Industrial End Table DIY | {Megan}

I've never really been someone to go out and buy brand-new furniture when I know that I could always redo a piece of old furniture, or even build something if I really wanted to. Before I moved into my current apartment, the one thing that I didn't have was end tables.



Luckily, I stumbled upon this old saw table that my parents had laying around at their property and thought it would make a really neat table. Turning the saw table into a cool industrial end table only took about an hour or two to create.



Supplies:
-Metal saw table frame
-A couple of 2x4s
-A couple of 1x4s
-Wood glue
-Clamps
-Hand sander
-Drill and screws
-Wood stain

To create the table top, I cut four 2x4s down size to fit the metal frame.

Next, I glued the boards together and clamped them together tight.



Once the glue was dry, I sanded the boards to give them a smooth finish.



To make the top more secure, I spaced out two 2x4s to the underneath side and screwed them into place.

The metal frame allowed me to add a shelf, so I cut five 1x4s that would be able to sit in the frame. The edges of these boards needed sanded as well.



The next step was to stain all the boards. I used General Finishes in Antique Walnut.





Once the stain was set and dry, I simply put the five pieces on the bottom in place to create a shelf and sat the table top onto the metal frame.

I love the way it turned out. What do you all think?

Vintage Vanity to Modern Desk Redo | {Megan}

Having a nice desk was a big priority for me when moving into my new apartment. It took me a long time to decide what kind of desk I wanted. Buying a new desk wasn't an option because all of the desks I liked were hundreds of dollars. After discussing it with my mom, she offered to let me use an old vanity she had bought a few years ago that she never ended up doing anything with. It was in pretty rough shape so I knew it'd take quite a bit of work. As you can see from this picture, it was missing some pieces and the veneer was coming off in many places. It was a long process but definitely worth it. Here are the steps we took to turn this beat-up old vanity into a modern desk.

1. We decided to make a new top for the desk so the first thing that needed to be done was to take off the top. All we did was unscrew the screws holding it into place.





2. The vanity wasn't as long as I wanted it to be, so next we removed the boards that attached the two drawer pieces together.



3. Once the two drawer pieces were separated we needed to remove the veneer. Veneer is fairly easy to remove with a scraper. Once the veneer was removed, we sanded the wood that was underneath.



4. The vanity was not tall enough to work as a desk so we added a couple of 2x4s to the top of the drawer pieces. We simply cut the pieces to size, glued them down, then secured them with a nail gun.



5. The next step for the drawer pieces was to sand down the drawer fronts and paint them a crisp white. I decided to spray paint the current knobs white as well.



6. While the paint was drying, the next step was to build the desk top. I bought two 8-foot 1x12s at a lumber store and we cut the boards down to 5 feet. We used wood glue and clamps to secure them together.

7. Once the glue was dry, we screwed a 2x4 in the middle of the bottom side to give it extra support.



8. To finish the top of the desk, we added Cabot pecan stain. Once that was dry, we added Tung oil to seal it.

9. Once the top and two bottom pieces were dry, we put them together. We used wood glue and screwed screws into the planks from underneath.

A new desk wouldn't be complete without a chair, so I took a modern green chair and spray painted it with Valspar outdoor spray paint in the color "Jellyfish".



Here's the finished product in my new apartment!:

Cart Redo // 2 Ways | {Kali & Megan}

Kali's IKEA Cart Update:

A few years back, when Zac and I were still living in Des Moines in our rented townhouse, we took a weekend trip to Minneapolis. The one thing I had to do before we left was take my first-ever trip to Ikea. I didn't have anything in particular in mind that I needed—nor did I really have any money to spend on anything significant. My best (and actually most expensive) purchase from that trip was this $20 cart.



This cart was super useful while we lived in the townhouse—I used it for makeup storage in our oversized master bathroom. However, when we moved into our new house in Lincoln this past fall, I wasn't quite sure where I'd use it because our current master bath is quite a bit smaller.

As I was talking to Megan about my office redo, she came up with the idea to use the cart in my office, mostly for decor purposes. I wanted to use gold accents in my office, so I decided to take this cart from silver to gold.



I, for some very unfortunate reason, did not get the DIY/crafting gene that my mom and sisters have, so this seemed like a simple enough project for me (and Megan even helped!). I first cleaned up the cart as it had been sitting in our garage for awhile. The shelves popped right off, so we only had to tape off the wheels.



When the cart was prepped, we took it out to the garage to spray paint. We used Rust-oleum Metallic Finish gold spray paint (my mom tells me this is the best gold spray paint to use!).



The spray paint dried within 20 minutes and we only needed a few coats. It was a very simple project that instantly gave this boring cart a super-chic look!

Here's the finished product:



And, here's how it looks decorated now in my office!:





//

Megan's Vintage Cart Update:



A few years ago, I found an old kitchen cart at a garage sale for $10. I really liked the olive green color and figured I could definitely use it for something. I've moved several times since then and have used the cart for many different purposes. Now that I'm settled into my new apartment, I decided I wanted to use it in my bathroom to hold jewelry, towels, and other bathroom necessities. Olive green really just doesn't read as a bathroom color to me. I love bathrooms that are bright, crisp, and clean, so I decided I was going to spray paint the cart white.



It turned out to be a super simple project. The two bottom shelves unscrewed from the legs and once they were off, the top shelf popped right off the legs. One thing I really dislike about prepping for painting is taping. Luckily, since I was able to take the legs off, I got to skip that part!


^^ Because the cart already had a shiny surface, a gloss spray paint needed to be used (like the one shown here).
I was able to finish the project within a day, using only one bottle of spray paint. The cart needed three coats total.

Here's the after!:

Filing Cabinet Makeover | {Megan}

A few weeks ago, I bought a couple of used filing cabinets in attempt to make a filing cabinet desk. I ended up with two filing cabinets with dimensions that weren't the same. It turns out it's really hard to find used filing cabinets that are exactly the same! I gave up and decided to sell them. Before I sold both of them, Kali told me she thought might need one for her office. I told her if she wanted it, I could redo it for her as it was in pretty rough shape and I started sending her some ideas. I knew how she was planning on decorating her new office, so we both decided the filing cabinet should be white and gold. Here are the steps I took to turn this ugly black filing cabinet into a chic white and gold beauty!



The first thing I did was gather all of my supplies. Here is the list:





Next, I followed these steps:
• Clean the filing cabinet with an all-purpose cleaner.
• Set the filing cabinet on two bricks—or anything else that would lift the cabinet off of the ground that you don't mind getting spray paint on.
• Take out the drawers and remove the handles.



• Put on a mask and begin spray-painting the cabinet and drawers white. Do as many coats as needed but make sure to allow the paint to completely dry before adding another coat.





• Spray-paint the handles with the gold spray paint. I find it best to prop the handles up using styrofoam.
• When the filing cabinet, drawers, and handles are completely dry, the handles and decorative brackets can be attached.



• Use a drill to drill the holes for the brackets.



• Add glue to the corner of the brackets and put the bracket in place.



• Secure the bracket with the screws that were included, put the drawers back into place, and you are done!





Stayed tuned for Kali's complete office makeover post in a few weeks to see how the filing cabinet looks with the rest of her office!

Dresser Redo | {Megan}

One thing that I love to do is upcycle or re-do furniture and home accessories. I guess you could say it runs in the family as my mother owns her own business, Barnyard Boutique, where she does just that and more. Ever since she started her upcycling/vintage and antique business, I have always enjoyed helping her and learning her many techniques. Once I found out that I would be moving to a new state, I had a rush of ideas for my future apartment. My imagination was running wild. I started to have ideas for some of my existing pieces of furniture, but I also felt an urge to find some new pieces that I could put my own creative spin on. I began looking at the local swap pages on Facebook, thrift stores, and of course, Goodwill.

The first piece that I decided to work on was a long horizontal dresser that Zeke had when he lived with his parents. We moved this piece into our first apartment together a year and a half ago. I decided I wanted to paint it white. Because we were already moved into our apartment and in desperate need of a TV stand, I rushed the whole project. It didn't turn out that great, but we lived with it. Just a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to re-do the dresser again but this time put 100% into it.

Here's the after!:



Here's a list of all the supplies that were used to create this beautiful piece:



• Deglosser
• Scouring pads
• Valspar Silver Sonic
• Paint brush
• Minwax Polycrylic
• Stripper
• Gloves
• Mask
• Mineral Spirits
• Aluminum foil
• Orbital Sander
• 220 grit sand paper
• General Finish's Antique Walnut Gel Stain
• Rags (not pictured)
• Three 1x4's (not pictured)
• Nail gun (not pictured)
• Steel wool (not pictured)



Here is how I did it:

1. The first step is always to prep the furniture. Because the white paint wasn't slick, there was no need to sand the body of the dresser. Instead, I took some deglosser and rubbed it all over the dresser with a green scrub pad.

2. The next step was simply painting. I went with a very light gray. I prefer brushes with a short handle because they are easier to grip. I ended up only having to do two coats of paint because of it being painted previously. I let the paint dry a day in between each coat.

3. The last step for the body of the dresser was to seal it with polycrylic using a different paint brush.



4. I decided I wanted to stain the drawer fronts and the shelf of the dresser. This process took a little bit more effort. Because the drawers were already painted, I had to use stripper on them. First I just brushed on a generous amount and let it set for a couple hours. One trick is to cover the area that's covered in the stripper with aluminum foil. This helps the stripper to better penetrate the paint layer. Make sure to wear gloves and a mask when using stripper because it will burn! After a couple of hours, I removed the stripper with some steel wool dipped in mineral spirits. While the stripper took off some of the paint, it didn’t take all of it off. Once the drawer fronts were dry, I used an orbital sander with 220 grit sand paper and removed the rest.

5. Once the paint was removed, I simply put the stain on the drawers with a rag and then wiped it back off with a different rag.

6. The next step was to build the shelf. This required three 1x4's. With the help of my mom, we measured the dresser and cut the boards down to the correct size. Then we stained each individual board. Once they were dry we fit them into place and secured them to the dresser with a nail gun.

7. The last step was to put on some hardware. I ended up using the original handles and I love the way it turned out!



I'd love to hear what you guys think of my project!