Pink and Grey Dresser

Hello!  I am so excited to share my most recent project with you - honestly its been done for over a month now I just haven't taken the pictures and been ready to share.  During the winter I picked up an awesome Broyhill dresser from Goodwill that was in good shape but just needed some TLC and a paint job.  I SWEAR I took a before picture, but I cannot find it for the life of me (I hate it when I do that!).  After some hemming and hawing I decided to paint the dresser a light pink and accent it with a light gray.  I had seen on Pinterest that some people had made their own "homemade chalk paint" and I figured I'd give it a whirl on this project.  I went with Behr paint in Rosie Sorbet for the pink and Chantilly for the Grey - a Martha Stewart color - but figured I'd stick with the same type of paint so I got it in the Behr.  This was the type of Behr paint that doesn't need to be primed :).   Without further adieu...the dresser!

This one's a little blurry but you get the idea.

There were a couple different chalk paint recipes I'd seen on Pinterest, but I found this one at this page on Snaptheconference.com.  It was 1 and a half cups paint, half cup of water, half cup of plaster of paris.  You heat the water, let the Plaster of Paris dissolve in it, and then add it to the paint.  It seems a little grainy at first but eventually smooths out.  

It was a little different than working with Annie Sloan's chalk paint, however, overall I still loved the results!  It didn't distress quite as easily as Annie Sloan, but was easier than just using latex.  I thought it provided a beautiful finish.  It felt nice and smooth - just like Annie Sloan's does! I finished up with Annie Sloan's clearwax as a top coat.  

So would I use this recipe again??  Absolutely!  However, it hasn't totally replaced the use of ASCP for me.  I still love it and have used it since.  It's simply become another option in the furniture painting world for me :).  

Hope you like it!

The Graphite Hutch

It's been too long!  I hope everyone had a fabulous fourth of July :).  We've been busy around here working on our bedroom (a post to come about that soon!), but meanwhile I wanted to share one of my favorite pieces.  I picked up this pretty hutch way back last fall from Goodwill for a whopping $20!  Here it is in 2 pieces before I painted it.

Here it is after!  I painted it in Annie Sloan's Graphite and finished it with both clear and dark wax.  I'm really happy with the results and love how it fits in our home.

I switched up the knobs on one of the drawers for these beauties I found in the sale section at Anthropologie!  Then I spray painted the other hardware in black.

Almost everything inside the hutch is either from Goodwill, an estate sale, or a garage sale!  Lots of white ironstone, some crystal from my mom and grandma, and a pretty silver pitcher.

I picked up a full set of this Athena ironstone at Goodwill a few weeks ago!

This was my first really big piece of furniture and won't be my last once we finish a few projects around the house.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Christmas in June! - The Glittered Nativity

Hello all!  It's been too long.  The start to summer has been even busier than expected, however, it is wonderful and I can't complain.  I just wanted to pop in real quick to share one of my most recent projects.  I found a nativity set at a thrift store not too long ago.  It was inexpensive and cute, however, not exactly my style.  I decided I'd do something fun to it!

For mother's day I had found a statue of the Virgin Mary and spray painted it and doused it in glitter for my mom - it turned out so cute, so I decided to do the same thing to this sweet Nativity set :).

Before...

First I primed.  I had started priming them before I realized I hadn't taken a before picture.   Afterwards I sprayed them in a slightly off white spray paint.

And now......

Ta-da!  The holy family, 3 Wiseman, and even an angel, donkey, camel, and sheep all bedazzled in glitter and ready 6 months early for Christmas :).

I used Modge Podge to secure the glitter on.  I've tried a few other things for getting glitter on objects like this - including a spray adhesive that claimed to be just for glitter.  Modge Podge seems to work the best.

Sweet Mary, Jesus, and Joseph :).

Sometimes its tough to appreciate how cute glitter is in photos -- it really is beautiful in person!  I am debating whether or not I'll hold onto this for Christmas - or try and sell it on etsy!  Either way - it was a fun, easy project and has turned out super cute :).

Linking up to...

Jennifer Rizzo

The Antiqued Green Mirror

This project was kind of fun and totally unpredictable!  On pinterest, I had found some tutorials on how to antique your own mirror.  I myself love a good antiqued mirror and was curious to try this method I'd read about. Overall, it didn't seem too complicated so I jumped right in!  I experimented with a couple other mirrors at the same time - including the Greek Blue candle holders.  The mirror itself was a thrift store find.  The frame had previously been gold (no before picture, sorry!) and there was no part of it that appeared antiqued previously.  So I set to work - I took the mirror out of the frame and painted it in a gorgeous deep green color from Behr paint.  I then distressed it and waxed it using Minwax.

Now it was time for the mirror!  It was tricky and I will say it turned out a bit more antiqued than I had in mind... but here are the results!  If people are interested, I would be happy to post a tutorial for how I did it.  

Not the best picture - but you get the idea :).

Some of the frame and antique-y detail.

I will say it was a fun experiment and something I learned from and hope to try again sometime. Hope you enjoy!

Antique Emperor's Silk Chair

Hello Friends!

I am more on my game this week and I am ready to share my latest project - an AWESOME chair that I picked up from Goodwill.   It is from the Milwaukee Chair Company and just a fun piece of furniture.  I did some research on the company and found that they made chairs for many legal companies as well as US Capitol Building.  I also found it was worth much more than what I paid for it.  Therefore, I would consider this a find!

Here is the little beauty before.  It wasn't necessarily that I disliked it or felt it needed a huge change before, but it was banged up and had some random paint flecks on it -- so I decided to paint it :). Here is the final look...

The neat antique-y bottom of the chair.

Close up on the distressing.

I hope you think its as cute as I do!

The White Kitchen Hutch

Sorry it has been so long!  Life has been busy!  We just got a puppy last weekend and so our lives have been consumed with work and our new little pooch :).  Anywho, onto the latest project!  A few weeks ago during my spring break my mom and I did a "Tour de Goodwill" in our area.  While at the Goodwill right near my house I picked up an awesome big wooden hutch!  Here is the before...

We had the perfect spot for it!  Our kitchen doesn't offer a ton of counter space and so we had a small table I'd found at the flea market temporarily serving as a space to hold some of the extra "stuff".  We knew we needed to find something better and this was the perfect solution!  So I wiped it down, sanded it, and set to work painting!  4 coats and a tad of decorating later....

You'll notice a shelf is missing....still working on getting that final part painted haha (I'm so good at starting projects...finishing is usually a bit more of a challenge :).

This was a good will frame find as well!  Just added some chicken wire for a fun message board.

Looove Pyrex and use these ALL the time!  A shower gift last spring from my Nannie.

The cute blue fiesta sugar and creamer were a shower gift from my cousins Court and Morgan.

Anthro :)

The hutch has been a cute and functional way to display fun things while also saving space in our kitchen!  Hope you enjoyed :).

Piano!

Just a quick post!  Sorry this has taken so long to - it is our gorgeous piano!!  Obviously this isn't a project or anything I put any effort into other than finding and choosing the piano.  I found an ad through Chicago Craigslist for a charitable organization that sells fine donated pianos at a discounted price in order to benefit local music and art programs for low-income youth.

I was thrilled when I found it!  It was the perfect situation under which I wanted to purchase a piano - old and vintage, beautiful, and for a good cause :).  It really is an amazing program and if anyone is in the market for a piano in the Chicago, St. Paul, or Kansas City areas you can find Keys 4/4 Kids near you.   Here is their website.

Enough chit chat - it's time to introduce our gorgeous piano.  Drumroll please.......

Isn't she a beauty!  I personally had never seen any piano with that kind of detail in the front.  

When we bought it, the man who helped us looked up the serial number from the back of the piano in order to figure out how old the piano was.  It was built between 1885 and 1900!  

The best part...while i thought it was a pretty piano from the start, I knew I wanted it when I played it.  It sounds absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Soon I will hopefully be sharing a few projects that I just need to put finishing touches on!  Meanwhile, I thought I would show you my newest proud and joy :).  I hope you think she is as beautiful as I do!

Little Things

I should be having some exciting things to share soon because - WE GOT OUR PIANO!!  and I finished some bigger pieces of furniture.  But in the meantime, I wanted to show you some little things I've finished.  The first is something that's been finished and hanging in our house for a long time, but I thought I might share anyways.  I had seen on pinterest a photo frame out of a window like this:

So when I was at the flea market back in November I picked up a window frame.  It was a little different because it was more narrow and divided.  I used twine instead of wire to hang my photos off of.  Here is what I made...

It hangs in our front hallway.

A quoteable card I like and a picture of my Papa :).

My mom and dad in college!

My beautiful bridesmaids and a vintage postcard of the park that we were married in.

Next to this spot where this hangs I am working on wall of plates, frames, and other things.  It is a work in progress, but here is some of what hangs there.

(Shoutout to Miss Abby Bachman for the fun Francis photo - great wedding gift!)

In my thrifting searches lately I've found a lot of candle wall sconces.  No before pictures, but I can assure you they look much better than before :). The first is on the brown wall.  It is in Annie Sloan Old White.

The next I found I painted in Greek Blue.  They had a mirror in the background, but I wanted to try something different.  I decided to try antiquing the mirror.  It was my first go at this and in the end I think I took off a bit too much of the original mirror.  To remedy this problem I found what I think was a neat solution!  I mod podged pages from an old book onto the back of the mirror to peak through where there was no longer any mirror showing.  It may be a tad hard to tell in the pictures, but here are the results...

Kinda fun right?  These along with some smaller old white sconces will hopefully be available on Etsy soon!