Before and After: Wrought Iron Bed and Table & Chairs

Over the summer I hit a yard sale that was a total score (don't you just love when that happens?). I was able to buy this dresser, the maple twin bed from this post, and the bed I'm about to show you, all for $20!! Yeah, it was a lucky day for me.

This pretty little headboard and footboard sat in my garage for months because I wasn't really sure what to do with it. It wasn't in terrible condition, and everybody loves white iron beds, right?

Finally, though, I decided to do something a little unexpected and chose to paint it a COLOR.

I was so inspired by Cailan's yellow iron bed and could totally see this hum-drum bedstead sporting a sunny yellow, too.


But me being me, I can't ignore blue. I always come back to blue. This time, aqua, to be precise. So I posed my dilemma to my Facebook friends and their opinion came back almost unanimously- paint it AQUA!

So aqua it became. And I love it!

This next makeover is another one that's been sitting around my garage for several months, waiting for me to make a decision about what to do with it. Why do people paint furniture such random colors? Seriously- paprika red, mustard yellow and-- I don't even know what color you'd call that green. Anyway, it was weird. But I liked the details of the table and that the chairs were similar but still mismatched.

First things first- everything got primed white to cover those dark paint colors.



I knew I wanted to do white chairs and tabletop and a color for the table legs, but when I found the chair fabric I couldn't believe my luck. It had a fabulous teal, plus the 3 colors that had been used on the table and chairs.

So after I'd repainted them and then distressed, those weird colors showed through but still seemed to "go" because they appeared in the chair fabric. Lucky again!



Here it is set up at the store, waiting for someone to snatch it up!

While we're at it, here's a look at my space as it was last week. Stuffed to the gills with my things and some of another vendor's, and looking quite cute if I do say so!

More favorites

Ready for another list of my favorite things?

Let's start with the yummy stuff this time, shall we? Starbucks makes a delicious salted caramel hot cocoa that I just can't get over. That sweet + salty combo gets me again! If you haven't tried it yet, go grab a cup before hot cocoa season is gone!


I've come to really love the Mrs. Meyer's brand all-purpose cleaner. I love that it comes in a big bottle of concentrate so I'm not paying for water, and it lasts foreeeever. Also, I'm a huge fan of all things lavender scented, so this one really appeals to me.


I also have their lavender scented room freshener. This stuff is powerful, so a little goes a long way!


I have a confession to make- I sleep in my mascara. Shame on me, I know. I wash most of it off in the shower in the morning, but what's left comes off nicely with these makeup remover towelettes by Neutrogena. Because they're so big and I mostly just use them on my eyes, I tear them in half and can make one package last for nearly two months!


These are by far my most favorite pair of shoes- my Birkenstock Eaton clogs.
I live in them during the cooler months. One of these days I'm going to get my hands on a black pair, too.




I've used a lot of Burt's Bees products, but this one tops my list of must-haves. Their Radiance Day Lotion is perfect for my oily skin, and the fact that it has a built in SPF makes me one happy fair-skinned girl. It's true, Burt's Bees can be a little on the spendy side, but for something that I use on a daily basis on my face, it's worth the investment. Plus this little bottle lasts a surprisingly long time!


So what did you think? Do you like these "favorite things" posts or are you ready for me to get back to the DIY and crafty stuff?

Favorite things

Since I don't have any new projects to share with you yet, I thought I'd do a "favorite things" post and show you some products that I am in love with. That sounds fun, right? Here we go!

I know not everyone is a fan of dark chocolate, but I happen to love it. I also know that not everyone likes salty and sweet together, but I do- especially in the form of this delicious chocolate made by Ghirardelli. I've found it at Costplus World Market and Target. Seriously, you gotta give it a try.


Sometimes I wonder if Bonne Bell adds caffeine to their chap sticks, because I've been addicted to their Dr. Pepper Lipsmackers for about 15 years now. No lie. Love the flavor, love the feel, love, the smell, love the color. If they ever discontinue this stuff I'm gonna be one sad girl.


Biz was part of our laundry room arsenal when I was growing up, but it wasn't until I became a mother of an infant that I really fell in love with it. You know those lovely mustardy blow-outs that our wee ones tend to have just as we're about to walk out the door? I toss those clothes into a bucket of warm water and Biz to soak before they go in the wash and they come out like new. This is tough stuff.


This pretty little bottle of perfume is from Gap and I just love it. I won't even try to describe how it smells, except to say that it's subtle and soft. Just lovely.


Have you seen these cute little ankle socks at Target? They're $1.50 a pair so I grab some every once in a while and now have quite a collection. These were just the ones that happened to be in my sock drawer today. It's like having a little bit of happy on my feet. (Geez, Sarah, think you have enough argyle? Sheesh!)


Any other pen snobs out there? Yep, that would be me. I can't stand writing with a Bic pen. Pilot all the way for me, man.


Speaking of writing, I've developed a little bit of a stationary obsession lately. Target carries some really cute designs, but my absolute favorite right now is this box (actually two boxes- they were just so pretty!) of Stella and Rose blank cards that I bought at Ross recently.


I got lucky and scored the second box on clearance. Yessss!


Just check out those gorgeous colors and prints!

I guess that's it for now. I'll have another "favorite things" post coming up soon.

Before and After: End table

It's been pretty quiet around this little blog of mine, I know. I've been busy staring at this precious angel face for the past 3 weeks.
I just want to soak up every drop of his sweet newness before it goes away, so the projects and crafting have been scarce. They'll be back soon, though, I promise!

In the meantime, here's a quick look at a table I painted right before taking my break.

This sad end table was in desperate need of a new look, which I was more than happy to provide.

It inexpensive and sturdy with awesome character and LOADS of potential- just what I'm always looking for in a rehab project!

I decided to keep it simple and just painted it the same creamy white color as my chevron desk (seen in the background) then gave it a brown glaze.

Nothing revolutionary, but I'd say this table now has a whole new lease on life, wouldn't you?

Simple Valentine's Day Wreath

Just a quick post today to share my new Valentine's Day wreath! This was super easy to make and took very few supplies.



I started with a cheap straw wreath that you can find at the craft store (or even thrift stores), and I didn't even bother taking off the plastic. Wrap the wreath in strips of burlap, hot gluing every little while to secure it.

I chose to embellish my wreath with some pretty felt flowers (using this tutorial) and some felt leaves.

Loop a ribbon through the top to hang and it's ready to go!

Granted, it's not all that Valentine-y, but we've been over that before. Hope you'll forgive me.

Before and After: My daughter's dresser

This dresser project stemmed from the very same problem as the last one I wrote about- growing children need bigger furniture. My daughter had outgrown the sweet little dresser I'd redone for her a couple of years ago, so while scouring the thrift stores and Craigslist for a replacement, I found this beat up old thing and decided to make it hers.

(It also has a mirror that goes with it but I was too lazy to put it back on for the "before" photos).
I loved the shape, size, details and hardware, but the paint job was AWFUL! Not only was it chipping like crazy and had tacky sprayed-on blue accents, but do you see all those little specks on it? Yeah, that's glitter. Who GLITTERS a piece of furniture??






I started with the top and stripped it down to bare wood. I think this was after two out of four applications of stripper. It took a LOT of work to get all of the paint off. It was almost like it'd been painted with plastic, it was sooo hard!

The drawers were next to be stripped and were much easier to do (thank goodness). The body of the dresser and the mirror got sanded to remove any flaking paint, then were given a couple of coats of lovely grayish blue paint-and-primer.



As happy as I am with how this dresser turned out, it doesn't really "go" with my daughter's other furniture. Everything else in her room is white, which makes the dresser kind of stand out. I'm thinking soon it will be time to upgrade her other furniture as well.

Still, she really needed a bigger dresser and this one fit the bill nicely. While it has fewer drawers, it still has way more space for her clothes than the other one provided. No more stuffing and shoving and/or leaving clothes in laundry baskets because they just don't fit.
(Please excuse the messy shelves. The girl's a pack rat, just like her Mama.)

Before and After: My Son's Dresser (and the story behind it)

Today we're going to rewind almost THREE YEARS to when this beat up old dresser came to my house. Do any of you remember the post where I said I was working on it and gave you these two teaser photos?

The poor thing was in terrible condition with a horribly scratched and chipped black paint job, and lots of damage to the veneer. For some reason, I got it into my head that instead of painting it, I was going to bring this dresser back to its former wooden glory and dove in by stripping all that paint off.
I ordered a couple of rolls of new mahogany veneer on ebay and set to work removing the veneer and underlayment entirely from the top. After searching the internet and watching some Youtube videos, I then began the tedious job of patching the missing pieces of veneer on one of the sides and the 3 large drawers.

I gave the whole thing some stain and polyurethane, and up to this point, everything had gone fairly well. Then it came time to reapply the veneer to the top. This did NOT go well. It bubbled and warped terribly and looked just awful. I was devastated. I had no idea how I was going to get it off, either.

So it sat, and sat, and sat. Then we moved and it sat some more. I know my husband was exasperated with this almost done dresser hanging out in the garage, but I couldn't just get rid of it after all the work I'd already done on it. However, I still hadn't come up with a solution for the horribly-warped-veneer-on-top problem I faced.

There's a saying about necessity being the mother of invention (or something like that), and that was how this dresser finally got some more attention from me. My kids are growing, you see, which means so are their clothes. My two sons share a room and for quite a while were sharing a dresser. But when their clothes began to overflow the dresser and just stayed in laundry baskets on the floor in their room, I realized I either needed to find them a bigger dresser, or give them each their own.

Knowing I had a perfectly good (if not perfectly beautiful) dresser in the garage made me feel a little guilty about buying something else. I searched online and discovered a method of removing glued-on veneer using a damp towel, a hot iron and a scraper and decided to give that a try. It took some effort, but it actually worked much better than I'd expected and I was able to scrape all of that bubbled veneer off and sand it smooth.

So, after that long-winded saga of a back story, here's how that banged up old dresser looks where it sits today.

The top is rough-looking, but I care a lot less than I thought I would. We reeeeally needed to use it NOW!

The wood on the top drawer is gorgeous, with some sort of tiger-striped wood in the insets and a burled wood medallion in the middle. You can also see in the photo below where I patched the veneer on the corners of the lower drawers. I suppose that unless you're working with veneer that's identical to the original, there will be some noticeable difference between the two. The stain on the new veneer went on darker, and the grain isn't quite as tight as the original stuff. But guess what- I don't mind! It's really not that noticeable in regular indoor light.

And what do you think of the knobs I chose? They're rope! I was so excited to find a bunch of these at Hobby Lobby and I think they're perfect for this dresser while it's in my little boys' room.



So there you have it. It's been 3 years in the making, but I finally have a Before and After for this cool old dresser.
Whether or not I ever get some veneer laid on the top is another story...