DIY String Art Heart Tutorial

This is a super easy project. My brother and I decided we would each make one of these. He wanted to give it to his girlfriend and I'm sharing mine with my husband, hence the M ;-)

Materials
Wood Board
Finishing nails (18 gauge, 1" long is what we used)
String
Hammer
Pencil

Pick your design and draw it lightly on your board. You can also print out a design and just nail through it.

Hammer in nails about 1/2" apart on the outline of your design. Only hammer them in about 1/4". Just enough to be secure, but not go through the board.

After all the nails are in place, Tie the string on a central nail and trim off the excess tail. Remove the paper or erase any obvious lines at this point.

Start wrapping the string from nail to nail in any order. This adds to the randomness of it. Try to wrap it around each nail at least once. 2 or 3 time will make it look fuller. Keep the tension strong so the string doesn't slip off a nail. Every once in a while, tie a knot around a nail just in case it pops off at one point, it won't ruin the whole thing.

Keep filling in the design evenly so you don't end up with bare spots.

If you're adding a design in the center of your heart, be sure that you don't cross that inner area at all! It will ruin the clean look of it. 

Done!

To hang this on a wall, use a picture frame or canvas wall hanging kit.

Refinishing a Vintage High Chair

While I was refinishing my kitchen table, I decided to paint an old high chair I had found. It was a cute chair and I really like it. It reminded me of the one my grandma had and used with me and my siblings and cousins and probably my dad and aunt and uncles too. I was really well built, just a bit dirty and scratched.

It was pretty easy to refinish it, but my main issue was that the tray was missing. I considered forgoing the tray and just making it table height so I could pull it up to the kitchen table, but then I thought I might regret that decision in the future. Not liking to take shortcuts, I made a new tray. In retrospect, it probably would have been much easier to buy the tray from the internet (yes, people sell them! Check it out here or here), but I saved about $30 by buying a piece of solid oak at Home Depot instead. Cutting it to the right shape was super easy using a jigsaw, but making the indentation so food doesn't spill straight on the floor was so much harder than I thought it would be. I borrowed my dad's electric planer and carved out the center, but this left it very uneven and rough. I used a belt sander, palm sander, and Dremel with a sanding bit to try to fix it. Eventually, I primed it, used wood filler to fix big gaps and painted it and sanded it again to get it to where it is now. And I'm still not happy with it!  Oh well, it'll do for now.

I also had to buy the hardware for the tray. The half that was attached to the chair was still there, but I needed the part that went on the tray. I opted for this version: High Chair Tray Hardware, which is exactly the same as what was on there! I even used the same holes for the screws. So, I attached the all new hardware to the chair and tray. This was a little tricky because I had to line up the tray with the chair and mark the edges of the hardware so I could drill the screw holes. After one mishap with them being to close together, I fixed it, and now it works perfectly!

Here's how the refinishing goes if you have your complete high chair

Materials:

1. High Chair (including tray)
2. Sand paper
3. Spray Paint
4. Food Safe top coat (this is the one I used)
5. Hardware (old or new)
6. Safety Strap (Make your own, buy new, or use the old one if it's in good condition)

Instructions:

1. Remove all hardware and safety strap
2. Clean all surfaces
3. Lightly sand all surfaces
4. Clean again to remove dust
5. Spray paint 1 coat while the chair is upright
6. Spray paint 1 or 2 coats while the chair is upside down
7. Spray paint 1or 2 coats while the chair is upright again until all surfaces are evenly covered
8. Spray clear food safe top coat
9. Attach old or new hardware and safety strap
10. Enjoy your awesome high chair!

If you're also missing the tray, buy the tray and hardware in advance. If you don't want the tray to have the indentation to catch food and liquids, then you can save some money by buying a solid board and cutting it to the proper shape. Sand the edges and surfaces to smooth them out before priming and painting. 

I also made a new safety strap because the old one was worn, dirty and brown. I bought black strap material at Joann that was the same size as the old one. I used the same clip because I couldn't find a new 3-point clip, so I just washed it really well. I used the old strap as a pattern, sewed the new one and stapled it in place with a staple gun to the bottom of the chair.

Because my high chair had this adorable carving on the back of the seat, I painted the heart in with chalkboard paint and outlined it with white paint.

Refinish an Old Kitchen Table

When I was getting married and moving out, all of my friends and family seemed to see it as their opportunity to get rid of all their old, unwanted furniture. "Give it to the newlyweds! they need furniture," must have been what everyone was thinking. In many case, this came in handy. I didn't have to buy expensive furniture or hunt it down somewhere, but a lot of the stuff I was given was old and not really fitting with my preferred style. Luckily, spray paint exists! I've refinished quite a few items now, but I feel like my kitchen table is one of the most dramatic transformations.

This table is really well built and stable and it has two leaves so it can be small enough for six people or large enough for ten to twelve if needed. However, it wasn't in great condition and I wasn't a big fan of the oak color. I don't even have a good before picture because I didn't think to take one and I always had a tablecloth on it to hide the scratched and stained tabletop.

Here is the table with the table cloth on it when it was in my apartment.

Now that I have a house with a garage, I can paint stuff!

I started off by flipping the table over and painting the underside. As you can see. I laid down newspaper and taped it in place so that I wouldn't ruin the top of the table. Doing the painting first affords you the chance to sand off any stray paint that might accidentally get on the tabletop where you're going to sand.

I lightly cleaned off the surfaces and sanded lightly sanded it all over so that the paint would hold well. I did about 3 light coats of paint an hour apart. 

I realized after I finished painting the base, that I had forgotten to pull out the leaves and paint those as well. I taped and covered the table top and spray painted the section just below the tabletop (the frame? skirt? I'm not sure what the area is called).

If you're worried about the floor, put a tarp down so you don't get that nice over spray ring on the ground.

After I had finished painting the bottom white, I sanded all the top pieces. I started with a 80 grit sand paper on a palm or pad sander to remove all the old varnish. After most of the old finish was gone, I moved to a 120 grit sand paper on my sander. I smoothed it out with a 200 grit paper. (If you're not familiar with sand paper, the lower numbers mean rougher paper and the higher numbers mean more smooth paper. You usually work from low to high to remove old finishes and then even and smooth the surface as you go)

After the old finish was removed, the surface was smooth, and the table cleaned with a rag towel, I stained it with a dark walnut colored stain. Maybe because the color I chose was so dark, the stain was really thick, almost like paint. I applied it with a 3" paint brush. When I tried to add a second coat, the first coat started coming off. I've never had this happen with stain before (it's supposed to stain, right?), so I fixed the area I had tried to re-coat and left it alone.

When the stain was thoroughly dry (I believe I waited a full day), I started applying the varnish. I did 2 coat in one day, 2 hours apart and 2 coats the next day, also 2 hours apart.

One of my future projects, reupholstering and converting a chair into a rocker, is in the background there.

At that point, I started working on the chairs. I cleaned them all, which was no small task since they were 20 years old. I use hot water and in some case kitchen cleaner to remove dirt and stains as best as I could.Once they were dry, I used a medium (120) grit sand paper to rough up the surfaces of the chairs. I used the palm sander on all the flat surfaces I could, especially the seat, where I knew there would be a lot of use. I didn't strip the old varnish, because I didn't want to prime the chairs, just made a good surface for the paint to adhere to.

This is the paint I used on the chairs. It worked really well and I love the color.

I lightly spray each chair twice while the chair was upright and then coated it again the next day while the chair was upside down to get all the spots I missed. After doing any necessary touch-ups, I coated all the chairs with two gloss clear coats to protect the paint and keep the color from transferring to other surfaces. I think the clear coat was pretty import because it's such a bold color that if it rubs against the white table it would definitely leave a mark. 

After a solid week of drying in the garage, I brought the table and chairs into my kitchen/dining room. I have to say, I love them now! I'm so glad I refinished them instead of buying something new. They've also held up really well. The table surface looks great and it matches my kitchen perfectly!