"D" is for Danfield

Danfield painted sign.

A custom order made from a reclaimed floor board.

A full circle Freecycle story here.

Last winter I picked up lots of wood boards from Freecycler Denise, reclaimed wood is my favorite find and she was doing a big renovation on her 1900s home.

I use the wood for painted signs:

And furniture pieces:

The distressed qualities and aged beauty are hard to replicate.

Denise has Freecycled to me some of the best finds including these enamel pails:

side chairs:

Lots and lots of wood and paint.

And one more secret piece which is in progress right now.

Denise recently moved to a new home and she contacted me about making a sign using some of the old wood she had originally Freecycled to me last winter.

I immediately said yes, we worked out the details and now this old wood floor board from her old house will become a beautiful memorable piece in her new home.

The process was simple, cut the board to size. (I sawed off the tongue part but the groove remains.)

Sand and fill large holes with wood putty.

Print out lettering, trace with pen, paint inside lines:

Stain with Minwax dark walnut.

Paint letters again.

Seal and buff with clear wax.

Thanks Denise as always.

I'm linking up to:

Whatcha Got Weekend @ Lolly Jane

SAS @ Funky Junk

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots & Jello

Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime

Sister Sunday @ Sisters of the Wild West

Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table & Dreaming

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

DIY Fall Festival @ The DIY Showoff

Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou

Making the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter

Nifty Thrifty @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Tutorials & Tips Tuesday @ Home Stories A to Z

Good Life @ A Beach Cottage

Delightfully Inspiring @ Delightful Order

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Share Awesomeness Thur @ The 36th Avenue

Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring

Tickled Pink @ 504 Main

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

SAS @ Just a Girl

Feathered Nest @ French Country Cottage

Remodelaholics Anonymous @ Remodelaholic

inspiration board @ Carolyns Homework
Tuesday Timeout @ Reasons to Skip the Housework

"S" is for Secretary

A secretary makeover.

Another Freecycle find, love folks who want to give me their furniture!

You can bet this piece wasn't this pretty before.

Here it is:

Brown, a little beat up, but otherwise solid wood and in good shape.

You can see once upon a time there was a top piece, would've loved to have that!

And after some elbow grease:

Definitely worth the time and effort.

Here's how I did it:

1. Remove hardware and sand with 120 grit:

2. Prime.

3. Paint two coats off white satin finish.

4. Distress 220 grit by hand.

5. For the interior cubbies up top I used two coats BM Harbor Haze matte, one coat satin poly.

6. The knobs are from Target, $4 per knob.

Three kids in tow and I wasn't about to make a special stop at Anthropologie for some 'cool' knobs.

These will do.

PS - They're acrylic, not glass, but you wouldn't know by looking.

6. For the drop down hardware I simply used steel wool to clean it.

Nail the pieces onto scrap wood through the screw holes and using the steel wool scrub, keep scrubbing.

Hardware before:

Lots of years of wear on there:

And after, the steel wool 'sands' off all the gunk:

Total cost for makeover: $32 and lots of sanding!

I lined the little drawers up top with a toile fabric:

One last side by side:

Thanks Jen for your great piece, it has found a perfect spot in our home.

I'm linking up to:

Whatcha Got Weekend @ Lolly Jane

SAS @ Funky Junk, Lovely Crafty Weekend @ Lovely Crafty Home

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots & Jello, Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime

Sister Sunday @ Sisters of the Wild West

Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table & Dreaming

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative, DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Showoff

Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou

Making the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter

Nifty Thrifty @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Tutorials & Tips Tuesday @ Home Stories A to Z

Before & After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chic

Good Life @ A Beach Cottage

POWW @ Primitive & Proper

Delightfully Inspiring @ Delightful Order

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Share Awesomeness Thur @ The 36th Avenue

All Things Furniture @ Perfectly Imperfect

Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring

Tickled Pink @ 504 Main

Remodelaholics Anonymous @ Remodelaholic

Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

SAS @ Just a Girl

"F" is for Floor Lamp

A floor lamp makeover.

As usual I got this floor lamp from Freecycler Doug.

(Yes I do buy things sometimes but when I know it's worthwhile I'm all for Freecycle.)

Not bad for a boy's room baseball theme.

But I needed a 'gender neutral' theme for my kid's bedroom.

I refinished the base with the following products in this order:

(This is what I had so this is what I used.)

prime, paint, sand, stain, seal

For the lampshade we started with this:

And now we have this:

How's how I changed the lampshade:

removed the 'stitching' strings and red fabric:

cut new fabric to fit height of shade and long enough to cover all four sides:

using spray adhesive, attach fabric to one side and wrap 1/2" over side seam:

for the next piece I folded the edge for a finished look and applied:

there's lots of ways to go about it, basically wrap the shade with the fabric

Then I sprayed the bottom and top edges and folded inside:

Use binder clips at corners to keep fabric in place while drying:

Adhere trim, I made blue binding from fabric and used fabritac to glue it:

Finished:

One last side by side:

Definitely worth my time.

I'm linking up to: