A D.I. Vase Thingy

I bought this little vase thingy at DI for a dollar, and it was white, and kinda ugly. So I spray painted it red, added some raffia and bought a cute bird to set in it like a nest! It now resides in my living room! I also did some product photography and used it as one of my props:)

An Old Door, made new again

This old door was in my crawlspace when we moved into this house... along with about five others. I am a sucker for old doors, and antiques in general, so when I saw it, I knew I needed a red door to spice up my living room! Here it is next to my DI LAMP:)

A twin for my cedar chest!

I went visiting teaching last week, and I received a blessing...
All of a sudden, Leslie said "Hey I have this chair...do you want it?" And I was like "Oh my gosh! This is a blessing for coming to visit teach!!" I LOVE this chair! And I was hesitant to even do anything to it, cause it was already so dang cute! BUT, I have been wanting to balance out my living room....so I made it a twin to my cedar chest:)
Just painted it, getting ready to glaze and seal it.
And here it is now!:

I know it is a drastic change from what it was before...and I love both looks! But, this matches my room better...AND I can use it as a new photography prop! Bonus!!

Bad memory to Good memory

I know a man who made this in high school. That man is a BAD man, and since I always thought this was ugly, I decided to refurbish it and make it into a good memory...and a cute piece of furniture!
Here is the ugly wood, and the bad memory...

And here is the cute new memory! It's now a piece of cute furniture for my boys' room!

Gotta Love a RED CHAIR!

Ready to have a makeover!

I have been searching for a chair that I could paint red to use for my photography, and I found this little Thrift Shop and went in and saw this simple wooden chair for $5! I bought it, and carried it out to my car where my husband was waiting...when I opened up the back to stick it in my car, my husband just rolled his eyes at my new treasure:)Anyway, here it is in action! Look at that cute bundle on top of it! ADORABLE!

Just an after...

Dang it! I can't find the before picture to this big vase anywhere! But here is the after shot of it at least. About a month ago I re-decorated my bathroom with blue and brown. This vase was hideous. It was black with gold accents. So I spray painted it turquoise and then glazed it with my fav glaze, and it looks soooo much better now! If I ever find the before pic, I will post it so you can see the transformation:)

Once was old, now is new...

I wish I would have remembered to take a before picture of this...but I remembered to take one just after I had primed it. So, just imagine the ugliest color of wood...and that was it. So, the top picture is the white primer...But anyway, here is what it looks like now!:

Huge improvement if you ask me! I love this sage green color. It is actually the same paint I used on my front door and the accent color on the exterior of my house.
So, if you are wondering how to refinish something of your own, here is the rundown of what I did:
1.Prime it! Use and OIL BASED primer- I used Kilz Original- found at Home Depot.
2.Paint it! Any color you like!:)
3.Paint it again! Only if you think it needs a second coat though...if you like the way it looks, more power to ya!
4.Glaze it! This was my first time using the glaze, and I totally LOVE it! I used Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze, tinted Tobacco. You get it at Home Depot, but make sure to ask them to tint it for you! Then just brush it on, and really get it into the cracks, and then wipe the excess off with a rag. This is by far my favorite step, cause you can get really artsy with it. It totally changes the piece!
5.Seal it! I used a high gloss sealant- Minwax Polyurithane. This stuff stinks. Just FYI.
6. Let it dry and you are done!

P.S. Let each coat/step DRY COMPLETELY before you apply the next. I learned this the hard way. I was so excited to get my glaze on...cause it's my fav step...and when I started rubbing the excess glaze off with my towel, it rubbed off some of my paint job too! Lesson learned.

Cedar Chest Makeover!

I have had this old cedar chest for a few years now. I bought it at the DI for like $50, and said that I was going to give it a makeover...well, four years later....I did! I'm not gonna lie. I'm kind of conservative...so this was a huge change for me and when I painted it yellow, it was YELLOW. Like canary yellow. I about cried, cause I hated it. Then the next day I was gonna paint over it and decided to just glaze it with my Ralph Lauren faux technique glaze, and I totally LOVED it! So I learned my lesson- don't give up before you see the whole project done! Then you can always paint over it if you hate it. Anyway, here is the BEFORE:
And the AFTER:

After glazing it, I reupholstered the cushion with some (not very conservative) chocolate and white polka dot fabric. And I was a little apprehensive about that, but I totally love it!! I think every room needs a "statement piece" and this is totally it!:)

Curb Appeal!

First impressions are SO important! So, having a great curb appeal is too! It's the first impression of your house, and the way you live! Here are a few ideas on how to update, or freshen up the look of your home!

Other things you can do to spruce up your curb appeal:
-spray paint some pots and plant flowers to put on your door step
-put out a cute bench, or seating area.
-put some pillows on your bench or chairs.
-vinyl lettering is inexpensive, and can make a big statement!
-landscaping- change up the plants in your yard- we are going to plant drought- resistant plants this fall!
-hang a cute wreath, or seasonal decoration--but be sure to only hang your favorites, so you don't look like you have a year round yard sale:)

My front door

Paint can make such a huge difference! I wasn't crazy about...well most of this door. So, I took the knobs apart, and spray painted them silver. Then I taped off the window and painted the trim white (instead of that awful coral color), and painted the whole door a cute dusty sage color! I love it. And I especially love the hook (that matches my door knob now), that holds my super cute wreath. Oh, and I even painted the yellowed door bell!
I still have to paint the trim, but that will happen when we paint the other accent colors that are still CORAL! So, be looking for pictures soon!

My favorite bench

Growing up, my family had a tradition. We would all go out and sit on the bench in our front yard. I lived in the middle of the city, so it's not like it was a serene place to be. BUT, we LOVED it! We loved watching people, and talking, and just hanging out together. So, when I got married, a family friend gave me this bench, in hopes we would continue our family tradition! We moved it to four different apartments, and finally to our first starter home! It was a little worn though, so I thought I would...you guessed it...spray paint it! I did it all white, since the trim on my house is white, and it looks really cute on the porch now:)

Can you spray paint ceiling fans?

YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!
First I took apart every little piece of this ceiling fan... every screw. It took forever...oh and later that day I got the flu, and so I didn't get very far for a few days. ANYWAYZZZ, I first hosed off all the fan blades so they were nice and clean. Then I let them dry. Then I spray painted them white. Then my husband helped me get the whole fixture off the ceiling, and he spray painted them silver. Here is the part that SUCKED: We didn't wait long enough for the silver paint to dry. We were too excited to see how nice they would look up, so we put them back together, and then turned them on. Silver paint splotches EVERYWHERE! On my NEW black leather sofas, our wood floor, our recliner, our clothes, our KIDS...ya, you get the picture. It made for a lot of clean up. So, WAIT til they are completely dry!! Oh, and only spray LIGHTLY onto the part where the motor is. My husband sprayed a little too much on one of them, and when we turned it on, we could hear the motor TRYING to turn, but it wouldn't. So we left it on for a couple nights, and then it worked fine. It was just really sticky from the paint that was still wet. So those are my two tips... of what not to do. But, I must say, I am VERY happy with the outcome of this project!!

Ugly lamp re-vamp!

Can you believe THIS:

USED TO LOOK LIKE THIS!:



I got this big drum lamp at the DI for $2, and brought it home and spray painted it! It now looks nice and classy in my front room:)

The Black and White Wall

I am posting two pics of the same thing cause the flash is right on my baby's face in the first one... But anyway, these are the pictures I took of my boys, and I blew them up and framed them... Someday I want to put these on a red wall....
I painted all the frames black so they would match

My baby's wall letters

I made these wall letters to match the decor in my baby's room. Brown and green. I got the wood letters at Roberts and then mod podged scrapbook paper on them and painted the sides brown! They are a lot like the ones I made for my other little boy, Charlie! You can see those, HERE!

Baby room decor

This is just a little decoration I made for my friend's little baby girl! I got the wood letter at Robert's, and painted it, then cut out the vinyl on my cricut, and tied some ribbons around it to match her room!

From messy bookcase to organization station!

Here is my bookcase before the makeover. It has so much junk on it- like books we never read, random stuff we throw on it when we walk in the door, decorations, decorations, decorations.
Sooo, I wanted to simplify it, and make it much more useable space instead! FIRST: I de-junked it. Got rid of tons of magazines, books, old decorations,etc. Then, I took out the second shelf, and added some wainscotting panels to the back of the shelf. Then I painted them black, added some cute hooks, got some adorable apple baskets, made tags to label what is in them, and that's it! I am very happy with the improvement, and I must say, I am losing my keys, and shoes a lot less now that they have an assigned spot in my home!


AND AFTER:

Yes, I already have my Christmas stuff up. But, this is not to showcase my adorable handmade stockings, but to show the new backsplash, and hooks that I installed.
My awesome apple baskets that fit perfectly in my bookcase! I have them labeled- one for shoes, one for toys, one for books, and one for photo albums. I use the smaller baskets on the top shelf to hold my scarfs, gloves, and hats, and the other to hold our hand sanitizer, and any other odds and ends that we might throw in there when we walk in the door: like wallets, sunglasses, receipts, etc. And we hang out keys on the hooks! And please excuse my little monster in this one. I think he was yelling at me, and standing on my Christmas decor boxes that I just got the Christmas tree and ornaments out of!:)