From side table to TV stand

This post is really a 'part two' (or 'part deux' if your feeling French) of a guest post I did over at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating that you can find here.

If your wondering, I used a red IKEA side table in my last apartment as a TV stand. But here I decided it needed to look a little more fancy and 'grown-up' so I painted it white, stencilled the top and used some upholstery nails to decorate it.

Once I showed my handiwork off to my dad, he came up with an idea to take it one step further - adding a shelf! I took the measurements of the outside and inside of the legs, following his diagrams below:

The measurements were, in case you are interested, 

From outer leg to outer leg, 54 and 4/5 cm

From the inside of both legs, 44 7/10 cm

Then, on my next visit home, we tackled the project together. He had a spare piece of wood/particle board or something lying around that we could use. We looked it over carefully and found a good section, and then used a table saw to cut a large square (54 and 4/5 cm x 54 and 4/5 cm).

Then to get the little gaps to go around the legs, we simply marked them out with a pencil and ruler and then used a little handheld saw-like too (sorry, don't know the proper terms!) to cut them out.

To give it a smooth finish I tried my hand at the power sander, which is actually a very peaceful activity. Finally we measured the centre of each little "gap" and screwed in some brackets which would attach on the other end to the table legs. In total we attached four brackets, one for each leg.

My dad pre-drilled the holes for the screws in the new shelf, and then we attached the brackets and it was ready for me to take back home to attach to my table.

Luckily my measuring twice and cutting once method worked and it was a perfect fit! From there it was as simple as screwing in the brackets to the table. To do this I flipped the table upside down and put a couple of boxes in the middle of the table. Then I carefully slid the new shelf over the legs to rest on the boxes.

And finally, FINALLY, the last step was to paint the shelf white to match the rest of the table.

So there you have it, how I completely, upgraded my red IKEA side table to a TV stand with an extra shelf!

Happy Crafting,

PS: Here's where we link up.

Second Chance Dresser

This weekend I decided to tackle a project that I've been debating for quite a while. You see about a year and a half ago I moved to my own place in a new city to start my first real, full time job. Like most people in my position I imagine I really didn't have any furniture, but luckily I was able to grab some hand me downs from my family, including a dresser from my older sister.

I think she either got it free off the side of the road or for a couple of bucks in a garage sale, but it did the trick. The pros of the dresser were #1, it was free and #2 it was big and could hold a lot. The cons, #1 it was pretty ugly (you might not be able to see it in the picture but it is made out of this wood-looking material that doesn't have a nice finish and has a lot of chips and dents and scratches) and #2 the bottom drawer was somehow broken, making it hard to slide it and the drawer above it in completely.

My first idea was to grab this dresser from IKEA for $169, but even though it is a good price, it was still more than I was willing to spend on a dresser that I wasn't sure was big enough and that I wasn't sure I really needed.

So I decided to give my own dresser a second chance with a little makeover. So I hopped over to the Home Depot and picked up two $4.99 paint sample cans, one in CIL's Antique White and the other in Behr's Silver Hill.

The first step in my dresser makeover process was to sand down all the surfaces, and then I went over it all with a damp cloth to pick up all the dust.

The problem that it turned out I had with the bottom drawer was because the bottom of the drawer had become unstapled from the rest of it. I simply took my hammer and hammered in two finishing nails and presto, good as new!

All of the drawers got three coats of the Antique White while the dresser itself got one coat of the Antique White and two of the Silver Hill.

I'm quite happy with the result, although I would have preferred if the Silver Hill had dried a little darker/greyer and not as blue as it turned out. Overall though it is a big improvement on how it was originally, and it only cost me under $10 for the paint and about $10 for the paint brushes and sandpaper, all of which I can still use again.

Here's a side-by-side before and after to leave you with.

Happy painting,

Courtney

* dresser photo came from IKEA.ca

I linked this post here: