Guest Post - The Handyvergers - Furniture Transformations

I'd like to welcome Kelly from The Handyvergers today to DIYbyDesign.

Hello, everyone!  I'm Kelly (otherwise known as Mrs. Handyverger), and I normally live over at The Handyvergers, where I chronicle the process of turning my house into a home - along with the help of Mr. Handyverger and five cats.  I'm so excited to be guest posting here at DIY by Design.  I absolutely love seeing Judy's home (that Ethan Allen mirror makes me swoon!), and I've been enjoying seeing what all of her readers have been up to every week with her Swing into Spring parties.  I'm just thrilled to be here sharing my latest project, though maybe "latest" isn't quite accurate.


I've been working on spiffing Fred up since April, when I found him at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  If there's one near you, go there!  Now!  Don't pass go, don't collect $200.. wait, you might want to, because I always find amazing things there, like my Ethan Allen dining chairs for super cheap.  

Anyway, Fred came home with me the same day that the dining chairs came home, for a whopping fee of $25.   Here he is in his former glory as an itty bitty end table.

The lighting here isn't fantastic (sorry!), but you can get a sense of Fred's graceful curves and dark wood finish.

Here, you can see that Fred's top is a bit scuffed and scraped.  I could have sanded the scrapes out and refinished Fred, but I had visions.


I had this fabric, which you see in the background of the photo above:

It's hard to tell here, but that's a chocolate brown and off-white canvas - very sturdy.  I've used it in other projects, like reupholstering one of my former dining room chairs:

I found a gorgeous shade of kelly green spray paint (and it's common knowledge that I'm a spray paint addict), and got to work on Fred's makeover.

Fred got a light sanding followed by a quick coat of grey primer.  I sanded the primer once it had dried and began spraying light layers of paint all over.  I'm afraid I wasn't quite as patient as I should have been with this, so I ended up having to deal with some drips.  This is what Fred looked like after priming and his first layer of paint.

Looks sort of like he got a camouflage paint job, doesn't it?  Fortunately, that's not the case.

Finally, after many layers of paint, Fred looked like this:

 At this point, Fred spent about a week drying in the garage.  When I brought him back out, I noticed some spots that needed another coat of paint, and of course, I couldn't just leave well enough alone.  I went and got all fancy.

That's Rustoleum's Hammered Copper spray paint, with a little creative taping - the feet were just screaming for a pretty detail, don't you think?

After yet more drying time, I brought Fred inside and upholstered him.  I didn't manage to get any during shots (since I don't consider myself an upholstery expert), but I used a layer of foam topped with a layer of batting to soften the edges.  One thing I do want to point out, though, is that I removed the legs to get the folds around the corners right, and I pulled the fabric very tightly while I was stapling.  I think that's the key to having a piece that looks - if not professional - tidy.

Here's the final product!

 Isn't he hawt? 

 And this is about when the cats started helping.  See the tail on the left of the photo?

Yet more help from the cats. 

So, there you have it: my table-to-stool makeover.  The stool is pretty sturdy, and I think it looks adorable in my entryway.

Apparently, so do my little helpers!

Judy, thank you so much for allowing me to guest post here at DIY By Design!  I hope folks will stop by the Handyvergers.  Today, I'm sharing a few outtakes from my attempts at photographing Fred.

Thanks so much Kelly!

-Judy