Toy Box Makeover

We've been working on a lot of stuff since we moved into our new house, so I have lots to share in the coming weeks.  On Thanksgiving, I wanted a small project that I could work on with Cora, so I figured we would do something for her room. Before she woke up I grabbed her toy box from the garage (where we stored all our stuff while we slowly unpack) and sanded it down.  She 'helped' me prime then we took some inspiration from our cardboard house and got to painting. 

We started with some of our darker colors (blacks, gray, dark blue) and we each took a side to put a layer all over the whole thing.  Ben even got in on the action.  When we finished with this layer we just thought "what have we done?!" because it looks like a complete mess.  There is always that point in the project where I completely hate what we've done... and this was that point.  We stepped away to enjoy the rest of our Thanksgiving and have an amazing family dinner.

The following morning, I snuck upstairs with Ida while Cora was sleeping.  I put a layer or two of some whites and blues all over the box to even it out.  It's hard to get a good picture because of the coloring, but it really turned out pretty cute and a fun/funky piece.

Cora loved the surprise of waking up and seeing it all finished and we both love the reminder of a piece we worked on together.  We moved it around her room and found the perfect spot at the end of her bed so it's near her other toys and she can use it to climb in her bed.  Since we incorporated the same blue we used on her trim, it coordinates well with her room without being matchy-matchy.

I joined Thrift Diving's 30 day room makeover challenge with Cora's room.  You can see Cora's room pictures and the other makeovers here.  I'm still working on a couple other projects for her room for it to really be finished (as finished as a room can be), but I'll share those as I work on them and get pictures.

Gradient Dresser

Living in such a small apartment, we really needed some more storage.  Margaret and I set out one Saturday to find a dresser for the baby and would double as a changing table.  We hit up a garage sale, my aunt and uncle's house, and our favorite thrift store for furniture, St. Vincent de Paul (where I got my desk).  We found a dresser we liked, but took me a while to commit since we weren't sure how we would lift it into the car and if we wanted to spend all day painting it.  I decided to buy it and was lucky enough to be loading it into the car at the same time a couple strong men were outside waiting for their purchase.  Problem solved.

We took a stop at home depot and decided to do a gray gradient (ombre) dresser with a white outside.  I thought about going more bold with blues or yellows, but ultimately decided on a safer gray gradient that would be more neutral.  I'm having DAAP flashbacks to our first year gradient project.

Got home and prepped and painted (don't worry, I had a heavy-duty mask on) while enjoying the nice weather outside.  I let it sit in the garage and dry overnight then moved it up into the apt the next day.  Found some black, gray, and white damask contact paper my sister gave me 6 months ago that was perfect for lining the drawers.

Finally settled on white knobs (Ben's suggestion).  Purchased from Hobby Lobby, installed, and the dresser is finished!

We've filled it with a bunch of diapers/wipes, toys, toiletries, and all of the clothes we have for her first year and there is still room for more.

Desk :: Part II

Check out Part I if you missed it.

I decided I would hold off on putting a clear coat on the desk because a) it is getting too cold outside and I don't want all the fumes in the house and b) I am thinking of doing a little more distressing and may just wait to see what happens naturally to it as well.

Purchased some glass knobs at Hobby Lobby.  I originally was looking for something round, but these squarish ones just spoke to me.

Put the casters back on.  Moved it into it's new spot in the living room and loaded some stuff on to it.

Here are some final pictures:

It is perfect!  The finished project has added a couple things to my to do list:
1. find a better chair or a cushion since the chair I painted isn't very comfy
2. figure out a way to camouflage the abundance of wires
3. paint the filing cabinet that is next to the desk.  color suggestions?
4. make a sewing machine cover since it mostly sits to the side collecting dust.
5. get glass cut for that bird picture... and possibly re-mat
6. come up with drawer organization

Dining Room Table

I finally have a dining room table!!!  You have no idea how excited I am to finally have a table to eat at.  My sister had her friend bring the table back the weekend before Thanksgiving (I was expecting it mid December) and dropped it off at my parents house.  I didn't get any before pictures.

The weekend it got dropped off, I enlisted my mom to help with the painting.  We sanded, primed, and painted the first coat Sunday afternoon.  I chose Glidden's Antique White so it will coordinate with the dining room and/or kitchen wherever I move to in the future while still going well in the current dining nook.  My mom was awesome enough to do the second coat and two coats of poly by herself.

Here it is the dining nook (without the leaf):

I am in love with the final result!  I left the chairs as is because I plan on getting some new chairs in the near future.  No need to waste our time redoing it when they aren't going to be sticking around for long.

Wooden Chair

This wooden chair is one of my not-so recent finds, but it needed a little help.  As one always does when redoing furniture, I sanded and wiped down the chair.  It only took me 10 minutes and I did it while I was letting my candles dry.  It already looks better, but was a little rickety and the seat part was falling off.  I brought it to my dad and he worked his magic.

Clove watching my progress.

Five months later, I finally got around to doing something with it!  We were painting my new desk and decided to bring this out and paint it to match.  Primed, painted, added the wash, and it is a perfect match to the desk.

I'm not sure if I will use it at the desk or not, but it will be nice to have something else in the room that coordinates with the desk.

Desk :: Part I

On Saturday, my mom and I went down to St. Vincent de Paul looking for a desk, and I found the perfect one.  This was $65 if we took it home that day.  Unfortunately, we were unable to fit it in her car so we paid some guy $10 to follow us with the desk to my parent's house.

 We went through my furniture pinterest board and looked for some inspiration.  Here is the vanity inspiration piece we settled on:

The next day, I ran by Home Depot and picked up a bunch of painting materials and got to work with my mom.  We used some Kilz primer (no pics of that step) and then added a coat of Behr's Aqua Spray.
We only did one coat of the paint.  I then mixed a gray wash with acrylic paint and water.  I generously painted it over the desk and my mom did all of the wiping off. 
Here are a couple detail pictures after the glaze:

We are loving the result!  The glaze really brings out the little details.  There are still a couple of things that need to be done (clear coat, buy new knobs, etc) so stay tuned for some pics of the final.

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On a side note: I'm moving to a new apartment this week.  Wood flooring, lots of windows, first floor, garage space... basically everything I was looking for.  I'm very excited about it and I will post some pictures when I get in there.

Grandma's chair

I got this chair from my grandpa.  My grandma reupholstered it years ago (it even has a matching mirror).  Unfortunately, the chair has this huge rip in it and the padding was coming out.  My grandpa was getting rid of it and knew I was interested in free furniture and upholstery projects.

I'm not quite ready to tackle a full on wingback upholstering project because of the amount of time and space it takes up.  I decided to just cover the rip with a little strip of fabric.

I got this coordinating green fabric for about $6 a yard from Joanne fabrics.  I laid out the fabric and cut, pinned, and sewed it to fit perfectly to the chair.  I also painted the legs white with a primer paint I have left over from this side table redo.

My glue gun died, so I ended up using Gorilla glue to put the fabric in place.  In the future, I probably wouldn't use Gorilla glue for fabric because it bleeds through.
Here is a final-for-now picture:

I'm thinking it needs a little something else, but I'm not really sure what.  Any suggestions?

update:: I decided I'm not happy with the way this looks and it doesn't mesh well with everything else I have so I am looking for a fabric to redo it with.

Balcony Makeover

My mom felt bad for my lack of patio furniture (puhlease, I do have a folding chair) so she gave me this table.  It was a little rusted and she thought it would be a good project for me.  I was going to go with a safe black or white, but I decided to go out on a limb and aimed for a tropical/Miami beach inspired balcony.

First, I had to take care of my hibiscus tree that has been sitting in the plastic container it came in when I bought it.  I purchased a large pot that was approximately $9.  I taped off the top and spray painted the bottom with Rust-oleum Satin Lagoon, and added a clear coat.

Something went wrong in the process... Lack of prep, not letting the turquoise spray paint dry before I put the clear coat on,  not letting it all dry before I potted the tree, the humid day and damp night.... whatever happened, I had a bunch of bubbles under the paint.  I just flattened them out with my finger and there is a little texture left over.  Like all my screw ups that result in texture, I like how it turned out so I'm not really worrying about it.


Next, I turned to my table.  I scraped, brushed, and sanded the table down.  I primed the rusty spots, but didn't really want to spend time priming the whole thing.

For the color, I drew inspiration from a jacket I have from Gap that is very similar to this one.  Mine is last years version, a little thicker, but the same color.  I purchased some Glidden Pink Salmon paint and started painting.  As you can tell, I'm super good at painting.

I moved inside because I wasn't sure how the humidity would affect the paint... and the AC was nothing to complain about.

I put about three or four coats on and then added a clear finish at the end.  Throughout the process I wavered between liking the color and not liking the brightness of it.  Now that it is finished, I'm really liking the tropical feel.  Here is the final balcony:

 What do you think of the coral and turquoise color combo?

 
Linked to Flower Hill Design for Outdoor Extravaganza, check it out!

update :: here is a new picture from the outside:
 

Trash Picked Table

Trash picked this table with a little hesitation since it was missing part of the top.  It looked like the glass part to it was long gone.  It turns out, my television fits well on it without even needing the top so I decided to skip trying to figure out what to do about that for now.

After sanding the thing down, BC suggested a two tone paint job with black legs and white top.  I also decided to mimic the pointed part where I would begin the black and make a chevron pattern go up onto the white part so it brings the two parts together.

Here are some process pictures:

you can see a little of the chevron taped out (ran out of painters tape)

reminds me of those 'nailed it' posts where someone fails miserably

 Because of the fuzziness, I had to go through and trim up the pattern by hand.  Painted the whole thing with one more coat of white to make it a little more crisp.

And the final product!

before and after