Shattered Dreams

Ok, that title is a little dramatic, ok, really dramatic. You may remember I wanted to make a chalkboard out of this mirror.

But, it was sitting up against a wall by the slider in our home and I shut the door too hard and it toppled over shattering into a million pieces. Hence, the title. It was a big bummer moment for sure, but now it means I have one less thing on my giant to-do list. Except, for the fact that I know have a giant pretty wooden frame with nothing in it. Hmmm. Maybe I will figure out something to do with it, ohh there goes that list not getting shorter again.

oh, yeah. Remember how I was re-upholstering a chair?

Um, so yeah it may be almost a year since I decided to re-upholster my first chair. Let me tell ya, it's been difficult. Not because of the project itself, over all I'd say it's been pretty darn easy. Finding the TIME has been another thing. My husband took a job last year that required him to be gone 5 1/2 days a week, so mommy free time was very few and far between! And then winter came and we have no garage so I didn't feel like painting an old chair in 40 degree weather. If you'd like to catch up on the sloooowwww progress check it out here and here. If you can't recall what this chair looked liked before here you go:

And here is what it looks like now:

The somewhat finished product.  There are a few more things that need finished: the cording, the seat cushion cover sewed on, the bottom screwed back on, and the felt covering up the underside of the seat. 

Vintage High Chair and ASCP

  My good friend Ashley was gifted her babyhood high chair from her mother, what a sweet and sentimental gift don't you think? Although, the wood was in gorgeous condition it wasn't stable for actual use. So she asked if I could give it a cute little makeover for decoration in her home. 

I used annie sloan chalk paint in pure white, distressed it, and waxed it with Minwax natural paste finishing wax. 

 

So cute and so girly, now she gets to look at something pretty and feminine in a house FULL of boys. Enjoy, Ashley! 

linking to: miss mustard seed

&

liz marie blog

& tator tots and jello 

Up next

My next project; you know when I finish my other umpteen hundred other projects, like this one. I'm thinking gold leaf and chalkboard paint? Something similar to this: 

via

What do ya think?

The guilded girl

I got this great side table over a year ago from none other than Goodwill, for around $8. 

My husband asked just the other day if the clerks know me by name? The answer is no, 

not yet, anyways.   

But that's besides the point. 

Here's my table:

I spray painted it white but never really loved it, I almost gave it back to goodwill because I just wasn't inspired.

 Until, I saw these floating around the internet: 

via

via

I was in LOVE, I figured a little liquid gold leaf would give me the same look for hundreds of dollars cheaper! 

Isn't she pretty? 

Just a few coats of liquid leaf (gold), brown craft paint, and clear poly spray. 

I think she looks so much better, don't you?

progress

crazy talk: a reupholstering job part 1

 I'm trying my hand at reupholstering some chairs, crazy talk, I know. So far the demo portion of the project has been smooth sailing. {I may come to regret those words later}. The chair you remember from here.

The fabric:

 I picked up some drop cloth from home depot months ago for various projects and this great floral bird number is actually a shower curtain I found at goodwill for $4.99, what a steal! Wish me luck! So far the hardest part I for see being, is sewing the cover for the cushion and the double welting, GULP. Two things I have never attempted. Did I mention I have limited sewing skills? Double GULP.  

 Do you also like how I don't clean up any of my before pictures? I'm just keeping it real. I always have five projects going at once, so it's normal for our covered patio to have a rug, a recliner, baseboards, a paint can, and a dog kennel hanging out under it, doesn't everyone?

lamp re-do and fail

Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers  miss mustard seed I found a recent post of her HGTV summer tutorials, this beauty in particular caught my eye: 

I thought hey! I've got an old lamp that I can do this to, here is my old lamp looking quite sad and dated:

And here is what it looks like after:

*the console table is still a work in progress

Handy hubby spray painted the lamp base first, with oil rubbed bronze by Krylon. I then used miss mustard seeds tutorial by hot gluing the twine and wrapping it around my lamp base. 

Half way through the project,

it was looking like a hot mess. Picture me and my lamp tangled in twine, that's not an exaggeration. I'm guessing the shape of my lamp was too detailed to pull it off. I unfortunatley dont have a picture of the ugly twine wrapping dilemma, I ripped off all the twine and then just ended up buying a new lampshade and calling it a day. Sometimes you gotta know when you've been beat when it comes to d.i.y projects, and I'd been beat. So it may not be an amazing transformation but it sure beats the brassy nasty that was residing in my home. And I've got a new lamp that only cost me $15.79, that's a small accomplishment to say the least.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

I've had an old mirror for well over 5 years, I can't exactly say why I have held onto it for this long. The thought of hauling it off to Goodwill has definitely crossed my mind more than once. And yet it stuck around from single life to married life, six moves and a baby. The cheap brown mirror from Fred Meyer's remained. In the back of my mind I must have always known it had potential to be something wonderful, that nothing more than a coat of spray paint couldn't fix. So I set out to do just that. For $3.44 I gave this tired old mirror a face lift.




Goodbye faux antique brown:

*please ignore the high heels!

Hello Heirloom White!

I couldn't be happier with how this mirror turned out, its contemporary, sleek, but keeps its vintage-y roots. Needless to say, I am in love! (Insert happy dance here).

Pine Armoire {Hello beautiful, goodbye ugly}

We have been in desperate need of a place to hold our t.v. and movies ever since we moved into our new home. Umm, 10 months ago. Yikes, I know when I write it out it, it is a pretty ridiculous amount of time. But its not like we are cave people and watched the t.v. off the floor. We had a cheap, Ikea, sagging, because it got wet once, t.v. console. It did its job perfectly fine even for looking a little sad. Here are a few pictures I took several months ago, (not on purpose of the t.v. console), but of baby E, BONUS! :)

As it is pretty apparent the t.v. console had to go! Especially now that baby E is crawling around like a mad man. Several family members made it very clear they were afraid the console would give way one of these days. So it was time to find a replacement.

I knew I always wanted an armoire with doors to conceal the t.v. when its not in use. Have lots of storage to hide hold all our movies, and gadgets etc. And withstand the end of time, or at least a husband, one growing little boy, and a dog. But everything I looked at was either way too expensive or not my style. 

pottery barn

pottery barn 

san carlos imports

san carlos imports

My inspiration for a pine armoire with big chunky hinges came from one of my favorite blogs. Check out nester's armoire it's amazing, beautiful and inexpensive. My three favorite words. Especially when it comes to furniture. Now that I had my heart set on an armoire similar to that one. I set out on the hunt on craigslist. Finally after weeks of searching I found one that had a rustic feel to it, chunky hinges, and was made of solid wood. {remember end of time, people!} It is very similar to picture #3. It doesn't have the feminine lines like I really wanted, but it makes both the hubs and I happy. And that's what's really important, right? The bonus part of this story is that the armoire was a gift for my birthday from my two aunt's. {Remember I mentioned family member's telling me my old console was going to fall down, *hint, hint*}. So they generously offered to buy me a new t.v. entertainment center of my choice for my birthday. So thoughtful and nice of them, even if they were telling me in so many words my old  t.v. console was awful! Gotta love family. :)  

Hello beautiful armoire, Goodbye ugly, hunk of junk. 

Paint Schmaint

   A little less than eight months ago we moved into our first home. Yay! What a thrill to be home owners. Of course me being me, I couldn't wait to get started painting and decorating. I set my sights on our master bedroom. My goal being, make it a relaxing retreat at the end of the day. Something similar to this room designed by interior designer Susanne Kessler for Ballard Designs.

Ballard Designs

   So in my spare time between diaper changes, nap time, and feedings I worked on our room. I decorated, bought bedding, lamps, d.i.y.-ed my first dresser. Then all I needed was paint, the white walls had to go, they were screaming at me I'M BORING!!!! OK, a little dramatic but you get the point the white was not cuttin' it. I went to my local hardware store where I picked up some valspar paint in a shade called Cocoa Creamy. I'm a sucker for paint colors that not only look yummy but sound yummy as well :). After painting 3/4th's of the room the unthinkable happened, I ran out of paint. Hmmm, oops lesson learned one gallon of paint is not enough for 4 walls. So I begrudgingly put my paint brush down and told myself I will come back to this project. Uh, four months later I'm still staring night after night at my bedroom with three walls painted and not well I might add.  After thoroughly being annoyed with my bedroom I drove past my town's only hardware store determined to finish my project only to find to my dismay to it had shut down. NNNNOOOOOOO!!!! Now I will have to live with my unfinished room a little longer, what's a girl to do. My room looks more like this: 

   

  And the more I look at my half painted room the more I'm rethinking my paint choice. Maybe something a little more dramatic, and a little less safe. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I will hopefully finish this project someday soon, before my son goes off to college. Time will tell, I'll have to keep you posted on the progress.  

Little Blue Dresser

So I was perusing my local Value Village back in mid March and I came across a 6 drawer dresser. It was the perfect size for our master bedroom. Although, it's sad green and white paint and brass knobs did nothing for me, it had great bones and the $25 dollar price tag wasn't bad either! So after convincing the only person I knew who owned a truck to meet me at the store (my grandma) thanks gran! I took this baby home to live with me.



                                                                        Before:

                                    After:






My inspiration for our bedroom was for it to have a beachy cottage feel to it. So naturally I was drawn to a cool grayish blue color for my dresser. I found the perfect shade from Valspar's Seaside Retreat called Atlantic Gray. It's muted tone was PERFECT! for my project. Naturally, I couldn't have it stay just the pretty blue color. I had to put a Little Miss Vintage spin on it by antiquing it with a mixture of black paint and polyurethane I picked up at none other than my town's one store... Walmart, yes my town is that small.



I painted the black color on then took a rag and would wipe some off until it started to have the look I was wanting. This was quite the process, being a novice to antiquing and all. I then took a hammer and nail to it to give it a beat up look to it. But my absolute favorite thing I picked up for my dresser was the glass knobs I got at Lowe's. So cute, I love glass knobs they are the perfect accessory.



Voilà! Perfection. I'm so happy with how this project turned out, I could just squeal with excitement. {Don't worry, I'll spare you the dramatics }. Hope you like it as much as I do.



              Linked to: miss mustard seed for furniture feature friday
                              primitive and proper for piece of work wednesday