Little Red Endtable

Little Red Endtable

I desperately needed a small table in our front room to corral all our magazines. I got this end table at the D.I. (no suprise there) for only $5! The whole project only cost me $8.00. 

Before:

First, sand the table. I used a hand power sander that seemed to work perfect and fast. Since the posts are impossible to sand (unless you used sand paper the old fashioned way), I just primed my posts with spray primer (I'm a little on the lazy side sometimes) but didn't need to prime the sanded areas before painting. 

I spray painted my table with two coats and when the top dried, flipped over to paint the bottom posts.

While that was drying I jumped on my computer and printed out a No. 33 in a font I liked. Change format to "outline" to save ink. I cut out the letters and numbers and positioned them the way I wanted them to look.

Trace with a black Sharpie.

Use a paint brush and black acrylic paint to fill in the font. Let dry.

Next, I used an antiquing glaze that I found at Lowe's in charcoal. Use a horse hair brush and brush on random parts (as shown below), then use a dry cloth and wipe, wipe, wipe! Sorry about the picture quality-I really need to get me a good camera!

After antiquing, I brushed on a polyurethane sealant to make sure the end table sealed up well so that it could actually be used for its purpose! 

SHEESH. Again with the camera. Not the best of pictures. 

After:

Bathroom Sign

Bathroom Sign

I am jumping on the bandwagon of cute typography art. Mostly because the possibilities are endless and you can personalize it to match your personality. The best match for my personality, was BATHROOM art? I guess just another reminder as to where my humor usually lies.

I first started out with a sheet of 20"X20" plywood board. (I am looking to do this on the cheap, and have found that the end result looks just as good as any other high quality board I could've used). The cost was $4.58 at Lowe's. Score.

I first spray painted my board with black spray paint. Don't mind my laziness, I got too excited to start this project and I didn't cut my board until the end. I know. Scary thought-Keesha with power tools.

 After that dried, I I painted my board with a clearance "mistint" that I also found at Lowe's ($1.50). 

I went over it again with a second coat. I found that as it started drying you could easily see all the imperfections of the plywood. This is what I wanted as I was going to plan on sanding the sign and making it look weathered anyways.

 While that was drying I jumped on my computer to make a stencil of what I wanted to put on my sign.

I have tons of cute fonts on my computer that I haven't done much with and thought this would be a good opportunity. Enlarge to the size you would like and print only in outline (so you don't waste black ink). I thought this was a smart alternative to using my Cricut and wasting so much vinyl and time enlarging. 

 Cut out your letters and lay them on the board positioning them the way you would like. Outline in a black Sharpie.

 Next, use acrylic paint to fill in the letters. 

 Here is the acrylic I used. Cost me nothing because I already had it in my stash! 

 Let the sign dry and take a sander to it. It worked perfect, and was so easy to use. I sanded quite a bit to allow more black to show through. I also went over the letters to make them look faded in parts.

 Next, I cut the sign (although I recommend that step back at Step 1) then I measured for the middle point and nailed a small sawtooth hanger on the back. This sign will be hung in my guest bathroom.

And there you have it! Bathroom humor in it's truest form. I just have to keep reminding myself, at least I think I'm funny and that's all that matters. And if you don't---then don't use my toilet!