Several "before" and "afters"

Okay, folks, moving day is the day after tomorrow, so I'm afraid I'm just going to have to dump a bunch of photos on here and call it a blog post. After that I'm going to be MIA for a while. Probably a long while. If I were more on top of things I'd have written a bunch of posts ahead of time and set them to auto-post during my absence, but I think we all know that that was pretty unlikely to happen. And I have to warn you that these are not the most dazzling makeover projects, either. But I did document them (sort of) so I feel compelled to share. First is my husband's nightstand. I decided I'd like to get new ones when we move so I wanted to try redoing this one to sell. It wasn't awful, but I was kind of over the dark brown/painted detail combo.

The top had some water damage so I needed to sand that down before painting.

I painted it a creamy white color, distressed just a bit and added some vintage sheet music to the top and drawer front.

A clear, vintage glass pull adds a little sparkle to it.

Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" photo of this vintage phone stand, but it wasn't much different except it had a shabby looking cherry wood finish on it.  I painted it the same color as my plank-topped sewing table to make it a little more fun. 

These antique chairs were from an ice cream shop in downtown Modesto.  The chairs themselves were in pretty good shape, but they needed an update.

I spray painted them in Heirloom White then got to work on the seat cushions.  A couple of them were missing their seats, so after cutting new plywood circles I recovered them all with simple but sturdy drop cloth fabric. 

Still too plain, though.  They need numbers!  Numbers are always cool, right?  Again using contact paper I cut out the numbers in the style that I liked and rubbed them onto the fabric.  (I did this step after upholstering the seats because I knew that trying to center each number perfectly on the seat and then attaching the fabric would be really tricky.)

Using a stencil brush I dabbed on some craft paint to fill in each number.

I was going for an imperfect look, so I didn't fill them in completely.

Why I didn't take a picture of all 5 I can't figure out.  But I think you can get an idea of what they ended up looking like.

Finally, I painted this little nightstand to match my daughter's dresser.  No distressing, no glazing, just a good paint job.  (Sorry, no "before" for this one either.)

Unfortunately the dresser sold without the nightstand (yes, I sold my girl's dresser- poor thing has had her clothes in laundry baskets for weeks).  But hopefully somebody likes the nightstand enough to buy it on its own!

Well, that pretty much does it.  I have a couple more projects that I'm finishing up now, but I don't know when I'll get a chance to share them.  In the meantime, wish us luck!  This is a BIG move and I'm more than a little nervous about it.  But I hear Ann Arbor is nice, however far away it may be from our loved ones.  I'll check back in as soon as I can.  Please don't give up on this little blog of mine!  I'll be back!

Before and After: A desk and a buncha chairs

In an effort not to jinx myself, I haven't shared with you yet that I've found a space to sell my furniture here in California! I didn't want to say anything until it was a sure thing, but the rent's been paid, some pieces are in place and I've even sold a couple of things! What an exciting feeling this is, knowing that I can do what I love and have a place for it all to go!

I thought I'd share with you a few of the pieces that have gone over to the shop recently. This first chair spent quite a while in my living room because I really loved its shape and the maple wood tone that it had. Then I found a pair of matching armchairs and I decided this one could go to somebody else. But first I wanted to give it a new look. It got a coat of white primer, then sprayed in Rustoleum's "Lagoon" and then sanded to heck. This chair was also plain ol' maple and was given the same treatment but in "Meadow Green". Spring makes me want to break out the COLOR! Can you tell? I'll be honest- these aren't my favorite makeovers ever, but hopefully somebody will appreciate their colorfulity and distressedness! (Yes, I make up words.)

Next up is a desk that we were using but have recently replaced, so I finally decided to do something fun with it. It used to look like this. Kind of tired, kind of boring, but since it was stuck in a closet I didn't really care. With a little "Heirloom White" it was suddenly kind of charming. Here it is in my space at the shop, just waiting for someone to take it home. The top of the desk received some dictionary pages decoupaged to it, though I'm afraid I didn't take a good photo of the whole top. I used some pages with words on them like "letter", "study", and "word" and kind of highlighted them with red pen before sealing them. Next to the desk you'll notice a chair that's also been painted. It looks really blue in these photos, but it's actually wearing that quandary color I asked you about. Here's the actual color and in person it really is pretty. I'm glad I decided to test it out on another chair before trying it on my own pair. After seeing it on a piece of furniture I realized that I love the color, but that I'm not that brave yet. So I'll pull it in with accessories but probably won't paint my chairs with it.

And thank you all for your advice about my chairs. I'm still undecided about them but your feedback definitely got me thinking about other possibilities. I guess I still need to do some more mulling.

Here's one last chair to show you. Sorry there's no "before" on this one, but again, just picture a plain old maple chair with a worn rattan seat. This was a sample of gray paint that I had mixed up and I really like it, though I can't remember the name now. Oh, and the pillow isn't mine. It's the work of another vendor, but doesn't it look right at home on my little chair?

Well, that's it for now. It will probably be a little while before I have anything new to share. This week I'll be getting ready for a solo weekend visit back to Idaho, but once I'm home again I plan on diving head first into my paints and sandpaper (figuratively speaking, of course)!

Have a great week!

Before and Afters

I've been working hard and managed to finish quite a few pieces.

The first one I want to show you is this yard sale coffee table. A friend of mine spied it on this post and asked if I'd refinish it for her.

The scratched up honey oak is gone and has been replaced with a sleek, glossy black that's been lightly distressed.

MUCH better.

Next up is this old wooden magazine rack. I love the details of this piece, from the cut-out front panel to the spindly legs to the dividers and their staggered heights.

It's been painted a creamy white and got some vintage sheet music decoupaged onto the sides and back.





A little distressing draws attention to the detail of the legs. If I had somewhere to put it, this piece would stay with me. I love it!

Remember this wicker chair and the matching little table?

It's hard to tell from these photos, but they were painted a dingy ivory color and had some green and pink on them as well.

Personally, I think all wicker furniture deserves to be painted crisp white.

I loved this little piano bench, but it was in pretty sad condition. The veneer on top was pulling away and in general the finish was pretty much trashed.

So she also got a new coat of Rustoleum's famous Heirloom White and a pretty new cushioned seat.

Even the inside looks better!

I love this linen-esque fabric with its sweet, perfectly imperfect floral print.



Finally, another custom piece. Well, sort of custom. My youngest brother and his wife were in need of an ottoman that would go with the purple furniture they're currently using and asked if I might be able to come up with something. I've seen their furniture, and even though it is purple, it's actually very nice. I spotted this little number at a thrift store last week and instantly snapped it up. It was the perfect size for their cozy apartment and would be a breeze to recover.

Here it is with its new linen-colored fabric and nail head trim. And if our grass was mowed you'd be able to see the legs in their new cream color. (Yes, I had a little bit of a love affair with Heirloom White this week.)

I think those antiqued brass tacks finish it off nicely. Well...

...almost finish it off. Can you believe that I was only short 4 dang tacks?? GAH! And of course I bought the last two packs from my local Joann, so now I get to run around looking for more so I can finish this and send it with my husband when he leaves for East Idaho on Thursday so he can deliver it to my brother for me.
(All of the items in this post except the coffee table & storage ottoman are available for sale. I'll be taking them to the consignment store later this week, so I'll only have them for a couple of days. If you'd like to purchase one please just leave me a comment or send me a Facebook message.)

Baby's box

As I'm counting down the final weeks of my pregnancy, it's no surprise that I've got baby crafts on the brain. This weekend I noticed a memory box that I made for my son shortly after he was born. It sits on a shelf in his room and I see it everyday, but for some reason it caught my eye, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's so simple, yet very sweet and functional.

All this project takes is a wooden box (found at a craft store), acrylic paint, some decorative paper, Modge Podge (decoupage medium), and a couple of sponge brushes.


The first step is to paint your box, inside and out. Easy! Then you get to decide what will go on the box. I chose to decorate the top and sides with various cute animals cut from scrapbooking paper, but this is really where you could let your imagination run wild. Decorate with anything you find appealing- don't limit yourself to what immediately comes to mind when you think "baby".

I took some inspiration from a onesie my son had and duplicated a couple of the animals it had on it. The other animals came from somewhere online, though now I'm not sure where.

Cut out your paper images (if that's what you decide to do) and "paint" the area you'll be adhering them to with some of the Modge Podge using a sponge brush. Apply the paper pieces, carefully working out any air bubbles as you go. Then put on another coat or two of Modge Podge all over so everything is sealed and has a uniform sheen. I used a tiny hole punch and black paper to make the eyes on each animal and also chose to outline everything with a very fine Sharpie marker (this proved trickier than I expected, so go slow and try to be very steady if you do this). For his name on top I just used a die cut machine at my local craft store to punch them out for me.

Now for the fun part- filling it! I can't stand to throw away things that are from my children's earliest days, so this box became the safe and pretty way for me to store all of Hakan's little newborn treasures.
Inside you'll find a card I made of his footprints on his one week birthday, our hospital bracelets, his hospital crib cards, the newspaper clipping announcing his birth, onesie-shaped congratulations card from the ladies at church, sweet socks that he wore for his blessing, first and last binkies, one of the first pairs of felt shoes I attempted to make... ...teeny tiny hospital cap and another made by great-grandma, his hospital shirt, the tiniest newborn diaper, sonogram prints, bib from the university Hubby and I attended, and one of the birth announcements that I made.
This box contains items that I'll treasure forever, and maybe someday (if I can stand to part with it) will be able to give to Hakan when he's grown.

I really want to make another of these boxes for our newest addition. This time I'm thinking I'll go with a woodland animals theme... owl, hedgehog, squirrel, bird, deer...

Can't wait to get started!

(P.S. Even if you don't have a baby in your house to make one of these for, it would make an awesome gift for someone who's expecting or recently given birth!)