Milk Paint Furniture Project

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My neighbors were selling a bedroom set this summer that I absolutely fell in love with!  The finish wasn't my personal preference but the overall style of the headboard and footboard were right up my ally.  The set was for a queen bed but since we don't have a queen size bed in our house, I painted this set for someone else.

There were these strange wood balls on the top of the headboard and footboard - those would definitely be coming off :)

It was great that all of these pieces of molding had been layered to give the headboard and footboard a great profile.

 And the absolute best part was that the bed had already been distressed.  The idea of painting this bed really got my blood pumping because I knew glaze would pick up all of these little distressed marks and the vertical planks of the headboard and footboard and really make them pop.

 Here's the footboard...

 And a matching dresser with one drawer and a shelf inside the double doors.

The first step was to remove the balls.  Brent used a pipe wrench to twist them and loosen them up.

 In their place, he made simple caps and pinned them with air gun.

 I was going to use General Finishes Milk Paint for this project, which means you don't need to sand your finish before applying the paint.  The old finish had such a thick. shiny finish that I chose to sand the set before applying the milk paint.  I just didn't want to take any chances with chipping paint. This step was likely unnecessary but it gave me a little extra insurance.

I was really conflicted at this stage because the headboard was so beautiful in it's natural wood state.  A coat of walnut stain would have been gorgeous but I could also see it as the antique white that my brain was envisioning.

 After sanding, I wiped the piece with denatured alcohol to prepare it for paint.

 This is the General Finishes Antique White Milk Paint that I used.  Sometimes I only put one coat of paint on, depending on what I want the finished project to look like.  For this piece I wanted a nice solid color to start with before glazing so I did two coats of the milk paint.

After the two coats of milk paint, I began the glazing process.  I couldn't take any pictures because I was home alone and my hands get really dirty while glazing so I didn't want to be fumbling around with my camera.  Basically, I diluted my glaze slightly with water to give me a little more drying time as this was a large piece to glaze.  I worked in sections, for example, I would do one side of each leg, then I would do three vertical sections of the face of the headboard/footboard.  Working in smaller sections allows you to better control the finished project because you don't have to work as quickly.

In the photo below, the footboard has been glazed in front.  The headboard behind it only has the two coats of milk paint.  You can see how the glaze makes the vertical lines pop out and you notice the small molding details a bit better with the glaze.

 After glazing, I applied a few coats of a protective polyurethane to prevent chipping and it gives the piece a nice gloss.

 Here is the finished bed, including side rails.

 And here's the small matching side table.

DIY Dollhouse Furniture

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One of our greatest sources of website traffic come from Pinterest with people searching out the doll house we built for Emma.  Not only did Brent build the dollhouse, he also built the furniture.  I'm not sure if you've shopped around for Barbie furniture, but if you have, you know it's expensive.  And flimsy.  We wanted to build sturdy furniture that wouldn't tip over when Barbie sat/laid/looked at it.

In my original blog post of the dollhouse there weren't any great photos of the furniture, so I staged a little photo shoot with better close ups of each piece.  I don't have any documentation of the building process since Brent made them several years ago, but I'm hoping with the dimensions provided and the photos, one could replicate the pieces.  As a side note, Brent built most of this furniture out of birch or cherry.

Baby Cribs

 In magical Barbie world, everyone has twins, so Brent built these little matching cribs.  

Dimensions are 5 3/4" tall by 4" wide by 6" long.  Brent said he first made a chunky base out of 4 pieces of wood, mitered at the corners.  Each side rail of the crib was built seperately, like fence panels, and were then glued to the base and pinned to each other with a nail gun.

You can see the small pin holes where he nailed the slats into the frame.  With all of the nooks and crannies on the crib, spray paint was the fastest and easiest way to paint these babies (no pun intended).  The mattresses are simply a piece of foam wrapped in a piece of receiving blanket that I cut apart.

Dining Room Table & Chairs

Barbie isn't doing anything if she isn't entertaining - which meant we needed a table for six.

These chairs are sturdy enough to hold Barbie and her friends in an upright position IF they have the types of legs that bend at the knee.  But really, unless Barbie has had too much to drink, her booty is not tipping out of these chairs.

Chair dimensions are 6" tall by 2 1/4" wide and depth is 2 1/2".  The height of the seat is 2 1/2".  

Table dimensions are 4 3/4" tall by 5 3/4" wide by 8" long.  Brent made the top first and then tacked each of the four legs to it.  The skirting was added last.

Bedroom Dresser

The dresser dimensions are 6 1/2" tall by 7 3/4" wide by 2 1/4" deep.

He started this piece with a solid block of cherry.  The grooves that give the appearance of drawers were made with a table saw.  To create a space for the four legs, he cut a dado/rabbit out of the four corners of the block with the table saw.  He then glued the legs in and glued the top on.

Coffee Table

I'd actually take one of these tables in human size!

Dimensions for the coffee table are 2 3/4" tall by 3" wide by 8" long.

Couch

Dimensions for the couch are 5 1/2" tall by 13 1/2" wide by 5" deep.

Here again, to make the cushions, I covered some foam in scrap fabric.

The back of the couch is cut at approximately a 10 degree angle, which would mean the arm was also cut at 10 degrees.  The seat and the front of the couch are two pieces nailed and glued together.

If I was really good with a sewing machine or hand stitching, I would have made way too many throw pillows for the sofa and bed - just to make Ken mad.

Bunk Beds

Dimensions for the bunk beds are 10" tall by 6" wide by 14" long.  

 I flipped the bed upside down so you can see how the underside was constructed.

Queen Size Bed

Dimensions for the bed are 8 1/2" tall by 8 3/4" wide by 14 1/4" long.  To create the reveal you see around the bed, Brent built a base first and then constructed a second frame to sit on top.  He built the headboard separately, like a fence panel and attached it with nails and glue.

The mattress is a piece of foam wrapped in a scrap of receiving blanket.

 Here is a view of the bed without the mattress on it.

If you flip the bed over, here's what you see.

If you're attempting to build your own furniture for some Barbie dolls, hopefully these images will be useful.  We're always happy to answer questions if you get stuck and need some help!

Spring Parade of Homes

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Our Spring Parade of Homes is currently going on in Sioux Falls and man o man - am I glad we went, for a few reasons.  This is cheap entertainment for us.  The kids pretty much thought touring these homes was the best thing ever.  We only had an evening to spare so that gave us time to tour 6 houses and the kids were begging to go to more.  This doesn't surprise me as HGTV is Emma's new favorite network to watch and she just brought a piece of paper home from school that said she wanted to be a builder when she grows up.  My heart was literally in a puddle on the floor when I read that.

So here are a ton of photos of some of the amazing things we got to see.  Still can't believe that people get to actually live in these homes that look like they are straight from the pages of a magazine - or Pinterest.

House #1 built by C-Lemme Companies:

Brent works for the company that built these cabinets, so there's a pretty high likelihood that he helped build the cabinet doors.

House #2 also built by C-Lemme Companies.  

Love the finish they applied to the sliding barn door.

Can't decide what's to love more here - the backsplash or the gray cabinetry and corbels.

Ahhh....reclaimed wood mantel?  Yes, please.

House #3 built by Zome's Construction, Inc.  This next house stole my heart and a little of my soul.

This is the master bedroom CEILING!

I wish I would have recorded the kids' reaction when we walked into this bathroom that is the size of our living room and had a bathtub inside of the shower.  Priceless.

This is by far the most beautiful bed I have ever seen.

Look closely at the back wall of the stairwell - it is covered in white tongue & groove paneling.

This is the bathroom in one of the children's bedrooms upstairs.

Beautiful light fixtures were everywhere you turned.

That's a little kids playhouse built in under the stairs.

I couldn't take a great picture of the living room and kitchen because there were too many people milling around, but I did manage this one on the way out the door.  That's reclaimed wood up inside the coffered ceiling.

House #4 built by Mettler Construction: