Thursday, June 7, 2012

Repurposed! Tips for giving new life to old things

Do you have old furniture, or frames that don't really go with your decor? Here are a few tips and tricks to re purposing them and making them useful.


Picture Frames:


 These are two old frames from my grandmother's home. Pictures of my grandparents hung in these frames in her hallway wall for as long as I can remember.
My grandmother passed in 2008, and last year, the pictures and frames were handed down to me, however by the time I got them the frames were worse for the wear.
I didn't want to get rid of the frames because they were a very big part of my childhood I absolutely loved the pictures that hung in these frames, and I like the idea of having a piece of my grandmother in my house.

  • I first cleaned the frames up the best I could. I also made sure that any fixable damage was repaired.
  • I then used some left over paint from when we redecorated our bathroom to paint the frames. This is a great idea for when you are re purposing something, reuse left over paint from previous jobs. Not only will this save money, this will also ensure your project will go with your current decor, it will tie in different rooms with each other.
  • While you are waiting for the frames to dry make sure you clean up the frames glass. In my case these frames had hung in a home of a smoker for decades, so there was a good bit of nicotine built up on the glass.
  • Once the frames where dry I used this great product available at Home Depot it is Martha Stewart's Specialty Finish. This is a black Textured Metallic finish. This gives the frames a little bit of a shimmer. Keeps the paint job from looking flat.

This is the finish product. It is a little hard to see the finish in pictures. The finish is not very expensive, but adds so much to the finished product.

Might I add my grandmother was beautiful!

 

Furniture.

Now you can go to almost any blog and find out how to re purpose furniture, however they are missing that Heat originality.

As you may have realized I love bringing pieces from my childhood into my ever day life. It is away I can pass on my history to the current generation.
This book shelf is no different. My mother bought this book shelf when I was probably ten. It was in my room as a kid for a few years. About two years ago my dad gave it to me.
It is a solid oak bookshelf, in relatively good condition considering it has been moved around for the 15 years. Still you could see the age on the book shelf. My husband and I decided to give it new life, and make it apart of our spare room/ the kids room.
  • Just like with the picture frames we used paint left over from when we painted the very room the book shelf is in.
  • When painting furniture, there involves a little more prep that when painting frames.
  • First you need to clean the shelf off, dust it get any stuck on dirt off.
  • Typically when painting furniture a little bit of sanding is required however with this bookshelf because of how it was it did not require any sanding.
  • With bookshelves they often have a backing on them that is a type of composite. We took the back off when we painted the bookshelf. It was not hard to take off, it was just stapled on, there were a few finishing nails in it where my mom had fixed the backing when it started to come off.
  • With all furniture you will first want to put a primer coat on. We painted this bookshelf outside because it allowed for a shorter drying time.
  • Once your primer coat is dry you can then apply your paint. It may need more than one coat, this book shelf required two.
  • Once it was finish it was now time to figure out what to do with the backing. If you are on pinterest you might have seen the bookshelf with the fabric backing, I thought of doing that in read because the room has light blue walls with red accents, however some of christmas wrapping paper caught my eye, and this is the finished product!
    *How I did the backing : I covered the backing with the polka dot paper with packing tape, then we used small finishing nails to reattach the backing. One of the best things about using wrapping paper, it is cost effective (though you will want to use a thicker wrapping paper like the kind you find at Hobby Lobby or Halmark), it is also easy to change if you get tired of it, and you wont have lost a lot of money in it.

    *Once you are done, you need to wait at least 24 hours before placing anything back on the furniture.

    This bookshelf looks completely new!

The Tips


  1. Just because it is old doesnt mean it is not useful. Bringing Older things upto date is a great way of passing on family history, however becareful, make sure you are not going to ruin something by painting it sometimes a frame is not just a frame, but worth a lot of money so do your research
  2. Reuse materials from previous projects. This will help create a flow to your home, without painting everything khaki. And the best thing is no one will know why.
    also this will help you with that one question that holds people back "what color should I paint it?" You obviously already liked that color enough to put it on your walls.
  3. Don't be afraid. It can be intemidating to think about repurposing furniture, take on small tasks first like picture frames, and work your way to furniture. It really is no different than painting a room.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

New Car clean without that dealership price

After the tornado out break on April 27, 2011, my husband and I were in the market to replace his Chevy Silverado 1500, poor girl ended up about a block away from where she was parked.

We found a 2007 Chevy Equinox, considering all the time we spend with the adorable kiddos in our family, we thought this would be perfect vehicle, it has more room than our Malibu, and is a little more practical than his big V8 truck was.

We started out with no food or drinks in the new car, twhich didn't last long. Soon trips to McDonalds started after "S" dance lesson, and once the door is open it is hard to close it.

Our car's tan cloth interior didn't stand a chance. About six months after purchasing him, (I named him "Tim" after Tim Allen who does all those chevy commercials) Tim was in need of a cleaning. Being the nerd that I am I read the owners manual, and after reading it we decided to pay to have it detailed, as recommended.

Once we got the car back, the stains were still there! We were told it will take a couple treatments to get the stains to lift out, well I wasn't completely buying it.

About a month ago I had gotten into the back seat and was a little grossed out. There were stains all over the pull down arm rest, milk shake stains on the seat. I was thinking to myself "I can't believe I have been putting the kids back here, if I don't want to sit here surely they don't."

Well I didn't want to pay to have it not cleaned again, so I got to thinking about what I could do. and I came up with this: (ps it worked great!)


Materials needed

  1. tub or bucket of water
  2. Shout stain treatment ( this is what I used, you may use Spray and Wash at home, I would think it will work the same way)
  3. Two Micro-fiber type rags. I used 3M rags because they are made to be delicate on surfaces, which is very important. DO NOT use a scrub brush, the scrub brush will ruin your fabric especially in new cars. One will be used to wipe the cleaning solution into the interior, and the other will be used to wipe the cleaning solution away with water from the interior.


Step One : CLEAN OUT THE CAR.

  •  Seems simple? Get everything out of the area you want to clean, Vacuum out any loose grime.

Step Two : Spray the cleaning solution all over the surface.

  • spray down the entire interior that you want to clean. DO NOT spot clean. spot cleaning will leave you with spots.
    • before a car leaves the factory, if there is a stain on the interior, they will clean the entire interior not just the spot. this is because if the cleaning solution is going to discolor the interior it will not be as noticeable if you have cleaned the whole area.
    • what this mean. If your back seat has a lot of stains, clean the entire back seat. If the passenger front seat has a stain, clean the entire passenger seat.
  • Be careful not to get your seat soaking wet with the cleaning solution, remember the wetter it is the longer it takes to dry. Also the cleaning solution you put on your interior the longer it will take to rinse it out.

Step Three : Wipe the Interior down with clean microfiber Rag.

  • once you have sprayed the entire interior down, take one of you microfiber rag, and begin wiping the cleaning solution into the interior. you will want to pay closer attention to those tough stains. You may need more cleaning solution of the harder stains, also make sure you rub in the cleaning solution well on those tougher, older stains.
  • Let the cleaning solution sit on the interior for a little while, making sure not to let in dry on the seat, and also make sure it is not longer than the time allotted on the direction of the cleaning solution.

Step Four : Rinse!

  • This is where the clean water comes into play. Take your second Microfiber rag wet with clean water (again not soaking wet, the more water the longer to dry) and begin wiping out the cleaning solution. you will need to periodically rinse out the cloth.
  • Remember if you put more cleaning solution on one area than the others you will need to take more time to rinse it out.
  • this is where the actual stain removal comes in. The cleaning solution, in my case "Shout", attaches to the stain when you spray on the solution and then rub it in. when you take the water and rinse it out the stain goes with the shout. This is why it is important to rinse off the cleaning solution.
  • *New Step* (added May 2012) this is the Stanly steamer step, after you have wiped the interior down and removed as much as the cleaning solution you can, take a clean vacuum and vacuum the interior to suck up any remaining solution. (this will also speed up the drying process, because it is sucking up excess water)

Step Five : Wait to dry.

  • Once it is dry you should see most, if not all, of the stains are gone. If you have some stubborn stuck on stains that have been there for awhile you may have to do it again.
  • My husband and I did this on a Saturday afternoon, when we did not have anything to do until Sunday morning, and by Sunday morning for Church it was dry!

Happy Cleaning. Remember this is for cloth interiors.

*Update June 2013* I am currently working on a way of getting those grease stains (from french fries, and other fried snacks) out completely. I will update with the finished product.






Disclaimer:
Clean at your own risk, and always read your manuel. Do not do anything that you think will damage your interior.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I love my Jesus, and I call my soda "pop"

Well I am almost positive the title of this post got your attention. Good. I would be lying if I was to say that Christ is not an important factor of my life thus impacting this blog. I realize that at this very mention it will turn readers away. I am sorry for your loss.


I would like to think that I have always been creative, if not creative I have always loved seeing others creativity. It seems every where you turn today people are selling home made crafts, and if you are like me you think to yourself "why didn't I think of that?" Well first, they had a need and they found a way to meet it.


To me that is the first step in creativity, having a need and finding a means, other than going out to the store and purchasing something, to meet it.


I love how art and history go hand in hand. Quite often people think of crafts as a children's activity or a way for people in a nursing home to pass the time "arts and Crafts". I have a nostalgic view of crafts, it is a way to bring the past back to life. Art, cooking, or crafts are a way to remember someone that has passed away, and make them a part of your day to day life.


I feel many bloggers and crafters are missing this part. One of the reasons I love Martha Stewart, is because she teaches the whys and whats of where her projects come from, which in turn has inspired me to create my own projects based on my own experiences. This is where my tag line comes in "... a southern girl with a northern attitude." I am blessed to have two very different influences. My husband tells me I cook northern dishes the southern way.


My goal and my hope is inspire you to draw from your own experiences and background to create projects, that mean something to you, whether they be crafts, painting, re purposed furniture, baking, cooking, or even blogging.