Furniture Makeovers Archives | Crafted Niche - a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorialsCrafted Niche – a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorials

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Milk Crate Shoe Organizer

April 8, 2013 in Bedrooms, Building and Repurposing, Furniture Makeovers, Living Room

I’m on a milk crate roll! First the milk crate wine caddy, then the milk crate dog bed… and now, a milk crate shoe organizer!

Milk Crate Shoe Organizer

Confession – I may… or may not… be hoarding a stack of milk crates in my shed. Ok, maybe that was a non-committal confession, but the first (half) step is admitting you (may or may not) have a problem, right!?!

Today’s post will be short and sweet… less babble, more pictures. Sound good? Yeah, I thought so.

I had this idea over the weekend and in a matter of minutes, realized it was PERFECT for what I needed!

And for those of you with elephant memory, you might have noticed that my antique armoire has been replaced with a pie safe. My Mom brought it up this weekend for me to use. She’s owned it since the early 90′s… and as it was born in the 90′s – it of COURSE started out with heart cut-outs! My Mom gave it a facelift a couple years back and swapped the hearts for squares. (…and she’s given me permission to give it an updo! So stay tuned for that!)

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Milk Crate Dog Bed

April 1, 2013 in Do it your Dog-Gone Self, Furniture Makeovers, Gettin' Crafty, Pups

It’s no secret that I love dogs… as in fall to my knees babbling baby-talk when Fido sports some puppy-dog eyes and flashes some droopy jowls my way. Yeah… That kind of love.

I was lucky enough to stumble across some antique milk crates last year and have been ~~hoarding~~ storing them in my shed ever since. (Houston, I have a problem.) I have a few throughout my house as decoration and even have two stacked in my bedroom as a TV stand. …and yes, I still have an entire stack in the shed. Don’t judge me!

Long story short, I broke out some power tools and turned an antique milk crate into the cutest little dog bed you ever did see! My pups are too big, so this fun milk crate dog bed is available in my Etsy store.

Here’s a quick photo collage to give you an idea of how it all went down:

Trust me, the saw will work a LOT better when you use a blade specifically made for cutting through metal. I learned the hard way, even managing to snap my wood-blade. Whoops!

With a little more magic, I whipped up this cutie-pa-tootie:

The bed is cushioned with a removable pillow. Plus, the pillow cover zippers on and off, making it a cinch to toss it in the washing machine!

I just love the stamped letters on this crate. If only I was from Forestville, Connecticut!

I’d love to hear what you think – would your little pupper-nut look overwhelmingly cute in this milk crate dog bed?

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Vintage Lockers – Before & After Makeover

February 19, 2013 in Building and Repurposing, Furniture Makeovers, Thrifty Thursday

Finally! They’re finished! My vintage lockers have officially been MADE-OVER. Woop woop!

If you recall, I fell head over heels with these lockers at an auction last year. Yes, head over heels. As in swooning. As in bid like a mad-woman and gave everyone the “don’t-bid-against-me” evil eye. There were a couple that ran the bids up, but in the end, I was victorious. Booyah.

…and then I had to figure out how to get them home. Why yes, yes I DID drive home several miles with them hanging out the back of my SUV… tied in place with leather dog leashes. Hey – I had to get creative.

What’d I use for my vintage lockers makeover? Quite possibly my new favorite spray paint for rusty metal makeovers!

I reached out to the good people at Krylon to see what spray paint they’d recommend. They responded lickety split and were even kind enough to send me some paint to try out.So what’d I use? (Oh wait, I already asked that didn’t I… I’m long-winded, what can I say!)

Krylon Rust Protector in Oil Rubbed Bronze

People… let. me. tell. you. This stuff was great! It went on evenly and dried in minutes. 8 minutes to be exact!

I gave the lockers a good cleaning before I painted. This included sweeping, spraying down and even a wire brush to rough up the chipped paint and rusty areas. Then I painstakingly removed ALL of the numbers and tabs from the locker rack. What a pain. Did I mention it was about 30 degrees outside and I couldn’t feel my fingers? Yeah that part definitely didn’t help.

I have a feeling these lockers had a rough life. They had some stout rust patches, but Krylon was up to the task!

So how many coats? Ummm I’m not entirely sure. I got so excited about the Oil Rubbed Bronze that I went buck wild… plus it dried so quickly. By the time I finished a lap around the lockers the paint was ready for another coat. That’s my kind of spray paint.

All in all, I’d give this stuff 4 out of 4 gold stars… or maybe I should make them bronze stars. (har. har.)

Before we look at the finished product, let’s have a couple quick reminders of what these vintage lockers looked like before:

…and now <drumroll>, the AFTER photos!

…and here’s some side-by-side before and after shots to give you an idea of just how far they’ve come:

Well? What do you think? Personally… I LOVE the dark metal popping against the shiny silver locker baskets and numbers.

…and what’s a Crafted Niche post without some Pupper Glamour shots? Of course Emma and Quinn had to get their muzzle shots.

Thanks for stopping by! I have some more GREAT projects to share in the coming weeks.

…and let me tell you – THIS girl is SO excited to have a working laptop again. It’s tough to edit photos and write posts with a laptop that shuts off every four minutes. Just take my word for it!