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!