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Love Repurposed

Table Makeover 1.0

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I think it’s almost been a year since I started my kitchen table makeover, and I’m finally getting to the blog about it. OOPS! The pictures of the process are below in a slideshow. 

Our kitchen table was a $75 online rummage sale special, but in great shape. The chairs are sturdy, table mostly in good condition, but the top was damaged, scratched, and somehow paint kept ending up on top of the table. Hmmm, that’s odd!? ;) I am trying to think what forced me to start working on the makeover of the table, but I can’t pinpoint any one thing. Mostly, I think I was craving a project for my own house AND, our table was becoming embarrassing when guests would come over.

I always tell myself to start a project with the WORST part so that by the time I’m burnt out and sick of a project, I’m on the homestretch and the easiest parts usually go quickly. I knew I should have started with the chairs, but instead I started with the table because I was so excited.

The table was seriously the easiest part--sand, restain, & seal the top and paint oil based primer & then the coat of paint on the pedestal leg and DONE! Okay it wasn’t that easy, but it was by far the easiest part of the project and maybe took me 4 hours (mostly sanding).

I hate sanding. It’s the very worst part of every project. Even when you think you’re done sanding, you’re not. I had a hard time seeing with my naked eye the areas that still had varnish and the old stain in the wood. Usually if I take a picture on my phone, I can see the dark spots better. It also helped to wipe the wood down with a damp cloth—it removed any dust that was masking the dark spots. When in doubt, just keep sanding. HA!

One word of caution--sand the entire table with the leaves in. That way you keep the table top smooth and don’t sand one leaf farther down than the next and create a ridge. Just be mindful of being consistent with your sanding.  

After I sanded the wood down, I added stain. I used Ebony, which looks pretty brown on this type of wood. Stains absorb differently on certain types of wood; I wish I had tested this stain in an inconspicuous spot, because I really wanted a gray look to the stain. When it was all finished, I do love the color though, and would probably choose Ebony again. I did 2 coats of the stain because I was hoping it would get darker, and it did but only a little.

After the stain had dried, I added a water based polyurethane. I wish I had used an oil based poly because now any time water sits on the table for even 2-3 minutes, it leaves a watermark. It does fade after I wipe up the water and let it dry, but it still gives me mini-panic attacks when I see those watermarks! The only reason I used the water based was because it was on hand and I didn’t want to drive to Aberdeen just for oil based poly! Oh well. :) After each layer of poly had dried, I used a 220 grit sandpaper and gently sanded by hand to remove any air bubbles or particles that dried in the poly. I believe I have 4 layers of poly on the table.

*Side note*
After almost a year of normal wear & tear on our kitchen table, there are minor scratches. There is absolutely no way to avoid this unless you consider your table a decoration rather than using it for a table. BUT, I know I can always gently sand out the scratches with 220 grit sand paper and re-poly the top when the scratches get to be too obvious, and that is a great relief!

Next up, the chairs…. I wanted the seat to match the table top, so I sanded the seat to remove any old poly & stain. The toughest part was sanding around the spindles on the back of the chair. I should have invested in a detail (mouse) sander at the time to make this task easier. Again, I sanded, and sanded, and sanded BY HAND around every spindle and it was tedious.

On the second chair, I thought I would be smart and completely remove the back of the chair. I thought I could just hammer on the part of the spindle that came through the bottom, and it did work to remove the back, but I didn’t realize or know that there was a tiny piece of wood wedged into the middle of the big spindles on each side. The purpose of that piece of wood is to expand the spindle to make it fit tight. No WONDER I had such a hard time pounding them out! HA! Sanding the seat was incredibly easier without the spindles to work around, and painting the back of the chair required less care and precision also. However, putting the back of the chair back into the seat didn’t go so well because of that little wedge of wood that I had hammered out (and hammering on the spindles didn’t help, either). Thank goodness for my husband, Ryan, who put it back together for me

I’ve since gotten a mouse sander (thanks, Ryan!) that has a small attachment for those tiny spaces like around spindles.

The legs & backs of the chairs and the legs of the table were primed with an oil based primer. I didn’t sand them at all. I used a latex antique white paint on top of the white oil based primer. I didn’t seal the chairs with any lacquer or polyurethane, and I should have. Every time I push a chair in and I bump the table, a little paint chips off the spindles on the chairs AND on the leg of the table from the legs of the chair bumping it. I used the cheapest pre-mixed paint that Walmart had to offer; next time I will definitely invest in some higher quality paint. Live and learn. Overall, I am happy with how the table turned out. Kitchen tables aren’t that expensive anymore at furniture stores, but I love that my table is real wood which means I have more control over maintaining it over the years (like sanding out scratches and resealing it whenever I feel the need to do so).

Recently I’ve been debating selling my beautiful table for a bigger one, but I put SO.MUCH.WORK into making it beautiful, I just don’t feel like I can part with it after only using it for one year. God must have heard my thoughts, and at Christmas I was given my grandma’s old wood table that has enough leaves to become 8’ long. We desperately need the extra length for holidays and game nights (and it would be helpful during canning season & Christmas baking, also!).  My grandma’s table had Formica added to the top many years ago; if you have any advice for removing Formica, hit me up! Maybe next year I’ll have a kitchen table makeover blog 2.0.


Table Makeover 2.0 

Thank goodness for summer... I found the time to finish my grandma's table! While the process is essentially the same as the first table I refinished, I did use a few different products to make the process easier on myself. The legs on this table are GORGEOUS with all the detail, but all those details make sanding down to the bare wood too time consuming, so I used stripper (it's actually called "paint & finish remover", but I call it stripper!), mineral spirits, Simple Green cleaner, water based primer, and the most expensive paint I will ever purchase in my life! HA! 

When my dad gave me the table for Christmas 2018, the legs were already disassembled, which made it easier to work with in the garage. I highly recommend removing the top from the legs, only because it prevented me from crawling around on the garage floor. I was able to put the legs on the work table and not bend over all the time.

I started with the table top, because once again, I don't listen to my own advice to start with the most difficult part first (the legs) and so I began with the table top. It originally had Formica on it, and surprisingly, it came right off in one large piece after picking at a corner. YAY. This table has 6 leaves, so I put them all in so the table would be consistent. This table, all put together, is 4 feet by 8 feet, over twice the size of the first table I refinished. I slathered on stripper, waited 10 minutes, and scraped. I did this process twice because not all the varnish came off the first time. Then, I poured on mineral spirits (found a website that suggested wiping it down with mineral spirits to remove any residue left from the stripper) and the mineral spirits helped take off any leftover varnish. ***Make sure you have good ventilation when you use these chemicals! I opened the garage door and set a fan at the end of the table pointed towards the garage door. Unfortunately, I started this project on (what felt like) the hottest day of the summer, so turning on the air conditioner was pointless. It was HOT! The cashier at the local lumberyard told me she had heard of someone being hospitalized from inhaling too much stripper, so please, please, have proper ventilation!***

Next, I sanded, sanded, and sanded some more until it was down to the bare wood. Then, I sanded some more. I started with 60 grit sand paper, then 80, then 120. In total, I think I sanded for about 10 hours. Yes, 10 hours (over several days). The sanding is the worst part of this job, but it is a necessary evil. I used ebony stain again so it would match the chairs from the first table makeover. After the stain was dry, I started putting on the oil based poly. After the first layer of poly, I used 220 grit sandpaper. After the 2nd layer of poly, I used 600 grit before adding the 3rd and final layer of poly. I really should have done a 4th layer, but the table top was smooth as glass after the 3rd coat, and, honestly, I'm impatient and wanted it to be done so I could have my garage back! With poly drying, I had to be careful not to stir up dust. We have two dogs, so not stirring up dust in the garage is practically impossible, so when the 3rd coat looked perfect, I threw in the towel and called it done. 

In the meantime of all of this, I worked on the legs. There was no way I was going to sand them down to bare wood--I didn't need to anyway since I planned to paint them white. I did use acetone to take off the varnish and as much stain as I could. Having the legs off the table made this process slick. I got out a shallow tote and poured the acetone over a towel that I had wrapped around the legs and let it sit there for a while. I repeated this process probably 20 times per leg, pouring the runoff from the towel/tote into a small container to be used again. The last few pours of acetone, I did use clean acetone out of the jug, just to be sure it was coming off clear, as the reused acetone was pretty much black from the old varnish & stain. I used a brush to get into the nooks, also. I cleaned the legs with the Simple Green cleaning solution to remove any of the acetone, varnish, & stain, and then primed the legs with a latex primer. I chose a latex primer this time because I read that if you use oil primer, you should use oil paint. I didn't want to use oil based paint (the cleanup is tedious, and the expensive paint I used was not oil based). After priming, I painted two coats. The paint was Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel that was self leveling and included a sealant, so no poly was needed. It covered amazingly! Totally worth the price. 

If you have any questions about the process, feel free to contact us! I'm certainly no expert, but will help you the best I can. 
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2/19/2018
​Good morning! It’s 5 degrees here in Ipswich, SD. What better time to get some coffee and write a quick blog update! Today’s topic: my wedding.
It’s been just over 6 months since Ryan & I said “I do!” and I have a few brutally honest truths to share with you. Nicole & I have done 2 bridal shows since that time, and at each of the shows I wish I could tell brides these truths I’m about to reveal.
  1. I bought all of my decorations because, well, I’m capable of putting together some decorations and I knew we could reuse them for other brides. I’m sure you’ve had this thought too. I regret this decision entirely. Here are my reasons: my house was FULL of decorations for 6 months. I spent around $2,200 on decorations and I ended up renting a storage so I could have my house back (add another $60/month cost to those decorations).
 
To give you a comparison of what our business can do for you… One wedding we decorated for was entirely full service (meaning we set up the decorations and we took them down the next day), we decorated the church and the reception site for $2,400 and the bride didn’t lift a finger (as it should be!). We met with the bride 3 times in the months before the wedding, showed her pictures of what we could do, presented a contract, and the day went perfectly. I wish I had hired a wedding decorator.
 
So a comparison—you’ll spend the same amount of money as what we would charge AND you have to do all the work. It’s a no brainer—hire us. “But I’ll get to keep all my decorations afterwards!” Let’s assess that phrase. You’ll have to shop for, store, assemble, haul, disassemble, and store those decorations again until God knows when. Bye bye extra space in your home/garage! And eventually you’ll end up trying to sell them on the online rummage sale (which is a pain in the rear, you know it, don’t deny it). And why? Why would you want to keep 35 centerpieces?!?!? If you want to keep a few pieces of what we rent you, that’s fine! We can work out a purchase price for a few of the centerpieces or whatever you want. Heck, we can probably even give you one of them!
 
If you’re seeing the $2,400 and wanting to pass out, relax. The $2,400 included the set up and tear down, which was a decent chunk of that price tag. Nicole & I will set up & tear down, if you want to pay for that service. Otherwise, we will have everything ready to go in totes for you to pick up the week of your wedding. Everything will be as put together as possible so you can just set them out on tables. Sometime the week after the wedding, return the totes to us. And, we can decorate for any budget. You tell us what you want to spend, what your ideas and vision are, and we will deliver!
 
  1. Decorating for your own wedding totally, utterly sucks. We were married on a Saturday, which meant that the entire day on Friday was spent hanging lights, hauling totes of flowers, directing people where to put things, making sure table cloths were laying perfectly, etc, etc. It was miserable. All my close family and friends were there to celebrate and all we did was work. I was tired to begin with from the excitement and stress of the impending nuptial. And then I was put to some serious work.
 
Now, if you hire us and don’t want to spend the extra money for us to set up & tear down, you’re probably thinking that you’ll have to put in that work anyway. Wrong. I spent 8 hours decorating for my wedding (probably because I thought, “oh I can wing it, I don’t really need a plan for the backdrop” which was a mistake). We will have all of that preplanned and can even include an instructions sheet. All in all, it probably takes about 2 hours for you to set things out/hang up backdrops, etc… And, if you factor in the time that YOU would spend arranging those centerpieces, gluing that burlap around jars, arranging the twinkle lights, etc, etc, your time will be exponentially more. Let us do that! You just enjoy this time in your life. I promise you, it goes way too fast.
 
 And the day after our wedding (family is still in town, mind you…) we had to go back up to the reception site and take all of the decorations down. I’ve never felt as exhausted in my life as the morning after our wedding. All I wanted was to sleep in, lounge around with my family and my coffee, but again, we were put to work.
 
Final note—I wish I had hired a wedding decorator. I hope I’m not giving this decorating thing a bad rap. Nicole & I love it! And you may love it too! I’m just saying, from experience, that you want to spend your wedding week relaxed and soaking in the experience, as it’s a once in a lifetime thing (or twice, whatever, we don’t care). We just want to help make your wedding day go as smoothly and cost effectively as possible. Call, e-mail, or text us to set up a meeting! We would love to give you a quote. 
8/10/17
Meredith here! I'm laying in bed, exhausted, but too excited to sleep! Nicole and I just finished one of our biggest craft parties yet, and our wheels are spinning trying to plan the next party & how to make it better. 

Maybe a little background information will help. We started crafting together in the spring of 2016 and have been in the "craft party" scene for about a year. We knew we loved to craft and wanted to share that with others. What better way than to do make-and-take craft parties! Every party takes extensive planning, trips (yes, plural) to Menards, and lots of love and patience from our families. 

We sincerely dislike shopping for materials. And that's putting it nicely. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I probably would choose to lose a finger rather than go to Menards ever again. Every party we put together requires at LEAST one trip to menards, a mile long list, incorrect terms like "those metal thingys", & several odd looks from either employees or our husbands. But, crafts can't be made without materials, so we usually try to tackle our materials list in one shot, dignity optional. 

Our biggest surprise/delight we find at these parties is the creative talent our customers have. Every single party, we find ourselves saying "Wasn't it cool how she did that?!" or "Did you see the details she added?". We find so much joy in seeing our customers leave a party with a completely finished project ready to display in his/her house. This has to be the best part of parties, and even vendor fairs/shows. We sincerely hope that every purchase finds a perfect spot in your house, and if there is ever a concern with a product, please let us know. We want you to enjoy your purchase just as much as we enjoy making it. 
Our business has developed from two ladies struggling to run power tools, to having 485 followers on our Facebook page. We are excited for our future and couldn't do it without our amazing support group.
We appreciate each and every one of you and welcome any comments, suggestions, and future craft ideas. 

Thank you all again for your kindness and support on our journey with Love Repurposed.

Sincerely, 
Meredith & Nicole
Welcome to the first blog post for Love Repurposed!  I can't tell you how very excited this endeavor makes us.  

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Wedding Prep 



Meredith, half of the LR team, is getting married, then all of the LR team (both of us) are making it happen. We've been discussing decor and food and venues and dresses for months. All of the big decisions have been made. The venue is secured, food ordered, marriage classes attended, dress is bought and men's attire determined. 

But now, we are approximately FIVE weeks from the wedding day and there is still so much to do! First project: shower decor. (I may have asked nicely (hijacked) this from the bridesmaids. If my vision is realized, we are making a giant, paper flower garland for the tables. 

 Stay tuned to the LR blog for many wedding-related projects. ​
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The Creative Process

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In a perfect world, my house would be neat, tidy, and decorated with the skill and style of Joanna Gaines. My husband would receive a home-cooked breakfast each morning and a hot, healthy meal each evening. My children would be well behaved and stylishly dressed, Bills would be paid, the money tree blooming and full, and time would always expand to meet the needs of the day. 

But, apparently, the maid quit, my decor is hidden under a pile of laundry or parked in a garage corner waiting for me to have time, my children, both hilarious and good looking, are typically digging through the clean laundry pile for a mostly not wrinkled shirt while arguing with one another. The money tree is dead, and time is always running short - hence the giant piles of laundry. 

So, until my perfect world finds me, I must settle for a house that is occasionally clean, and sometimes picked up, children who are alternately the most wonderful and most annoying part of life, bills that seem to always be more than expected and a dead money tree. Thankfully, though, I find solace in creativity.  

New projects are such fun! I thoroughly enjoy my early weekend mornings when the house is quiet. I sip my coffee, peruse Pinterest, watch some Flea Market Flip or maybe the Food Network, and make giant lists of projects that I want to do. On a perfect weekend morning, I move from my coffee drinking into the garage to work on projects. 

It's here where the creativity truly blooms. We take piles of old, dirty wood and turn it into something better. The best day includes making a super cute ____ that cost us nothing but time and stuff we already have. In order to have this creative spirit and the supplies to make something from a pile of nothing, we collect everything. 

Do you have a grandma who has a table that is sorta broken, but it has a cute bottom spindle? We'll take it. How about a pile of random wood that is too good to throw away, but really odd sizes? Yep, we'll be over. A bag full of flowers that are a little ugly, but the greenery is cute? We'll take. We love free. We'll look and and consider cheap.

But, this amassing of goods is a process that truly needs organization and space. Neither are plentiful. So, we split it up, make piles, devise plans about how we will redo and move stuff out, and then we get more and more and more. And any semblance of organization vanishes like a pile of sawdust in the wind. 

We really do try, though. Tools go on the tool shelf, just like the husband suggested. Put the bits back in the box. Keep the table cleaned off so that it's easier to finish the projects. Logical, right? I agree with him too, in my brain, but in the moment, I've got shit to do. I think we could totally make this a true statement if the damn maid hadn't quit. However, I can either create stuff or keep things orderly.  

The creative process needs room to spread out, or so I tell my better half. I need to be able to see what I have to work with, make piles of things here and there, place pencils and bits of sandpaper on every surface (because I lose several), and a long rolling table featuring different sized screws, random paints, stains and rags, a few snacks, and perhaps a few projects-in-progress. He just shakes his head and goes back to his own projects. 

Yes, the creative process can get messy and perhaps (maybe...just a little...ok, a lot) I could use a few lessons organization and time management, but I maintain that my brain is just bursting with ideas. The days are short and the projects are plentiful! 

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