Beyond Paint – DIY + HANDMADE + VINTAGE

Upcycled Barn Door Desk

Published on November 1, 2020November 2, 2020 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

I know many of you have a new way of doing school this year. For us, we were grateful that this was our 5th year in doing online school at home. I devote a large part of my days during the school year to guiding my kids in their schooling. It is time consuming, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Doing school at home and working with them each one on one calls for a large work space where we can sit together, with room for two laptops, notebooks, snacks and of course my cup of coffee!

Over the summer, I was lucky enough to come across an awesome old door for sale at Schultz’s Wedding & Event Barn. It was old, chippy, and at the time I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I knew it had to come home with me.

Door Before!
This old door is definitely needed some TLC and was extremely ‘thirsty!’

Preparing to strip off the top layer of brown chippy paint, using ‘CitriStrip’ stripping gel:

Look what striping a few layers of old paint with CitriStrip + several layers of Beyond Paint Multi Purpose Sealer did for this door! It is alive once again!

I made sure to wear my RZ air filtration Mask, and once I stripped down as much of the top layer of brown paint that I could using a flat edge scraper and CitriStrip, I then washed it all down with a wet rag. This part can get messy, but the end result is so worth it. I lightly sanded down the top, until it had just the look that I wanted, revealing enough of that beautiful green paint. My next step was to give it several coats of Beyond Paint’s Multi Purpose Sealer. I’m pretty sure I over did this part, not because I had to, but because I just wanted over assurance that none of the old paint was going to flake off no matter how rough we were on the desk.

Once the top of the desk was dry, I flipped it over. and measured the width of the desk. I grabbed two boards that I had laying in my wood pile and cut them down to size with my miter saw. I layered on the wood glue, then using wood screws, I attached one board near each end of the bottom of the door. These serve as the supports, so when I attached the hairpin legs, the screws from those don’t come through onto the top of the desk. The boards also help give the desk more stability.

The final step was to attach the hairpin legs into each of the boards, flip the desk over, and get back to school!

I just love taking something that might have otherwise been tossed and turning it into something both unique and useful! My kids and I spend a large part of our days at this desk now and it serves its purpose perfectly and isn’t too bad to look at either!

The two wood chairs are from the 1920’s and I was able to score both of them on Facebook Marketplace for $10 each! Bonus > they rock, swivel and spin!

I plan to give this desk a better photo shoot someday soon, until then, I hope you enjoyed reading about my latest project! Next up, an old kitchen table and chairs that will be given new life and used as a game table at a lake house! Stay tuned, you’re going to love that one!

As always, you can follow along with my DIY Projects and Adventures over on Facebook & Instagram! See you there!

Phone Table Makeover

Published on July 2, 2020October 31, 2020 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

An old handmade wood phone table; something that might not catch everyone’s eye. However, it definitely caught mine. I saw potential in this old table, and knew it would be a great DIY project for my 11 year old daughter to help me with!

This summer I have made it a priority to involve either one or both of my children in any DIY project that I work on. To be able to include them in what I am passionate about, and to teach them the basic use of different hand and power tools, has helped me to fall in love all over again with transforming basic pieces of furniture into unique pieces of art.

For my latest project, my daughter got to pretty much run the show. I let her choose the paint color and many design aspects of the entire piece. She picked out the new drawer pull, drawer liner, and the sign for the side of the table, and she even picked out the cute vintage phone to help stage our new phone table.

Below is a series of photos that we took during our project.

The first step to any good restoration project, is sanding. After sanding, Cam got to work on painting the table. She mixed Beyond Paint’s ‘Soft Grey’ & ‘Pebble’ and called it Cobblestone. Once the table had a few coats of grey, we then worked together to stain and poly the entire piece to give it and aged look as well as give it a nice protective coat of poly. For this, we used Rust-oleum’s Stain + Polyurethane in Dark Walnut. I almost forgot to mention, that I also ‘knocked off’ the top trim detail on the cabinet to give it a more modern and clean look, and because one edge was already broken off when I got it.

The next step is always the hardest: waiting for it to dry! During this time, I taught Cam the fun of using Mod-Podge to apply a piece of postcard scrapbook paper as a liner in the drawer. I think she liked doing this so much that she might just mod-podge our entire apartment!

Cam enjoyed picking out different yardsticks to use for the front of the drawer and the top of the cabinet. Once she had the yardsticks picked out, I got to work measuring and cutting them with a miter saw. I had to do a little mix and match on the top with some different sizes, but in the end it all worked out and they fit perfectly! Cam was in charge of laying down the wood glue, and placing the yard sticks in their places, then we hammered them into place. I used my nail gun at first, but unfortunately, once I got to the thinner yardsticks, the power of the nail gun was a bit too much, so I went back to the good ol’ fashioned hammer and nail, and actually like this look better when working on vintage piece.

Once all of the yardsticks were attached, we sanded down the edges to give them a more uniform look. Then it was time to add some stain and poly! A bit of brushing it on and dabbing it on gave it a nice worn wood look.

The next step was for me to attach the new handle. Since there had never been a handle or a pull on this drawer, I had to measure for the two new holes to be drilled. I’m no perfectionist when it comes to making things even or straight, but somehow, I got it on there perfectly in the right spot!

Finally, we attached the phone sign to the side, tied an old key to the front drawer pull and it was complete.

We took our new phone table on a little joy ride around the city of Eau Claire until we found a quiet spot for a photo shoot. I wanted to name the table, but Cam said we couldn’t or she would get too attached to it! So, here it is, our nameless, wonderfully restored and reinvented phone table:

Before:

Table After (Above and Below):

Thanks so much for joining us on our latest DIY adventure!

As always, feel free to subscribe to keep up with our latest projects!
Thanks for reading,
~ Kelly (and Cam).

Counter top makeover with Beyond Paint.

Published on March 12, 2017March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman4 Comments

Living in a 1920’s farmhouse requires more than just having a country soul, it means so much more than that. It requires a heart that is able to see potential, possibility and one that will pour love into every single part of the farmhouse, including the ugly not so glorious parts.

Now, fixing up a 1920’s farmhouse, on a budget, requires a different set of eyes. Eyes that are able to look at things a bit offbeat than the crowd does and possibly, a little more creatively with a frugal mind.

I may not have that immaculate dream farmhouse you see grace the cover of a diy magazine, but I have a home, that is filled with love and that we pour our heart and souls into.

We purchased our home 3 years ago and ever since have been working on small, frugal makeover projects. We were blessed with a home, that (in our eyes) didn’t need a full gut job in any room. Remember, the simplest, cheapest thing you can do to update your home or space,is to just add fresh paint! That’s a subject for another blog post though, hopefully coming soon!

The last week I have been plugging away on redoing our kitchen counter tops with a paint kit from Beyond Paint. Typically, one could get this done in a day, but between energy lows from Lyme Disease, dentist emergencies, and coaching my kids in online school, it took me 4 days. Also, being the spontaneous artist that I am, I don’t ‘plan’ my projects on free days, I start when I feel motivated and ready to go, even if that is in the midst of craziness, it’s just how I’m wired, and it works(for me).

Here is what our counter tops and our kitchen looked like, when we moved in, aka before I got my hands on this space. Two years ago, I ripped off the wall paper, painted the walls, and the cabinets and it made an amazing difference and really brightened up the space!

Beyond Paint’s counter top makeover kit comes with everything you need to transform your old, outdated counter tops, without making your family go without groceries for 6 months. Granted, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that is fine by me, but it follows along the lines of one of my favorite sayings, ‘do what you can, with what you have, where you are.’ Our budget doesn’t allow for brand new counter tops, because we all know, if you get new counter tops, you will need new cabinets, and if you get new cabinets, you might as well install that dream farmhouse sink you’ve always wanted, and if you are going through all of this trouble to replace all of that, you might as well open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, while you’re at it. DIY projects and home renovation projects kind of remind me of the children’s book, ‘If you give a mouse a cookie.’ I joke with my kids that one day I will publish one that relates to home projects. Stay tuned on that one.

To prep my counter tops for paint, I made sure to thoroughly was them with a kitchen scrubber and hot water with dish soap, then I dried them with a rag. I taped off my edges (If you are slow and careful, you can skip painters tape, I do it as ‘insurance’ , mostly because I’ve learned the hard way )

These are what our counter tops looked like before. They had endured many many years of hard use before we moved in. I was happy to extend their life for a little while longer with Beyond Paint.

Horrible right? I wasn’t sure that paint could fix something this far gone. It would be a miracle if those deep scratches and stains were covered up.

After washing my counter tops, the transformation began! I simply, rolled on the base color (Bone) and gave it a good three coats. The paint went on extremely easily and had a nice thick texture. I was surprised how much much area was covered from just a little bit of paint. If you do two thorough coats, that is more than enough, I threw on an extra coat, just because I had enough to do so and it never hurts to have an added layer of protection.

The above photo was after the first two coats of ‘Bone’. I liked the clean look of it so much, that I was tempted to leave it a solid color. Beyond Paint offers a variety of color combos that you can do, which makes it fun and able to fit your style.

After applying the first tone of paint with a roller, I sprinkled on the ‘flakes’, first throwing them onto the vertical back areas of the counters, and then the flat surfaces. I over shook them onto the counters, which I recommend, because after wiping off with tack cloth and sanding down lightly with fine grit sand paper, many will fall off and not stay on. By over applying, it leaves more than enough behind for a nice look!

This is a step that you can end at as well if you prefer the look (of course after adding a top protective clear coat. However, I wanted to go all out and do one more step of color)

After applying the flakes, and lightly sanding them down with fine grit sandpaper, I wiped the counters down extremely well with tack cloth. Tack cloth is a sticky cloth that will pick up any of the loose flakes, dust, dog hair, dirt, and debris from sanding.

I then used a sea sponge to blob on Ash grey paint. I bought a few different sizes of sea sponges, and flipped them from the bottom to the side every now and then, so every smudge of paint didn’t have the same repetitive shape. After the grey had dried, I wanted to soften it up just a tad, so I took a new sea sponge, and dipped it back into the Bone color paint and lightly dabbed over each dark grey spot and it gave it just the look I had wanted!

Next it was time to make that ugly crack in the corner of our counters disappear. I bought white paintable caulk and filled it in as thick as I could. It may not hold forever, but for now it looks better.

After letting the counters cure over night, I rolled on 3 clear coats of clear sealer that was included in the paint kit.

Here are the counters a few days after the had dried! We love the look and are happy that we were able to extend their life a little while longer!

What is a makeover without a little touch of Joanna Gaines? I tore out the Magnolia Manifesto on the last page of their Spring journal and tucked it into a frame, made by ‘Once Abarn a Time’ . It looks beautiful and I absolutely love the words.

Interested in giving your sad counter tops a refreshed look like I did? Head on over to check out Beyond Paint and see what they can do for you and your home!

I am very please with the paint kit from Beyond Paint, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to rescue their old counter tops!

As always, you can follow along with more of my DIY projects and antiquing adventures over on Facebook.

Tv dresser with Beyond Paint

Published on January 12, 2017March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

Today I wanted to share with all of you a great line of paint, called ‘Beyond Paint’.

I was recently contacted by Beyond Paint to give their furniture makeover kit a try.

On their website, Beyond Paint says the following about their product:

“No Stripping, No Sanding, No Priming
BEYOND PAINT™ your cabinets, furniture and accessories in one convenient kit!
Refinish almost any surface with this combination bonder/primer/finisher that cures to a durable, washable surface in just one or two coats. Application is foolproof, and the result is a beautiful, professional finish that will transform your home.
The amazing BEYOND PAINT™ Cabinets Furniture & More Makeover Kit also includes the best tools for the job for your convenience and ease of application saving you money and hassle on your home projects.”

The furniture makeover kit came with everything that I needed to complete my furniture makeover project, it even included an instructional dvd!

The Beyond Paint Makeover Kit Includes:

Paint (Quart)
Roller Handle
Roller Cover
Chip Brush
Tray
Instructional DVD
Brochure

For this project, I decided to update the TV dresser that is in our living room. My interior design style has matured a lot in the past couple of years, and I went from loving dark rustic colors only, to really embracing bright and light natural colors, with touches of wood tones. Last Fall I also painted our living room, for the second time. When we moved into the farmhouse 3 years ago, the walls were a dirty, smokey off-white, and I painted them a soft blue. After time I realized I didn’t like designing around blue walls, and now went with a super soft grey with blue undertones and it is so much easier to incorporate other colors into my space with that tone as a backdrop.

This is what our TV dresser looked like before I gave the makeover with Beyond Paint a go:

In the winter months, my furniture makeovers usually take place in my dining room (sorry family!). I am still working on getting my little workshop heated so I can tackle more projects even when the temperature drops below 40 degrees.

Since my dresser was previously painted, and Beyond Paint requires no stripping, sanding or priming, this was an extremely easy and quick project. All I needed to do to get started was wipe down the dresser with a wet rag, dry it off, make a big cup of coffee and I was on my way!

Here are the results of just two quick coats of the color ‘Nantucket’ by Beyond Paint!

This blue adds a nice pop of color to our living room, without being too overwhelming. When I walk into our space, my mind feels relaxed and refreshed and I am surrounded by colors that remind me of beautiful Lake Superior and colors found in nature.

I finally feel content with the gallery wall as well. If you have a gallery wall somewhere in your home, you will understand when I say that it is an ever changing and evolving project.

I absolutely loved the final result and the ease of use of Beyond Paint. The paint goes on nice and thick and has amazing coverage! I look forward to using Beyond Paint products again the future, and am hoping to give their counter top paint a try this Summer!

As always, you can follow along with my DIY projects by subscribing to my blog, and by following Anchored Way on Facebook You can also shop Anchored Way Trading Co. custom furniture, home decor, vintage goods, jewelry and art 7 days a week at my booth that is located at The Shed (1519 Mayer Road, Altoona, Wi – Booth # 56 ) !

Decor Sources:

Paint provided by Beyond Paint .

The “W” and deer print in the center are both from the amazing Hobby Lobby, the Hope canvas I found at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store, the amazing scented soy candle is from PF Candle Co and was purchased at Reds Mercantile in Eau Claire,Wisconsin, the the rock canvas is my own photograph that I took along the shores of Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota, and the little clip board was my Grandfathers and I currently have a cute little vintage car picture that I actually reused and cut off of a Christmas gift bag!