Fauxbulous Marble Makeover Part 1: Lamp Repair & Painting

 The Find

I found this discarded table lamp in the autumn (along with some others around the same time, maybe lamp season is a thing here too?).  I immediately liked the classical square column, sort of obelisk-y, shape because classical forms speak to my soul, never mind the giant crack across the body....

Brown column table lamp laying on blue towel

Close-up of the crack around the column

The Repair

Cracks can be filled! And filling the crack is what I set out to do, using some Goodfilla brand wood filler (not sponsored, just what I used) in a few layers to try to get the fill material as deep as possible.  I should also mention that I cleaned the entire piece and removed the electrical components.

Lamp body and wood filler

Close-up of the repair using wood filler

I fully acknowledge that the **right** way to fill this type of crack is to over-fill and then sand back.  However, I hate sanding, so I try to avoid it, thus I tried to fill to the surface level and then hoped that the paint and pattern brewing in my mind would fool the eye enough.

Repaired crack in the original lamp body

The Makeover

My inspiration came from alabaster and marble lamps, but of course I didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars, time for an experiment with fauxbulous finishing!  There are many online tutorials and videos about faux finishing, but the key concept is layering layering layering and some special sauce in the form of scumble.

Step 1 was, of course, primer.  I used Zinsser Bulls Eye Zero Primer For All Surfaces.  I've had this can for a few years and it comes in very handy.  I applied the primer with a brush.

primer

The first coat of primer highlighted the repair more than it obscured it.

Repaired area after first layer of primer

After a second coat of primer the base was looking more even, but I wasn't going for a full flat white primed based because the faux marble look is all about layers.

Repaired and primed

As my base color I used a paint sample I has on hand, Behr Etched Glass, probably mixed with something else that I can't remember right now.  I didn't want a stark stark white because in a natural material I would expect off-white and shades of gray to reflect varying mineral content.

Paint sample lid, Etched Glass

Below is a photo of the various paints I mixed together to achieve the different layers.  There are no set ratios, I just did it by eye. They included the sample of Etched Glass, a free half-used paint in the color 'Canvas' (a pale beige), and some Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron (an almost black but not true black).

Paints and glue

Let's talk about scumble. Scumble is the sort of background cloudy layer that will form the base of the more distinct veining that will be layered on later.  To achieve my scumble I used a mix of the paints to get a pale grey, maybe a pale grey-brown?   I dabbed it on with a piece of cut up sponge (shown with the yellow arrow in the photo below) and then dabbed the excess off with a rag (shown with the blue arrow in the photo).  It isn't complicated but you do need to work quickly so that the scumble layer stays faint.

Scumble on with the sponge, scumble off with the rag

Here is a different side with a fainter scumble.

Lamp with scumble layer of faux finish

After the faintest scumble, do another layer with a slightly darker color and less application overall.  If anything looks to straight-line just wipe it off quickly and start over.

Scumble variation on different sides

The veining is the last part, done with either the edge of a feather or a small paintbrush held very loosely in the hand.  Follow the general direction of the scumble, usually a diagonal, but keep a very fluid line.  Remember, you're mimicking geological uplifting and folding of layers of sedimentary rock, it's not going to be precise.  After finishing with the paints I decided to shellac the surface to protect the paint job, but this step is optional.

Below is a closeup of the bottom part of the lamp body after its repair and faux marble finish. Does the pattern distract enough from the repair?

Detail of fauxbulous finish on the lamp base

Conclusion Part 1

After all that fauxbulous painting it was time for a lie down.... with the other electrical components before being reassembled.

Lamp body with new faux marble finish and electrical components

Happy freestyling, why not give faux finishing a try? You might get some fauxbulous results!

Beehivey Ribbed Planter Makeover

The Freestyle Find

Those who (successfully) garden indoors eventually face the dilemma of plants that outgrow their pots.  At first the solution is obvious, just get a bigger pot, and for pots below the 6-7-inch diameter range this usually isn't too expensive.  The Swedish superstore has a wide variety, and I'm an owner of various sizes of PAPAJA and MUSKOT-series plant pots.  However, larger and larger ceramics also get heavier and heavier (especially when filled with associated plant material) so at some point it makes weight-sense to switch to some type of plastic outer pot. The problem I have is that lots of plastic pots are ugly and so very plastic-looking and more expensive than the $0 I want to spend on plastic.  Lucky for me I came across this planter that was free, large, and interestingly-shaped-but-ugly-color and thus was crying out for a makeover.  I washed it in the tub and after it dried I got to work painting, and oops I forgot to take a full-size 'before' picture.

Pea green plastic planter close-up view

The Makeover

I knew right away that the makeover for this plastic cachepot would be simple and quick, transform the stained pea-green exterior with some matte white paint so that the planter would blend in with my existing collection.  This process started with some primer (this gallon of primer just keeps on giving, I've been using it for 5 years now).....

In-progress, applying primer to plastic

....and the process continued with some **free** paint+primer in the form of a quarter-full can that I received from a neighbor, the color was Behr Ultra Pure White 2050 in Interior Eggshell Enamel. I'm wasn't sure what sort of sheen 'eggshell enamel' would have, because eggshell sounds 'not-shiny' and enamel sounds 'shiny'.  All coatings were applied with a low quality chip brush.

Paint can in front of the painted planter

Conclusion

The final result of the multiple coats was a lovely matte white color that shows off the cool ribbed texture while serving as a backdrop for a tall dark green Sansevieria plant (aka Snake Plant).  This might not be the last plastic cachepot that gets this paint treatment.

A closer view of the painted planter.

Below is a full-length view of the Sansevieria in its new home.  The contrast of the bulbous beehive-shape planter with the strong vertical lines of the plant is just what I was hoping for.

Sansevieria plant in a new home.

Happy freestyling, if the item is free why not paint it?  Give it a go.

Fiddle splat chair back wooden chair makeover

 The FIND - A wooden chair with a fiddle splat back

I received this well-used chair from a neighbor. It had multiple chips in the veneer along the splat and signs of wear along the wooden frame, but overall was still solid and I liked the decorative details. The flat center of the chair back (inside the oval frame) is called the splat. Splats can take many forms and display decorative motifs.  In general, this splat shape seems to be known as 'fiddle', but there may be a more specific name somewhere in the depths of the interwebs that I haven't yet found.

Chair as received, signs of wear indeed

The damaged bits and the dark color scheme just weren't working anymore, time for a makeover.

The Makeover

I had to fill the chips in the splat veneer using woodfiller, on both the front and back of the chair. Don't forget about the back of the chair, it gets lots of use and can be banged against a wall too.

Detail of chipped veneer on chair back.

Chair back after applying wood filler

After the wood filler had dried it was sanded smooth. 

The next phase was priming and painting, which involved trying to pick just the right shade of blue (custom mixed from the paints I had on hand).

Chair frame after being repaired and primed.

The first paint color was too grey...

First coat of paint, too grey.

The second paint color was too baby blue... 

Second chair paint color, too blue.

The third paint color was just right, but we're not there yet! First I had to add new foam to the chair base and recover the seat.

Using the old seat to measure new foam.

I was able to add some piping to the front of the chair cushion, another fun detail.

Detail of fabric piping along the chair edge.

The Results

And after all that wondering about color, here it is with just the right shade of blue-grey.

Conclusion

I loved the way this chair turned out. Modernized in a light and bright but not too loud color, sort of a Gustavian / cottagecore mashup style.  Happy freestyling, don't overlook a solid wooden chair even if there is some surface damage - wood filler and paint make excellent friends.

Conclusion - An Extra Comparison For Fun

Whilst traipsing through the endless world of fancy design blogs I came across the "Oleander Cane Back Chair" pictured below on the website The Expert.Com -- the color-similarity with my chair project was noted.  What was also very noticeable was the price difference!  My chair project did not cost $2,000, but if someone wanted to buy a fixed up freestyle find for that much I wouldn't be upset.  I would buy some fancier paint, and maybe even a paint sprayer.....

source: The Expert

Easy+lazy planter makeover

Freestyle Find

I found this round tapered vessel, and I think it's either a wastebasket or a planter.  It's wood (I think), which makes me lean towards a decorative wastebasket and not a "real" wastebasket that would be expected to hold wet things.  

wooden wastebasket

At any rate, it is the right size and shape for a plant cachepot, so that is what I decided it would be.

I found that the plastic top from a takeout container fit snugly (friction fit) inside the vessel an inch or so above the base.  

Inside the wastebasket with plastic lid insert

This serves the double purpose of catching water and raising up the functional bottom so that the plastic plant pot that I had would sit closer to the top and be easy to remove.

View Inside the wastebasket with plastic lid
and plant pot to test for fit.

Makeover

In order to make the greenery of a plant stand out I tend to use light or white cachepots, preferably ceramic, but there are a few plastic and metal ones floating about the place.  It is just easier to keep a consistent look that way.  Every time I'm tempted by some scrumptious talavera pottery, funky hand-thrown vessel with a unique glaze, or just something silly and fun from a discount store it is much easier to say 'no' to a purchase if I have a defined palette of allowable plant pots in the home.  So, in its original 'as found' state, this wastebasket-future-cachepot didn't match with there rest of the container garden. Could I have sanded the outside and revealed the lighter wood? Possibly.  Would that have been closer to the rest of the cachepots? Yes.  But do I like sanding? No.  I also had a paintbrush and samples out as part of an ongoing chair project, so this just seemed like the right time for an easy+lazy planter makeover.

 

I used one coat of this sample paint and applied it with a brush because I wanted to get paint into the small grooves running vertically along the outside.  The paint sample color is 'Light Drizzle' with a satin finish, it is a very pale blue.

Paint sample, Light Drizzle color

The first coat didn't give perfect coverage, but I left it like that..... it's cool because it is distressed. Right?

Not just because I didn't want to paint a second coat?

Outside after one coat of paint

Conclusion

I repotted a rubber plant (yes, that had been free too) into the new plastic planter, and placed it inside the newly painted cachepot.  Success!

Newly painted cachepot and new
(also free) rubber plant

Happy freestyling, and don't overlook the power of paint!

Shades of blue scrapwood table

The Find

I had a bunch of scrapwood not doing much of anything except gathering dust and pollen, so I decide to make a lightweight table for the patio. This was also a convenient and low-commitment way to experiment with a bunch of 99-cent paint samples I had on hand.

scrapwood

The Re-use

This project didn't require too many cuts using the jigsaw, but it was more than I would have wanted to do with a handsaw.  The first cut was the large piece of pinkish plywood, cut approximately in half. The second set of cuts were for the legs, made out of various 2x4s. The pieces were assembled with glue and screws, then it was time to paint!

Three-legged table made of scrapwood

The painting was done in a gradient, I wouldn't attempt to call it ombre, but the inspiration was an overhead view of the ocean. The Glidden paint sample colors from lightest to darkest: 

Serene Sea (flat finish)

Cosmopolitan (flat finish)

Blue Oasis (flat finish)

Stunning Sapphire (semi-gloss finish)

Painted table top

Painted table, side view

Conclusion

With access to power tools the cutting only took about 10 minutes, the paint was allowed to dry for at least a day, then the top was covered with a coat of water-based polyurethane to improve water resistance.  Now I have a useful table at just the right height to serve as an occasional outdoor desk. Happy freestyling.

Y-urn-ing for another lamp makeover? Here's something for that.

The Find

I guess it is lamp season, or lamp discard season, or maybe I just notice lamps because they are functional, easy to fix, and fun to makeover. Either way, here is a story of making over a funny lamp that was designed to look like some sort of aged antique.  It was also sitting on the ground when I found it, which helped with the aged effect.

Lamp, discarded on ground.

The Makeover

After a thorough cleaning, which revealed that the aged crackle look was very much intentional, I was please to discover that the lamp electrical components were working just fine.  I was EVEN MORE PLEASED when a lampshade that I had randomly found (right? because it's lamp season??) a few weeks prior turned out to be a decent fit for the size and shape.

I had it sitting in a corner for a few days while I plotted the makeover. Every day confirmed that the aged crackled-ivory look of the 'vase' part of the lamp just was not cutting it.  It just sat there muttering, "I"m fusty," while I contemplated what color - or colors - to use.  I thought about matte black, matte white, or a dark clay red, but then the image of wedgewood blue plates popped into my head, and I kind of liked it.

Lamp in corner, with new shade

While at the hardware store, considering the spray paint aisle, I realized that if I wanted to use spray paint I would have to wait weeks for the temperature to be warm enough outside. Unacceptable! When the freestyle makeover bug bites it must be dealt with immediately.  So I trundled over to the interior paint section and found the cheapest paint sample on the display shelf - thank you 99cent jars of Glidden. At that price I could experiment!  I found 4 shades of blue on the same sample card and got matte paint samples for each.  Once back to the workbench I started painting little samples to see how the colors really looked, and how they looked against the 'brass' color parts.

testing the waters...

The color that won out is called SERENE SEA, it was the lightest of the four. In the photo below it is super washed out by the bright lamp I had shining about 6 inches away while painting, and the paint was still wet.

Repainted lamp section in Glidden Serene Sea.

Conclusion

After looking at the lamp for a few days I'm pleased, but not overjoyed, with how it looks.  In an unexpected twist (thank you subconscious?) it coordinates with a different lamp in the room that has a brass body and a blue glass shade.  My plan is to look at it for a while longer and decide if I want to extend the current amount of blue, or paint any of the other lamp body sections.  For now I am very happy with how the paint covered up the original crackled-ivory look and smoothed out the texture a bit.

Post-makeover, blue vase lamp

Happy freestyling, revamping, redoing, and all the DIY-ing!

Garden of freestyle delights - removable mini-shelf for a fence

 The Idea For the Mini-Shelf

It is always nice to have a proper spot to place a drink, or in these days, a cell phone.  The proper place is not the floor, especially on a patio or other outdoor place, and sometimes putting a drink on your own chair or lap can be ... dicey. The proper answer is stable shelf or side table, something that was lacking within arm's reach of one patio chair nestled into a corner.  So, given my quantity of scrapwood, I thought about how to make a shelf that would fit into the fence, but not require being fastened to the fence with nails or screws.

Pile of scrapwood, aka inspiration material

The Prototype

The fence has alternating vertical pieces,  these vertical pieces are fastened to horizontal wood pieces running parallel to the ground.  One of the horizontal pieces is approximately 3 ft above the bottom of the fence, making it the perfect height for a mini shelf.  I came up with a T-shaped design for the shelf, with the bottom support provided by a small block of wood.

Mini-shelf, top view.

In the picture ABOVE you can see how the narrow side arms of the 'T' shape had to be no thicker (when laid horizontally) than the space between the  vertical fence posts, which is roughly equal to the thickness of a 2x4.   The screw near the top is what held the small supporting block on the base. In the picture BELOW you can see the nail from the bottom of the shelf, on this prototype the small supporting block of wood split in half when I screwed through it - which is actually kind of helpful for showing the cross-section here.

Mini-shelf, bottom-view.

The IMPORTANT part was that my idea worked! The shelf laid flat and stayed put by being braced between the vertical fence posts and was held level by the lower small block.

Mini-shelf, side-view. 

Conclusion

After finalizing the measurements on the prototype mini-shelf I made another version of the shelf, with slightly neater cuts and maybe even some sanding to smooth the edges.  I then used a stencil to apply a purple floral mandala-type design.  After the paint was dry I coated the entire mini-shelf piece with polyurethane for protection from the elements.

Completed mini-shelf

You can see that this mini-shelf is the perfect size to hold a drink, a phone, or as one might expect in a patio space -- some gardening supplies.

Completed mini-shelf holding pruning scissors and twine.

Happy freestyling, prototyping, and gardening!