Saturday, July 5, 2014

The Silver Streak Continues- The 70's love of fake woodgrain

Ahh.... the 70's and their dear love of fake woodgrain.

I finally am delving back into the Silver Streak. I'm missing valuable camping time!

 I am focusing now on painting the kitchen area. Way too much mustard yellow and way way too much woodgrain paneling.

Before anyone gets upset about painting over wood- this is particleboard paneling with a veneer wood grain. AND it was covered in wallpaper AND much of it is water damaged AND I have no qualms of making it brighter and lighter..

I had an idea of using chalkboard paint on the entrance wall and then thought what the heck- why not do the eyesore refrigerator in chalkboard paint too? I would love a stainless fridge, or stainless and glass, but way too pricey.  At $15.00 for a quart of chalk board paint - this will do!

Here's my Streak's refrigerator before-






















I sanded with a sanding sponge and used white spray paint on the trim. After dry I taped the trim and  applied white primer to the paneling with a flocked foam roller in very thin coats for little texture.






















Then 3 coats of chalkboard paint over the primer. Again with a flocked foam roller.  After it dried overnight I rubbed chalk all over with the side of the chalk then erased to minimize chalk shadows.
























On a side note...this is what I call the over 40 speedball. I usually start my Streak projects in the eve on a Friday, and a beer sounds good, but I need the coffee to keep me awake. Funny thing is I could only drink one beer and I was still in bed by 12. So sad!





The final touches to the entry- an inspirational metal plaque, clear caulked into a blank frame (no glass) then I screwed the frame into the wall so there is no chance of it falling. 3 IKEA  hooks and I'm done other than brushing up on my writing!













































Now on to the cabinets!

Friday, July 4, 2014

Sandbox to Tabletop - My Rustic $23.00 Replacement


What does a old sandbox (aka super-sized litter box) and a shattered glass table top have in common?

Follow my post and find out!






















Sandbox built by previous homeowner.
Shattered glass tabletop.
New Tabletop.

I hated the sandbox. I don't have little kids and my cats were taking liberties with it. It was an eyesore and stinky.  I'm always thinking of ways to reuse stuff around the house to save a buck and to avoid unnecessary consumption of new materials. I had an idea- could the sandbox become a replacement top for the table that shattered last September in a 60 mile an hour wind gust?

I took measurements and counted the 2"x6" boards to make sure there was enough wood to cover my old table...and YAY there was enough!

Until I got it apart and found some of the boards were rotten :(

But there was enough to get started. I washed the boards and cut them with a chop saw, 8" wider than my tabletop frame at the widest point, so 48". I used the already cut angle boards for the end pieces. I had to re-cut the angles about an inch.

I hit Home Depot for two 2" x 6" x 8' boards to make up for the shortage in sandbox boards ($9.38) and two 1" x 2" x 8' pine strips. ($2.60) and grey beige paint (Martha Stewart "Mushroom"- mixed in Glidden Exterior Satin ($10.88).

I set the boards good side up on the table and this is how it looked with old and new boards;













I flipped the boards over, made a line along the boards outside of the frame width, and screwed the pine strips to the boards to hold them together. I screwed from the strip into the recycled boards to avoid more nail holes on the top. The original frame is curved but it was not necessary to follow that. I then made a hole in the center with a hole saw.

This is how it looks from underneath (this is NOT fancy carpentry FYI);













Next I filled the holes and knotholes in the top of the board from the sandbox days, sanded all over to smooth rough spots and edges. I could have left it at this point but that was a little too recycled looking for my taste.

I coated it with two coats of the grey beige paint in the direction of the grain of the wood;













I totally could of stopped here and had planned to, but it just seemed too "park table" like. Way boring.

I envisioned rustic barn wood or driftwood, and dug out some Faux Effect's Stain and Seal in American Walnut and Van Dyke Brown (on hand). Any polyurethane stain gel would work. I mixed in a little of Faux Effect's Clear Glaze (another glaze would work) until I had a translucent warm brown/ black easy to wipe stain. The glaze thins the color and slows drying time.

I  layered the glaze on with a brush, one board at a time. (See picture below.) It's very important not to do more than one board at a time as it dries fairly quickly, and you'll be stuck with an ugly mess that you will have to paint over. I wiped the glaze off lightly in the direction of the grain with a damp cheesecloth pad (a rag will do as well). This takes a little finesse as you don't want to take off too much glaze by pressing too hard. You want it to stay in the grain and the imperfections, and leave a grain striae behind.
















Two coats of Minwax Satin Polyurethane by brush (from a previous job) and I have a new heavier, wind proof tabletop!
Total time-four hours and $22.68 plus tax!















Regrets/ Mistakes? 

Yes, I regret I was too cheap and lazy to go to store to buy one more 2"x6" so the table overhung the frame on the ends. I did paint the end frame pieces to match...

2"x2" boards would have made a nicer edge under the table instead of 1" x 2" strips, and if I would of extended the table I could have used them on the end for a better finish.

This project could have been nearly free had I spent some time scrounging around for the extra wood from friends and/or recycle stores. Also, had I known I would be glazing it I could have used any grey brown in my garage saving $10.88.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Winter Blahs...

(Written in December)
I've been quite busy with work projects but not many significant projects around the house. I haven't stepped foot in the trailer because it's been really cold...some weeks the temperature was in the single digits and most days hovering between 30 and 40 degees.  Brrr.

I have tackled a few small house projects to make my Mid-Century ranch home shine a bit brighter and to ward off the winter blahs:

Painted a wall turquoise and put together an Ikea bookcase to gather most my books in one place.

Hung a retro style starburst chandelier over the stair well. I purchased it from Fab.com over the summer.
It only took 5 months to get it hung up. It was not an easy install standing over the stairs on a lean to ladder, holding the chandelier, AND trying to wire it. There were mistakes and plenty of profanity but in the end it was well worth it!


Spring is coming and with a brain FULL of ideas I can't wait for it to come!