Campaign Dresser re-do

 Hey People! Sorry for the LONG time away. We are now "almost" fully settled in BEAUTIFUL Colorado! We are in a suburb outside of Denver and seriously loving it. Every day we thank God for allowing us to live here!!
I have seriously been a creative maniac since we moved in here. Moving from CA to CO we more than doubled our square footage in our home which is a HUGE GINORMOUS blessing, but also a challenge to decorate and plan the spaces since we have so much more space now. We have an ENTIRE basement that I haven't even touched. The space is empty! So if ya'll see any amazing basement spaces that you think I'd like PLEASE send them my way! Ok so I have a lot...and I mean a LOT of projects to share with you guys. Too many honestly to share in one post so I'm gonna start with a dresser that I scored for free on CL when I was still in CA and hauled it to CO. This thing was in pretty amazing shape. It doesn't have the typical campaign pulls that totally sink into the casing...but I didn't care...free is a very good price! Here's the dresser in its "Ohnoiwanttostartthisprojectbutiforgottotakeabeforepic state"

It wasn't in that bad of shape. Just needed a quick sand, prime, and paint. One of the easiest re-do's I've done in a while! Here's the super sassy after...

I used a really pretty deep blue gray oops paint and Shellac clear coat that I already had. This project was CHEAP! Soaked the amazing campaign hardwear in vinegar and it brightened it up just the right amount. I'm in LOVE with this dresser! I actually gave my daughter my old dresser so I could use this one instead. I love it!!!
The lady that I got it from was the SWEETEST lady ever. She totally didn't think I'd want the dresser because its "Old" and no one else had wanted it! lol if she only knew...she also gave me the cutest drop leaf kitchen table that was her parents kitchen table when they were married. This lady was over 80 years old...so the drop leaf table is at least 150 years old if not older...and what amazing shape its in!

See what I mean? I haven't decided what to do with it yet. The leaves are not the strongest ever and my kids love to pull on the table as they climb in and out of their chairs so I'm just hoping they don't pull the table on top of them one of these days! Oh and check out those chairs...those are a sneak peek...posting about them next week. I hope you all like my new dresser! What do you think I should do with the table? Paint? Stain? Its bare wood except for a thin layer of orange oil. I hope you all have a fabulous week!!!

New uses for old things!

I have a profound and undying love of old things. Windows, door knobs, shutters, molding, crates, pallets, etc. The age and patina of old...and especially reclaimed items can NOT be duplicated.

Want to see some of my favorite old things? Well here ya go...

 Master bedroom pallet bed and antique ammunition box that I JUST refinished a few days ago. A LOT of people probably thought I was a freak of nature when I wanted to sell my traditional 4 posted bed and make a bed of pallets instead...but you know what? I couldn't love it more! It was free...unique...functional...and looks super chic with the light colors in my room and that dark sassy rustic-ness! The ammunition box was a 5 dolla find at a garage sale...i am in LOVE with how it turned out. Adore. Swoon. I will keep it forever! Had to do a LOT of reinforcing and A LOT of bleaching and vinegar-ing to get the smell out. It was NASTY...but I couldn't be more excited about it now!

Old wood and metal ladder with paint splattered all over it in my entry way. I adore this ladder! It is actually really sturdy thanks to some majorly large bolts and metal rungs...and it works great to drape scarfs over and hang coats on too! Plus I like to pretend that you can't see our non-functioning alarm system box that came with our house! ;)

Shoe baskets. The one on the left is from Target and isn't old...but i love it. The one on the right is an old veggie crate that I got outside of a Hispanic grocery store by their dumpsters! I actually grabbed 4 of these on the same day and I use them EVERY.WHERE! They aren't particularly sturdy but they are filled to the brim with character and so useful! Toys, kid shoes (see above), files and such in the office, they work great for so many things!

 Old Naval trunk. This thing is probably one of my fave Craigslist finds EVER. Oh and did I mention it was 10 bucks?! It has brass corners, silver hinges, is HEAVY and sturdy. Fits everything you could imagine! Right now its storing our DVD's and my cookbooks and they are all hidden away! Love it! The bottom picture is the name of the Navy dude that owned it (really hard to make out what it says) and the Port that he was going to. Portland! Which just so happens to be my home town! :) Love a piece with character AND style!

Old shutter as picture display! This is actually not a shutter...but a bi-fold closet door that I heavily distressed and hung on the wall. I adore the way it looks! I also stuck the kick stand of a few of my fave pictures down inside the slats and they make a really pretty picture wall! Oh and it was free!

 Old window as mirror! I scored a couple old chippy windows at a garage sale for 2 dollars a piece....AND...was able to bring them from Portland to Southern CA in a moving truck without cracking the single pane 100 year old glass! AMAZING accomplishment! I mounted this guy on the wall after using looking glass spray paint on the back side to turn it into a mirror of sorts. The glass is very warped and marbled so it looks crazy awesome and antiqued and old! I achieved a very spotty mirror finish by lightly misting the bare glass with half white vinegar/half water first...and then immediately spraying my first coat of looking glass spray paint over that. Then another layer of vinegar/water...then another of paint. Over and over again until I achieved the darkest finish I could. I left the chippy paint intact and even left the latch on it. Love all those details!

Ok so that covers a few of my favorite old things. I hope you guys are inspired to bring home all that nasty old "trash" and make your home more beautiful for cheap!

Have a blessed week!!!

Linking up to the following parties...

Sneak peek

Hey people!! I scored the COOLEST old box on Craigslist the other day for 5 bucks! I have NO clue what to do with it yet...I'd LOVE some help from you guys..not only on what this thing is or "was"...but what to do with it!

Pardon the crappy cell phone pic. At least I got a before pic this time right?
So what do you guys think this is? Is it an antique? I know its old...but is it valuable? Should I paint it? Or strip it and leave the bare wood...with some wax? Should I add feet? I'm really stoked to redo this thing but totally stumped on WHAT to do. Any help would be...uh...helpful! :) Have a good week guys!

Gray bench redo

Hey everyone! So I just refinished a bench. No big deal...but I wanted to share it with you! I had been looking for a bench for a LONG time. I wanted one to go on one side of my dining table so my kiddos could share it. I wanted NO upholstery...totally wipable and kid proof...and a dark gray-ish black color. Well have any of you tried to find a bench on CL and not pay a fortune? Its almost impossible!!! You could make one yourself for not much money thanks to The fabulous Ana White. 
But I wanted one pre-made...SOLID...kinda ugly but good bones...and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! Well the other day when I was perusing Craigslist I found my bench. 15 bucks and the perfect size!

Pardon the partially primed top. I was DETERMINED to be a good blogger and take a before pic...and I ALMOST forgot! Phew.  Ok so you can see...sturdy...kinda gross looking...good bones! Just what I wanted to be able to make it glam and functional!
So here was my process...
Sand the top thoroughly with the palm sander.
Wipe clean
Prime that sucker
Dry time
One coat of my most favey fave new color...

Dry....
Another coat of the above super rad color
Dry
SHELAAAAC like crazy a few times with adequate dry times in between of course...I wanted this thing to be tough as nails!

So after that whole process I decided to let it simmer in the garage and get less fumey before I exposed my kids to it. Now its in the house and we LOVE it.

Oooh....Aaaaaah! What is it about a bench with a shiny top that just makes my heart sing? I adore this thing...such an easy makeover but so practical for our family and all those sticky fingers! Love you guys! Hope you have an awesome week!!!

Linking up with my fellow partiers:

Laundry room Make-Over...the reveal!!

Hey People! So in This post I told you about my extremely icky laundry room. We moved into this house 5 and a half months ago and I just couldn't take it anymore!! I showed you guys the vibe I was going for with this space. Bright. Cheery. Fun. Those were things that I felt this room needed. Its small and a small room needs some punch sometimes! So here we go....

 I was originally going to do horizontal stripes in here. I had seen SO many adorable rooms with horizontal stripes and I just loved the look. But I had an...ahem...mishap when I decided to just jump right into the project and start taping without painting my base color first. Well lets just say I was VERY meticulous taping off those stripes. They were even spacing...level...and they looked perfect! After I got the whole room taped (4 hours approx) I realized that I should've made it easy on myself and painted the turquoise on first. ***Slaps forehead in disgust!*** I shed a few tears...violently ripped off my tape...and started painting. So needless to say I didn't have enough energy or tape to redo the horizontal stripes. I did vertical instead and I love the way it turned out!

Pallet board with hooks attached. Great for holding hangers and drying my un-mentionables! :) Oh and towels...those too!

AWESOME-SAUCE rack that I've had for years...from Ikea. Never thought of using it in the laundry room but was super STOKED to discover that not only does it fit perfectly on this wall...it holds 4 laundry basket while only taking up a small amount of space. WINNING! It also matches my stripes. Added bonus! (note to self...buy matching laundry baskets)

Crib side rail drying rack. I'll let that last part sink in for a minute....
So have any of you stopped using those potentially harmful drop side cribs...but couldn't bare the idea of throwing it away so you've further jammed your garage full of yet another "sentimental baby object". Well clear out space in your garage and dry your clothes at the same time! I simply attached some heavy duty hooks into the ceiling studs...got some silver chain cut in 4 equal 2 ft lengths at Home Depot...and hung that baby from the ceiling! It works seriously awesome! I hang all my hubby's work dress shirts...keeps me from having to iron them. Ya...i don't like to iron...you probably don't either so make this drying rack and save yourself some time!

This is an old chippy entertainment center....ya know...when tv's were small and could fit on top of one of these. This thing has had MANY jobs in our house. Shoe rack. Side table. Computer cart. And now laundry organizer and trash can holder! Its a jack of all trades and I love its rustic look! Added a cute cloth box from Target (my second home) to the top for all the odds and ends that end up in the laundry room.

I made this sign in Microsoft Word and printed it out...stuck it in this old frame and VOILA...laundry art! Also my little jade plant loves this room! Lots of light all day!

Cheap pine board that I painted white...super sturdy and big. Love all the storage it brought to the room!

See that...over on the left side? That's my faux roman shade! I already had this cute fabric and it fit the room perfectly! I like to wing it so I made this roman shade in about 10 mins and tied up each end with jute twine. Its also attached to the wall above the windows with upholstery tacks! Cheap and cute!

That's it. Its done. I have several bruises and my sciatica flared up from all the bending...crouching behind the washer and dryer...etc. but I'm SO glad I did it. LOVE this space. Laundry is more fun now!

Sharing at the following fab parties:

Laundry room make-over

Hey people! I wanted to share a little....er....not so little laundry room makeover that I'm doing. When we moved into our house in California we were STOKED to find out that we had a laundry ROOM (an actual room) upstairs near the bedrooms. It had a door and everything! (we've always had the laundry closet...or the garage laundry set up). We love the convenience of it but HATED the way the laundry room looked. The walls were stark white and stained and dusty...and the landlord had started to paint the room and then ran out of time. He painted one wall DARK brown...and he didn't do a good job...i mean seriously it looked like a 2 year old went at the walls with their hands! eww. (wish I had a before pic to insert right here...hangs head in shame...BAD blogger!!) Anyways, I scoured Pinterest for inspiration pics. I wanted something FUN...since its a small room I wanted it to have a lot of punch and interest. I have a pretty decent collection of fun Oops paints that I planned to use...one of which is a fun turquoise. Well one day I was on Pinterest and found this picture....

It was super cute...didn't require any demolition...and was fun. Perfect!
Well yesterday was painting day. After lugging my kiddos to Home Depot for some supplies I came home...parked those kiddos in front of Yo Gabba Gabba (thank God for educational TV sometimes)
and got started taping. Well I was meticulous with my taping..took my time (a total of 4 hours off and on)...and made sure my lines were not only level...but even with the others...equal spacing...etc. After I got all my lines taped I grabbed my paint and got ready to start...realizing that I should have painted my BASE COLOR FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRR! 4 hours wasted. Now I could have painted the first set of lines...and then waited...and then retaped and painted the second section...but that would have been WAY more taping than I wanted to do...and after shedding a few tears....I violently ripped down all my tape and started painting my base color...A Martha Stewart turquoise color. Well after two coats of that and taking care of kiddos...making dinner (which was pb/j last night since I could barely lift my arms by that point) it was 11pm. I taped off all my stripes again...which I decided to do vertical this time since its easier. I got through 3 cream stripes and could barely move I was so tired. So I'm tackling the rest of the project today and hoping that I can get it finished and put the room back together. Here's a pic of a GREAT bathroom with veritcal stripes...

So pretty huh? Wish I had that tile...and that dormer...that rustic shelf unit would be nice too. Anyways....so I will share my dramatic reveal "hopefully" today!!! Have a fabulous day friends!!

Green Hutch with hot legs

 Hey guys! I posted this post a while back about a hutch that I got for free from my friend. She didn't like it, wanted it gone, and I GLADLY took it off her hands. Swoon..I was in love with the spindly legs and curved front...and those knobs. to.die.for. Well I lived with it in its birdseye maple-ness for several months before I just couldn't stand it anymore and I HAD to paint it! I used a combo of two pints of oops paint that I had in my garage. I wanted a kind of bright mint green and I think I achieved my goal! I went completely against my normal protocol on this piece. I didn't sand it AT ALL. Didn't prime it either! GASP. I also didn't strip it to remove the wax. I wanted to get it painted while my kids napped and I was trying to be quiet...so I mixed the paint...realized I dug the color...and slapped it on this sucker! I LOVE how it turned out. The color is bright but goes so well in the room! Its amazing how much more I love this piece now. Its a statement maker...that's for sure! What do ya'll think?

 

Linking up with the following fab parties:

Burlap Fall banner and a harvest mantle

Hey guys! I got a little creative yesterday...you know...instead of cleaning my house or doing the 12 loads of laundry that needed to be washed. Sometimes the mood just strikes and you have to give in! ;) I wanted a Fall mantle that wasn't too theme-y or busy. I wanted to work with what I have and "shop the house" for the pieces to decorate with. Isn't it amazing how things that you already have can be re-invented to make something totally new? Love that! So I have a few things that always live on my mantle. I have a faux topiary in a white antiqued urn, the mirror on the wall, and a vintage cursive handwriting sheet from a college in my hometown. I wanted to add in other things that went with the season but would work with what I already had going on up there. So here's what I came up with...

I added some small pinched flowers all over the topiary in both orange and burlap...looks a little funky from that angle but its cute in person..promise! :) I also added a cream candle in a large amber glass pedestal vase, I took a small orange dish that I made in high school ceramics class and put a large pinecone in it. I added an old book that I plan on putting something on top of...any ideas? I also added my mod podged jute vase project from a year ago with some pom-pas grass from my yard. Oh and of course my new burlap Fall banner that I made yesterday! You too can make one! Sooo simple....here's what you need...
Burlap-Cut into triangles that are roughly the same size. One triangle for each letter.
Acrylic paint/small paint brush-Black for me so its easy to see but orange or white would've been really cute too!
Your computer- I printed out the word Fall in a font I liked
Mod podge-I used matte
Twine for hanging

Cut out your triangles of burlap first. If the burlap is wrinkly you can rinse it with water and smooth out the fibers and stretch it lightly when its wet. This will remove the wrinkles to give you an even surface to paint on but it also causes the edges to fray a little and looks really cute when dry.
Once your triangles are dry you want to cut two slits in each one to feed your twine through. The slits need to be parallel and near the wide edge so the point is hanging down.
Next sketch your letter on your triangle. You could use the light trick and put your paper behind your burlap but I decided to wing it. I'm crazy like that! I used a plain black sharpie to sketch it with because my paint was black and I wanted it to blend.
Fill in your sketched letters with acrylic paint and let dry.
Apply a layer of mod podge on one side of each triangle and let dry. Once dry do the same thing to the other side and let dry. This will prevent your burlap from fraying and give the triangles a stiffer and more obvious shape.
Feed your twine through your new triangles and hang! I put mine over the mirror and I love it there but it'd be super cute in a doorway or on your porch outside (keep it out of the rain though). I hope you all try this...super easy and fun!

Have a great week!!

Linking up with...
Whatever Wednesday at Mommahenscoop
One project at a time @A bowl full of lemons
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @Coastal Charm
Anything goes party@Type A Decorating