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Furniture Makeover

Spring One Room Challenge Week Six: How to Remove Veneer from Wood Furniture

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five

Week Six already?! We are in the home stretch now and truly have the hardest work completely behind us now. This week I turned my attention to refinishing a dresser that was already in the room. You may remember it from the before photos.

This dresser was mine as a kid, and my mom’s before that. It’s been painted a countless number of times throughout my life, and the blue was just its most recent iteration. Several years ago, I attempted to strip it, but it was covered in a midcentury veneer style that I just didn’t love, and so I painted it again. I know a little more about furniture restoration and antiques than I did several years ago, so this time I decided the time was right to remove the veneer and see what was underneath.

I started out with a layer of SmartStrip. It’s a nontoxic paint stripper that cuts through multiple layers. I’ve only used it once before, but it’s what I had on hand, and it’s relatively safe for indoor use since there’s almost no odor, so I figured it was my best bet. I wrapped in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

Now, I expected it to take off the paint, but what I didn’t expect was for it to begin lifting the veneer as well. After about 24 hours, some of the veneer had begun to bubble. Which was a pleasant surprise for me, because my goal was to remove the veneer anyway. However, if you have a piece that has veneer you’d like to keep, SmartStrip is going to be too strong.

One coat of SmartStrip was enough to remove about 80% of the veneer! I saved myself a step of removing the paint first and then the veneer which is what I assumed I would have to do, but there was still some that needed another method to remove.

I used some old hand towels (they should be thicker than rags, but they will be ruined, so you want to use ones you don’t care about), and got them damp with the hottest water I could handle. I laid the damp towels over the veneer, and then set my iron on top of it.

It creates a ton of steam, which loosens the glue so that the veneer can be removed fairly easily with a putty knife.

I actually found this to be easier physically than scraping with the SmartStrip, but it was more time consuming.

Once I had all the veneer scraped off, I had to sand myself into oblivion. I sanded with an 80 grit, a 120 grit, and finally a 220 grit to make sure everything was super smooth. I then coated with a coat of polyurethane (water based because I was working on it indoors and didn’t want to deal with the odors). I did two coats of polyurethane, with a light sand with 220 grit sandpaper in between.

You can see in the photo above that I didn’t strip the paint from the bottom of the drawers, which if you look closely, you can see all the different color lives its lived. The purple was the color it was in my own baby nursery!

And now, it looks like the antique heirloom piece that it is! The pine looks so lovely in its natural state, and I am so glad I decided to leave it this color and not stain it. The hardware is the same hardware that was previously on it, but sporting a fresh coat of Rub N Buff in Antique Gold.

You’ll have to pardon the photo angle, I’m strategically hiding a few elements in the room I’m not ready to share yet. So you’ll have to check back for the full reveal in just two weeks to see how the dresser looks in its new home!

Be sure to check out the other participants’ weekly updates, and stay tuned, because the reveal will be here before you know it! That’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!

May 11, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

Plans for the Playroom/Office + A Furniture Makeover

About five months ago, we moved our bedroom upstairs with the intention of turning the downstairs room into a playroom/office. It’s been pretty slow going. Drywall removal, wallpaper removal, and nail-in-shiplap removal has taken some time, and it’s not really fun work that keeps you motivated to do more.

But with our impending nursery project coming up, and the general house re-shuffling that comes with preparing for a new baby, I feel inclined to get moving on this playroom. I bought a set of chairs for five dollars a while back from a thrift store, and I knew they would be perfect in our playroom when we eventually got around to finishing it. The chairs didn’t come with a table though, so I searched Facebook Marketplace until I found one for ten dollars. So for my total price, I was at fifteen dollars. I knew however, that it was going to need a lot of work so I just stuck them in my garage and ignored them for a while.

Because of our current social distancing situation, I wanted to paint the table and chairs without going to the store to purchase anything. Luckily for me, I have a hoard of supplies in my garage, so I found a leftover sample we had used to test colors and got to work. The table was in the roughest shape. It needed to be sanded, stripped a bit, wood filled, glued back together, and clamped overnight. The painting was actually the easy part!

It’s not 100% done yet, but someone is already enjoying it!

So now that the table is almost done, I figured it would be time to work on a mood board for the space. I always find it helpful to visualize everything together in a space when I’m planning a room. I used everything I already had that I knew would go in the space, and then worked from there. So here’s what I came up with:

Obviously my table and chairs are a second hand DIY version, but I wanted to visualize what it might look like, so I included something similar. Here are a few similar options that I love: option 1, option 2, or option 3.

Our couch is the Sven Sofa from Article in the Grass Green color. It’s currently in our living room while we work on the playroom, and it’s the perfect sofa for littles. The long bench cushion comes off, and our son loves taking it down and climbing all over it.

As far as wall colors, I’m not 100% certain on what I want in the space, but I think I want to go in a beige direction. Gasp! The color on the background is Benjamin Moore Athena, but it’s just an example for now. Once we can safely leave our house again, I’ll get around to testing some actual colors.

I think the beige wall color will look really good with this rug, which I totally have my eye on. I think it’ll be just the right amount of fun for a playroom, but also the right amount of sophistication for an office.

The desk is a picture of our current desk, as we plan on putting our desktop computer in the playroom as well. It’s painted in Behr’s America’s Cup Navy. I need some new hardware, as you can see. 🙂

Other ideas for the room include built in shelves around the french doors for toy storage, and large framed fabric panels to tie the blue and green furniture together. Although I have some ideas in my mind, I just included some inspiration photos, not necessarily the exact thing I will end up going with. If you’re wondering, the fabric is here, and the built in photo I used for inspiration comes from this blog.

And just for good measure, I included some photos of actual toys that we have. You know, to make it more realistic. Most of our son’s toys come from IKEA, because they have the cutest toys.

So that’s the plan! I’m not exactly sure when we will get to finish this because of social isolation and all, but we definitely are going to get started on getting the last of the wallpaper residue off the walls. Baby steps. What projects are you planning during this time?

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

*This post may contain affiliate links.

March 24, 2020 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover, House Progress

Plans for the Backyard + An Outdoor Chair Makeover

Hi friends! I wanted to share with y’all what we’ve been working on this week, even though we aren’t finished. Just about everything is a work in progress around here, but I figured I’d share some of the progress and our plans in real time.

So, on Monday morning I happened to stumble upon a neighbor’s trash pile with a stack of outdoor Adirondack chairs. I don’t normally go garbage picker, but if the shoe fits… I grabbed the chairs, brought them home, and then started dreaming about what our backyard could look like with a little bit of work.

So, these chairs were in great condition, but….the brown was just not gonna work. Thankfully there was an easy solution to that. With a quick couple of coats of outdoor spray paint, they were looking better already. I used Krylon outdoor spray paint in a high gloss finish.

You wouldn’t think such a subtle change would make all that much of a difference, but it makes them look brand new! But then I had these great chairs, and all of a sudden, I was inspired to start some projects in the backyard. So….we started digging. But first, let me show you what our yard looked like before.

Yikes, right? This space had some old rosebushes in them before we moved in, but they were terrible and awkwardly located, so we tore them out a while back. Then my brother built this in-ground fire pit while he was staying with us for a few weeks using some rocks from around our property. But other than that, it was just looking super sad.

So I thought, man, wouldn’t it be great to have an area covered in pea gravel surrounding the firepit, to put these chairs on and round out the space? So, Ethan and I got to work. We rounded up some bricks from behind the garage and under the porch (old house problems or old house perks?) and dug a trench perimeter for the area we were thinking about.

We buried the bricks halfway into the ground, just kind of winging it, and then we started digging. And digging, and digging, and digging. We wanted an area about two inches below the surface. Which, two inches doesn’t seem like a lot, but when it’s a large surface area, it freaking suuuuucks. Ethan did most of the work, but I did enough to make my body hate me, don’t worry.

And that leads us to where we are now. We’ve finished digging, and the next step is laying down a barrier and then pea gravel!

As for the swing, I think we’re going to take it down, build a solid cover on top, and then put our grill there. I’d like to paint it as well, but I’m not sure what color. I want to do something that goes along with what the house will be eventually, which is white with black trim. But we aren’t sure what exact white, and what exact black, so I don’t want to do something that will eventually clash with the house. So I’m currently undecided.

It’s not finished, but I can see the end result in my head and I can’t wait!

So, in the spirit of celebrating progress instead of just completed projects, that’s where we are. Aching backs, and spruced up old chairs. And if you think that I’m not going to enjoy some summer s’mores just because we aren’t done yet, you’d be wrong. 🙂

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

June 13, 2019 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover

DIY Antique Farmhouse Dresser

Hello friends! Happy Monday! Today is good day for a good day, am I right? I’ve been super busy lately with projects and it is a wonderful feeling! Last weekend Ethan and I cleared out our garage, which gave me plenty of room to work. We organized all my materials, and made a place for everything.

It used to be super full and I barely had room to work on anything, but now that it’s all clean, I’ve been super inspired to work on projects in there. It feels like I can finally breathe!

One of the projects that I finished up this week was this little antique dresser. I snagged this dresser up from a friend who was selling it at her garage sale. I saw it and knew I had to have it! And because I am the worst at taking before pictures, you’ll just have to use your imagination. It was just plain brown and missing a few handles.

Well, I painted her up, and here she is in all her antique farmhouse style glory:

Okay, so with this project, I tried something new. I knew I wanted it to be super distressed, and rather than use my sander, I wanted to try the Vaseline trick that furniture painters everywhere have been talking about. So I applied Vaseline all on the edges of the dresser. (Basically where you see distressing is where I applied.) I found that it was easiest just to use my finger rather than messing with a paint brush.

After I applied my Vaseline, it was time for paint. I used Palais White by Behr in a flat finish. I painted everything evenly, including the areas that where I had used Vaseline. Now here’s where it gets tricky. My dresser needed two coats. Being the impatient person that I am, I could not wait to see the effects of the Vaseline after the first coat of paint. So, I began rubbing the areas with a rag. This was a dumb idea because I still had to paint a second coat.

The paint will not adhere to the Vaseline, and it basically makes a crackly looking paste in the areas where the Vaseline was applied. If you have to paint two coats, do not remove the Vaseline until finished with both coats. That was my biggest mistake. The technique worked well enough, but I had to reapply Vaseline so I could do my second coat.

Personally, I think I would rather just take my sander to the project afterward, but it’s good to try new things. Plus that’s mostly because of my own impatience.

After I finished the painting, I topped it with Annie Sloan clear wax to give it a protective finish. The wax is technically used for chalk paint, and I previously had only ever used it on chalk paint, but because flat paint is pretty porous, I figured I’d give it a try, and it worked pretty well!

I just love this cute little dresser, and it matches my light and bright farmhouse style perfectly! But alas, I won’t be keeping this one. She will be heading with me to my spring shows (which I will be keeping you posted about more soon, but the first one will be the Vintage Market Days in Glen Rose Texas in March. So that’s good news for you, because this cutie could be yours!

So, have you ever tried using Vaseline to distress painted furniture? I’d love to hear about your experience! Don’t forget you can find me on Instagram and Facebook for more behind the scenes fun of my day to day life! Well friends, that’s all for today. Have a fabulous day!

January 16, 2017 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover

Family Heirloom Dresser Refresh

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by today! Has the fall weather hit where you are? It finally feels like fall around here, with the leaves finally falling and the hint of cool weather in the breeze. Texas falls are nothing like the falls in New York where I grew up, but I’ll take what I can get.

This season has brought a hint of change in the air, both literally and figuratively. I’ve been super inspired lately to create more, paint more, make more, etc. So what I’m showing you today is something I’m super excited about.

So this is the dresser in our bedroom.

It has a beautiful shape that I have always loved. It’s a solid wood piece, and it’s something we’ll always have. It was Ethan’s growing up, and before that, was in my mother in law’s family when they moved from the northeast down to Texas. It’s such a gorgeous dresser, but it used to be an orange stained finish with large circular wooden handles. Not to mention the stickers that were put on the side by Ethan as a kid. So needless to say, I’ve wanted to give her a little facelift, but since it was a family piece, it just wasn’t a possibility. Until recently.

My mother in law finally gave us the okay to paint, and I was super excited. I bought some new drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby, and knew exactly how I wanted to finish it.

The outer part of the dresser got a coat of my favorite paint, Annie Sloan’s Old White, and the drawer fronts got sanded down and left bare. Guys. I am OBSESSED with this new look. I always knew there was a gorgeous dresser hiding behind that orange finish, but it’s even prettier than I thought.

I’m so thankful to have gotten the okay to work on this piece. When there’s a family history you have to honor in a piece, it can be a little intimidating. Hopefully this little refresh honors my mother in law and her family. I know that it definitely finishes out our bedroom in a way that makes the dresser fit. This piece will definitely be with us forever.

Good grief it’s just so pretty. Well y’all, that’s about it for today. Just wanted to pop in and share this fun project. Have you ever painted something that belonged in the family for a long time? How did it go?

That’s all for today friends, have a fabulous day!

October 23, 2016 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover

Annie Sloan: One Year Later

Hey y’all! Phew. The past few weeks have been CA-RAZY. With moving into the new house two weeks ago, and setting up my classroom, and Ethan being in and out of town for work, things have been hectic to say the least. Today is the first day we’ve had internet at our house. Like, we had to go to McDonald’s to pay bills last week. So that was a low point.

Things are starting to feel a tiny bit more settled now finally, and I can’t wait to share with you guys more of the house! Today I want to talk about something I think a lot of people have had questions about. How well does chalk paint hold up? Since I’ve been setting everything up at the new house, I’ve been inspecting and reworking all the things we had in our previous home.

About a year ago, I gave our living room coffee and end table a little makeover. I used Annie Sloan chalk paint, which I’ve used for several other projects throughout our home. I love this paint, and I’ve talked about great it is, but I’ve never had much experience with the paint over a long period of time. Now, our coffee table is the hub of the living room. We’re pretty casual, so this table gets a lot of wear from putting our feet up on the table. We also eat off this table and write on it. It’s basically a work horse.

I’m not being paid by anyone to tell you this, but I have to say, after about a year or so, the top of this table needed a second coat.

The edges of the table top started to wear down (and not from the distressing I intentionally added), and it was starting to look a little more shabby than I was wanting.

In about twenty minutes, I just slapped on a quick top coat of the paint in the Old White color. I didn’t even tape off where I had painted the gray stripes. Just a quick and painless coat of paint, and wax a few hours later.

With this specific project, it doesn’t bother me that I had to do a second coat. With something bigger and more time consuming, it might be a little bit more annoying. Now, there may be people who are better at applying the wax than I am, which could protect the paint better. I’m a novice at this stuff, but that’s my experience. This will in no way prevent me from continuing to use chalk paint in the future. I love the stuff! But, with something bigger, I might look into another solution in the future. We’ll see.

Have you ever had issues with this in the past? If so, I’d love to hear about how you solved them! I know that this has been a quick and simple post, but I wanted to pop in and share what I’ve been up to! Well, that’s all for today friends! Have a fabulous day!

August 2, 2016 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover, Home Decor, Tutorials

Cane Chair Makeover…again

Have you ever done a project and just hated the results? You work hard on something, and when it’s finished, it’s just not what you thought it would be? This is what I’m sharing today. About two years ago I bought a pair of cane chairs from a thrift store for $20. I was so excited to work on them. Like, SO excited. Unfortunately, I don’t have the original picture anymore, but they were dark wood, with a gross blue fabric. I knew I wanted to make them over, but I had no idea how.

I picked some fabric out for the chairs with no thought to how it might lay on the chair. I learned a lot from this first makeover, but they just weren’t doing it for me. Here’s how they looked after makeover number one (and don’t judge me):

First of all, if you look close enough, you can see that the back legs aren’t even painted. How did I miss that?! I don’t know. I also don’t know how I lived with this for so long. Ugh.

This is a wider shot of the chairs. They are convenient, really. Ethan puts his shoes on here, and they are pretty comfortable. I like to sit here and read on occasion as well. Sidenote, our dresser is my husband’s childhood dresser (a family heirloom), deemed untouchable by the paintbrush. Anyway, looking at these chairs just makes me cringe. I’ve wanted to do something about them for so long, but the amount of work I did the first time around was torturous, and I couldn’t imagine going through that again. So I put it off for a while, thinking that since I had done it, I’d have to live with it.

But that’s just not true. I did these chairs before I got married, before I was making a home, and WAY before I started figuring out what my style was. There’s no rule out there saying you have to live with your DIY mistakes. So, I decided to take the plunge. This time, with a few ground rules. I had to do this the easiest way possible. Because last time was awful.

So let’s go through it, step by step.

I didn’t want to go through the hassle of all the buttons, so I stuffed them with stuffing. A little hot glue on top of the button, and some stuffing. Easy peasy.

I bought a $4 drop cloth and placed the seat bottom face down on the fabric.

Then I carefully pulled the corners over and stapled the dropcloth material to the bottom. The key here is to pull as tight as you can, and keep everything as neat as possible.

The seat bottom took probably a total of ten minutes, but the top section was a bit more involved.

I cut a piece of material the size of the chair back and stapled starting at the top. I found that the best way to keep it tight and even is to start at the top, then staple the bottom, and finish with the sides.

I then wrapped the chair back in quilting batting. I did this to make it a bit more comfy, and to conceal the buttons.

I then wrapped the seat back in the material, and hotglued the extra material to the backside.

I then put the seat back up against the frame, and stapled as closely to the top as possible. This is tricky, and my staple gun was not kind to my hands.

I then covered the staples with trim. I make the trim by wrapping the existing trim in the material and hotgluing it. Hot glue for the win.

The new chairs are still not perfect, but they’re much simpler, and I can live with them now. This was only my second time with reupholstery (on the same set of chairs). I still don’t have it down, but I definitely appreciate these chairs a bit more now.

Overall, they just look cleaner, smoother, and more natural.

The neutral look will allow them to be moved anywhere around our home and work.

So the moral of this story is: if you don’t like something, change it! And if you still don’t like it, change it again! I can’t say that these are perfect, but they’re working SO MUCH BETTER than before.

Have you ever done something you hated? What did you do? I’d love to hear about it! That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

July 2, 2015 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover

Coffee Table Makeover

Hello all! Happy Monday from me to you! I hope you’re having a fantastic morning. Are you drinking your coffee as you’re reading this? I hope so!

Summer is in full swing for me here. I’m a teacher, and even though my summer break started a few weeks back, I spent the first bit of that away from home visiting different family members. I didn’t feel like my summer break had fully begun until this last week. I don’t have any kiddos to keep me busy (that is definitely not a complaint), so my days range between mindlessly watching Netflix for an embarrassing number of hours and finding odd projects around the house to keep me busy.

This week these old tables we have in our living room became the object of choice (I swear, nothing is safe from the paintbrush in this house. Except for the walls, because, landlords). These two tables were my husband, Ethan’s from his bachelor days. Who knows how old they are or where in the world they came from. Classic newlyweds, amiright?

I painted the bases white when we first got married, and that was good for a while. But you can see how scratched and janky (I can use that word right?) they are. They weren’t looking so hot.

So obviously I had to do something about it (which if you’re reading this and you still haven’t figured out that I am about to paint this table, then I’m sorry I ruined the surprise for you).

The first thing I did was put a fresh coat of Annie Sloan Old White over both tables. I’ve written previously more details about using this paint, which you can find here.

Don’t mind this background of this picture. It’s our totally-unfinished-not-fully-furnished-guestroom/paint studio. We all have that one room we don’t want anyone to see. Except you just saw mine. Don’t judge me, please keep reading.

I wanted to go for a “farmhouse style” look, so I wanted to paint a grainsack stripe on each of the tables. I spaced a four inch wide line in the center, and a one inch wide line on either side.

I then painted in the areas I had taped off. The color is Pencil Sketch by Behr. I bought a sample jar of it at Home Depot in a flat finish and had plenty left over. The paintbrush is the 2″ Wooster Shortcut. This is the first time using this brush and I can tell you that I absolutely loved it! It’s inexpensive and easy to use.

After painting my stripes, I got around to distressing lightly the edges of my table. I also sanded down over the gray stripes so that a bit of the white would show through. I wanted to give the stripes a bit of a worn look.

After distressing, removing tape, adding a finishing wax, and making a huge mess, my tables were done!

They make the room so much brighter, which I absolutely love. I also am really digging the rustic vibe they have. The best part about this project is that I had everything on hand except for the $3 paint sample I bought. That’s what I call a thrifty project! My favorite kind! That’s all for today. Have a fabulous day, friends!

June 15, 2015 by Fawn Rumfield

DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover

Dining Room Table Makeover

Hey Y’all! Today I’m sharing what is hands down my favorite project to date. This is definitely the biggest impact project I have done, and I am IN LOVE with the result.

So, cue the before picture:

This dining set has seen better days. I believe it’s from Target, but I’m honestly not even sure. My husband bought it for $50 long before we were married from a couple who was moving. It had been their newlywed table, and we inherited it as our newlywed table. It’s not awful, but it’s a dark, basic, “starter” table in all its MDF glory. Clearly not my favorite thing. You can see why I needed to update this baby.

I got my first supply of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for my birthday, and I decided to give it a try.

This labor of love took several days, but it was so worth it. As you can see, I started with a coat of Annie Sloan’s Old White. What’s shown here is the very first coat. I ended up doing two full coats and a third coat just in certain areas.

This is the end result of my hard work. I wanted to go for a bit of a distressed look (not too much), so I lightly sanded around the natural edges of the chairs and tables.

That messy porch workshop of mine. Sorry, y’all. In the photo of the table, you can see that I painted about an inch onto the tabletop. I didn’t paint the whole thing, because I felt like that would just be a waste. I didn’t want any unpainted parts to show through when I added the top though, so I just painted around the edges.

Next comes the wax. Chalk paint needs an application of wax after the paint is dry. It’s a tricky process, but I seemed to manage. I think I’m going to do a separate post on my experience using this paint. Anyway, once the wax was applied, it was time to work on the tabletop.

First thing I did was sand the sharp edges of each board. We used 8 1×6 cedar planks cut to 42 inches (the width of our table). I wanted a rustic look, but not a give-you-splinters-while-you’re-eating-dinner look.

Then I stained each of the boards. I have learned by now that gloves are a must while staining. Just…don’t go to school with stain all over your hands and knees. Your students will not appreciate it.

This is the stain I used:

As you can see in the above photo, the color on the can isn’t quite how it turned out, but that’s alright. Up until this point, this project had been completely mine. I did have to enlist my husband to help with the next step, though.

We lined the tabletop with the newly stained boards, and nailed them in place.

Can I also just say that nail guns are really awesome? Okay, that’s all.

I added a coat of Polyurethane to the top to protect the finish. The poly brought out the wood grain even more and made the top look SO GOOD.

This photo shows how much the poly enhanced the wood grain. Hello, beautiful. After this, we waited for it to dry so we could move it back into the dining room. Never mind the fact that the dining room had been awkwardly empty for a week at this point.

Here she is, my new table! She doesn’t look quite so newlywed basic anymore!

We decided to leave about an inch of overhang on either side to create just a little bit more surface area.

We can’t do anything about the dark carpet or paneling, or wall color, so this table makes a big impact. It lightens up the space so much!

Remember how dark it was before? The before/after pictures were taken at the same time of day! I am loving this table now, and definitely won’t be parting with it for a LONG time.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m going to do a more in depth post on my experience with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, so stay tuned for that! That’s all for today. Have a fabulous day, friends!

May 26, 2015 by Fawn Rumfield