Rustic Wooden Boxes

Wishing you a belated Happy Easter one and all!

Hope everyone had a wonderful long easter weekend and had your fill of chocolate bunnies, easter eggs and hot cross buns! I know i did!

I spent the weekend walking in circles really wondering what project to take up next but having the no energy or motivation to start anything... bit frustrating really so i am sad to say nothing was really achieved over the weekend in the DIY department of the whimsical wife. I did try to do finish off some more "french" cushions but my sewing maching chucked it in and chewed the thread up and spat it out! So i gave up! My husband however was busy over the weekend completing stage 1 of our deck and retaining wall area. Pictures to come! So something was achieved at the "Whimsical House....." hmmmm still haven't got a name yet!

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Anyway what i have been thinking about is what to do with a couple of old rustic wooden boxes that i picked up at a few garage sales in the last month *at bargain prices*!(Picture to come) but i thought i would find a few inspirational photos of some of the things people have done with rustic wooden boxes that i maybe able to use with these boxes.

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Love the idea of using them as simple storage containers for my everyday items such as napkins and placemats.

Source: decor8blog.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Source: google.co.uk via Melissa on Pinterest

I love the idea of using them on the walls to display knick knacks and other items is cute!

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Even the use of castor wheels on the bottom of the boxes as movable storage is a great idea!

Source: nightwoodny.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Maybe i could used them as part of a rustic sideboard? Hmmm

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Or even using it for a herb garden.... very quaint!

Idea's..... Idea's..... there is so many of them! What do you think?

Rejuvenating & Restoring A Side Table.

After completing the restoration on my Drab To Fab cupboard makover I was on a roll so while i was still in the mood to paint i attacked the side table in our sitting room. When we first got married I was into the dark furniture and a modern and sleek look. So all my furniture has had to slowly change now that i want to decorate this new house in French Provincal style. I am trying to do it in the most cost effective manner possible and that is the main reason why i started this blog in the first place to show you how to.....

~DIY on a budget!!!~

Before

I am proud to say that this little side table cost me $10 to buy intially (new!!) and with the left over paint and stain from the cupboard re-do this little table probably cost me no more than another $10 to redo. Gotta love that.

After

This was so simple to makeover it wasn't funny. I did it over a weekend along with other projects so it wasn't that time consuming. I simply gave the whole piece a sand with the electric sander and it took the dark stain off quick smart . It was a little harder in the crevices so i had to hand sand in these area's. 

I then gave the base section a couple of coats of white paint. After it dried an used the electric sander to rough up the corners and edges of the table. I also hand sanded the crevices again to get that rustic worn look over the whole piece.

I then started on the top of the table. I decided to keep it a similar look to the cupboard that i did using the same cedar stain and white wash technique as i did for the top of the cupboard. It came up a real treat! 

I finished the top using some Fiddes & Sons Rugger Brown wax that Miss Mustard Seed recommends. I scored it on ebay cheaper than most other places so i was happy with that. It left it with a smooth and soft lustre which gave it a warm and homey feel.

So it is easy to redo existing furniture with a little thought and elbow grease! (Oh and a electric sander!!)

So i dare you this weekend holiday to rethink buying that new piece of furniture and see if there is something you can re-do!

From Drab to Fab!!

I had the best weekend just gone. I was able to finish more projects on my list of things to do and that is always a GREAT feeling. I have been working on this cupboard on and off for the last 2 months or so and i knew it was time to get my butt into gear and finish it before the winter cold come as i didn't want to sit in a cold shed sanding and painting.

I got this cupboard for free.... well it was actually left with our house when we bought it nearly a year ago now. They were going to throw it away and i nearly yelled out "NO" when i heard this. Couldnt' they see the potential this little baby had? Obviously NOT!

This poor girl was in need of some serious TLC. It has been previously used to store tools etc in it and had a nice "tool shed" smell to it as well. I had a bit of work cut out for me. Now the great blogger that i am forgot to take "during" photo's of my progress of doing this up since it was such a drawn out process!

But here is the after................

I started by sanding the whole cupboard down in preparation for painting. I undercoated it with Taubmans "Grey Comfort" as i knew i wanted to distress it later on. The top coat was just a plain white to keep things simple. It took a few coats of paint to cover the grey but i got there in the end.

 The fun bit came next.... SANDING! Yep i had a ball whizzing around the cupboard with an electric sander "distressing" as i went. I wanted to add character back to the old girl and i made sure there were a few good "rubs" and "old patches" to give that old vintage feel.

My favourite part of this old cupboard is the feet! I just love them.... the shape and the way they come up after distressing.

I ummed and ahhhed over the top of the cupboard as to whether i should paint it or not. I ended up attacking it with the sander and paint stripper to take it back to the wood. After a coat of "Cedar" stain and a slight white wash to tone it down it has come up a real treat. 

I added new handles as the old ones had a 60's feel to them and it only had one of those. We has some handles left over from changing our cupboard handles throughout the house and these suited the cupboard.

Don't you just love the cute key hole! Pity i couldn't find the key!

Now the inside come up a real treat as well....... I am yet to age it with some Liddels Wax that i purchased on Ebay, it is yet to arrive so more picture to come on the final product!  I will leave you peace now to take a tour of the rest of the cupboard!

Tadaar.... Inside the cupboard!

Great storage space..... still deciding what to put in it!

My little birdy friend seems to like it...... what do you think?

I'm linking up to the following parties.....

French Country Picnic

It's my birthday in a couple of weeks and i have been trying to decided what i want to do on the day to celebrate it. It's not a special "number" or any milestone so it's not like i want to do anything over the top. Probably just enjoy it with my family somewhere! Now it's the "somewhere" and "what exactly" that has been on my mind lately. I don't want anything fussy or a lot of work at the moment so one of my idea's was to have a "french" inspired picnic somewhere around the many wonderful parks in Toowoomba where i live.

image from here

 It would be great to pack the car with a basket full of wonderful food, bottle of wine and picnic blanket and have a relaxing afternoon under the shade of a bespeckled autumn tree. Ok now back to reality! Ha

image from here

Anyway along the way of researching idea's for this french picnic i came across some gorgeous photo's that i had to share with you. It gave me heaps of idea's of things i could use in my own little french picnic. I am still tossing around the idea and it will depend on the weather if i will do it maybe i will leave it as an "idea" to do in the future for my 30th! We will see..... but in the mean time enjoy these gorgeous picnic images!

image from here

image from here

image from here

image from here

Apologies....

Sorry about the photo issues that my blog seems to be having at the moment. It seems to be that my Photobucket account has exceeded it's free data storage and now it wants be to pay to add extra storage. Well it will restore the photo's at the end of this month so in the mean time i apologise for the "Upgrade Today" picture instead of my photos!!

Completed Menu Board

Recently I posted my finished French menu board here. To me though it was not quite complete without some words painted on the top of it. It has hung on the wall for a few months looking a little bare and lonely. I thought i should remedy that and finish it off properly.

I started researching fonts and swirls that i wanted to add to the top of the board. It took a little playing around with to get what i wanted and be happy with it.... but i figured it out in the end.

I played around with it on Word and printed off the wording and swirls once i was happy with the size and formatting. The next step was to colour the back of the print outs with lead pencil and roughly cut out and place the elements on the board. 

Design elements placed onto the board ready for tracing.

I then traced the swirls and words onto the board and the lead pencil on the back of the paper transferred the design for me to paint. Easy Peasy! Well the hard bit began really.... Painting!

Transferred design onto the board.

 I wanted a neutral colour for the words and swirls so i stuck with a nice soft gray and white highlights. It was a bit time consuming and required a steady hand as the design was a little intricate but after an afternoon and evening of painting I finished it.

Completed Design!

I am pretty happy with the result and I won't say it's perfect but good enough to hang up i think! :-)

I just had to mention some of the little things that i just adore about the sash window we used for this Menu board and it was the cute rustic and rusty pieces that were attached to the window such as this handle below! I think it really adds such charm to it!

I also gave it a bit more of a rough up with the sand paper to give it more of a worn look! It was looking a little pristine still!