REFINISHED SIDE TABLES

Prepare yourself for another post in our Crafty Chaos series...

When Kaitlyn bought a house a couple of years ago, she picked up a second-hand dresser that she refinished and now uses as her TV stand (see before and after pictures below).

Since then, she's been trying to find a set of second-hand side tables or nightstands with similar vibe for that same room, to go next to the couches. Well, after years of (very sporadic) searching, we found some! We picked up these beauties at the Springville DI for $20/each. (Please don't mind the messy garage corner - organizing the garage is a project for anther day!)

We liked that the chunky details and unique hardware felt reminiscent of the dresser.

Here's a quick rundown of how we refinished these!

We began with a good cleaning. This included getting all of the dust out of the crevices and removing the price stickers and the goo they left behind. (We love Goo Gone for this - we picked up a bottle at Home Depot a couple of years back and it’s still going strong!)

We then pulled out the drawers and removed the hardware, setting the hardware aside for later. 

We decided to keep the wood look on the top, but stain it a darker color. To start this process, we roughed up the surface - quick once over with the sander. And then cleaned it again.

We then taped off and covered the top of it, in preparation for using a spray paint primer on the other parts of each side table. We used painter's tape and masking paper to cover the top (both of which were purchased at Home Depot a year or two ago for other projects - yay for leftover supplies!)

With the top of these protected, we were then free to prime the sides and front of each table, as well as the drawers, using Zinsser spray paint primer.

Once that had dried, we proceeded to stain the top a darker color. General Finishes Carbon Gray Gel Stain has been Kaitlyn's best friend through many projects in the past couple of years, from refinishing bathroom cabinets and handrails, to refinishing the top of her second-hand coffee table. So, I think it was a no-brainer for her to bust out her can of Carbon Gray for this project too! General Finishes' website has great instructions and videos for applying their gel stain; we did three coats, applying the stain with a foam brush, wiping down with cloth rags and then lightly sanding after each coat dried. (The picture above shows the color after the first coat.)

After adequate drying time (about three days) - time clearly used to hit up the local plant nursery - it was time to put a few coats of polyurethane over the newly stained surface. While Kaitlyn swears by the General Finishes' gel stains, she does not swear by their tip coats (it's a sensitive subject!). So she used a polyurethane by Varathane (purchased at Home Depot and leftover from other projects). The one used on this project was a water-based polyurethane with a gloss finish. 

With the top finished, we were able to paint drawers and base of these side tables (my favorite part!). We used Behr Green Meets Blue in a satin finish.

It was a beautiful day, so we actually took the drawers one at a time to the patio table and painted them there. We used a craft paint brush to help get in some of the nooks and crannies, of which there were an abundance. We left the side tables themselves on the garage floor and painted those there, using a 2-inch paint brush (this is Kaitlyn’s go-to paint brush for most of her painting projects). 

After giving everything a few days to cure, we gently laid each side table on the back side so that we could easily add some felt strips all along the bottom to protect the LVP floors they'll be living on from any scratches or scuffs. 

We also re-attached the hardware to the drawers at this point.

It's nice to now have a place during movie nights to set drinks and then tuck away remotes and ever store that cross-stitch Kaitlyn likes to work on when watching movies!

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PAINTED BRICK "BOOKS"

Prepare yourself for another post in our Crafty Chaos series...

Last year, cute painted bricks as books started appearing in my Pinterest feed. I'd already been toying with ideas of some book-ish yard projects and I knew I needed to make some of these. At the time though, I wasn't sure where I'd even put painted bricks and so I put off the project. Later, as I began preparations to build some raised garden beds in my little side yard, I had an idea...

What if I lined the base of the garden beds with brick "books"?

A bit much? Probably. Do I care? Not really.

I build my raised garden boxes earlier this spring and began planting in them just last weekend. And with those tasks underway, it was time to create my first set of brick books. I didn't know of anyone getting rid of bricks, nor could I find any on KSL. Classified or Facebook Marketplace that worked (hopefully going forward I can find some old bricks to repurpose though!). So I picked up a few brick-ish sized pavers at Lowes (I couldn't find any actual bricks there) to get my collection started. More recently I picked up some thicker pavers of a similar size at Home Depot - so I will eventually have some different sizes, which I think will be cute, as that will be better mimic a real-life bookshelf.

There are a lot of tutorials and instruction on painting bricks as books out there. If you're going to paint some brick books, I'd check out a few - I found a lot of different, creative approaches!

As I intended to eventually have a lot of these and knew they'll be in the dirt outside (as opposed to book ends or something else indoors), I wanted an approach that wouldn't require too many materials or be too labor-intensive. So, for instance, I didn't want to cut out mylar sheet or vinyl stencils for each book on my Cricut. And because I'm not very artistic, I wanted simple designs. 

With these consideration in mind, I decided to keep it simple with paper patterns (inexpensive and recyclable) and transfer paper. I hadn't found anyone else who used this approach, so I wasn't sure how well it would work - but thankfully, it worked just fine! My designs aren't as crisp as some of the others I've seen. Given my plans and considerations for these bricks though, I'm 100% okay with that. 

Painting the bricks:

Using acrylic paint and a craft paint brush, I started by painting the top, one side and the bottom of my bricks (the "pages") a cream color. I took the paint to the edge and wasn't too worried about being precise, as I knew the "cover" would wrap around the side a little bit anyway. 

Using some painter's tape, I marked off the areas along those painted areas where the "front and back covers" will be - I probably marked about 1/4 inch border away from edges. On the next ones though, I think I'll just try to eyeball these lines. As the pavers aren't smooth, the lines weren't crisp anyway. And I'd rather not use lots of tape on this project. 

I then painted my "book covers." I used Midnight Blue on one and Black Cherry on the other.

The front, back and blank side ("spine"), along with the edges of the page sides, were painted in these colors. 

Next came the actual book cover design. I measured my bricks and then using Pages, drew rectangles just smaller than the bricks - this was my design space. I then added text and, in later designs, some simple graphics within that design space. My first two were super simple - no images for scrolls or anything. I was able to fit two book cover designs to a page. 

I cut out each design. And then I cut out the transfer paper slightly smaller than my paper pattern. I used black tranfer paper on the maroon brick and white transfer paper on the blue brick, tracing the design with a pen (as opposed to a stylus, which came with the transfer paper).

(I bought my transfer paper on Amazon)

Next, I simply used thin paint brushes and acrylic paint to go over the traced lettering. 

I then repeated the same trace and paint steps for the spine. (Just stick to author initials on the spines!)

On the third brick, I decided to branch out and add a little graphic and extra color on the cover and the spine (I picked sea coral for the cover, since I wanted something oceany). I aslo tried some puff paint on this one, hoping for an embossed feel. However, I felt this was harder than simply painting the letters, so I'm not sure I'll try any other bricks with puff paint. But perhaps I'll give one with block lettering a try. 

One the fourth brick, I chose a chunky, block font - I really liked how that turned out! It was easier to paint, as it was easier to trace those lines and fill them in than with the other fonts I chose. So I'll probably do more block lettering going forward.

What I'll try differently next time:

I think on some of the upcoming books, I'll bust out my floral stencils and add some larger stenciled designs to the covers. I may also cut out a stencil on my Cricut with some basic scrolls and flourishes to dress up future covers when I'm not using a book-specific graphic. 

More block lettering

Less painter's tape.

Stay tuned for updates on how these ideas actually pan out!

Book selection:

I recently read an Agatha Christie biography, listened to a lecture series on her writing and then read a selection of her novels - so it only felt appropriate to select a couple of her books for my first bricks. From here, I'm just working back through classics I've read in the past year or two. 

Materials:

• Bricks (or brick-like pavers)
• Acrylic paint (I used Delta Ceramcoat colors Antique White, Midnight Blue, Black Cherry, Blue Heaven and Tibetan Sunset, as well as Folkart Metallic color Pure Gold)
• Tracing paper (white and black) and either stylus or pen
• Craft paint brushes
• Painter's tape, optional
• Paper Template/design (unless you want to freestyle your design)

Have you painted brick books? What are your tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments below!

P.S. If you like this post, then don't forget to check out our other posts and leave us a comment! We love hearing from our readers and appreciate your support!