Now that we’ve finally got the walls painted and floors refinished we can start finding and buying furniture. Although we have purchased a few new pieces of furniture for the house, we have really had a fun time finding old pieces at thrift stores, garage sales, etc and turning them into unique pieces for our house. The best part about this (besides the cheap price!) is that we get to style the furniture to fit our tastes and match the decor of the house as well. We keep a sharp eye out for pieces with curved lines or ornate carvings that fit the time period of the house and present a good canvas for our furniture creation. Check out two of the pieces that we have restyled. Both were missing parts and/or damaged. With a little vision and a bit of paint we were able to make these two pieces into something fully functional and stylish as well!

My first project was a white cubby hole bookshelf that only needed a bit of paint to hide the scratches on its surface. We assembled the bookshelf on the front porch (and by we, I mean my dad 😉

The next step was to paint the bookshelf a glossy cream color to match the rest of the bedroom furniture.

I wanted to alter this piece of furniture and add a back to it so that I could add some fabric for a pop of color.  I purchase a large sheet of wood to create a backing and cut it down to the size of the bookshelf.

My original thought was to cover the backing in the wallpaper that I had leftover from our master bedroom nook. Unfortunately there was not enough left over so I went on the the next best idea- fabric! Joann Fabric was having a nice sale on their whole selection  so I chose a material with neutral color and a pattern similar to that of the aforementioned wallpaper. The fabric I chose was actually drapery fabric and had a great sheen to it as well as a cool, velvety texture.

We cut the fabric to size and attached it with duct tape to the wooden backing. Although staples may have been a sturdier form of attaching the fabric, duct tape allowed us to easily switch out the covering if we choose to alter our decor down the road. It also eliminates damage to the fabric piece which means we can use it other projects should we wish to.

Next we had to lug this thing up our L-shaped stairs and into the master bedroom.

I added a few books and knick-knacks anddddd project complete!

Our next project was creating a coffee table for the living room. I was fortunate enough to come into a table frame but not table top No worries though, the frame of the table was absolutely too gorgeous to pass up!

We debated over whether to make the top of this out of wood or perhaps mosaic tiles or even a painted watercolor top. I was informed that the original top was made of marble that was cracked in shipping.

We decided to go with a wood top. We cut it to size and sanded it down. I also purchased a strip of trim to cover the crack between the table top and the frame.

After we assembled the trim and the table top we stained everything to match the existing frame.

Lastly, we added a protective coating on top to keep the surface looking nice.

All in all, two DIY projects that left our house looking a bit more homey! 🙂