Old Dresser = Entertainment Center!!!

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER!!!

 

 

Want to make something that adds that spark of color to your living room?  Find yourself an old "ugly" dresser!  It doesn't have to be one exactly like the one I found.  Just make sure it fits the space where you want to put it and get down to business with your imagination and tools.

 

1.  Find a dresser made of solid WOOD.  No particle board, tile, plastic, or other random stuff.  The one I found was only $60 and is WAY heavy.

 

2.  Decide on which drawers (if any) you are going to pull out and keep out for your DVD player and game consoles.

 

3.  Find some cute knobs or drawer pulls, if the ones on your old dresser are not your style.  I found mine at Hobby Lobby.  If you go to Hobby Lobby, make sure to wait until they are all on their 50% sale. 

 

4.  Pull out all the drawers, take out the runners where the drawers will no longer be, and take off the drawer pulls/knobs.  If your new pulls/knobs don't match up with the holes from the old pulls/knobs, use wood filler and fill in the old holes.  Make sure to scrape off the access with a putty knife! 

 

5.  After the wood filler is dry, sand down everything.  Make sure to be careful around the carved out details!  You don't want to break anything off or have the details/corners too flat or rounded. 

 

6.  Pick your paint!  This is the fun part.  You can do any color that you want!  I was going to go with a yellow or a mint color, but then found this teal and just could not pass it up.  We used an air compressor with an attachable spray paint gun, but you can use a paint brush if you do not have an air compressor.  They both work the same.  And as you can see, we chose to stain the top instead of painting it, but you can do whatever you wish.

*Wait for it to dry and then do a second coat of paint*

 

7.  Let the paint dry for a day.  Now it is time to "paint on" the sealant.  You can use either paste wax or a Polyacrylic sealer.  Either one will work just fine.  We painted on the sealant, let it dry for a day, and then applied a second coat.  We let it sit and "dry" in our garage for about a week and then brought it into the house.

 

Wala!  It is finished!  Add the TV and the other gadgets and you have yourself a super cute entertainment center.   



Play Kitchen

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

 

This cute little kitchen was made for my sweet little Emryn for Christmas by my husband and I.  After searching and searching for the perfect old entertainment center, I came across this beauty only for $20.  All wood and was just the right size.  To some the entertainment center was just a piece of junk taking up space, but I saw a masterpiece in the making!  I still have yet to hang the damask curtains in the "window", but all in all it is still amazing.  Don't you think?

 

Ever get sick of those dinky little plastic kitchens you see being sold for a lot of money at the stores?  Those little kitchens your kids will outgrow by the time they actually want to play with it, so why not make something a little bigger that will last? 

 

I'm not going to go into detail of how we went about redoing the entertainment center into this kitchen.  That would take FOREVER.  I will tell you this, it took a lot of time, energy and imagination.

 

The "fridge" has magnetic metal sheeting on the front.  How cool is that?!  And inside it has multiple shelves so she can fit all her play food in.  The oven does have a metal oven rack in the center and the door falls forward like a normal oven.  The sink is made out of a big bowl I found at the DI.  And the faucet and oven knobs are all real, so she can turn them and they will not break off!

 

If you would like to know more info on how we made this, just email me at pacificpanda@gmail.com and I will try my best to answer all of your questions.

 

 

 

 

Toddler Bed

This is my daughter's new toddler bed made out of an old table!  Very simple and easy to make.  Here is what you need:

~ A regular sized four chair table with nice legs (must be big enough to fit a crib sized mattress)
~ Furniture feet from The Home Depot or hardware type store
~ Sander or sandpaper
~ Electric Drill
~ Screwdriver
~ Paint

Now, before you get started you must know that I could not find a cheap table with nice legs.  I ended up purchasing a used table for $10 with not so nice legs.  I kept a look out for a cheap bed frame with nice posts.  I was finally able to find one at the DI for $20, which is much cheaper than buying nice looking legs at The Home Depot for $100+.  We took off the table legs, which was a simple matter of taking some screws out.  We cut off the bed frame posts and attached them to the table, as if they were legs!  Hence the reason that two of the table "legs" are shorter than the other two in the pic.

1.  Sand down the table and the legs.  You do this so the paint will adhere better to the wood.

2.  Attach the feet.  Use the electric drill to make the holes for the screws.  Screw in the feet.  They should come with screws for easy attachment, but if not you may have to buy some screws to drill in and attach.  Please note that 'Hard As Nails' Liquid glue does NOT work for this.

3.  Paint!  Make sure to get all the nooks and crannies!  You may want to do more than one coat of paint.  We did two.  Leave to dry.

4.  Set up in your kid's room, put in the mattress, and enjoy!

All in all this cute little toddler bed cost us around $40 total!  What a steal and a great project to work on as a couple or as a family!

Decoupage Dresser/Nightstand/Table Top

Ever wanted to create something fun and unique for your little tikes room? I did. I started out with an old brown dresser and old ugly brown nightstand. I sanded them down, painted them black (waited for them to dry), and added new knobs... Now for the really fun part! I decoupaged the top of them! Want to know how? It was easy!

Items Needed:

~Modge Podge (flat not glossy)

~Scrapbook Paper

~Scissors

~Elmers Glue Stick

~Hard Ruler

~Pencil

1) Wipe down area that you wish to decoupage, making sure it is dust and dirt free. I used a dry microfiber cloth.

2) Place the scrapbook paper lying flat on top of surface you want to cover and arrange how you would like it to appear.

3) Use your ruler and mark with a pencil on the scrapbook paper where to cut.

4) Cut out squares of scrapbook paper.

5) With the Elmers glue stick, glue the scrapbook paper pieces to the surface of the wood where you would like them to go. Use the flat end of your ruler while doing this to flatten out any bubbles, lumps, or other unflattering flaws.

6) Once all the scrapbook paper squares are glued down and you like what you see, paint on the Modge Podge and wait for it to dry.

7) Apply one to two more coats of Modge Podge afterwards and you have a finished product! REMEMBER that the more coats of Modge Podge you use the more the paper will look and become a part of your table top. However, too much Modge Podge will make the images in the scrapbook paper look cloudy... so don't over do it!