Refinishing a Piano Bench; Guest

Hi Friends, Its Shannon from Posh Pieces here again at Remodelaholic. I hope you are all enjoying your summer.  I wanted to share with you one of the first projects I shared on my blog. Also one that I still use almost everyday as it sits in my dining room.  I got this piano bench on craigslist for about $30. Not a complete steal, but worth it to me because it was just what I wanted... except the color that is..  I wanted the bench to match my black dining room table.  Here is the before.

Very simple, kinda boring, and definitely not a match to my black dining room set. 

I sanded this baby down to the grain which is not necessary if your going to prime and paint, but I was more thorough back then. 

After I spent way to much time sanding, I applied my Rustoleum Primer.

After it was primed, I applied two generous coats of Rustoleum Black paint.

The final step was to give it a distressed look like my dining room table, but without distressing it. My dinning room table is not distressed, but it has a treatment on it that looks like it was. 

I bought a small can of paint that was the same color as the distressed areas, and then used a 2 inch brush to brush it on in a few random places. 

Here it is all finished.

I am fully aware of the flash in the background, and the not so great photo here.. Sorry for that, I had to use what I had. Can you see the painted on distressed areas?

Here is a close up of the legs. You can see the areas on the table that look distressed, and the areas on the bench I created to match. The bench matches my table perfectly now. 

I think it turned out pretty good. How about your?

Read more...

Take a Seat! How to Build a Bench, Posh Pieces

Hello Everyone!
My name is Shannon, I blog over at Posh Pieces. I am thrilled to be here at Remodelaholic again sharing another project with you all. Thanks Cassity!

I was ready for my next building project, and had been eying this bench for a while. Ana has the plans on her site to build something practicably the same, so I decided to give it a whirl.

First step is to take inventory of what lumber you have. The plans didn't call for a whole lot of supplies, and I was lucky enough to have some of it on hand already. I ran to the lumber store for the remaining supplies.

Lumber Store Tips

• Put your kids in one of those car shopping carts if they are small enough. It will save you from chasing them down the lumber isle as well as buy you some time at the store.
• Having your kids with you, and being female (assuming your female and going without a male) you will be asked at least 10 times if somebody can help you. :-) Let them, it can save you some time.
• Sort through the wood and chose the boards that are not cracked, or warped.

Bring your lumber home... and your ready to get started!

I made some, but not all of my cuts first. I didn't want to make them all and find out that I needed to adjust something and not have enough lumber.

I started with the legs, per the plans on Ana's site.

The next part was to notch out the legs with a jigsaw.

I have never used a jigsaw before, and was not sure how difficult or easy this may be. So my first step was to measure the area that needed to be cut out, and then mark it with a pen.

It was actually pretty easy using the jigsaw. The biggest problem I had, was getting the notched out area totally straight. I found myself going back, and sliding in the piece of wood into the notched out area checking to see if it would fit properly, then going back and cutting more, repeating this process a few times.

My son drew a picture on the wood for me.

The plans call for a 54 inch 1 x 12 for the bench part.

For some reason, I thought it said 48 and so that is what I got.

This made things a little tricky, because now I needed to scale down the inner supports accordingly.

This wasn't too difficult until I got to the cross support pieces.

This is when you take the opportunity to make your husband feel real smart and needed and ask for help. Men love this, don't they? I am not fond of math, so I let my husband verify the size of these pieces for me. :-) He enjoyed helping.

If your husband isn't available, you can get a helper like this one too. He was quite handy at giving me the screws.

 

After I finished constructing it, I primed and painted.

Finished!

I was going to distress it, but now I am not so sure. My husband says that he likes it not distressed.. so, I guess it stays this way for a while.

Thoughts? Shall I distress or leave it as is?

Thanks for letting me crash your place Cassity!

- Show quoted text -

Read more...

Motorcycle Madness! Boys Room Art, Posh Pieces

I am so happy to be visiting Remodelaholic again! Thanks Cassity for letting me crash here again.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Shannon, and you can see more of my projects over here at Posh Pieces. I have been in the slow process of updating both my kids rooms. My little guy still sleeps in a crib and we are planning on building a bed for my daughter soon, and then giving her bed to my son. This week we finally got rid of his changing table and wall shelf quilt holder thing. Having those two items out of his room makes it look a lot less nursery like already. Now that all this nursery stuff is out, I I need to make something for a big boy room. Ever since I saw this picture in the PB catalog I knew that I had to create something like it. One problem.. my son isn't as crazy about fire trucks as he is motorcycles.

My son likes anything on wheels, but he definitely LOVES motorcycles. I went to Michaels and got a package of 3 canvas for $9.99. I had to get a few more paints, because I didn't have all the colors that I needed in my paint collection.

The first step in painting the motorcycle was to consult the internet, and collect all the motorcycles from around the house to reference. I found a bunch of images online of motorcycles that I liked and I referenced those as well as the toy motorcycles as I sketched the design with a pencil.

I placed all three of the canvas next to each other like they were one large canvas. I sketched my design on all of them so when they are put together it looks like they connect. Really hard to see in the image below, but if you look carefully you should see the pencil marks.

After I got the basic sketch down, I got out my paints and started painting. Pretty easy really. The hardest part was the sketch, but once I had that down it wasn't bad at all. I used acrylic paints because they are more forgiving. At one point, I put my arm in wet paint and then rested my arm on the white part of the canvas getting paint on it! Lucky for me because all I did was wipe it off with a damp paper towel and it all came right off. Whew! So there ya have it! My PB, kinda, lookalike!

Here it is hanging in my sons room. 

I feel like his room still looks like its missing something. I think its partially the adjustment from having a large changing table and the quilt rack over in the corner. After I get his big boy bed, and a few other details, I am sure it will come together nicely.

 

 Have a great weekend. Let me know what day it will go up so I can let my readers know where to find it. All the best Shannon

Read more...

Posh Perfection; Table makeover; Guest

This is a party highlight from a few weeks ago, but it is just so perfect I thought I would show you.  This is a good reminder that just updating one piece or two in a room can really do a lot for the space, without a ton of effort.   Shannon at Posh Pieces did this: 




I finished my table and I am totally in-love with it! 

Here's the story: I got it on craigslist for FREE with a matching side table, also for FREE. I thought when I got it that I would paint it and maybe sell it, because I didn't really NEED a coffee table. I always thought that I would have an ottoman in my front room, and not a coffee table. However, I am totally loving this table now, and although it doesn't totally go with my living room, its staying for a while until I decide.  

I decided to go with white, instead of the heirloom white. Thanks again everyone for your advice on the color.

I only sanded a little to get the top coat off, and then I applied a good coat of Zinsser Primer.

Here is the Before

 Ugly right?

Here it is today! 

I used Rustoleum Black in Semi-gloss on the hardware

Do you love the detail as much as me? 

So beautiful! Oops,, looks like i missed an area under the lip. :-)

You can tell in the back I have a lot of dark furniture. I like how the table helps to brighten the space, but at the same time I am worried hat its too bright for the space. My dinning room, which is 5 feet away has a black distressed table and matching chairs. I also have a dark finished console table in my entry... is this going to be too much of a contrast? 

Do you love it as much as I do? Not bad for a free table! 

I think the table is lovely!  Don't you just love free?I am not sure there is anything better!

Read more...