Little blue dresser...

My sister Jill is uber crafty. I swiped this before and after from her blog...

About a year ago, my father-in-law showed up at my house with a trailer full of furniture. He was moving and has asked my husband to pick out a few things we wanted that they had decided not to keep. I was really excited to get this dresser! The knobs were what made me want it the most. Anyways, he dropped of the dresser {along with quite a few other items that are mostly still in the garage} and I had every intention of painting it right away.
But, life happens and here I am one year later finally getting it done.

Here she is:

(don't mind the paint all over my patio...this is a public apology to my husband...}

And do you want to know what she looks like now?

Super cute. At least I think it is anyways. I'm pleased with the color I chose, it matches really good with the girl's stuff, and I'm even more pleased at the way the pink knobs turned out. I didn't have to spend any extra moolah on purchasing new ones. Love to make old, new. :)

I ended up having to prime this baby after sanding it, I like to use the Kilz brand from Walmart, I think it does a great job. I also really like the Kilz brand of paint, in fact I picked up the paint for this project from Walmart, too. I used Seacrest Spray {it's the "Colorplace" brand color, but mixed with Kilz paint.} I spray-painted the knobs with the only pink spray-paint there was to choose from, but it ended up perfect. The color matches the walls in the girl's room.

This dresser was one of my less labor intensive projects....and that's a good thing because I was really needing to get something, actually anything, accomplished. It seems like life is so busy and there's never time to get my hands dirty and focus solely on a project. I need that! Picking this to do the past couple of days was perfect because a couple of days was all she and I needed. Anyways...I was telling my husband that I would rather re-do something or build it myself than purchase new. Is that sweetness to a man's ears or what? I save him gobs of money!

So..we have a nice dresser for the girl's clothes. Their clothes had been stowed in those plastic drawer things we got at Target almost 6 years ago. It was time.

 

Let it be known...

That I wish I could find the oldest, tackiest, wood paneled, dropped ceiling, fake brick wall, 70's house.

Just so I could make it look as gorgeous as Young House Love.

It is hard to believe this is the same room!

Gathering...

Gathering is what I do when I am planning to decorate. I like to walk around my house and look for things that are ready to be placed somewhere new, old frames and accessories that didn't have a home. I recently got a piano (yeah!) and needed to decorate the top and the space on the wall above the piano. So on my hunt I found a few fun things I had tucked away...

This huge frame was my Grandma's.

She was painter.

In her house she had a whole room full of oil paints, paint brushes,

 canvas's of all sizes and frames.

Her home always had the faint smell of turpentine and oil paints.

My Pottery Barn knockoff Hurricane jar came in handy :)

My Goodwill owl found a home.

The only thing that will get changed is the lamp

The one there right now is functional, but not pretty.

This is what I am thinking about getting from Target.

But that will have to wait for another day.

I really love the way the wall collage came together. Have you every heard of Real Deals? It is a fun little store. I went there on Saturday hoping to get a little inspiration and I did not leave empty handed. I got the keys, frame and mirror for $15.00. Oh how I love a good deal!

 The picture in the lower right is my Grandpa.

 I love this picture!!

He was a great sportsman.

He had many mounted animals and fish in his house.

Little kid-chen fun...

These sweet little kitchens have been making their way around the blog world for awhile now. And can I just tell you, I am dying to make one for my little girl! If you haven't seen these, I will give you one guess as to what this little kitchen used to be...

If you guess a tacky old nightstand your are correct :)

"Nightstand Turned Play Kitchen" from Ohdeedoh

I bought these 2 little bookshelves at a few weeks ago at a yard sale. They are really to small to hold regular books, just small board books, and they are to small for toys. They are going to be perfect for a little kitchen. The plan is to find a nightstand to make into the kitchen. Then the two shelves will flank the kitchen on each side to hold all the pots, pans, plates and food. I can't wait to do this little project!!

I guess if you were just and amazingly crafty person your could just scrap the whole nightstand redo and make your own like Kristen from Crafting Chicks when she was a guest blogger at Knock off Wood.   Amazing!

Pottery Barn knockoff...

Awhile back I was drooling over browsing through the Pottery Barn website, and I came across their vases and apothecary jars. So beautiful. Ever since I have been scouring my Goodwill for something comparable. To bad I never found anything I liked. Then I was at Ross this week and spotted this glass jar. It was exactly what I was looking for and bonus it was only $5.99.

So I bought a $1.99 candle, a piece of scrapbook vinyl, rocks from outside and a bit of moss left over from an old project. Here is my apothecary jar inspired by Pottery Barn.

This is going to be perfect for the tablescape I am working on for the top of my piano.



A little link-y love:

Poppies at Play

Fingerprints on the Fridge

The Shabby Nest

craft eNVy

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk

Under the Table and Dreaming

 

Photo walls...

Photo walls have a major impact on a room.

Done the right way they are a focal point that set the tone for a room.

Done the wrong way and they are just an eye sore.

Sawdust and Paper Scraps has got the photo wall down. I love her photo wall going up the stairs and continuing down her hall.

Tips for your photo wall:


Remember symmetry-
           Whatever collage you decide to do on your wall make sure there are no empty holes. I prefer a symmetrical look. Don't cluster all your large frames on one side leaving your small frames to balance the rest.
 Don't space your picture too far apart. A good guide is to use your hand. Keep the same space between pictures by spacing them with your hand.

Plan Ahead:

             Don't just go attacking your wall with nails and a hammer. Arrange and rearrange your pieces on the floor a few times. Then when you are happy with your design make a template out of old wrapping paper or newspapers the same size as your frames.

Wall Placement:
             After your decide your collage on the floor and before you tape up your template, think carefully about where the whole collage is going to go. You don't want to have it off center on a blank wall, or to high or low. After you tape up your template step back and look at it for awhile. When looking at it straight on, do you have to look up or down to see it comfortably? Is it balanced?


Just a few more things to remember:


              Things look better in odd numbers. 3,5,7...
             
              Unless you have a huge piece of art, don't ever just place one photo on a wall. Pictures and photo's look better clustered together. One small piece looks awkward and lonely. This is what I like to call the floating wall. The poor picture has nothing to hold onto and it just floating aimlessly on your wall.


               Frames can be very pricey. If you are like me and always decorating on a budget, go to thrift shops and Goodwill. Find old frames and paint them! I found all my frames (in the photo wall below) at Goodwill for under $15. The most expensive frame was the biggest for $7.

Here is my latest photo wall project. I love gathering pieces from all over my house and shopping for unique pieces to make it come together. Hopefully this one will turn out great!

Happy decorating :)

Toot! Toot!

Please excuse me while I toot my horn a little :)

Dining room re-do...

It all started with the table.

When I bought the table, at a yard sale, I was always very aware that the chairs didn't match the table. Not a huge deal. The chairs are a cream with a bit of a glaze over them. The table was just plain white. It always bothered me. I know that is crazy, most people didn't even notice, but just the same it bothered me. So after I finished painting my hutch I had a bunch of red paint left over and the table was just calling its name. So my plan was to just paint the white part red. That was it, a quick coat of paint or two and it was done...

Yeah, not so much. My dear hubby and I hauled out the table and set it up in the garage. My new toy was a paint sprayer and I was itching to use it. We sanded it a bit and then painted it. It took all of 30 min to do the whole project. BUT the next morning I went to check on it and my heart dropped, the paint was peeling and bubbly, plus with the slightest scratch the paint would peel right off.

So I decided to scrap the whole red idea and start over. It took DAYS and DAYS to get off all the red paint. Thank goodness for an electric sander and sharp razor blades. It took for ever to get it all off. During all that sanding and scraping I decided that I was going to redo the whole table. So I decided to re stain the top and match the bottom piece to the chairs. I am really glad the red didn't work out. The restained top looks so much better!

Before

This is how it sat in the garage for a few weeks. Then I moved it inside because I was sick of not having a table. So again it sat like this covered by a table cloth for a few weeks. I was so worn out by so much sanding I couldn't bring myself to finish the table. Which is so not like me. I like to get stuff done quick. But since this gets used so much I knew it needed to be done the right was which meant I needed to take my time and do it the right way.

Here it is today! I love it!

So much better. I love the dark stain on top and the antique white on the bottom to match the chairs.

So since the table got a beautiful redo the whole room needed an up date too.

Here is how it looks now.

New paint color (good bye yellow-hello Gobi desert)

I love the new curtains.(or should I say mistreatment's seeing as they are an old table cloth pieced together with no sew tape and staples)

Changed the placement of the table to allow room for the hutch.

I moved the red hutch into the dining room to make room for the new piano :)

It fit perfectly into the little nook.

Some new vinyl and some sweet cast-iron stars from Goodwill.

So again here is the before...

And after ...

(please excuse the unpainted wall to the right and brushes to the left... always a work in progress)

I am linked to the DIY Project Parade