You may remember this bench...
My friend Melissa bought it and made a pretty pad for the seat. After adding a few pillows she announced that she loved it.
Thanks Melissa!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
House Update
It has been awhile since I have blogged about my house.
When my husband was little, his dad would tell him the story of Thor. This isn't the comic book version. Thor originated from Norse mythology. There is a story about how he had to prove himself by drinking mead from a horn of some kind. He drank and drank and when he couldn't drink anymore he was told he had actually been drinking from the sea, and had changed the tides with the quantity he had swallowed.
We talk about this story a lot with our house. It is the reason I haven't posted. We have so far to go, its hard to see that we have really transformed the home since we moved in.
Little things, like
The wall outlets used to look like this:
My handy hubby has almost finished changing them out, and almost all of them now look like this:
The air vents were NASTY. Dirty and yellowing. Pet hair and dust all over the place.
I took them down and washed them, then spray painted them with Rustoleum Semi-Gloss white.
The hallway was originally very broken linoleum and concrete. I don't have a photo of the hall (ugh) but the floor in this room was the same, but the hallway was really torn up.
This is what the hallway looks like now after my husband installed our $50 hand-scraped engineered wood flooring from CL!
The door hardware used to look like this:
Then we removed the security doors (no small feat) and cleaned and painted the doors, then added this beautiful wrought iron hardware that my friend Molly helped me get for FREE. You can see that the door trim still needs to be replaced, and my husband insisted on the NRA sticker for security :). But much better, right? Someday I am going to paint the door a deep rusty red. An excellent backdrop for a wreath of any season!
Soon Danjee from Moser's Valley View Glass (you can check out their website here) is coming to change the horrific windows on the front of the house. I literally can't wait. But in the meantime I made curtains for the inside.
This is what they looked like before from the inside:
And here is what it looks like now:
This was a fun project. I wanted some antique looking ruffle curtains, but it would have cost me $80- $100 to buy them. So I dug through dozens of Goodwill stores and bought bed skirts from the bedding section. I think I ended up spending $20. Molly helped me sew them all together and VOILA... they look great in the family room. (Also note the amazing off-white leather couches we bought on CL and discovered the girl who was selling them lives less than a mile away and goes to my church!)
The lawn was a mess. From garbage to doggy doo to dead dried out bermuda, this yard was a serious project. It's still not even close to being done, but we raked and made countless trips to the dump, and then planted winter rye.
Here are some before pictures:
Here is what it looks like now:
Last but not least, the kitchen.
We have a LONG WAY to go in this room.
Here is the before:
Here it is now. Believe it or not... this is AS CLEAN AS IT GETS. With limited counter space, a big family who uses a lot of dishes and no dishwasher, this is clean.
But we have done quite a bit. I taped a piece of the future back-splash to the wall, and soon Newell will be installing it.
Thanks for watching... much much more to come!
When my husband was little, his dad would tell him the story of Thor. This isn't the comic book version. Thor originated from Norse mythology. There is a story about how he had to prove himself by drinking mead from a horn of some kind. He drank and drank and when he couldn't drink anymore he was told he had actually been drinking from the sea, and had changed the tides with the quantity he had swallowed.
We talk about this story a lot with our house. It is the reason I haven't posted. We have so far to go, its hard to see that we have really transformed the home since we moved in.
Little things, like
The wall outlets used to look like this:
My handy hubby has almost finished changing them out, and almost all of them now look like this:
The air vents were NASTY. Dirty and yellowing. Pet hair and dust all over the place.
I took them down and washed them, then spray painted them with Rustoleum Semi-Gloss white.
The hallway was originally very broken linoleum and concrete. I don't have a photo of the hall (ugh) but the floor in this room was the same, but the hallway was really torn up.
This is what the hallway looks like now after my husband installed our $50 hand-scraped engineered wood flooring from CL!
The door hardware used to look like this:
Then we removed the security doors (no small feat) and cleaned and painted the doors, then added this beautiful wrought iron hardware that my friend Molly helped me get for FREE. You can see that the door trim still needs to be replaced, and my husband insisted on the NRA sticker for security :). But much better, right? Someday I am going to paint the door a deep rusty red. An excellent backdrop for a wreath of any season!
Soon Danjee from Moser's Valley View Glass (you can check out their website here) is coming to change the horrific windows on the front of the house. I literally can't wait. But in the meantime I made curtains for the inside.
This is what they looked like before from the inside:
And here is what it looks like now:
This was a fun project. I wanted some antique looking ruffle curtains, but it would have cost me $80- $100 to buy them. So I dug through dozens of Goodwill stores and bought bed skirts from the bedding section. I think I ended up spending $20. Molly helped me sew them all together and VOILA... they look great in the family room. (Also note the amazing off-white leather couches we bought on CL and discovered the girl who was selling them lives less than a mile away and goes to my church!)
The lawn was a mess. From garbage to doggy doo to dead dried out bermuda, this yard was a serious project. It's still not even close to being done, but we raked and made countless trips to the dump, and then planted winter rye.
Here are some before pictures:
Here is what it looks like now:
Last but not least, the kitchen.
We have a LONG WAY to go in this room.
Here is the before:
Here it is now. Believe it or not... this is AS CLEAN AS IT GETS. With limited counter space, a big family who uses a lot of dishes and no dishwasher, this is clean.
But we have done quite a bit. I taped a piece of the future back-splash to the wall, and soon Newell will be installing it.
Thanks for watching... much much more to come!
David and Goliath
Ok, it's Sunday so I had to use a bible reference.
My husband and I picked three new/old pieces up at our favorite Queen Creek supplier, whose location I will never reveal. I could tell you but then I would have to kill you :)
Amidst the dust and... ahem... a few "deposits" from his new dog, we found an old cabinet and a newer mirror and dresser. Both the mirror and dresser were large, and we decided we would pair them up.
We got two custom furniture orders while we were shopping and came home to a mountain of work.
I just bought the best thing ever. Ever. Ever.
It's a pneumatic sprayer. I had heard that sprayer tend to clog, but as of yet, I have not had one clog. It's so much faster, the finish is so much cleaner, and I love it.
These two pieces were just finished yesterday.
Here is the before of the dresser... didn't take one of the mirror, but it was the same color:
And here are the "after" photos of the dresser and mirror. I call it Goliath because it ended up being the biggest piece I have ever finished. 88 inches tall!
Available now for $750
***SOLD***
The smaller piece, though it isn't small, looked like this before:
And after a coat or two of soft coastal blue, a little sanding and some wipe on poly, it looks like this:
This is available at $290
***SOLD***
I have a few more posts coming... one is an update on the house and one is more details on one of the big furniture orders we are just finishing! So check back soon!
My husband and I picked three new/old pieces up at our favorite Queen Creek supplier, whose location I will never reveal. I could tell you but then I would have to kill you :)
Amidst the dust and... ahem... a few "deposits" from his new dog, we found an old cabinet and a newer mirror and dresser. Both the mirror and dresser were large, and we decided we would pair them up.
We got two custom furniture orders while we were shopping and came home to a mountain of work.
I just bought the best thing ever. Ever. Ever.
It's a pneumatic sprayer. I had heard that sprayer tend to clog, but as of yet, I have not had one clog. It's so much faster, the finish is so much cleaner, and I love it.
These two pieces were just finished yesterday.
Here is the before of the dresser... didn't take one of the mirror, but it was the same color:
And here are the "after" photos of the dresser and mirror. I call it Goliath because it ended up being the biggest piece I have ever finished. 88 inches tall!
Available now for $750
***SOLD***
The smaller piece, though it isn't small, looked like this before:
And after a coat or two of soft coastal blue, a little sanding and some wipe on poly, it looks like this:
This is available at $290
***SOLD***
I have a few more posts coming... one is an update on the house and one is more details on one of the big furniture orders we are just finishing! So check back soon!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
High Boy and Dresser
These pieces have been kind of a work in progress. They look so beautiful now.
**SOLD**
Thanks!
**SOLD**
Thanks!
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Saturday, October 15, 2011
Vanity Love
This was the other piece we plucked from the forgotten furniture yard.
He threw it and the bench and mirror into an already pretty sweet deal.
Asking $350
****SOLD****
After
He threw it and the bench and mirror into an already pretty sweet deal.
Asking $350
****SOLD****
Before
After
Monday, October 10, 2011
Blue Dresser... let's up our game
Now I am trying new techinques and am in awe of the world of furniture refinishing. Blocking, waxing, razor blading... Vaseline, spackle, crackle and POP. I thought I was pretty great with my sanding block and my angled Purdy. Now I see the world is a big place and its intimidating.
I painted this dresser (after many repairs by my handsome hubby) my coastal blue and then broke out my glaze. I have used it before but didn't like the thick, smeary way it turned out. It looked like mud. Also a quart of glaze is $10 and you go through a lot of it.
So I thought I would try to water it down. I added a lot of water and sure enough, the consistency was much better and easier to work with.
It went on easy and came off nicely too. The trick with glazing is to avoid making it look fake. I got one step closer to achieving that.
I hit it with my awesome Wipe on Poly, available at Home Depot and posted and sold it. Here's to self improvement.
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