Kaylee's Dresser

This is going to be a quick post this week because life has been busy for us recently! My brother and his wife welcomed their first child (Jordan) in to their lives! Eeee I'm so excited to be an Auntie and I just can't wait to meet him! Then there was Easter on Sunday and Monday, Chris and I celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss! Seriously though, I love being married to my best friend, I am truly blessed! So phew it's been a busy and blessed week!

I figured I show a few pics of a dresser I did awhile ago for Kaylee's room. Here's the before pic...

And here's how it looks now…

I sanded and stained the top with a dark walnut stain. I painted the body of the dresser a creamy white color and cleaned up and reused the brass and cream hardware. Here are a few more pics…

I really love how the top of this dresser turned out! Staining the top of a dresser is one of my favorite things to do when refinishing. Not only is it beautiful but extremely durable, perfect for a toddler's bedroom!

I am considering making some changes to this dresser. I love the way it looks now but I'm thinking of painting the drawers a different color just to add a little more interest to this piece. I just got some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint the color is Eulalie's Sky (a blue-green shade) and I'm dying to try it. What do you think? Should I paint the drawers? Im thinking of replacing the hardware as well, especially if I paint it.

Well that's all for now! I'm getting geared up for the Giveaway! Hoping to be ready for that next week!

Linked up to: Missmustardseed.com and tatertotsandjello.com

DIY Window Frame Coat Rack Tutorial and Cost Breakdown

I don't know about you but I love old windows! If we didn't live in earthquake country I would probably have them all over my house! I do have one securely placed window in our entryway and I thought I would share with you how I transformed it into a beautiful yet functional piece in our home.

I found the window frame on Craigslist, I actually bought three identical frames for $30. I originally pictured hanging all three of them vertically above my couch. But with two young and very rambunctious kiddos pretty much constantly jumping around on the couch, the nervous mama in me couldn't do it.  So I have two in storage for future projects :). I loved the color of the window frame and I didn't have to do much to it as far as painting goes. I did repaint a couple of spots on it just to touch it up a bit.

It still looks rough and organic, just the way I like it! I added hooks since I knew I would be hanging it in our entryway and I wanted a place where we could hang jackets and purses, and a place for visitors to do the same. I bought the hooks at our local hardware store. Hooks are not cheap! I bought some that were about $4 a piece (so $20 for 5) here are some similar ones I found on Amazon. They were easy to install, I just screwed in the far ones and the middle one and then measured the distance for the two in between.

 

As I mentioned before we do live in earthquake country so I did secure it to the wall using anchors like these. I used two anchors for the top two corners and then I used Command Picture Hanging Strips found here  all along the bottom to secure snugly against the wall. I love Command Strips and I use them all the time! I hate putting holes in my walls, it feels like such a commitment, but with these you can hang something for awhile and then change it up without having to spackle and repaint all the time.

 

 

My favorite part of this little DIY project is our family picture behind the frame. While the frame is beautiful on its own I loved the idea of putting our picture behind it. I actually got the picture printed at Staples using their Engineering Print and it only cost me $4! Amazing for such a large print! It was really easy to do. I just went in to the copy section at Staples, gave them a zip drive with the picture on it, told them how big I wanted the print and it was ready in 30 minutes! The paper the print is on is flimsy so I did buy foam board and attached the picture to that using adhesive spray to give it a bit more stability. I then attached the foam board to the wall behind the frame using those handy command strips again. I have heard that the Engineering Prints do fade over time but I haven't noticed any fading thus far.
 

 

 

I love that this is the first thing people see when they enter my home! It was fun and pretty inexpensive to make. Here's the cost breakdown:

Old Window Frame (Craigslist)-$10

Coat Hooks (Orchard Supply)-$20

Wall Anchors-$1

Command Strips-$5

Engineering Print-$4

Foam Board-$3

_______________________________

Total                      $ 43

I had to share one more pic! I just added drawer liners to my grey dresser from this post. I just love how a small detail like this can add so much to a piece!

 

I've got some exciting things planned for the near future including a giveaway! Stay tuned for more...

 

  Linked up to: http://missmustardseed.com, http://diyshowoff.com,http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com

Kaylee's High Chair and a Gray Dresser

I finished a couple projects today! One was a high chair I started 2 years ago! I'm definitely guilty of starting projects and not always finishing them, or more commonly for me, starting a project only to get distracted by a new project, and the next thing I know I have 4-5 different things going all at once! I heard somewhere that this pattern is a sign of a creative mind. If this is true I have a very creative mind, ha! Here is the high chair...

I actually bought it and painted for my daughter's1st birthday. I was planning on using it as her everyday high chair after her party but I never got around to putting a protective coat on it and it ended up in our attic and I promptly forgot about it up there. Over the weekend we did some much needed purging of our garage and attic and I rediscovered the high chair!  There wasn't  much I needed to do to finish it since I did the cleaning and painting of it before Kaylee's birthday. Unfornately, I didn't take any before pictures. But it was a mess when I picked it up! Tons of grease and dirt built up all over it! I was able to remove the seat and the seat back and completely clean and restore the vinyl covered fabric.  I'm so thankful I could salvage it since the fabric is just darling. I then painted the rest of the chair using the color Provence by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. To finish it off today I distressed it a bit and put a coat of wax on it to protect it. I will be selling it in a few weeks but it needs to cure completely before I can list it on Craigslist. When you use wax, or use any protective coating for that matter, there is usually a suggested "cure" time which allows the piece to completely dry and harden increasing its durability. Allowing the wax to completely cure also ensures that the high chair will be food safe. That being said if your interested in purchasing it let me know and I can hold it for you. I will be selling it for for $100 on Craigslist but for my blog readers I will offer a 10% discount!

The other project I finished today is this dresser…

This dresser was one of those projects that took me a bit longer than I expected. I originally planned on painting the piece like you see it now. But then half way through I changed my mind and started painting the drawers white, only to change my mind again and go back to my original plan.  But it's finished now and it's a good reminder to me that I should listen to my gut and not second guess because that's usually when I start to go wrong. Here is the before shot...

I painted this piece with my favorite color for the moment French Linen by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I accented the piece with a white and I painted the hardware. To finish, I lightly distressed the dresser and to add a bit more dimension to the color, I used Annie Sloan's dark wax after sealing first with clear wax.

Now that I've finished a couple projects I'm excited to jump in to a few more. I have two more dressers, my tv console, and a bed to waiting for me, as well as a custom job for my neighbor!

Linked up to: Missmustardseed.com and tatertotsandjello.com

From Trash to Treasure

'While working at our property, Chris, my hubby, unearthed these old bottles...

I was so excited to bring them home and clean them up! Someone buried them decades ago, along with other pieces of their trash. And here I am cleaning them up and finding a place for them in my home. Like the saying goes, one mans trash is another's treasure. Finding these bottles inspired me to share with you a project I finished a few months ago. Awhile ago my good friend Noelle found this beat up sideboard on a curb free! Here it is the day she picked it up...

Noelle is a girl after my own heart she loves to hunt for things for her home and she can see potential in a piece like this, very beat up but still has such great lines. Noelle brought it to my house and I refinished it for her. Here are some more before pictures...

And here's what it looked like when I was done...

It was so much fun to refinish! I started by sanding down the drawers and that's when I discovered the awesome diamond inlays on each drawer. It was so cool to find the inlays they were like a hidden treasure that had been hiding behind a bad black paint job. I painted a herringbone pattern on the middle cabinet doors in an aqua color which matches the legs that are "dipped" in aqua. Here is how the sideboard looks now in Noelle's house...

I love how it looks in her family room and it makes the perfect tv console sandwiched between her beautifully styled bookcases! Those cool old bottles weren't the only "treasures" I found this past weekend ;) so stay tuned for more...

Linked up to: Missmustardseed.com and Tatortotsandjello.com

It's all in the name

So in my last (aka my first ever post) I mentioned a lot has been happening recently. If you know me and my family this is no surprise to you we tend to keep pretty busy. In 6 years of being married, my hubby and I have started a business (Lucky Dog Pet Resort), bought property (and when I say property I mean dirt, literally 2 acres of dirt with nothing on it), built our business, had two kids, bought a home, and not to mention all of the life stuff that goes along with all of that. We have been blessed tremendously and we have also had some extremely difficult times. But God is so good and faithful to us! More recently, I think in attempt to reclaim some of his garage back, my hubby built me a shop! Well I wouldn't really call it a shop it's more like a tent :) but I'm so excited to have a designated space to call my own to paint in! And my little tent just so happens to be nestled amongst some willows, hence the name, The Painted Willows! Now all I need is some furniture... I haven't had the best of luck lately finding any pieces I like (that are actually in my price range) if you have any wood furniture you would like to sell I'm your gal ;) That being said I do have a few projects to bring over to my tent to finish so it won't be empty for long. More to come on those later...

You should start a hobby...

So here goes nothing... My first blog post! A lot has happened in the last few months and years that have led me to this moment. But I think it all started with four little words "you should start a hobby" (I guess that's actually five little words) but anyway when I first had my son and decided I was going to stay home with him it was a HUGE change for me. Don't get me wrong I think it's an amazing blessing to be a stay at home mom and I know there are so many women out there that would love to stay home with their little ones but I was so used to going to work. I was used to feeling "productive" and one day as I was discussing my feelings with my hubby he suggested to me " you should find a hobby". I'm pretty sure he regrets that little sentence sometimes because before long I started painting basically every piece of furniture we owned! Painting furniture was not necessarily new to me I have been drawn to it ever since I was little, probably since I watched my mom decorate and then redecorate our house over and over. I guess it's in our blood! My mom gave me freedom to decorate my room in any way I liked and I had this sweet little wicker chair that I spray painted who knows how many times! In college my roommates thought I was crazy when I painted a dining room set my dad found for me at goodwill. I'm not sure what it is exactly about painting I love so much. It's the whole process of transformation that I think I'm drawn too. Seeing new possibilities in something it just gets me excited! I'm definitely drawn to older pieces and I love to go treasure hunting for furniture and pretty much any and everything else at thrift stores, estates sales, and garage sales. I'm hoping this blog will be a place where I can share what I'm working on and get inspired by others.