End table makeover and Vacation Inspirations

This may be a long post, so bare with me.

Alright, it's been awhile since my last post. I was away last week on vacation in Lake Michigan where I got some major inspiration! Rocks on the seashore, shabby furniture on the beach, and driftwood laying all over! It was paradise. Here are a few inspiration shots I snapped:




Yes, that is a huge log of driftwood you see! I wanted so badly to take it with me, but it would have been impossible to get home. I did pick up some other peices of driftwood though. Here are some incredibly-less-artistic shots of those:


Aren't they amazing?! Haven't decided exactly what to do with them yet, but I'm really excited to use them.

Alright, now on the the main event.

This side table has been sitting in the guest room for awhile now:

I haven't done anything with it, because there wasn't really any room for it in the house, but after coming home from vacation and not having done anything creative for 4 whole days, I just couldn't wait to get my hands on a piece of furniture, so the one above got redone, even though I don't really have room for it. (I will make room :D )

Here is the after:


I'm really pleased with how it came out. I had some troubles along the way, but it all panned out in the end!

Here is a shot of it in-process:


Originally I sanded the top, stained it walnut, and then washed over it with gray paint. It ended up having an almost pinkish finish, which I didn't like, so I stained over the wash with the walnut which made it look LOADS better, but I still wasn't happy with it. I decided that because of the shape of the piece (the bottom has a piece that's the same width as the top) a wood top threw off the balance, so I just sanded it back down and painted over it. After that I decided to wash some white paint over the whole thing, which gave the piece more interest. Then I just distressed away with my electric sander and a 320 grade sandpaper.



Don't you love this knob? I took it off a beat up, old dresser we had sitting in our basement. I think it has a very anthropologie feel to it.





The color is a bit hard to decipher from these pictures. For some reason my camera kept capturing it all different ways. It's actually a light robin's egg blue which I mixed myself using a variety of old paints.



The above is probably the most accurate to the actual color.

Also, I thought I'd show off the picture frame I recently re-did which is sitting on the end table in the above pictures. Here are some close ups:


I'm really thrilled with how this frame came out. I forgot to take a before picture (doh!) but it did have a nasty gold finish, pink matting and a grandma-ish flower picture. I sanded it down, and then washed it with white paint. I think all the little details are awesome, and the washing really made them stand out.

Alright, I'm finally at the end now, even though I have several other projects I could share with you. :P To quote Father Christmas from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe "Things do pile up, when you've been gone a hundred years" (or one week, in my case) Thank you all so much for reading!

Check out my link parties HERE.

Beachy Shelf and thanks

Just a rather small project for today. I kind of crashed after all that work on the wainscotting (see last post) and haven't been driven to tackle any more big projects yet. Instead I've been working on little things (shelves, picture frames, etc.)

Today I just hung a shelf which I finished a few days ago. Here's the before picture:

Just a plan old shelf, but hand made by my grandpa, so still special. Originally I was just going to paint the entire thing white, and distress it, but I decided I need a bit more variety in the family room, so I opted for a beachy, worn look. I used a similar method as outlined in THIS post, but washed on the paint more heavily.

here is the result:



I'm not entirely happy with the objects on it right now, but I'm REALLY happy with the shelf itself. (No, I did not mean to rhyme :P)

Some detail shots...



...and more shots...



Well that's about it for now, nothing too amazing, but I felt like sharing it anyways.


I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, compliments and suggestions on my other pieces; they've been most inspiring and helpful and I never expected to be welcomed so readily!

Thanks for reading!

check out my link parties here.

Wainscotting Finished!

Well, it's been quite a job, but I finally got the entire wainscoting in the family room painted and I'm very excited! But let me just stop a moment to say this: I officially hate latex paint! Okay, I'm exaggerating, I don't really hate it at all, but I've had LOTS of problems with it peeling and stretching lately. Part of it is my own fault, I admit, but the other part is all the paint...I promise! Anyways, the point here is that I think I shall try and avoid using latex paint for any more big jobs I do.

Alright, back to my excitement. Despite the problems with the latex paint, I'm really satisfied with the outcome.

Here is a before shot. You only get a little peek, because I'm saving the real "before" shots for the big reveal when the room is finished.

Here are some after shots:

You'll notice my table and decorations from the previous post have now been moved to their proper home.

And more, because I'm out of control with my camera...

I'm very, very pleased with the direction this room is headed, and I can't wait to get to work on my next project for it. And speaking of my next project...

I'm planning on painting all of the bookcase seen above white, except for the back paneling, because I want a bit of contrast. Unfortunately I'm a little unsure of what color to paint the paneling. I don't really want to paint it a color (although I'm not eliminating it completely) and I'm not sure grey would work considering there are other walls in the room that are tan. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate hearing them!


Thanks so much for reading!

Seaside Inspired Side Table

Just a quick update on what I've been working on before we move on to the main event. Been sanding and brushing away slowly at the wainscot in the family room. Haven't been real rushed to finish it, as my parents wanted to wait until next month (which would be this month) before we bought the paint for it, but I've got all but a small section done, and I plan on getting the paint any day now, so my next post should be on that unless I do something else that I just have to share between now and then which is entirely possible.

Anyways, besides the wainscot, I've been working of various small, random projects such as priming and painting frames/bottles and that sort of thing. Nothing terribly exciting.

Well this week I decided to begin on a project which I had been meaning to tackle for awhile now. I finally got some inspiration for it, so I went to work.


This is an old side table I got from my grandma's house awhile back. I loved the style of the piece and it was in nice condition, but the stain was just plan uninteresting and outdated. I hadn't really felt any inspiration for the piece so it just sort of sat back in the guest bedroom. I saw it sitting back there on Sunday and it suddenly hit me what I should do with it. So I pulled it out on Monday and got to work.

Here is the result. I'm really very pleased with how it turned out. There were a few bumps along the way like it being so humid that the primer wasn't as dry as I thought it should be when I went to paint over it (Ooops!) but over all it wasn't too bad. I will admit I found painting in between all the spindles to be quite a pain though.

Shot of the top...


I was a little nervous about doing the top, because I wasn't 100% sure how to achieve the effect I wanted. I ended up sanding it so that some of it was still stained and some was bare wood (thanks to Shaunna at Perfectly Imperfect for that idea) and then using bleach spray, oven cleaner, and the sun on it. I sprayed bleach on it twice and let it dry in the sun, then let the oven spray drip on there, let it sit for second, then rubbed it all around (That gave me the drip marks you see on the top). After that I wiped it all off with a wet rag, then laid the rag over the top of the wood and let it sit on there for maybe 45 min. After all that I lightly went over it with the sander and then, finally, washed on a light gray paint. It was quite the process, but it worked quite well.



Some details...




...and just random other images, because I took too many...




I'm really anxious to know what you all think!


I thought I'd also give you a little preview of my next project:


I'm pretty sure this is an antique. It belongs to my grandma, and it's going to be a tuffy. The chair is really awesome, but it went through a fire, and is blackened at the top as a result. I've already tried some sanding on it, and I'm not sure it's going to come off and, if it does, it's going to be a LOT of work. If anyone has any suggestions on a good way to get rid of the black, I'd appreciate it. Btw, I'm planning on staining the whole rocker, as I'm not sure my grandma would appreciate me painting over her antique, so ALL the black must be gone.

Thanks so much for reading!