DIY - Mid-Century Inspired TV Stand

Have you ever been swooning over a piece of furniture that you know you'll NEVER be able to afford? I have. Many times. And then you get frustrated because it's so beautiful, and you can't have it, and it would look so perfect in your living room.

Well, when I showed Jason (my DIY master of a boyfriend) the type of mid-century inspired TV stand I would love to have instead of using our poor coffee table, he straight away looked at a couple of websites and realised that there was a very simple (and affordable!) way of doing one yourself.

Today, my friend, I'm going to show you how we did it all!

We took a trip to our local Leroy Merlin and managed to find everything we needed there. We went for the most basic and affordable shelves called Multikaz and thought about how we could customise the whole lot by adding some fancy legs and handles.

If you're not in France, Leroy Merlin is very similar to a B&Q in the UK for example. But I guess you could find this type of basic furniture in various shops, including Ikea probably!

I would just like to add a little note to say that this is not a paid advert whatsoever and we were just lucky to find everything in the same shop!

We started off with the legs. We felt that they would look much better with a darker tint but didn't want to spend too much on wood stain. So Jason found out that we could use acrylic paint and a tiny bit of water to spread on the legs with a piece of sponge.

I already had the paint (and the funny mug thanks to Jason's mum!), so I started playing around with the colours to get a dark brown tint that we were happy with. At the beginning, I put too much water into the mix so the legs were still too light once dry. So I applied another layer, this time using less water, and they were perfect!

A little tip, it was much easier to paint them once the legs were temporarily mounted on the plates ;)

Then we carried on with the doors. We wanted them to be fitted on each side of the shelves and the main thing for us was for them to be painted in a colour that contrasted really well with the white. Introducing: Leftover paint! We already had the dark grey paint from when we were painting our old wooden bed (more here!) and I applied it on the doors without sanding them down. Two layers was perfect!

And here's another tip for you: make sure to elevate them on some kind of box. Way easier to paint like that!

Jason made sure to drill the holes for the handles beforehand though so that once the paint was dry, we could add the handles without worrying about messing it all up.

Then onto the main bit! These shelves were pretty easy to put together, but I thought I would leave Jason to do it, you know, because I'm not very good with that kind of stuff ;)

To get that mid-century vibe on the TV Stand, we placed the legs towards the centre of the shelves. Jason measured accurately each corner to know exactly where to drill the holes to add the legs later on. The clever thing is that even if the bolt in the centre of each leg was too long by a few millimetres and was sticking out the other side, we didn't care much because they were placed just behind where the doors would be, so completely hidden :)

Now to the final touch: The fancy handles! We weren't too sure what to choose whilst in the shop because there were so many good options. But we knew we would want something that stands out and as we thought about our coffee table with its golden legs, we opted for gold/brass round handles that we could twist on their sides.

You need plenty of patience to fit the doors (they thankfully came with all the parts you need to mount them), but once they're in, you're done! Marvellous.

I couldn't finish this post without a Before/After. Have you seen the difference it makes? We absolutely love it. Jason, being a genius, managed to put all his games consoles, phone, etc. behind the doors, and took ages to make sure that we couldn't see the trillions of cables hanging under the stand. Pretty good right?!

We can now use our coffee table as a real coffee table and the stools as real stools. I also painted parts of the stools' legs to customise them a bit. I liked the effect too much not to include them in the photo ;)

I hope you found this step by step tutorial very handy and let me know if you have any questions! Also, sorry for the rubbish photos, but at least it all looks very real (with the mess and everything) haha.

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How To Freshen Up Your Wood Palette Furniture

So during the Easter bank holiday weekend over a month ago, we actually did a bit of the cliché activity, and decided to do some DIY around the house! Well, the weather was great, so we had no excuse ;)

One thing that we've wanted to do for quite a while is freshen up this bench that Jason made himself with some wood palettes. We really like the shape, and it fits perfectly behind the couch, but because we left the wood as it was, it looked unfinished and didn't suit the 'style' (I don't think that we actually have a proper style!) of the living room. So here is a step-by-step of our process to make it look cool!

First, Jason made sure to take it outside to sand it down. We needed it ready to add the wood stainer and white paint.

We previously used some cloths to spread the wood stainer but they weren't great and left some fluff on the wood, so this time we used a sponge and it was much better! I love how the wood absorbs the product and it really brings it to life, giving it a nice touch whilst keeping all the details. (PS: Make sure to use some gloves because well, it stains!)

Once we stained the top of the bench, the next step was to paint the legs in white. We really like to add contrast to our furniture, and we found that dark wood and white always looks great. Luckily, Jason was clever enough to have left the top of the bench removable when building it, so it made the task much easier! (If you look well, you can see at the background that he was also working on parts for his Capri... Multitasking!)

And last but not least, you need a good coat of varnish to finish it! I found varnish to be essential as it really adds a finishing touch to it and it makes the furniture easier to clean whilst protecting the wood. You do need to leave it to dry for quite a while (I left it to dry for two days), but it's worth it!

And there you go! We love the result and we're so pleased with it. We went for quite a rough texture in the end and put only one coat of white paint as we still wanted to see the markings on the wood, but it still looks a hundred times better than before :)

Hope it helped and gave you some inspiration for your own furniture!

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DIY - Repainting old drawers

A few weeks ago, me and my man managed to redecorate our office room a little (for really cheap!) which looked a bit sad and neglected since we moved in. The first thing that needed a good refresh was definitely these grey drawers. So I thought I would show you the process of its transformation!

Because we wanted to keep the first coat of grey paint, we decided to not sand it down and directly applied a first coat of white paint (we actually had to add a second one as the grey was still showing through).

Once the drawers were totally dry, we decided to introduce some touches of bright colours on the middle stripes. Because we had almost no budget for this, the little paint pot samples were perfect!

Don't forget the masking tape! It's essential to make sure the edges are neat.

After sanding down the edges to give it a nice rustic effect, the last thing we needed to do was varnishing it to make sure that the paint won't get damaged. Et voilà! Not bad eh?

Hope it gives you some ideas on how to freshen up your own furniture!

Enjoy your evening :)

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DIY - Old Ladder to Plant Shelf

Lately I've decided to start some DIY projetcs on my own and get my hands dirty! (Usually, it would be my man doing this kind of thing). When I saw this old stained ladder going cheap, I thought it would  make a great shelf for some plants in the porch.

First step was to sand it down a bit to make sure the paint would stick well to the wood and not flake off. Then I painted a couple of coats of white matt emulsion.

I wanted to add a splash of colour to the ladder, and found a few pots of matt aqua paint in a local DIY shop (this colour is very me). I didn't want to add too much colour so I decided to paint only the very top step.

To have an aged effect, I sanded down the edges and a few bits here and there. Having a bit of the original wood colour showing through the paint is always good for that old rustic look.

Once I was happy with the result, it only needed a quick coat of varnish to keep it from chipping and marking easily. Then it was just the case of putting my nice new plants on, and voilà !

 

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