# Little home project. Might be on to something..



## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

My parents moved and had no room for their black fireplace...

Didn't go with out decor, so my wife primed painted and distressed it and then I just put to coats of clear on it. 

Pretty nice transformation IMO


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

Looks like a nice fireplace surround. How many hours yall got into it?


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

We looked at a couple of jobs where ever piece of furniture was distressed as well as the fireplace mantels. We have done a couple our selves.

What did you use for a base.

We used Chalk paint and then made out own chalk paint. Our own chalk paint was Regal Select with Plaster of Paris mixed in. Sands out just like the real chalk paint. We put 2 clear coats on the stuff we did.


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

woodcoyote said:


> Looks like a nice fireplace surround. How many hours yall got into it?


About 4 hours total


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

cdpainting said:


> We looked at a couple of jobs where ever piece of furniture was distressed as well as the fireplace mantels. We have done a couple our selves. What did you use for a base. We used Chalk paint and then made out own chalk paint. Our own chalk paint was Regal Select with Plaster of Paris mixed in. Sands out just like the real chalk paint. We put 2 clear coats on the stuff we did.


Wasn't sure what the original finish was so it was a coat of Bin, 2 coats of flat white, some sweat and elbow grease to sand it, then 2 coats varathane satin finish


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

wje said:


> Wasn't sure what the original finish was so it was a coat of Bin, 2 coats of flat white, some sweat and elbow grease to sand it, then 2 coats varathane satin finish


Next time try mixing Plaster of Paris into the paint, makes sanding so much easier. It's trial and error mixing it but if done right you will remember what ratios to use next time.

With either chalk paint or mixing your own you have to clear coat it after or if you rub into it, rub it it will come off.

We did straight paint for one of our samples and yes hard to sand off with out burning/melting the paint or killing your arms.


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

My wife just finished this side table this morning.. This real colour seems to be trending with all the Pinterest hipsters these days..


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

wje said:


> My wife just finished this side table this morning.. This real colour seems to be trending with all the Pinterest hipsters these days..


And this afternoon I'm installing the legs on this recycled door we have distressed and added a moulding to to make a headboard for our master bedroom.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

My wife loves doing stuff like this. She has an old rickety set of dresser drawers that must have had 20 coats of paint on them. At one point she went over the thing with an orbital sander uncovering various colours/wood, etc. Personally I hate the thing because it's constantly falling apart and I'm given the task of fixing it. I guess it does look interesting.

People around here find old furniture like this in barns, etc and make pretty good money fixing it up and distressing it.


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

Wildbill7145 said:


> My wife loves doing stuff like this. She has an old rickety set of dresser drawers that must have had 20 coats of paint on them. At one point she went over the thing with an orbital sander uncovering various colours/wood, etc. Personally I hate the thing because it's constantly falling apart and I'm given the task of fixing it. I guess it does look interesting. People around here find old furniture like this in barns, etc and make pretty good money fixing it up and distressing it.


We have a bunch more things like this in the house. Our house had about 30 old doors and storm windows In the basement when we bought it so we have turned them into mirrors, coat racks, ornaments etc. I'll get a few more pics of some of the other pieces she's done.. They all look pretty sweet and could probably sell for a few hundred dollars a piece


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

A guy I knew out in Vancouver had a girlfriend who is a reasonably successful artist. She would use old windows as picture frames for her artwork. The worse looking they were, the more she loved them. He did renovations for a living so any time he had to remove them, he'd keep them. Same with old flooring. The more beaten up it was the better.

It became an obsession though. He had an entire school bus FILLED with this stuff. As well, the entire basement of the house they lived in was FILLED top to bottom.

You could check out sites like Etsy to get an idea as to what stuff might sell for.


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

Yea etsy I think is where she got a few ideas from. 

I keep telling her she should start trying to do some to sell.. She has no interest in that yet.. Maybe I'll sell one for her and show her she can make some decent money


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## wje (Apr 11, 2009)

Few more pieces


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

wje said:


> Yea etsy I think is where she got a few ideas from.
> 
> I keep telling her she should start trying to do some to sell.. She has no interest in that yet.. Maybe I'll sell one for her and show her she can make some decent money


Just sell them all for her but don't tell her about it. EZ game.

Pretty funny, that top pic in your last post looks almost exactly like a window frame we have up in our kitchen! I actually had to go look to see if it was still there!


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## fortunerestoration (Mar 6, 2014)

_Chalk Paint is much thicker than the regular latex paint, and allows the paint to adhere well to most of the surfaces and gives it a matte look._


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