Posted by tstevens | Posted in Design Ideas, Green Ideas for Your Home | Posted on 08-06-2010
When you moved out of your parents’ house, did some of their old furniture follow you? Did Great-Aunt Millie’s china cabinet find a place in your Uhaul?
Some of us are “lucky” enough to get hand-me down furniture. Sometimes this is a blessing, sometimes a curse…especially when guilt is thrown in for good measure. How can you turn that piece of furniture from drab to fab?
Side tables:
-Chipped, dented, dinged up from lots of “love”? Take a palm sander to it, and refinish with varnish or primer and a paint color for a fun accent piece.
-Take off handles and replace with something more modern for an updated touch.
-Gather photographs and place on top of the table, find a piece of glass (or have one cut) and place on top of the photos. This will hide the blemishes, and be a photo album for all to see your fun adventures.
-For glass tables with metal legs, sand down the paint on the legs, remove the glass top, and use metal spray paint to give new life to the table.
Hall-way tables:
These tables tend to collect stuff. Keys, mail, coupons, loose odds and ends, etc. How can you jazz them up?
-Following the side-table ideas, you can also find a neat plate or collecting dish for loose change and keys while adding a touch of style.
-Can’t find a “neat plate”? Have a night out at a paint-your-own pottery place and create one yourself!
-Have a basket for your chargers and electronic devices to hang out in.
-Small hooks can be added to either end for umbrellas, light jackets, or keys.
Large pieces of furniture like that huge china cabinet…
-If there are doors on the bottom half of the piece, consider putting on new glass doors, or if it has glass doors, find some trendy fabric and put that in to bring in some color.
-Replace handles with new ones if some are broken, missing, or just horribly outdated and ugly.
-Before doing major rehab, ask your parents about the piece and if it is ok to alter it. If they are ok with it, consider tahing the top half off, and using the bottom half as additional kitchen storage, dining room storage for napkins, placemats, runners, table cloths, candles, candle holders, or decorating pieces. Other storage may include wine, serving plates & bowls, or any other items that are pulled out for special occassions.
-Use the top half as a knick-knack holder, or place on a bar top, install some glass holders and use as a display case for your nice barware. Don’t want the fussiness? You could also display your liquor collection.
Mirrors:
-Sand & repaint
-Paint a funky design and use as an accent piece.
-Add tile around the edges
-Take the frame off and use as a frame for a painting instead.
-Have a new one, but want the aged look? Paint a base color, then crackling paint, then your top color.