football room furniture redo

My poor boy's were living in a room of hodge-podge furniture-and not in a good way. One day, When I walked by their room a few weeks ago it was even messier than usual and it motivated me to fix the problem.

Oak bunk-beds

My little brother's 1970's old bedroom furniture. It looks so much worse in person. It's sitting next to a bookshelf that was in the foyer at church w/ a sign that read "free". I painted it white for our last house.
Step 1. Remove all the clutter and leave it in the hall. (Our hallway looked like an episode of hoarders for a few days).


Step 2. Wipe down all the furniture

Step 3. Paint. I used Behr paint w/ the primer already in it, so I skipped that step. The color is Mark Twain brown from Lowe's ( I think it's the perfect red-brown). However, if you're using white paint, you MUST prime first or it will turn nasty and yellow. I use a roller, b/c it's better with brush strokes. My paint sprayer works even better, but it's not an inside toy and I wasn't hauling all this furniture down stairs.


Step 4. You could be done, but I wanted to give it more dimension. So I lightly sanded the painted surfaces. (This is great if you aren't a great painter and have some drips)






Step 5. Mix 1 part paint (I used Behr's Espresso Bean)to 4 parts glaze. I used the Ralph Lauren kind. Then you brush on the glaze mixture and wipe off the excess. It dries really quick (hence the no pics), so work w/ small areas. If it's too dark, you can take a wet rag and try and remove the glaze. If it's too light-add some more. It's super easy and hard to mess up, so just have fun w/ it. how-to video

I hated the old hardware, but couldn't find anything that would fit, so I sprayed the old stuff w/ a few coats "Old Rubbed Bronze".
So much better. I don't know why I waited so long. I cut those letters out of contact paper on my cricut. By the way, that shelf was made of way to thick and heavy lumber.

I still have some finishing touches, but it's so much better. I just hope my bro doesn't see this or he may want his stuff back.


FAQ
1. I did make the shelf. Actually, all you do is buy a piece of lumber and then those things you stick under them, so there's not much to make. It also cost under $10. My tips would be-buy a skinny thin piece of wood. This one was so heavy that it was really hard to hang and was not good for my marriage. All I wanted was somewhere to hang the millions of trophies kids get these days and so I could have made things much easier.

2. The bunk are are pine, the rest of the stuff was all the fake stuff

3. I did not to a coat of polyurethene on top. It makes it too shiny and it's easier for me just to touch up paint if it gets dinged up. Since it's in my very active boy's room, it will get dinged up and that's also why I went w/ the roughed up and glazed look.

4. I think oil-based paints have a better finish, but not as good of colors and are harder to clean up.


UPDATE: Check out the toy boxes I made w/ my dad.