Upcycled Coffee Bar

What do you do when you see an old microwave stand out in the neighbor’s garbage?  Well, if you’re me, you have your husband go get it, so you can re-purpose it as something else. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to use the old microwave stand for right way, but eventually an idea came to me.  I decided to use it in our guestroom as a coffee and snack bar.

To do this, I cleaned it up and refinished it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (old white paint and clear wax) that I had from a previous project. I like ASCP because 1) no sanding is required and 2) it is a great paint to use for distressed pieces of furniture.

I applied two coats of ASCP with my ASCP brush, one coat of ASCP wax with an old rag, and then I sanded the edges to make it look a little distressed.

I finished the piece with new glass knobs and decoupaged the doors with scrapbook paper and Mod Podge.

Lastly, I had to give my upcycled piece of furniture some purpose by making it a coffee bar for our guests.  I bought a place mat for a few dollars at Old Time Pottery and put it underneath a small coffee pot and coffee mug stand from my first apartment.  Then I went to Goodwill on the first Saturday of the month when everything is half off and purchased a set of coffee mugs for $.50 each. Inside the doors, I store extra sheets for the guestroom bed.  On the shelf, I keep snacks, coffee, teas, and bottled water in a tray I purchased from Home Goods. 

My husband likes to tease me about this project.  He reminds me that we don’t run a bed and breakfast.  But I do like having coffee and teas for guests in their own room when they come to visit.....and by guests, I mean family who come to visit once or twice of year and my mom who comes to visit me every few months.  My mom looks forward to the chocolates and biscotti in her room when she comes to visit, so I think that this little coffee bar is a nice hospitable touch in the guestroom.  

What can I say, I just want my house to feel like home when they walk into my house.  Any little project that helps make that happen is a successful project in my eyes.

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Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Furniture Redo - from dresser to TV stand

I spent much of last fall furnishing our loft.  Because this is a large space, I wanted to utilize the area for several different purposes.  I wanted one half of the loft to be utilized as an office/library area, and I wanted  the other half  to be utilized as a family/media area.  Above all else, I needed the loft to have lots of storage.  This was the space in the house where I would store my craft supplies, games, DVDs, books, etc. 

 

I was ideally looking for an old dresser…… with lots of character…… and plenty of drawer space…..at an affordable price…… that with a lot of TLC could be repurposed as a TV stand/craft storage.  It took me over a year to finally find this dresser at Goodwill for $35.

This piece is heavy-duty solid wood!  The Goodwill guys helped me load it up, but Matt wasn't home  when I had to unload it. Let me tell ya, that was no easy feat!  I managed to slide it out onto the garage floor until he could get home to help me with it. 

 

In my mind, I knew exactly what I wanted the repurposed dresser to look like, and I knew that I was going to use ASCP (Annie Sloan chalk paint) to achieve my vision.  You can purchase chalk paint on the internet, but I have recently found a local vender who sells it. 

After buying my paint, it was time to get started.  First I painted the drawers with an ASCP paint brush. The color of the edges is province, and the other color is versailles.

After two coats of ASCP dried, I sanded the edges of the drawers to give the piece a more vintage look.

If you have ever used ASCP, you are familiar with the finishing wax. The wax comes in both a clear wax and a dark wax.

When using the wax, I brush it on with the ASCP wax brush and then wipe it with a rag.  The rag will be ruined when finished, so it is best to make sure it’s  an old rag.

This was my first time using the dark wax. I chose the dark wax because I wanted to make the piece look aged.

The three top drawers were a little difficult to work with because of the detail, but I managed to get by.  When working with something so detailed, be careful with the wax.  It tends to clump if you aren’t careful.

Once the drawers were finished, I moved on to the actual dresser by applying two coats of province ASCP and one coat of dark wax. 

This picture shows how the dried wax looks after being wiped with a rag.

In the end, this was the finished piece!

I absolutely adore this piece of furniture!  I love the dark wax over these two colors!

The dresser was too heavy for Matt and I to carry up the stairs on our own.  Thankfully, a guy from church graciously volunteered to help Matt carry it to the loft.  Once we got it upstairs, I had one final thing I needed to do…..add hardware to the top three drawers, while keeping the original hardware on the bottom six drawers.  Oh, and of course we now needed a TV for the loft, which was the perfect excuse to do a little Back Friday shopping with the hubs;)

 

So let's break down the cost of this project. The dresser was $35 and the paint....welll the paint is not cheap. After two colors of paint and a dark wax, I walked away paying about $100 for supplies. I personally think the cost is worth it. I love the character ASCP gives to certain peices of furniture, and the supplies last a long time. I have plenty of paint and wax left over for other projects. Bottom line is that I created a piece of furniture for a total of $135, but I would pay $400-700 for a similar piece of furniture at Home Goods. Obviously, refinishing something with ASCP is still cheaper.



A few months have passed and the loft is pretty much furnished.  Originally, I wanted to mount the TV to the wall and use the top of the dresser for decorative purposes.  After talking to an electrician, we learned that it was going to be really expensive to mount the TV, due to the electrical set up of the room.  It may not have been my original plan, but the dresser ended up making a perfect TV stand and it has fantastic storage for all of my craft supplies!  It may just be my favorite piece of furniture in the loft:)

Just for fun, I’ll end this post with one last before and after picture of this successful furniture redo:)

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Ordinary Bar Stool Repurposed - Rope End Table

 

Last summer, I found a couple of barstools at a yard sale for $2 a piece.  One  is used as a plant stand on our porch.  The other has been repurposed as an end table in our loft.

 

 

To do this, I took a traditional barstool….

….and a package of rope that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.

Starting from the outside edge and working my way to the center, I hot glued the rope to the seat of the barstool.  I unexpectedly ran out of rope just as I got to the center......

...but lucky for me, I had some scrap rope in my craft drawer that I saved from the packaging of a gift set someone gave me.  Yeah, I keep stuff like that for moments like this;)

I love the texture the rope adds, and that’s why I chose to use it. 

Lastly, I painted the green legs with some sample Louis blue ASCP (Annie Sloan chalk paint) that was sent to me with a recent purchase, and then I finished it off by applying a coat of ASCP clear wax.

 

 

The seat of the stool is the perfect size for a lamp, making a barstool a really great repurposed end table.

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