A refinished wooden sideboard left with a natural stain – not painted! Learn how to refinish this sideboard.

Have you ever turned down a piece of furniture that looks ruined? Aha, today’s rocker is Emily and she has the superpower to make furniture look brand new again!  On the Rockstar DIY stage today is a performance you won’t forget. Emily will single-handedly take you through the steps of Refinishing a Mid-Century Sideboard.

Rockstar DIY Series

If you haven’t met Emily yet, she is truly a Rockstar! Emily lives in Rochester, NY and is ALWAYS working on an amazing home improvement project.

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Emily can be found with a hammer, saw or drill in her hands at MerryPad. She has painstakingly renovated two homes. And, as if she wasn’t busy enough with home projects (and taking care of a baby and her step-daughter), she can also be found blogging at DIYNetwork’s Made + Remade. That girl is a machine!

Oh, I hear the sound of a sander, so put your hands together and give it up for Emily!

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Hey guys! Super nice to meet you. If we haven’t already met, I figured there’s one thing you should know about me: I really like getting my hands dirty. Building furniture can be fun, and learning how to maintain my home has brought me a lot of pleasure, but if you see me and you notice my hands and arms are coated by stain? Well, you’ll know that I’ve been having a really good time (and I’ve probably run out of mineral spirits, again). Refinishing and restoring furniture–and cabinets, and floors, among other things–is one of my favorite DIY endeavors, always a fun learning experience, and always an opportunity to bring new life into an item that was once beautiful. I’ve had some lucky secondhand finds over the years, from bedside tables to chairs, but one of my favorite transformations was this Bassett Sideboard that I scored from a garage sale for $15.

How to refinish a vintage midcentury sideboard with scratches and water damage.

T’was one of my first refinishing projects, swoon.

If you’re tackling your first refinishing project (or just looking for tips), here are the products and tools I used for this makeover:

  • Detail palm sander and normal sandpaper to get into small crevices
  • Rags (general clean up cloths, and old rags or socks for applying the stain)
  • Tack cloths (the tack cloths are wonderful for cleaning all evidence of sanding dust before staining)
  • A paint brush and high-density foam roller (for application of the conditioner and polyurethane topcoat)
  • Pre-stain wood conditioner
  • Oil-based stain (for this piece I chose English Chestnut by Minwax)
  • Gloss polyurethane

An extraordinary amount of sanding went into eliminating the damage that had existed in the top surface. Scratches are relatively easy to cure, but you never know how bad the water damage is until you start sanding deep, as evidenced by this progress photo:

How to refinish furniture with scratches and water damage.

Elbow grease and a few more courses of low-grit sandpaper (80-120) helped to transform the surface of the sideboard into a raw wood state and eliminate the visible water rings. You might find that your water damage runs deeper – every case is different. Read more

Rockstar DIY Series

I’m sending PrettyHandyGirl.com on tour! We will be traveling the country and beyond to gather DIY tutorials from a selection of the most talented DIY Bloggers on earth. I am super excited to introduce to you these 15 Rockstar DIY bloggers who will be sharing their talents with you! Are you ready for the awesomeness? Well, get your ear plugs out…

…because the saws will be buzzing.

Lift up your hands in the air…

…with hammers in hand.

Rub your hands together…

…to dust off the sawdust.

And welcome these rockstars:

Rockstar DIY Series

Rockstar DIY Series Lineup

Here is a list of the project performances so far:


Bring your lighters (or mobile phones) for the power ballads and get ready to rock to the sounds of the workshop.

Rock on!

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you look lovely today mug

dish with tea bags Homemade Tea BagsHomemade Tea Bags

Oooo, you are going to be so excited! I have a very special lady visiting today, she traveled all the way from the Netherlands to share her Très Frugal DIY gift idea with you.

Please welcome the very sweet and very savvy Marianne!

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Hello sweet friends. This is Marianne aka Songbird and I am so happy to be here again. I am thrilled and honored that Brittany asked me to be part of this awesome DIY gift ideas party. Today I want to share a quick and easy homemade gift that will warm the heart of any receiver for sure.

Who doesn’t love a nice cup of freshly brewed tea?

And how much better will that tea taste if it is made with a homemade tea bag?

Exactly!

You only need a few supplies, a bit of time and some patience.

Supplies for homemade tea bags

You will need:

♥ loose tea leaves
(make sure there are no ‘big’ pieces in there or it will be harder to fill the bags)

♥ coffee filters

♥ thread

♥ a template like a cookie cutter

♥ optional: washi tape for the labels

♥ sewing machine Read more

Tres-frugal-party

At the end of every year I’m struck by how much money is spent on holiday gift giving. There are so many people to buy for! As an answer to the age old question, “What should I get _______?” I’m teaming up with several bloggers to bring you Trés Frugal in November.

We’ll have 30 beautiful, useful, inspirational, and fabulous DIY gift ideas complete with the tutorials to make your own. I hope you’ll join us, get creative and save a little cash to spend on yourself this holiday season!

I know November seems to be such a long time away, so I decided to give you a little taste to whet your appetite. I’ve given Tidy Mom a new tutorial to make this Vintage Coat Hook Wall Vase, which would make a nice gift for anyone who loses their keys or the dog leash from time to time (totally guilty of that myself!)

Vintage Coat Hook Wall Vase | Pretty Handy Girl Guest Post

Head over to Tidy Mom to read the full tutorial. And remember to follow along in November for more DIY Gift Ideas!

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View all the Trés Frugal projects here.

You may also want to check out my 15 Minute DIY Gift Ideas from last year!

10 Days of 15 Minute DIY Gift Ideas

 

Color Wheel Mirror

mosaic works blue mosiac mirro

Have you ever been browsing Pinterest or the blog world and come across an artist that has literally left your mouth hanging open? Well Karen from MosaicWorks may have caused me to drool a bit on my keyboard. I immediately asked her if she’d like to share a tutorial with you.

But, first let me give you a little background about Karen. She studied Illustration in Art School and ended up as a graphic designer (the similarities are uncanny.) She also authored and illustrated a children’s book called Mr. Bob’s Magic Ride in the Sky. She lives in Oshawa, Ontario with her husband, two daughters, and  two dogs (William and Kate…the royal canine couple.) She’s a blogger and an extremely talented mosaic artist! You MUST follow her blog at MosaicWorks.ca. Her creative projects are brilliant and her musings and short photo posts are enough to lighten your day.

Without further chatter, I turn you over to Karen!

Karen Johnston MosaicWorks CA

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Hello Pretty Handy Girl readers. I’m a mosaic artist who, like Brittany, is always up for a good DIY. Read more