EASY Storage Bench

The before, an old cabinet I had laying around...

After some clean-up and painting and pillows, its a Storage Bench for our playroom! Love it!

I have one more cabinet if anyone is interested, I could make another for $45.

New Furniture For Sale!

 Farmhouse Table and Two Chairs (or could be used as a desk). $50. *SOLD*

 Coffee Table. I LOVE this one! Kind of want to keep it... :) $75 *SOLD*

Vintage Night stand, end table or TV stand, gorgeous! $45

Vintage Rolltop Desk and Chair For Sale

 $175 *SOLD

41 1/2" W

44 5/8" H

18" D

Polka Dot Nursery

 My son is two now but thought I'd post his pics from his nursery. My mom painstakingly painted the stripes for the wall and my sister, her and I did all the rest of the painting while we were also painting the rest of my house (never move when you're 7 months pregnant!). I didn't start on his nursery til after I moved and only had a month or so to really get it going. I wish I would have had more time to do a few other things and different curtains and much more home made stuff but I actually ended up buying all of the furniture online out of laziness time crunch but I think it turned out ok for a quick-pregnant brain design! :) I do still love it because he's a toddler now but he hasn't outgrown his room at all and I haven't even had to take the dots off yet. It's colorful like a kids room should be but muted and will still grow with him. Of course I'm already thinking of re-decorating ideas but that's only because I like to experiment on my house and change it often...

 

Trying some good painting techniques!

 Side Table, Before

Bought it for $5

 After

(I kept this one)

 Table

Bought it for $10, it had glue all over it and was warped and just a light wood top.

This one is for my neighbor, she said she was looking for a table to use as a desk and I found this the next day and re-finished it for her.

Buffet Table

$75 *SOLD

Vintage Bread Box Re-finish

Before, $4:

 After. I decided to keep it.. :)

I'm working on a gorgeous rocking chair I'm re-finishing and a few projects some friends requested! I'm almost done with a vintage/rustic rolltop desk that I'm pretty excited about! Better get to work!

Vintage Children's Desk

 This desk is adorable and perfect for a kids room!

Has storage space but it's small enough it doesn't take up the entire room.

It is a style that will grow with them!

$50 for desk and chair.
*SOLD

Projects!

I've been busy re-finishing some furniture!

Before:

 After:

This one was my favorite ever! I hated seeing it go... It sold fast!

Sold these two black side tables with a matching coffee table, I had re-finished these years ago though.

Cute secretary desk! It was all light wood with broken knobs so I painted, got new knobs and gave it to my niece for her birthday! It works great for her room!



I am currently working on:

Kid desk and chair

Buffet Table

Rolltop desk and chair

Farmhouse small dining table and 2 chairs

Wish me luck!

If anyone is interested in any of the items I'm working on,

let me know your preferences, I can customize any for you!

Formica Countertop Makeover

Before with ugly green formica countertops. I will include our step by step instructions since many are curious. :) If you attempt it, research it online, there's a few different methods, it helps to look at the different techniques and then decide which is best for you...

1. Cleared surfaces and cleaned counter very well. I used the blue brillo pads. I went a little crazy and scrubbed all of our cabinets too, just doing all that already made it feel new! ;)

2. Rolled on gray primer.
Cost: $20, I got a gallon. Could have done it with a quart for about $10

3. Once primer dries, roll on black paint. I already had a quart but cost would have been about $10 if not

4. Once black paint dries, use a sea sponge ($5) to sponge on silver metallic paint. I bought a quart of this, cost was about $10. I could have done it with the really small container, which is probably $5. This is how we started sponging but after a while did it more subtle. You also sponge with some black to get the look you want so don't stress if it takes a while to get it right.

This picture below is the amount of silver we ended up liking,

just play with it til you end up with an amount you like.

5. When the silver/black sponging is still tacky, sprinkle glitter. Cost $5

6. Epoxy finish coat. Cost, $30, about $18 with 40% off coupon. This stuff is super sticky and takes a bit to get the hang of. Have two people, read instructions well (better instructions are online than in the box). It self levels but you'll need to use something stiff to spread it around, we tried business cards, stiff paper but liked a wooden painting stick the best. You have about 10 minutes to work with it, only mix enough for a maneagable area at a time. I used a sponge brush for the edges, you need to "lift" up the epoxy a few times because it will pool at the bottom. This is when you use the blow torch for the air bubbles, the carbon dioxide diffuses them. We had more trouble with air bubbles on our bar that we later realized was because we didn't stir the epoxy long enough. We also used a really small blow torch we had. We will probably sand down the bubbles on our bar and re-do the epoxy coat.

 7. Once dry, take off painters tape (don't be surprised if it takes off some wall paint, be prepared for touch ups). It takes about 8-10 hours to dry but it's supposed to take about 48 hours to set completely. Ours was ready to be used after about 30 hours. If you have kids, I'd recommend doing the epoxy after they go to bed at night and then by the morning it will be dry at least, then try to keep them out of the house in the morning just in case! :) You don't want them touched at all and even be careful about dust. Oh and we expected the epoxy fumes to be bad but they weren't at all so that was good with kids.

We didn't do our edges because we were really nervous about vertical surfaces and already had to do the backsplash. It ended up not being too bad though (thinner coat though) so I wish we would have done them.

DONE! Total cost, $80-90.

You can kind of see some of our air bubbles we had problems with on the bar here.
It's definitely not perfect but I think it's a huge improvement and I would definitely do it again! The stuff is very hard but of course is susceptable to scratches and heat, etc. As with most countertops, use hot pads and cutting boards. If it does scratch bad, you can do another layer to fix it so don't freak out. Furniture Polish helps with smudges and protects it. I need to get a "green" kitchen cleaner for them, I'm hesitant to use anything acidic .
I got my method here: http://generalsplendour.bl​ogspot.com/2011/02/ambush-​makeover-my-formica-counte​rtops.html .

Supplies:
1 qt gray primer
1 qt black paint
Sea sponge
Rollers (I like the skinny ones, easier to work with and don't leave things behind so much like the large ones)
Brush to paint corners
Blue Painters tape to tape off edges (we didn't do this until before the epoxy, would have been easier to do in the beginning but we didn't necessarily need it, we paint a lot and never need to tape off)
Silver metallic paint
Black Glitter (we couldn't find the Martha Stewart Onyx kind but got her very fine glitter and it worked well.)
Envirotex Lite Pour-On (Hobby Lobby, get 40% coupons online. . We needed 2 boxes)
Blow Torch (for air bubbles)*borrow one if you can!

Decorating for Weddings!

I love decorating for weddings! Usually I need to do it on a small budget which just means that I get to be more creative! Eventually I want to have my own wedding planning or decorating business...

I love to help make a brides day as stress free and memorable as possible!