did I just say that out loud? Well! I was very Young. 

Thank you to our hosts this month

Michelle from Dandelion Patina is Rockin a Homework Room Cubby 

Evey from Sweet Song Bird Evey's CreationsIcing on the cake": August FFFC- Buffet and Upcycled Hall Tree 

Along with the creative team

Stacy from Anastasia Vintage 

Lynn from Fern Avenue

Charlotte from Ciburbanity

Carrie from Thirty Eighth Street

The Sponsor this month D. Lawless Hardware from Olney, IL

This post is sponsored, but all the opinions are my own.

 Artesia Knob-Sedona Bronze

                            L-P17020C-SBZ-C

Thank you for the lovely knobs chosen my son A. for the dresser from

 D. Lawless Hardware. I am very proud to have a great supportive company with superior products in the same state that I live. Illinois is certainly having a tough go of it right now. I appreciate the company for sticking with us during the hard times. 

Plain Pots Turned To Pretty Planters

I am working on sprucing up my lake front this year after the dreaded Ash Bore took hold of our two Ash trees and now week have a naked waterfront. Not to embarrass the neighbors I decided to add some color to our seawall. Jeanette from +Snazzy Little Things - Vintage DIY & Decor Blog has been running a 30-day challenge. Terracotta Pots is the challenge for this month. Since the lake weather can be pretty harsh I opted for Terracotta AKA (Plastic Pots). 

Plastic pots do not look as lovely, but the will hold up better in our environment. Drop and Plop flowers from +The Home Depot 

I did purchase one more item or actually two decorative trellises for height from +Lowe's Home Improvement 

I found the rest of my supplies in my stash. 

FolkArt Patio Paint 3 colors

Paint brush 

Paper towel 

Plastic cup for water

Frozen Dinner tray (paint pallet)

Daybeds inspired by Ana White

     I have to thank +Ana White for her terrific free plans for the beds my husband built. Each Winter we plan projects for inside our lake house. My husband wanted to build beds for our lake home. I searched everywhere I could think of  to find solid economical beds with storage, when I found Ana White's plans for a twin size daybed with storage. It has six storage cubes in each bed which gave me room to store linens on one side and a space for each guest to store their belongings while they visit. The design was perfect for our guestroom at night and a game room during the day. Please follow this link to get her plans, check out her site, and while you are there she has plenty of plans for many projects.
http://ana-white.com/2009/12/plan-stratton-daybed-as-request-by-you.html
 First we studied her list, changed the wood to oak sanded plywood, because we planned on staining it with Minwax Stain and Sealer(Ebony), and Ana painted the bed White. Then we added up what wood we needed for two beds, which was easy because instructions included a detailed cut pattern. We purchased the oak sanded plywood from Home depot for the body of the bed, and the facing was oak as well.
  I was concerned about keeping the cost to a down. After giving the design a bit of thought I realized we could save even more money if we bought the cheaper pine sanded plywood for the inside of the cubes. The pieces that we cut out of sanded pine plywood included: Three bottom cuts, 4 sides of boxes, and 3 center cuts for each

Look at the cube in the background and top of bed on table.

Original Design complete

  My husband followed Ana White cuts, supplies lists, and directions exactly on the first bed. We changed the cut pattern on the second bed to the make cutting, staining and painting easier. We tried making the top on this bed one piece of wood instead of three separate pieces. This way my husband was able to paint the bottom or inside of the cubes Oatmeal on the inside and stain Ebony on the top, ends and facing.

Close-up of bed 

The beds made but the room is not yet complete.

You can see the daybeds in our guest /game room.
I added pillows that  I made to ones I purchased. I also bought Colonial Mills round baskets to add colorful  storage. I am still working on the bedding and decor of this room. I post more pictures later when I finish the guest/game room. I think Ana White will be proud my husband made these beautiful daybeds using her plans. We already had some guest stay over they gave the beds rave reviews. Please Leave a comment to let me know what you think of the beds or about Dragonfly & Lily Pads. Thank you again to Ana White for the wonderful plans hop on over and check out her site too.

That's Entertainment

   We had been searching for a entertainment center for our great room at the lake house. I found the perfect one, except for the $$$$. It had white framing with the top, drawer, cabinet fronts, and legs in different stains of wood, with mismatched hardware. I scoured the Internet to find a deal or a substitute, but it wasn't comparable in structure or materials even though I met one goal of lowering the price.

  At a local antique store I scored this marked down buffet. It  was the answer to my entertainment center quest within my budget. It had a few blemishes but seeing past the issues was my vision of our entertainment center.

Before

After checking my supplies, I made a list of items I didn't have in my stash from other projects. I drove to our nearby Lowe's, which is a good resource for gaining knowledge, and bought my supplies. I began the process of  removing the knobs and hinges, taking  care to mark them because the wrong one may not fit properly. 

Next I sanded the top, doors, and center drawer front until all the paint was removed, and then the remainder of the buffet enough to rough up the surface to paint . We measured the opening for each shelf. My husband cut two shelves from oak plywood with his table saw, then drilled a hole through the back of the buffet between the two shelves for the cords. I used my new iron for the first time to iron on the oak facing to the shelves. Then I used Ebony stain(top), walnut stain(doors)and drawer front. Tape off the edges to insure clean lines to paint the frame, shelves, interior and legs with Linen paint.

After
  I was able to use this piece of furniture to blend the colors of wood
in my other furnishing throughout the space and
compliment the white painted trim in our home.  
Now That's Beautiful Entertainment!

Supplies                                                         @ Home Stash

Veneer facing Roll                                          Paint brushes

Black & Decker Orbital Sander                      Minwax Stain and Sealer

Sandpaper 80, 120 & 220                               Oak Veneer Plywood

Sanding Sponge Blocks fine grade                  Painters Tape

Latex gloves 

1 Quart Linen Paint                                                                                                                                                                          

These purchases proved to be such a mess, I switched to the sander

disposing of all these products;

Chip Paint Brushes, Rubber Gloves, Scrapper, Metal Bucket,

 Natural Paint Stripper

I look forward to your comments, please share your ideas too.