How to Upcycle Furniture: A Secretary for the Furniture Flip Challenge

I love a good challenge. I stumbled upon this one on Instagram and I absolutely had to participate. The theme for the Furniture Flip Challenge is Color Your World. It is organized by Builders Challenge where they hold organize 2 types of challenges, furniture restore and furniture flip, several times a year. The Furniture Flip Challenge was calling my name. And I had the perfect piece for the challenge…this soon to be upcycled secretary! Here are some tips on how to upcycle furniture.

As usual, I was excited to get the project started so I neglected to take an official before photo of the inside. But there is one below that I took during the process.

I still have alot of furniture left in my garage from when I closed my store, The Blue Building Antiques. Most of the pieces I save have either sentimental value or are pretty unique. This will be the first one that I am finally transforming with the intention of finding them all new homes.

I originally thought I would slap some white paint on this, shabby her up a bit, and sell her. But when I saw the challenge posts, I thought she would be fabulous with some color. Those cubbies needed something special and I had just the idea.

Inspiration from History

Since November, I’ve been involved in trying to save my high school, Hallahan in Philadelphia, from closing. While the efforts to keep the school open were not successful, they re-ignited a love for history and an appreciation of our formative years in the nation’s first diocesan all girls’ Catholic high school. I’m talking about the community of 40,000 women who graduated from the school, their families, and the Philadelphia community. Eventually I will write about that whole process. But for now, the sadness and grieving process of the untimely closing of the school still very fresh. I did get the chance to visit the school shortly before her doors were slammed shut. THIS is the inspiration for this project. Here are photos of the stained glass and historical artifacts that adorned this iconic school.

The Blue Building Antiques Shopatblu Furniture Flip Challenge stained glass — Photo from Joe Walsh, Mathias Baldwin Park

The Blue Building Antiques Shopatblu Furniture Flip Challenge stained glass entry — Photo from Joe Walsh, Mathias Baldwin Park

The Blue Building Antiques Shopatblu Furniture Flip Challenge stained glass madonna — Photo from Joe Walsh, Mathias Baldwin Park

Here are a few other stained glass windows from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The bright jewel tones couples with the pastels are just lovely.

Prepping the Secretary

The first step in flipping furniture is to prep the piece. I usually will give the surface a light sanding to ensure that the new paint will adhere. I normally use a power sander because it is so much faster and easier than manually sanding with a sanding block. This piece was rather glossy so I slightly sanded and then wiped it down with tsp, which is a solution that removes dirt and preps the surface for paint adhesion.

Moving on to Paint

Two coats of the primary paint were applied to the secretary. The second coat was lightly applied since my intent was to sand the edges and some of the surface to give it a rustic and distressed appearance. I dry brushed a lighter color randomly on the surface to add some dimension. Then I lightly sanded the edges of the secretary as well as over the lighter colored areas.

The inside cubbies are where the color is happening! I painted a few samples squares and played with their position to determine the most pleasing pattern for the cubbies. Once satisfied with the design, I painted the cubbies. I used just about every brand of paint I had on hand including Behr, Color Wash by Deco Art, Folk Art by Plaid, Velvet Finishes, Fusion Mineral Paint, Unicorn Spit Stain, Glidden and MinWax.

The final step was to seal the piece. I always use a water based polyurethane for ease. My product of choice is MinWax Polycrylic. This product gives a durable finish and is easy to clean up with soap and water.

And here is my entry for the contest!

And when you open her up, you get the color pop!

I’m happy with this last minute project. I think she turned out to be quite unique and quite the happy piece!

I am so happy to report that there is one less piece of furniture in my garage. Now to decide if I am keeping it or selling it. Yikes! Decisions! An of course, I hope you have learned a bit about how to upcycle furniture.