Revamp – Page 2 – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

Making a Little Faux Tree New Again

Published on December 24, 2015 by Jenna1 Comment

Happy Christmas Eve! I have one last Christmas project to share and it’s the revamp of this sad little faux tree. It used to be my holiday tree in the entry way, but I decided to give up that tradition this year in favor of spending time on more important things like spending time with my hubby and kiddos.

This little skinny tree had definitely seen better days. It had moved from Virginia to Alaska and then from Kodiak to Anchorage and finally Wasilla, so it was looking pretty tired. Since it came apart in two pieces I decided to make each portion a smaller mini tree for use around the holidays.

TreeOriginal

The bottom section was glued very securely in the base – trust me I tried to remove it and I’m pretty sure it would survive an explosion intact. So rather than fight it I just wrapped the container in burlap, tucked the ends over the top of the urn and tied it with some pretty twine from the boots I’d bought at a consignment sale. One down, one to go.

BurlapFinished

Now I needed a base for the top portion of the tree, which had a metal stump that had once attached into the base of the tree. I remembered I had this wooden box in my stash and thought it would work perfectly. This had been the container for a gift basket my office had received last year and originally came as unfinished wood with the sender’s logo carved on one side and this pretty snowflake on the other.

BoxStained

Although the snowflake was cute I didn’t want to see the company’s logo so I needed a way to cover it up. I considered adding metal pieces with decorative tacks, paint stick shiplap and other methods, but then had a light bulb moment when I realized that the burlap webbing I had a small section of was just tall enough to cover both the logo and snowflake!

BoxWrapped

I filled the box with some Styrofoam from some packaging I was about to discard, shoved the metal stump into that and wrapped the webbing around the box, securing it with a bit of hot glue where the two ends met. It was looking pretty good, but I wanted to cover up the white sytrofoam so I pulled some crinkle paper stuffing out of my filler stash and tucked it around the base. I literally had just enough!

BoxWrapped&Filled

And here it is all done! I think they turned out pretty darn cute for being a totally $0 project! I paired each with a reindeer and placed them in the guest room and foster room for the season. I didn’t even decorate them so they can stay put through the winter. 🙂

BoxFinished

And because I just can’t not share one more, here’s a cute little lamp post I revamped. I bought it at a thrift store for $4 back in the summer and set it aside to redo for my holiday bazaar booth. I forgot to take before pictures, but envision it as unfinished wood, with some 1980’s Christmas appliques at the top and a beat up garland around the post. I removed the garland, sanded down the appliques and painted the whole thing in ORB. Then I distressed the edges of the lantern and added a simple bow with greenery to the lantern base with a screw. And here’s the finished result.

Post

Although it didn’t sell at this year’s bazaar I’ll store it away as inventory for next year since it never hurts to get a head start and I plan to market pieces earlier next year on my Etsy shop and crafting Facebook page.

I’ll be taking it easy tomorrow, Skyping with family back home while enjoying the day with my fur babies and the hubs, so I wish you a very Merry Christmas and will share more projects next week!

Industrial Cart Makeover Plan

Published on October 9, 2015October 9, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

Today I’m sharing another project plan for our future Foster room. We scored this fabulous industrial cart in a government auction for $45. I originally planned to use it as a coffee table on the deck, but one of the wheels was missing some of the rubber tread, so it didn’t roll smoothly, which could be a pain when I want to move it around to change up seating.

Plus its SUPER HEAVY so I wasn’t keen on adding more weight to the deck since we already have the Green Egg table out there and a large seating area. It was way too cool to not use it in some way, so I had to find another purpose for it. Luckily inspiration struck quickly. Although I’d picked up a bunk bed frame and a wooden twin bed for the Foster Room neither ended up working out like I’d hoped so I was looking for an alternative. It dawned on me that the cart seemed to be about the same size as a twin bed, so I put the mattress on top to see how it fit.

I was quite a bit giddy when I realized it was a perfect match! Since I wanted the bed to be a trundle I knew we’d have to take the wheels off and create some other form of support, so seeing that the sockets at both ends of the bed were still accessible gave me another idea.

We could create a frame for each end with metal pipe that would fit through the sockets! I did some searching on Pinterest and found something similar to my vision, talked it over with the hubs and confirmed it was possible.

Armed with a plan, the hubs made a multi-project shopping trip to the big blue box and now has the materials we need to get this project underway. Hopefully that will happen over the weekend and maybe even be completed by next weekend, so stay tuned to see the progress!

Fairy Tale Ending for a Pumpkin

Published on October 7, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

This little DIY pumpkin was a happy accident, which is why I don’t have a true before shot. I bought this white craft pumpkin at Michaels last year and used it without doing anything to it, but it wasn’t quiet fitting in with my other décor this year. I was about to add it to my sell pile but decided to give it a chance and added it to the batch being chalk painted instead. Although that did tone down the bright white it still wasn’t jiving for me.

As I added gold touches to the several of my vignettes, I remembered I had some gold craft paint leftover from a past project and decided to give it a try. I opted to use the rose gold rather than the true gold because it felt a bit warmer.

I just started brushing it on, applying a thin coat and then adding a bit in some areas, primarily the grooves, as the mood struck me. Once that dried I painted the stem with some more left over craft paint I had on hand and suddenly that simple white pumpkin looked pretty darn glam!

And it was the perfect contrast to my rustic wooden DIY pumpkins from last year in the entryway! It’s a pumpkin Cinderella story – from unnoticed to belle of the ball!