Making a Failed DIY Fabulous!

by Thea Osborne/ That Sweet Tea Life

2 Materials

$150

4 Days

Medium

Sometimes you find yourself in the midst of some DIY gone horribly wrong. Sometimes its ours, we got brave and jumped in before we had ANY Idea what we were doing,.. sometimes we inherit them from others that just need the failure removed from view,.. I was presented with one,.. and accepted the challenge.

Not bad you say?

I know, it actually looks pretty good huh?! Then you look closer,...

Upon closer inspection,...

Closer inspection reveals some drawers wouldnt even open due to being sealed shut by an incredible amount of paint. The yellow paint is THICK and all sorts of debris appeared to be gunked up into it,..

broken legs,.

The once beautiful French Provincial legs had been broken off,.. possibly glued back on,.. broken off again and painted over... BOTH of them. What in the world could I even do to remedy this?

Broken Legs Reshaped

I decided to strip everything down and reshape the leg using a Jig Saw and an electric sander,.. Careful to keep the integrity of the legs strength.

Adding Efex Appliques

The fun part would be using the Efex Appliques,.. the chest had curved drawers and traditional appliques would have been difficult to use... these were PERFECT!

So I cleaned up the hardware and painted the appliques to match the look... lovely!

Efex are sold online and in some retail stores,.. find out more here!

The very last thing would be using a translucent gold to stencil on the sides to clean them up a tad,.. but not to be over done,..

I was rather happy with the finished look!! Really it just takes patience to pull of your desired look,.. Just take it one step at a time... If you want a complete overview of how each step went, or to contact me directly feel free to hop over to the blog! There is also an invitation to my Facebook Group full of amazingly gifted artists that just love to share! Happy DIYing!