If you have anything to add to the list, please do…!!!

I've been putting off blogging about painting furniture because I've been thinking about painting some of my own, however, I've not had a chance to do much lately.  I have been collecting articals and pic's though to refer to when I did get around to it but then I though 'hey!, why not share the love with my fellow kotalkers?', so, here are some cool things I've come across on sites like apartment therapy, crafty nest, makeing this home and recyclart to name just a few.

See what you can do with a dated kitchen

Before

Looks pretty dated already, evey though the cooker, counter top and accessories look fine...

After

Serious improvement!!

Kitchens may be the hardest.   Furniture can be that bit easier.  Take for example this side board.  You could pick something like this up in a charity shop for a song, or in a skip or freecycle.... for free!!

Seriously, they're not that hard to come by

But see what a bit of imagination does!!

Don't just limit yourself to using ordinary paint to update or pimp a peice.  There's always chalkboard paint and here's just one example of a clever way to use it...

Personally, I won't be painting till we move to the new house, I had been freecycling some of our old paint on the site (thank you to all who took it).  I am however toying with another blog on pimping with paper (you've already seen some of my projects) however I've more up my sleeve... so keep watching;-)

There are a few resources online for make and do and regarding this easy peasy project here's one link from the 'Making this home' website.  It got me thinking about a jar I had just used up.  It's smaller than the usual size so perfect for earings and such.

1. Boil hot water with candle sitting in pot, careful not to let water get in jar.
2. When the wax was melted,pour it all into a smaller jar.  
3. Use a paper towel to wipe out the thin coat of wax and soot.
4. Wash in dishwasher

There was a  blob of 'hot glue' holding the wick base to the bottom of the jar, I couldn't get it off without breaking the jar (it was one of the smaller delicate ones) so I put cotton wool in the bottom of the jar since I was putting little bits of jewelary in it.

The lid is hollow, as a decoration I put little silk flowers I had worn in my hair, in the lid.  It sit's nicely with either vintage or modern accesories

I'm posting this under pimp my junk because for bringing some things back to life is just like 'pimping' the item.

Stains on enamel cookware are a natural for the denture tablet cleaning solution. Fill the pot or pan with warm water and drop in a tablet or two, depending on its size. Wait a bit -- once the fizzing has stopped, your cookware will be clean.

I'm gonna get cracking on some of these, denture tablets are less than €3 down in Lidl for crying out loud!!

My sisters Dining chairs were looking a little shabby and dull (and dirty) so we figured they needed freshning up.  There are various styles of dining chairs, drop seats are the easiest to cover,  for these however we had to unscrew the seats.  As it turned out this wasn't a very hard job to do.  My advice is, just take your time.... 

What you need

Old Dining room chairs

Fabric (we used two different types)

Staple gun (and staples)

Screw driver

Scissors

Chair before

1) Take the seat off the chair (if you have a drop seat or screwed on seat like here).  Mark on the underside of the chair which side is the back of the seat near the back support for when you've the seat covered.

2)  Either lay the seat on your fabric or mesure the seat to get the idea for the amount of fabric you want to use.  Cut your fabric allowing about 2" all round (4") for tucking and stapling the fabric.  Then Staple the fabric leaving the corners till last so that you can cut and tidy them up

3) Check which way the seat is marked (which you did before you unscrewed it) and place it carefully back on the chair frame.  Rescrew it back on.

The difference a couple of yards of scrap fabric can make!!

Well, Ionia and I finally got around to pimping some junk!!  We're both loathed to throw out stuff and we love making and crafts so we decided to get together and pool our resources.  I wanted to make pretty first aid kit out of a wine box, and she wanted to turn an old white board and a very large collection of corks into a cork board.

After oohing and aahing over pictures to look for inspiration, we got started.  In fairness there's only so far you can get in a couple of hours so I've only got the starter pics here of the two of us messing about and... er... light refreshments however, we've been very encouraged by others who'll be joining us in a few weeks.  So to start, well, Ionia cut all the corks in half ( so they go further and are easier to handle.  Then she laid them out in a square basket patternShe glued them with a glue gun (remember our make and do kit??).

Ionia discovered although she had three boxes of corks you need heaps for this project and has covered 40% of the board, so while she's collecting more (attention folk in Galway, do keep your wine corks and keep in touch we need about fifty more!!) she covered the rest of the board in linen fabric to pin pictures to.

Ionia and her corks..

Mean while  I got cracking on my medican cabinet/first aid kit/ apothecary box. 

I have to admit, there wasn't enough time for the paint to dry on the night so I'm still working on it, then again perhaps I got distracted half way through the project

So by next week I should have the full project uploaded and explained.  I suspect Ionia will still be collecting corks.  We meet again at the begining of December.  Dunno know where yet.  Another friend Orlaigh has offered to do a book making workshop,  perfect for making home made photo albums and gifts for Christmas.  Now there's a though

A great site for re-purposing/pimping junk is Monica Ewings site Crafty nest. Worth checking out

1. Measure the box and paper you’re going to wrap it in. Keep the margins fairly generous, with the paper going around the box it’ll need an inch or two more                                                                                                                        

     2.    Cut carefully the paper, take you’re time with this, you cannot wrap it like a present or you won’t be able to put the lid on, you have to make heaps of cuts to place every fold.

     3.     When you’ve glued each side, you may want to hold the tab down while it is drying with some pegs (this is especially true of stiff thick paper)

    4.      Repeat the same with the lid