Inspirational visit to Pottery Barn.com

So i was aimlessly browsing PB's website tonight looking for inspiration for new projects that would be fabulous and easy to re-create. I came across this link to a great idea for displaying your jewelry. How cute is this?

 

I have to hand it to Pottery Barn. They have a way of taking such simple items and making them look worn in and amazing! I love this idea and will be making a few of my own. Not only am I in need of Art for my bedroom but I'm also in need of a way to artfully display my jewelry. Problem solved!! Now to find the perfect frames at the thrift store....

Here's another one that's Oh so Easy to do and adorable!

 

I LOVE me some letters on the wall! I wouldn't go with red though...I'd either go with black distressed or maybe robin's egg blue or something a little more subdued. I am totally gonna copy this though....

Here's another that ANYONE can do. How many times have we all seen great wooden candle holders in UGLY colors at the thrift and passed them by? I've probably passed on dozens of worthy participants to this next project....

 

White...chippy....rustic...what's not to love? It would go with any season, any decor style, any color candle. I'm in love and will totally be doing this one. And I've also seen super cute and cheap wood candle holders at Target that I could use for this. 

Oh to have the budget to outfit my home with items from PB....ah well.

Frame Memo Board

Hey Guys! So I stumbled upon one of my favorite blogs yesterday and she had a project that I just had to make! I was feeling ansy to get crafty and happened to have all the ingredients to this project. Check out her post here
This project is one she made after she was inspired flipping through the Wisteria catalog. It was SO easy and I love the finished product!! Here's what you need...
Large picture frame
Garden Twine or Jute ( i found mine quite a while ago in the dollar bins at Target)
Hot glue gun/sticks
Wood clothes pins

Fire up your glue gun and get it hot...
Flip over your empty picture frame so the rim that the picture sits in is facing up
Cut a length of twine that is a little bigger than the width of the picture frame
Put a glob of hot glue on the rim of the picture frame in the spot that you want the twine to sit...bury the end of the twine in the glob of glue and let it dry and get solid....do the same thing all along the same side (as many as you want for organization). If you do all the twine on one side and let them all dry then you can pull them taut to the other side and they'll stay taut when you hang pictures and stuff on them. Once they are all dry pull them across (tightly) and glue in place on other side so they are straight (or you could criss cross them I guess and it'd look cute). Once the glue is all dry trim off any excess twine thats sticking out.
Hang on the wall and clip on your photos...hang your glasses....Ultrasound pics....etc.
This was great because I took all the stuff that was clogging up my fridge and transfered it to this memo board. Worked great and looks cute! Thanks so much RockyBella for the inspiration! You rock!!!
I'm linking this post up to Funky Junk's Saturday Night special...Frugal Friday@Shabby Nest

Stumped by sewing!

Hey Ladies! So I have been wanting to learn how to sew for A LONG TIME! My mom is an amazing seamstress...so is my sister in law. They both do beautiful things and I have always just let them do projects for me and never tried to learn how to sew on my own. Well I've decided that now is the time and I'm done making excuses! I found a super inexpensive (thats how I like it) Brother sewing machine at Walmart.com that I'm gonna get. Its a great beginner machine and got a lot of great reviews for ease of use and design...and it comes with a dvd and manual so I'll have instructions! Yay for Walmart! (actually I hate Walmart as a general rule...but I might change my mind now). I'm going to get the machine today and set it up and do a simple pillow project. We'll see how it turns out...Wish me luck!!!

Update on the "not so ugly anymore" chair

Hey guys! Just wanted to show you all the progress on the Pear green chair. (someone called it pear green and I like that term a lot better than flourescent green) I took off the skirt....which once I had pulled a couple of the staples out I tugged the skirt and most of the others came out...so easy! I shampooed the chair with the upholstery attachment on my carpet shampooer and let it dry in the sun all day yesterday. I also febreezed the crap out of it! It still smells kinda like a musty old folks home but that should fade with time...(i hope). I also unscrewed the feet, sanded them lightly with a block sander to rough up the finish, and spray painted them two coats each of Heirloom White. Once they were dry i distressed them lightly and put one coat of wipe on poly on them for shine. They totally changed the look of the chair. It actually kinda goes now! I have it in my living room window with a black wicker ottoman in front of it. I'm still gonna be thinking about reupholstering it because if that musty smell never goes away I will not be cool with that! Ok here's the progress I've made so far.

Don't mind my freakishly white feet in this pic...I need some sun BAD...Oh and thats my new baby girl brewing in my belly! Can't wait to meet that little Miss!

Need help with a chair!

Hey Ladies! So as most of you know...I'm mild to moderately obsessed with craigslist...especially the free section! Most of the projects that I've done...and put on this blog...have been free items that I've scored on good ol' craigslist. Well today I found a chair. The ad said "Free Hideous Lime Green Chair". Well with that appealing ad who would've thought that the chair would've been charming! Its a great shape...nice lines...super comfy! The only problem...its a cross between olive and lime green. But seriously I love the color! I just don't know if I should take the plunge to try and decorate with this chair in mind. Most of my furnishings are neutral and safe...and well kinda boring. I have some amazing pieces but my couch and loveseat are beige...and we have another couch in our living room thats kind of a mocha-ish tan. We are in a rental house so I don't really want to paint the walls...which are creamy off white. Most all of the wood furnishings in my house are painted white and distressed. I could always re-upholster this chair and that would fix the problem and i'd still get a cool chair but I really do like the color...i just don't know if I can live with it day to day.
So I guess I should tell you all that my style tends to be kinda cottage/funky/vintage. My home has a very acquired look. I definatly don't decorate out of the pottery barn catalog...most of the stuff we have has been free so I have to be less picky about styles as long as things mesh well. So here's the chair and I'll tell you all below what my thoughts are....

Ok so this is what I'm thinking...I remove the skirt (its got a small hole in it anyways) and it'll expose the feet which are cute. I'll paint the feet white and distress them and then add white pillows...maybe a cute funky one with some of the green in it. What do you ladies think? Is there any possible way that I can make this green fit in to a neutral-ish house? I await your ideas...

Armoire is finished...TA DAAAAHHHHH!

Hey Ladies and Gentleman! So i'm writing this post with a severely aching back, a body thats suffering from not only mal nourishment but also dehydration, and a HUGE smile on  my face! I am in love with my "new" armoire. Now to give credit where credit is due, I totally copied The Lettered Cottage's dining table re-do. Her technique was just the look that I wanted to achieve with my armoire but didn't know how to start. So after a light coat of half water/half white paint (in the oops section at HD) it looked kind of like drift wood. I loved that look and contemplated leaving it that way but I can NEVER leave well enough alone and always have to mess with stuff. I went back over and added more paint in certain areas using the dry brush technique that she does here and once it was dry it was the perfect combo of beach chic and weathered which is exactly what I wanted! I was going to distress it which is what I usually do but it doesn't need it...looks perfectly weathered already. Have to add a poly coat one of these days but I'm in no hurry. What do you think?

I'm linking up to Funky Junk's Sat Nite Special...lots of great DIY's to check out!
Click here

Love my Vintage Hutch...

Hey guys! So I scored this vintage hutch for free about a week ago on Craigslist and knew it had major potential! Its solid wood and a great size and I wanted it for my entry way. It had some damage to the sliding doors but nothing that my sander couldn't fix. Here's the before...

 

Please pardon the lack of quality in the picture...I couldn't find my camera at the moment so I used my phone. You can see its potential but definatly not digging the wood or the chewed up doors. So I knew I wanted to paint this Heirloom White because it would be going on the same wall as This and I wanted it to match. So after a TON of sanding, 3 cans (thats right I said CANS) of Heirloom White, and about 2 coats of Wipe on Poly to protect my handywork...it turned into this...

You guys can probably tell that I'm a little excited about it! Its so perfect in that spot and I had planned to put a lamp on top of it but then I realized that there is NO PLUG IN ON THE WALL! Not fair! I even had a lampshade all picked out....oh well its a great place for a vase and a cute bowl for keys and another cute shabby planter that I picked up for a buck at the thrift that we'll use for mail! 

Thrift store "almost full length" mirror Re-Beautified!

This post is made possible because of a love affair with mirrors...specifically that HUGE and expensive FULL length one at Ikea http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00081591
Now as much as I wanted one of these (or 3) to lean against the walls of my living room and bounce around the light and just generally make it look fab...I couldn't afford it. So on one of my many trips to the Red White and Blue thrift store in Portland I spied this....

 

Definatly not as big or grand as the Ikea one but its was a good size and heck it was only 4.00...what do I have to lose? I took this baby home with dreams of putting it in the hallway at our house....perfect for my toddler to stand at and make funny faces!

So here's how I transformed this ugly duckling into shabby chic swan....

I put newspaper over the mirror and taped it in place with painters tape. Then I sanded the frame lightly making sure to rough up the nooks and crannies so the paint would stick better. I then sprayed it with two coats of spray primer and let it dry. The next day (during a windstorm I might add), I spray painted it with about 3 coats of the cheapest white spray paint I could find. This was before I discovered the perfection that is Heirloom White. After all the coats were dry I removed the paper from the mirror and distressed it with a block sander. I then applied a couple coats of lacquer (because I knew it was gonna take a beating from my kid) and let those dry too. I love how this came out...What do you think?

I cleaned off the glass special for Ya'll...its normally covered with finger prints. lol. 

Ghetto Fabulous vintage dresser gets a facelift!

Hey people! So i spied this dresser on Craigslist (where else?) the other day and jumped on it. Solid wood, perfect height for changing table pad to sit on top, FREE... I couldn't pass it up. So I drove to the other side of town and snagged it. Now not only did the picture on craigslist NOT show that it was a lot bigger then I was expecting, but it didn't show the severe abuse that this poor dresser had sustained over the years. There were marks and dents covering the whole thing and actual CHEW MARKS on the bottom drawer from the lady's toddler. I hate to think about the medical bills from all the paint chips! Well I knew that I could make it work for our new little girl!

I loved the simple lines of this old boy and the wooden knobs (one of which had been knawed on...lol). So I got to work with the hand sander and smoothed out a lot of the wear. I toyed with the idea of leaving it SUPER shabby and just putting on a poly coat after I finished sanding but Heirloom White was calling my name. I didn't prime this because it was already white and also because I was out of primer...which is often the case. I spray painted this with 3 coats of Heirloom White making sure to let it dry fully in between. After it was fully painted I distressed it lightly and applied a little stain in the nooks and crannies to age it and make the damage look "almost" intentional. Then I poly coated it with Wipe On Poly and presto...

I love how this turned out...its the perfect height for a changing table too so that eliminates an extra piece of furniture from that tiny room. Not bad for free!

Farm table re-do

I have been using a pine dining room table that my mom gave me for a long time. It was pine...stained in a kind of blonde orange color and it was ugly! But it had amazing bones and two little drawers on either end...and orginally it came with a huge leaf but we lost that in our last move (sniff sniff). I painted it white a LONG time ago but I did a really bad job of it. That was before I had done many furniture projects and I truthfully should've used spray paint so I could get an even application but alas..I used whatever creamy paint I had in my garage at the time. Well i've been living with the cruddy looking paint job for a while now. It looked "ok" but not great. I wanted to beat the crap out of it...distress it like crazy...and then poly coat it so it was more resiliant and shiny! Well today I made the hubby lug it out to the garage and I went to work. I used a hammer and a screw driver to gouge it and then I heavily distressed it. I made wear marks and just made it look older and more vintage. I love how it turned out!! I didn't take a before pic because i'm that forgetfull...but here is the after

 Oh and I graced you guys with a close up of my gorgeous Goodwill Candle holders. I love the mismatched glass....

DIY Pillow from Placemat

So I have a confession to make. I am NOT a seamstress! I own a sewing machine that I don't really know how to use and is just taking up space. When I found http://www.thenester.com/ and her No sew Window Mistreatments it was like a beam of light came down from Heaven and shone on my drab uncovered windows! Ok but enough about that for now...thats another post...

I was perusing one of my fave blogs the other day www.prudentbaby.com and she had an awesome tutorial for making an easy pillow out of a placemat! I was amazed! The only requirement of the placemat is that its double sided (meaning it has at least two layers of fabric and is able to be opened). Well on one of my many Target trips I came across these adorable placemats for only 1.99 each!

 

I snatched them up and brought them home to make these easy pillows. Here's what you need....

~Placemat

~Seam ripper (or a razor blade to separate the seam)

~Needle and thread in coordinating color...i used black since I was stitching it around where the black piping was.

~Batting

~Straight pins

All you do is pick a spot in one of the corners that you want to open it and use your seam ripper to make a small opening (just big enough to squeeze your hand inside). Once thats done you stuff the batting in the opening making sure you get extra down in the corners and making sure its nice and fluffy. I had a couple of old back cushions for a couch I no longer have that had some great fluffy batting so I used that. Once you stuff it all the way you pin the opening closed with straight pins and then hand stitch it closed making sure to make the stitches small and even so it blends with the rest of the stitching. This took me about an hour to complete (because I'm a sucky seamstress like I mentioned) but the result was awesome! Target or Crate and Barrel would sell this for 30.00 or so and I made it with a 1.99 placemat and re-used stuffing! I'm super pleased with it and need to find the time to do the other one. lol.

Life immitates Pottery Barn

Hey everyone! I was desperate to find a new dresser for my son. I found him a vintage Highboy on Craigslist for free before he was born and I re-did it but the drawers always stuck. It was a pain to deal with so I sold the dresser for 40.00 and used that money to buy him a new 9 drawer dresser that would fit under his hanging clothes in his closet. I guess I shouldn't be saying "his" so much because very soon he'll be sharing his room with a "her". I am adding a new crib and new dresser to the already not-too-big room so we needed to do some re-organizing to accomidate. I looked and looked on Craigslist for a 9 drawer dresser but all the ones I found were way out of my price range. I finally sent out a plea on Facebook if anyone knew of one. Lo and behold, my aunt said she had seen one for 30.00!!! Well i was pretty psyched! I immediately called the ad and went to see it. The guy said over the phone that although the dresser is solid wood and very good quality that I probably wouldn't want it. I asked why...he said because its UGLY! Well that, as you all can suspect, is not a problem for me but a challenge!
Well when I went to see this thing the guy was definatly telling the truth. Super super ugly and the weirdest knobs I had ever seen...

 

Well I knew this thing had potential. I loved the three big drawers flanked by the small drawers on each side and I LOVE the bow front. I saw a dresser on Pottery Barn's website that I loved and was a similar style so I used that as inspiration. I wanted to paint this dresser a creamy white with a touch of mocha in it... Enter Glidden Semi Gloss in Autumn Haze!! So after removing all the hardwear and filling ALL THOSE HOLES (there were a lot)... I sanded it down all the way (by hand mind you...those were pre-hand-sander days) and I primed it with Kilz spray primer. After waiting for it to dry fully I painted 2 coats of paint with a sponge roller. I was so excited to move this into the nursery that I skipped the polyeurethane step (huge mistake) and now it has a few scratches and knicks and thats not the look I was going for on this piece. Oh well I'll touch up later and apply a poly coat. I absolutely love how this turned out! Oh and I also put on new knobs...they are an oil rubbed bronze look and they came in a semi affordable multi pack at Home Depot. Love them!

 

Now please keep in mind that this is not in its permanent home. Its now in the closet and not covered by a ton of clothes/odds and ends/animal crackers. I love how the knobs help highlight the bow front!

I'm linking up to Trash to Treasure!!!

Thrift Store table...redone...and then redone AGAIN

Word to the wise....when you find an AMAZING deal at a flea market on an adorable round table with gorgeous scroll looking feet and its only 4.00 and you buy it and bring it home... and go AGAINST YOUR BETTER JUDGMENT when you decide to stain it black-ish brown instead of painting it Heirloom White (which you know is the color it belongs). YOU WILL END UP REFINISHING IT! Phew....ok now that I got that off my chest. This table was my love...I spotted it across the thrift store and it was love at first sight! It quickly became obsession at first sight when I spotted the 4.00 price tag on it. Well needless to say that I bought it...(as well as an awesome almost-full-length mirror that was only 3.00 but that's another post.)
                                               

                                        Before: Dowdy and weathered

This table is oak and super solid but it is an ugly color and is super weathered. Don't get me wrong...I love the look of wood but I love the look of painted wood even more. I think everything looks better painted! The first time I refinished this thing I wasn't doing this blog and I wasn't documenting my steps but here's how I did it...try and get a mental picture...
I sanded the heck out of the top (by hand...those were the days before my trusty hand sander) and then wiped off the dust. I used Minwax liquid stain in Ebony and applied (no joke) about 10 coats of stain. When it still wasn't the color that I was after I read something online that said you could mix a little bit of stain in with polyeurethane and that you would get that dark color and seal it all at the same time! Well sweet! I applied the stain/poly mix and it totally worked. Plus it gave it this marbled finish that showed off those adorable legs perfectly!
                                                             After: Dark and Lovely!

 Now your all probably thinking "That looks fine...leave well enough alone!" and you would be right...but in my house this thing took a beating super fast. My toddler was banging blocks and toy cars on it regularly...as well as smearing whatever sticky substance he could find on its pretty shiny top. And once it was sticky the dust loved to settle on it and get stuck (and who has the time to dust regularly?) So sadly...I knew it was time that this table got what it truly deserved from the beginning....Heirloom White to the rescue! I sanded this with the hand sander to get it nice and smooth and remove as much stain as I could. I was out of primer and my son was napping so I just applied an extra coat of Heirloom White...total of about 3 coats. It was super sunny and gorgeous today so I let it dry in the sun in between coats. I then distressed it quite a bit on the legs and sides and ridges and then applied two coats of Wipe On Poly to it for protection.
                                       AFTER X2: TA DAAAAAAAA!!!! 

I couldn't be more in Loooove with this table!
This was its destiny from the start...it just took me a bit to wise up. Now she is sitting in my living room/dog bed/dog toy area and she is gorgeous!

I'm linking up to the following parties...
DIY Day

Shabby chic chalkboard

So here's the deal...I wanted one of those entry way cute chalk boards but I couldn't stomach the price tag. Well whats a good DIYer to do? I made my own out of an ugly full length mirror I had sitting in my garage. Mirror's make excellent chalkboards because they are so smooth and flat. So here's the process. I bought some chalkboard spray paint at Home Depot (that stuff ROCKS if you haven't tried it). I taped off the wood frame on my mirror with painters tape making sure not to cover the mirror part. I sprayed about 3 layers of chalk board paint on my mirror (making sure to let each coat dry fully before applying more). Once the mirror was dry and even, I removed the tape and then re-applied a thick layer of tape to the chalkboard part so I could paint the frame. The frame on this mirror is an ugly brownish and I wanted a shabby chic white. I painted the frame with approx 3 coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White spraypaint and once it was dry I distressed it in the corners and on the edges. Normally I would have applied a poly to it to protect the paint but its hanging on the wall so it wasn't necessary. I love the finished product and it'll come in handy for grocery lists!
Before

AFTER
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Distressing on Corners