Industrial Style Desk Makeover

       We've been having some really lovely sunny days lately. Definitely not the sort of days I want to spend holed up inside slaving over some boring wall that needs painting. On a nice warm sunny day, the thing to do is dress your kids in grungy clothes and let them go stomp in the mud puddles to their little heart's content, while you pull out some random piece of junky furniture to fix up.

      I found this beauty at a thrift store and immediately liked the sort of old school industrial vibe it had. The top was particle board and the seat was some ratty vinyl stuff, so that all needed to come off. I freshened up all the metal with some spray paint.

      I needed a new seat for the chair, and decided to make my own with some scrap wood.

       Only one problem, I had no foam for the seat. Well, good thing I'm not picky about these sorts of things! An unused throw pillow did the trick for me just nicely.

      Using some fabric I found in my stash, I stapled it all directly to the back of the wood.

       It made just the nicest little seat you ever saw!

     There was one other problem with this little arrangement that I needed to do something about. The desk was just a smidgen too short for my rather tall self. I scrounged around amongst my treasures and found some wheels I had saved off of some discarded piece of something who knows how long ago. It really does pay off to save things you might be able to reuse! The wheels added just the needed amount of height. Wheels make anything niftier anyway.

       Luckily, I had some wood left over from making our counter tops (Which I am dying to show you, because I looooooooove them!) that was just the perfect size for the desk top.

      A coat of stain and two of poly later...one super cute desk!

       Totally more fun than painting walls, wouldn't you agree?

         This little desk is currently operating as my sewing table, and is pushed up against my horrifically ugly unpainted cinder block wall. Which pretty much is a daily reminder that I need to paint the thing, and fix the floor, and....ok, anyway, back to my cute desk...

      In other news, I'm in the midst of painting my kitchen...and if the tedious time consuming-ness of it doesn't kill me first, I'll be giving you the grand tour soon! I love what paint can do for a room! It sorta shocks my eyeballs when I walk in there, and I'm still at the priming stage! Love it!
P.S. I'm having a Spring sale in my shop, all bags 50% off!

Luke 6:35   But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

Linking to:
Tatertots and Jello
Miss Mustard Seed

Home Stories A to Z
Suger Bee Crafts
Kammy's Korner
Not Just a Housewife

Behind the Front Door - The Before and the After

     There's a funny thing about this house, it makes people give "the look". When we told our realtor we wanted to go see this house, she gave us "the look". She was very opposed to wasting our time (or hers!) with it. 

       I got "the look" from the nice fellow who came to change my locks the day we bought it.

      I have to admit, I even gave "the look" to my mister the first time he showed me the pictures of the house online...but then we went to see it...and I just knew it could be something beautiful.

      A scrub brush...

      ...and a bit of paint, can go a long way...

     ...to helping "the look" disappear for good. There needs to be a few trips the thrift store and to the flee market, to help round things out, of course.

    The goal? Make it tidy and functional...

     ...keep it personal, tell a story...

     ...make it feel like a home.

      Goal accomplished.

      The nitty gritty details are below, if you are into that sort of stuff! If not, enjoy your weekend!

Silver plates - thrift store
Iron hooks - Hobby Lobby
Shoe picture - My picture of my family's shoes I modpodged to a board
Picture hooks - Plant hooks turned upside down from Walmart
Bench - roadside junk store
Crate - Flea Market
Rug - Walmart, I painted, Tutorial Here
Table - actually a sewing table that was given to me and I painted
Mirror - thrift store, painted and glazed with black
Lamp - salvage shop, painted and glazed with black
Lamp shade - I made, Tutorial Here
Scrolly dodad - Thrift store, painted and dry brushed with silver
Birdcage - Thrift store, painted
Welcome sign - Made from a thrifted cabinet door and letters from Hobby Lobby, painted
Home Sign - Hobby Lobby
Chandelier - Lowes
Walls - Sanded with liquid sander, primed with Zinsser Bulls Eye and painted with semi gloss Behr Antique White from Home Depot (tutorial to come)

Deuteronomy 33:25   ...and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. 

Linking to:
Simple Home Life
Between Naps on the Porch
Funky Junk Interiors
Six Sisters Stuff
Show and Tell Saturday
Someday Crafts
Kammy's Korner
HomeStories A to Z
Chef in Training
Sugar Bee Crafts
My Girlish Whims

Dining Chairs Revisited

        I've been rather blog negligent this week. Life just happens sometimes, I guess. I did want to pop in to show you the latest evolution of my dining chairs. If you remember about a year ago, I started with these chairs. (there is eight of them and the table actually spreads to be a whole lot larger than is pictured here)

   
       I painted and glazed them, and made slip covers for them.

        And we lived happily ever after...until about a week ago. See, those slip covers turned out to be pretty annoying. They were forever needing to straightened and such. I don't like high maintenance things, the less fussing I have to do to something the better! I happened upon some khaki colored ticking and just loved it!

      I think ticking has a nice old timey feel, and the neutral color and pattern can go with any decorating whims I happen to have.

          I'm pretty happy with it. I sprayed all the seats with scotch guard after I finished covering them. Hopefully that will help keep them clean.

       I think the lack of slip covers makes it look neater and cleaner too. Maybe the table will actually get redone at some point soon! I hope so! Well, enjoy the rest of this pretty Spring day!

Isaiah 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

Linking to:
Brassy Apple
Homemaker on a Dime
laugh love and Craft
My Girlish Whims
Organize and Decorate Everything

My Wonderously White Kitchen

      My. Cabinets. Are. DONE!!!!! Whoohoo! I am beyond pleased about how they turned out, and even more so that I am finished with them! For once, I am so super happy I have an itsy bitsy sized kitchen! I cannot imagine doing one any bigger. My patience for tedious projects is non-existent.
     Here is what I had to work with.

       You may be wondering why the cabinets look like they have mud on them. I can explain. When we first moved in, they were the most awful shade of pinkish wood. It looked like skin, and it grossed me out. I didn't have time to paint them at that time, so glazed the cabinets right over that pink wood to "rustify" them. My mister decreed they looked dirty, but I didn't care. At least they weren't pink!
    Here is my beautiful little kitchen now!

     Amazing how paint can make a space feel so much more open! This little space can barely fit two people in it at time.

       But, it certainly feels larger with the nice clean white.

      I debated distressing, or glazing them. In the end though, I decided I wanted to keep it simple and crisp. I have a lot of other distressed and glazed furniture, and I didn't want everything to look too matchy matchy. I can always change it up later if I get bored with it.

     I have plans for that little space on the top there, but I have to find what I need to do it first. Those baskets hold hot pads, and such like things that I don't have drawer space for. This crate keeps all our coffee making ingredients handy and not looking too messy. It also hides the fact that I switched paint colors in the middle of a wall! =)

      Here are a couple tips from my experience. I used a one and a half inch Purdy brush, a small foam roller, and a slightly larger roller to paint with. That small foam roller was well worth buying. It saved my sanity quite a bit on the small flat areas to keep brush strokes from showing.

      I primed them with this primer.

     I found that cans were super helpful to prop up the drawers and doors while I painted them.

      One last tip for you that I learned from my super smart big sister. Once you've rinsed out your brushes, pat them dry and throw them in the freezer in a Ziploc bag.

      Once they've frozen, take them back out and let them defrost. Pat them dry again. This keeps them from getting crunchy. They will always stay soft no matter how much you use them! Just remember to thaw them out well before you're ready to work again. It's phenomenally annoying to get all ready to paint, only to realize you have frozen brushes! Not that I would know from experience or anything....

      Aren't those tulips lovely? My sweet mister bought them for me. I just love them.

        All in all, this was a project well worth doing!

      Have a superb rest of your week!

Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

linking to:
The Inspired Room
Miss Mustard Seed
Simple Home Life

the vintage farmhouse

The Painted Bench

     It finally dried up, and warmed up enough for me to finish painting my bench. The sunshine also revived a few of my flowers, so all is not a complete lost on the foliage front. My sweet mister made this super cool rocking bench for me for my Christmas present one year. I'm sure you don't need me to point out, it was very sadly in need of a new paint job.

     I decided this go around, we were going to go dramatic with the paint. I need COLOR!

     Aaagh! So much better!

    It makes my eyes happy. Now if I can ever get something to grow and stay alive for more than a week to make the rest of the deck pretty! Maybe I'll just get fake flowers. Kidding!
     In other random news...have you ever sat on the ground and looked up to take pictures?

      How's this for blue?!

     How about looking straight across the ground?

       This...is a lily...which will be a flower. And if anything so much as breathes on it to destroy it...well...I'm not responsible for my actions.

     This thing will most likely decide to lay on it. But, I'll have to forgive her because she catches all the mice outside before they get in my house...and she is also the best babysitter ever! She takes all the abuse a two year old can heave at her with the dignity of a queen.

       So getting back to my bench. Have some unsightly woodenness sitting outside your house? Go paint it this very minute...you will do a happy dance when you're done.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

linking to:
My girlish whims
Organize and Decorate Everything