Still Just Painting...

Alright, I want to update you all really quick, even though there's not really much to update on. I'm still painting away at the trim. I'm getting to the point where I just want to be done already! I came down with a cold last week, which made painting on some of the days rather miserable. My nose was itchy and runny and my eyes were constantly watering, but I pushed through and I'm feeling better today. Hopefully I'll be all better by tomorrow.

I think I'm finally in the home stretch of the painting too, after just 9 days! (Yes, I'm being sarcastic) I should be about finished up in a couple more days and I'll definitely be sharing the finished product with you all then!

But until then, I'm tired, I'm stretched, and I'm Still Just Painting...

Time for another coffee break.

Painting Day

Good morning, blog world!

It's a beautiful snowy morning here in Indiana. Well, beautiful if you're going to be staying inside all day and painting, which I am! I've got all the windows and trim sanded and (almost) completely taped. Now all I need is a little help from my trusty friends.


A big cup o' coffee to keep me going.



My junk clothes to keep me clean.



a gallon of good old kilz



and a gallon of paint.



A paint brush to put both on



and a messy room to paint in.



Life is good.

Bon Appetit and 100 Followers!

100 followers; WOW! I'm so excited right now, it's not even funny! I'd really like to host a giveaway or something special like that to celebrate, but I'm going to be getting pretty busy soon, and you'll figure out why at the end of this post. I'll still hopefully do one, it will just be a little late. I do have to thank you all again for your amazingly kind comments; they are incredibly overwhelming!

Alright, now unto today's project!

Isn't it funny how inspiration strikes? I've had the same old plank of wood sitting in my bedroom for months and months. I knew I liked the looks of it, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was good for, so I just hung on to it. Finally the other day it hit me! It was the perfect size to make a sign out of and hang above the door. I puzzled for quite awhile over what to put on the sign. I really wanted to do an inspiration quote, but all of them proved to be too long. I finally just decided to do Bon Appetit, since it would be hanging in the kitchen.

Here's the result:


I just white-washed the board, and then made and printed out some stencils on card stock, cut them out, and painted it.

Admittedly, I'm not totally satisfied with how it turned out, and I may end up washing over it again just to give it more character, but for now I think it looks quite good.

Just a little update: My mom and dad are going out of town on friday for two weeks. Me and my sister finally convinced them to let us paint all the trim in the house white like we've been wanting to for months so we've decided to tackle that project while they're gone. It's going to be a rather huge project, I think, but I'm super excited about it!

I can't wait to get my hands on this:

Make sure you check back because I'll undoubtedly be updating you all on our progress throughout the two weeks!

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Featured and Tutorials

Hello blogworld! First off, thank you all SO much for your comments. I know I keep thanking you, but I can't help it, you're all just so kind! I've been especially overwhelmed by your generous comments this week!

Today I'm featured at The DIY Show Off! Thanks to Roeshel for her benevolent words regarding my redo's. If you somehow missed Roeshel's incredible blog, you should go check it out right now; there is so much inspiration over there!

Also, a lot of you have been asking for more particulars on my Wisteria Dresser Redo and Suitcase Redo, so I've decided to do some more in-depth tutorials for both of those. Make sure you stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading!

Wisteria Inspired Dresser

To start off: AHHHH! I've finally finished this dresser! I started working on it way back in August, and it kept getting put off, having complications and being forgotten about so I'm very relieved to be done with it!

I drew my inspiration for the dresser from one particular piece of furniture on the Wisteria site:

I love the muted tones and the faded, washed sort of look it has.

I knew going into it that I wasn't going to be able to strip the dresser down to bare wood like the wisteria dresser for the very simply reason that the sides weren't real wood. So I had to compromise. I ended up doing multiple layers of paints in different colors in an attempt to emulate wood grain.

I started by painting the entire dresser with a basic sort of light tan color that somewhat matched the color of bare wood. I then thinly and evenly washed over a very dark brown color. After that was dry I finished by washing a lighter gray color over top of the brown color. I'm pretty pleased with the result, I hope you all will be too!

Before I show you the dresser I think I better show you the before picture.


Charming, isn't it? I'm not sure when this sort of look was in style but...yikes!


Okay, so now, without further ado, here is the after:



Doesn't look like a months long project, does it? :P

Honestly, the only reason it took so long was because of my tendency to get bored with a project and just let it sit around unfinished.

Although the hardware isn't particularly "wisteria-ish" I kept it because I didn't have the money to spend on new ones and I thought they looked fairly wonderful anyways. Of course, I did freshen them up a bit by sanding them down so you can see the shiny metal on parts, which I think helps tremendously.

I also did away with the double handles on each drawer and just put a single one in the center.





These little wheels are one of the things I really love about this dresser.





As I said above, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out, it doesn't look a whole lot like the inspiration photo, but it has the same sort of feel, and that's really all I wanted.

I also wanted to thank you all for your incredibly kind comments! I was surprised at how many of you said you were inspired by my work. For me, inspiring people is the ultimate compliment and truly humbling, so thanks! I hope some of you will send me the links to any projects I may have inspired, because I certainly love to see them!

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