Using a MAKEUP SPONGE to stain wood slatted chair seats

A Quick Makeover on a Small Bistro Set Using a Makeup Sponge To Stain! 

There are a lot of SIMPLE UPDATES that we've done to the house since living here for 8 months and I have forgotten to take pictures of the befores/afters and the process of many of them; but the past couple of months, I've tried to remember to take more pictures of the small, EASY projects, like this one! 

Since the backyard is not yet a place for gathering/eating/visiting this year without a patio or deck back there (other than hopefully a DIY fire pit), we really wanted to make our front porch a place to sit with a drink and friend and watch the kids play.  It's also a tad more pleasant than sitting at the end of our driveway by our trash cans!!! 

I was lucky enough to find a small bistro set for $20 that was in really good shape that would fit on the front porch and be a place to put coffee :).  

I'm not sure if it was from Starbucks or an outdoor cafe (the owner couldn't remember) but it was sturdy and only needed a little sprucing up to work nicely on our front porch!

This is the original ad - 

SCORE!!!

Materials Used:

Hand sander

Dark Walnut Minwax Wood Stain

Triangle makeup sponge to apply stain

These sponges were key!

Polyurethane in Satin finish

Cheap paint brush

Primer and Paint

I painted our front door this color too but don't think it will stay this color.

Small Paint Roller for table top

Regular Paint Brush (not a cheap one) for the table legs

First, I had Bill sand the wooden seats of the 4 chairs (the rest of the chair material is metal) -  

Good rainy day project during naps! 

PSA - I'm FINALLY getting why Bill doesn't like it when I show up with furniture projects in the back of my car or tell him I'm planning on doing this, this, and this project... IT'S BECAUSE HE ALWAYS HAS TO HELP ME DO THE PROJECT I'M THINKING OF! HAHA (sorry it's taken me this long to realized this, stink!)

The tops of the chairs are wood so I didn't want to spray paint the whole chair, which is usually my "quick fix" route.

You can see below that the wood seats had green and gray deposits of something.

Here they are after being sanded down. 

***This is where using the makeup sponge to stain comes in handy!

I first tried to use my staining rag but couldn't get the rag to evenly stain the sides of the wood because the openings between the slats were too skinny.  

The cheap brush didn't help apply the stain consistently in those small spaces either.  

So when I ran inside and couldn't find any craft sponges, I just grabbed a makeup sponge instead!

Staining with a makeup sponge made the process go really smoothly and quickly. 

The shape and size of the triangle sponge were perfect for pushing the stain in between the wood slats!

The triangle sponge was the best way to get the stain in between the slats!

After the stain dried overnight, I painted polyurethane (in satin finish) over the seats with a cheap paint brush - 

These $1 brushes are at Lowes and so great to just use and toss.  (They are also what I use for chalk painting!)

And then I just primed and painted the metal table - 

SW Watery is the color.

I was painting the swing at the same time because once there's primer/paint out, I try to keep the painting going. ;)

I need to still buy a round glass top for the table but it will have to do for now.  

The wood pallets won't stay on the porch behind the slats permanently, but I actually don't mind them that much haha!

Hope everyone has a Happy Memorial Day weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday!

Linking up with Kelly this Friday! 

1. 

Trip Trip turned 1 on Sunday!!!

We just had a few balloons and family over for cake to enjoy the 78 degree weather. 

I made a 3 layer cake with a cheesecake layer in the middle and buttercream frosting.  It was time consuming but worth it, I think! 

Blue on the bottom, a little icing, then cheesecake layer (after making it and freezing it until firm), a little icing, then blue! 

Here's what Trip's been up to lately -  

Pic at the Dr.'s office, who said he's in the 90% for weight at 25.8 pounds... hmm, I have yet to see other 1 year olds this big with their mom's arms falling off, but okay! :)

Tripster totally could walk if he wanted to (his max is 12 steps), but he much more prefers to hold Addie's hand - 

And of course he thinks he should do EVERYTHING that the girls do - 

2. 

Sisters.

Sometimes it's like this: 

And other times it's like this: 

June designated this spot for pouting.
Yep.

3.

We are still working on the porch and last weekend we worked around the front door - took off all the hardware and spray painted it silver (and the knocker black) and then painted the door and glazed the old windows.  Glazing is something I'll never do again!!!  It took us forever for six small windows that frame the door.  I guess that's why people buy NEW windows... we will... someday! 

Last shot of the door white! 

The old glaze was looking really old - 

Dad's heat gun to the rescue! 

Then it was scraping and painting around the door - at night 3 nights this week -

4.

At the beginning of the week, I posted pictures of the GIRLS' BEDROOM.
We've been in the house 9 months and it's finally to the point where it feels like a bedroom!  They seem to like it! 

June's bed

But sometimes June finds a spot on the floor to sleep!!!

Her falling asleep on the floor was a first - she wanted to nap where Addie was in our room but never made it up into the bed.

5.

We went to Pittsburgh (well, actually the borough, Sewickley, 12 miles outside of the city) to visit my sister and brother-in-law and baby Gemma.  It was such a great break to get away and see where they live (they live in the most fabulous old house with tall ceilings, three stories, and a huge front porch) and of course see Gemma at 5.5 months.  She is a doll!  

And Trip didn't even try to eat her, so that was good! 

6.

I've been painting a lot lately in my "free time"ha!... it actually might be the only thing that's keeping me sane these days!

 

Scraping and painting around the door.

And so on and so on! 

7. 

A great perk of Bill's job is that he gets to demo a different car every month.  He took out the most impractical car this past week - a Mustang convertible.  It doesn't fit all the car seats which can be a pain, but when I saw how much the girls liked riding with the top down, all was forgiven - 

Sorry I'm not a car person, Bill-Bill!  

In all it's glory, in front of dad's 1970s horse trailer -  

Just looking at this makes me CAR SICK! 

I guess the fast car is fitting with the 100th running of the INDY 500 this Sunday! 

Happy cruising this Memorial Day weekend! 

Toddler Girls' "Sea Salt" Bedroom

 

The girls' bedroom is finally coming together enough to share the progress!  (At least Addie has been asking me to take pictures of their room so I'll take that as a GO!)

When we moved in last August, Adelaide was 3 and June had turned 2 in June.  I wanted their room to be something that they could be excited about as toddlers but that could also grow with them into their school age years and maybe beyond (hence the no Hello Kitty or Minnie Mouse decor - because I don't want to get new bedding every two years when they are onto something new).
BUT I'm not a total SCROOGE - they do sleep on their princess pillow cases most of the time... I'm just cheap and would rather use this stuff for another 10-15 years!!!

And I still used pink and purple paint (but only in the closet) 

Here's a shot of the before, the picture from the listing didn't make it look too bad (I unfortunately lost the ones I took) - 

The room used to be green and purple and the ceiling was off white.  The wood lattice work on both of the windows, along with the floor trim, was all a medium wood tone.  So the ceiling, trim, windows and walls all had to be prepped and painted.  The closet just had a tinted primer on the walls, which rubbed off to the touch, so that had to be primed and painted, along with the wood shelves in there too.  Lights, switches, outlets and their covers were all changed out by Bill.  Every inch of the floor had to be cleaned and sealed. In other words, it was a labor of love just to get this room ready to fill up - it took me about 9 days of 4-5 hours each day (think taping each window pane in the two old windows and then using a box cutter to cut out all the tape along the wood lattices after painting... a very tedious process!)

The bedroom wall color is Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, SW 6204, one of the prettiest green-blue-gray neutrals that looks good with literally any other color.  Sometimes it's really green, sometimes more blue, like in the evenings, and sometimes it reads gray.  And all those colors are great backdrops for the pops of color I wanted to use in the girls' room!  This color can morph from gray to green to blue depending on the time of day and lighting - you just can't go wrong with it!

And then the purple and pink I used are below - closet wall = SW Charming Pink and closet ceiling = SW Ash Violet - 

You can see the wood trim and shelves in the closet are now white (I used SW Pure White in semi-gloss).

We took off the doors because they were broken and decided to leave them off and put curtains up! 

I will post ITEM SOURCES for the room in the next couple of weeks in case you want to know where everything came from but for now, I hope you enjoy scrolling through the pictures of Addie and June's room!

Even on a cloudy day the two windows bring in a lot of light! 

I hope this gave you an idea of how great SW SEA SALT is (I also used it in their bathroom and will use it in the laundry room).
I'll post the SOURCES soon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Paint colors used again are:

*SW Sea Salt for walls 

*SW Pure White Flat on ceiling, Pure White in Semi-gloss on trim and closet shelves

*SW Charming Pink for closet walls

*SW Ash Violet on closet ceiling

*paint chip pictures taken from Pinterest.