Nightstands Turned Kitchen Island

Here's a shot of our kitchen when we first bought our mobile home several years ago.  

Well kept cabinets, lots of storage and quite roomy. 

The size of the kitchen and the master bath (both of which

 also have large skylights) clinched the deal for us.

It only took a few family potluck dinners to know we needed an island in our kitchen.

 At our first Thanksgiving here, we paired up some old, solid wood 

nightstands from a vintage 80s waterbed set.

We set them up back to back and threw a tablecloth over the whole shebang.

 They turned out to be the perfect height and heavy enough to withstand

 the traffic flow when dinner was served.

Hey!

 Why buy the lumber and build an island when 

we could restyle what we already had?

We took out the drawers and bolted the nightstands back to back

and painted the whole assembly a nice shade of blue with a grey wash.

We used acrylic paint sealed with clear acrylic spray.

For the top we had a precut piece of heavy duty masonite. 

I covered it with pages of an old cookbook using Mod Podge.

LOOK! 

The colors and tones complement the still serviceable vinyl floor.

We sealed the top with brushed on resin (two part Envirotex used for bar tops)

 and we are so excited with the great results!

Ta da!

For the final touch we used the pulls off the original drawers and

 attached them for towel holders.Then I refurbished the drawers for storage with 

red checked contact paper. They are perfect inside our 

brand new kitchen island made from our old nightstands.

This is one of our most popular projects and is a Pinterest favorite. 

It cost us nearly nothing save for the resin which I purchased

 from Michaels with a 50% coupon. I call this a win win!!

Paint Dye Your Pillows

There's a question. Paint your pillows or dye your pillows using paint? 

Whichever way you choose, it worked well for me!

I wanted all my pillows to match the turquoise color at the left 

using the other two patterned fabrics in the picture.

So I decided to just paint/dye them!

 I laid each remnant out and sprayed them with water until damp, 

straightening out any wrinkles at the same time. 

Then I diluted 3 or 4 drops of turquoise Craft Smart acrylic paint with water 

until it was quite runny. I dipped a soft paint brush in the watered down paint

 and touched it to the wet fabric.

 It was a real aha! moment for me as the damp fabric "grabbed" the color. 

Watching that turquoise spread across the fabric was almost magical. 

A spritz of water then a dab of color helped the process and in the end I was so pleased!

They turned out exactly the color I wanted! 

 I let both remnants air dry then ironed them to seal the color.

Here are the pillows on my bed with the original turquoise pillow.

So are they painted or dyed? 

This was a quick and thrifty DIY project for me. I had everything  in my stash.

Fabric remnants, pillow forms, craft paint, paint brushes and an iron. 

Plus a sewing machine, of course.

Altogether, not including drying time, this project took less than an hour from idea to pillows.

I call this one a win win!