Ikea Rast Makeover Take 2!

Yes... I know it's been far too long.

I wish I had some great reason for being absent from blogland...but alas... I do not.
School took over March and half of April and then I was in Chile until May. (Chile, by the way is uber fabulous!!)

The plan was to jump into blogging full gear when I returned but what can I say? I wasn't feeling very DIYish...

Well a few weeks ago I finally got my butt in gear when I came across another RAST dresser in my mom's garage. Like I've said before... Mom's garage is the best place to find things.

So you might remember my first RAST makeover that I posted back in February (PS thanks for all the love! I appreciate every comment!!)

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True, Ikea is not synonymous with long lasting quality... I mean, you get what you pay for. But this little dresser is actually a decent buy. It's solid pine and is perfect for socks, undergarments, etc.

For those you unfamiliar with this famous Rast dresser, here it is:

 

Now this second makeover I'm about to reveal is nothing unique. I can't take credit for it. If you type in Ikea Rast makeover, you will see a ton of different ideas and the most popular idea is the one I fell in love with a long time ago. (I was going to do this with my first makeover but the Anthropologie pulls won me over). 

I don't know who did this makeover first - all I know is it's been featured everywhere with lots of people recreating it. Urbane Jane did the same makeover a while ago - you can check out her process here.

So if you read my post on staining a magazine holder, you know I'm not a huge fan of staining... I think I'm just far too impatient for the staining process and.... I fail to follow instructions EVERY time...

I used Minwax stain in Dark Walnut and here it is after just one coat:

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Not bad but I wanted it DARKER.

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All you staining pros, if you're thinking something looks off you'd be right!

After hours of letting it dry, it was still tacky... I let it sit over night and still... stain was coming off on my fingers. Google to the rescue!

Again, stain pros, you'd be right if you're thinking I missed a step... They're not kidding when they say wipe off excess stain between coats.

Do not be lazy and skip this step!!

So to remedy this I had to put on another layer of stain, let it sit for a few minutes and then wipe it down with a rag. This took a lot of the stain off in some areas and left it a bit blotchy...

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As you can see with all the excess stain off, it's a lot lighter... This time, it dried pretty well. Well, as good as it could. I mean, I had pretty much ruined it so it was what it was.

After I got the desired darkness, I noticed some places were still not drying right (I guess I missed a few spots with the rag...) Google tells me not to apply a layer of polycrylic as that would just strip the stain off.

So what to do... strip the whole thing and start all over? The smart answer is probably yes but I was in a hurray to get this done. Then I remembered I had a bottle of Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch clear spray that seals and protects. What the heck... why not give it a try.

I sprayed the dickens out of that thing and voila! Success! Haha...This is not a proud moment.

Now for the hardware! I went to Lee Valley for the brass rings and lo and behold, they only had 5 of the rings I wanted. This is the second time Lee Valley has come up one short of the item I wanted. I should really learn to call ahead and check stock.

So I went with the burnished bronze rings and bought Brasso at Home Depot to shine them up.  These are nice rings by the way. Made in Italy and real brass, not that fake stuff.

Side note: How do you know if it's real brass? Real brass is not magnetic. So if a magnetic sticks, it's brass plated.

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I contemplated for a while as to whether I should keep them burnished or shine them up... Ultimately I wanted something brighter to contrast with the dark stain so I shined away!

But I stopped short of shining them all the way. I liked the mix of burnished and shiny - not to mention I was getting high off that Brasso stuff.

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I have to admit, as soon as I started stripping the rings, I regretted it....Well there was no going back so I convinced myself I had done the right thing.

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There you have it! Now I have two dressers - one that is ultra feminine and another that is a bit more masculine. I love them both! This one is sitting in our spare bedroom. Eventually I've have to decide which one will be mine forever!

What's your vote? The seafoam green or the dark stain?

Martha Stewart Circle Cutter

Hello my blog friends! Forgive me, it's been a while. 

I've been swamped with school. We're reaching the end of the year so we're all stressed out with multiple projects that we're juggling.  I'm exhausted...

However my nephew's 5th birthday party is this Saturday so I've got to get myself together! 

I usually make some sort of Happy Birthday banner and since one of his many themes is "the ocean" (as per his request) I'm making a banner that sort of resembles bubbles... (sort of..) I'm going to have fish on either end so it'll look like the fish are saying "happy birthday!"

Oh my goodness, I'm so tired. Does any of this make sense?! Haha

So usually when I make a banner with circles, I end up hand cutting them which takes a long long time! So today, I finally invested in a circle cutter! 

It's not the cheapest buy at $30... but of course I had my 40% off coupon! This one can cut a circle up to 5 1/2" in diameter and as small as 1". 

I was tempted to also get the larger one which cuts circles from 4" to 12" but... there's no way I can justify buying both! At least not at the same time. =)

Both cutters come with 3 blades which is nice. 

I already had a print out of the circles which were 4":

I found it hard to line it up to cut perfectly sized circles that matched my print outs. Luckily the blue circle outline was on the thicker size so I ended up using the 3-15/16" hole rather than the 4". 

It was still a bit hard to match up and some ended up a little skewed:

Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. 

Tip: Before committing to the cut, hold the blade in place but don't push down on it and create the circle just to make sure you're actually going to be cutting what you want to cut. (Hm.. that was really hard to word. Does that make sense?). If you have this cutter, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. 

Also the instructions say to hold the cutter perpendicular but at times, I found it a lot smoother when I tilted it ever so slightly while cutting.  

All in all, it's a good little device but I definitely wouldn't ever buy it at full price. 

For the future, I now know to create an even thicker outer circle to allow for some slack and hopefully not get skewed circles. 

Have any of you used this type of circle cutter before? Any tips, tricks, frustrations?

DIY Nursery Feature!

A few weeks ago, Tara from Baby Lifestyles emailed me asking if she could feature the nursery I put together for my sister's baby.

Baby Lifestyles

What an honour! Thanks Tara!

I have a lot of love for this room. It was the first room I put together from start to finish!

And being on such a tight budget, I DIY'ed pretty much everything except for the crib, lanterns and rocking chair. When I put the room together, we didn't know the sex of the baby. Now, several months later, as I mentioned here, I'm itching to redo this room in pink!

For the Baby Lifestyles post click here.

And if you feel so inclined, take a stroll down memory lane with me with a list of posts I've written on this project:

The DIY Nursery Project

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Toy Chest Transformation

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ABC Cabinet

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Old Desk, New Change Table!

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Frames

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Other DIY projects involved:

I sewed the drapes and pillows (minus the duck pillow)! I am NOT a seamstress so as simple as they were to do, it was a major feat for me! =)

Sunburst clock:

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Globe lamp (on top of the book shelf):

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I LOVE that rug. I got it on sale from Anthropologie. I think it was about $20. My sister and bro and law have since replaced it with a plastic hockey rink rug.... Once the project's done, you can't control what people do. Haha

Well, I guess that rug is mine now! Whoo hoo. So it all works out.

Thanks for reading and going down memory lane with me!