Sewing Table with Chalk paint by Moi

When my parents moved out of their old house my mom gave me an old sewing table she didn't want anymore.  My dad had been using it as his bedside table, and the number of cup rings on the top of this thing was insane!  I mean, seriously, I'm giving the man coasters for Christmas this year! I don't have a before picture of it but I found this picture online of a similar one:

It was no where near this condition.  There is a huge crack down the center top and it was in overall 'weathered' condition, to put it mildly.  I love old and chippy, but this just looked...beat on.

The hubster has ma-ha-ha-jor issues with painting any wood - am I the only one that has to deal with this?  It takes weeks of gentle hints, showing him pictures, and generally coaxing him to take deep breaths.  Sheesh.  

I dream of Annie Sloan chalk paint but also of being debt-free, so I thought I would try my hand at mixing my own.  There are a gazillion tutorials out there on how to do it so I figured, what the heck.

I used non sanding grout and some clearance paints I found at home depot.  I just kinda eyeballed the measurements.  A couple of Tbsp. of grout to a couple cups of paint.  You have to work fast 'cause this stuff wants to set up quickly.  

I didn't take step by step pictures.  Like I said, I had to work fast.  Here it is all purdied up.  I love the chalky finish.

Much to the chagrin of the hubster I decided to leave the drawers the original finish.  They were still in good condition and when I stuck them back in I really liked the pop.  He thinks it looks '80's - I think he has issues.  

I lightly distressed a couple of spots with a sanding block and sealed the whole thing off with some furniture wax.

I'm kinda digging the contrast.

Sorry for a picture with Christmas decorations...what kind of blogger am I? but I wanted to show a picture of the table in the room and this is the picture I had.  I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute!


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Goodwill Box

While perusing the shelves at goodwill the other day I stumbled across this little fella for .99 cents:

It's made of pretty cheap wood but for under a dolla' I was okay with it and I knew I was going to spray paint it anyway, so whatevs. I was originally going to put sister's crayons and markers in it. But then I thought maybe I would put it on my counter to hold soap and washcloths.  

I thought the handle would be pretty stained so I taped it off before spray painting.

I spray painted the box with Rustoleum's Green Apple since it's yuck outside and I wanted cheery inside.  On a side note-it is waaay to cold to spray paint in the garage at this point so I have to do it in the basement (it gets reeeeaaaaal cheery down there after a few coats of spray paint)  :)

I distressed the whole box with some heavy grit sand paper and stained the handle with some stain I found in the garage.  It was still looking a little blah to me so I decided to try my hand at wax paper transfers I have pinned on pinterest.
Bonus!  I already had all the materials on hand!  All you need is some spray adhesive, wax paper, and a printer (mine is an ink jet).

I choose this image from the Graphics Fairy:

                                                      http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

This is actually the mirror image of the one on her website, so it would transfer correctly.  It was sooooo easy!  All you do is spray adhesive onto a piece of printer paper, paste your wax paper down (with wax side facing out), and cut to the size of the paper:

Just run the wax/printer paper through your printer with wax side up (so the ink goes onto the wax side not the paper side) and rub the image onto whatever surface you want, being careful not to let the paper slide around...and Voila ... AWESOMENESS!

I sanded the image down a little once it had dried.

All in, One dollar.  One.  Yeeeeesssss (insert Napoleon Dynamite voice here).

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Just for Giggles (or daydreaming)

I was a cah-ray-zay pinnin' fool today!  I have had to start telling the hubster that I am just checking emails 'cause he is starting to talk about intervention and nobody comes between me and Pinterest.  Nobody.

Anywho...I came across this today while mad pinning and thought you all might appreciate it:

via: pinterest

ahhhhhhh...makes me smile every time. 

Your welcome. 

Spoon Magnets

I love getting my Ballard's catalog almost as much as my Pottery Barn.  By the time I'm done it is dog eared, written in and genuinely reeks of sharpie.  The items that always jump out at me are the ones I can copy respectfully replicate.  
So when I saw their vintage silverware magnets I immediately jumped into action.

                                                   Source:  Ballard Designs
'Cause you see, I have these bad boys:

Years ago my mom gave me my Great Granma's spoon collection.  Everywhere she traveled she picked up a spoon.  Some are really old and others look newer. 

I could never find a way to display them that appealed to me and didn't really know what else to do with them so they sat in a Ziploc bag in my closet. Enter Ballard's catalog!  I loved the idea of vintage silverware holding up my grocery list (as opposed to the domino's pizza magnet there now) but at $29 for three...hmmmmm...there had to be another way!  Ding Ding Ding, light bulb over head!  Great granma's spoons!  I was going to need some pretty small but powerful magnets.  I got mine at Michael's with a 40% off coupon. They ended up being $1.79 for four.  

I used E-6000 because I found it holds the best and trust me these magnets are strong! I just glued the magnet to the back of the spoon and held it for a minute since it wanted to slide.

I let them dry overnight before giving them a test run.  I love that they have sentimental meaning and I finally have a way of displaying Great Granma's spoons.  Best of all, I love that it cost me maybe $10 in magnets for 12 spoons!      

Even if you don't have vintage spoons lying around you can usually find older looking silverware at Goodwill!

So easy and inexpensive, my two all time favorite words when we are talkin' DIY!

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The Tale of a Little Pot

Did I grab your attention?  Ha...maybe I'll get a few interesting new readers with that title!

I meant this kind of pot you sillies:

I was wandering around Lowe's the other day when I came upon a whole display of these little balsam trees on clearance for $1.50!  I took him home but didn't really like the look of the dark metal pot.  So, I did what I do.  I painted the whole pot a creamy white:

Once it was dry I distressed it with sandpaper, hitting some spots more than others.

I still felt it wasn't quite right.  I wanted it to look a little older and rustier.  I know this seems like a whole lotta work for one little pot.  Believe me,  I already heard it all from the hubster.  But what else do I have to do?  Laundry?  It can wait.

I took two paints, Burnt Sienna and Terra Cotta, and mixed them together and began dry brushing them onto the pot.  

On a side note, are you totally jealous of my manicure?  Sis is taking appointments now. :)  I guess that's what you get for buying a three year old nail polish for Christmas.

Total cost $1.50!  I had everything else on hand.  Gotta love when that happens.

I feel like Scary Pig (aptly named by Sis) likes his new little friend.  And I like the pot better all rusty and old looking.

Mama's Got a New Pantry door!

I can't even describe how excited I was when I walked into our local restore and saw a thin french door sitting there for $20!  One of my all time favorite blogs is The Thrifty Decor Chick.  She has the most fantastic ideas and always makes me giggle.  Seriously in my little bloggy mind I totally pretend we are BFF's (keep it on the down low though, cause that's a little creepy).  I have long admired her beautiful house and longed for her oh so cute pantry door, I mean just look at her kitchen:

                            source: http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com

Isn't she just awesome (serious girl crush going on here).  So when I saw that lonely french door just sitting there the heaven's opened up and angels sang!  My house has zero trim other than baseboards so my pantry looks like (and is) a  hole in the wall.

Can you even see it beyond all the cuteness that is Mr. 8 as a little peanut!  sigh...time flies doesn't it?  I should have taken before pictures but in all my excitement I just ripped the bi-fold door right outa there!  We will have to make do with a 7 year old picture- on a side note, WOW, the carpet looked great back then, 3 kids and a horse of a dog have not been it's friend!

For about 4 weeks I lived with this delightful sight (darn you impulsiveness).  In reality my kids would never, and I mean never, close the pantry door so It wasn't that different of a view than I was used to. Yikes!  What dribbled down the back of there? shudder 

Step one: Empty pantry (and discover 4 year old expired rice-a-roni)

Step 2: Make front living room the new pantry:

Then came the fun part of ripping out all that wire shelving, which was a huge debate because the hubster felt the food should be able to, and I quote here, "breathe"...uh...what!?! Needless to say I won.  New trim and some cheap wood to act as brackets and a sheet of plywood for the shelves:

I also convinced him that we absolutely had to have a light in there.  I frequently receive this look:

but, he loves me sooooo....

 

The trickiest part was having to build a frame for the door since the bi-fold just sat in brackets with zero trim. Hello, hole in the wall.  The hubster and my sweet Dad took awhile scratching their heads and debating the best way to go about it, but they finally got it all figured out.

We finished it all off by painting everything a glossy white

All that work for one little pantry door, annnnnnnnd so worth it!!!

It gave the kitchen a more finished look and I'm in love!  I wish I had the guts to paint it black like TDC's, but baby steps, baby steps.

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