Turning an Ottoman into a Shoe Cabinet

I found this Idea on pinterest while browsing for a nice way to store my shoes instead of kicking em' off at the door and leaving them in a pile or having to re-organize them constantly to keep them on the rack I originally had. Plus it gave me a great reason to go out and find a cute ottoman. 

After a long search I came across this burlap style ottoman for 50$ and tagged a 10$ coupon on top of that at the Burlington Coat Factory. 

When I got home I started brainstorming on how to organize the shoes inside the ottoman and found that I could fit my original shoe rack I bought at Ross Dress For Less for 6$ a couple years ago right inside of the ottoman and shuffled my shoes around until they fit just right. 

As Always it never hurts to have your furbabies appreciate new furniture as much as you do. I later added some cute decor pillows on top I bought from goodwill thrift store and my cat truly thinks it is her bed. 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and thanks for reading another one of my Homemakin' Secrets

Helping out a friend with an Upcycle Dresser

So my best friends recently got their own place and they have been having a lot of fun with DIY (do it yourself) projects so whenever I go shopping for my next potential project I try to take at least one of them with me. I found a table on craigslist to go check out and picked my friend Bianca up on the way, the table didn't end up working out for me but the seller did have a lot more to look at and Bianca fell in Love with this dresser that she bought for a steal of 50$ and with a little bit of help from homemakin' secrets we transformed it together!

Once we got started we made sure to wear a face mask and gloves. Citristrip's stripping gel worked very well for removing the varnishing for the most part. It's a bit more expensive but the chemical call smell was hardly present.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Citristrip-1-Qt-Safer-Paint-and-Varnish-Stripping-Gel-QCG73801T/100208204

We used an old t-shirt to apply the gel and then let it sit for an hour (or however long it says on the bottle)

Once the gel finished drying we got our scrapper out and started scrapping off the old varnishing. Do  not worry if you scratch your dresser during this step because you can buff it out with sand paper later. 
I'm sure most scrappers will work but you don't want to buy a flimsy one. The one we used is linked below.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Allway-3-in-Bent-Extendable-Scraper-BS3HD/202251540

The gel did not remove all of the varnishing, especially on the front and sides, I will probably let the stripping gel sit longer next time. Before you begin your sanding make sure t wipe down your furniture with a damp cloth to remove any other stripping gel and to prevent build up on your sand paper whether you plan on using sand paper or an actual sander.

Our Next attempt was to try out the black and decker mouse sander, don't waste your money on this sucker. I ended up returning it and buying sand paper with my refund. If you are going to use a sander invest in a good one, but if you're like me and do not think you will be doing another project like this one anytime soon then sand paper will suffice just fine.
(drawers were the hardest part)
Once your dresser is entirely sanded down to the underlying wood you can wipe it down again to remove all the saw dust.
Saw dust + wood stain/ paint = no good
so make sure you remove as much as you can.

We ended up taking a break and picked back up on it when we both had another free day. When we returned to the project we examined it to make sure it was ready for stain and then we suited up in our gloves and face masks again and grabbed some old socks. We stirred up the stain (never shake) and dipped the socks in and started rubbing it directly onto the dresser. We waited an hour for it to dry and then added a second coat.  

My friends chose a red mahogany color stain made by minwax which came out beautifully (dark wood with red tint). Once the second coat was dry we applied the top coat with clear satin polyurethane. Like me, they did not want too much of a shine with their furniture so that is why they went with clear satin and we let the top coat dry all day outside. (can said 4 hours, but it was a bit colder than usual). Once it was dry..the fun began! I helped her carry it in and get it all pretty so she could surprise her girl friend before she got home from work.

And voila! There it is! Went from an old dresser in a backyard to a beautiful entertainment center. 

Thanks for reading guys, feel free to leave any questions in the comments. 

How to Stain wood -- reclaiming wood

Hello everyone, I thought I'd kick my blog off with my favorite project I have done thus far. There are plenty of how-to blogs and videos out there for revarnishing/refurnishing wood furniture but most of the ones I seen aren't very detailed and when I started this project I was so scared I'd mess up if I missed one single step. 

This is the table I bought from an ISO post I made on one of those nifty facebook sale pages. I posted a photo of an identical table with and ISO message attached and a woman contacted me letting me know she had the exact table and we later met up and I purchased it for 15$. Solid oak end table with drawer.

Once all unwanted varnishing was removed I used a 220 grade smoothing sandpaper to make sure the surface areas  were all smooth and buff out any blemishes.

The stain color I chose was Minwax's Dark Walnut and I absolutely love it. I bought the smaller can because it is a small project so the total came out to around 5$ with tax. (link below) I wore gloves and used an old long sock to stain the table, invest in some good gloves or your fingers will become stained and don't forget your face mask!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Minwax-8-oz-Oil-Based-Dark-Walnut-Wood-Finish-Interior-Stain-227164444/100376173

To protect your furniture piece from "water rings", scratches and to just seal in the stain it is always smart to put your clear coat on over your stain.I chose the clear satin option because I did not want too much of a glossy shine to my table and being that this was my first time ever revarnishing I did buy "oil-based" polyurethane and later received a long lecture on it from my construction working father. Next time I will buy the "water-based" polyurethane.

 This choice is up to you entirely, the water-based dries much quicker and is a lot easier for clean up because in this step it is best to use a paint brush to apply the top coat and oil-based anything is very hard to clean but especially difficult to clean from a paint brush, so note to self: Do not borrow dad's 20$ Purdy Paint brushes when working with oil-based anything. 

Okay so back to the steps:

•  Apply your choice of polyurethane with a fine paintbrush pliable to all paints and let dry 4-5 hours
• Apply second coat (as I did) if desired

 

I left my table outside for an entire day to ensure it was dry and I was so excited to bring it in. 

This is my final product and I absolutely love how it turned out. The areas where I left some of the old varnishing came out lighter and it really did give it the "barn wood" look. I'm in Love!

Because it is October I immediately added some pumpkins and my "happy harvest" decor sign I purchased at Ross Dress For Less for 5$.

If you were wondering why I had a red cushion (purchased at goodwill for 75 cents) under my table, I hope this photo speaks for itself. Animal Planet's Jackson Galaxy says to include your cats with your furniture and that is exactly what I did here. My little Allie bear loves her new bed and I love my new table! Win win!

So I hope my how to on this was helpful, feel free to ask any questions and thanks for reading!