Dining Table and Chairs DIY

Towards the beginning of the year I bought this table and chairs set off trade me. The chairs have "Yugoslavia" stamped into the wood underneath and they were bought from someone in a rest home, so I guess the family bought them to New Zealand a wee while ago? 

They are sturdy, solid and in great condition, and were a dark brown when I bought them (below).

I spent months sanding these back, painting and varnishing to get it looking this good and I'm so proud of my work.

The table top is great and is a huge step up from the table we had before, which had a glass table top and would always collect spilt weetbix and milk in the cracks between the wood. 

I'm really happy with the finish of this! It's so easy to keep looking nice.

The chairs are a dark navy, although they look a lot darker in this (terrible) photo lighting than they usually do (more accurate colour photos below). 

It took me a long time to decide on my colour scheme. 

Originally I wanted all different colours (green, yellow, blue and pink), but once I finished the table and had it in place I loved how grown up it looked. 

It's probably one of the nicest things we own, and I wanted my chairs to reflect that. I'm on a bit of a navy blue bender right now, so that was the next most obvious choice for me.

I love having my friends over for a cuppa now that we have somewhere nice to sit to enjoy my great view.

Also, the table extends out, so we've had a few dinner parties with everyone squeezed in our tiny dining area. Once you're in, you can't get out! I kind of love it. 

Next up on my project list, I'm thinking a mini wall quilt to adorn the wall in the dining space...

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Tall Boy Duchess DIY

Tall Boy Duchess DIY

Earlier this year we met our new neighbours, a lovely family direct from Australia. They ended up moving out a month ago to return home and told us to come over for some pickings at their furniture they weren't shipping back to Aussie.

I've been wanting a tall boy for a while now; Our clothing storage was in a dire situation and our room isn't big enough to accomodate much else. 

And! They had one to give us! So we quickly nabbed this tall boy that had been their parents, it was in great condition, aside from the varnish needing a spruce up so I rubbed my hands together and went straight to Bunnings! 

A week spent sanding, varnishing, painting, spraying and watching in every spare moment, produced this! 

I am so happy with the results! The wood has a beautiful satin finish to it that looks SO great up close.

And now Graeme and I have enough space for all of our clothes, rolled up the KonMari space saving way.

Kia ora Lavender whānau xx

A Little Yellow Table

Errrm so I didn't "make" it exactly. However, I have spent the last few weeks ducking out to the garage in little spare moments to put layers of white and yellow on this wee coffee table. 

This is Resene's Paris Daisy, I bought a 1L of it to do up our bedside tables, so I have heaps of yellow left! Everything is going to be turning yellow around here...

I didn't do the greatest paint job in the world, but I'm trying to finish things rather than get stuck in the "it doesn't look perfect" rut. My builder and perfectionist brother won't be impressed by it, but I am. 

And, its the perfect (wee) size to have in our (wee) lounge, and can be easily moved about.

I love our new happy table!

(big thanks to our Fretty friends who generously share their thrifty finds with us)

Tea Trolley DIY 2.0

Our new friends Jared and Georgia sealed the relationship with love when they gave me a spare tea trolley they had laying around.

I spent last ANZAC weekend sanding and painting it, and finally attached the vinyl during the week.

I wish I had a before photo, but I don't. Needless to say she was in need of a lot of love and had 3 different paint colours showing through from her many years serving a primary school class room. "Library book returns" was painted on the top, probably explaining the slight bow in the top shelf.

I painted her Treefrog Green from Resene. Two test posts was enough to do two thick coats of paint, and half a meter of vinyl from Spotlight was enough to cover the two levels.

We did have a chunky dark brown shelving unit along this wall, but all it did was collect folded washing and an odd assortment of junk. It couldn't really be used properly. We sent the shelf out to the garage a few weekends ago and haven't regretted it for a second. 

Now our green trolley stands in it's place and I am mighty proud of her, shining away against a wall in our lounge, sending a bight burst of happiness into me when ever my eyes meet her. 

She was destined to hold Milla's "art supplies" (which I hope to get more of, our small collection is really rather pathetic) and our snuggly blankets that we use every single night on the couches. I do love snuggling under a warm blanket with my man! On Monday nights she'll serve drinks to our connect group as a tea and coffee station. LOVE.

Details:

Resene Treefrog Green (2 testpots) $8 (on sale anzac weekend)

Vinyl from Spotlight $10

Sandpaper $5

My happiness and functional space, $$Priceless.

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Tea Trolley makeover 1.0

Tea Trolley Makeover

Big thank you's to Deb for offering me this free tea trolley when I was around at her house in February! I had been looking on Trade Me for something similar for our lounge room. We have been using a little outside table for the last year and I wanted something that had different shelves so the nappies weren't on bags on the floor!

I bought table cloth material from Spotlight, half a metre for $6 with plenty left over and second hand paint made this a cheap makeover that was well worth it! The painting is a bit rough but between this and the table and chair set that I painted during the summer I can see I have improved! Next job, Millas drawers! hehe.

I love having things around the home that I have done. I do I do! 

For laughs:

Originally I glued the table cloth material to the shelves but I used special plastic glue that MrMoo had (he works in plastics), and it was so strong it melted the fabric! Eeek! I had lots left over so re did it and now the cloth is just sitting on the shelves since it has a non slip backing it works perfectly! 

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Joining in with Show n Tell
Kids Table DIY
Other things I've made

Kids Table DIY

Last winter we bought this colourful table and chair set from TradeMe for $25. I had high hopes of turning it into something that would come from Mocka, a beautiful white set of furniture, but had no idea how to do it. 

As a result, the whole process has taken much longer than it needed to, but I am thrilled with the end result, 9 months later!

(BEFORE)

We borrowed an electric sander from MrMoos work and went to town on it one weekend. MrMoo was much better at using the tool than I was so he ended up doing most of the sanding, and redoing the parts that I had done that weren't good enough. Apparently an attention to detail isn't my strongest point. 

I applied 3 coats of undercoat and one of top coat and called it a day, after about 6 months, and gave it to Milla for Christmas, along with some crayons and colouring in books.

I have since repainted it with a high-gloss enamel paint because I really wanted it to be shiny and the previous paint wasn't. Because of that food was sticking to the table and foot prints were all over the chairs that I just couldn't budge.

The glossy enamel looks fab and I often give it a little love-rub when I walk past it to admire my work! 

(AFTER)

Milla loves her table, she can now get up and down from it with confidence and will draw and eat at it throughout the day. It is well used! I'm so glad we did it!

Since finishing the table I've decided I must get on to painting Camillas dresser, which we also bought from TradeMe with the desire to paint it one day. "One Day" being the key word here. 

Also, Deb gave me a delicious tea trolley that I want to use in our lounge to store nappies and other such baby paraphernalia on which needs a coat of paint as well - I've already sanded it!  

Yup, I'm hooked! The trouble is finding an overcast day! 

Here's a bonus pic of Millas favourite buddies right now, Duckie and Sophie the Tiger.  (They say Hi!)

THE DETAILS:

$25, 9 months to complete.

Linking in with Crafty Show & Tell

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