Thrifted TV Cabinet to Nursery Armoire :: {Before & After}

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You probably don't know this, but my (well, OUR) greatest crafting achievement is due in less than a month!

From what they tell us, 'it' is actually a 'she'! I don't know if Mr. S and I could be any more excited. Oh. Man. ALL THE EXCITEMENT. The best reason in the world to get all sick and swollen and eat your weight in Sonic ice. Mmmm. Sonic ice. :)

Do you know what ELSE is exciting about this??

GETTINGTODOTHENURSERYOFCOURSE!

I will definitely be updating you guys with current (ish) nursery pictures as I finish things. Right now it is in massive amounts of disarray...so...no pictures of it for right now... ;)

*awkwardtransitionintothepointofthispost*

So this was the very first project I did for the nursery, and I actually started it back in...March? Yes, March. Goodness. I'm behind. ANYWAY. Mr. S and I were out one day at a used furniture store and we came across this bad boy. It was a old Broyhill TV cabinet and I fell in love with the front detail...lattice...stuff.

I loved that it had drawers inside, since the closets in our house are few and far between and also tiny. We talked the owner into giving it to us for half off due to some extensive cosmetic damage (pictures below) and scored it for less than $30! Yay!

(I would also like to take this time to give credit to my amazing husband, who, despite my loud and most likely whiny and obnoxious protests that went something like... 'NOOO IT WONT FIT IN YOUR CAR LET'S JUST PAY THEM TO DELIVER IT NOOO NOOO WHAT IF WE GET PULLED OVER WHAT IF IT FALLS OUT WHAT IF THE WORLD ENDS NOOO.' managed to fit this monstrosity into his ever so adorable VW Rabbit hatchback.)

(Isn't he handsome? Ahh. :) He told me I needed to trust him, especially after the fact he fit our washing machine and then our dryer in that hatchback also. I am such a pessimist haha)

Like I was saying, this piece was fairly beat up...not just scratches, I'm talking massive chunks of veneer missing and deep gouges and veneer peeling off. To name a few. And the back was missing. I don't know what this poor dear was in its previous life, but I'm wondering if it didn't just get thrown down some stairs for kicks and giggles. It needed some serious loving.

The bottom leg on the left side was the worst...it had a good inch chunk taken out, on top of the veneer being warped beyond reason.

 

The other leg was pretty jacked up also.

Andddd there were these lovely veneer chunks missing all over the place. The clamps were there in an attempt to at least flatten out the veneer somewhat.

There were deep scuffs like these E'ERWHERE. 

What does one do when their veneer is so messed up? BONDO BABY. Bondo is actually used as body filler for cars, but it works MAGICALLY for these type of projects. I found mine at Lowe's. 

Again, my amazing husband stepped in here and protected our unborn child from noxious fumes by doing all the harsh chemical applications for me..because...seriously folks, this stuff is ranky. Do  NOT do this inside, or any other poorly ventilated space, kay? Kay. I care about your brain cells. :) I would like to say here that I don't 'delegate' tasks involving my projects very well, and while Mr. S was working on this part I stood with my face pressed up against the glass door shouting helpful tips like 'MAYBE A LITTLE MORE OVER THERE? NO. OTHER OVER THERE. ITS UNEVEN' and gesturing wildly. I'm sure he loved it.

So after the Bondo we did some fun sanding! Sanding the front part was a bit of a pain, but it worked out. I also got some heavy duty wood glue and glued/clamped the pulled up veneer piece the best I could.

After sanding came my most favorite part...PAINTING. I love painting because that is when I finally start to see my 'vision' for these projects start to solidify. It gives me such grand warm fuzzies. What was awesome about this is the paint was a jar of 'Oops Paint' from Lowes...I picked up the whole gallon for $5! What was ALSO awesome about this paint color, was that Lowe's had the exact same shade in spray paint, which I used for the front panels, because getting in between all of those decorative moldings was taking FO EVAH.
                                                               

SHEEN SHEEN. Yay!

After the paint dried (which only took about...oh, 45 seconds thanks to the 98 degree weather in southern Georgia haha!) I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the front. I knew I didn't want to leave it bare...that was way too much unbroken lettuce green, even for my tastes. SO then came my favorite part of every project...JORDAN HAS TO DECIDE ON A PATTERN.

Oh patterns. Why art thou so great in number and diversity?

I went to my most totes fave store, Joann's, and wandered around for close to an hour and eventually left with an armful of sample fabric and some rad scrapbook paper. And because I like to be able to actually lay my eyeballs on things, I did each little quarter panel with the four choices I narrowed it down to. (which was a Herculean feat in and of itself)

Option #1...This was the first one. I *loved* this fabric so so so so so so much, and honestly almost went with it.

Option #2 was this awesome scrapbook paper I found, which I also really really really liked. GAH DECISIONS ARE SO HARD.

Option #3...of course I had to at least try a chevron...

And Option #4. I think the brightness sold me on this last one. I knew I wanted a feminine nursery that wasn't PINK PINK PINK EVERYWHERE PINK COTTON CANDY PINK DIE FROM THE PINK but I didn't mind having some interspersed here and there. I also like that the pink in this was more of a coral color.

 You guys want to see my mad photo shop skillz? Yeah. So I did this bad boy up in Microsoft Paint in an attempt to see what the finished project would looked like. Hahahahaha. Sooo fantastic.

After I had decided on the fabric, I told myself I'd just unscrew the molding and lay a whole piece of the fabric down under it and screw the molding back on top. Easy, right? NO DICE. I couldn't for the life of me get that molding off. Some witchcraft must have been involved or something, because that stuff was not going ANYWHERE. So I got to do it the second way...cutting up tiny rectangles and attaching them individually. Yay for the fun way!  

It actually was not as bad as I make it sound. I measured and cut up 48 little fabric pieces and drowned them in mod podge, carefully placed them in their own little individual hole and carefully squeegeed them in. And let dry. GETTING SO CLOSE.

I also made a back piece for the inside, which was covered with the same fabric. See how much happier it is when you open it now? :D

Then I lined the inside of the drawers with pretty contact paper...which I can't for the life of me remember where I got it. I've used this stuff so many different places in our house! (Sorry about the quality of this picture...it was a la Jordan's cellphone because she forgot she hadn't taken one yet. And all of the drawer bottoms have been since filled with baby things, which are ever so classily pushed to the side here ;))

I didn't like the original clunky hardware that had come on the bottom drawer at ALL, so I filled in the holes with wood putty and replaced the single pull with two smaller (and cuter!!) ones.

OH and I thought I would show you guys what that leg looked like before and after the bondo, sanding and paint! Spiffy, right? Its not perfect but I was pleased with how it turned out for our first time using it.

            

ANNNDD FINISHED. And in the baby's room filled and covered with baby things I need to sort...sometime veryvery soon! I really like this piece, I think it adds such a fun element to our daughter's room! I can't wait to show you guys the rest of the nursery!

Cost Breakdown:
Armoire = $30
Paint = $5

Fabric = $10 (Joann's coupon, baby!)

Bondo = $5 (we have loads leftover from the can)
Wood putty & glue = $0 (already on hand)'

Total = ~$50

As always, thank you for reading!

Steam Mop Pads from Towels (Quick and Easy Tutorial)

Hi everybody! I bet you're wondering where in doodleflop I've been for the past 8 months. And that is an rather droll story that involves lots of doctors and hospitals; very tedious, super boring. BUT. I have returned and bring you this super simple tutorial for making your own steam mop pads...yay!

The majority of our house is floored with tile, so my wonderful husband picked me up the Swiffer/Bissell Steam Boost a few weeks ago. {You can find it here}

I just now got around to using it and I must say I was very pleased with it. I also really liked the pads it came with...they smelled nice and cleaned well. However, the replacements are about $9 for 20, and over time it adds up. SO I decided to make my own washable ones! Its really easy, even for a beginning seamstress! And what was awesome, I already had everything I needed on hand...and you probably do to!

Steam Mop Pads from Towels :: Tutorial

You shall need...

:: A regular old wash cloth 

{You probably have an old one laying around somewhere OR you can swing by your local thrift store and pick some up for super cheap. ALSO. If your steam mop is on the bigger side, you might want to use a hand towel instead of a wash cloth}

:: Velcro

{I used the thinner size shown on the right. It might be 1/2 inch? I would shoot for no smaller than 1/2 inch just to make sure it stays all nice and fastened and the like}

 ALSO:

:: A sewing machine

:: Thread

:: Scissors

:: Pins

ONWARD!

STEP UNO : Lay out your wash cloth on the ground, and center your steam mop on it so the extra towel fabric is distributed evenly on both sides. Depending on which steam mop you have, you might have to use a hand towel instead.

STEP THE SECOND : Fold your towel over so it is giving your mop and nice warm towel hug.

CUDDLY!

STEP THREE : {I completely didn't take a picture of the interactive part of this step you guys...I'm so sorry! I blame the pregnancy hormones!} So I kinda just eye balled this part, but, you are going to want to mark with pins where your velcro is going to go. HOW VAGUE IS THAT? Does this picture help at all??

You guys see what's happening here? You want to put one piece of velcro in each corner basically, so when it folds around your mop, it can fasten. I left one side of the velcro intentionally long so I can adjust and stuff and things.

Here is one side...with the small pieces of the scratchy velcro...

And here is the other side with the long pieces of soft velcro...

STEP FOURTH : Once you have pinned on your velcro, try it on your mop to make sure it will fit and fasten on nice and snug. Adjust accordingly.

STEP FIVE : Once you've got everything nice and where you want it...SEW THAT VELCRO ON, YO.

TIDY!

STEP THE LAST : Put that puppy on your steam mop and mop with joy knowing you are saving yourself money and things! When it gets dirty...just throw it in the wash!

I've used mine a few times and it works awesome!

OPTIONS AND THINGS.

To get a nice deep cleany clean, I'd definitely recommend using some sort of homemade floor cleaner with these. There are a ton of options lurking around Pinterest and the interwebz!
{Check some of those out here}

If you are looking for more absorbency, you can definitely add another towel layer; just sew them together first.

These can be made with microfiber cloths, which are nice and absorby also!

AWESOMESAUSAGE!

50¢ Shirt Re-do!

  Rummage sales are basically crack to me. I'm not even ashamed of it. No ma'am. I love them because you can get clothes for basically nothing. As in, 'cheaper than the thrift store' nothing. YES PLEASE!? So the local Methodist church down the street had a rummage sale last Saturday, and my husband (who is the best sport in the world, ohmygoodness) and me toodled down there to check it out. While I didn't get much in terms of quantity, I totally scored in this gem of a...shirt thingy! It was super big, but lots of times, the super big stuff gives you the most room and freedom to experiment with! And it was in excellent condition. And it was shiny. And bright. And essentially everything that is glorious in a shirt. AND 50¢! So done and done. 

It was a skeesh big, likeIsaid, but definitely workable! And it made me looks like I had no arms, apparently. Because I stand weird. ANYWHO. I think what I liked most is that all the little details were still there...like the stones weren't dangling off like you see a lot of at the thrift store. 

I added lots of darts, took in the sides, and hemmed the sleeves and bottom hem.. I also added little slits to the sides to make it more...more...I just like slits. :D

AFTER.

Seriously you guys, I don't know how to pose in pictures, ever. I end up looking like a do-do head.

All I have left is to fray-check the bageebies out of the seams (this fabric shreds like cray cray) and I'll be done! Tell me what you think!

AND. I also got these crazy weird coolio shoes! AND THEY MATCH PERFECTLY. AND POMPOMS.