Radio Console Record Player Upcycled and Distressed

For those of you who don't know, my hubby loves records.  Until recently, this was his set up to listen to them...

Very functional, but not very attractive.  This wasn't a problem until recently when our little Gray man started to get very mobile and into everything.  What Brandon needed was a cabinet to hold all this and keep little hands from getting into his records and electronics.  

A few months ago he went into a thrift store and found an awesome radio console from the 1940s, a Magnavox Belvedere.  He kinda wanted it, but didn't buy it.  A few days later he noticed it missing from the store and asked if they sold it.  They did not, it was actually outside in the trash!  They told him they would be glad to retrieve it and let him have it free of charge, and he gladly took it off their hands.  

This console sat around in the house for quite a while.  It was dirty and not quite so attractive.  It needed shelves built in and some TLC. 

It started to get closer to Brandon's birthday and I had no idea what I would to for him since I do not work and usually bum from him if I need something.  With no money for a gift I had to figure something out!  Then he started to obsess about this, and I knew getting onto this project would be the perfect gift.  He asked my stepdad how to add shelves to the unit, and I measured everything out.  We went to Lowe's and purchased some 1/2 plywood and had it cut to size.  We also got some decorative aluminum sheet.  We had all the paint we needed.  

I built the shelves in (hubby is very good with music and spiritual matters, but not much of a handy man) and he sanded and primed the console.

Brandon knew he wanted something distressed.  It took him a couple of days and he found the perfect image. He sent me a link to this image and said this is how he wanted the console to look when painted.  It is a vintage distressed shutter by Anita Spero of Anita Spero Design.  She does excellent distress painting (and has some lovely angel wings in her shop that I would LOVE to have).  With an image in mind, I knew what to do.  

This was perfect because we had a can of latex paint already in a very similar turquoise/aqua color.  I painted the base color and thought I would just stop there until the next day, but I ended up getting very obsessed and stayed up all night painting this sucker.  

Here's the base coat (it's the same color of the end table his record player was on before).

After the base coat dried, I added a few strokes of a golden yellow paint mix (yellow latex paint, golden acrylic paint, and Pledge Floor Finish).  I just brushed it on and smeared it around with a cotton rag. Then I sanded several areas down to the wood.  I noticed a lot of primer showing and the wood looked new, so I rubbed a paint mix over them (brown, black, and burnt umber acrylic paint mixed with Pledge Floor Finish). I just used a baby wipe to apply the mix.  I dipped it in the mix and just rubbed it in until I like the look of it, and wiped the excess off with a cotton rag. 

Detail of the distressing...

When I got the painting done, I added some cloverleaf decorative aluminum sheet, cut to size, where the speakers used to be. 

We decided to prime everything with Pledge Floor Finish to avoid all the fumes from polyurethane.  It's not like it will be noticeable if the paint gets a little chipped.  

Here's the finished console.

And here it is in it's new habitat.  Hubs is very happy with it, and it keeps little baby hands out of everything.  Now we just need to get some matching knobs for it.

Pillows - As Promised

So here is a peek at the pillows I have been making.  I did these right, with pillow forms and covers so I can wash them whenever my daughter decides to smear blueberries on them or leave a piece of candy on top of one.  Or just in case hubby spills cereal or something on them, lol. 

Here is a picture of all the decor for the living room piled up into one place.  I had to move everything into the dining room so I could paint the living room. 

And here is a picture of everything semi-arranged.  I still need to get a better rug for the floor and some matching coffee tables. 

Not the best picture, sorry, but the light in our living room gave up the ghost and needs to be replaced.  

New Painting

No posts since February?  That's horrible isn't it?  Well I have been very busy though and have lots to share with you.  I am in the process of decorating my house on a very, very tight budget.  So most of the items I add will be hand made or thrifted. 

If you go back among my posts you will notice my first attempts at pillow making.  These sad creatures have been put out of their misery and their fluff transplanted into new ones.   I will post on these soon.  But first, here is a peek at my latest painting.

I needed a center piece for my living room, so I bought some canvas and went to work.  Thank you Hobby Lobby for 30% off sales!  With no home church and no job I have felt like a plant pulled from the roots and drug around by some weirdo gardener who isn't sure where to put me.  So roots have been on my mind.  And cities.  Always Jerusalem, beautiful and new waiting for her decent to her proper place in our world.  So I knew I wanted a city with roots in mid-air.  And since I have traveled abroad twice, both times landing in Frankfurt, Germany I decided to use her skyline as inspiration for my levitating city.  I typed "frankfurt, germany silhouette" into the google machine and did an image search and did a rough sketch of the coolest one I saw.  It is by Luigi Di Serio and you can find it here - scroll down and it is the third photo. 

Here is my sketch and a color test.

I am glad I used the color test as inspiration, but found this picture did not go as planned.  Funny how that happens, huh?  But I am pleased with the result.  Here is a photo of the tri-panel during the third layer, the addition of the city silhouette.

And the finished project. 

I think it almost looks like a battleship, what do you think?