#SprayNewLife Vintage Stereo Upcycle

OK nothing and I mean NOTHING gets me as excited as when I find a piece of furniture that I know would KILL with a facelift.  This was one of them.  A $15 Facebook marketplace find and some elbow grease and voila!! I give you the newest addition to my living room!

I hunted for quite a while for one that had great lines.  I knew I wanted it to be white so with that in mind it had to have detail that popped.  This was it for me. Here is the before pic:

So when I was invited to participate in Rustoleum's #SprayNewLife campaign and contest, of course I said yes because spray paint makes everything better!  I knew the stereo would be the perfect piece for this campaign.  Just LOOK at those crescent moon handles.  Seriously gaga over here!

Here is a bit of a visual diary of the process but I am including all the steps below because maybe this inspired you to go hunting for a vintage piece that you can give new life to.

And because I know a zillion of your will ask, YES...I spray painted the fabric speaker covers.  I just unscrewed speakers from back and went to town.  It took a LOT of paint to cover the orange, but I kept adding layers til it covered.

The steps are listed below but check out my project and more right on the Rustoleum website here: Vintage Stereo Upcycle

Vintage Stereo Upcycle 
Difficulty Level: 1

Estimated Time: 3 days including dry time

List of Materials:

Rustolueum Painter’s Touch Ultra Coverage 2X Blossom White

Rustoleum Primer Painter’s Touch White

Rustoleum Metallic Gold

Drill & bits (to remove hardware and speakers)

220 grit sandpaper & sander

Tack cloth or rag

Mask for sanding

Do something great for the earth and your wallet!
Make something old new again and bring new life to a vintage stereo with a Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Coverage 2X.

1. Prepare piece by sanding with fine grit (220) sandpaper. Remove any dust with a damp rag or tack cloth.
2. Remove hardware and speakers from the inside.
3.  Place stereo on drop cloth/cardboard on top of an old pallet. Keeping it raised up makes spraying around the bottom of the stereo easier.
4.  Shake primer can well then spray stereo using slow back and forth motions, slightly overlapping for even coverage. The primer allows better paint adhesion and a longer-lasting finish. Allow primer to dry for one hour or 48 hours before applying paint.
5.  Shake Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2X in White Blossom for one minute. Apply paint in the same manner as primer. Recoat within one hour or after 48 hours.
6.  Spray hardware colour of your choice. This project used Rust-Oleum Specialty Metallic Spray Paint in Gold.
7.  Allow project to dry at least 24 hours before handling and reassembling.
8.  Reassemble hardware and speakers inside stereo.

For more DIYs & inspiration, come on over & find me on Instagram here >>> COCONUTSANDCAFFEINE

Pompom & Pinecone Garland DIY

OK so let me start by saying, technically these are NOT pinecones, but they are cones from my daughter's Hugh Jass evergreen tree, which I think is a blue spruce.  They are cones...they work.  Where I live the pines are few are far between, so I subbed in the next best thing! Real pine cones would be FAB!! 

Let's carry on shall we?

Ok so I have been obsessing over all the Pompom things this Christmas and everything is RE.DIC.U.LOUS.LY overpriced for my budget, so when met with a challenge...Martha comes out to play in the sandbox.  

I am feeling over the top creative this holiday season and because we all need a bit more glitter and fuzzy things in our lives, I decided to make this garland.  My kitchen window was looking sad and lonely and this was the perfect accoutrement. 

I bought this yarn a few years ago at Michaels and found it in my stash and throught it was about right for the task.  And Ohhhh, those pompoms are sooooo fluffy!

I didn't resort to rocket science.  I wedged a piece of thin jute between my center fingers to tie the pompom, then wrapped my hand 40 times (It sounded logical in my head) and then tied it off, cut the loops, then gave it a good jhuzzing (aka: fluffing) and trimmed it into a pretty shape.  

Onwards to the bling.  Glitter...the glue that hold my life together.  #notkidding

So I dug in my craft box for glitter I already had and found my Martha stash.  I got this a few years ago, and honestly, I am not even sure it is still in stores.  Since copper is the hot trend right now and the perfect compliment to the teal yarn, the choice was easy.

 *CAWWWW, CAWWWW*

 I simply brushed on some white paint...I had Behr Swiss Coffee for another project so I cracked open the can, brushed paint on the bottom half(ish) of the cones and then while the paint was still wet I sprinkled the magical glitter over the paint.

 I propped the cones up on a little piece of wood I had to dry.  

So here is the deal on assembly:  I made 7 pompoms and 6 pinecones.  I roughly measured the length of garland to my window so it went across the top and down both side. I used a thin jute string.  I spaced out the pompoms evenly on the jute, and simply tied them to the main piece of jute string I cut. I grabbed some thread from my sewing box for the cones, because jute was too heavy to tie around these as they are more delicate.  I tied the thread around the cones, knotted twice, then tied one cone between each pompom.  EASY, PEASY! That's it.  

I hung it above the window, giving it a little bit of a drapey swoop in the centre.  I think it is a fun addition to my holiday decor and it really took no time at all.  Because I had all the materials in my stash, this project cost me nothing, which to me is winning!  :-)

Do you love to create your own holiday decor?  I'd love to see what you are making.  If you have a blog post, drop your link to your creations below in comments.

Stay weird,

Wendy

Front Entry Facelift

Ok, I am not overly proud to say this but my entryway has never really been anything exciting since I moved into this house. It is not my favourite area, simply because it is wonky and doesn't flow, but I am getting out of my own head and I decided I needed to make the most of it (instead of ignoring it).

The floor tiles need to be replaced, but I am holding out for a budget friendly find at ReStore, which I have faith that I will eventually come across. But for now...I am controlling the controllable and taking the dark and uninspiring space and brightening it up and bringing it into this decade.

BEFORE: BLAH tan walls, white doors, and the infamous "boob" light. UGH...I loathe these light fixtures and slowly we are replacing them in this house. And not sure WHY, but I always get so DAMN EXCITED that I forget to take proper BEFORE pics...what the what?? Anyhow....here is a bit of what it looked like after I already had kind of started disassembling and rippping the space apart.

At this point, I just had one side of the closet doors painted black and started working on the other side.  Why the heck did I wait so long to paint them.  They are GORGeous!!  :-)

 

Now the fun begins...cutting in the white paint...which **GASP** I never thought I would be doing because I LOVE color, but I wanted to try white on white somewhere and this seemed like a great place to give it a go.  I chose Behr Chenille Spread as it was a warm white that went perfectly with our trim color.

The first coat ALWAYS looks like crap.  But, onwards and upwards! It took 3 coats to cover the dark tan and thankfully this was a small space.  

I installed the light fixture and my hubby replaced the outlets and switches.  WHAT a change!!  This sweet little cage light came from Canadian Tire and was $40!  How could you not love that? 

Insert hot hubby helping with switch replacement.  <3 <3 

**CUE ANGELS SINGING** How is it that something so small makes such a HUGE difference? 

DONE...now time to get the decorating for the holidays underway.  

Enter some Buffalo Check and some vintage finds.  The little MCM telephone bench I got at our town flea market for $5 this spring.  It was covered in gold vinyl (the seat had a small hole) but I decided because fur is WAY more fun, so it shall be on this bench.  I intended to do white fur, but they were all out at the fabric store.  I have to say I think the black fur works here! I gave the bench a fresh coat of paint too, with my most FAVOURITE GOLD paint ever!! 

 I also got some buffalo check fabric and made a quick envelope cover for one of my existing pillows.

 I bought this swag last year and it seemed like this was a better spot for it.  *SWOON*.  So.  Pretty! Here are a few pics of the rest of the holiday jewelry for the entry.  I wanted it to be fun, simple and the buffalo check is my signature move...haha...and it ws a perfect fit here and contrast to the creamy white paint.  I love the whole space and I'm happy it is complete! It didn't take that long and why the heck didn't I do this before?

This little sign came from the Dollar store, people.  How awesome is this? ;-)

I grabbed a birch branch from my daughter's yard and hung it it the window with thin jute string from Michaels.  I had these little gold, white and silver stars for years and thought they would be a cute and simple addition.  I used sparkly gold string which also came from Michaels and was a great contrast to the natural birch branch.

Do you have a small entryway or space that you struggle with?  I'd love to see pics or hear from you in comments below how you are jhuzzing (yes I say this is a word) up your space.  

Stay weird ;-), 

Wendy

Chalkboard DIY

OHHH, don't you just LOVE those moments when you stumble upon a most gorgeous find for less than a cup of coffee?  I nabbed this baby at ReStore (it was hiding inside a hugeee cupboard there) & knew exactly what I wanted to do with it right at the store:  A Chalkboard!

I took it apart and gave it a good cleaning and was ready to dig in.  

I wanted to use the actual print itself for the chalkboard, so to seal it in and give an awesome base to paint on, I brushed on a coat of KILZ.  

I still had a lot of Cascadia FAT paint left from redoing my SIDE TABLE, and with Christmas coming, this frame was screaming to be painted in this color. I did 2 coats on the frame.

If you have never tried FAT Paint before you should check them out HERE because their colors are AHHHMAZING!!  I am semi obsessed with all things FAT right now.  #sorrynotsorry

This is hands down my favorite chalkboard paint: RUSTOLEUM CHALKBOARD PAINT, which you can get at The Home Depot or Lowes if you have one close.  Clean up is super easy!

This is 2 coats of chalkboard paint. 

After everything dried I used a sanding block and gave the frame a light sanding, focusing on the edges and places where things would naturally wear off over time.  That keeps it authentic looking. I love seeing the original gold peek through. I then sealed the entire frame with MINWAX CLEAR PASTE WAX, then buffed it out after 5 minutes.  I used FAT Patina Wax in the nooks and crannies to give it even more depth and warmth.  LOVE.  IT! 

I prepped the chalkboard, then reassembled and I am ECSTATIC over how it turned out. This might not be it's permanent home, but I had the space here to hang it up and I could not wait! I am SO excited to start decorating for Christmas and include this in the mix!

**CUE ANGELS SINGING**

Do you have a chalkboard anywhere in your house or have you wanted to add one to your decor?  I'd love to see yours too! Drop a link to your blog below in comments and share with me.

Cheers,

Wendy