Guest Bedroom Makeover

I don’t think I took any pictures of the bedroom before I started getting ready to paint…because it really was BAD and I just didn’t think about it. Besides the bed being in there, it wasn’t a usable space at all due to the amount of boxes stacked high to the ceiling and across the floor.
Here are a couple of pictures I took before I started painting:

yellowed doors and pink walls-yum!

The walls were a light pinky color and the ceiling, doors and trim were a semi-gloss and stained yellow. The trim and baseboards were white (at one time) and the window casings were brown. Not to mention all the baseboards were cracked or chipped and needed to be replaced. There was also a hole in the sheetrock that needed attention... Boy did I have my work cut out for me!

I started painting the ceiling first-I just did Ceiling White-Flat. Then I started on the walls…trim…windows..doors. I used Sherwin Williams, Nomadic Desert on the walls and for the doors, windows, and trim I used Sherwin Williams-Shell White, semi-gloss.

Swatch of Nomadic Desert

 We bought new wide baseboards and I LOVE THEM! I want so badly to do the rest of my house like that…but it would cost a small fortune. One room at a time!

and all the painting is done!

Now the room serves as a guest bedroom and more importantly my craft room! I have a nice big desk and armoire that holds all my craft stuff, sewing machine, etc. I made another (large) chalkboard frame to go over the desk.

I got an awesome deal on the bed set from our K-mart that closed and I am super excited that it's Ikat.

my creation station! yeah!

More decorations will come soon I’m sure, I have lots of wall space to cover! I am also happy to say that with this bedroom being done, that only leaves ONE more room left to paint (our bedroom)-yippee!!!

Kitchen Table Makeover

I have to admit this is the first time I have ever straight up copied a project from another person…but I liked the idea SO much and the final outcome of the project was so awesome I just couldn’t help it! (Well, there are SOME things I did a little differently. )  I wanted to have a table for the screen porch where we could eat out there, play games, etc.  and I was looking for something that would seat 6-8 people. After much searching for just the right table, I found this one on Craigslist. It’s just what I was looking for…patience is a virtue! It has a leaf that is attached and folds up underneath the table, so it’s easy to use if we need to accommodate for a bigger crowd.

The table was pretty beat up, I mean…well loved by a lot of kids…Parts gouged out by a pencil, colorful magic marker drawings and the gloss finish was slowly chipping away. Exactly what I wanted! My dear friend, Ann, is so sweet and brings me her “Better Homes and Garden” magazines to flip thru and I just so happened to find a teeny tiny little coupon on one of the pages for 25% off a stencil from: Cutting Edge Stencils .

It was so ironic b/c that’s the same website the other girl got her stencil from. I looked at all the stencils, trying not to copy this girl to a “T”, but turns out the Paisley stencil was my favorite one too… it’s just so darn cute! And the stencil is awesome, no bleeds, easy to clean, I was very pleased!

First to prep the table I sanded it down and took all the original finish off the top of it. Then I wiped it down to get the wood dust off. 

after it's sanded

 And it was ready to stencil, that easy! I use white latex outdoor paint and a mini roller-I didn’t use a foam roller because they tend to hold more paint and I didn’t want it to bleed under the stencil. You don’t have to press down too hard…just a light pressure and I did 2 coats.  I layed the stencil in the middle of the table to get started and then I went out from there. 

One mistake I made was turning my stencil because I thought it would look neat not to have a “repetitive pattern” welllllll they are smart and made the stencil to line up and look never-ending..so don’t turn your stencil! Just keep painting, just keep painting... (let it dry, takes about 2 min to dry) and then line it up and paint the next section. Since I turned my stencil, it obviously wouldn’t line up so I had to wait for it to dry and then sand the paint off. Not too big a deal-just a 10 minute detour. 

if you make this mistake, the paint sands off really easy

ran the stencil down the middle first

almost done...

 Another thing I did was wrap the stencil around the edge of the table…I didn’t want it to look like there was a defining plain border going all the way around the sides of the table. 

done stenciling!

When the stenciling was done and the paint was dry, the next step was to stain it. That’s right, stain over all the hard work you just did! Trust me, you’ll love it! I used Minwax-All American and it turned out pretty dark since the wood was sanded down to the raw, so I’m glad I didn’t go with my Kona stain. Make sure you wear latex gloves-staining can get messy and have an old rag to wipe the stain off. I did two coats of stain because I wanted it a little darker in some places.

my sweet hubby helping me :)

After staining

I painted the legs and sides of the table a teal color- the same color I used on the China Hutch. I did two coats, my rule of thumb is two coats of paint on any and every thing you are going to paint! It always turns out smoother and covers any spots you may have missed the first go around. 

I waited 24 hours for the stain to really dry and then put on a semi-gloss poly-urethane to seal it.  

It gave the table a pretty little sheen and it will help protect it some from the elements.

And here she is, in all her lovely shabby farmhouse glory! Don’t yah love it!?

here's how we wrapped the stencil around the edges/corners

 It’s probably been the easiest project I have done so far and I’m SO happy with how it turned out!

Rain Chain

We have been slowly whittling away at the screen porch..it’s getting pretty close to being finished. There are just a lot of little details to finish out the project.  We got all the gutters up a couple weeks ago and installed my rain chain! It replaces the downspout, so when it rains the little cups fill up with water and the water flows down to the next one. Making a really pretty trickling noise and it looks kinda like a waterfall. We needed to somehow direct the rain away from the house once it trickled down the chain. I knew I wanted a really big clay pot and as always, my ever impressive engineer husband devised a plan.
 So, we went to a nursery where they have a TON of different huge clay pots. There were so many to choose from and they were all so neat but we chose the prettiest, tallest one. I just love the colors! (it's kinda dirty here but it's teal dripped into dark blue)

Any who, Ryan made an incognito French drain out of the clay pot and cut a hole about 3 inches in diameter in the bottom. Then he poured a small concrete slab for the pot to sit on and for the drain pipe to come up through.  He layed PVC pipe in the ground and it goes from the concrete slab to the backside of our stone retaining wall. So all the water trickles down the rain chain, into the clay pot, down the drain and under/out the other side of the wall. We also got some wire mesh and put it down in the pot to catch leaves and debris. That way the drain doesn't get clogged up from our thousands of acorns and leaves that fall. By looking at it you would never know..it just looks like a chain and a clay pot!

Eventually we are going to plant a nice little garden around it. But here it is...

Mesh in the bottom to catch debris

we cut in a funnel to make a round downspout

close up of funnel

Fairly easy and fun project! Ta-ta for now!

I love rocking chairs!

I haven’t updated in a while because we have been so busy working on projects! When the blog is slow….the house is busy!!! This was me and my husband’s first time going to the Endless Yard Sale and it was awesome. We found some pretty cool things for great prices…needless to say, we were in heaven! I found these 2 really beat up old rocking chairs that needed some love…

I managed to talk the guy down to $15 for both!!! Score!

The bottoms had rotted ply-wood with a foam/spring vinyl seat which was pretty gross. 

Some parts of the legs and back were chipped and they tried to fix it back together with great stuff. We made a template from the old bottom and replaced it with a fresh new piece of plywood. 

I scraped/sanded down the wood and got all the great stuff off; then just used good ‘ol wood glue and clamps to put it back together. 

At first I thought I wanted to cushion the seats again…but since they were going outside on the porch I chose not to. And then I thought about painting the plywood but thought painted plywood might not look too great. So I just chose a really cute chevron fabric and covered the plywood using my beloved staple gun. Then I bought some clear vinyl, medium thickness (found in the fabric section) to cover on top of the fabric.

I loved the natural worn look of the wood so I just left that be, no paint needed for this project!

And here they are:

The vinyl makes them much more durable and so easy to clean! Don’t have to worry about stains or rain water-they just wipe right off!

Rocking chair find #2: I wanted an upholstered comfy rocking chair for the living room and found one at a thrift store for $15.

Let me rewind…this was my inspiration, from Anthropologie:

and it cost a ridiculous amount of money.

 So when I found this one I was really excited.

 I didn’t care for the red shiny cherry finish, and the rocker part was really chewed up on the front and back, so I sanded the entire chair down…(I feel like I am always sanding!) 

after sanding-everything is smooth with no chew marks

 Then I just brushed it with some Minwax Kona stain that I already had. It gave it a darker flat finish, which is what I wanted. 

 I found some affordable Ikat fabric at JoAnn's that I fell in love with and had it reupholstered for next to nothing and they did a fantastic job! I had buttons made and added to the back cushion of the rocker for some definition and detail. Here's how it turned out: 

That's all my rockers...and there's more projects to come, bye for now! :)