XO

I want to start out by saying THANK YOU for all the love & prayers sent our way regarding my mom. She is continuing treatment & doing well…we are all adjusting to our new “normal”.

I also wanted to update you on 508 goings ons. For starters.…we are selling our house!!!!!

We made the final decision to put it on the market last weekend. This is one step closer to building our little farm house in the country (yaaaaaaaaay!). We love love loved our current and first home (how do you think we got the name 508???), however it is time to say goodbye.…

Another super fun thing is our fav little green number on display in this photo in our foyer (No. 20) is set to be featured on the TODAY show tomorrow morning (Friday). For all those visitors coming to 508 for the first time, WELCOME!!! We hope you click around and check us out…you will see that as of Aug this year we have slowed down a bit due to a family illness…however please do subscribe because we have plenty of furniture & Lilla Van products in the works for 2013.

love to all

–s

Those of you that have followed our blog have no doubt noticed that we haven’t updated it for some time now. We’ve always been humbled and grateful for all of the people who consistently check in on FiveOEight.com and we felt compelled to offer an explanation for why we haven’t posted for so long.

On August 27, 2012 Sarah’s mom went for a simple visit to her doctor for some pain she was having. After getting some scans, she was sent in to emergency surgery that evening. We ended that day listening to her surgeon explain to the family that Sarah’s mom had stage 4 colon cancer. This came as a complete shock to everyone, not least of all Sarah’s parents. Since that time we have all absorbed that news and this new reality and are working to adjust our lives and schedules around it. Naturally we’re working to support Sarah’s parents in whatever ways we can, including just being present. All of this has led to a shift in our focus, and while we still have projects and ideas in the works, the pace of our business will slow down considerably for now.

It should also be noted that Sarah’s mom, and our family, have been surrounded by a wonderful support network. It has been a rich blessing and we all have been so grateful for people’s love and generosity.

Again, we really appreciate all the visitors we get to this site and even though updates will be a little less frequent please continue to check in. If you haven’t already, subscribe (or subscribe via email) so you can be notified each time we update the site.

Thanks

Nathan (and Sarah)

I just recently did a guest post for Bemz {its a cover up} giving a run-down on one of our painting methods– you can check them out…Bemz covers & fabrics are crazy awesome. Anyway, I thought I would post it here too.…because this beauty is for sale in our shop AND because I thought of some additional tips in hind sight that I wanted to share.

I also realize this may be old news to some, but many of our readers have asked our process and how we achieve our looks…so, I thought this chair was a good example of  just one of the methods we use to create that old chipped paint look. I like this method because it gives a similar look to Milk Paint, but you have more control.

Tools:

• 150–220 grit flat sanding sheets, cut for whatever size you need* {508 uses: 3M Sandblaster or Norton 3X}
• electric sander (if you have it) & sanding sheets that fit
• fine grit sanding sponges, 220–320 {508 uses: 3M}
• furniture wax {508 uses: Fiddes}
• a few lint free rags
• paint, satin finish {508 uses: Benjamin Moore or Behr}
• paint brush {508 uses: 2” Angled Purdy Brush}

1: DISASSEMBLE
Unscrew the seat. Loosen staples with flathead screwdriver & twist them out with wire cutters.

2: SAND
Go with the grain! Start with a medium grit sandpaper {150} using an electric sander {if you have it} for flat areas & flat sheets or sanding sponges for edges & corners. Finish sanding with a fine grit {220–320}.

TIP » Don’t go crazy– you just want the bulk of that existing finish off or ruffed up. If the finish is really gummy, use a solvent/remover first.
TIP » Cut long strips of the flat sanding sheets and use them to pull back & forth around each spindles

3: PRE-WAX
Use a lint free rag to apply the furniture wax BEFORE you paint. Wipe on the areas that you want the paint to chip off during the distressing stage. For this chair, I applied the wax all over quickly– not really caring how thick or thin. This made most of the paint come off in the end, which was what I was going for.

TIP » Be creative with your piece! Don’t be scared. Worst case, you applied too much wax and it is more distressed than you want. Rough it up again and slap on another coat of paint! The more you try, the more you learn.

4: PAINT
I only needed one 7oz paint sample for this chair. Using a GOOD brush, apply one coat of paint. I only brushed one coat on this chair because I knew I was going to heavily distress. The 7oz paint samples are still plenty to do 2 coats on a chair if you prefer.

TIP » Let dry overnight in a dry place {low humidity}. It is hard to wait, but the distressing step will be easier and less gummy this way.

5. DISTRESS
Using your finer grit sanding sponge or sanding sheet, begin distressing. You will see how quickly the paint comes off in the areas you have applied wax underneath. Again, go with the grain and move quickly. If it is not chipping or pealing off, MOVE ON.  When you are pleased with your look, thoroughly clean entire piece with damp rag.

TIP » It is your lucky day! I did my first EVER video tutorial of this. Nathan did not think it was important to ever tape my face, so it is just talking arms & legs. Ha. Other than that, it gives you a pretty good idea of how easy it is to do the distressing step when you have put the wax on first.

TIP» Be sure to apply a PROTECTIVE COAT. For No. 43, after the chair was clean, I applied a top protective coat of the same clear furniture wax {Fiddes, Light} with a lint free rag, buffing it after 30 min.

There are plenty of “how-tos” on recovering your basic chair seat– it is pretty simple. But here is the basics of how I do it– quick and easy.

6. CUT FABRIC
If the original fabric isn’t too torn up after you have taken it off, use it to trace your new fabric piece! This ensures that you don’t cut too much extra fabric– or worse, too little!

TIP»Often, people cut cotton batting to put between the foam and the fabric…in this case, I didn’t want it to look over-stuffed, plus this fabric was pretty thick, so I left the batting out.

7.  STAPLE
Basically, I just line up the fabric, staple one side and then continue pulling tight and stapling each flat side first. Then, I work on neatly folding or bunching each corner tightly, stapling the corners in place one by one.

TIP» I mostly use an Easyshot gun, which isn’t the most powerful out there, but with a heavier duty staple it does just fine for most jobs. If you are stapling into a denser wood or fabric, you may want a more powerful staple gun.

8. BACKING/DUSTCOVER {optional}
Because I tend to “over staple”, I like to lightly staple a white backing/dustcover on the underside of the seat to clean it all up. Especially because in some cases, the seat overhangs from the chair, exposing all those ugly staples and could snag your fingers while moving it around.

Now all you need to do is reassemble your chair and enjoy!

Hope this has helped, feel free to ask questions. Oh, except paint colors…we keep not all, but most of those super secret…I mean, we can’t give EVERYTHING away!

cheers,
s

A while back, while visiting an old friend, Nathan discovered an entire collection of factory carts. That might not exactly explain how we found them, but lets just say there are many more where this one came from. Crazy, right? We had no intention of getting into restoring factory carts, but these had such beautiful potential that we had to try our hand at it. No. 36 is our first attempt…and I am in love…

After much research, we realized there are varying levels of restoration that you can do using various methods. We decided that we wanted to be very thorough in our restoration, but not change the character that the piece had acquired over time in the wood or in the iron.

Nathan deserves all the credit here. He fully disassembled the cart…taking the time to keep all the original nails for the wood and all the original bolts for the iron.

After taking off all the iron parts and cleaning them thoroughly, he then sealed them with a clear wax. Many have restored their carts with a black wax to make the iron pop…but we loved the industrial aged look that the clear wax gave. You can see here a HUGE difference in the before and after…and how beautiful the iron is even with out the black tint added…

As for the wood, he was careful enough to save each & every original nail as he took the cart apart. Once the wood was bare, he sanded each board to get all the dirt, paint and splinters off. He was careful to get the boards nice and smooth, but not sand so much that it took away all the variations in the wood. Again, you can go further than this, sanding the wood much more…but this cart was very much USED in its lifetime…we didn’t want to take it back to looking brand new again. That is called “taking the cool-ness away”. Our very professional opinion.

Before…

After:

And finally…because my husband is so smart…he added “kickstands”. The side wheels do come down to the floor, but we raised them in the image below so you can see. These kick stands lock into place to make the piece sturdy for use…but can be flipped back under easily to move the piece. He distressed and stained the wood on the stands so they wouldn’t stand out too much. The cart is plenty sturdy with just the wheels but we like this addition, especially for use as a coffee table. Pretty cool, no?

Factory carts are everywhere, but I am still so much in love with this!! We plan to sell this one to see how it does…and of course do one for ourselves!

SO, if you like this one and would like us to do more…let us know!! This particular one {No. 36} will be up in the shop in the next day or so…I just have to verify that it isn’t already spoken for. The cost on these will all be $675 plus shipping {or if you live close enough to the Lynchburg VA area, let us know}.

Cheers!
s

Now that we are feel­ing caught up, we can get back to some good ol’ fur­ni­ture! I have fin­ished this chair, BUT since I did it as a guest post, I want to wait until it goes live to show you. Plus I have writ­ten out TONS of our 508 tips, tricks and tuto­ri­als! FINALLY…an answer to all your ques­tions! Yay for me!

And, just in case we don’t have enough on our plate…we {Nathan} has completed refinishing our first FACTORY CART. It is ridiculous…ly AMAZING. We have many more we can refinish…if this first one sells {and ships} ok through our shop! I am writing a bit of our process on that to share too. You seriously can not handle how beautiful this piece is– I know that for a fact.  Sneak a peeky:

And last, but still so great? We have just finished several Lilla Vän animals that are actually NOT custom orders! A few {like this medium red & pale jade friend below} are in our shop now! You will see more trickle into the shop throughout the week too…wooot!