Coffe Table Revisited

Remember this coffee table I redid a while back?  It seemed like it was missing something.  Since I just made glaze for the armoire I figure I would slap some of the extra on the coffee table. 

 

 I just took the glaze and wiped it on with a foam brush and then gently wiped it off with a damp paper towel.  Sometimes you might have to add a little more glaze to the deep areas where you want it to show up.

I was able to complete this little update during  one nap time.  I left it out in the garage until the next day to make sure it was all the way dry.

  

 

Next up for this room will be some homemade curtains and thick wall stripes!!!  Stay tuned for that!

Kitchen Paint

Being at home all day with a sweet baby really makes you want to redo/ update different things in your home.  Problem is we went down to one income once said sweet baby arrived so we don't have near as much money to do those updates with.  A pretty cheap way to quickly change a room is paint.  

I wanted to add a little color to the nook in our kitchen so off to the hardware store I went.  I wanted a deep mustard yellow.  The first color I picked out was Golden Straw by Valspar.  

I got it up pretty quickly and it was kind of light....I just told myself that it would darken up as it dried.  Well, it didn't and we ended up with a lovely peach.  Ick.  Back to Lowes.  Color #2 was Mustard Yellow, also by Valspar. 

 

 Note: the color it's showing for the swatch online is nothing what it looked like in the store.  This is color #2 in the below picture.  How is that anything like the swatch?!

After I got the color up I still didn't like it.  Bleh.  It was totally clashing with my painted doors.  Back to Lowes.  Color #3 was Fried Dough, also by Valspar.

 

FINALLY!  

Deep down I think I want to paint the top part too but Hubs says he likes it the way it is.  Between you and me I think he's just saying that because he knows he'll be the one taping off and painting above the cabinets!  Plus...I'm still not sure I'm in love with the color....shhhh.....

Vintage Armoire

I promise I'm still alive and kicking over here I've just been taking some time to really enjoy this little cutie...

Look at those rolls!  Ok, enough enough onto furniture...

I bought this vintage armoire over a year ago for $35 and it has been sitting in my garage since then.  It sat in there for so long mainly because I couldn't decide if I should stain or paint it.  

I finally decided to stain it until the hubs and I started the sanding process.  The woodwork on the doors was so intricate that sanding was doing more harm than good.  So now I would be the owner of a painted armoire instead of a stained one.  

First we did some rough sanding on the entire piece and then used spray paint primer.  Then after letting all of that dry I painted the entire thing with 2 coats of an antique white paint.  After letting the paint dry I glazed all the raised up woodwork to help make it stand out more.

To make the glaze I just used some brown paint and added a little bit of water.  I go over how to glaze in this post. 

 

 I also bought some new knobs at Hobby Lobby (for 50% off of course).

I'm using this armoire to house all my crafting supplies and our family games!  

ahh...organized fabric.

 To make the armoire look complete I painted the inside a gray blue color that we had left over from our bedroom. 

 This project isn't quite complete yet because I am going to have the hubs install some shelves on the right side to maximize the space.  This is where all the family games with go!

I don't have a good picture of this but I lined the drawers with leftover fabric from the bookshelf makeover I did over a year ago.

Closet Furniture

I found this piece on Craigslist and loved the shape of it instantly.  My sweet Hubs drove about 35 minutes with me to go pick it up.  We took the dog too, it was a family affair.  Loved the piece, loved the price, loaded it up!  

We bought it to use for extra storage in our closet.  It does make me kind of sad that it will be in there where no one will see it but oh well.  It was this aged funky yellow color when we bought it.  Notice the top is a white laminate material.  I just sanded it a tad (just enough to rough it up), primed it with a roller, and painted it with a roller.  Before doing all of that though I did remove the hardware.  I didn't want to spend extra money on hardware because I kind of liked the way the existing hardware looked.  I just gave it a little makeover with some white spray paint.

For the paint color I had some oops paint left over from our master bath and nightstands.

I was going to remove my hair tools and the hubs' stuff off the top but I thought I would just keep it real!  It's our closet...it's not all that glamorous. 

Nightstand Redo

I found this nightstand on Craigslist for a great price.  When I emailed the guy he wanted to meet somewhere so I had him meet me at my work.  Easiest purchase ever!  All I had to do was sit at work and work while waiting for him and he dropped it off for me!  Score! 

This project took place back when I was 7 1/2 months pregnant so the husband was feeling sweet and sanded the heck out it since it was pretty beat up.  After he did the hard part I primed it using spray paint primer.  Then I painted it with some white paint and a roller.  Apparently I was using a super cheap roller and it looked horrible so I just took a paint brush to it for 2 coats.  I also found the knobs at Hobby Lobby.

Here it is in it's nice little spot in our guest bedroom.  

 The run down-
Bedding: Marshalls
Headboard: Goodwill
Curtains: IKEA
Nightstand: Craigslist
Lamp: Homegoods
Tray: Goodwill
Pineapple: Yard Sale
Ponytail Plant: Gift
Pot: Ross

DIY Striped Curtains

So we've seen these all over the blog world and I guess I figured it was my turn to give it a go.  I found these curtains at Tar-jay for about $14!  I was originally planning on using ones from IKEA but the Tar-jay ones ended up being less expensive.

You can order them online here.  You're welcome Target.

When it comes to having perfectly straight lines I always get nervous and call in the Hubs for help.  I also referred to these 2 great tutorials:

Dwellings By DeVore

Reckless Glamour

Home Depot had their gallon size Martha Stewart paint on sale for $12 so I picked up a gallon along with some "textile medium" that I found at a local craft store.  I wanted to be able to wash these curtains if need be since they would be in a nursery of a boy (aka probably always going to be dirty).

Since I used the same exact curtains as Reckless Glamour it made life super easy since she already did the measurements ( I HATE math).

It was super easy (just time consuming) to tape off the stripes...until I got to the bottom and one side had less of a stripe than the other.  I called in reinforcements (aka Hubs).  I almost had a breakdown until my phone rang and I chatted for a while with a friend and then by the time I was done Hubs had fixed it all!  I just love him! 

He said that it wasn't really my error that the curtains were sewn wrong...not sure if this is completely true but it made me feel a little better.

While we were working on these it was pretty darn cold so I didn't want to paint these outside and risk the paint freezing before it had time to dry.  We laid down a bunch of cardboard and laid the panels on top of that. 

 

Then i went to work painting away with a small foam roller.  

Here they are in all their orange glory!

Living Room Progressing...SLOWLY

When we saw our house for the first time it was empty.  It had been a foreclosure and someone bought it and flipped it and then we bought it.  Sweet deal, right?  The fact that it was empty made it seem super spacious.  Fast forward to moving day when we put our living room furniture, piano, and ginormous TV in the room.  Amazing how quickly it shrunk.  We have since moved the ginormous TV upstairs and have bought a smaller one to go in the nook over the fire place.  So now we are left with mismatched furniture and a large piano (well, a Christmas tree too).  The room is such an odd shape and I like for rooms to be open and have a smooth flow of traffic so it made finding furniture for this room even more difficult.  We also had to think ahead (since there is a baby on the way) about all the stuff adorable items that come with a baby. 

Before:

We painted the room to make it feel a little more cozy.  The color we chose is made by Behr and is called "Perfect Taupe".  It's a great greige color (greige= gray + beige).  The color of the sectional is called "earth" and is a harvesty color so we wanted to try and even out the tone in the room.  If that makes any sense at all.

We found this sectional as Ashley furniture.  It was under budget but still a little more than what we were wanting to pay for furniture.  We luckily got a Groupon though to help out with the cost.  We've learned the key to bargain shopping for big tickets items is CASH MONEY.  We hope to get an antique chair to refinish to go across the room but for now we are going to hold off on that until we see how much space the little man's stuff actually needs.

Funny story...the before pics have the Christmas decor in them because that is when we bought our new furniture.  Little did we know it wouldn't be February until it arrived.  Good ol' Ashley Furniture lost the other half of our sectional.  Now I've heard of loosing a lucky penny or an earring but a sofa?  Come on now.  That's just crazy talk!  We waited another 2 weeks for it to be deliverd.  Delivery day arrived and I couldn't have been more excited, until they took the plastic off and I noticed the fabric was DAMAGED in one corner.  Totally wouldn't have been a big deal if we purchased off of Craigslist but this was BRAND NEW!  I "REFUSED" the furniture and then we had to wait another 3 WEEKS to get it. 

Where'd we get the rug?  Well I'm glad you asked...it's from BJ's, yeah like the warehouse store...crazy right?!  So soft and cozy.

P.S. The piano...it can be yours for free...we'll help you move it out but after that it's all on you baby!

Media tower was a Salvation Army find.  Big rod in the corner...that's the curtain rod we gotta hang.

The massive nail head trim was a major selling point for me!

The To Do List:

- curtain rods

- paint

- curtains (to make or to buy...that is the question)

- large rug

- wall art
- possible antique chair
- sell pillows and buy/make new ones
-remember....FREE PIANO!

Nursery Progress

Over the weekend we officially started on the nursery.  When I say we I really mean my husband.  I had nothing to do with it.  He painted the entire room all by himself!  I tried to help but he told me to just rest.  Isn't he the best?! 

We (and this time I do mean we) picked out this paint color from Benjamin Moore.  Even though I love how smooth Benjamin Moore paint goes on we decided to go the less expensive route and have Home Depot color match it.

 

The color is from their Historical Collection and it is called Alexandria Beige. 

Once again he used the beloved Frog Tape.  Best thing since sliced bread. I totally thought I took a before picture but I sure can't find it on my computer anywhere!

The color in this photo makes it look quite a bit darker than what it really is.  I should probably change the settings on my camera, oh well such is life.

Operation assemble the crib is next!

Painted Doors

I stumbled across this wonderful blog (A Well Dressed Home).  My most favorite (favoritest?) thing that she did (besides her kitchen, ah, GORGEOUS!) are her painted interior doors.  I ran the idea by my husband and he was not buying it.  He's kind of a stickler for following the rules.  I'm kind of known for breaking bending them.  Once I showed him the pictures from her blog he was just as smitten as I was

So, off to our local True Value I went!  I thought about changing up the color but I loved how hers was gray, brown, and black all at the same time.  If it ain't broke don't fix it, right (unless it's a white door that really wants to be painted). 

Here are the before pictures of the plain white doors.  Booorrrinnggg. 

Hey Penny!

I didn't prime the doors because they were just painted white in March before we moved in.

Here they are after a lot of taping and hard work.

Check out the new knob on our laundry room door!  There was just a boring white knob on it before but I wanted to snaz it up a bit!  I found it at Hobby Lobby and it was 50% off, score!

(ok, it is not puke yellow in real life.  It's actually almost the same color of the door but the flash made it look odd)

A big thanks to Emily over at A Well Dressed Home for the amazing idea!