Friday, September 11, 2015

Farmhouse Coffee Table

I really do Thrift My House. I love a bargain. From furniture, to clothing, to groceries... I'm always looking to save money.


 I was at Salvation Army a few weeks ago and saw this coffee table for $12.99.  I couldn't get to the register fast enough. Do you see what I see? A farmhouse coffee table! For $12.99!

 I sanded the top so it would soak up some stain. You can see the particle board showing through in a few places... no worries.

I first stained it a dark brown. It looked pretty BAD... the color was very uneven. I then stained it ebony wiping off some of the stain so the brown would shine through. I brushed on a couple of coats of water based poly. Perfect! Perfectly Imperfect!

I love the size of this table with the couch. 

I primed and painted the sides and legs. Lately I've been using primer, latex paint and poly instead of chalk paint. Can you believe it? With kids, this table will get a lot of wear and tear. 
I don't want to baby it at all.

I distressed it just a little.

 I noticed that when I distressed it, the paint wanted to roll a bit compared to chalkpaint but it still looked good to me.

Before

After

I hope you were inspired!
Thank you so much for stopping by Thrift My House.

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Friday, September 4, 2015

New Hardwood Floors

So..... I took a 3 month blog break. I didn't plan on it, it just kind of happened. 
I hope all of you had a nice summer. I did. It was nice spending time with my family and I got a few projects done.

In my last post, I shared with you that we were getting hardwood floors. We've had them over 3 months now and I love them. 

Here is before.

We wanted to save a little money so we pulled up the carpet and prepared the floor ourselves. 

Ignorance is really bliss! I had no idea how hard it was going to be to remove all the particle board that was beneath the carpet. Using a crowbar, (we tried everything) it literally came up in small pieces.

The heating and cooling vents had to be lowered.

Lots of sweeping and vacuuming.

The carpet was over 20 years old. I liked it better already. This is the view coming in the back french door.

We moved most of the furniture on the back porch but worked around these heavier pieces.

We decided on a prefinished hardwood. The brand name of the floor is Somerset and the color is provincial. We ordered it online. We saved about $700 compared to what the local floor places wanted for the same floor. 

We hired these guys to install it.  It would have taken us years... seriously.

I wanted to show you these cool vents. They fit flat to the floor so you can put furniture on top of them if needed. I had to stain the outer piece because it was nailed down with the rest of the floor but the vent part is removable. I still need to stain them.

Because one thing always leads to another... I painted the front door.

And the stairs. I also painted the end tables. I actually painted the end tables 4 times (each) .... white, gray, green, then back to white... but we won't talk about that.

I painted the french doors inside and out. Remember I had wanted to paint them black? With the brown floors, I think white is best. (unless I change my mind...)

I've only mopped these floors twice in the past 3 months. Having a no shoe policy helps with that! I occasionally vacuum and dust mop. They look clean even when they're dirty. 
Gotta love that!

That's it for the new floors. I can't wait to hear what you think.
I look forward to visiting and catching up with all of you.
  I hope you were inspired! 
Thank you so much for stopping by Thrift My House.