Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2011

Fresh Start for a Vintage Spice Rack

I liked this little spice rack - especially the bottles it held!  I had a plan in mind for the clear glass gems with their little stoppers. Well worth the $2 I spent on the set at a yard sale.  So the bottles found new uses, while the wooden rack got tossed in my stash of future projects.  That was 2 years ago...or maybe 3.  It caught my eye when I was rummaging through the stash last week and I decided its time had come.
The rack was shabby/shoddy for sure.  Besides the expected scratches and dull finish from years of use, one of the wooden slats across the back was scotch-taped on. Lovely. and there was a small hunk of wood missing from one corner of the tiny drawer.
  
A good cleaning, sanding and wipe down, along with wood glue and a couple of tiny brads to replace the tape, and it was ready to paint.

I used Krylon's Blue Ocean Breeze spray paint - the perfect backdrop to the pure white milk glass spice jars I had kept from another spice rack project.  My original plan was to distress and antique...but the freshness of the blue just deserved to be left as is.  The antique-look can come naturally over time, or by design at some point in the future if I change my mind.
 
I love that little drawer at the bottom!  It's the perfect size to hold small items like matches or keys.  I couldn't resist adding a surprise pop of color to the bottom of it with some scrapbook paper.  Fun!  And I estimate my total cost at maybe $5...$2 for the rack (yard sale) + $2 worth of spray paint + a few cents for the costs of the scrapbook paper, sandpaper, brads and glue.

Maybe spring lurking right around the corner is another reason to keep this piece fresh, bright and shiny as a new penny...to remind me spring with all its new beauty will replace winter blahs and cold soon.

Linking up to these great linky parties:





 Beyond The Picket Fence

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Monday, November 19, 2007

DIY Projects

Nothing is more satisfying than completing a DIY project that meets or exceeds your expectations. My kitchen cabinets were the dullest, drabbest, ugliest, not to mention dirty, brown for years....just like they were the day I moved in. What took me so long to finally tackle them? I guess fear - that they would be just as ugly after I finished them. That and time and money had something to do with it too...had I known just how MUCH time it would really take, I might never have considered trying. But, I love them now. First, the "Before" shots:


Granted, the picture shows the wear around the handles way worse than you would have seen in person. Keep in mind, this is an old farmhouse that has been added on to repeatedly over some 100 years. The cabinets themselves were built in 3 different sections over about a 20 year period, and it had been over 20 years since their last paint job!....NOW, for the new look:



I love this! The base is painted in a dark, deep red with just a hint of rust. The doors are "Cake batter" cream, then antiqued with a dark brown glaze that I dry-brushed on vertically. And the handles are the cherry on top for me...bought them off ebay for less than 1/2 what they cost retail...and they are top quality oil-rubbed bronze. I had planned to replace the old formica countertops which are off-white with tiny brown flecks, but they are the perfect compliment to the new paint job and the whole "farmhouse" style. Yep, I spent almost the whole summer scrubbing, sanding, removing doors and hardware, painting, and replacing everything - with LOTS of help from husband and daughter (thank you! thank you! thank you!) - but it has proved to be worth it all.
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